Raptor9

I don't have any news to share regarding either the video or the release timeframe; estimates, dates, or otherwise.

While there has been some inaccurate information being put forth in this thread, it is true that we have no plans to implement any other datalink types aside from the AH-64D-to-AH-64D datalink. And despite the claims above, this datalink type is not compatible with A-10's or F-16's. Best to wait for the DCS: AH-64D datalink preview video to see how it will work.

The cockpit in the linked image is of a British AH1, which were essentially Block 1 AH-64D's license-built in the U.K. by Agusta-Westland. License-built aircraft and their avionics can differ in many ways compared to domestically-produced aircraft variants; which may account for why the tower symbol is green and not yellow. It is of no consequence.

Hello @TEDUCK and welcome to the forums. The only type of datalink that is planned is exclusive to AH-64D's and is not compatible with artillery units. Please reference this thread which has already been confirmed as not planned.

@DmitriKozlowsky As has been stated many times, everything you are confused about is in the manual. Many of these basic concepts are easily explained in it. The AGM-114L does not require the FCR for employment. George does not have access to the FCR, he is using the TADS. The FCR is not implemented yet. As for night vision goggles, AH-64 crews have been using NVGs for decades, in addition to their FLIR systems in the PNVS and TADS, Including in the era that is being simulated by DCS AH-64D. Getty images You are mistaken with all of your assertions and assumptions.

As already announced, JVMF/TI will not be implemented in the DCS: AH-64D.

The CPG's selected sight governs which display is adjusted by the SYM, BRT, and CON rocker switches. (Page 75 of the DCS: AH-64D manual)

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, this has been requested internally, but don't have any more news to share on the topic unfortunately. That is probably a good wishlist item for the main DCS World section, since that affects the core DCS World interface and logic. I can't speak to this because I am neither a dev nor an owner of a FFB stick, so I don't know the in's and out's of it all.

To summarize some details in this discussion, the Flight Director mode disables the hold mode functionality of the autopilot channels without disabling the rate damping functions. This can be very useful if the player needs to perform maneuvers without constantly holding the trimmer down since the autopilot channels (with Flight Director off) will actively counter pilot flight control inputs in an effort to maintain the reference values of pitch, bank, heading, etc. For example, if the pilot's thumb is being used to slew the Shkval, designate a target, or hold the radio transmit button to make a radio call, the thumb cannot be simultaneously be holding the trimmer button. In addition to interrupting the force trim holding the cyclic in place, the trimmer button is also used to interact with the autopilot channels. In either case of the Flight Director being enabled or not, pressing the trimmer button updates the attitude reference values of pitch, roll, and heading, and the collective brake updates the reference value of altitude if the autopilot Altitude channel is activated. When Flight Director is disabled, the pilot is tasking the autopilot to maintain these reference values. Pressing the trimmer button is like telling the autopilot "Let me have controls for a moment" and then when the trimmer is released it is telling the autopilot "Okay, you have control again, and hold the aircraft here." If the pilot makes a flight control input without pressing the trimmer, the autopilot will fight this because the pilot has tasked the autopilot to hold that reference value. When Flight Director is enabled, the pilot is telling the autopilot "I have the controls." and taking it upon himself to maintain the reference values that are set by the trimmer, which are accordingly projected onto the HUD to display how far the pilot has deviated from said reference values, and how to maneuver the aircraft in attitude (and altitude if necessary), to align the HUD attitude/altitude indicators with those references. Rate damping will remain to increase the overall stability of the helicopter, but the autopilot won't actively fight you when you maneuver the aircraft. Another example of how Flight Director mode can be useful in a combat situation: 1) Enable Hover mode while hovering behind a vertical obstruction like a building or a hill. This will also activate the altitude autopilot channel. 2) Enable Flight Director which will inhibit the autopilot influences on the flight controls but will not disable Hover mode altogether. 3) Without pressing the trimmer, apply lateral cyclic input to slide left or right from behind cover and engage your intended target (with a Vikhr missile for instance). 4) Disable Flight Director, which will re-engage the autopilot influences on the flight controls, and let go of the cyclic. Since Hover mode is still enabled, the autopilot will translate your helicopter back to the original location that was marked when Hover mode was entered, bringing you back behind cover from any enemy counterattack on your helicopter. The reason that you don't press the trimmer throughout this maneuver is because each time you release the trimmer, it updates the reference values that the autopilot is attempting to hold, which includes the reference position in Hover mode. By not pressing the trimmer, the referenced position will remain behind cover so that when Flight Director is disabled, the Hover mode logic will return the aircraft to that reference position. So in summary, use the various autopilot channels and autopilot modes (even Flight Director mode) however is necessary given the situation, to reduce or optimize your workload as a single-pilot aircraft. Learning the various logics takes a bit to get used to, but once you get them down, the various "layers" of automation in the Ka-50 can be quite useful.

