Super Grover

Some hints for using LANTIRN optical modes: - Make sure that "A/G" is displayed. - When using a controller to slew the sensor, ensure that it has enough dead zone in the centre. There is a 5% dead zone in the code, but for some noisy controllers, it may be not enough. If a constant input is detected, you will never see "AREA", and it will constantly be in "RATES". - Use WHOT to initiate tracking. - Both AREA and POINT are optical. It means that they require good visibility of the object or area you want to track. - Tracking won't engage if too far away. AREA can track at longer ranges than POINT. - You won't be able to use AREA when there are no contrasting elements in the camera, so you won't be able to use AREA on water except if there's a nice ship in your view that can provide some contrast. - POINT requires objects of an appropriate size - not too small and not too large. Usually, you won't be able to POINT track ground vehicles from more than 10-12 NM. - POINT requires higher contrast /better-defined shapes. If the view is cluttered with multiple objects, you may be unable to initiate or keep tracking. It means that you may be able to initiate POINT on a single tank in a field, but once it enters an urban area, you may lose the track. - When unable to initiate POINT, the pod will try entering AREA. - Don't try to POINT everything. Use it only for moving vehicles. Use AREA for non-moving objects. - Tracking will be terminated when your sensor gets into the area masked by your airframe. Keep the sensor eye indicator (the dot) inside the limits. - The max zoom (expanded view) isn't much more useful than the narrow view. It is just a 2x digital zoom so that it won't show more; it will just make the pixels two times bigger.

At this stage it's slightly simplified and all you have to do is cycle the NAV MODE knob to OFF and then to ALIGN.

Sir, I don't know what Armée de l'Air use, and it would be very impolite from my side to suggest your magnificent air force using any channel or frequency. I'm sure that you and your colleagues from the air force are very proficient in using both X and Y, and even Z if that highly classified TACAN range existed. I can only speak for DCS. Here, when we scan for TACAN stations in range, the only information available about each station is the frequency, and as you certainly know, both X and Y in the air to air mode have the same frequencies. There is no other difference between X and Y in DCS. We had to make a choice, and we selected Y because the receiver frequencies in the air to air mode are the same as the Y frequencies for the ground mode. That is what I meant when I wrote that it was a more natural choice for the air to air TACAN. I hope that you can accept this little simplification of the TACAN system in DCS and that you will be able to enjoy both DCS and the F-14. Once again please accept my apologies for the misunderstanding.

Should you selected any air to air weapon before trying to release the bombs, make sure that you returned the weapon selector to the base (bottom) position. If A/G is selected and you can't see 'ORD' on the HUD, it usually means that the weapon selector on the stick is in a wrong position. Pressing TMS down several times on my Warthog stick usually solved the problem.

"Go Now" can be used before COARSE is reached, but the user has to accept the consequences - selecting "Go Now" before COARSE puts the INS into IMU/AM and continues erecting the IMU. Any movement before the IMU is erected can result in huge errors. We will replace the selection of the IMU/AM with the AHRS/AM which should allow for quicker reaction times. It is also important to understand that selecting anything else than FINE or MIN WPN LAUNCH should be used only when the pilot knows all details of the INS system and is aware of the consequences of those choices. Less experienced users shouldn't use any option and simply wait for Jester to perform the full alignment.

You don't have to shut down. If you land, do another fine alignment and store heading, it should work even with the engines running. The only thing that won't work is: do a fine alignment, fly, land, shut down, do ASH. However, a sequence that will works is: do a fine alignment, fly, land, do a fine alignment, shut down, ASH.

Oh yes, I forgot about this. In any case except when using "OPEN MENU: RADIO MENU KEY FOLLOWED BY PTT (EXTERNAL RADIO PRIORITY)", the '\' key defaults to the ICS radio menu, which is the default way to communicate with the ground crew (requires HOT MIC when the canopy is closed).

This is normal. DCS automatically assigns Y frequencies to the air-to-air TACAN modes. So even when you select X, it uses Y. But because Y is more natural to the air-to-air modes, we present the channels as Y in the kneeboard and Jester menu.

