Foothold Syria 01.07.26: Strike Pinarbashi Airbase

[Bones]

Our next mission was to strike Pinabashi Airbase. We did not have good intel as to what defenses they had but it cold be assumed that SAMs would be part of their air defense. With that in mind, Grifter and I took 2 Hornets with a mix of HARMs and JDAMs and TPODs to perform SEAD.

We were going to take off from Paphos, but they had low inventory on items. There were no TPODs, and certain missiles were in low supply such that Jedi could not fully arm his aircraft. Operations were staged from Akotiri instead.

I was flight, callsign Valor11 with Grifter as Valor 12. We had a Reaper deployed over the target area but unfortunately it was only observation and nine-line talk on, no lasing (must find out if this is a bug since a nine line JTAC is 0 credits and the lasing Reaper, which I selected, is 500). The Reaper confirmed a convoy but I was not able to get it to cycle target priority to the SAMs (another bug?). Using the grid coordinates I received from the Reaper, I was able to fins the target area, but not a specific target. I had to scan around until I found 4 targets south of the airstrip. I lased the target area so that Grifter can pick up the laser and get the targets himself, but he ran into technical issues where his stick wold suddenly push the aircraft over, resulting in several crashes through the session.

I had found the targets but was not able to drop on them before having to go defensive from SAMs and bandits. I lost SA at one point and got shot down but successfully ejected. Upon respawn, Grifter and I went back again, but Grifter crashed on takeoff due to the same tech issue.

Eventually we were able to get back in the air. I was able to find the targets again and make 4 JDAM drops and hit the targets. I found 2 more targets to the west, and Creeper was able to take care of those as well, neutralizing the airbase. I came under fire from some bandits, was able to shoot 2 down, but then was winchester air to air so had to run when the second wave came. I went down in the weeds and terrain masked, and ran as fast as possible back to Akotiri, and made it, able to redeem my points.

At this point, bandits were spawning in great numbers and we were grounded trying to figure out Grifter's tech issues. Creeper tried to take Pinabashi with a C-130J and CH-43 but was not able to. At then end, 2 AI F-4 Phantoms spawned and strangely enough were headed toward Pinabashi.

Most players had left at that point but Grifter and I stayed on trying to solve his issues. During that time, the 2 F-4s landed at the neutral Pinabashi. A few minutes later, it went from neutral to blue! It seems somehow the F-4s had taken the base (another bug?).

Meanwhile, Grifter and I figured out his issue. His DCS install had defaulted his pitch control to both his stick and his throttles! After separating the two, he was able to fly normally again. Phew!

We received a mission to bomb the runways at Nicosia. I took (4) 1000 kb JDAMs and Grifter took 500 lb JDAMs. I concentrated on the runways and Grifter concentrated on the ground defenses. I was able to hit the runways but we got no points awarded. Turns out, the mission had shifted to a different airbase when we had rebooted to flush out any issues with Grifter's controls (a precaution). But, at least they can't spawn aircraft from Nicosia anymore.

Unfortunately, after our strike, we were bounced my MiGs and I was shot down and Grifter traded kills.

The mission still stands until next time.







v6,
boNes

[Bones]

I went back into the mission last night to bomb the runway at WP7. It took me 3 sorties to do it myself as I was a single aircraft and they had alot of SAM defenses. I was able to bomb the runway though and get us 100 more points.

I want to mention though, since we took Pinarbashi, I flew out of there. The runway is short and narrow. I barely was able to take off before hitting a fence, and 2 out of the 3 times I landed, it was too short for my on-speed landing speed. Plus on one end of the runway, you have the fence to have to land over. On the other side, you have a mountainside that you have to fly over then drop down to make the end of the runway or you will overshoot so you will probably slam down your plane and break the gear like I did twice. Because you are also landing fast, so you end up running out of runway, which I did twice. Luckily at the end of the runway, it continues down with an access road so you have a little bit of overrun to stop in, but there is a shack at the end of it so you better hope you can! Even if you do, the access road is even more narrow than the runway so it would be difficult to do a 180 to taxi back.

Just a heads up in case you want to stage from there. I would recommend being careful with your load and taking off from there, but recovering elsewhere.

v6,
boNes