homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Falcon 4.0 Two n00bness questions

Hello there!

1. How do I know who is on my side in the Balkans campaign and who isn't? Am I just supposed to know this, or is there some screen in-game that can show me my allies and enemies?

2. I just did a strike mission into Serbia to take out a bridge. I took 6 BSU-49s, came in at low level (~100 ft) and dumped my bombs. Suddenly - WHAM! One of the bombs (I assume it was blast damage, and not the actual bomb, although who knows really) damaged my F-16 and my precious bird went plummeting to the ground just past the city.

Isn't the whole point of the BSU bombs to allow you to release them at low level? What exactly did I do wrong, and what in the name of Allah is my CCIP F-16 doing as a smoking heap on the outskirts of some Serbian city?

the confusion about friendlies and enemies in the balkans theatre is part of its unique charm. the only thing you can really do is keep pestering AWACS to declare the bogey.

second question...
100ft is probably too low even for retarded bombs- it would take approx 2.5 seconds for them to hit the ground from 30m (near enough 100ft) in which time your jet will have moved 200-250m. even assuming the bombs fall straight down at the point of drop, that's likely to put you in the blast radius. as the bombs in reality and the sim will continue to move forward with some speed (though sharply decelerating). I'm not sure how much longer the retarded bomb would take to hit the ground, however, as it would fall slower my calculation (which assumes the bomb falls at 1G)

Oh I realize that the confusion during missions is normal, I'm just not sure who's on my side at all. The campaign map shows lots and lots of different nations, but how do I tell which ones are on my side?

Anyone know the minimum release altitude for BSUs?

On the map, the blue are the good-guys, red the baddies - all other colors are neutral.

"The frag pattern for the MK-82 AIR is the same as the MK-82 LDGP bomb. At sea level, the pattern is 2,140 feet vertically and 2,550 feet horizontally. The time of fall is 24.4 seconds."

from F16 weapons

They prefer to be called 'special needs bombs'

Thanks Novice. Just, uhm ... one question: 24.4 seconds from what altitude?

And thanks for the tip, vip. That makes sense I guess.
Does that mean that none of the neutral countries fight each other either? Because I could've sworn I saw it.

Guessing here but I think it's once it explodes, it'll take 24 seconds for the debris to clear the air....

As an example ..... wouldn't want to be flying thru that stuff....

Weird standard of measurement...

Anyway, thanks a bundle for the help.

The only enemy in the Balkans is the FRY, consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia on the map.

All other nations are either friendly or neutral depending on which campaign you are flying.

There is no Balkans campaign, Balkans is a theater. The campaigns are Powderkeg, Under Siege and Balance of Power.

My mistake. Thanks for the help and clarification, DBond.

Fly fast 500 kts or more or you will not clear the blast area from retarded bombs at 200 ft

Roger that. Thanks kent, that's a good piece of info to know.

I'm not sure if it's modelled in the game, but if you drop bombs at trans-sonic speeds (0.8M-1.1M), they will be more likely to miss as the FCC does not take into account the shockwave created by the aircraft.
Admittedly, 200ft does not leave much room for error.