MeanJim

I was as clean as I could get. I was still carrying my empty external wing tanks, and I think two AMRAAMs, but when I realized my fuel situation was critical I jettisoned the tanks and racks. I had a couple of unexpected events on the way in and I had forgotten about that I got the bingo fuel warning, and even then I overstayed a little bit to drop my last bomb. I knew I needed to hyper mile it to get back. I landed with just under 500lbs. of fuel. When I'm doing A-A, it's usually more of a fighter sweep or intercept, so I'm usually not cruising for long. I will take two wing tanks, and a jammer if there might be SAMs in the area. I go full burner up to 30-35,000ft then cruise if needed. That's good to know about the AOA. A while back I did a search for the F-16's best climb rate, and I remember seeing 350Kts, but the 5° AOA thing I just started doing because the jet just feels good there.

You can fly around at MIL power all you want, and you're not going to hurt the engine as long as you don't exceed 1100°C FTIT. When possible, cruise as high as possible. At higher altitudes the air is thinner, and even at full MIL you won't make full power anyway. This past Saturday I was RTBing over 200 miles and fuel was tight. I was at 38,000ft and at full MIL the RPM maxed out at 93%. I do similar to Exorcet, and climb at full MIL power maintaining 350KTS IAS. When I can no longer maintain 350KTS IAS, I climb at 2-3° until AOA gets to 5° and level off to gain airspeed, then start reducing power to maintain 5000-6500PPH fuel flow. Generally with a heavy A-G loadout, I'll make 20-25,000 ft and set 6000-6500PPH, and A-A I go for 30-35,000 and set 5000-5500PPH. One of the CRUS pages shows the optimum altitude for fuel efficiency. At that altitude, full MIL power will also give the optimum speed.

To be more specific, someone in another F-16 that is part of your flight or donor group has transmitted their selected Steerpoint, SPI, or SEAD Target over Datalink. The MKPT529 indicates that it was stored as Mark Point 529. They start at 500 (or is it 501) and increment up each time you receive one. You can select the steerpoint to see what was transmitted by pressing the STPT button on the ICP and enter the number. I take this was on a MP server. This means someone probably bound the HOTAS button assigned to "Transmit Switch - IFF IN" to something like Discord or SRS PTT and doesn't realize every time they long press it, it transmits their selected STPT, SPI, or SEAD target to all of their flight members and donors.

That will work, but you will momentarily change your active steerpoint while editing. Page 202 in the manual describes the easiest way to input a MGRS coordinate and/or add/edit a steerpoint without changing your current steerpoint. Press the LIST button on the ICP, then press 1 for DEST. The first page that comes up will be the UTM DEST page which is where you enter MGRS coordinates, and steerpoints 21 will already be selected. To edit other steerpoints, dobber right to page two, the DEST DIR page, and it's the same as editing from the STPT page. I use this a lot in MP servers with dynamic missions. I plot my waypoints out before entering the jet, but quite often, by the time I take off and are en route, things change and I will need to edit or add a waypoint, while I have the autopilot in nav hold.

I did a quick test in SP, and I get a launch warning for the SA-5 and SA-11 in both the F/A-18 and F-16. I wonder if desync in MP can cause you to not get a launch warning.

When cold starting the F-16 the laser now starts in training mode. Is it supposed to do this, and if so, when did it change? The server I regularly play on only has cold start slots, and I've never had to switch it before. It's been a couple of weeks since I've played DCS MP, and last night when I dropped my first two GBU's they missed. On the second drop, I noticed a flashing a T instead an L, looked on the laser DED page and saw it was showing TRNG for A-G. To make sure I wasn't missing a step during startup, I tried the auto start and when it's finished, it's still in training mode.

When I've had the TRP warning, the tanker just refuses to connect even though I'm in the correct position. I did notice in the first track that the TRP warning came on right as you got to the tanker. It also looked like you opened your fuel door before or just after takeoff, so I was wondering if having the fuel door open too long was causing the issue. The second track looks like you opened it just before pre-contact, so probably not. I have suspected (but had no proof) that something changed recently and/or may be bugged with AAR in the F-16. I don't do it that often and I get rusty. The last few times I've done AAR, I have had several times where the tanker refuses to connect and I don't have the TRP warning. It usually happens if I connect and take on some fuel, then get disconnected because of my fault. Sometimes after that disconnect the tanker will not hook up to me even though I'm in position and stable. I've tried aborting the request and starting over, but once it happens the tanker will clear me for contact and just refuse to make contact even though I'm in position and holding steady. It's probably worth doing more testing and reporting it as a bug if you can consistently repeat it. I'll try it if I get a chance tonight. It's too bad they merged the topic from bugs already, because there may be something going on. I wonder if that can be undone rather than start a new topic. FYI, you can attach files to your post, so you don't need to upload them to external sites.

