Need-To-Know

Ok since I am the only one asking it must be pretty obvious....but I am oblivious. How do I get the updated F-5 into NTTR. Ready to take it on the chin here since this must be a dumb question..... :tomato:

Lol, sounds pretty scary. Haha. :thumbup:

I hope the plan is not to break wings off if 7.33gs are exceeded. Getting up to about 10gs happens and the frame gets checked but more than likely is still flyable after. 12-13gs and the wings get bent and the frame will be unusable after but it would probably still make it back to base.

Awesome Deezle, that is very helpful information. Will rep for that. It is the last system I have to use a mouse to operate in my pit. Working or not it is part of my flow. :)

Keybindings for the IFF systems...there are none.

And yeah I know DCS does not support IFF... :)

Yeah here is a recent pic (last month) of the 111 boys heading out before the hurricane. You can see in the shadow to get a better idea of the alignment.

Timing is good - I am doing this tomorrow (well maybe - still debating if I want to do a RAID 0 since the drives are so cheap). Just doing the change drives (from plate to SSD) for DCS not an OS reinstall. I am only flying NTTR and only in the F-5 but have extensive key remapping I do not want to have to remap. I do have all of the other modules installed just not touched or keys mapped since NTTR. So no big on losing any of them. I am going the full DCS reinstall route as I was following the recent conversations and have no problem doing that just to be sure - as long as I can easily save my mapped keys. No saved games matter. I think copying/saving: C:\Users\username\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config\Input is what I need to do to save my key mapping...? :book: Always good to be sure! Thanks

Called "G Warm" in the real fighter world. Standard practice for pilots to do a G Warm before bfm. One 4 g turn then a 6 g to get the blood flowing.

I will defer my comments on the Thrustmaster pedals to Sith's opinion. But just an FYI - Newegg is saying that Logitec will be (re)launching the Saitek pedals again on November 11th. Which I personally would consider a better option on an entry level pedal setup. You never know how important decent pedals can be until you have dealt with substandard ones.

I am very excited and can not wait until mine arrive near the end of November. When my Saitek pedals went out I bought the cheap thrustmaster pedals. They have been a nightmare. First week & 1/2 they were fine then started having stiction problems and after 4 weeks it was really bad (even with super lube). Now one side is either all or nothing. I had to dig out my old old old Microsoft joystick that has a twist handle and use it just to taxi, thrustmaster pedals to brake, and warthog to fly....it is a handful landing. Lol November is going to be like Xmas.

Very interesting. I thought it looked really low tech. Appreciate the comment. I do love that website as I am a big fan of the worn and well used cockpits of these old war birds.

You guys are always well informed and have probably seen this but just in case: Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk 3D cockpit view: http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/cockpits/CW_tour/CW-23.html If you want to see more 3D cockpits: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/VirtualTour/Cockpit360.aspx

http://godsofthemachine.com/SPT-PDF/KISS%20Navigation%20in%20the%20F-5%20Opti2.pdf Hey Guys, So I was asked to make a PDF of this KISS navigation stuff so you guys could pick what you wanted, print it out and carry to the cockpit. I have not done any fancy graphics or squadron plugs to save you ink. Charly Owl's stuff is awesome for quickly learning your systems and I suggest getting that from the downloads section. So fly on my friends and enjoy getting around and finding your airport. Disclaimer: As other members have pointed out there is more to learn in order to understand the whys and hows of navigation. My little coarse here was only meant to give you a kickstarter in the KISS format.

Great SD! You will be a navigator in no time. Let me know if you have any questions. "The greatest mistake a person can make in life is to be continually afraid you will make one."

Thanks buddy for clarifying that. That is important information. :thumbup: I was just making it super simple for guys without navigation/aviation knowledge.

I wish this could be moved to the F-5 area of the Forum. Might be more helpful to pilots there. :thumbup:

As a past A-10 driver maybe you have navigation down....but if you need some navigation tips for TACANs I wrote some super simple stuff in this thread: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=175448

