seikdel

Ed Macy talks in his book Apache about how the AH-64 is designed to be shot. He says that armoring it to protect it from ground fire would make it too heavy to fly, so the redundant systems and the shielding of more critical systems with less critical ones make it so that it can get pretty dinged up and stay in the air. Given the Ka-50's redundant systems, I assume the same principle is in effect.

That's actually the laser designator toggle switch, not the code selector (which actually doesn't do anything). As was mentioned, it's used for the Kh-25ML. Sadly, the Shark doesn't seem capable of buddy lasing for the Su-25T. Oh well, maybe in the future. The laser reset button next to it is also very useful. Use this to shut off the laser whenever you're done with it (esp. when using it to designate). This helps prevent laser burnout. To employ the Kh-25ML, first load them onto your outer pylons. Find your target and flip the switch to place the laser in designate mode. When you hit the lock button, the laser will start painting whatever you're pointing it at with the Shkval. Select your outer pylons and you'll see a missile reticle. As long as the chopper is pointed relatively towards the target, the missile should acquire your laser and the reticle will jump to the target. Then, when you're in range, fire. The laser will stay on when you fire. Note that as soon as you fire, the chopper will lean to one side pretty significantly, so be prepared to compensate (those missiles are heavy!) After the missile impacts, hit the laser designator reset button. If you're done with the Kh-25ML, flip the switch back to the default range finder setting. As was mentioned before, the Kh-25ML enjoys substantially greater range than the Vikhr, especially when launched from higher altitudes. My personal technique for hunting SAMs is to sit further back and higher up. If I have a definite area with known threats, I'll get up to 1000-3000m and sit back 10-12km out of reach. Then I can take my time and leisurely snipe SHORADs. This works great for Strelas, Linebackers and the like. If possible, have a buddy sit back a couple of klicks and watch for SAM launches. Note that this doesn't work if you have any radar-guided threats that reach out further.

Ah, thank you. My bad, I meant NDB, not marker. I've fixed my last 2 posts. Apparently they both function as NDBs because the ADF can find both of them and point to them. I use them as I described in my post: to line up with the runway. When approaching, I timed myself when I passed the inner NDB so that I knew roughly when I was over the runway. Then I descended, corrected laterally and landed. And it wasn't 100% perfect in my case. Maybe it could be with more practice, but I'm a hobbyist only =(

Thanks much! Edit: My understanding is that not every runway has an outer and inner NDB; some have just an outer. When you're approaching a runway with both, you can use the outer-inner switch (RALT =) to switch between them. Note that the automatic mode on that switch isn't used; I believe it just looks at the outer. The inner, as far as I can tell from the ME, is always 1300m from EOR. You can use the outer and inner to make sure you're lined up with the runway. Does that help at all?

Holy cow check this! ADF heading with a darned decent landing at the end! I headed straight for Krymsk's outer NDB. When I flew over, I did a right-hand turn, came to a near-hover, and then strafed laterally until the outer NDB and runway heading were aligned. I headed forward, and switched to the inner NDB. Distance from inner NDB to EOR is 1300m, so I put her in a 40km/h descent and started the 2min timer when I passed over the NDB. At 2min, I figured I should be over the runway. I descended, saw dirt, moved laterally to bring the beacon back in line with the runway marker and found pavement! Track and tacview attached =) Thoughts? I'm not a pilot IRL... ADF Landing.zip

Fun fact about the Ka-50: It has an ejection seat! Fun fact about the AH-64: It doesn't!

Ooh, great idea w/the manual DTA! I've never really played with that, but that could be really useful for this! Well, that's my project for tonight...

I guess what I was asking was if there is a way to automatically hear the inner and outer marker tones when you fly over them a la fixed wing. And holy cow! I just flew an ADF-only approach to Krymsk in pea soup at night. Scariest thing I've ever done! What threw me off was that I didn't have a motion vector (>50km/h), so I was flying at oblique angles for much of the time. Hard to chase a beacon down when you can't tell if you're flying straight! Finally made it on the ground, though. Quite the experience!

