ASAP

Thanks, I didn't think of using markpoints like that. I usually just pocket markpoints into steerpoints if I'm going to pickle step pickle. Might have give that a try.

When creating a steerpoint either on the mission planner, or by punching the coordinates into the CDU the steerpoint should default to 0 feet AGL. The real jet has DTED data and associates a coordinate with the MSL elevation automatically, and facilitates getting sensors into the target area faster. Yes I know you can manually input the elevation from the 9 line, but you shouldn't have to (unless its BOC CAS obvioulsy).

After taking a mark you can use the #? line select key in the WAYPOINT page to put the mark point into the next available steerpoint. In the real jet you can insert the number of an already existing waypoint in the scratch pad and hit the #? key and it will update that steerpoint. When you do it in DCS you get IFFCC input error. Additionally the TAD should have a #? function on OSB 17 that will take whatever you have hooked on the TAD and either put it into a new steerpoint, or put it into the number of the steerpoint you have in the scratch pad.

It is in fact a thing in the real jet. The blank key next to the BCK key should delete a markpoint that is currently displayed on the WAYPT page. Seems like it would be pretty simple to implement. just curious, anyone know why that feature would be particularly useful? I can't think of a reason I'd need to use it.

Thats just he way the A-10C HUD works. It happens when it can't compute a CCIP solution based on where your nose is pointed/radar altimeter, target MSL elevation. It happens a lot when you are shooting at a hillside that's level or even above you, or if you're just flying really high and your nose isn't pointed at the ground. I'd recommend switching to the 4K wind corrected gunsight in slightly look up situations. Otherwise 99% of the time I'd say disregard the invalid message because as soon as you roll in and point your gun at the target it will go away and you'll get a good solution.

The NMSP's behavior is correct. You can only get the needles and course info for one navigation source at a time. If you have the TACAN called up and you press ILS the needle will switch from showing you TACAN info to ILS info. However, a lot of ILS approaches still require the TACAN for DME information on the approach so you would want them both selected. If the DME source is paired with the localizer you'd still leave the TACAN selected and just dial in the paired DME channel in the TACAN.

It'll just fly ballistically to somewhere in the area around where your pipper was at the time of release. I wouldn't really bank on killing anything with it though unless it's lased in. Unguided rockets aren't very accurate, they are mostly used for suppression or marking targets in the real world.

The SPI can't really be cleared, there is always a SPI. You can just change it between sensors or just move it (i.e. when TGP LOS SPI your SPI is simply whatever is is dead center of the crosshairs). First question is what are you using as your SPI when you drop the bomb? Based on what you said about not being able to lock on the bridge, I'm making an assuming your talking about TGP LOS SPI. Which I'd recommend against if you are fighting clouds beneath you. If you are able to see the bridge through a gap in the clouds lase the target and take a mark (TMS right short) and then make last mark SPI (TMS RIGHT LONG). Doing that should give you an accurate set of coordinates to drop on. Just make sure it says MARK in the bottom left of the HUD indicating your markpoint SPI. Now it wont matter if your TGP can see the target or not. To "clear your SPI" to take another shot like you asked, you'd just give the jet a new target by changing your SPI. In clear air, that could mean slewing your TGP to something else. With the method above you could find another target, lase, take another mark, and make last mark SPI again which would be resetting your SPI to the new mark. Alternatively you could turn that mark into a steerpoint by hitting the button on the CDU next to the line that has ##? and you'll turn it into a steerpoint, then you can steer to it and drop with steerpoint SPI (TMS DOWN LONG). I find that easier if theres a chance I'd need to quickly get back to a previously struck target. Or you can turn the left rotary nob on the AAP to MARK and then you can cycle through your previously taken marks as steerpoints and still drop steerpoint SPI using the mark as a steerpoint. One other option, for something like a bridge which you know isn't going to go anywhere, punch in the coordinates and elevation that you get from the mission planner into the steerpoint and just drop on that. Just don't forget the elevation. In my experience when you create a steerpoint in the mission planner it sets the elevation to whatever altitude you are flying at instead of the actual MSL elevation of that spot on the ground (which you absolutley need if you're going to accurately place a bomb there). The jet gives you a ton of options, pick one that works for you based on time available and desire to mess around with your CDU.

According to the A-10 guys i've talked to it actually gets blurry and washed out while the gun is firing. They said video captured in the HUD camera is actually clearer than what the pilot can see because its better stabilized with the HUD. Not sure if its because of the vibration of the HUD or the pilots eyeballs though. I'd guess both.

