AAR : DCS MiG-21Bis, first time on 104th Phoenix!

THE ENJOYABLE FAIL : MY FIRST TIME ONLINE IN ABOUT A YEAR

I usually fly with a few friends, and it is really, very rare I fly online. And the last time was probably a year or so ago. Today I went for the first time online since that, in 104th, flying MiG-21Bis. I have to add, I didn't fly the Bis air to air much even against AI or my friends.

Here you can see, how my first online MiG-21Bis sortie DIDN'T go... at all... :P

Obviously, I got no kills :D yet still it was probably the most intense and enjoyable DCS experience I had in a looong time. And got really close to getting a kill at least 3 or 4 times.

Crawling between the mountains, and behind enemy lines, looking around and above, briefly switching radar on and off when I suspect there may be someone around. Fighting with G gauge not to get an engine flame out due to zero or negative g while trying to follow the terrain (while also not lawn darting into it). And then RWR goes "beep", and adrenaline rushes as I check the direction, if possible stick even closer to deck, or hide behind a hill. Fly towards spike, visually scan the area, blink the radar, or alternatively run the hell away, hide behind the talles mountain, if I can't make out where they are and I am locked.

First sortie, I turned my radar on perhaps a bit prematurely, and as soon as I did, I got a spike on RWR, a moment later I was locked. Turned what I was assuming into the threat, hided away in a valley. Dumping some flares too. After watching the track, I have realized I turned my back to them when I though I was turning into them. I saw two large smoking engine trails behind me, just I was about to get them on my windshield for a R-60M shot, R-27ET found me. Wish I kept dumping those flares lol. But still I wouldn't fare too much better because it was two guys from same squadron (which happens to be from my country too), fyling MiG-29S and were most likely cooperating over team speak.

Second sortie, again lock warning, diving like crazy and hiding, but this time when I turned my radar on, there were two jamming contacts. Stuck to deck, and closed in a bit, turned passive jamming filter on, a few seconds later I did lock one of them. But it was jamming and I didn't know if I was in range, in excitement, I fired an R-3R anyway (which, I've found in track, was more like, I shot two in overexcitement...). A moment later, radar burnt through and saw I now was in range, but alas, no more missiles :). All the while getting the lock warning... got too excited get a kill, and should have ran. After all it makes sense that being so close to vicinity of enemy airbase, there would be some defence right? Like the TOR that was giving me that lock warning, and killed me as I was about to switch to IR missiles :D I wonder if those contacts were still the same MiG-29s from 141st?

About an hour and half later, I have decided to have another go after watching the track. This time, I was wiser and instead of plotting a plan directly towards enemy bases, I made the more sensible choice of flying towards the bullseye. Mission was changed and it was a more coastal one. Again, I followed the terrain between the mountains, heading for the bulseye, all the while watching g meter, RWR, and terrain. From a particularly high peak, diving inverted, I picked up a bit too much speed, and guess what, right next to that particularly high peak, was another one! Had to pull pretty sharp to avoid a huge wall of terra firma, and that speed it meant quite a bit of G. I thought that I have heard a tell tale "Klonk!". After leveling out, checked both wings, huh well... all the stores were there, 2 x R-60M, 1 R-13M1 and 1 R-3R. Could the counter measure containers even fall? Pressing the button I hear the eject flares so nope... must have heard wrong eh? Would find that out later...

My way towards the bullseye went not eventless after this one either since, I finally did seem to stay a tad too long at 0 g while diving down the mountain, and my engine cut out. Of course, to add to the drama, this had to happen precisely around the moment my RWR said "beep" :). Chopped the throttle, dove a bit to keep the speed up, frantically reached for the airstart switch, hoping for the best. A few "Oh Sh***"s and half RWR beeps later, I thankfully hear the welcoming sound of engine catching rpm again. Looked around to see any threat, while sticking to deepest crevices of terrain I could find, I have banked about 90 degrees left and right to allow SPO-10 receivers to look all around, and well... apparently that RWR spike was only there as a plot device since I didn't hear it again :D.

I still wanted to be on the safe side, and by then I had slowed down to about 700 km/h, that safe side required to be faster than this! Checked my fuel gauge, apparently I still had more than 3000 liters thanks to 800 liter center tank I took. Awesome right? Go afterburner, go! Still, I did find it slightly surprising having that much fuel after about 15 mins of low altitude and fast flying, but hey! you gotta count your blessings right? (spoiler : nope!)

