DCS Flight Nights

[Grifter]

Hi Everyone,

I'm writing to propose an earlier start time for some us who live on the East Coast. Over the last few years, it has grown increasingly difficult for me to fly in the evenings. It's a cruel circle. I stay up too late flying, and I end up not taking care of myself like I should. I need to prioritize sleep and exercise. The fact that my job has become even more demanding in recent years only further emphasizes the need for me to stay healthy.

I don't need to switch the nights, but I'm happy to discuss flying on Tuesdays or Thursdays instead of Mondays and Wednesdays. Unfortunately, weekends are really not an option. My wife and I are away quite often, and when we're not, ordinarily, I have too much to do here. For East Coasters, I'd like to get back to flying from 8-10PM on the flights nights as opposed to 9-11 PM. 11 PM, even 10:30 PM is really too late for me.

Let me know what works for you all. Obviously I look forward to flying with our Central and West Coast time people at 9 PM, but I need to start earlier or really commit to just flying from 9-10, which is not enough time to really do anything.

Thanks,

Grifter.

[Trichome]

I'm open to those times... Whatever works for the group I'm in.

[Cr33p3r]

i'm open to earlier flight times. however 8 eastern is 5 pacific and pretty early for Hammer. not sure who else is west coast. I can tell you that when we all fly together, the time sure does go by fast.

I have to travel this Wed so I won't be on.

[Hammer]

pretty sure I am the only west coast person. if 5 Pacific works for everyone, by all means do it.

[Bones]

Maybe we can try it out until after the school year ends and then Grifter can re-evaluate if the 9pm eastern time works better for him?

I think 5 pacific/7 pacific/8 eastern is do-able but I may end up showing up late from time to time.

v6,
boNes

[Grifter]

It likely won't, Bones, for two reasons. First of all, I'm trying to train my body to go to bed earlier and go to bed at the same time every night, or thereabouts. Secondly, I will likely be away a great deal of the summer backpacking. In the past, the east coast folks have simply started an hour earlier and the further western folks started at 9 as usual. It's not ideal from a mission standpoint at all, however.

[Cr33p3r]

I can probably typically make 8pm eastern Wednesdays work. I may be still 9pm on Mondays but mostly we're training and messing around so some overlap is fine by me. Been practicing the F-14 this past weekend a bit.

[Xpendable]

I probably won't be able to make many flights if we move to an earlier time, or won't be on until later. My family dinner is often not finished at 7pm CST plus my girls have activities earlier which pushes dinner later

[PanzerMeyer]

8 to 10 pm works fine for me.

[Bones]

It looks like a switch works for some but not for others.

I wonder if we should do mission nights on Mondays at the usual time and Wednesdays at the new time. I'm pretty sure we are all up on our training at the moment. If we find we need to train on something more we can always say hey let's make this Monday night a training night and then next Monday go back to mission night. That way those who can't do Wednesday at the new time can still fly a mission on Monday.

v6,
boNes

[PanzerMeyer]

Something just occurred to me. Unlike IL-2 Coop, players can join and exit DCS missions at will without interrupting the continuation of the mission so the time issue really shouldn't be a big deal.

[Xpendable]

It looks like a switch works for some but not for others.

I wonder if we should do mission nights on Mondays at the usual time and Wednesdays at the new time. I'm pretty sure we are all up on our training at the moment. If we find we need to train on something more we can always say hey let's make this Monday night a training night and then next Monday go back to mission night. That way those who can't do Wednesday at the new time can still fly a mission on Monday.

In my case I am rarely able to make Mondays. So basically I would no longer get to fly with you guys most weeks if we did that. I get that we won't be able to accommodate everyone's needs, so do whatever works for the majority. I will see you guys if and when I can, but it may be rare.

[Grifter]

Bones,
Unfortunately, Panzer can't do Monday nights because he plays ARMA with another group, Xpen is rarely available on Mondays. I don't see switching mission night to Monday night as helpful.

Xpen,

I probably won't be able to make many flights if we move to an earlier time, or won't be on until later. My family dinner is often not finished at 7pm CST plus my girls have activities earlier which pushes dinner later

Family time is more important than flight time any day of the week.

All,
So, it looks like we have two options, which is what I suspected when I opened this dialogue.

1. We keep the time the same and EST people like myself stay on for as long as we can. You'll note that Panzer and Jedi often log off by 10PM EDT. I will likely be joining them most of the time. Unfortunately, this means I only have an hour of flight time.

2. A group of EST people start at 8 pm and fly until 10 pm with overlap from the rest of the group. The big problem with this approach is that we can't organize tasking and coordinate large missions as a group, especially like we used to with maps and fragging posted up here on RLG forums prior to the mission.