Anyone have any relevant checklists that helo pilots use for icing?

Heck, you have to be careful of icing even if you don't get the warnings. I just had my left engine ice out a couple of days ago while flying high on a balmy spring day. I got my rotor anti-ice warning in the middle of my in-flight restart. Any time you're up high (~3000m, maybe?), check the outside temperature using the gauge directly above your head. When it starts getting below 0, flip on the engine anti-ice. If you ever have an engine ice out (die unexpectedly for no reason while you're high up or in a cold environment), you may have to crank it for ~20sec before it'll restart. Always an adventure, ain't it?

Hey Devrim! I'm using the upgraded HD pit. While trying to figure out why my ADF was pointing everywhere but where it should, I realized that the white dot on the ARK rotary is on the side opposite the active number. Is it like this in the stock pit? Can it be changed here?

Aha! I finally figured it out last night! I'm using Devrim's upgraded HD pit, and I spent half an hour flipping the stupid ARK rotary before I realized that the little white dot on the rotary is on the wrong side. *facepalm* I don't know if it's correct in the standard pit, but in the Devrim one the white dot is painted on the side of the rotary opposite the active number. I'll contact him about it. That being said, once I figured that out, the thing worked great! Is there any way to pick up on the marker tones in the Shark? I know you hear them in FC3, but I'm not aware of how to do this on the Ka-50.

Has anyone had any luck with the ADF recently? I remember it working correctly in the past, but now it points in seemingly random directions. The ark.lua appears normal, but this thing won't guide me home even if I beg. Should this go into a bug report?

Wait, A-10C on steam doesn't work with world!? Woah, thanks for posting that! I've considered purchasing it before, and that would've been an extremely unpleasant surprise! Question: People have talked about the cost to ED before. Does ED have to pay money to starforce for every key that is issued? Or do they just license starforce and then have control over their key database?

Much appreciated!

Anyone have any good reading material on radar?

I'm reading this as, "Yes, we've had passionate flame wars about this before." Am I close?

http://www.ausairpower.net/index.html Not sure if people have talked about this site before. It's an Australian think tank with a website that has a ton of articles about air power, particularly Russian aircraft. Any thoughts? I've found some fascinating reading on here about the different Su aircraft, as well as the technology that Russia seems to be developing. Makes for good reading during boring histology lectures =) On a similar note of education, anyone have any really solid resources on the physics of radar, especially relating to military aircraft? I want to learn more!

As far as I've been able to determine, the switch drops the rotor RPM and is used during rapid descent (i.e. a spiral descent). Because you are dropping the RPM, it also disables the low RPM warning so that it's not beeping at you constantly. That's what I've been able to determine, anyway.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=95214 IR jammer works like a charm with missiles fired at your 5-7 o'clock, but not so great beyond that. It's mounted on the tail of the plane, after all, and (IIRC) was meant to defeat manpads after overflying targets on strafing runs. I only ever get launch authorization on the Kh-29T when I'm 1) in range 2) auto-tracking a target and 3) pointed at the target so that the missile's gimbal can acquire. Dunno, just my experience. When you say the Shkval didn't fly accurately, I assume you're talking about the Vikhr. Yeah, sometimes they don't hit. Make sure you're holding the target stead in the launch reticle. Any sudden movements tend to throw the missile outside of the guidance beam.

I have no idea what that cockpit part is called, but the sun is shining straight through it.

Yeah, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It'd be pretty awesome.

6 pylons. I wonder if that's related to the anti-ship missiles it's supposed to carry? Is that the gun mounted on the left side? As a more general question, what role do helicopters play in anti-ship warfare? Are they a great choice for delivering missiles against enemy ships, or would F/A aircraft be better suited to that? I really don't know much about surface warfare.

I discovered Ace Combat when I was training at Sheppard AFB. There was a free-to-play PS2 w/AC5 and I fell in love. Then I tried AC4 and ACX and AC0 and said, "Wait, what happened to the story aspect?" At one point I was going to buy a 360 for AC6, but then I read reviews that talked about the plot =/

I asked the same thing: