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"Falcon 3" in the desert -- NS 812122, EW -723375
Heading: 0 degrees  Altitude: 10,000 feet

KUWAIT THEATER (INSTANT ACTION AND CAMPAIGN)

Permanently destroyed bridge -- NS 1111070, EW 74120
Heading: 348 degrees     Altitude: 25 feet

Well, no need to target this installation!

KURILE ISLANDS THEATER (OPERATION: FIGHTING TIGER ONLY!)

Godzilla vs the Love Boat -- NS -846508, EW -1601408
Heading: 141 degrees          Altitude: 80 feet

Dead man in the water -- NS -00034468, EW -01466383
Heading: 270 degrees    Altitude: 20 feet

The Panama, Israel, Korea and Pakistan theaters have not really been explored for hidden jewels -- yet!!  Who knows what may be found?


6.5 SAY "CHEESE" -- THE BUILT-IN SCREEN SHOT FEATURE OF FALCON
3.0

NOTE: Although you can capture the screen within the simulation, you must have a program called SHOWF3 to view them.  This is available through Compuserve's FSFORUM or packaged with the
"Falcon 3: The Official Combat Strategy Book" disk (sorry, only a
3.5" disk is available). It is also available at FTP.K9.COM and its mirrors An updated version of SHOWF3 is sold with the
Falcon/MiG/Hornet Commander Utilities and will allow you to save your screen shots in GIF or PCX format.

Take screen shot within simulation      (Ctrl + Alt + N)

Take screen shot in non-sim area (war room, briefing, etc.)              (Ctrl + N)

Take shot within ACMI
(Operation Fighting Tiger only)         (Z)

Take shot in PAUSE-TAB mode        (N)

This is how Spectrum Holobyte was able to shoot the screen shots you see in their ads.  You cannot take snapshots of the opening animations, nor of the mission start/end animations. Neither can you take a snapshot of the config screens or of the Mission
Computer.


6.6 A FEW OTHER HIDDEN FEATURES WORTH MENTIONING...

Yes, the ACES II ejection seat is accurately modeled.  ACES II works as a "zero-zero" (will work at zero speed and zero altitude) ejection seat. You will probably need more than a few sessions at the chiropractor if you do this in real life.

While in ACMI, the  key clears out the VCR control panel for a full-screen view of ACMI or VCR mode.

The Mission Computer (a database of all the objects, air and ground in the simulation), buried within the Campaign and Red
Flag options, has hidden view controls.  They are:

1, Shift 1 controls yaw.
2, Shift 2 controls pitch.
3, Shift 3 controls roll. + increase rotation speed. - decrease rotation speed.

Getting tired of the daily Campaign screen every time you get ready to fly?
Hit  to go right into the mission.

Wanna fly a campaign with missions YOU decide? Unfortunately, this only works in the Kurile Islands theater.  First, assign a squadron to fly the Kurile Islands.  If you have a squadron already flying there, this will not work.  Then click your mouse over the man checking monitors on the left -- you MUST click his head -- and you will see him say "Yes, Sir!".  Commit to the campaign.  After the canned opening briefing a special "Choose
Mission" screen appears. Note that "PG" missions are pregenerated.  This is a great way to find out what the UMF looks like.

Feel like seeing the edge of space?  Load LESSON1 in Red Flag.
Then get on the runway, apply wheel brakes let 'er rip with the afterburners.  Take off the wheel brakes as soon as you sense motion.  Raise the nose at about 130 knots and IMMEDIATELY raise the gear.  Put the nose up to about an 75-degree angle, gradually raising it to 90 degrees. Keep it on AB5 until you run out of air at about 65-70,000 feet.



7.0 OTHER FAQ'S


7.1 FALCON 3.0 HIGH FIDELITY FLIGHT MODEL

The high-fidelity flight model in Falcon 3.0 was originally developed for ASAT, or Advanced Situational Awareness Trainer, which was an air intercept trainer for the USAF. Its inclusion in
Falcon 3.0 has generated many questions as to how it behaves. The following remarks are applicable to the high-fidelity flight model in all versions of Falcon 3.0:

- Hi-fi flight model does not function at airspeeds under approx
270 knots. Below this, the player's aircraft is controlled by the complex flight model. There is a noticeable transition when this airspeed threshold is crossed.
- Hi-fi flight models weight limitations somewhat, in that planes loaded in excess of 32,000 pounds will crash as soon as they exceed 270 knots in a takeoff.
- Hi-fi flight model doesn't model G limitations (nor does
Complex), so you can pull 9 G's with a full load of fuel and ordnance. However, you'll lose airspeed in the turn, until you cross below the 270 knot threshold and re-enter Complex flight model. If you stay in a turn, you can yo-yo between the two flight models indefinitely.
- Hi-fi flight model doesn't model drag effects; you can travel at 450 knots at zero throttle indefinitely.
- Hi-fi flight model's airbrakes are dramatically more effective than those in Complex flight model.
- Hi-fi flight model causes your F16 to travel at least 40 knots faster Complex flight model at the same throttle settings

Note that wingmen, enemies, and your plane in Autopilot always use Complex flight model, not Hi-fi.


