CAS pilots! Don't be afraid to...

[Huey]

Charge blindly into the night. Fear only death.

[Imchicken1]

The other day I was flying the eurofighter on SEagle. I was flying around 200 for most of the time, and didnt get any locks. What worked to my advantage was i kept my speed up and used the contours and environment. I didnt get locked for longer than a fraction of a second, except for one point where i flew around 2000 and got chased down by the mig. Not only did i put on a show for people (yes, not important) but i also managed to constantly nail their Cows (russian transport choppers) and Havoc.

Point is, on some maps where there are many ground features you can use to block AA locks (tree's, hills, etc) you shouldnt be afraid to fly low. Its extremly effective, and it presents you more targets and a more fun time flying.

Because PR is all about fun right?

[Lacrosse4Life17]

Never let me fly jets.

[SlLeNceR]

Cause the laze target pops up to late and doesn't give us enough time to move there or there.

[RealKail]

The problem with flying CAS is alot of the time, the ground forces aren't being as helpful as they should be.

For instance, I like playing on HOG 24/7 muttrah, and the ground forces there almost never actually request the cobra come in and support them.

Other times, they call in a request and we're left with too little information to provide effective support. In maps like Muttrah, we typically do need some coordinates, because every MEC there has a hard-on for killing off the cobra and bragging about it to the rest of the server. The cobra is #1 on their kill list, and we can't hover around an area long to hunt down a target. If we stay still too long, or we're flying a "hunting" path, we typically get a HAT rocket lodged in our exhaust.

We're not afraid to get our hands dirty, but we need the infantry to help us so we can effectively help them.

[Qwertfyu2]

lol. I was flying low in kokan once and I was doing these tactics. Little did I know that Gary had a suprise for me. So note to yourself, make sure Gary is dead dead before staying low in one place for more than 10 seconds. XD

[KillJoy[Fr]]

The pilots are not wrong , in the real life the pilots engage only confirmed targets by the ground troops when its possible or their asking the permission to engage and make a low pass to spot targets its SUICIDAL

[Cassius]

Squadleaders should ALWAYS use the binocs to set an CAS marker, additionally to voice communication. For starters the marker might be needed on the runway if its a difficult runway like on silent eagle. Also the Squadleader of the CAS squad might be busy flying so that the aicraft responding to a cas request might not have a communication on mumble to begin with if the pilot is not in the squadleader spot, because the squadleader being busy with flying is telling the rest of the CAS squad squat.

If there is a CAS marker at the very least the pilot knows where a laze is likely to pop up. While you should understand how to set the CAS marker it does not need to be pinpoint accurate. Thats what you paint the target for.

Also I saw somebody wondering what a JTAC is. If one uses military jargon it should be linked to a wiki entry or something.

[Stemplus]

Originally Posted by Cassius

Squadleaders should ALWAYS use the binocs to set an CAS marker, additionally to voice communication. For starters the marker might be needed on the runway if its a difficult runway like on silent eagle. Also the Squadleader of the CAS squad might be busy flying so that the aicraft responding to a cas request might not have a communication on mumble to begin with if the pilot is not in the squadleader spot, because the squadleader being busy with flying is telling the rest of the CAS squad squat.

If there is a CAS marker at the very least the pilot knows where a laze is likely to pop up. While you should understand how to set the CAS marker it does not need to be pinpoint accurate. Thats what you paint the target for.

Actually, markers on runway are only an option when the map just came out. Most maps have custom out of bounds areas (Iron Eagle, Silent Eagle, Black Gold) which means that the map border continues out of bounds and still forms an "edge" so you can just follow it untill you can see the main map and from then all it takes is just general knowledge of the map. Also some maps have landmarks on runway aproaches. If it's a completely flat map like kashan or khamisyah then you can either learn how the icons/marker lines act when you're out of bounds (for example if it shows you in a corner of the minimap you're in that square of out of bounds that has no contact with main terrain, or that the distance from the end of the line connecting you and the marker to the opposite edge of the map is your distance to the main terrain etc), or you can just learn how to aproach the runway just by knowing where it is. For example if you're playing kashan as US, fly at normal altitude (1500) towards your base from the south and as soon as you're about 2 grids from your base start diving towards the center of the runway and holding S. Then when you'll be 100-200m out of bounds strat flying at about 50m altitude and do a hard 45* turn to the right, then emidiately do a horizontal 180 to the left, then again emidiately a 90* turn to the left, followed by a 45* turn to the right. At that point you'll be at perfect altitude, perfect speed and perfect angle to the runway. This maneuver works on almost every single map.

As for CAS markers, well they are bad as they don't always apear where you put them which will mess up the aproach. Grids/indication points are much better. I don't see how it can be hard for a jet pilot to put a marker, it takes less than 5 seconds, of flying straight, and for helis, well, heli pilot should never be SL, and if he is then he can use the minimap to find out where that grid is, and then just pull the nose up a bit, pull the map out and put the marker which takes just a bit of practice to do.

A visual version of what I mean, easier to understand

[Cassius]

A jet pilot can put a marker if he is the squadleader. On a large map you have 2 jets and attack helicopters rolled in the cas squad. That no CO and no SL is coordinating cas oftentimes a reality of the game. Also the binocs give you pretty much the accurate distance, so I do not see how putting a cas marker within 50m of the target is a problem.

In an ideal case scenario you have a CAS squadleader communicating and putting out markers as the squad needs them, but squadleaders on the ground should always assume they do not have an ideal case scenario on their hands and make use of the squadleader radio and the binocs in addition to using mumble. Many squadleaders need to get the habit in using those anyway.