Toured a bit around bullseye, but nothing exciting was happening... soo turned a little bit towards enemy base, looking for contrails above, engine smoke, aircraft, or anything around. Still staying among (this time rather short) hills and (shallow) valleys. Seeing my fuel gauge hitting a bit under 3000, I hit drop center tank command. Funny, it didn't seem to make any sound but well whatever :P (by this point though, somewhere inside I was long gotten suspicious of my fuel gauge's honesty).

At at thousand kilometers per hour, and perhaps 30kms away from bullseye at most, turned my head right for a moment, looking in to a large "V" shape formed by the joining crests of the hill I'm passing and the one I'll soon pass. And at that moment, right there it was, F-15C going fast at the other side of the hills, towards the opposite direction!

Another rush of adrenaline, did he see me? I think not? Turned as hard as I can without bleeding too much speed, after burner up, heck second after burner up! Where is he... where is he... there in the distance, showing a nice tail aspect! I didn't want to alert anybody, so opted not to turn the radar on. Switched to my R-60Ms, c'mon 60 pick it up dammit... c'mon! Nope, it won't, not before he decides to start turning anyway. I now understand he probably is aware I am somewhere around looking for him. I put my missile's pipper on him and follow him in a pure pursuite, hoping the missile will pick him up, and it finally did for a moment! But before I can fire, it lost the lock again... Don't want to overshoot and lose him! I pull a high yoyo, and he is clearly aware of me since he's pulling evasive maneuvers into the hills. Not only my surprise is blown, but I am in for one myself since he seem to have a buddy who locked me up!

Now two on one, locked up, and about to lose the sight of my quarry, I pull sharply towards my target, and towards the deck into shallow valley beneath. It seems though, I did pull too many a g there since I've heard the pylons complain pretty loudly! What did I lose? Do I even have any missile left? No time to fiddle with my head around to look at wings! Between two hills and right over the grass tips, I seem to have lost my pursuer, but so did my quarry lose me. I've turned again towards where I think he would be, and before long, engine smoke was there! But R-60 didn't lock! obviously, I've lost them in the sharp turn... I got real close, guns, just snap shot! Miss... a barrel roll later I am again behind him, and it looks like he doesn't know where exactly I am, which is right on his six, straight behind. Good thing I got R-13M1 this time since this is right the setup for it! Switch to it, wait for it... nope... dropped that too... (facepalm smiley goes here...). If I didn't ripped the missiles off the rail, I'd have hit him at least twice :(

Tried to go for guns again, but I was too fast, his buddy locked me again, I had to run and hide. Cut the throttle to mil power and turned around the bullseye a bit more, Contrails above of both friendlies and hostiles! Turning back towards the hostile's direction, I looked for the closest contrail coming from their base that I could climb for a R-3R shot (holding on to a dim hope that I still had it...), as I was starting to climb, I have realized there was another F-15 almost beside me! If I had a heater, would have been a high PK shot. He saw me, pretty short dogfight till we both lost each other :D. A few turns on, I see a much lower F-15 than the contrail coming on my direction, Radar on, locked him, switched R-3R, in range already! And nothing goes off the rail... Dammit I'll go try to gun him, full after bur... ummm... engine? Ummm red warning light blinking? But why, I still have a few hundred kgs of fuel right?

Nope... that first Klunk! apparently was, as I always knew in a part of me, my center tank... (doh!)

As the eagle was climbing away gracefully, my engine went totally silent and my RWR was blinking left and right, I have  deployed airbrakes, and as soon as I was slow enough, landing flaps.

Advantage of hilly terrain is I can hide in it, disadvantage is, well obviously not a nice place to land :D. MiG touched down up hill, with attitude paralel to hillside. For about half a second it slided up nicely. As I was about to think "well I guess that could be the saving grace", it went boom :D.

So, the only kill for me today, was my own self :D. But still, I don't recall having this much intensity and fun in DCS for quite sometime.

I would still say this isn't exactly horrible for an almost first timer online, especially with an aircraft a whole generation older than his opposition :) I definitely see myself doing this more often!