Hey SD glad it is helping! I am glad someone wants to learn. Here is the radio setup on the ramp at Nellis: These are your "Presets" this way you can dial in Nellis easy. The numbers are on that little white slip to the left of the "Chan". You can find out your ATC with the airport map posted above. On that little white paper Nellis ATC is 254.0 - Preset #5 Turn this knob to "Both" Turn this knob to "Preset" so the radio uses the #5 you dialed to above. This is you TACAN radio turn it to "T/R". Use the little knobs to the left and dial in 12X the Nellis TACAN This knob will be on TACAN by default - I suggest mapping this to a key since it is very handy to switch back and forth while flying (for reasons I will outline later) Here we setup for the 114.3 navaid we fly to in the other post (yeah "T" is 1). Good to have this set before takeoff so no trying to fly and rotate all of those knobs. Note the beep from the TACAN you set for Nellis will beep once you have your engines started use the "VOL" knob above 4 to turn it down. Ok so you have been cleared by ATC to - Taxi You have taxied to the active runway #3 You asked for permission to Take off before entering the runway - ATC at the moment is not working so it is redundant but you can follow procedures. (Will help in multiplayer) You are lined up with your HSI set to 030 as outlined in and earlier post above You take off Now you switch to the Navaid 114.3 you setup at the ramp and here is how: So here you have already got your radio set 114.3 Turn this to ADF - That is what the navaid is call (Automatic Direction Finder) Switch this off of "Preset" to "Manual" you are just telling it to use that 114.3 setting not the Nellis ATC Switch this knob to "DF" (Direct Finder) Note again the beeping starts if you have set everything up right and the navaid is in range or covered by mountains. Use the "VOL" knob between 2 and 3 to turn it down -Note when you go back to Nellis to land and switch back to "Preset" you need to turn this "VOL" back up to hear the ATC. So now radios set your HSIs little arrow will point to the navaid 114.3 Your sight picture: Now the range and the "Needles" not pointing to the navaid but you can still use the "Needles" to point at it by spinning the "CRS" just to give you a quick reference. So remember how I said mapping the knob that says "DF" and "TACAN" could help? You can now use it to do quick checks back to Nellis TACAN. Without switching any other knobs just turn it to "TACAN" (from "DF") and the HSI (Needles and little arrow) will now point back to Nellis and give you range information - the little arrow will rotate around behind you and point to Nellis too. One more quick turn from "TACAN" back to "DF" and the little arrow now points back to the navaid 114.3. This is great for using two navaids and getting a general idea where you are. I usually keep the Groom Lake TACAN (18X) dialed in and do quick checks to see where it is (since it sits in the middle of the map) while flying. XXXXXXXX-------Getting back to the landing runway----------XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Ok back on mission. You have arrived at 114.3. The little arrow spun around. Hit the knob from "DF" to "TACAN". You already have dialed in 12X Nellis. Now you want to spin the HSI "CRS" knob to the runway you want to land on. That landing runway will be runway 210 -ATC calls it 21. Spin the knob until 210 is in the upper right box on the HSI. Here is your sight picture: I flew off course to show you how to chase the needle. Notice on the HSI 210 is dialed in the top right but the center Needle is way not lined up with the outer Needle and I am flying in the wrong direction according to the outer Needle and the little arrow. Note the direction I am flying is always towards the very top of the dial. (that little plane in the center is there to orientate you) Sorry it is so fuzzy: So I want to keep chasing that middle needle in the direction I am going. When the center line is in line with the outer needle I turn right and follow the lined up "Needles" directly to the runway. By having the center Needle and the outer Needle lined up I know now I am centered up for the runway. Sight picture: (see how the center Needle is a little right of the outer Needle - That is why I am flying a little to the right - chasing the center Needle Since we are using only the TACAN 12X now we can put our top radios back to contact the ATC....and turn up that "VOL" knob again to hear them. Sight picture: Turn this back to "Both" Turn this back to "Preset" Notice how the HSI now shows the distance, The "Needles" line up, and we have 210 set. Fly it on home now. You can contact ATC and let them know you are "Inbound" Confused yet? Haha Just let me know. To be honest we need to learn to fly the F-5 low and might not get any navaids to pick up on our radios down low so "Dead Reckoning" and reference points are our friends when we have nothing else picking up on the radios. I will write a few ideas for navigating without radios and navigating while dogfighting in the next few days. :)

Will do. I fly tonight and will take a few screen shots and post info here.

What Fire is showing you is great stuff! Sometimes those charts or Procedures are hard to understand without basic knowledge. Let's start easy at the airport. You can just use the mission editor and place your F-5 for a "Ramp Start". You call the ATC and ask for taxi he is going to send you to Runway 3 Again we think of the direction or Radial as the direct we are looking. So runways are setup for the direction we look at the start or end (land) depending which way we are looking. Looking to take off we want to look in the direction of 030. Time the ATC calls you to taxi to the runway (or if you already know) set your HSI to that direction. That way you get a visual idea of the runway direction. (I see all of the time in multi player guys taking off in wrong direction...sigh) Here is the Airport: I circled the runway numbers. They leave off the zeros (just to confuse the nuggets) Here it is simpler. Here is a list and kinda hard to read NTTR map you see in the editor: Ok we have taken off and are flying the same heading of the runway. Now lets fly to another navaid. Lets head for Mormon Mesa 114.3 - Should be somewhat straight ahead after you take off. Since it is not a TACAN you need to configure your radios to pick it up. If you need help setting up radios on that let me know. *Tip - It is good to have the radios set before you take off it makes it easier. Now since there is no range or working "Needles" on other navaids you need to use the little arrow on the outside of the HSI compass. #13 That little arrow will be a good friend for using on all of the other navaids on the map that are not TACANs. So radios all set and the little arrow pointing to Mormon Mesa 114.3 just fly towards the direction the little arrow is pointing. HSI should somewhat look like this (I might fly it tonight and get accurate pics just examples here): See no more range and the "Needles" just park themselves and are useless at this point. Use the little arrow on the outside. You know you have reached Mormon Mesa 114.3 when the little arrow becomes harder and harder to keep pointed in the right direction since you are so close. When you pass Mormon Mesa 114.3 the little arrow will twirl around and be behind you. Then we want to turn around and go back to the airport - Nellis Finding Nellis and getting lined up for the runway is much easier since it is a TACAN and you will get range information and the "Needles" work again to get you lined up correctly. Let's tackle finding the airport and getting lined up in the next post from me.