You have a TRP Fuel warning in your HUD. I've had this happen a couple of times. Once I was able to clear the problem, the other I had to abort and land.

It's a bug. They jiggle a lot more IRL.

I didn't notice it yesterday when I was dropping LGBs on moving targets. I definitely had the box around the point track target, but maybe I didn't notice it disappear when the laser turned on. Today I was just slinging MK-82s, and not using the laser.

What did I do to remove crosshair (and point track box) when I enabled XR in TV mode? I still had it in IR mode and regular TV mode, it would just disappear in TVXR mode. Pressing TMS down long only declutters while held, but I lost it completely and couldn't get it back. I just checked the manual to see if there was a declutter toggle that I may have used by accident, but the only declutter it mentions is the one while holding TMS down.

Vakarian just answered as I was typing my reply. I'm getting it on both F-16 and F/A-18. If I just click the weapon properties (yellow arrow) and press OK it fixes it. I hope they'll fix this though so I don't have to go through all of my missions and fix each one manually. As for the new ATP, are you doing a FLIR Calibration? It clears up the image some. You will need to re-calibrate it after some time too. From page 395 of the manual:

Today's update fixed it. Programs 5 and 6 are back to normal.

I've never had to create and load a DTC before and it loaded the correct default programs. In the manual on page 418 it says that in MAN mode, dispense switch forward dispenses manual program 5, and dispense switch aft dispenses the selected program on the EW page. At the bottom of the page it says: "An additional dispense button mounted on the left console near the throttle may be utilized to dispense a large volume of chaff and flares (40 cartridges of each) over the span of 15 seconds, which should only be used to egress an area with heavy air defenses and return to friendly airspace." That button now just dispenses 4 chaff by default.

It's been a few months since I flew the Hornet, so I loaded up my personal training program to re-familiarize myself. I got the CMDS switch for/aft functions mixed up, and I pressed CMDS forward while in MAN defending a missile thinking I was dispensing the manual program selected, but instead it was dispensing program 5. Program 5 used to be 1 flare, 1 chaff repeating 2x, but it's now 2 flare, 2 chaff, repeating 20x, which was the default for program 6. Program 6 is 1 chaff, 0 flares, repeating 4x. I went to the DTC editor and the defaults there are as they've always been. I had to go to the editor and select the aircraft, and check the box to preload the default DTC otherwise I get the wrong program 5 and 6. Shouldn't it do that anyway? I get the correct defaults in the F-16 without having to check that box.

I wonder if this is some kind of auditory illusion like a Shepard tone, or where different people hear different things like the Yanny Laurel thing.

Would this apply to AAR as well? A few months ago I was on a PVE server doing a deep strike mission. It was late and there weren't as many players on, so decided to go with just a center tank so I could bring more ordnance. My plan was to top off at the tanker on the way in. I was just under 6000 lbs. of fuel when I got to the tanker. I connected, and didn't take on much fuel when it disconnected and told me to return to pre-cotnact. I returned to pre-contact, was cleared contact, moved in and the tanker would not connect to me. I was sitting there under the tanker staring at two green lights, but it the boom wouldn't connect to me. I've had that happen before, but both times there was a TRP FUEL warning flashing in the HUD. Not this time though. DCS tankers seem to know you can't take fuel, but will still clear you and just won't connect.

That sounds like exactly what happened to me last week on a MP server. I posted about it in this post in bug forums. I did turn off the HTS and it returned the TGP returned to normal. When I turned the HTS back on, it started looking off at some random spot. I did not even use the mark point page on the DED that flight. I did command the SEAD page using the TMS so I could cycle targets before it became unresponsive. I don't believe it's a scripting problem. When it happened to me, the SAMs I was trying to target were alive and shooting at me. I was going to try to test something out in SP, but I haven't been able to play DCS since then.

