Fri13

Based to manual. As that is what we should get when the new FLIR system finally drops to DCS. As the cuer is just part of the FLIR system, so range limitations are based to it.

The Harrier primary means to take-off are short ones, not the vertical. You are severely limited for vertical take-off. After almost any take-off your primary task is to fly to tanker and refuel yourself to mission requirements, especially when you have weapons. The Harrier is primarily using vertical landing after it has consumed its ammunition and it is low on fuel. That is when it can go and land vertically to some road base or forest. And when you take-off with couple bombs or rockets, you are so low on fuel that you are operating just on front line, and even then you want to have that short take-off run to get up in speed. What was previously possible perform vertical take-off with loading of 4200 lbs fuel and 4x GBU-12 and 2x 2.75" rockets was just crazy. Get a nice 100 meters run and you got up with much larger loadouts without problems.

But our Harrier was by performance wise over its capabilities. It is still slightly IMHO and should get little more nerfing. It is not bad/sad thing that we get lower performance when it is now more realistic.

Effective maximum range is moisture and temperature dependent, as well your programmed thermal scale value and sizes. The Normal setting gives cues from 2 km slant range front of plane to 0.5 degree above horizon. The Extended setting gives cues from 1 km slant range front of plane to 0.5 degree above horizon. The Full setting gives from 1 km slant range to 90 degree upwards, so whole sky area.

When no Target Designation exist, the pilot is required to do so by using a Flight Path Marker as initial designator for LOS. After initial TD is created, it is based to either barometric or radar altimeter angle. Throught the flight toward target, pilot is required to use TDC to move the TD above target and release TDC for moment, that is called "sweetening". The ARBS system will then re-calculate target slant range after each "sweetening" until it gets slant range properly calculated and pilot can confirm this seeing through HUD that TD diamond does stay above the target and doesn't slip away from it. Higher height difference between the target and initial barometric/radar metered altitude is, then more sweetening is required. And if the target elevation is same, then less sweetening is required. At this moment we do not require any corrections. The INS mode is perfect to the target altitude as it is locked on the ground. This makes it unrealistic as target altitude is magically known. The INS based TD movement is as well only possible when it is inside the HUD total field of view. Meaning you need to be flying toward the target and have TD diamond inside HUD or otherwise TDC inputs do not move TD position, like currently happens any time you are in INS mode. INS is critical part for all other sensors and target designation as without it properly done the other sensors and systems can not operate correctly.

More like that we get more reasons to love it with all more realistic features it has....

So instead adding a color shaded filter with small up/down animation and blurry shaped edge when going up/down, they decided to remove it permanently?

That depends the angle. As lower your thrust, then lower your climb angle and so on more distance covered. More thrust means shorter distance and still same time. As that was not about angle but maintaining the climb airspeed, right?

Not just 4300 but about performance values to get 250 knots at 700-800 ft runway.

I disagree with that. SL to 10,000 ft = 0:48 mins / 0:25 / 0:35 A 48 seconds vs 35 seconds is a 34% difference. 3.5 nm / 2.5 / 3.8 That is only 9% difference. SL to 25,000 ft = 2:30 mins / 1:13 / 2:04 A 2:30 vs 2:04 is a 25% difference. 16 nm / 7.1 / 13.2 A 13.2 vs 16 nmi is 17% in difference. That is not a marginal ones IMHO. I think that 5% would be more acceptable than almost 1/5-1/4th of the documented. They went leaps better one, to more toward accurate one. But I still think that they could tweak the values more to get it closer of that interpolated data. What comes to fuel consumption, that looks very good. But I am more looking the distance and the time that are still off.

IMHO what the couple pilots has said about the deceleration capability doesn't (talking before May update) feel to be right. As even pulling nozzles back and you still have difficulty's to slow to join another aircraft. I don't know now. There is something about that maybe, as at higher altitude and higher speed you need to use low RPM to avoid overspending the engine or something. You don't get maximum speed or something with maximum RPM but need to bring it lower like 70% or something as it is after all a airbreathing engine. Has anyone tried the performance maneuvers as mentioned here Like the 43:00 position about short takeoff etc?

Look carefully your EHSD that what happens on the Target Designation diamond. Check my two videos above that does same thing happen to you. As the TD should jump position even before TV mode comes On. (I am not even sure should the TV mode return back On in re-attack as it doesn't know where target is and where to try to get a contrast lock.) The GYRO mode in navigation panel IIRC resets the INS alignment and so on aircraft position information. It is backup mode to get a basic attitude information going. And you can not go through it to other mode without performing that reset. If you do, then you need to perform alignment again. With a TPOD you need to be in the INR mode (SSS Aft long) whenever TPOD is to be masked. As Point and Area tracking are contrast based and they don't care about INS or coordinates. Their job is only to generate a target coordination by having a contrast lock on target. So they do not follow target slant range and vector like the Inertia mode does. The targeting pod should have a masking map that will perform automatic laser shut off when laser is emitting and it reach 5 degrees from the mask border (this was at least in 2nd gen pod) and disallow laser firing when masked. Why you want to learn to set TPOD on INR mode everytime you are estimating that target gets masked (terrain, smoke, trees, clouds, airframe etc).

