Hi All,

(Stand up and tell us about yourself...... ) My Background in case anyone cares..... I'm a retired USAF F-15E Strike Eagle WSO with about 2700 hours IRL. I Also have about another 2300 hours as an MQ-1 / MQ-9 Pred/Reaper pilot. I'm currently doing the latter as a contractor (training, not combat) over in the ME but relocating back to the US soon for good. My real callsign from TAC Aviation was/is "Notso".

I'm also a Commercial/CFII pilot IRL and fly civilian stuff for fun whenever I can.

I'm very new to DCS (4 months on and off) and just really trying to learn both the A-10C and the Hornet Modules. I'm leaning towards concentrating on the A-10C once I finally dip my toes into some of the online multi-player worlds. I was drawn to the 476th based on some of your excellent pubs that you have up online for study. I'm devouring your sanitized version of the A-10C 3-3 at the moment to try to learn some of the Hog specific TTPs and basic procedures - specifically on the range with weapons employment, AAR and Formation flight.

Eventually, I would like to join one of the virtual Squadrons. I know recruitment is closed now in the 476th, but that's actually fine with me. I have a LOT to learn about the different weapons systems and how to employ them. I'm still constantly amazed at how realistic DCS is in terms of aircraft performance characteristics and weapons employment. The general flight stuff is all pretty much the same as IRL. So I'm planning on spending as much time as I can just doing single missions to learn the systems and basic procedures. I will likely do 90% in the HOG as it seems a much more mature system in DCS than the Hornet, which still has a lot of WIP it seems.

Any help, tips, guidance, spears, etc is welcome. The whole thing is pretty daunting to actually achieve a decent level of proficiency. I feel like I'm back in the FTU and I should lock myself in the study vault for a month. So, any recommendations from the vets here on how best to structure my time to progress and learn the combat employment of the platforms? I get in and "fly" as much as I can (I'm using VR BTW). And the truism is nothing replaces time in the seat. But I want to make sure I structure the training and learning to be as efficient as possible. So any recommendations are certainly much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Notso