I made the above video with a program called FRAPS that records your screen into a movie file. I'm doing a dual delivery in Open Falcon 4.5. First I wait for the pull up cue to cross the flightpath marker, then I pull up to about 40° until the release cue hits the fpm and the 2 Mk84 bombs are released in pair after which they will follow an upward ballistic trajectory towards the control tower. Then I go back to low level flight while selecting BLU-107 Durandal anti-runway bombs which I will release one by one (all six of them!) at a ripple interval of 900ft and arming delay 0,2secs. The bombs will drill themselves into the hard concrete rendering the runway totally useless with 6 large holes each 900ft apart on the centerline of the runway. Then I pull up to challenge the SA-2 SAM site (surface to air missiles) to show how to evade missiles. I get a missile launch warning tone, check RWR for bearing, visually identify incoming missile, put it on the beam (3-9 o'clock position), estimate it's flightpath and time to impact, drop my chaff and flares to mislead the missile's on board seeker head and pull hard into the missile, hoping to make it overshoot and miss. Dual deliveries are also called 'one pass, haul ass' or all ordnance is dropped in one pass. A second pass would increase the chances that you get shot down because the enemy will be at a higher alert level.
I highly recommend you buy TrackIR4 PRO which detects your head movements and translates it into view direction changes on your screen. This way you can look around in the game by moving your head!

Contents of this chapter

  1. Introduction
  2. Open Falcon 4.5 basics
  3. Mission planning screen
  4. In the cockpit
  5. Delivery methods and types of ordnance:
    • Air to Ground weapons
      • What you need to know first
      • Dumb/unguided/free fall bombs
      • Gun strafing with the 20mm cannon
      • Rockets
      • Mavericks AGM-65
      • Laser guided bombs
      • High speed anti-radiation missiles (HARM AGM-88)
      • BLU-107 Durandal anti-runway bomb
      • JDAM
      • JSOW
      • Dual delivery
    • Air to Air weapons
  6. Electronic Warfare System EWS (ALE-47)
  7. TrackIR v4 PRO

1. Introduction

As already mentioned, Open Falcon is a community modification (mod) created by flight simulator enthousiasts that wanted to make the commercial simulator called "Falcon 4.0 Allied Force" more realistic. Open Falcon is free software and can be downloaded from several sites such as GlobalFalcon. Be sure to check the system requirements first.

On this page you will find a summary of the basics that you need to know to fly in Open Falcon 4.5. For more detailed explanations I refer to the guides that come along with the installation in the docs folder (located in the main installation directory). Most important guides are:
- Noob guide (a good 38p summary of the 119p Dash-34 so make sure you understand everything in it before you continue!)
- BMS Dash-34
- Keyboard layout chart called Falcon-Keymap-of.pdf (you may find it useful to print it!)
- Weapon checklists (file called "sp4_weapon_checklist.pdf" in \docs\SP4)
- Avionics checklists (file called "sp4_avionics_checklist.pdf" in \docs\SP4)

2. Open Falcon 4.5 basics

This article is a summary of key points to note when flying OF. This description assumes that you have the Thrustmaster HOTAS COUGAR joystick and throttle programmed correctly according to the Dash-34 manual. The HOTAS COUGAR is an exact replica of the F-16's joystick and throttle. Programming your HOTAS is not easy so I recommend you get help in a forum. Fortunately enough there are predefined profiles for your HOTAS that you can download at sites like GlobalFalcon. There are 3 important files: *.tmj *.tmm and *.tmc files. Put these into "C:\Program Files\Foxy\Files". Then open Foxy program and go to file - open jostick and associated macro file and select either the .tmj or the .tmm file. Once loaded, press F12 to load the profiles into your joystick. I received some valuable info here about Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar programming.

Back to top

3. Mission planning screen

When you select a Tactical Engagement or a Campaign mission, you will be taken to the mission planning screen which is a map of the battlefield. Here you will see all the flights and packages that take part in the mission. Choose a flight and once you've figured out what your objectives/targets are, make sure you set the exact target coordinates. To do this follow these steps:

open falcon mission planning screen
  1. Right click on the target steerpoint on the map and select RECON from the drop-down menu.
  2. In the recon window cycle to the correct number of your target steerpoint.
  3. In the target list window, click on the target that is your objective to destroy, it will be highlighted.
  4. Note the coordinates of your target in longitude and latitude at the top of the recon screen.
  5. Click ACCEPT on the RECON screen.
  6. Now open the data cartridge or DTC (lower button on the far right).
  7. Cycle to the target steerpoint number with the arrow and check if the coordinates are correct by comparing them with the ones from the recon screen.
  8. Hit SAVE on the data cartridge.
  9. Change all the other settings in the datacartridge to your liking (EWS/Chaff/Flare programs, MFD modes, COMMS). If you do not feel comfortable setting these data you can download a preset datacartridge from GlobalFalcon (search/ask for Naldo's data cartridge in the download section)

