BarTzi

You are setting yourself for a disappointment. The new Viper features are complex and can also introduce new bugs/instabilities to the sim. They will still need to squash/sort those before they start working on any new Hornet features, and this will probably take more than a week.

Why are you so triggered by the A/G radar? It's not the silver bullet to solve all problems in the sim. If you fly the Viper I think that's the last thing you should be worried about right now. It's amazing to me how you guys decide that ED has been working on it non stop for five years just from a very old and almost irrelevant screenshot. Also, keep in mind that they informed us the engineer assigned to it left the company and they had to find a replacement. So no, they most likely didn't work on it for five years straight, and that's understandable. They also don't have a particularly big team to rely on, so that's something to keep in mind. At that time (2015), no module in the sim would benefit from it. So you can say they didn't really have to push it forward and go out of their way to make it happen. Now they have two modern airplanes in early access, and it is most likely coming down the road. If I had to take a guess- they want the planes to reach a certain level of maturity and have a fully capable and complete A/A mode for the radars of both planes before they even start integrating the simplest A/G modes. I see that you are coming from years of flying in other sims. It doesn't look like you understand the way ED handles EA products yet.

This is what you will see in the attached track: Using the hornet free flight mission, I try to modify WP1 which is at: N 41 55 98 E 41 51 78 I want to change just the second line (E) - to: N 41 55 98 E 41 51 60 However, when I bring up the WP entry mode in the UFC - I can't access the E or W coordinates. The UFC will register N (number 2) or S (number '8') first only, and only then allow editing the E (number 4) or W (number 6). This means, that in order to change just the last part of the coordinate, I have to re-type the first line (N 41 55 9'8'). Is this intended? WP coordinate entry bug.trk

Thanks. I missed that.

Some rotary switches don't light up when you turn on the internal lighting. The text around the switch will light up, but the tip of the switch itself won't, making it impossible to know the position of the switch without using NVG. Left console: Right console:

NATOPS. "2.9.2.1 Autopilot. The basic autopilot (heading hold) is engaged by selecting the A/P pushbutton (at which time pilot relief options appear on the UFC) then selecting the ON/OFF pushbutton. Engagement is indicated by the A/P advisory on the DDI. Selecting the ON/OFF pushbutton is not required if ATTH, HSEL, BALT, RALT, or CPL (MC OFP 13C AND UP) option on the UFC is desired. At this time the aircraft maintains the existing pitch attitude. If roll attitude is less than or equal to ±5° at engagement, the magnetic heading is maintained. If roll attitude at time of engagement is greater than ±5°, the roll attitude is maintained. The pitch attitude hold reference can be changed with pitch CSS to any value between ±45° pitch. The pitch attitude reference can also be changed with the trim switch on the control stick at a rate of 0.5°/second. The roll attitude hold reference (if roll is greater than ±5°) can be changed with roll CSS to any value between 5° and 70° of roll. The roll attitude reference can also be changed using the trim switch on the stick at a rate of 2°/ second. The magnetic heading reference (if roll is less than or equal to ±5°) can be changed, or initially set with roll CSS. The roll trim switch also can change the reference magnetic heading." Also from NATOPS: "The automatic flight control system (autopilot) has two basic modes: pilot relief and data link. The pilot relief mode consists of heading hold, heading select, attitude hold, barometric altitude hold, radar altitude hold, control stick steering (CSS) and coupled steering. The data link mode consists of automatic carrier landing (ACL), precision course direction, and vector approach." @imacken @daarseth, please read this comment and the previous one. Clearly shows when it holds heading and when it holds the roll. A/P advisory should not be on when you select an autopilot mode using the UFC. It should only be displayed under certain conditions. Let's shift the focus back to the bug report.

It's called heading hold. That's the official name for it. This is what heading hold does: At this time the aircraft maintains the existing pitch attitude. If roll attitude is less than or equal to ±5° at engagement, the magnetic heading is maintained. If roll attitude at time of engagement is greater than ±5°, the roll attitude is maintained. The pitch attitude hold reference can be changed with pitch CSS to any value between ±45° pitch. The pitch attitude reference can also be changed with the trim switch on the control stick at a rate of 0.5°/second. The roll attitude hold reference (if roll is greater than ±5°) can be changed with roll CSS to any value between 5° and 70° of roll. The roll attitude reference can also be changed using the trim switch on the stick at a rate of 2°/ second. The magnetic heading reference (if roll is less than or equal to ±5°) can be changed, or initially set with roll CSS. The roll trim switch also can change the reference magnetic heading. This is what ATTH does: Attitude hold is engaged by pressing the option pushbutton next to the option display window displaying ATTH. Engagement is indicated by a colon in the ATTH option window. At this time the aircraft maintains the existing pitch and roll attitude. The pitch attitude hold reference can be changed to any value between ±45° with pitch CSS or with the trim switch on the control stick (0.5°/second). The roll attitude hold reference can be changed to any value between ±70° with roll CSS or with the trim switch on the stick (2°/second).

