DCS MiG-21: First Flight

I have DCS World, and whenever I get a new module I like to try and “just fly the thing” with minimal cockpit familiarity. I always expect hilarity to ensue but it’s really not that exciting. Like with the Ka-50 I just crashed with in-air starts, and could never get it off the ground with a cold start (until I read the operating manual). But helicopters are hard, so that’s not a surprise. Planes are easy. After getting the MiG-21BIS module though, I did have a few solid chuckles.

Here’s my in my first ever flight (started in flight at about 500 meters). I attempt to find the gear and flap controls and land. Gear was easy; flaps, not so much but I ended up ‘cheating’ and using a keyboard shortcut for flaps as I feared I was coming in way too fast. Which I still was. Skip to 4:50 if you just want to see the ‘bouncy’ landing.

And then I fumbled around trying to open the cockpit and extinguish the fire (which was a entire-plane-on-fire, not engine fire), but my fire extinguisher system was off.