DCS World is a flight simulation program for Windows PC. Check it out here.
If you’ve ever gone to an air museum where they let you sit in a fighter or helicopter cockpit and felt That Magic, and then wondered what it would feel like to know what all those switches did, what it would feel like to flip the switches, grab the controls, takeoff, do in-flight refueling, land on a carrier, launch weapons at air or ground targets, or sling load cargo from one point to another, you need to check this out. If you’re interested in learning more about the aircraft you grew up building models of, reading about, or seeing on TV, you need to check this out. If you flew or worked on planes in the military and miss the aircraft, you need to check this out. Along with a VR headset, it’s a childhood dream come true.
That’s in-game footage, btw.
While researching it, I had the good luck to speak to a current airline captain/former RAF Tornado F3 pilot who uses DCS. Over the course of asking a few questions, “Windy” said that he also used an Oculus Rift VR headset with DCS. I asked him more about the VR headset and he told me the following: ‘Flying in DCS with an Oculus Rift and a Jetseat (a feedback pad with motors in it that you lay over your chair) is almost as good as flying the real thing.’ Hearing that from a former fighter pilot, I was sold! I already had an old joystick, which was good enough to run the sim, but now I wanted a VR setup to see if it was really as good as Windy said it was. It was that good. In fact, it’s amazing. Over the course of three years, I pieced together a PC that could run a VR headset better, bought a Rift, ordered a Jetseat seat cover, and cobbled together a flight stick, rudder, and throttle setup by buying and repairing used and broken PC joystick/throttle/rudder components on Ebay. All told, I’ve got about $3000 in it spread over the three years.
A few weeks ago I was “flying” with some of the guys from 16AGR where I met Windy, helping one of them test a new ground attack mission on the Persian Gulf map, when the following happened: Windy and the guy doing RIO for him were flying the F-14B and got hit by a shoulder-launched SAM. Windy called the hit over comms and then announced that they had problems and were returning to the carrier. Then we hear Windy go “woah!” followed a few moments later by laughter. He said his left engine had gone into secondary mode, due to the damage sustained, and that he had heard and felt (through his Jetseat) an engine surge occur. He explained that he was laughing because for a few seconds, he forgot he was playing a game! He had experienced it for real in his Tornado F3 back in his flying days, and it sounded and felt exactly as he remembered it!
One of my favorite experiences “flying” was on a server running a fictional mid Cold War scenario between Soviet Russia and a NATO aligned Georgia. We were flying F-5Es through the canyons North East of Sukhumi in Georgia looking for Mig-21s flying out of Sochi to kill. My buddy got pulled away with real life stuff and so I went flying solo. I’m zipping along north at mach 0.9 in this canyon in the mountains just east of the beach, checking cross canyons that lead out to the coast of the Black Sea to the left. As I pass one of the cross canyons, I see a dot in the sky out by the beach moving south… that’s no friendly, it’s on! I turn left and stay low. My radar is off- I don’t want this guy to know I’m coming. The F-5 is really hard to see from the front- it’s tiny! As I exit the canyon headed west out over some rolling hills that go out to the beach, I look north briefly to check for other bandits- nothing. I’m clear. I turn left and start closing on this poor guy- uh oh, there’s two of them. They’re flying along at about 1000ft and 500 knots. I’m tearing after them at 650 now and low. I’m getting close enough to vis ID them. I pull up- confirm they’re Mig-21s! I get a sidewinder tone- “Fox 2!” I pull right just a bit, get tone on the other guy, “Fox 2!” I pull off left, roll out, and look over my right shoulder to see smoke trails reaching out to intersect them- Bang! Fireball and a whole lot of confetti! The other guy sees his buddy explode and starts to pull up and right- Poof! He’s still the same shape, but bleeding black and grey smoke. I race back east into the canyon, turn right for south, do a few check turns to make sure I’m not being followed, check fuel- I’m good- and then decide I’m not ballsy enough to go hunting Migs alone with guns only. I continue south and check six as I’m coming out of the mountains. I’m clear all the way over the hills back to Sukhumi, where I land uneventfully, taxi to the arming area, and radio for more gas and two more Aim-9s so I can get back to hunting. What a rush!
