{The Gun Fighters} AAR
The squad did well, over all. Though, I was unable to participate in the action. I will leave the details of the Southern AAR to those who were present. However, I did want to share my experience, as I found it unique – but true to real life events – and I’ve never heard of it happening in FSO, as we are a virtual event; I had to RTB due to mechanicals…
First, I wanted to say; Stellar, Hats off to your Frame Orders! I had a… “moment” as I read them, and even saved off a copy in my archives for future reference. (I’ll be grabbing those links you posted in just a minute
) As members of {The Gun Fighters}, G3-MF, and VF-15 will attest, (the members of these three squads have some experience with me as an Operations Officer) I tend to produce some very involved, sometimes complex, and usually detailed OP-ORDERS. You have given me inspiration going forward – probably to the dismay of some members of my current squad {The Gun Fighters} LOL.
But alas, the best laid plans of mice and men.
And now, for the rest of the story…
Right out the gate things went wrong for me. Could it have been that my client finally released me from the days work at 9:15PM ? That servers were screwed up, as indicated by the fact that the Custom Arena wouldn’t let my squaddies in to practice, and I had to fight with it? It even reached out to the squad CO, as he was unable to join us because he couldn’t get the map to download? Was it that the stars were mis-aligned, and the day was just meant to go astray? We may never know.
What we do know is that I buggered the launch time. When the arena clock was reset from 15:20 to 9:50, I missed out on it completely. So it was that I was already late when I reset our mission time and the squad launched at T+4 instead of T+2 as per the OP-ORD. to complicate matters, I had never joined my own mission!
Now I find my self in the sky a full minute behind everyone else, and fighting to catch up. Luckily, they were throttled back, and I was able to push forward and catch up. Fifteen minutes into the flight I was holding hands welded wing with the squad XO, and as I worked – harder than usual – to stay in formation with him, I noticed the first signs that something was wrong.
My Aileron trim was not working. I use manual trim, and my X-52 Pro was acting up. Not a problem, this has happened in the past where an axis will go wonky, and I’ve got to fix it. I’ve even got my sim-pit set up for just this type of eventuality. The USB hub where all my controllers connect is just in front of me, with in easy reach for a quick reset.
I set my auto-pilot, reached forward to the USB hub, pull the cable for my X-52 stick, and as normal, alt-tab out so I can set the Saitek Profile, I use the Saitek Profiler for ALL other functions, and every button is mapped, and the profiler goes off-line when I reset the stick mid-game like this.
I set the profiler, came back into the game and everything had gone crazy! My nose was pointed at the ground, I’m traveling at 500 mph, in a lazy right hand spiral, and I’m down 12 thousand feet from my last position!. As I try to get sorted I hear my squaddies talking about how I must have discoed, and another saying “no, because he’s still on channel.”
I try and yank the stick to rite my plane: nothing. Desperate, I pull back, still nothing. I mash the left peddle forward, Eureka! Control! Then my heart crashes, all I’ve got is rudder control – the one axis I didn’t pull from the hub. I think to myself “Self you’re a smart pilot, use the auto-pilot!” Quickly, I hit the auto-pilot button on my stick, wait a second or two for the plane to magically level out, but my lazy spiral continues!
Now, I’m starting to worry. I press the tit on my stick for my TX button to both see if I can raise the squad and let them know what’s happening, and also to see if ANY functions work. I get no response. The stick is dead. Then I realize, I keep a keyboard over my monitor as an over-head console. I hit the X, and to my immense relief the auto pilot engages. Phew, I got the bird strait and level.
I want to contact my squad, but my sticks TX button is not working, so I once again have to use the keyboard, but I am able to transmit. I alert them that I’ve got a technical problem, that I’m trying to get control of my aircraft, and then I start working the problem. I pull the plug to reset the stick again. I gave the stick a full fifteen seconds to detect, then gave it a tentative test.
I’m amazed, and rewarded, It works! I once again have positive control of the airplane. Then my heart crashes again as I begin to test out other functions. I quickly find out that primary control is All I have. Pitch, roll, and rudder – that’s it. I don’t panic yet, my stick always requires me to reset the profiler when I unplug it. Once more I alt-tab out and set it.
When I return I’m relieved that at least this time the plane was strait and level, just as I left it. A quick test of the functions, however, show that I’ve still got nothing but the primary flight controls. All secondary functions, flaps, gear, radio, navigation (The clip board map), even guns, they are all off-line.
I use the console keyboard to alert the squad of my situation, and that I’m combat in-effective. They advise that I should turn back, and RTB to save the plane. So I turn around and for the next hour I slowly fly back to the base I launched from (never knew how far that air-spawn was from the base!)
I spend the whole flight back trying different things to see if I can sort out the problem, and get the HOTAS functions back on-line. My frustration mounts as I try everything short of rebooting the system, or dumping the game to get it back. I even let my wife have a hand – like plugging in the USB in a ‘special’ way would make it work,. But alas, it was all futile. I will say, however, that I felt like I was in a real plane, with a real problem, trying to milk my crippled aircraft back to base. I want to save that plane!
During the flight back I was able to use my console-keyboard, mounted over my monitor, for the critical secondary aviation, navigation, and communication functions. Thank god for the redundancy I built into my pit – it was a real ‘Apolo-13’ type feeling. LOL
In the end I was able to safely land and tower out. I rebooted my box, and everything was working normally again. Though, I will start saving for a new stick – another X-52 if I have to, or a Warthog if I can!
