I’ve been putting in some time on learning to fly again in DCS A-10C Warthog. Fortunately I seem to have had better recall of prior learning than I thought I would, but it’s still definitely not a trivial process. So, I thought I’d link various documentation, websites and tutorial videos I came across for anyone trying to learn the same thing.
Equipment
I’ve got a Saitek X52 Pro stick and throttle. I can definitely, definitely recommend the Saitek, and I’d also strongly recommend using this profile. It’s adapted from others I’ve seen around, and it works well for me.
I also use a set of Saitek rudder pedals, but I’m not convinced they are actually required. EAC on the A-10 takes care of most of the rudder work, so you could probably get away with just the stick twist rudder on the X52 pro, and then manage wheel brakes with a key assignment somewhere instead of using the toe brakes on the pedals.
Lastly, I have a TrackIR5. TrackIR makes a massive difference to the experience. If you have a webcam available, you may be able to use FreeTrack or FaceTrackNoIR instead.
I would consider head tracking to be more important than pedals, to be honest, so if you’re only going to buy a couple of pieces of gear, get head tracking and a stick with separate throttle (trust me, you’ll need the buttons).
Official Documentation
- DCS A-10C Warthog Flight Manual - This is your bible. Every system is detailed in gory detail, and it provides all the information you need, although not really in an easily digestible form. Keep this on-hand as reference material.
- DCS A-10C Warthog Quickstart Guide - I didn’t find this to be of too much use, but give it a read anyway.
Third Party Repositories
There’s a whole bunch of info available on the ‘net. Here’s some of the bigger repositories of info I’ve come across;
- My DCS A-10 YouTube Playlist - I’ve linked various instructional videos, and some fun stuff into this playlist.
- Eagle Dynamics Wiki Collection - Awesome resource, lots of guides and stuff listed here.
- Matt Wagner’s YouTube Playlist - List of various A-10 videos from Matt Wagner, the producer of DCS.
Wow, that’s too much! Just get me in the air!
Ok, I totally understand. Let’s just do the basics.
- MemphisBelle’s Quick Start up Manual - Good picture guide for how to do a cold start.
- Lobo’s Normal Checklist - Includes some steps that are optional in a game. Don’t try and read this thing the whole way through, just refer to the checklist for whatever task you’re doing at the time.
- Ramp Startup Video Part 1 and Part 2 - These are recordings of the ingame tutorial. Watch it in Youtube first.
- Do the tutorials! They’ll run you through basic operation of most systems.
- If you’ve never flown anything before, take a read of See How It Flies.
- Go and get DRAGONs Training Pack. This is a well executed set of training missions which provide you with a playground (if you hang around the Easy waypoint) giving you plenty of room to practice without having SAMs shooting you down all the time.
After the above, and going through the ingame tutorials, you should be able to get in the air, find waypoints, shoot some stuff, and hopefully land. From there you can hit the references above to find out how to do more advanced stuff.
Good luck!