Regarding Snowplow, it only works when in a "Pre-planned" weapon delivery sub-mode such as CCRP, or in NAV mode while the FCR is in GM, GMT, or SEA modes. You are in CCIP, in which the TGP should be slaved to the CCIP pipper. The "SP" option should not be displayed on the MFD button options when conditions exist in which Snowplow cannot be used. This will be rectified in a future update. As for the second part when the TGP is slewing the steerpoint, this is correct behavior. To return the steerpoint to the original location, you must press Cursor Zero (CZ). And welcome to the forums.

The manual will eventually get a more detailed explanation on the parallax effect and how it impacts this function in the F-16, but @QuiGon hit the nail on the head. This is a physical limitation that exists in real-life when multiple sensors are mounted in different locations on an aircraft, and the degree of parallax varies with distance. But this is why a Manual handoff mode exists, so that if the Automatic mode cannot achieve the AGM-65 lock on the intended target, the pilot can still manually initiate a track using WPN as SOI. (I think even if the Automatic mode fails to achieve a track, the pilot can still DMS Down to make WPN SOI and initiate a track. It's been a little bit since I tried it, but I think this is still possible to perform without toggling it to MAN) The only difference between AUTO and MAN modes is that after handoff in MAN mode, the pilot must initiate the track using TMS Up-Short when the WPN format is SOI. In some cases where the parallax is more severe, a small pressure adjustment to the CURSOR/ENABLE switch may be required to move the AGM-65 seeker slightly left or right to get it on the intended target prior to initiating a track. This will all be explained in the manual down the road, but a distance value will not be specified for the reason that @QuiGon stated. The implementation of the parallax effect in DCS F-16 is not an issue, but rather ensuring the correct handoff mode is used as needed due to the limitations incurred by the effect. There are times where I have not had the time to find an adequate location to boresight my 65's before proceeding to the target area (or I simply forgot), and I'll just use MAN mode. It works like a charm.

This is normal. These lights illuminate when the RWR is powered so the pilot can see the button states and the current statuses of the RWR system settings. The RWR section in the early access manual explains what the various button states are. It also helps to illuninate the buttons at night so the pilot isn't hunting for them in the dark.

@giullep, creating the same thread again and again and asking the same question that has already been answered by multiple individuals will not make development move any faster. Development of the DCS AH-64D has never stopped, but the features that are highlighted in the roadmap as being in development are not something that can be done in two weeks. You will need to be patient, and when we have more news to share we will. In the meantime, the answer has been stated multiple times in the posts above. I recommend reviewing them. Threads merged...again.

Then I don't understand the confusion or discussion regarding anything I've said in my replies. The matter appears resolved then.

I did. But the percentage that is displayed in the symbology does not correspond with the position of the collective within the total axis, it corresponds with the current torque output of the engines for the given collective position under the current conditions. The standard torque setting for ground taxi is 27-30%. To ground taxi, you smoothly increase the collective until the torque is between 27-30%, and then apply forward cyclic. This is why I was saying that there is no indicator in the cockpit of the collective position, because the position of the collective is not what the pilot is concerned with, it is the torque. The collective is what the pilot is physically moving, but the torque is what the pilot is observing and adhering to.

Nope. The AH-64 is all about Torque output (%) and rotor RPM (NR). The performance of the helicopter under various conditions is measured in torque, so that you can monitor how much torque you are pulling with the collective. But the amount of torque that is required for any maneuver will vary depending on air density and gross weight, so the axis position of the collective lever or the angle of the blades is never consistent, therefore these values are not relevant from the perspective of the pilot and are not displayed within the cockpit. For example, at low air densities which result from high altitudes and/or high temperatures, you will need to pull more collective to gain the same amount of lift compared to low altitudes at cold temperatures, so the collective position is not relevant. But the torque and rotor RPM are. If you pull up on the collective too much where the engines cannot produce enough torque to keep the rotor spinning at a constant RPM, and the rotor RPMs begin to slow, you will actually lose lift and will need to lower the collective to regain rotor speed and lift.