You mean the radio menu button - default '\'? It is used with the option I mentioned before. And it is used when 'Easy Comms' option is enabled - then you can use it to communicate with any radio.

If you check the special options for the F-14, you'll find a dropdown menu under "RADIO MENU AND PTT BEHAVIOUR". The options available are: - "Default" - self explanatory - "OPEN MENU: RADIO MENU KEY FOLLOWED BY PTT (EXTERNAL RADIO PRIORITY)" - If you want to open a radio menu, you have to press the radio comms menu button (default is '\') and then press the PTT associated with the radio you want to use. When you don't prime it with the '\', the PTT are only exported to SRS. - "HIDE RADIO MENU ON PTT RELEASE" - The radio menu is open only as long as you keep the PTT pressed. My personal preference is the second option: "OPEN MENU: RADIO MENU KEY FOLLOWED BY PTT (EXTERNAL RADIO PRIORITY)". This way I have to assign only one additional button - for the '\' - and I can control both the sim radios and SRS.

The range isn't excessive. Those are the radar beam widths (cones) they may be too wide, but we're unable to change it because they are defined by the module owners/within DCS core units.

In the F-14 you don't have, and in fact you shouldn't, use any SRS hot keys, because everything you need is accessible from the F-14 inputs or from the cockpit. As the pilot, you should assign some buttons or keys to the comms hat located on the throttle, and with a properly configured SRS this should be enough to let you transmit using both radios and the ICS.

Yes, the kneeboard will have them all for all start options. No data link waypoint transfer at the moment. It should come later.

Hey Pikey, The waypoints are loaded into the WCS only when using hot start or air start- it is assumed that the RIO stored them during the startup procedure. However, when you select cold start, the waypoints have to be stored manually, either by a human RIO in multilayer, or you switching to the RIO seat in single player, or Jester doing it for you in both single and multiplayer. Jester will be happy to assist you, and he will input all waypoints after he switches the NAV MODE knob to ALIGN. That's how it was done in real life- the F-14 didn't have any data cartridges which you could use to load some waypoints prepared prior to the flight.

We've never observed any issues, like the described in this topic, after a fine alignment. May I ask you to perform a cold start with Jester? Don't ask him for anything alignment related; make sure that the parking brake is set, and don't release it until Jester says that you're ready to go. This procedure should make your flight smooth, without any INS related anomalies.

Clicking OPER/STBY when the pod is in transition will do nothing. If you stowed it accidentally, you have to wait 30 seconds for stowing - STBY steady; click again to unstow and wait another 30 seconds. Totally at least one minute. Patience you must have.

Actually, you don't have to use the menu to select the alignment option, because Jester performs fine alignment by default. And using any alignment option other than FINE means worse INS precision and should be used by skilled crews only.

No, it's impossible to store heading after a flight.

XXXYYZ, where XXX is degrees, YY minutes and Z is tenths of a minute. If you type less characters, the string is right aligned and filled with zeroes from the left. So if you type 4567 it will be stored as: 4 degrees, 56.7 minutes

Thanks for the suggestion. I think this may be impossible, because we may be unable to access the DCS radio voice stream. We'll verify this, and if possible, we'll teach Jester to be more patient with his comms.

Do full fine alignment, switch to INS, then switch the NAV MODE knob to OFF. Releasing the parking brake will remove the ability to perform a stored heading alignment.

The engines shouldn't be started with the WCS switch in any position other than OFF, and Jester has been trained to respect this ;-) . The only reason to align the INS with the engines off is to store the alignment for a future ASH alignment - what is BTW fully doable with our F-14.

We have never observed such behaviour. Another thing I suspect is that the system was in the AHRS/AM mode as a result of manual input or an IMU failure. The navigation system is complicated and it requires more information to understand what caused the problem in your situation.

I asked about that, because when GND is used on a carrier it will cause huuuuuge alignment errors.

Was the alignment performed by a human RIO or Jester? Which alignment mode was used: GND, CVA, or CAT?