Recluse

Ahhh ok.. that makes sense. I thought that setup was for the current mission not just an illustration.

I must be missing something abut the LINK 4 frequency. In the Mission Editor, he setup the Default Link4 to 336 (which is what showed up on the Datalink initially) but then the Kneeboard showed a different frequency for the GW which was punched in. Why set a frequency in the Mission Editor if it will be different based on the Carrier itself? When we set TACAN number/ICLS number in the mission editor Advanced Waypoints, this is the value used in the mission. Link 4 behaves differently?

I hear you!!! My story is similar, but there is definitely a happy ending!! - I loved and flew the hell out of Janes F/A-18, and when I got the DCS F/A-18 I was initially overwhelmed. I sat in the formerly familiar cockplt and had NO IDEA what to do, or what the various DDI pages meant or did. But I put in a lot of time reading/watching videos/practicing and now, while I have a lot to learn about flying and fighting, the cockpit and systems are very familiar and jumping into the cockpit is like putting on a pair of comfy shoes. (but I still trip on the laces fairly often). - I loved and flew the hell out Gunship2000, Janes Longbow and Longbow2 and EECH and was looking forward to the DCS Apache. Cue the overwhelming amount of stuff to learn and a tiny bit of Buyer's remorse. I remember watching the videos WAGS put out before release and thinking "There is NO WAY I can learn this" As with the F/A-18 , I've put in the study time and the practice time gotten to the point where I am quite comfortable in the cockpit and with the usage of most of the systems. I have a long way to go to be decent at actually FLYING the Helicopter but it's getting better every day. DON'T GIVE UP.. you will definitely get there. The old sims we flew were complex in their own way and they also had significant learning curves despite being somewhat simplified compared to the DCS implementation, so give yourself more than 35 minutes

@Raptor9 Thanks. That explanation makes perfect sense. I understand the logic behind it now. That said, I am not a Human Factors Engineer or a UI Developer, but it seems to me that when you have a big old screen displaying every single Point of Interest in your database in one place, it would be nice to be able to interact with those points of interest in more ways from that screen. I guess I need to go ask Boeing

The process of putting a WP in a ROUTE baffled me for the longest time. Here's what you have to do... In NAV Phase Create a WP. I did it via CURSOR ENTER on the TSD, but, of course you could enter the coordinates. (You cannot put a TGT Point into a ROUTE.) Now hit the RTE button to show the RTE on the right. Click ADD on the left Select your point... either via CURSOR SELECT, or via KBU selection, and then click on the RTE point you want to insert it at. Use END if you want it to be at the END of the route. Here's a little .trk that may be helpful. In this mission are 4 WP's and I created a 5th, 6th and and added each to the RTE with a different method, first with CURSOR SELECT, next with entering the point to be added with the KBU What annoys me is I haven't been able to add a WP to a ROUTE from the COORDS-->WPTHZ tab. Gonna go RTFM some more, as it is odd you can't really operate on WP's from here other than creating an Acquisition source. My .trk is very basic. This video has more detail: starting at 7:49 for ROUTES, but creating points by various methods start at the beginning. Add WP to Route.trk

...and YOU get what I have been saying from the beginning! This makes ME happy! I have struggled to describe it and I don't know if it is a QUEST2 thing in specific or a VR thing in general. A lot of folks (even QUEST2 folks) say EVERYTHING IS FINE! So maybe it is what you can tolerate. All I know is when I look at the IHADSS in 2D or in the VR Mirror coming from the right eye, it looks TOTALLY different from my VR view. In some ways the VR version has a LESS intrusive Monocle frame (when it is ON) but the 2D/Mirror version has a lot easier to read symbology and the Monocle frame eventually fades into the background. To use your long gun analogy further, it is like looking through a peep sight, and eventually your brain makes the sight frame disappears and only the front post is visible in the FOV. I imagine same with Monocle frame. Note: Monocle frame on or off doesn't change the way the IHADSS looks farther away or overly large in VR compared to 2D. I actually prefer the frame ON now.

Similar experience with Quest 2 RTX3070. My big issue is what you mentioned about the IHADSS projection being farther away from my eye than it appears on either the 2D screen or the mirrored VR screen. I cannot quite describe it, and I cannot get a screenshot to truly represent what is seen in VR, because the capture from the IHADSS eye looks like the 2d mirror not the VR appearance. I kind of accept the jitter, but the view of the entire IHADSS especially the critical right side altitude and Vertical Velocity indicator is very hard to keep in focus compared to how it looks in 2D because it appears farther away and is not as clearly in the FOREGROUND of the cockpit elements It looks much better in the CP/G cockpit than the back seat, but probably due to the width of the front cockpit.

Thanks for that! I thought that should be the case (based on how it worked for WPs) but went for the REDUNDANCY route

Glad you got it sorted out! Happy to help out as I have been helped out by countless others around here!