Like most cockpit switches- I use my mouse. It's not a hardware issue (I checked that before posting. Watch my tracks to better understand this). As I explained before: engaging RALT outside the altitude limitations and BALT under certain conditions activates another autopilot mode. It should not do that. @imacken in-game at the moment it will behave almost the same as ATTH.

Exactly- and thanks for helping me explain this. The problem is I end up in heading hold under certain conditions when I choose another autopilot mode. The easiest way for you to test this is to try and engage RALT above 5000 feet and see what happens. No colon will appear next to RALT, but 'heading hold' will be activated (but it will also make the stick a bit stiff like it does when you try to pitch when BALT and RALT are activated). @Arctander - great track showing that issue :)

You are setting yourself up for a disappointment. You are exaggerating the capabilities and usage of the A/G radar. It is also very hard to develop and I would not expect it anytime soon. Most likely one of the last major features for the Hornet \ Viper.

@BuzyBee Not sure if this was mentioned here - can you use instructor mode to change the time of day within a DCS session?

You are correct, I meant as a replacement until we get the ATFLIR.

It's not ATTH (which is a different mode and will trigger a different advisory), it's heading hold, which is activated by selecting A/P and then the ON/OFF push-button.

People who care about the appearance of the loadout will claim that no pod was mounted on station 5 during carrier ops. So to get a more carrier "approved" loadout, we should have that option.

It happens regardless of the way I use to control the plane. I noticed it when using my stick, and tried to replicate using the keyboard to make sure it is not related to my stick in some way. When I use the mouse to choose the A/P mode I make sure the plane is steady and my hands are not touching any of the controls. @daarseth no, auto trim is not enabled. My question is - it seems like if BALT or RALT can't work the plane goes to heading hold instead, which doesn't make sense and is not mentioned anywhere in NATOPS. Is this the way it should work? Also, were there any changes to it recently?, because I've never had a single issue with it until now.

In the second track, you can see me trying to activate RALT under 5k and it works only on the fifth (or so?) attempt. I'm just wondering why it activated heading hold instead. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but if I try to activate RALT above 5k - nothing should happen. (under 5k is should just level on the altitude you are flying at) My understanding is that there are only two ways to activate heading hold and that this is not one of them.

No, it won't. The pod doesn't just sit there. It has an adaptor that has to be made and textured.

You are right, but ED simulates the planes used by the USMC\USN, which didn't have that option for the LITENING. (I personally don't care and wish we could mount it there)

I didn't touch any of the controls while trying to activate the autopilot. The stick was not connected at that time. I used the keyboard to fly the plane. This is something I encountered just recently but does occur for some of my friends as well. I made sure to double-check it before posting since I've never had a single issue with the autopilot since the release of the module. There are two ways to activate heading hold that I know of. Missing some criteria for BALT \ RALT is the third way- and I want to know if that's accurate. I find it hard to believe the plane is designed to activate a different A\P mode than the one you choose.

they said it won't be coming for our current TGP. We will have to wait for the ATFLIR

How is that related to what I reported?

Hi guys, I've been having a few strange issues with BALT and RALT auto-pilot modes since the last couple of updates. The Hornet has a basic autopilot mode called heading hold. This mode is engaged by hitting the A/P push button and then the ON/OFF push button (UFC). Activating this mode will trigger the A/P advisory on the left DDI. Additionally, if any of the A/P modes are engaged, decolonizing (removing the ':' ) will revert to heading hold. My problem is: Sometimes, selecting either BALT or RALT will trigger the basic mode instead of the selected mode. Additionally, choosing RALT outside the altitude limitations (above 5,000 feet) will also trigger the basic mode, which is not mentioned in NATOPS as far as I know. Attached are two tracks showing that behavior. The first track: BALT works the first time I activate it. I deactivate it, pitch the nose down a bit and then try to use it again - it triggers the basic mode (A/P is shown on the left ddi). Then without any input from me, the plane levels up and the autopilot snaps to BALT. This is followed by a few additional activations of BALT from me, showing that it can activate in higher degrees of pitch than the time when it failed. The second track: Diving from 25K (you can speed up that part), I try to engage RALT above the altitude limitation and the basic mode is activated (can anyone confirm if that's the way it is supposed to work?). Below 5,000 feet I try to activate RALT a few times and it fails, again and again, until it finally activates under 1,100 feet. (yes, the radar altimeter is on) As you can see- every time it fails, no colon appears next to the selected mode. BALT not activating.trk RALT not activating.trk

They first have to develop some features for the Viper. It's very early.

It is about to become very confusing to follow. Multiple tracks of multiple issues are never a good thing in a thread dedicated to one "issue". OP's title is an accurate description of the visual mode he used to launch the missile (it's not a bug). Other RWR \ guidance issues deserve their own report. It will be easier for the devs.

I'm not sure how it behaves in-game in those scenarios. It should not be accurate enough to support weapon guidance. This is also something that Wags talked about in his intro to LTWS. OP was talking about Aim-120, and he did launch it in VISUAL mode.