kylania, you are probably making the mistake of thinking like a tank crewman. He pretty much only observes in 2D and has a tank commander with his own periscope to help him. You on the other hand are one pilot with one FLIR system, and if you are searching the ground without Tally calls, map info, or JTAC help, you are definitely going to be hating life searching what is pretty much a small thermal periscope over vast swathes of farmland and city land. Now, the proper way to be searching ground in an A-10C with a FLIR is to do exactly what I described above. Listen to the tally calls from an F-16 with radar, or a Tornado with proper ESM euipment. Also, a good sound common sense trick that helps locate SAMs, and also your targets they are protecting is to use your RWR in azimuth and cue your TGP in on this. ( Helps a lot on Devil's Cross ). Better yet, fly with a JTAC on the ground to guide you in your mission of death. And lastly, the most important thing that will help you in finding targets with the TGP and everything else, is know the targets approximate location before you take off, this helps a lot so you can focus on other important things once you get flying. ;)