When you fire the gun the hud should also get blurry and hard to read from the vibration. You can see it on the hud footage of them shooting the gun.

Also DSMS profiles. It would be so much easier to set up the profiles in the mission editor rather than jamming it into the jet. Also more realistic.

Haha, well I feel silly. Who knows, ground stabilization is so frustrating I personally find it pretty useless. Which is probably the point he was making.

If anything it looks like the bug is that it looks like the maverick was already space stabilized before holding DMS forward. The behavior after you released it looks normal because it's no longer space stabilized and the missiles not finding anything to lock onto or trying to lock onto the wrong thing. Its purpose is essentially to make it easier on you to slew the seeker onto the target. When you hold space stabilize the maverick seeker head will stabilize on the scene in front of you and not try to lock onto things, or drift around as the aircraft moves. To get the seeker to lock you have to slew onto the target and let go of the DMS switch. If it starts wandering like you had in the video hold DMS forward again and slew the cursor back to the target and try again. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=A-10+AGM-65&ru=%2fvideos%2fsearch%3fq%3dA-10%20AGM-65%26qs%3dn%26form%3dQBVR%26sp%3d-1%26pq%3da-10%20agm-65%26sc%3d1-11%26sk%3d%26cvid%3d7201233DA38D4116838D2F0F459FF39A&view=detail&mid=1FF10FD3764693BF97471FF10FD3764693BF9747&&FORM=VDRVRV Here's a cool video I found on youtube of an AGM-65G locking onto something. You can see around 25 seconds it looks like he comes out of space stabilize and it wonders around before he restabilizes and drags it back onto the target and gets a lock.

The boresight mode (boatswitch middle) is used to reposition where you want your Maverick's default state to be. In DCS it's pretty much perfectly set to 70 mils, so you never need to touch it. But, you asked, so if you want to play around with it or set it to something different here's how you'd do it (I'm also not 100% certain how much of this is simulated or to what degree)... You can use the depressible pipper function on the UFCP to run the pipper down to whatever mil setting you want, say 100 mils for instance. (If you hold the depressible pipper down it'll start moving down the HUD and the percise number of mils will appear on the left side of the HUD). Start in CCIP/CCRP with master in train or arm and your maverick's called up Locking up a target with boat switch forward or aft. Then you can move the boat switch to center and BORESIGHT will appear on your maverick. You'll see the maverick reticle in the HUD and it should be on whatever you have locked up. Fly the aircraft so the mavrick reticle is on the depressible pipper and hit TMS forward short. Then move the boat switch to forward or aft. Now if you cage your missile with china hat aft short, the missile and reticle will go back to where you set it, in this case around 100 mils. You can run the depressible pipper up to the top of the HUD again after that. What the manual is talking about with DMS up/down/left/right is the ADJ osb on the maverick screen. If you hit adj you can then use DMS switch to move the pipper around the HUD independent of where the missile is looking. This would be useful if for instance you notice that you lock up a target on the ground, but the maverick reticle in the HUD is just off to the right of it. You could hit adjust then use DMS left until the reticle is in the correct spot and then hit enter on the UFCP to accept the change. Again, DCS gives you perfectly boresighted mavericks every time, and these functions would generally used to get the missile close to where DCS already has them, so that's all jee wiz stuff if you feel like having fun with it. I can't actually think of a reason to change the default boresights, but if you think of one let me know, i'm curious.

Tried it out and I also had the CBU-97 missed unreasonably long of the target in CCRP. The CBU-105 was a dead on shack though. Same warcraniums as the 97, just with an INS tailkit on the back. Recommend using those for CCRP level deliveries. I also just for fun tried out 45 degree high-alt dive bombs with the CBU-87 and they were shacks. So it looks like it's just a 97 issue.