No problem my friend. I hope I can help. At the end of the day once you get it figured out it adds a nice layer to your enjoyment and realism. (I hope) So hopefully to answer 1st question: "but where did the 297" Think of that TACAN as having a big circle around it with degrees. 360 degrees is a full circle. With north being 0°. The "Radial" So when I arrived at waypoint 3 and I am flying north - if I was to look at the TACAN I would be looking left and my head would be turn to 297° if I had a big circle around my head. See how the line passes through the TACAN at 297° Like this: The HSI looks like this at that point: To dial in that 297 "Radial" in the HSI you turn the "CRS" knob #6 in the picture below until the #2 window reads 297: The thing to remember is when that center line is to the right or left of the arrow line you want to chase it. If center line is to the right as in the example from my 1st post keep flying towards it. If it was to the left of that line that means you past it in that example. So now we see the 297° came from a point on the map that I found using the DCS editor. I went to "Mission Editor" I got the tool "Use Ruler" on the left side (last tool) of the map in the editor. I put my mouse pointer on the area #3 waypoint and clicked. Holding the mouse button down I dragged a line to Groom Lake and it gave me the distance (NM - 47 miles) and direction "Radial" - 297° 297° which is us looking out of the cockpit towards the TACAN. Runway works the same I will draw up some stuff for that tomorrow and post it here for you. No problem asking questions. Currently the GOTM website is getting close to completion and will have easier ways to learn all about the F-5, navigation and a bunch of other stuff.

I really enjoy navigation. The F-5 is good fun once you get the basic concept of radials. Do you know how to turn your radio TACAN on and dial in a TACAN station? Turn the HSI knob? I made this map and it might give you a basic idea. It is just a quick mock up so not totally accurate. Of course you want to use visual aides as much as possible - landmarks, roads, crop circles. You may need to fly higher to pick up the stations sometimes. So what is going on in this map? I go to the DCS editor and use their "ruler" tool to measure distances and the radial to certain spots (from TACANs and nav aides) along the map. Lets do an example to better understand. Tried to simplify To get to the #3 waypoint at the correct spot (Say I have already past waypoint #2 and heading north) On the map we see Groom Lake is TACAN 18X (I turn the TACAN radio to 18X - you need to learn to turn on these radios correctly) I turn the HSI knob to 297° Note the box I put on the map: 297° 46NM (only TACANs give distance the other nav aides do not.) Ok so I am flying somewhat north (I made it exactly north here for easier understanding) from waypoint #2 The HSI needle is pointing in the direct of the point I want to end up at not the direct I want to fly. The middle part of the arrow line is telling me the how far and to what side of that radial I am off. Fly until you see the arrow part of the needle and the middle part of the line match - Chase that middle line of the needle If the middle line was lower than the arrow part it would mean I past the "radial" I hope this is not just more confusing. I mocked these up pretty fast. It is quite possible I misunderstood the question if so sorry.

Not to drag up an older thread but to save someone a little $ I wanted to come back and eat a little crow. Do not want to be to big of a man and not admit when I am wrong. :) After having the TFRPs for about 3 weeks now I have found them extremely different over time. The metal slides hint of quality but the pedals ride on these metal slides with plastic and after a couple of weeks they are now very sticky. Even with plastic safe lubricant. I try to taxi in a straight line but the stickiness makes it so I can not make fluid changes. Once I push in a direction to overcome the stickiness I end up overshooting in one direction. I am a 6'3" 210 pound guy and can not leave two feet on the pedals or it is like an exercise machine. Why they did not put a simple piece of Teflon tape or metal to metal slides...? So yeah listen to the others. Get the better pedals. I just ordered my MFGs since I am so frustrated with low quality Thrustmasters. I see why they call the "Thrust Masters" not since it takes so much thrust to move them.

Nice - I really enjoyed that over my coffee this morning. Very interesting to actually see an overview of that. Also hearing comms is always fun for me. Thanks for posting. IcarusGR 1 - Rep inbound. How copy? :)