That video shows well how the TV tracks a high contrast (the end of sandwall). Then on the moment when the original tracked position is covered by the CBU bomblet smoke, the TV jumps to right to the brightest contrast and keeps a lock there. And TV eventually loses the lock and it returns to a acquisition mode (wide open cross) and jumps to the FPM up in the sky.

Hmmm... Great if so.... Need to try out, as it is realistic that chocks are removed in last moments when engine has been running long time already.

Excellent testing. I think whole community should thank you for it. Reading the values I think little more tweaking for the power reduction is required to get those low altitude climb times little longer. They are already close ones, but I think there is enough speculation room to lower the thrust to get it more accurate. Does these tests include the high altitude lower engine RPM requirement to have higher airflow? Someone who knows better might understand what I try to ask.... The pegasus engine should be powerful at low altitude (time-to-altitude records), but be slow to accelerate for higher speed. Now it has been so easy to pull nose up and just climb to 20-30k ft in matter of seconds and same time just gain speed at low altitude without even noticing how quickly it does so.

Did the 5th May patch bring that change? I didn't notice it to be in patch notes....

Decided to check my videos today for how the Target Designation (TD) shifts/moves. And found these things. In the first video (Jump2) look carefully the target designation diamond in HSDI at 01:30-01:34 when level from left banking. The diamond jumps toward the aircraft. The exact same thing happens in the DMT Jump video but at 02:42-02:45 position. Again the same behavior, everything is fine until left side turn is leveled and the TD at the 90 degree jumps toward the plane. It is clearly not a INS drift as it would mean few things: 1) The aircraft position would be required to shift as much as the error is. This is impossible with the tightly coupled GPS/INS. 2) The INS drift would happen gradually over long time (like an hour). Not by a smooth turn. 3) The Target Designation has the coordinates for the target, either as a generated map coordinates or then as relative position to the aircraft by INS. The INS system works wrong in the Harrier, hypothesis is INS is tied to the coordination system somehow relative to the Harrier attitude. So when the Harrier attitude axis moves across negative and positive angles, the target designations gets "dragged" or shifted with it. There is this similar problem with the TDC axis, that using a axis to move TDC across the axis cause stop of one axis. Again when moving from positive to negative side. It might be related what happens with the TPOD when the aircraft axis moves across the TPOD gimbal position (that Elmo refuse to move in bug reports) The DMT has as well other problems. Its movement is tied to the polar coordinates instead own gimbal speed. So when you have TV at long distance then it will slew faster, than if you have TV at close distance. The TV should move at the two speeds moving with TDC DOWN or TDC. The simple TDC is slow one for "sweeting" or getting sensor accurately on position. And then TDC DOWN is the fast mode where sensor is moved quickly for long distances. They both should be with fixed degrees per second rates, regardless the distance. IIRC The TV should be slewed inside the HUD with TDC and have it stabilized only to the HUD and not to the ground, until TDC DOWN is released. The primary method is to have TV locked to the FPM and fly it on the target and then press and release TDC DOWN to try to acquire a contrast lock on TV. If it success then it will lock on the contrast. If it doesn't then it will stay locked to FPM. The secondary option is to use TDC to move the TV box in the HUD on the target and then press and release TDC Down to try to acquire a contrast lock. If the contrast lock is not achieved then the TV box will jump back to FPM. The Polar coordinate control system is such that further from the plane the TD is, then faster it moves. Closer you have it, then slower it moves. This makes example moving a MAP DESIGNATOR challenging as you can't move it in time at 5 nmi range to other position as it speed slows down considerably. And this doesn't work in the map mode when it zooms in/out as the speed is somewhat relative to the display size, so at low zoom level the TD movement is slow at long range as is at short range. So moving TD example from 50 nmi to 70 nmi is at same speed as moving it at 1 nmi to 2 nmi. Hypothesis is as there is many things wrong across various places and sensors and their behavior and so on, and all are somehow tied to others causing problems in each others. This is not about TDC deadzone or "jittery pot" or anything in the gaming device. It is directly in the programming of the target system and the logic how sensors and TD are moved. Edit: As additional point, is the TD suppose to move outside of the HSI compass ring? I have always wondered that why the TD is allowed to move outside of it to areas where are OSB labels and all other symbols and get "behind them". Same thing is with the aircraft symbol when target designation is centered. Like shouldn't the TD and aircraft symbols stay inside the compass ring and if they move further than the selected distance and AUTO scale is selected then scale would be switched to one bigger one to keep these symbols inside compass ring? Now it is done when the symbol reaches the MFCD edge and you can lose the sight where they are as they get mixed somewhere.

Tested that today, and didn't really notice such.

