BlackShark 3

It's coming! A nice an timely refresh of the venerable BlackShark 2, itself an upgrade of the BlackShark 1 that came out in 2009. This "new machine" looks absolutely gorgeous with a lot of exciting new features like AA missiles (like it or not, but this can be disabled in the mission editor for the purists), missile warning system and a new inertial navigation system (will the lost features of BS1 navigation system like the INU update through reference point update be back in BS3?). Special discounts for previous BS2 owners.

DCS 2.8 😲

• Dynamic Weather, the biggie. Winds will push the cloud layers and weather as per ME settings (different layers go different directions if you set it that way)
• Weather sun effects (ice halos, rainbows)
• VR Optimisation (unclear if this is just with regards to clouds - need more info)
• PG Map Terrain Improvements , night lighting
• Global Light balancing on all maps - shadows aren't as dark.
• Vehicles - option to set as "Cold at Start" so that they aren't hot on FLIR as a static

BSD and VFA-313

Good training this weekend with VFA-313 Hellhounds from Poland where our pilots were able to train together in naval operations and share some of the airspace with the 313rd's F-18. A BSD AH-64 even successfully lased a couple of times for the 1000 lbs bombs dropped from their F-18 with 100% direct hits. It's always an enriching pleasure to fly with more squadrons from all other the World, receive their experience and bring our knowledge of rotarywings operations into their missions. For more pics, don't hesitate to check out our public photo album on this website. (photos from Memphis and Cat).

Normandy 2

And another map that no one was really expecting, in addition to being an area that has already been covered previously. Well, we haven't flown much choppers operations over Normandy to be honest although there is some potential for a Cold War type scenario. Ugra did an amazing job with Syria so we have no doubt it's going to be a beautiful map, but we fear that, beyond flying trough the london bridge and the eiffel tower, it might end up very rarely flown for our operations. Time will tell. At least the WWII FW guys will surely be happy. Good news for those who already bought Normandy and The Channel, Normandy 2 will be $9.99 instead of $59.99 without.

AH-64D generic presentation

As you guys are probably guessing, it's gonna be all about AH-64D for the next few weeks/months depending on when it comes out. New presentation video from Matt. Nothing new in the comments but plenty of interresting details we could spot in the video. This FLIR showing you what's below is going to be amazing.

Aaaand the 64 is on pre sale!

Complete hysteria at BlackSharkDen. The AH-64D is open for pre sale in DCS Shop. Needless to say I lost count on how many "bought" we had on our BSD Discord server minutes after the announcement. To make things even worse, it came with an epic video...

Aaaand the 64 is on pre sale!

Complete hysteria at BlackSharkDen. The AH-64D is open for pre sale in DCS Shop. Needless to say I lost count on how many "bought" we had on our BSD Discord server minutes after the announcement. To make things even worse, it came with an epic video...

Razbam shows its South Atlantic map

A tease from Razbam. We have yet to see if this new set will inspire our mission designers to tell us even more amazing stories. So far, Normandy and the Channel failed for the simple reason that, obviously, these places are not the most inspiring when it comes to RW combat stories. Mariannas is yet to see some RW actions as the current version is, for the moment, preventing any low level VR flight due to the very low framerate rendering. At least, Falklands did see helicopter action with the Gazelles, so maybe?

Razbam shows its South Atlantic map

A tease from Razbam. We have yet to see if this new set will inspire our mission designers to tell us even more amazing stories. So far, Normandy and the Channel failed for the simple reason that, obviously, these places are not the most inspiring when it comes to RW combat stories. Mariannas is yet to see some RW actions as the current version is, for the moment, preventing any low level VR flight due to the very low framerate rendering. At least, Falklands did see helicopter action with the Gazelles, so maybe?

A few more AH64D tease

Not completely recent, but worth posting here nonetheless! BSD is getting ready!  AH-64D Vampire platoons are getting staffed already!

Screenshots party: Take 2!

Last large mission Op Ironfall, Sunday 24th, has been another great opportunity to inspire our pilots.

Ka-50 starting up (Dutch)

Gazelles and Huey (Statua)

Hover check (Statua)

The pack at Dusk (Statua)

Low level pass for these two Mi8 (Statua)

Very busy time at the FARP (statua)

Screenshots party!

Sunset/sunrise missions in DCS is often making us virtual pilots spamming the Print Screen button as this is always a magic moment that really renders well in game. Some are just better than others me at screenshots. Special shout out to Dutch, Memphis and Statua for their inspiration during Tnt's Fireworks mission. Wish we had more space here to have all of their amazing shots featured.

Gazelles at Sunset (Dutch)

Backsharks about to take off (Dutch)

Flaring close to the ground (Memphis)

Slingloading at Dusk (Statua)

Close Huey formation (Statua)

FARP contest: and the winner is...

Thanks to all our pilots who participated in our FARP contest. After deliberation and vote (anonymous), it was finally decided that the winner of this competition is [BSD]Statua ! Congratulations for this beautiful work you did here! 

Since there is no contest without prizes, Statua will receive some exclusive Black Shark Den goodies: stickers, magnet and patch to display his squadron everywhere!

Polychop releases patches for the SA342 Gazelle

The DCS RW community's reaction has been overall very positive with the new communication strategy of Polychop. A set of patches for the Gazelle are now scheduled to be released with the first one hitting the virtual shelves end of October. Corrected sounds, RWR symbols updated , NVG capability for Limas and Mistral version and corrected Mistral missile behavior are part of this first release.

Polychop is about to announce something

We just got this from their FB page....

Razbam's South Atlantic map

Looks like Razbam is doing some progress on the Falkland island map for DCS which will perfectly fit their Harrier module but also, let's not forget, the Gazelle who was also involved in the conflict there between UK and Argentina. In addition to the map, assets from this period will be included like ships, artillery units or AI aircraft (of course all of them fixed wings, no trace of possible new AI helicopters as usual but lets trust that the modders will help us).