If you'll all recall, those missions were when we were at our best. We had a great time and we were very successful in achieving mission objectives and our survival rate. I prefer this type of flying and coordinating, if all else is equal. Perhaps we can do a special mission like this once a month and start at 9PM? But, regular mission nights we'd have staggered start times?

This would be particularly problematic with Liberation missions because the mission tends to send out the OPFOR air and then they all fly home after 30 minutes. Could that be adjusted to have a second wave at 9 PM?

Whether the group chooses option 1 or 2, I myself need to be logging off at 10PM and asleep by 10:30. There are more demands on my time and energy these days, and I need to make sure I'm getting enough sleep so that I have the energy to workout and take care of myself.

So, if a group of four or five EST people plan to fly at 8PM from now on, please post your intention to do so here so that we can get a head count. If we have a group of four or five, then it would be worth it. If it's just going to be me, Jedi, and Panzer, then I'll wait until 9PM to log on and just fly for an hour. Let me know how you want to proceed moving forward.

Grifter

[Trichome]

Re the liberation part of this....



We can change and extend the mission times. If the enemy has 10 fighters as an example - they will be spread out of 2hrs vs the 90 min we currently have setup. It would help the mission planners if we knew what time people were showing up for so we dont pair Grifter coming early with Xpen who cant come until later. But it can all be accomodated.

I think we could move to 1 flight per mission. you can always respawn and just go after new targets. F10 map and lock in your coordinates and go for whatever helps the mission or based on whatever time you have left to play. Only the first mission for each player will be planned. Especially if we are doing a "special" RLG mission once or twice a month. Those take way more time to create and plan. Liberation would be filler.

I can get on at either time but Id probably prefer the 8pm EST most.

[PanzerMeyer]

So what does the current time zone break down look like? On the US east coast we have me, Grifter, Jedi and Creeper. US Central time is bones and xpendable. Are you the same time zone as US east coast or central Trichome?

And then I think Hammer is the only one in Pacific time and we have no one in Mountain time zone.

[Grifter]

So it seems like a fair number of us can get on at 8pm EST. Creeper, Jedi, Panzer, Trichome, and me. That's enough for SEAS and CAP. The 9 PM crew can come in for another round of SEAD and STRIKE. 8pm crew can refuel/respawn in support of 9pm crew. It's doable. We should give it a try perhaps next week?

Would Trichome, Creeper, Jedi, Panzer, and me be amenable to an 8pm EST start time next Wednesday? Please advise. I won't commit to this Wednesday as I'm still waiting for the Covid bomb to drop in my lap. We'll see how that goes. It takes about 5.6 days for Covid to develop symptoms, which means I won't know if I'm in the clear until at least Saturday or Sunday of this coming weekend. Yay.

[PanzerMeyer]

Yes, next Wednesday at 8 is fine for me and I'm pretty sure Jedi will be fine with it.

[Trichome]

Im EST and I can be on for 8....

[Hammer]

Join in progress is great. the issue is it is supposed to be a team/package setup that we all fly together as part of the package. people joining late are naturally not participating in a package which leaves them out. myself possibly being the largest proponent of flying together as a package would likely be the last to join based upon times, and my enjoyment of flying goes down exponentially, more so that it has recently since we have not really been doing this anyways. so, maybe it does not matter...

[Grifter]

Well, I'm hoping that we can as a package. You know that I prefer to fly as a package, and that I'm fully on board with doing so. The 8pm EST group can fly their portion of the package, clearing the way for the 9PM group to fly their mission. While it would be ideal for all of us to join at the same time, I think this is a possibility:

8pm EST:
Conduct Fighter Sweep 1
SEAD/DEAD 1
Strike 1 if necessary or alternate Strike (optional)

9pm EST
Conduct Fighter Sweep 2
SEAD/DEAD 2 if necessary
Package Primary Strike

Again, the alternative is fine with me. Everyone continues to meet at 9pm, and I just fly for an hour. I'm fine with that. Otherwise, I propose the above because I need to get on a regular sleep cycle where I go to bed and get up at the same time every day.

In regards to your second point, Hammer, flying not as a squadron has been an ongoing problem for years and years. Even when we did fly package missions, there are a few people that just want to fly lone wolf, rather than communicating and working with their element or flight. As a result, the group loses cohesion.

If you wish to work as part of a team to achieve objectives in the mission, you have to work as part of the your element, flight, and package. To do that, you need to pick a mission, a plane, and a flight and stick with it. If you're interested in doing that, if you find that idea appealing, then perhaps post here that you're interested in doing so. It would be nice to know how many people we have genuinely interested in flying as a cohesive unit rather than just playing the DCS version of Quake.