First off, the beauty of a single seat fighter is the pilot has complete authority over what he does with it. Fly the way you want. I'm offering a technique. I think you fundamentally misunderstand what I was saying, or I triggered you with my quip I made about fast jets being TGP dependent (which was a joke). I am not at all saying throw caution into the wind and keep your TGP in standbye. I'm saying that reliance on the technique of using slave all to SPI to get your maverick into the target area is less flexible, more time consuming and at least in the case of the OP results in locking up random stuff other than your intended target. Especially if you make the assumption that the slave all to SPI has fixed all the aiming problems and TMS fwd short will immediatly lock up exactly the thing your TGP is on. Use the TGP for all its worth its great for target ID from the hold, and you should be using it. I'm not advocating for employing weapons with zero target SA. CDE and danger close considerations apply no matter what technique you use. The point I'm making is flying the maverick reticle onto the target is a more flexible, and according to every Hawg driver I've talked to a much more realistic option. It can be accomplished with the TGP by flying the reticle onto the TGP diamond in the HUD, or a steer point, or the IR marker at night, it can be accomplished in HARS mode with the reticle depressed to 70 mils, it can be accomplished with the standbye HUD cranked to 70 mils. It works when your GPS degraded and your TGP has no clue where the jet, or the target is. It can be accomplished with your TGP looking at the next target you want to strafe after you rifle at the first, etc... The technique I'm talking about works in every single situation. The slave all to SPI method works most the time and its not wrong, its just more limited. Not sure why you beg to differ, thats exactly what I said. My method works when you can't see the target from the hold. You get a target talk on from your JTAC and an enhanced target description, something like "Your target is a tank to the south of the fork in a Y shaped road with a building to the east" (obviously you'd get a lot more detail than just that). From the hold you can't see it with the MK1 eyeball, or the TGP. You'd pop up (climb), or come out from behind the ridge/mountain you were hiding behind and visually acquire the target, roll in and use my method to kill it with a maverick. When would a CAS pilot not consider all those fine points? This is universally true of any attack using any munition or type of delivery. All these things go into planning and executing an attack. I agree. I'm talking about kind of fighting the USAF has been doing for the last 20 years over Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. It would totally work in the Fulda gap as well. It applies equally to all levels of conflict, environments, and ROEs. Again, I'm just talking about a method to point a weapon at a target, nothing more. I'd argue that in CAS in a counter insurgency environment the chances are far higher that you wont know your target until you get assigned to a troops in contact event that's already underway, and you have to show up and un-fornicate a really bad situation, with no prior planning or target development. If there are troops on the ground getting shot at, a JTAC isn't going to want you 20 miles away they'd want you over nugget where you can affect the fight faster. And again, yes you should be using your TGP, that's a given. Target correlation is important. 20 miles away your TGP isn't going to give you that much fidelity anyway. From everything I've heard from the pilots I know, the technique I'm talking about is more realistic. Obviously you can believe that or say I'm full of it, your choice. If you're eager to learn new techniques, I've offered you a new one. Range and accuracy is the same for both, a maverick is a maverick regardless of how you point it. I never said anything about having to get closer to the target. If you have visually acquired the target, yes you have probably gotten closer. However, that's not a requirement for the technique I was recommending. The comment I made in my original post is that if you visually acquire the target, you don't need to screw around with your TGP in order to shoot a maverick at it. I never said you should always push in and get a visual to employ.

Are you having the same results with the CBU-105s? With the WCMD tails they should be more accurate and what I'd recommend for level CCRP deliveries. I always thought of the CBU-97 were more appropriate for diving deliveries since they weren't guided. They just fall ballistically until the canister opens.

Lots to unpack there. So that viper comment was intended as a joke... kind of... No. You obviously shouldn't totally scoff the TGP but you also shouldn't rely on it. In fact your last paragraph pretty much captured what I was getting at. I'm saying the TGP is great for getting a close up view of your target area, but the strength of the A-10 and the CAS minded A-10 pilot is their ability to look outside at the bigger picture of the battle space. The entire design of the A-10 is built around that concept, thats why it operates between 180-300kts and flies low instead of 500kts in the bozosphere like everyone else. The TGP is a soda straw view of the fight. Relying solely on finding the target in the TGP and using the slave all to SPI method is a crutch which is great for people who are starting out but consider the following: - you've located a column of tanks, you get the lead tank in the TGP, TGP LOS SPI and slave all to SPI, you make your maverick attack. Now what? do you get back to the hold and waist time getting the TGP onto the next tank so you can repeat, or do you just call up the next maverick, roll in and kill the tank with the method I outlined earlier. - You're low altitude either avoiding a threat, or staying below weather, and you can't see the target your JTAC is talking you onto in your TGP because it's terrain masked. You pretty much have to pop to visually acquire the target and kill it with my method - You're looking at a target array with multiple vehicles which are not immediatley next to eachother, or the vehicles are all moving. If you can look outside and see them how much does the TGP really buy you for a maverick attack other than a lot of unneccessary HOTAS actions? As far as where you hold: you should absolutley be as high and close as the threat allows. If there is no significant threat in the area, yeah it might be a good idea to hold in a 3-5 mile wheel above the target because that will give you the highest SA and most flexibility to quickly point into the fight and kill stuff. Thats what Hawgs did in Afghanistan for 20 years. If there's a threat that forces you to move your hold further away then you should move far enough to be safe from it in the hold, then you might have to rely on the TGP to see exact details, but you should still look outside, and at least be able to ID the target area visually. The A-10A didn't have targeting pods and were able to use the gun, mavericks and dumb bombs just fine. The TGP was added in so they could start using LGBs and JDAMs. Fair point, in sim land all the weapons are perfectly bore sighted to an unrealistic degree. The boresight issue is more of a realism issue. That said, the OP was still saying his mavericks were not hitting the intended target by simply slaving all and then just TMS fwd short to command track, so its enough of a problem here. The maverick is going to have to pick what target you think it wants to hit based on whats closest to the center of the field of view. In the OPs case it seems like it's picking the wrong target, in reality you'd have issues with the seeker bounding on trees/bushes/shadows close to the target as well. I agree, the solution to the OPs question is the last scentence I wrote: "If you tip in and all your targets are bunched up so much you can't break them out, keep driving in until you can break them out, or pick a different run in where their is more apparent spacing." The OP asked for different techniques or tracking methods. I was offering one. His issue sounds like trying to take a shot farther out than the seeker can reliably distinguish the targets, and relying on the HOTAS to get a lock when he needs to be more disciplined about picking his target in maverick window. He could also slave all to SPI to get the maverick looking into the target but he'd still have to then get close enough to analyze and interpret the scene, go to narrow field of view, slew the crosshairs onto the target, get a good bound, wait for a steady cross and rifle. The method of getting the maverick looking into the target area is technique, what you do after that to get a good lock on the correct target is procedure.

