Napillo

but they don't

There is no 'contrast lock' in game, at least not in any of the aircraft I fly... ever notice how you can only get a point track on live targets? like you cannot track dead targets at all except by 'area track'. You have enough contrast but it doesn't matter because the game doesn't simulate it.

Yes, perhaps you misunderstood - I agree with you. The only thing having the dl targets on the radar page does is give you the exact range, so you can preposition your tdc and scroll up/down so you can tap it faster - you have the same information available to you on the hsd, you just have to get it in the envelope and then position your tdc in the general area, then put the altitude - the f/a-18 isn't going to slew the radar up/down for you automatically though, you still have to manually do that.

Yea, you'd think the radar should be able to give the tgp the distance, but it doesn't. It knows the angle its looking, and it knows what angle its mounted on your plane, and your plane knows where its radar is pointing, so all the data it needs is there. Point the radar at the same angle the tgp is looking, get the distance, and there you go, a rough estimate of the distance. It may be off by the difference between the location of the tpod camera and the radar, but that should also be a known and could be accounted for to get accurate enough, over certain ranges.

And it even identifies the type of missile, and also whether it's higher or lower than you. You don't see it on the radar screen, no - it all shows on the HSD, and the HSD shows not just the range, altitude, but even the type of aircraft if it's lighting you up (with Jammer). It also shows your radar contacts on the HSD in yellow, and it shows you if you're scanning the right part of the sky with the envelope. the radar screen is just that, the radar - not augmented by anything, which helps you to aim your radar and adjust it so you get a good target.

oh that will be the comedy of the year, can't wait for that to come out.

Which is another reason why STT is better - your tpod will smoothly follow the target.

yep, that's the great thing about the JF-17, you have better situational awareness than almost any plane, and with the jammer pod / maws, you can avoid more missiles and come home safe.

STT 0 bar 0 seconds

comparatively, who's to say? I do agree though that you're more right than you know.

It's the laser, it has to get laser ranging to do ground stabilization and gps positioning of the selected target. The zoom is great, but the laser is weak.

yep, that's why those long shots with loft are wonderful

you can lock it because you get those bricks / tracks when you are scanning, which puts less energy in a certain area of the sky. When you lock a target, you are putting a lot of energy in a smaller space, and listening for a return over a smaller area, so you're able to pick it up better. There's an entire video lecture on the subject of how radar systems work online, even a free mit ocw class on it.

no, the missile doesn't go active immediately. You want him to get used to that 'hard locked' sound so much they ignore it, keep them STT locked for a long time. They'll still get the beeping when the missile goes active, but it doesn't happen straight off the rails.

I had to take apart my joystick potentiometer and clean it out, now mine runs smooth, so you might want to try that.

Supposedly that's the anti-surge kicking in, but turning it off does nothing.

No, there's only a switch for enabling/disabling AB when above mil. If you disable AB then going beyond mil does nothing, enable it and it kicks on the AB. It sounds like you need to adjust your curves. I believe as the throttles get older, you get less and less of the full percent range. Calibration can help a bit, but you'll just have to adjust your curves in game.

STT is the best IMHO. Makes the pilot get that annoying RWR warning, maybe they shut it off, turn it down, or maybe they get annoyed, either way, you can hold a lock better than you can hold a bug and you get the highest possible update rate on a target.

Ever wonder why SAM sites need a search radar and a tracking radar? Search radar is more powerful, but it can spot targets further away, the smaller tracking radars can't but they can lock if the search radar spots it. So, you can lock before you can spot, which should mean you can point your radar where you see a DL contact, push the lock button, and it'll lock, if you're close enough without you seeing a triangle or brick on your radar first (IRL). In game, your radar has to have at least a brick before you can lock, and you can only lock at shorter ranges than you get the bricks, which doesn't make sense at all.

depends on the amount of loft and other factors, I don't think you'll get much of an acceptable answer here. If it's showing at maximum range, that's actually around 80% max range, and so if you loft, that makes it less than that 80%, meaning a more likely hit.

I believe the blue normally signifies training rounds - ie they don't fire.

The average of the two numbers is 10.77nm traveled. Since as you said, the missile was fired from 9.74 nm away, it can certainly travel that distance through the air. He's doing the straight horizontal so you can see when it switches to a ballistic path. Assuming the missile has no power when it goes ballistic, then 9.74 is within the average of 10.77. However, as you said, the target aircraft was coming toward you, thus it likely traveled less than 9.74, and probably closer to 6 or less. At that distance, it still has power to course correct and intercept the target, though not for long. Since the target was unaware, and didn't take evasive action, you scored a hit. One thing about the heaters, if you pop up behind someone unaware, firing at the maximum range does give you a decent chance to hit, if you can remain hidden.

I have no idea about the software updates in the actual JF-17, but I'm sure it's probably acting very similarly to the simulator, which may lag the actual. It would be nice if the JF-17 supported this: https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2715206/f-16-receives-in-flight-software-update-during-recent-flight-test/ I imagine some servers could use this to simulate loading locations of SAM sites, changing the WEZ/NEZ for a specific aircraft, or targeting updates coming from AH-64D to a F/A-18 or F-16. I know you can share waypoints with those, but if an apache could send you their whole radar picture for integration into your sensors, well that changes the whole ballgame.

It is at about 80% max range when the enemy is at the 'max range' mark, but with lofting you extend the range quite a bit. If they're at max range and I have to defend or get shot in the face, I'll loft the missile instead of waiting until I'm closer.

There's photos of them mounted on a WZ-10