@The_Chugster, the percentage number you are seeing in the symbology is not collective or throttle position, it is the torque output from the engines. If you are sitting on the ground with the collective lever bottomed out at "0%" collective axis, the torque number will indicate between 18-20%, depending on how much pedal input you have applied. This is because the engines are still providing torque to keep the rotors turning. If you were to apply left and right pedal inputs without moving the collective axis from 0%, you would see the torque % vary since the tail rotor is also powered by the engines, so changing the pitch angle of the tail rotor blades to alter the amount or direction of thrust will require different levels of engine torque to keep the main and tail rotors at a constant RPM. This is the nature of helicopters.

No offense was taken. But I think you are over-estimating how complex of a process this is, or when the process is being undertaken. Aircrews are not doing fuel volume->weight conversions "on the fly". They are sitting on the ground and simply inputting the number of gallons that the refueling personnel have pumped into the external fuel tanks, which the avionics automatically adds to the total fuel weight, based on the selected fuel type. If the fuel input was required to be in pounds, then that would require the aircrew to perform a manual conversion. This method removes that step, and let's the aircraft do it. The developers of the Apache wouldn't change this, because doing it how you would suggest would make it more complicated and add greater chance of a mistake. I don't think the video game experience of a real-life aircraft is an adequate determination of what a real-life aerospace company would or wouldn't do. Also keep in mind, that this is just for the external tanks, which are only intended for long-range ferry flights. So even though the 230-gallon ERFS tanks have been used on some combat missions in the past out of necessity, it is not something that you would use on long-term deployments where crews are suffering from chronic fatigue. Further, the fuel is still getting pumped into the internal fuel tanks which do have their own fuel quantity sensors so you know exactly how much fuel you have internally for several more hours, and there is also a sensor in the external fuel tanks that indicate when the tank is empty. It's not like the aircraft is going to suddenly flame out because the aircrew thought there was still fuel in the externals. The only calculations the crew will need to do is for aircraft performance planning for how much weight they are taking on, and how that affects their range or station time. But that is something that the aircrews already do every day from the first day of flight school and throughout the rest of their career. This isn't rocket science, or something that is only done every once in a while, this is part of the job and is second nature.

Refueling facilities and services operate by volume, not weight. And since the external tanks don't have a fuel sensing probe to calculate the fuel quantity, the refueling personnel can only tell the aircrew how many gallons of fuel they've pumped into each external fuel tank. Different fuel types have different densities, therefore slightly different weight per volume. If the fuel type is set to JP-8 on the FUEL page, the aircraft performs the conversion for the crew, but the crew still needs to input how much fuel (in gallons) has been pumped into the external fuel tanks. However, since the external fuel tanks in DCS AH-64D are always loaded and then filled with 230 gallons of fuel, just multiply 230 by how many tanks you have installed, and input that into the FUEL page. Easy. Now, if you want to figure out if you can physically take on the weight of the additional fuel, given the environmental factors, just multiply the total number of gallons you plan to take by 6.7 (the weight in pounds of each gallon of JP-8). Professional aviators aren't stupid, nor are they like the fighter pilots in the movies with the cool sunglasses and the scarf waving in the wind, hopping into their cockpit and simply taking off into the sky. If an aviator spends years learning complex aerodynamics, procedures, weapon systems, munition ballistics, tactics, etc, simple arithmetic is not going to be a hard thing for them to do, nor is something so rudimentary as performing fuel calculations prior to takeoff going to be what causes them to crash.

Good point. This will be addressed in the next manual update.

@TZeer at the moment there are two bugs related to this that have already been reported: The heading hold breakout values are not present when Attitude Hold (in any sub-mode) is enabled. The heading hold is disengaging when the Yaw axis becomes saturated. Both of these have been fixed internally but have not made it to Open Beta yet. Unfortunately I do not have any news to share on this, but the Heading Hold and Attitude Hold are still receiving refinements with their logic, which is fairly complex (and interwoven with each other) when you tack on all the other variables with the FMC. But we are aware of the issue and are trying to get these resolved as fast as possible. Thanks.

The TADS Store Target is an AI Helper Command. The graphic at the end of the George chapter shows how the George AI Helper Controls change based on the interface mode. There are distinctions between these two in how they can or cannot be used that is explained in the manual. Instead of typing out paragraphs upon paragraphs in the forums, I recommend simply reading the manual for a much more thorough and clear explanation.

If Easy Communication is disabled (which is an enforceable mission option), you need to use the PTT Radio controls.

It won't work.