7.2 COMMON BUGS


7.2.1 COPY LEADER BUG

When using the COPY LEADER button on the Arm Planes menu screen, sometimes it causes the hard drive to spin but nothing happens.
What's happening?

From: bash@ihlpb.att.com
Subject: Re: multiple topics

The copy leader loadout hang up - this is not a hangup. No, it's not 8-). It sometimes is *VERY* slow. I mean *REALLY* slow. I mean, like 3 or 4 minutes slow. But, everytime I have waited on it, it has always spun the hdisk continuously, and always returned. After I installed smartdrv, the problem has completely went away. I think their disk read needs some optimization and using a cache just speeds the whole process up. My observations here have been independantly verified by many people on CIS. This doesn't mean the pause ain't a bug, it just ain't a lockup 8-).


7.2.2 WINGMEN WON'T LAND AT ALTERNATE FIELDS

The Falcon 3.0 manual says I can set waypoints so as to let my wingmen land at airfields other than the one we started at. But, it doesn't work. Why?

From: bash@ihlpb.att.com
Subject: Re: multiple topics

I'll throw my $.02 into the ring as well. Wrt to landing, it seems SH's right hand is unaware of what SH's left hand is saying. Way before F3 was publicly released, we (the beta crew) had asked for a "bingo field" option, where we could place a LAND waypoint over a different base and the wingmen would land there.
This never worked. The F3 manual still mentions it, but you are never allowed to select LAND at any airbase other than the one you started from.

Next came Shft-B. Early on everyone realized you might need to bypass a waypoint. After a few of use accidently hit SHFT-B when going for SHFT-N, SH added the SHFT-V "previous waypoint" command. At no time did anyone ever mention pilots looking for bingo fields.

While working on F3:TCH, this was a hot topic for me. As each patch came out, I wrestled with No.19 and various programmers to find out *exactly* what changed so as to keep the book current. I was flatly told by Gary Stotlemeyer (sp?) over the phone that your F-16s would never land anywhere except their origination base.

OK, so here's some comments to those who have posted: 1) To Tom
Neff (are you "Rattler" from FSFORUM?) how did you verify that the allied planes landed at another base? Did you watch it on a
VCR? Did you get the (now mythical) "pilot is uavailable because he is at another airbase" message? If you have a VCR, PLEASE send it to  me. I'd prefer to receive it on CI$, but can accept
UUENCODED mail at this address.

2) For Jim, re: landing at bingo fields when low on fuel. Again,
I have not ever been able to reproduce this. I've just had them continue to scream "Fuel is low" every few seconds over and over and over again. Have you ever seen one of your F-16s land at another base?

3) Also for Jim: I have used your idea of putting a waypoint over an allied base, even though I couldn't select LAND as an action.
When I did get into trouble, I'd land there. This worked well except none of my other planes would land with me. At any rate, I highly reccommend this tactic.

4) Regarding Atlas' comments, a) this is not what the programmers told me personnally (that was before OFT, though), and b) In
Kuwait, Allied forces almost always capture one or two airbases due east of my starting base. Some of my waypoint constructs should have placed them in Atlas' second category, but to date I have never witnessed an allied plan landing at another base.

This whole thing is a very important topic, though. If just once we can get a VCR shot of this happening (or maybe a good photo of a sasquatch), this revolutionizes how a lot of us fight campaigns.  Many of us don't utilize bingo field tactics because we didn't think they worked. If they do, however, that opens a lot of options,  especially later in a campaign when allied forces have captured additional bases. If anyone can get this on
VCR, please send it to me at "bash@ihlpb.ATT.COM".


7.2.3 MAKING THE MUD MOVE: AIR-TO-GROUND BUGS

Ground targets in all versions of Falcon 3.0 often have a special place where they must be hit, or the program won't give credit for hits. In general, if a hit causes the target to change color or shape, you'll get credit for it. Here are two common situations and their solutions:

RUNWAYS: Even though I manage to hit a runway with Durandals, I don't seem to be able to get the program to acknowledge that I've hit it. Why?

From: opus@ihlpf.att.com
Subj: Re: Hitting Runways

..I routinely take out runways with just two durandals. The question of how to take out runways in F3 comes up often.  There is a magic spot on every runway that you must hit.  If you zoom all the way in during the briefing, you will see the red bulleye right on this spot. I believe it's the point closest to the hangar.  What I do is to take along Mavericks as well as a pair of durandals. When I get close to the runway, I do the following: - select Mavericks - cycle through the targets until it points at a spot on the