Next, if you like, you can mark enemy preplanned threat steerpoints (PPT STPT) and draw lines or boxes (steerpoint lines or STPT lines). To do this you need to right-click on an empty spot on the map and select preplanned threat from the drop-down menu. This will place a blue marker on the map. Right click on it and select STATUS and select the kind of threat from the pull-down menu (e.g. SA-2 SAM site). Then drag the marker right overhead the SA-2 symbol. This point you created will appear on the HSD map in the cockpit along with the threat range circle in red. OK, now how to draw a line or a box. Again, right-click on an empty spot on the map and this time select steerpoint line - additional steerpoint to line 1. This will place a small white circle on the map. Repeat this process to link up the circles with lines. You can drag and drop them anywhere to pinpoint boundaries, troop concentrations or mark any other geological/tactical aspects. These lines will also appear on you HSD map in the cockpit.

You might also want to prepare the communication radios in the datacartridge. To do so hit the COMMS tab in the DTC. The best is to use Naldo's preset datacartridge which saves you from programming all the UHF and VHF frequencies manually. The COMMS are set up as follows in the DTC:

Preset 1=Flight 1 (297.5MHz for UHF and 138.05MHz for VHF)
Preset 2=Flight 2 (381.3/138.1)
Preset 3=Flight 3 (275.8/138.2)
Preset 4=Flight 4 (294.7/126.2)
Preset 5=Flight 5 (279.6/134.25)
Preset 6=Package 1 (349.0/133.15)
Preset 7=Package 2 (377.1/132.35)
Preset 8=Package 3 (292.2/126.15)
Preset 9=Package 4 (264.6/132.875)
Preset 10=Package 5 (308.8/132.325)
Preset 11=From package (354.4/132.575)
Preset 12=Proximity (269.1/121.2)
Preset 13=Team (307.3/119.5)
Preset 14=Broadcast (377.2/120.1)
Preset 15=Set to tower freq (depends what your destination field is)

In the F-16 you can set 2 separate COM channels, a VHF channel and a UHF channel. So a good setup would be, for instance, UHF on channel/preset 6 which enables you to communicate with your package and VHF on 15 which enables you to communicate with the tower. Note: A package consists of 1-5 flights and a flight comprises of 1-4 aircraft. A full flight has a Flight lead with his wingman and an Element lead with his wingman (4 aircraft max). So if you are the leader of flight 2 you will have to preset channel 2 to be able to communicate with the 3 other planes in your flight. You can also set channel 13 which enables you to hear all flights and packages on your team's side (the 'good' guys) etc.
However, to have the tower freq in preset 15 you first need to click the box "set tower frequency" in the COMMS section of the DTC. The name of the airbase will then appear and make sure the tickbox labeled "default" is on so that VHF channel 15 will be set as default in the cockpit (do the same for UHF channel 6). Hit the SAVE button everytime you change something in the DTC!! Now both default channels will appear on the Data Entry Display (DED) as UHF 6 and VHF 15 as soon as you enter the aircraft and loaded the DTC.

Now you will need to load all these settings from the datacartridge into the F-16 cockpit (next topic).

Back to top

4. In the cockpit

  1. To load the DTC you can either press and hold ALT+C and then hit L or you can press OSB13 twice on the MFD (the middle one just below the MFD) and then select DTE on the right and then LOAD from the top of the screen. With the last method, all the pages will highlight momentarily and your settings will be loaded (both MFD's primary, secondary and tertiary modes, EWS settings,COMMS,exact target steerpoint coordinates, etc).
  2. Now the TGT STPT diamond in the HUD will be right over your target!
  3. Select your AG ordnance by cycling through the Stores Management System (SMS) hardpoints with the backspace key and also on your AG radar display you will see that the radar cursor is exactly over your target since the radar cursor is by default tied to the currently selected steerpoint (which is a fixed spot on the ground). The other mode is SnowPlow (SP) where your radar cursor will move over the ground ahead of you as your airplane moves forward and where you can slew the cursor around with the HOTAS throttle's cursor enable button. So snowplow=radar cursor free to move and steerpoint mode=radar cursor fixed to currently selected steerpoint. Switch between the 2 modes with SHIFT+F10.
  4. you can zoom in on the radar cursor by pressing the joystick pinky switch which cycles from NORM to EXP then DBS1, DBS2 and back to NORM.
  5. To designate/lock target with the radar, press TMS button UP on HOTAS joystick. Now follow the HUD's CCRP steering info (hold the flight path vector on top of the vertical steering line that goes through the HUD) hold the pickle button on the joystick until the release cue hits the flight path marker and the bombs are automatically released. More info on this later.

Back to top

page 1/5