I helped the developers with this mod. At the time, I was working on a Marine Corp base that has a A-4 on display. They asked if I could take a lot of pictures, especially the gear. The MPs had questions, but didn't stop me from doing so. :D

DCS is often criticized for being an expensive game to play and there is some merit to the argument when I look around at all the peripherals and modules I have bought over the years. On the other hand, with an old joystick lying around you can download the free client and free A-4E-C mod and have tons and tons of fun. The A-4E-C mod brings DCS to a lot of people that would otherwise not be able to join in.

The brakes don’t work great because the designer knew the aircraft would be stopped by the arresting cable on the aircraft carrier. He was obsessed with keeping the plane as small and lightweight as possible, you don’t need big, heavy breaks if the wire is doing the work for you.

"Oh, I got him! Oh, I'm dead!" XD amazing

Former Air Force F-4G Wild Weasel mechanic here. The SEAD (suppression of enemy air defenses) system could lock onto a SAM/AAA radar from just a short moment of that radar transmitting. The system had radar receiving antennas in the nose and tail of the aircraft that would triangulate the location of the offending air defense battery. The WSO (weapons systems officer) could then assign the target to a HARM, launch the weapon, and it would hit the transmitter. While flying Northern and Southern Watch missions over Iraq in the mid nineties, Iraqi air defenses would not operate for fear of the Wild Weasel’s, both Air Force and Navy. Shrike missiles required prior electronic intelligence flights over the operating area (see the movie BAT-21 for reference) to find the targeting and/or locating radar transmitters bandwidth. This data was programmed into the Shrike missiles and aircraft mounted jamming pods for better accuracy.

A couple of things: - locking your wheels (skidding) will always give you worse braking performance than if you feather them at as high as you can without them skidding - you seemed to not have your yaw damper on (stab aug on left side, autopilot panel) - your radar wasnt on so it was falling back to radar altimeter for bombing (less accurate) nice video tho

The scooter mod is by far the gold standard.

Yeah the A-4 is the BEST mod aircraft by far. If you like high quality mods, try out the Uh-60L Blackhawk mod. It is also crazy...

Another great video! Thanks a lot - especially sharing your bombing workflow and experiences with the scooter. The Sabre scene was spot on. Epic stuff! Cannot wait for the next one!!!

Love the Scooter! The Skyhawk didn't require folding wings for storage aboard carriers. She also was designed to carry nuclear weapons. Heinemann's Hotrod!

If I remember right, the A-4 was the only aircraft to ever be put into service by the US that over performed, under budget, and ahead of schedule.

Was listening to a podcast with a former Skyhawk pilot who flew in Vietnam, he said they would be 20 degrees nose down on bombing runs.

Brakes on this are actually really good, this a/c doesn't have anti-skid so if you want to get the absolute maximum out of it, you need to increase pressure on the brakes until just before they lock up (what you described as screeching)

The A-4 was amazing for its time. DCS IS GETTING to be where reality and simulation are blurred.

Nice video! Also the videos of you flying the Gazzele are amazing. Make more of them pls!

Love the video man! Love watching people fly the A-4!

Amazing work! My sons are big into the hyper realistic games like this, at this level they’re fun to just watch.

Dude loved that, worthy of a subscription, love the A4 content.

A4 is absolutely my top choice for Enigma Server!! Or just playing around... Wonderful video quality, keep them coming!

I just noticed that the aircraft suspension shifts with the weight when each bomb is added to the wing pylons!

New subscriber and living the videos so far. Many thanks. Would like to see more of the A4 - one of my favourite planes. 👍🏻

I think I saw you whilst you were recording this, remember the 4x Sidewinder and gunpod loadout, never seen anyone bother with the gunpod before lol

Great video. I love the A-4 but had no clue about the trim/flaps trick for takeoff. Will be trying that next time I take her out.

When you arm the spoilers they will deploy when your under 70% ish throttle. If you chop throttle in flight with them armed they’ll deploy too.

Adding the A4 to enigma opened the game to so many people they have literally no idea l

The A4 Skyhawk is a great plane and the fact that the MOD is free, makes it better 😀

15:25 the newer harms don’t need a constant radar signal to hit, once they have a target, the missile gets the GPS of the target to so even if the radar turns off the missile still hits

The scooter is my go to plane if i want to hit ground but also want to boogie with air a little.

More A4 please! Nobody else is doing much with this jet, and that's too bad because it is a lil monsta! Obtw I subscribed, and I'm really picky . 🤟🤟🛩️

Keep em coming. Love your vids

The A-4’s brakes are locking up. If you hold the brakes down all the way, they’ll lock and won’t actually help you much. If you put around 60% brake pressure, you won’t lock them up. Or you can pump the brakes.

