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Greetings fellow Officers,
Yesterday I had the honor of being Fighter #3 on the shakedown cruise of the new carrier, TSN Dauntless.
Outside of some complications experienced by Chuck Finley, the first two battles for the Dauntless and it’s pilots were a success. Gabriel Wade did a commendable job as wing commander in the first battle. We were joined by “Mo” Allard in the second battle, who I believe due to higher rank took wing commander duty.(I know I could be using ranks but I can’t remember and can’t find them on the Officer’s profiles)After the shakedown battles ended I was asked to share my thoughts. I couldn’t take place in the conversation due to prior obligations, though I did try and fail to listen along. What follows are my thoughts on training for effect and efficient carrier wing operations.
1. Education
Many Officers are so use to seeing the silhouettes of enemy vessels displayed on Sci/Helm/Weapons console screens. Fighter pilots don’t have the luxury of advanced sensors. All contacts must be recognized visually. To this end training should include pictures of enemy ships from different angles, as well as those ships beam arcs and shield ratings. Arcs and shields can be off loaded to Science depending on how much training the pilots are required to have/desired coordination with the carrier.
One of the TSN Officers said they would get the images of the ships and use blender to turn them into the silhouettes of the ships as they appear visually. I think stripping the colors of the ships is a bad idea. The markings and colors on enemy vessels are great identifiers of what you are looking at.2. Fighter speed
Right now we don’t have an idea of how fast the fighters are. I suggest timing how long it takes to go 500 units and 1000 units while boosting with a ‘1-stellar-navy 2-stellar-navy… ect.’ count. This would allow for the proper distance to be done for circling on strafing runs.3. Z-axis
Unlike the fill sized ships of the fleet, fighters can dive and climb easily. Due to targeting difficulties by enemy ships when firing on something on a different plane, I suggests strafing with climbs and dives to say make getting fired on harder and saying in the fight longer.These are just a few of the things I wanted to say but didn’t get the chance to. Hopefully my superiors find this useful.
Cadet Feil
Greetings.
I thank you for your input, and must say you did a good job flying a fighter.
Your thoughts are on point and I’m sure that powers that be will take them into consideration when discussing the future of the fighters in the 4th Light Division.
Ensign Blaze
//The only place I know of that shows the rank when we’re not in TeamSpeak is this Google document.
//@ Feil: Good points about the Fighters.
//@ Blaze: the Google document you mention is a little out of date, though. It is difficult keeping up wih new people arriving, promotions and transfers. Any suggestions on a way to improve how we can keep track?//Maybe make a google doc that’s editable by say everyone Lt Jr and higher, then add one more responsibility to the DO and ADO by having them keep it updated. Also, only add someone to it when they become a full Ensign to keep it as uncluttered as possible.
//@Aramond wrote almost the same idea i had when I read your post, @Mundy. I just couldn’t respond at the time.
//Matsiyan came up with this google doc a while back that I was using during my shift as ADO to keep an informal roll, if it helps:
//It does, as a starting point. Now it just depends what info we want to have. I’m even thinking of creating a database for it (I am a DBA, after all), but I don’t know if we can use it in any meaningful way.
// During shifts I take screenshots of the teamspeak channel membership before most sims and missions and paste it into the doc where I take notes for logs. That way I can confirm everyone’s rank and role. The forums don’t allow uploaded images so I was thinking of posting a link to a google doc with ALL my log entries where I could include screenshots, such as assignments but also views of the cosmic icosahedron, beautiful N’Tani ships, interesting sector layouts at the start of missions/combat engagements, Hunter in drydock etc.
@Blaze for my own training missions with friends, I had started a tracking db using fieldbook https://fieldbook.com/books/560a0a0c663c55030033ba8fIt could easily be adapted and or simplified. It has the charm of being in the cloud for sharing. (I’m not a dba but I was a developer and worked with them for years)
// I can still keep the notes in a local doc, but when I add them to the full log history I can keep the screenshots with the rank and role.
Are you implying my notes contain anything other than professional courtesy regarding my colleagues? Is this an invitation to monofilament cutlasses or phase pistols at
dawnstart of main shift?//I just think it’s better that you keep the notes to yourself, so you don’t have to be diplomatic about them, in the heat of the moment. 😛
We learned even more today. Here are my observations, most of this knowledge has already been shared with Commander Verok, CO of the Dauntless. This is for any other interested parties.
1. CAG is key.
Without a CAG to give good orders to the pilots we are just growing hair down in the flight bay waiting to launch. And even once launched, we need to know which targets have priority and the proper barring to face.2. Don’t be afraid to talk to CAG.
I had my first shift as Flight Commander today. Or it might be Wing Commander, not sure.
A few times my pilots and I launched into a bad situation because I didn’t insure that CAG kept us abreast of what we were jumping into. Like any relationship, communication is critical. That said, CAG Lt. Kennon Far has been made an unofficial member of our Flight(Wing?) and given the callsign “Cannon Fodder”. May he wear it with pride.3. Clear communication with pilots
As a first time Commander of men, I found that keeping the communication between pilots and the Carrier as clear as possible was paramount. At first we tried having the CAG talk to the whole group but this proved to be unnecessary. Once Cannon Fodder took over as CAG, the Flight Commander became the sole contact for the ship and disseminated orders and intentions to the squad.
Doing things this way worked well for us. I was able to tell my squad mates what they needed to know and we kicked ass to the satisfaction of the CAG and the Commanding Officer.4. Battle group Composition
Before our continued testing of the operational effectiveness of the Dauntless earlier today, I would have thought that the Eagle would be the best compliment to the strengths of a Carrier. The reality bore little resemblance to what we saw on paper.
The Missile Boat’s ability to severally weaken an enemy fleet left the fighter pilots with only clean up work, and not very much of it. One more, as the Eagle and Dauntless share some key weaknesses, they would fall apart at the same circumstances.
The Raven proved itself more capable of matching the Dauntless.5. Crew experience and vessel rotation
Commander Verok pointed out that the Dauntless is unlike any other ship of the 2nd Fleet, 4th LD, and he’s right. While most other ships can have Officers come aboard and use a station they’re experienced with adequately, a Carrier requires a crew that is practiced and use to each other and their stations. Operational effectiveness depends on it.
As such, the Dauntless may not be good to set sail if the core crew is missing an Officer, and it may be better to split the 8 Officer’s required to crew the Dauntless to two other vessels then to have a sub-par showing by the Division’s lone Carrier.
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