You can use the select rocker on the UFCP. I have the select rocker mapped to the left and right arrows on my keyboard and steer rocker mapped to the up and down arrows. Changing profiles only works if your in CCRP or CCIP mode. If you're in GUNS mode it'll change your pipper. Based on talking to real A-10 guys they generally try to stay out of HUD SOI because it's too easy to cycle your weapon profile or steer point without noticing it. Then when you go to drop your bombs you'll either not have the right ones called up or you'll drop it on the wrong steerpoint. Both options are bad if guys on the ground are relying on you.

Part of the problem is the slave all to SPI > tms fwd to lock something > rifle method. The slave all to SPI is not going to put the maverick gnats ass on the thing the TGP is looking at generally, based on maverick boresight it's going to be off slightly. TMS fwd is basically telling the maverick "find something" and the maverick will make a best guess. If you can see the target over the rail try this, if you want to stare at your TGP all day, fly the viper. -keep the maverick boresighted -roll in and put the maverick reticle on the target -once the dot in the center of the reticle is on the thing you want to kill look inside at your screens -space stabilize with DMS FWD & HOLD (the target should be in the center of the screen at this point) -go narrow field of view if you arent already -slew on to the exact target you want -get a good lock -rifle WAGS made a really good video introducing space stabilize that does pretty much exactly that if you want to see it in action. It works like a charm and its a lot faster than staring at your pod the whole time. If you tip in and all your targets are bunched up so much you can't break them out, keep driving in until you can, or pick a different run in.

There is no penalty for being in max power aside from less loiter time, which means less time to help the guys on the ground. The A-10C engines can be in max from takeoff to slowing to configure and it wont do any damage to the airplane. Good rules of thumb: For take off, and climbout power should be parked in max the entire time, unless you're in a formation. If you're in a formation lead should pull the throttles a bit to give 2 an energy advantage in cruise you'll generally be around 250kts. leave it in max when you level off until you accelerate to 250 then 1800 lbs per engine is a good starting point for that in the hold while you're finding targets and stuff 1500 lbs per engine is a good compromise for endurance, and not getting too slow when you push in to the target especially if you're low altitude you'll want to be in max power to get all the smash you can, during diving deliveries you'll probably want to crack the power back if not pull it to idle while you're diving at the ground. Plug it back in max when you're climbing back out for BFM plug power in max and take your left hand off the throttle

You also don't need to make HMCS SOI in order to use your DMS right long to slew it to HMCS line of sight. Leave your TGP SOI and just use the HMCS to get it into an area and then look inside to slew it around and zoom in. In my experience jumping around between different sensors of interest unnecessarily gets you into a HOTAS PIO and everything gets harder than it has to be.

AFAIK the HMCS in the Hawg is strictly over the right eye, no option to switch to the left. Generally speaking thats the side they carry the TGP on so it makes sense to have them both on the same side.

double check the fuel flow switches are not in override. They can get a bit toasty and eventually catch fire if they are.

wild guess but something to check would be your laser codes. Make sure the TGP laser code is the same as the bombs in DSMS