And I love how the cockpit is lined with designer fabric. Or maybe that’s Kevlar.

I want to fly sims again after watching this, BUT I'm on MacBook Pro. Thank you for putting the 'Scooter' through her paces.

I think whats going on with the Brakes is Hydraulics related/limited. So, for instance when landing try pumping the brakes with 3 second long holds initially and as you slow make the pumping shorter 1-2 secs long. The other thing is it may be related to an ABS style system. But, I have always landed her with that method as I found it works best as well as giving her a little nose down input at the same time. I hope this helps especially if you encounter shorter runways or poor weather!

Glad you enjoyed our little mod!

You would calculate your stab trim setting for every takeoff. It is different depending on loadout.

Best DCS KZfaqr by far

Love the A4 footage. More Please!!!!

So the shrike is designed to loft, so close in it really makes it even more iffy than it already is because of how not maneuverable they are. It also doesn’t help that you need to make sure you have the correct seeker head for the radar band you’re looking for. I’m curious to see if ED can improve on it more with the F-4 coming out.

i think dcs without any labels shows you why in so many hud camera videos the party being shot down doesn't even know anyone is behind them

IIRC, the current HARMs "remember" where a signal was when it turns off, so the missile stands a chance of still hitting the radar. Particularly if it goes active again.

Love your stuff hope to see you in the skys

Subscribed. I'd love to see more A-4 content. I've downloaded the A-4 to try out although I've got a lot of rust to shake off. How does the A2G payload compare with the F-5 Tiger? Admittedly I'm still itching for a company to bring out the A-6 Intruder and SU-17. I'm definitely a ground pounder and would love to see more Cold War aircraft in general in DCS, I was disappointed when the F-16 and AV-8 announcements turned out to the more modern versions.

Great👍👍

Just FYI - the targeting computer doesn't work with snake eyes or cluster bombs. It can only compute pure ballistic tracks, so anything with a lot of drag doesn't work. Slick bombs work just fine, even in toss bombing, and you can sometimes cheat it a bit by aiming way past the target with CBUs. Like most things in the A4, it's more art than science - by which I mean it's complex and completely manual, so it's difficult to do well.

6:00 you were not diving enough for the a/g radar to properly get the range. I recommend at *least* 20°, preferrably over 25°

I'd like to see the Bronko mod supported as well. Would be kinda cool marking targets for ground strikes.

Yo! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you need the radar on to get the computer to work.

Probably better off lobbing Zuni rockets at the Shilkas than trying to use Shrikes.

good work tho, keep it up

8.35 you need to map your brakes to an axis and apply them incrementally. You were locking the brakes.

NGL I wanna see the phantom comming around or the intruder for the vietnam mod

ok it been a min since i few the A-4 in dcs . but i think when you use the computer as bombing runs. it suppose to say LARS in the center console , i could be wrong . like i said . it been years

I've found that if you retract your flaps shortly after touchdown the wheel brakes work much better. Don't know if that's intended or not.

So when a jet lands on an aircraft carrier they're not applying their brakes. They're applying throttle the arresting cable is things slowing down to stop in the jet. Because if they applied brakes every landing airframe shop would be replacing the brakes every landing.

@DTMCRAZYGAMING >>> Great video...👍

I started playing DCS just like a month or so ago and the A4 was the first airplane I tried. It wasn't easy😂

Scooter forever 😎❤️

Can i ask how you switch to a exterior camera? Because when im on Enigma than im locked in cockpit view. Can you help? nice video btw

I could watch hours of this!

Can you recommend some nice Skyhawk missions, possibly in the Caucasus or Syria?

18:51 Never knew that you could just eject a gun pod. How does that even work? XD

And the A-4 was designed for carrier ops, do it had a hook to stop it. They didn't put much in the way of brakes on it because it was really never meant for runway use.

It looked like your clusters did go off in your mirror looking back to me at 6:00 mark

Unreal this is free just found out about it today and got one

Good times. Scooter is sex, always apreciate more

I wanted to love the A4 but it has some major pain points mentioned in the video. 1) The bomb computer gets messed up with any roll input, and the A4 rolls VERY easily. 2) No nose wheel steering. They desperately need to add this back. Differential breaking is pain because 3) As shown in the video, the breaks are weird. They seem to lock up even at low speed. The other thing I will add, my experience on Enigma's are every Mig 21 heads right at you. Because of how the AWACs works on Enigma's you can feel like Mig 21 food at times.