Guys, if you have any interest in military flight, you owe it to yourselves to have a look at this. It has a pretty good community, with a fair number of former pilots and military guys. Even without VR, it’s still interesting. The VR just puts you THERE.
About DCS World:
[ul]
[li]The sim itself is free and includes two free aircraft: the Su-25T and the TF-51
[/li][li]Each aircraft has taken between 2 and 6 years to research and fully model
[/li][li]Research includes working with real pilots and technicians who worked with the aircraft
[/li][li]DCS has aircraft from WW2 up to about 2006.
[/li][li]Aircraft modules are sold individually, with the exception of the FC3 pack
[/li][li]Included mission builder
[/li][li]Included voiced interactive tutorials for learning the systems of the various aircraft
[/li][li]Included multiplayer and dedicated server support for 60+ people
[/li][li]Custom servers run by enthusiasts featuring everything from training to acrobatics to dogfighting to dynamic theater-wide red vs blue fights involving ground forces, helos, naval assets, and fixed wing aircraft
[/li][li]Offers a work-in-progress ground unit module for controlling ground forces, including controlling (simplified, but parameter accurate) tactical SAM units (i.e. SA-15, Chapparel, etc) in first person
[/li][li]Full fidelity aircraft are accurate and complex enough that you can use non or declassified military manuals to learn the systems
[/li][/ul]
Aircraft with fully modeled cockpit systems and flight models include the following:
WW2:
Spitfire LF Mk. IX, Bf 109 K-4, Fw 190 D-9, P-51D Mustang, I-16
Korean War Era:
Mig-15Bis, F-86F Sabre
Early/Mid Cold War:
MiG-19P Farmer, L-39 Albatros (trainer/light attack), F-5E Tiger II, Mig-21Bis, UH-1 Huey, Mi-8 Hip
Late Cold War-2000s:
Mirage2000C, A-10C Warthog, SAAB AJS-37 Viggen, Ka-50 attack helo, A-10C, AV-8B Night Attack Harrier, F/A-18C Hornet, and finally, the F-14 Tomcat (currently the B model with GE engines, the A model with notoriously temperamental TF-30 Pratt and Whitney engines to be added soon at no additional cost for Tomcat buyers)
Additional Aircraft:
Additionally, DCS has a bundle pack of aircraft called “FC3” that all have high fidelity flight models, but feature somewhat simplified cockpit controls. This is due in most cases to a lack of publicly available information or lack of permission from aircraft manufacturers/governments to fully model some of the primary systems. FC3 features the F-15C Eagle, A-10A Warthog, Mig-29A Fulcrum, Mig-29S Fulcrum, Mig-29G Fulcrum (the former East German variant), Su-27 Flanker, J-11 Flanker L, and Su-25 Frogfoot.
The Future
Additional aircraft currently in development and due out in the next few years include the F-16C Falcon Block 50, JF-17, Mig-23MLA Flogger, F-4E Phantom, Mi-24P Hind, AH-1F Cobra, F-8J Crusader, and F-15E Strike Eagle, with more to be announced.
Seasonal Sales
The prices for aircraft modules can seem a bit steep, however they have sales around Christmas, Summer, Spring, and sometimes Fall as well. The Sales range from 30% to 50% off, varying from year to year. They have a loyalty program that gives you “points” that count toward future buys, but their sales are definitely a better deal and the best time to buy.
Disclaimer
I don’t work for Eagle Dynamics and have no affiliation with them. There’s no promotion or anything I’m trying to take advantage of. My only association with anyone remotely related is my friendship with Drex, the guy who made the DDCS Dynamic DCS server (the only theater wide one with moving ground units). I just want other people to know about DCS because I had no idea something this good existed until I stumbled across it. I’m shocked it’s still so obscure. With a VR headset, it’s an aircraft lover’s dream.