Top Jockey

I understand you ! Those are the experiences which make this stuff outstanding. edit: by the way you have a PM.

Managed to do it several times in some land bases at Caucasus. In carriers, to be honest I don't recall now if I ever done it. Not much to it, only that it's useful not to be much far away from land, or at the least have some good alttitude to convert in gliding distance.

I confirm this, he should have been called Cougar instead... as he really is a p***y.

Cool video.

The TCS lock symbol for that situation - which changes depending on the weapon selected, disappears probably because the target got outside of the TCS gimbal limits, and so you lost the lock. The cross still on target, maybe because its representing the AIM-9 seeker head and its gimbal limits are bigger than TCS. I would recommend you to search in the manual, as I believe it also mentions the TCS gimbal limits.

Hello, Allow me a small correction - as I believe everything is working as it should: (The bolds are for highlighting purposes.) When AIM-9 selected, contrary to Radar-guided missiles, the HUD symbology meaning DOES change as in real life: - the cross symbol now represents AIM-9 Seekerhead lock... instead of TCS lock; - the diamond symbol therefore now represents TCS lock also... instead of just Radar lock alone; - so, when loosing a Radar lock, only the range and closure scales disappear from the HUD.

That's the spirit, you know Tomcat is THAT legend... :thumbup:

No, you don't have to undo anything on that regard. For me at the least (even after selecting A-G mode), with this last friday open-beta it's like always was: - the VSL Hi mode never had the moving diamond at the HUD, as I believe its tracking pattern is from 15 to 55 degrees, which is outside of the HUD's field of view; - the VSL Lo and PAL modes always have shown the moving diamond tracking pattern, for all the A-A missiles, either in ACM or Normal modes. I believe that with Gun selected, the diamond symbol isn't supposed to show any tracking pattern. Because without any Radar tracked target, the diamond will be representing bullet hit point at 1.000 feet distance.

Yep, I now remember I had to look at it with some attention to assign it at the first time. Glad you solved it already.

That symbol means there was also a TCS track on target at that moment. (Although the TCS doesn't provide any form of guidance to the AIM-7, in that case it's useful as visual cue to where to point the Radar, or Boresight, to try and get a lock again.)

Yep that's right, I didn't recall it because I rarely use the ACM switch - I use to go directly to the "missile mode" pushbutton (NORM / BRSIT). Interesting to see the AIM-54 lock and track a target even with the AWG-9 radar completely switched off. Also tried with the AIM-7, but being a SARH missile obviously can't do that.

+1 here, I'm already waiting for this feature too.

I'm not much of an expert on radar-guided missiles, but I thought that to fire the AIM-54 with its own radar active off the rails was instead "boresight mode"...

I suppose that the TCS lock changing to the instantly fired missile, might also be because of the missile's very bright exaust flame (which does a considerable image contrast)... so it somewhat makes sense.

About the wrong master mode, it's possible but I don't remember right now. On the TCS lock, is was maintained as the target bomber was still locked at the VDI; just the TCS LoS cross didn't apear on the HUD after some 10 minutes experimenting or so. But I'll have to experiment more to be sure.

Outstanding! By the way now that we are at it, sometimes the TCS LoS ceases to appear after roughly 10 minutes of testing with it, (in either of the acquisition or slave modes). I'm not sure if I read that the TCS has some overheating time failure implemented or so, eitherway it's an heads-up. I believe it came to appear again, after tweaking with the master modes - slecting AG mode and coming to AA mode again.

I only play single-player, can anyone tell which is the easiest mod to install ? Thank you.

From my very limited "knowledge", the cross symbol which represents the ADL, has been following the US "teen series" fighters (F-14, F-15, F-16, etc) from some time. I believe it is used generally as some sort of reference for sensor aiming / target acquisition / weapons employment (forward firing ones). For instance in the Tomcat: - for the gun I think the ADL represents the bullets hit point for a non-maneuvering target, at some given distance which I now can't recall; - for the A-A missiles it represents the missile bore line, and so, a reference for the Boresight mode (even keeping in mind the offset from AIM-9 and AIM-7 pylons) ? - for the AWG-9 radar it represents a reference for the PLM mode.

The saying goes: "A picture is worth a thousand words". And those 2 pictures clearly show it.

By the way, what are the keys / combo for padlock ?

SEAM ? What, Sidewinder Expanded Acquisition Mode ?

I agree - came across these issues too.

Update. On my DCSW version (one of the last open betas I'm sure): - auto search pattern is achieved by maintaining both; half and full action pressed; - it is the TCS Gimbal Angle Crosshair which does the pattern (not the tracking gate little squares); - although there is indeed a small search pattern, the lock procedure itself feels prety much the same in either auto acquisition / manual / auto search.

Quigon, Thank you for your detailed answer. You're better informed than me; I didn't have the slightest idea one has to keep half or full action pressed at the HCU for the search pattern to start. (I do know one has to use them to slew the tracking gates and lock the target.) Maybe I mislooked it at the manual, but besides descriptions of what each TCS target acquisition mode is supposed to do, it doesn't tell much on HOW to do it. Although I do know very little about the TCS modes / procedures in real life, I guess you're right - it would be more "logical" to do it autonomously, specially the search process.

I agree - thank you Heatblur for the Tomcat !