OK.. I didnt realize you were trying to use MGRS. I suspect when you made the point, you made it a Waypoint instead of a Target point. You should then see it under the WP menu rather than the COORD menu. You can still use a WP as an acquisition source. I just tried it though and this is what I did to make a Target point: Set Phase to ATK Go to POINT, ADD click on the POINT until TG shows up. On the KBU for IDENT, type TG <Enter> Enter Free Text if desired Then enter the MGRS (removing one digit so there are only 4 numbers in each block. Enter Altitude <ENTER> You should then have T01 in the COORD Page. You can select it as acquisition source. I made a little TRACK showing it. I used the SCRATCHPAD utility to copy down the coordinates for the target point. You can't see that in the track, but trust me the coords I entered for T01 were on that Map Object. After I selected it as the Acquisition Source, I hit SLAVE on the TADS. Note I selected a point close by, but it could be ANYWHERE (just you won't see it in the TADS when it is far away or not in LOS) I did go into ATK Phase so the T01 would show up on the TSD. Could just as well have made it a WP in NAV phase and used THAT as the ACQ source. See the Manual page 193 for ADDING a POINT. for better instructions than I gave you T01 Slave.trk

These videos had me Storin' and Slavin' real quick.. ( 1st one Won't embed for some reason) https://youtu.be/LRXdeBcp830 Basically just click COORD, click the T01 and SLAVE. OR first select ACQ (R6) and select the number on the bottom row... B5 and select the T01 point. You may or may not have to hit SLAVE. Make sure the Target you are trying to slave is within the TADS field of view!! A few times, the helo had rotated a bit and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, but the TADS just could not get there.

Heh... in LB2 and EECH I almost NEVER used Autohover. Point of Pride to be able to Hover the Helo manually. The DCS AH-64D has totally wounded said PRIDE and I am ready for auto hover to come back. MAYBE I will finally git gud at it BEFORE hover hold appears and I can once again hold my head (and the helo) up high!!

What I figured. Thanks for the response..

So after a few videos on the subject I have been going crazy storing Target Points. It gets to the "point" that I want to start deleting them when they are either already prosecuted or I cannot remember which was which. I know how to delete them from the TSD with the POINT MENU and cursor, but this gets difficult especially when they are close together and there is one big red blob. Seems like it would be useful to be able to delete them from the COORDS Page on the TSD, but I haven't figured that out, if it is possible at all. Is there a way? - One thing I have tried is to just make them 2 or 3 at a time, and after prosecuting, use the STO/UPDATE to overwrite the last one created. This keeps things neater, but I would still like an easy way to DELETE them. -There is an POINT SELECT option from POINT menu to select them from the KBU (haven't tried this yet) which would make it easier to designate particular T0x points without trying to cursor through a sea of red blobs. That's probably the next best way, but it would be so easy to just pick them off the COORD page!

Sorry... should have been clearer. I knew that the video didn't address your particular issue, I just raised it to say there are a lot of odd issues with the gun at this point. Sorry for the red herring.

Have you all seen CASMO's Video? Some odd stuff going on when the gun is pointing off to the side as well.

I've been perplexed that, when flying as CPG, I have George (in a hover) ALIGN the aircraft with TADS. I get a PERFECTLY superimposed I-Beam on the LASED and RANGED TADS target..... and more often than not the rockets miss by quite a lot laterally and longitudinally.

Yeah.. this was the question I asked above when I thought you couldn't fire from the Backseat. I looked through the manual and ALL the references to firing were from the CPG seat. LOL.. that will teach me to RTFM!!!

Just to get you pointed in the right direction and knowing the range so the missile seeker has a chance of picking up the laser and the missile can reach. Ahhh sweet.. I have to try this.. Didn't know you could WAS the missiles and George would keep lasing.

I am pretty sure ONLY the gunner can fire the Hellfires. I was wrong and corrected later in the thread. Thanks. The ACQ source doesn't have to be set to SEEKER. I think CASMO explained this as the "poor man's Laser Spot Tracker" as it just allows you to slave the TADS to wherever the Seeker is looking so you can see a laser spot. For LOAL, any ACQ source that allows you to get the aircraft lined up with the Target (and give you a range indication to know when to fire will work) Does make you wonder why the pilot can WAS them from the Cyclic, though... IF the backseater can fire a Hellfire (don't think so, at least at this time) make sure the Trigger Guard is open.

You may have set the Acquisition Source to GHS (Gunner Helmet Sight) and hit the SLAVE button. The TADS will now follow your head. Hitting SLAVE again will deslave it and put it back to the TADS slew as long as TADS is the sight.

Could be! Verification vs. Setting in the case of NAVIGATION or LASER..It is sort of a moot point as it all seems to work fine but I thought I was missing some other RANGE SOURCE setting. Going through the COLD STARTS, I find lots of setting on pages I otherwise wouldn't ever think to look for

Right, I get that. What I was wondering about was the manual SEEMED to suggest there was a specific setting to make/verify similar to setting the Ranging to AUTO using the A in the keyboard unit. I almost always get good results in the CP/G seat when I have a TADS target lased and attack with Gun (without making any other settings) and when I use a Point as the ACQ source, I usually end up fine tuning with TADS and lasing anyway. Just wondering if there were any other Keyboard entries to adjust this similar to the "A" for Auto based on what the Manual said, especially since it says Range SOURCE to NAVIGATION if ACQ is set to POINT which suggested to me that the RANGE source is set differently from the ACQ source.

Will hijack this thread to ask a related question: In the Manual: pg 275: How do you select "Laser, Navigation..." on the page? I know that highlighting the MANRNG button B6 and entering A in the KBU sets to AUTO, but how to change to LASER or NAVIGATION? Pretty much it seems that when I have a target lased in the TADS, the gun is pretty accurate with no other settings, so I assumed it was automatic. Not sure how to make the settings described in the Manual..

THIS Trigger not the Weapon Trigger