General SOPs

Gameplay

• Each pilot should follow the directives of his lead, whether element, flight, or package. Our events are large, and we need order so that we can accomplish our objectives in a timely fashion so everything doesn't descend into chaos.
• Wingmen should try their best to fly visually with their lead unless he says otherwise. A flight can't be effective if they are not coordinating. If you're doing your own thing, you aren't operating as a cohesive unit, and your flight lead can't use his flight's full potential to accomplish his task. If flights fall apart, the package will fall apart. Learn the basic formations. Leads will often be happy with Wedge or Finger Four formations if they don't specify.
• Communication:
  • Wingmen should communicate with flight leads as required. Depending on the instruction, flight leads need to understand what their wingmen are thinking or doing. If the flight lead orders
  • Wingmen should stay off the radio unless it's absolutely necessary/required. Radios in the F-16, and often other aircraft, operate in half-duplex. If you are transmitting, you can't hear. Also, multiple transmissions on the same frequency effectively jam that frequency, making no transmission clearly heard. It's very easy to lose transmissions or tie up the radio if you're communicating useless information. It's more important for leads to communicate than wingmen to give non-essential status information.
  • Package comms communication should be mostly limited to flight leads. (Some exceptions apply.) Sometimes element lead speaks for the flight, such as when he is leading the "hot" element during a grinder.
• Going solo and doing your own thing, or directly trying to contradict the lead's plans and perform a mutiny, can result in you being uninvited from future events. If everyone is a leader, no one is a leader, and we descend into chaos. Leaders lead. Wingmen are extensions of their leads. This doesn't mean you can't question the lead if he gives an impossible order, or respond with "unable" to a directive that is clearly going to get you killed; just don't try to mutiny and hijack a flight for your own purposes.
• Flights should follow their assigned tasks, and not arbitrarily choose new missions for themselves. Roles within a package are often very important dependent upon one another. It's a team effort. A flight needs to focus on its objective and do it well. If your mission's task is ESCORT, don't fly off to strafe ground targets. Others are depending upon you.

Rules	Explanation
Each pilot should follow the directives of his lead, whether element, flight, or package.	Our events are large, and we need order so that we can accomplish our objectives in a timely fashion so everything doesn't descend into chaos.
Wingmen should try their best to fly visually with their lead unless he says otherwise.	A flight can't be effective if they are not coordinating. If you're doing your own thing, you aren't operating as a cohesive unit, and your flight lead can't use his flight's full potential to accomplish his task. If flights fall apart, the package will fall apart. Learn the basic formations. Leads will often be happy with Wedge or Finger Four formations if they don't specify.
Communication: Wingmen should communicate with flight leads as required. Wingmen should stay off the radio unless it's absolutely necessary/required. Package comms communication should be mostly limited to flight leads. (Some exceptions apply.)	Radios in the F-16, and often other aircraft, operate in half-duplex. If you are transmitting, you can't hear. Also, multiple transmissions on the same frequency effectively jam that frequency, making no transmission clearly heard. It's very easy to lose transmissions or tie up the radio if you're communicating useless information. It's more important for leads to communicate than wingmen to give non-essential status information. Sometimes element lead speaks for the flight, such as when he is leading the "hot" element during a grinder.
Going solo and doing your own thing, or directly trying to contradict the lead's plans and perform a mutiny, can result in you being uninvited from future events.	If everyone is a leader, no one is a leader, and we descend into chaos. Leaders lead. Wingmen are extensions of their leads. This doesn't mean you can't question the lead if he gives an impossible order, or respond with "unable" to a directive that is clearly going to get you killed; just don't try to mutiny and hijack a flight for your own purposes.
Flights should follow their assigned tasks, and not arbitrarily choose new missions for themselves.	Roles within a package are often very important dependent upon one another. It's a team effort. A flight needs to focus on its objective and do it well. If your mission's task is ESCORT, don't fly off to strafe ground targets. Others are depending upon you.

UOAF Events

Rules	Explanation
Each participant should listen to, understand, and follow the directives from the Event Moderator.	It can take a very long time to get everyone into the server. The moderator has a plan to get everyone into the server and into the sim as fast as possible, but he needs your help.
UOAF events are generally open to all members of the community who consider themselves ready, however, some restrictions may apply.	Some sims can be complicated to operate for newbies, and there are many pitfalls. Usually for DCS and BMS, we require that people can take off, navigate, employ some weapons, fly something resembling a formation, communicate with lead, and land. If you can do this, and if you've flown in MP before, you should be good to attend an event. Nevertheless, UOAF reserves the right to request a checkride for any new attendant.
All pilots who wish to attend an event should sign up on the event-specific RSVP sheet. Players can request slots or flights, but these will ultimately be decided on by the mission commanders.	This sheet helps UOAF determine the amount of participants planning on attending a given event. We can't always secure people's wishes for which flights and slots they want, but we try our best to accommodate people. RSVP priority will be for Roster Members first and guests second with conflicts resolved by the Event Moderator.
Marshal and Briefing times must be respected.	The official event time is usually the briefing time. This is when the briefing needs to start in order for us to be on time. No one wants an unnecessarily long briefing. To that end, we have Marshal time, which is when everyone should begin gathering. You should be able to get into the server at Marshal time.
All participants will show up on time with all hardware and installations ready to go at, or before, event time.	It is crucial that we start the event at event time. If that is briefing time, then we need to begin briefing right at that point. All participants are expected to be ready. While we wish to be helpful, our official events are not tech sessions; we cannot be expected to solve people's tech issues with large events. Be respectful of the time other people are investing in this. Please test your hardware and setup prior to event time, preferably before event day. If you need assistance, ask before event day!

BMS-Specific

Rules	Explanation
Wingmen shouldn't touch loadouts.	Loadouts are crucial to mission planning. Also, BMS doesn't play nicely with multiple people editing the loadout of a flight at the same time. Leave this to Flight Leads to manage their flight's loadouts.
Wingmen shouldn't touch the flight plans.	Flight plans are crucial to mission planning. Leave this to Flight Leads to manage their flight's loadouts.
Wingmen shouldn't change anything to do with ground troops.	This has a tendency to make BMS unstable.
Bullseye shouldn't be changed.	This is set by the mission planner, and should NOT be moved. Moving Bullseye while someone is in 3D can crash BMS.
Download Bandwidth should be set no lower than 4096. Upload Bandwidth should be set no lower than 2048.	Bandwidth settings for BMS is a complex topic. Clients should enter bandwidth values that reflect 70% of their download and upload rates. Clients need to enter a minimum of 4mb. If you don't enter the correct values, you will be asked to reconnect with the correct values. Please be courteous and get your Bandwidth values set correctly prior to Event Time.

UOAF Pickup

• Guests are welcome to create and run pickup flights outside of main events.
• Guests can join or create a pickup flight by asking in Discord.
• Guests are expected to follow flight standards laid out in Gameplay SOPs.

UOAF Roster

• Roster members are expected to be flight commander capable, possess a high degree of competence in flight simulation, and maintain a good reputation and behavior.
• Roster members are expected to take flight leader and element leader positions during flights as required.

UOAF Fragging / Mission Planning

• Mission Planners who are creating event missions will be subject to DCS and BMS frag guidelines for mission quality purposes.