I hear it. I assumed it's supposed to be the JFS shutting down. You can hear it in videos of real F-16's starting up, but it's faster, higher pitched "pew" sound, but what I'm hearing in DCS is a lower pitch and longer sound. In this video from in-cockpit, you can hear it right about 0:59: This one from outside, you hear (and see a black puff) around the 2:12: For comparison I just recorded a startup in DCS from inside the cockpit and outside. I've never started the jet from outside before, and (to me) it's much more noticeable from outside. Inside I hear it begin right at 0:33. While watching it back I also notice it happens right as the FLCS PMG and TO FLCS lights go out, and it's 2 seconds later when the JFS switch cuts off: Outsie I hear the sound begin between 0:38 and 0:39:

I think this might have happened to me last night. I searched before making a post to ask what I might have done tonight to cause me to not be able to lock targets with the HTS. I was on a MP PVE server trying to thin out a SAM net. There were SA-5s surrounded by SA-2s and SA-6s. I didn't have anything under PGM5 on any radar. After dodging several SA-5 launches at me, eventually the SA-5 quit firing at me. I thought maybe it was out of missiles. I moved in closer to see if I could at least get the search radar or an SA-2 or SA-6 in the way. I had managed a PGM2 on an SA-6, but I could not lock it, or anything else. I've flown on this server quite a bit and had other F-16s initiate TDOA, so at one point in between dodging SAM, I noticed a couple of other F-16s in the area, so I did try to initiate TDOA. It showed TDOA in the HUD, but nothing happened. Eventually I got low on fuel, tried to AAR, but after a few disconnects I had burned more than I took in, and was dangerously low and had to divert to a neutral airport to refuel. After refueling, I took off, and was still unable to lock targets. I tried cycling power to the HTS and HARMs, but it didn't work. I gave up and decided to RTB. Then something weirder happened. After switching back to NAV mode, I pressed CZ on the HSD, turned to my home waypoint, then realized it was taking me nowhere near my waypoint. I looked at the HSD, and CZ was still there, I pressed it again, and it resets for a second then slews off to something. I switched through each sensor, FCR, TGP, etc. and pressed CZ, but it would do the same thing. It didn't stop doing that until I turned off the HTS. Since it was on a MP server, I do have a track, but it's large. I can play around with it in SP and see if I can reproduce it, but I won't be able to fly again until Friday or Saturday.

It's been a while since I did AAR in the F-16. I personally found it easier to zoom out a bit and not even focus on the lights. I got to where I could do it consistently. When training in my own personal mission, I would top off on the tanker before landing. I got a bit rusty because I started learning the F/A-18. I find the 18 is easy to AAR. It seems more forgiving. My first attempt I hooked up and took a full load without a disconnect. I bounce back and forth between the two. When I come back to the F-16 it takes me a few times to get back to where I cad do it, but when going back to the F/A-18 I have no problem.

I tried, but I can't replicate what happened yesterday. I left the nose fuse the default (M904E4), set the arm delay to 2s, left function delay at 0s. For the tail fuze well I selected plugged. I set the same options on SMS; single bomb, RP 6, and 200ft spacing. I even dropped them the same way, about a 20° dive at 2500ft AGL. The bombs are exploding now. Your dud GBU-10 wouldn't have been using the new TGP on a point track of a moving target? There is a known bug with the new TGP where LGBs miss moving targets in point track. That was what I was initially testing to see if it was fixed with the update (it isn't). I took two GBU-12s and 6 Mk-82s. The first GBU-12 didn't track, but I was able to use INR track and manually keep it on the moving target. I was going to use the Mk-82s to clean up, but they failed to explode.

I usually only use one fuse if I'm using a plugged nose and a delayed tail fuse, and I've always left it on NSTL and it still worked. Tonight I was messing around and took some Mk82's with the default nose fuse, and plugged tail fuse. On the SMS page, I left it on NSTL, and the bombs were duds. I didn't have the time to test if a plugged nose and tail fuse worked. Before I go to the trouble of testing other single fuse options and reporting it as a bug, I want to make sure if this is correct behavior.

That's the page I was talking about. It says that rejecting a target on the HAD doesn't clear the sight point. I've been pressing TMS aft before switching back to NAV mode and it has been resetting the cursor back to the steerpoint, and it shouldn't, so maybe it was a bug that they fixed. From now on I'll just remember that doesn't work on the HAD. The email that came a day after the patch says "a long list of HAD and CMDS improvements", but I only see two things listed in the change log related to the HAD.

Hmm, that appears to be what it was. I don't know how I missed that, but it brings up more questions. Why did shutting down and restarting the jet not clear the cursor slew? That screen shot was taken before restarting, so I don't know if CZ was still even an option after that. That should be easy to test though. I had forgotten there was even a CZ button on the HSD because I've made it a habit to press TMS down a couple of times before I switch from A-G mode back to NAV mode to undesignate any SPI and reset the cursor. I was flying long range SEAD missions that night, and only had the HTS, two HARMs, two fuel tanks, and some AAMRAMs. Reading back over the HAD/HTS/HARM pages in the manual, it sounds like it's not supposed to reset the cursor, but I haven't had this happen in ages.