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donkeyrider

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    DCS F/A-18C | Air to Air Refuelling Tutorial [Early Access]

    in DCS: F/A-18C

    Posted

    Interesting, I flew with jello back in the day when we were JOs. I hate facebook but I did glance at the content he is offering. This should be a goto reference site for anyone wanting to learn the finer details of flying the hornet in the navy. From what I remember he wasn't a gamer and probably still isn't so I doubt he has checked out DCS (I could be wrong).

     

    Regarding refueling, one of the things that I have yet to see any sim get right is the dynamics between the aircraft along with the massive physics involved with airflow.

     

    Not only do you have to deal with a more sluggish aircraft when you slow below 250kts but there is a dynamic variability between the aircraft that is a result of pilot stick/throttle input, airflow and inertia of all aircraft involved.

     

    Even if a plane is on autopilot (like the tanker is) it will always be constantly moving in 3d space as a result of various changes in air pressure causing the autopilot to slightly raise and lower the aircraft to maintain an altitude number.

     

    Up/down side to side and fwd/backyards is constantly happen even in the smoothest of air. This is what makes real-life refueling stressful and formation flying challenging.

     

    Alas pc flight sims never seem to model this dynamic right, the AI planes always seem to be locked into 3d space. I have flown formation with AI in most of the recent flight sims and none of them model this variability. Real shame.

     

    Just watch a few real-life formation videos and you will see what I am talking about.

     

    One more note on the dcs hornet refueling video out there, the visual checkpoints of using the hud are not possible once in close to the tanker. Your head is no longer looking straight on and the hud is not in your field of view when looking at the probe/basket.

     

    For the hornet, your best technique (as mentioned in the video) is to look through the basket and plane and reference the horizon so to keep you stable and not chase the basket with the probe. I have seen way too many close calls by pilots who wouldn't do this and chase the basket. It was never pretty when they did that.

     

    And no, air to air refueling is never smooth like the video is showing for the reasons I stated above.:book:

    Here is the proof, watch midway through the video for a near mid-air collision between two heavies.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiN9M0ahfmM

    That's great colour. Thank you.

     

    Out of interest, did the military grade simulators you trained on replicated this turbulence?

    Training available?

    in DCS: F/A-18C

    Posted

    I'm not sure if the Early Access will have training missions on Day 1. However, Wags is posting tutorial videos and I think watching those should be enough to get us started. Plus these forums of course.

     

    I'm also reading the NATOPS manual at the moment, which I'm finding useful as well.

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