In your bombing runs, did you even have the A/G Radar turned on? Think that may have been part of the reason those first clusters were nowhere near the mark.

I wonder if the Sidewinder launched while the Saber was in pursuit of the MiG did not actually hit your ally instead. The two aircrafts were awfully close and your Fox 2 seemed to go straight for the closest contact. Nice video for the greatest of the DCS mods.

Nickname "Mongoose" for FWS(Top Gun- Fighters Weapons School).. {A-4 F-N's)...... Or "Scooter" back in the day nickname(Navy and Marine Corps) .. Sen. John McCain flew 'Scooters" A-4A's

They didn’t call it Heinemans Hotrod for nothing!

Can I recommend you check out the channel "Ian Christie" AKA "Side Kick" and his series "Moving Mud" he is a KZfaqr like yourself and does DCS and some other content as well, but he has great tips for anyone learning the A-4. The "Scooter" is a great little air plane.

First downed plane was a Sukhoi Su-25 in Russian camo, the second was Sukhoi Su-7 Egyptian AF...

The A4 still has a lot of work to be done on it. Niggling little asthetic things liek the nose oleo being a tad too short to the flight model being quite a way out of whack. The roll rate (ridiculously responsive and far, far, too much rate), pitch response, acceleration, etc all need a lot of attention. A life long friend flew A-4C's (VA-75) in the mid to late 60's and is also an avid DCS flyer gave me his opinions and they pretty much went along with my own. Its good, but it isn't quite there yet. Keep going guys, this will be one heck of a mod when she's done n dusted, after the OV-10 Bronco definitely one of my fav mods.

If it lands on aircraft carriers then brakes will be weak as you dont need good brakes. The F18 is the same.

The loadout you can carry on this little plane is crazy - is it realistic?

Since I'm a noob, these doods on the ground are they other players or bots ? Thanks !

can you recommend a video for the computer bombing?

Is this like a ''steam workshop'' mod or a free dlc?

มันเป็นเครื่องบินทิ้งระเบิดได้ด้วยทั้งๆที่เป็นเครื่องบินขนาดเล็กบรรทุกได้มาก

has it been updated since the forever free update? I haven’t checked but i fly it all the time so i prolly need to😂

How are you so smooth with the A4, I'm always shaking and waving all over the place

what server were you on?

Do more

When I tried, I thought it to much sensitive..

The 2.9 update will not authorize the A4.

how to join the enigma server?

dont think the computer works for high drag or snake eye bombs

Can't be bothered to link to the mod?

The roll rate is really fast. Too fast.

The ARM is too good in DCS. The Shrike is almost useless. The AGM-122 Sidearm that Harrier has, is so useless thst it wasn't carried as it was just dead weight, because any target required you to get so close to shilka that it shot you down twice before getting Sidearm acquiring a lock, and then tou were way too close to die your own shrapnel where ever the Sidearm flew, other than target. The AGM-88 HARM is same way overpowered. Regardless it having a INS to record the coordinates if the radar turns off, the HARM is so inaccurate that you don't likely hit anything so it would be damaged. The next generation ARGMER is a different thing, as now missile has GPS guidance and it know where it is, and it can acquire better coordinate mid-flight so that it memorizes the target coordinates better. As well the Shilkas are so unrealistic in the game. They shoot with constant pure lead tracking, and does so awful job. As there is multiple methods how to do area denial for attack planes. You dont fly in that saturated area as you will fly to shells and die... Now tou are in control through whole attack run and Shilkas aint any danger to you. The targeting computer is as well way too accurate. It is great at 20-35 degree attack runs when your target is on flst desert terrain. But otherwise they are challenging to hit a thing. That is one reasons laser guided bombs were invented becsude changes to hit a stationary tank with full 12x Mk.82 release was around < 10%. And that is why AGM-65 Maverick was created. To give a 50% Pk to hit a tank size target 1.5-2 Km range. The laser guided bombs main benefits is that ground forces designated target for you, and you could find the target more easily with tracker. Capability drop a bomb from 15000ft while flying over was huge thing. There is reason why ARBS system was invented, because any bombing triangulation calculation was very inaccurate. Radar or just using bombing tables. Nothing was as accurate than ARBS until GBU-12 was invented. That is what Harrier got in nose and A-4 got to use later on as pod. Sadly all in DCS can perform wrapon drops with perfect reticle sighting, that should be massively inaccurate without GBU or ARBS. And Mavericks are way too long range capable to track anything.

They recently added the Agm-45B (upgraded shrike) would be great to see those in actiom

What are you using to zoom your view in and out?

Nice video! Also the videos of you flying the Gazzele are amazing. Make more of them pls!