Elwin

Explained here: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=84571 Put simply, it is local atmospheric pressure (around airport). If you set your altimeter to QFE value, it will show how high above the airport you are. I'm sure there are better definitions than this one, just check the linked thread.

Thanks for all the answers. I will need some time to digest all the new info before asking more (pretty busy right now). I was pretty sure the ATC was too simple but it's good to know that the "go for it" approach is valid not only in the simulation. One thing I didn't quite get is how to do the approach without ILS in low visibility. Could you elaborate on that slightly? Also, I'm not familiar with overhead approach but I will investigate it on my own when I have some more time.

I've read/watched a lot of material about landing, but most of it focuses on a particular part of the landing, be it navigation instruments or actual landing execution. What I didn't find is some insight about the real-world procedure (that should apply for A10). I will describe how I'm going through these bits, feel free to complement my steps or provide alternatives, please. 1) Once I decide to land, I turn toward the airport and I understand there are several ways how to do this. What I usually do is to cycle to waypoint 0 (Init) in my flight plan - probably the most lazy way to find the airport. Alternatively, I select the appropriate airport from the Divert page which also changes the steerpoint to navigate me to the airport. Now, what if the airport I want to fly to is too far and doesn't appear on the Divert page? Is this when I should use TACAN? How am I supposed to find TACAN code if I don't find the airport in Divert page? Should I carry all airport charts with me in aircraft? (just for the record, I do) Which of these methods is the best one in terms of what a real pilot would do? 2) Now, I'm flying toward the airport and I decide to contact the ATC. When should I do this (distance-wise)? ATC gives me bearing/range, runway number, QFE, wind. - The bearing/range defines a point, which I presume is the final approach fix? (ie point from where I should begin final approach?) Subquestion: how to make the best use of this information? I usually create a markpoint just when the ATC starts talking after 'Inbound', write all information down and then use the Offset page + created markpoint + bearing/range to calculate a waypoint. Then I fly through this waypoint lined with the runway heading, but more often than not this is far from precise. Is this even the correct way to do this? - I noticed that the runway numbers are not accurate headings, sometimes the true heading is a few degrees off. That's what the airport charts are for, right? - How much is 'pattern altitude'? Is it the same for all airports? Should I use the altitude modified by given QFE? 3) Let's say I have set the correct runway heading in HSI and flying the course the ATC gave me, disregarding the range component. If ILS is enabled, will it guide me toward the correct approach course when I get close enough? Is this even proper from the point of correctness of the procedure? - what if ILS is not available? I was flying Dragon's JTAC Training mission the other day, taking off and landing at Senaki. Although this airport has ILS, ATC is always directing me for an approach from the other side (without ILS). Is this due to wind direction? Other reasons? - how would I find the correct approach in low visibility conditions? I've read about using TACAN, flying the bearing given by ATC until TACAN pointer aligns with HSI course arrow, then turn toward the runway, but just how precise would that be in zero visibility? 4) When approaching the airport, I get the 'Cleared for visual, contact the tower' message. Is this part broken? Because I never seem to get any reply, but sometimes when I'm about to land, they suddenly tell me on their own that I'm allowed to land and to check the landing gear. That's all I can think of right now. Any comments or help are much appreciated ;)

You need to lock the maverick once it is over target with TMS forward short. You can tell it's locked when the targeting lines start to shiver a bit.

I hope to buy TM Warthog in about a month, which means I will loose the rudder control that I have now on my cheapish joystick. But I would like to know just how important it is to have pedals? Currently, I don't use rudder almost at all while flying and for taxiing around airport I'm happy to use Z/X keys. I suppose this is altogether wrong, but I haven't found any good study material about rudder usage yet. Any recommendations? :)

Haha you deserve negative rep for this mate! ;)

Default keybindings are: RAlt + End for left engine, RCtrl + End for right engine.

I see your point, but as I'm not game developer, I don't have any experience with testing games, but I agree it can be more amusing than usual software :)

Local breweries which I don't know ;-)

I suppose you mistook 'testing' for 'playing around with'. At least for me, there are not many things in this world more boring than having to test software :bored:

I wonder, what is the best bavarian beer according to you? :-)

I also have pen and paper always ready, but real pilots can always ask the other side to repeat if they didn't catch it. Not always possible in simulation, for instance when you contact ATC for inbound, you get quite a lot of info back: heading, distance, QFE and runway. Even if I concentrate, sometimes I miss some bit (like when wingman feels like chatting simultaneously on different frequency). Then (if you decide you need that info) you have to abort inbound and try again...

My guess would be they are too close to each other and game detects you landed on Soganlug because the condition that you landed on Soganlug evaluates to true (like being on ground and in distance from a certain point). Also the condition that you landed on Lochini is true, but maybe if Soganlug is checked before Lochini and once any landing is detected, further checking will cease, then incorrect airport name would appear in the log. This is only my guess as to what could possibly cause this, without seeing the code. I think ED will have to investigate... After you land, do you get message from ATC to taxi to parking area?

All right, got it. It is not "Command" type, it is "Option" type, then the action ROE and select 'Weapons hold' from the last dropdown. WildFire was right all along, I was setting it incorrectly :doh: Anyway, I couldn't but notice that JTAC operation is quite instable, after 2+ taskings, they eventually either stop responding or they repeat the same line all over again or, as it happened to me today, it may even crash the mission.

My JTAC unit actually has HOLD command, it is the last command. Will try to bump it up to first position. (Edit: didn't work) Meanwhile, EPLRS: when set to true, unit will appear as green cross on TGP and it will send tasking via SADL. If set to false, it will not appear as green cros on TGP and it will only give 9-line & remarks, is this correct? Maybe this is a bug (?), but I set EPLRS to false, it works once, but when I open the mission again, it is explicitly set to true again.

I wanted to test all this and I created a simple mission with few enemy units on abandoned airport and a HMMV (armament) nearby as JTAC. It is within 1km range so that it can mark with IR. Problem is, it shoots at the targets and destroys most of them within a minute. Is it possible to configure the JTAC unit to prevent this?

Apparently, user slackerD doesn't exist anymore in Member list.

Try to press and hold this key combination: Num0 + Num1 Note that if your throttle is in idle position, you won't be able to see the EAC and Radar Altimeter switches anyway. If you hover your mouse over where you expect them to see, you can see the cursor changes shape and you can click them "through" throttle.

Again I learned something new, this time about bleed air from engines and APU, thanks.

I only use manual lasing in case I forget to set-up the auto lase for GBU and it occurs to me only when I'm about to release the bomb or even after that :-)

I also remember that one engine generator should be enough to power the whole aircraft. Well after a quick search I suppose it was missing the bleed air from APU...

Still, I was not able to start the engine until after I turned APU GEN on again. Then it worked. This has only happened to me once, but I will test it tonight. Maybe it relates to something else.

What I do is I leave engine generators off until both engines are up and running (after engine startup cycle light goes off), then I switch them both on and immediately turn off APU GEN and APU itself. This way the warning beeps only for about 2 seconds and I don't have to mute it manually. Reason why I do it this way is following: I have turned on left engine and when the right engine began to start up, I have engaged left engine generator and turned off APU generator. The right engine then couldn't get started properly, it was trying to start but never got past 20% RPM. After several right engine restarts, I engaged APU GEN again and then it started normally. So I figured one engine generator does not provide sufficient power to crank up second engine, and to avoid listening to the pesky master caution I simply switch the generators when both engines are already running :-)

I think it is all right to ask in a new thread but for small questions there is DCS A-10C QUESTIONS sticky thread in this forum: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=56027 I use it happily myself :-)

Turned off - because of my old hardware :-/