by Chris “BeachAV8R” Frishmuth
In Training Mission #1 we looked at some of the basic operations of the F-22 in TAW. Today we will continue peeling back the layers of complexity in this sim and hit a couple more features and pieces of useful information. Our flight today will be a cross country “free-flight” listed as Ar Rub al Khali from San’a Airbase to Riyadh. This long stroll across Yemen and Saudi Arabia will give us some time to experiment with the F-22 and explore some of the systems and capabilities. Even these free flight missions have objectives, though they are easy to complete (you must land at the designated airbase and you must survive).
For this training sortie we’ll have a wingman with us, although we will not be touching on wingman control issues quite yet. Just think of him as your instructor flying along helping you out. Again, it would be my preference to have the ability to select the loadout for the training missions, but that isn’t possible. So for this mission we’ll be loaded with live ordnance again, including missiles, rocket pods, and external fuel tanks.