And you know it because? https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/raytheon-plans-expeditionary-jpals-and-f-35a-signal-test/139974.article JPALS is a GPS-based guidance system that is pre-installed on all three variants of the F-35, as well as the US Navy’s (USN’s) Boeing MQ-25A Stingray, an unmanned in-flight refuelling tanker. The system achieved initial operating capability (IOC) for the US Marine Corps’ (USMC’s) F-35B short take-off and vertical landing variant in 2018 and has deployed on amphibious assault ships. The system will reach IOC with the USN once a squadron of the carrier-variant F-35C deploys, says Raytheon. The system is installed on nuclear aircraft carriers. In June, Raytheon delivered the first production unit of JPALS to the USN. The company had already delivered engineering development models to the service, which are now to be replaced with the production examples. Raytheon claims the system can guide aircraft onto carriers and amphibious assault ship decks in any weather condition, for example, in fog. It also claims the system can help land an aircraft on a carrier deck even with the ship pitching in rough water, up to Sea State 5 conditions, which involve 1.8m (6ft) waves. https://www.raytheonintelligenceandspace.com/capabilities/products/jpals Joint Precision Approach and Landing System, or JPALS, is a software-based, high-integrity differential GPS navigation and precision approach landing system that guides aircraft onto carriers and amphibious assault ships in all weather and surface conditions. It uses an anti-jam encrypted datalink to communicate between the aircraft and an array of GPS sensors, antennas and shipboard equipment. http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/2840/f_18a-makes-automatic-landing-with-jpals-(aug.-31).html (Source : Raytheon Co. ; issued Aug. 30, 2000) Raytheon Company completed a major milestone last month during shore-based flight trials of its Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS) technology demonstrator. The flight trials, conducted by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at NAS Patuxent River, Md., achieved the first automatic landings in an F/A-18A Hornet using the Global Positioning System (GPS)-based JPALS system for guidance. The JPALS system combines the satellite-based GPS, data link and computer technology to yield an integrated, multi-function air traffic control system that provides landing, surveillance, TACAN-like navigation and two-way data communication. The result is a simple, low-cost and highly reliable system that is compatible with the Navy's future ship designs and aircraft equipage. The above deck, non-rotating antenna set is compatible with the smaller superstructures of future ship designs and simplifies installation aboard existing ships of all classes. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/MG1100/MG1171z8/RAND_MG1171z8.pdf (<- Do you find any mentions of Scorpion?)

The 5.5.2021 update that brought back the ACTION mode speed (hi speed when pressings TDC DOWN) has made the TDC NO-ACTION slewing slippery when using the 4-way hat as TDC. You make a small movement to one direction and let go of the TDC and the TV will keep moving to that direction for few seconds until it stops. Meanwhile you can not stop it or change its direction but need to wait movement to stop. Only way to move TV without slippery effect is to use TDC DOWN (Action) mode that does not have the effect. Harrier_Slippery_TDC.miz.trk

No effect. Still happening. The TDC can be even set for buttons instead Axis and it happens. 00:00-00:20 Target acquired and locked to overfly 02:04 Steady turn back to target 02:13 TV back in gimbal limits, designation elsewhere by hundreds of meters (in totally different forest even) 02:43 overfly of the target. I made this twice and the exact same thing happened, TD shifted to same position even when the route was different. Difference is that other is with the DESG and other is without. There is no false movement on the TDC axis for the INS mode. As the INS mode shouldn't even be moving the TV or any other target information. The INS mode is usable only when the system is in INS mode and then target diamond can be moved only when it is inside the HUD. Once the TD is outside the HUD field of view it doesn't anymore slew around anything. The INS mode is only for the visual targeting using HUD and correcting the Target Diamond visually on the target while not flying straight at it, so that ARBS system can calculate the slant range from the corrections using aircraft round speed and barometric altitude. In the Harrier the INS mode is "master of all sensors" so you can slew any sensor and you can do so when the target designation is outside of your HUD (so even behind you or so). There is as well a bug report about Harrier TDC ignoring the axis deadzone values as it reads the input directly from the XInput. Can't find it now as valid bug reports gets moved around among resolved. But it would need to be fixed first if it is still valid so that TDC follows the deadzone values. INS_lost_coordinates.miz.trk

The DMT shouldn't be able to be locked on a INS coordinates. It is a sensor responsible to lock on contrast on target and then deliver the changes in the rate that ARBS system reads and then generates the coordinates to the INS system for the target. DMT shouldn't be possible be slewed on the ground or be left on the ground. If you do not get a contrast lock, then the DMT will not stay on the ground but will move with the aircraft. If you didn't get a valid lock or the TV jumped on something else (while a moving target tracking etc) then you needed quickly to switch to backup aiming modes (not implemented in Harrier). Once you come for a re-attack, you want to have the coordinates generated from the previous attack as you do not get the TV on the ground there but you use INS diamond.

Off-topic, but please remember that it is not a hotspot detector. It is a thermal cuer where your task as a pilot is to analyze the terrain, the time of day, the weather and program the thermal cuer to point you the wanted heat levels, sizes and their relation to environment.

I haven't checked the mechanic there, but it could block the unlocking mechanism just by being in the way. It is little odd that you have two functions, seal the cockpit and lock the canopy. Both have own lever. Like why not have locking lever as well seal the canopy? What are the downside to fly without sealing cockpit at normal altitudes?

https://file.re/