The official module packaging

Razbam's South Atlantic map

Looks like Razbam is doing some progress on the Falkland island map for DCS which will perfectly fit their Harrier module but also, let's not forget, the Gazelle who was also involved in the conflict there between UK and Argentina. In addition to the map, assets from this period will be included like ships, artillery units or AI aircraft (of course all of them fixed wings, no trace of possible new AI helicopters as usual but lets trust that the modders will help us).

The official module packaging

Some of the helicopters involved during the conflict in the early 80s.

HMS Leeds Castle with its landing area

The airport building at Stanley airport

WIP view of the terrain. Some good potential for NOE flight

Pimax 5K+ and 8K pre order

5K+ for $699, 8K for $899. But you'll need a RTX 2080Ti to run them. That's another 1200$.

Training Tuesdays

This month we inaugurated the Training Tuesdays concept. Systematically, every Tuesday, there will be one of our instructor who will propose a training topic for everyone. Last Training Tuesday was for the NVG qualification. After a thorough class on NVG provided by our Army UH-60 pilot Eagle_Rising, we all went for a night navigation under NVG with no moon and tight landing zones in Caucasus. Navigation was prepared with the help of CombatFlite. Extremely fun and very challenging 2 hours flight with the BSD NVG Qualification at the end of the training session for all the pilots who took part in this training.

Thanks to Eagle_Rising for sharing his knowledge.

Molevitch's latest blockbuster now on BSD YouTube channel!

Mole is having a lot of fun with iMovie! 

Teaser BO-105 by Miltech-5

 A short video, but looking pretty nice so far.

BlackSharkDen flying with the 132nd 

A BSD group of Mi-8 pilots was sent for a NATO exercise in Georgia last Sunday as a guest of the famous 132nd squadron. Allied countries such as Norway, Germany, UK, Belgium and France were conducting a large scale training from Lochini (UGTB) with multiple platforms such as A-10C, Mirage 2000, Ka-50 and of course Mi-8. Some missions involved up to 55 aircraft at the same time including multiple controllers, AWACS and JTAC.

During the last mission, we ended up after more than 3 hours of flight pretty low on fuel. We all had to land or auto rotate as we were flaming out. Only Eagle-Rising was able to make it back to Lochini, and he made it with style! Check out his video on BSD Youtube channel:

Helisimmer loves DCS this week

With no less than 3 articles about the BO105, the Gazelle and the NS430. A good read and some nice screens too. Click  on the pictures to go to the articles.

A quick review of the BO105:

A review of the NS430 add on for the Mi8:

A look at the new explosions coming to DCS 2.5

Pretty cool. What else can you say? Haven't seen better explosions anywhere else in the sim world so far. Can't wait.

Mission Meet and Greet October

On Sunday October 1st, we welcomed some new members in BSD with a mission in Georgia, in an attempt to prevent the russian army to invade some of the northern territories. Our new pilots Crow and Groundhog did great with really neat formation flying, successful resupply of our allies close to the front and a nice run over Dusheti to clear the threats for one of our convoy. Good job to all of you guys. The LZ was really tricky with a steep approach required and a slope landing. Great fun for everyone though.

A nice formation over Georgia territory on our way to pick up Molevitch at the nearby FARP

Successful resupply of the advanced base near the front while the rest of the team is preparing for the next tasking.

Fix for the 1.5.5 Released version export problem

The magic trick to make Helios, UniversRadio and DCS Bios work again had been found!

Go to your Saved Games/DCS/Scripts directory. Open your export.lua with Notepad++ and remove or comment the line: os.setlocale("ISO-8559-1", "numeric")

Save the file and everything is back to normal. For Tacview, a fix is available with the beta: http://www.tacview.net/download/beta/en/

Next DCS version will be 1.5.5, not 2.5

Some new stuff for the UH-1H, Ka50 and Mi-8, mostly cosmetic for MP. An interesting F10 view new tool.

Source here.

Official English Manual out soon for the Belsimtek Mi-8?

Well, an extremely rare statement from Belsimtek on the ED forum is suggesting we actually might get something in 2-3 weeks. Let's all remember this module was released on September 4th 2013!

Some eye candy from the next DCS chopper module: BO-105

This nice little chopper with its fully rigid titanium rotor, 6 HOTS, AA missile and rockets is likely to be an amazing addition to the DCS rotarywings world, even it is kinda redundant with the Gazelle, I can't wait to start flying her. 

Polychop also posted a pretty cruel teaser.

Historical weapon mod for Mi-8

This mod from Avimimus and 1.JaVA_Platypus adds some historically accurate weapons for the Mi-8 that are not available in the standard module:

• UV-16 57mm rocket pod
• UV-32 57mm rocket pod (32 rockets per pod!)
• S-24 240mm rockets (yeah, 240mm!)

If you are using ovGME, this mod is available directly in the BSD repository and authorized in BSD multiplayer missions.

Captain Zeen's Helios profile for SA-342 Gazelle is available

Captain Zeen just made available his latest masterpiece panel profile for Helios. Now all the available choppers in DCS can be flown using secondary (touch)screen, and the Gazelle panel is really awesome. I made a quick test flight tonight:

DCS World Weekend News 10/07/16

So the Belsimtek's Mi-24 is officially confirmed by ED. This is pretty awesome and, if programmed at the same level of realism than the Mi-8, we are likely to see a massive surge of helicopter pilots in the DCS community (which is good for BSD).

Also, there's a helicopter screenshot contest this week on ED forum and I am sure you guys got some great shots of our previous missions together so you should definitively give it a try!