bonesvf103

You also forgot one more option: JestHer I've been using JestHer pretty much all the time now. When I do have a RIO other than her, I use my buddy Grifter. v6, boNes

Not to mention real USN Tomcat pilots prior to 1995 or so! v6, boNes

Although the turn to final is dicey, it really is not that much of a problem and when done right, you wont' be near stall speed at all. If anything, you will be in danger of sinking too fast and going into the water, but not of stalling. First of all, make sure the bird is trimmed trimmed trimmed. You should be able to let her fly straight and level hands off the stick. This will help ensure that you are on AOA and thus on speed all the time. Next, as someone pointed out above, you should not be turning more than 30 degrees of bank (as a guideline) or less than 27 degrees. This is determined by how far abeam from the boat you are. 1.0 miles would be 30, 1.3 would be 27. Adjust accordingly for this range. When you are turning, are you also making sure you are in coordinated flight? That left turn will cause a skid, you have to put it some left rudder to center the yaw ball. You don't need alot, and when the ball centers, you can let go of the rudder and it will stay centered pretty much. Ignore the E-bracket. It doesn't update fast enough and is ratchety. IRL F-14A and B pilots ignore it too. Concentrate more on the AOA indexer and your altimeter. You can see the trend if you are climbing or descending with the altimeter and if you are slow or fast with the AOA indexer. Likewise, use of the flight path marker should not be dependent on. In that turn to final, the most I would say use it is to place it on the horizon as you turn. The act of you trying to do that naturally gives your plane a slight descent from the 600 ft AGL you should be on downwind to the 450 you should be at final. You can use it to get you pointed at the crotch of the ship for landing, but that's it--don't use it to place you on the deck, the LSO can tell you are "spotting the deck" and that makes your approach dangerous. Your throttle shouldn't have to move in such gross motions to keep you in the air or even on the numbers. You should always be putting in discrete amounts of power or taking it out. 3 small power adjustments will net you better and more controlled effect rather than one huge power adjustment on a whole. If you are familiar with the "three point power correction" concept, use that. If not I can explain it further. The only thing I feel is difficult but takes skill to master at that phase of the approach to final is how the Tomcat seems to have alot of dynamic stability (I think that's the term). ie, you turn left, and you want to turn straight and level, but she still wants to keep turning left. Then when you get her to turn right to straight and level, she wants to keep turning right. It's constant corrections. v6, boNes

Thanks for doing this! Can't wait to update! v6, boNes

Also, any way to get her to make those snide comments when you trap that Jester does? All she says when you trap is what wire you have caught. Thanks, I've been enjoying having her in the backseat for quite a while now. v6, boNes

In case you didn't know, they often remove the refueling probe cover because of incidents where it would get knocked off and go down the right air intake, FODing the engine. I think in the photo above, that was an example of them voluntarily removing it. v6, boNes

No, I don't. My system clock has not been keeping up date and time lately, could that have had an effect on things? Sometimes when I start DCS it says it can't start and that it is using saved data instead (unless I manually synch time first). Could that be it? v6, boNes

I got some KS-3 data. 1000 lbs every 30 seconds. That's also when JestHer made her calls. v6, boNes

I think after the last pat ch all of my progress was lost. My logbook started over, and all my campaigns reverted back to mission 1 with no points. Is there any way to restore this? v6, boNes

I agree, and I'm more concerned about how when in BVR and TWS when in the front seat, Jester in the back won't hook a target right away. There are times I need to monitor a bandit and it's there in the TID, but he's not hooking it--all that is in the info tape at the top of the TID is the INS coordinates we're at. I don't need that, I need bearing, range, altitude, etc! v6, boNes

Didn't I read somewhere that he has to be able to see the missile as well? v6, boNes

Yes, check your probe switch position. It is a 3 position. Down is off and stowed, middle is internal fuel only, full up is internal fuel and tanks. i found that if set to internal only you can generally get to 12500 lbs and it will stop. In full up (tanks included) you can get as much as 20,000 lbs total. I also hardly ever look at the gauge. I rely on Jester and JestHer to tell me where I'm at. I too am hyperfocused on the pod (not the basket). The refueler can do barrel rolls and loop de loops and I will follow him in and not even know because I am that focused on the pod. v6, boNes

I just clocked a transfer from a KC-135 MRPS at about 800 lbs-1000 lbs in about 20-30 seconds. This is also when Jester was making calls, about every 800-1000 lbs and every 20-30 seconds. I clocked it again and this time it seems to vary. Jester made a call out after 1500 lbs after about 20 seconds. i don't have S-3 data yet. I may have some IL data if you want haha. v6, boNes

it's possible. I've known of a Tomcat guy who shot himself down with a Sidewinder, and another with a Sparrow: https://www.f-14association.com/tales/the-day-i-shot-myself-down.html In the Hornet, you can shoot yourself down if you say launch a Walleye or Harpoon and push negative G immediately as you will collide with the weapon. v6, boNes

I've noticed this for years now and I think it had something to do with the amount of radar return so if you had a strong contact and you tried to undesginate it, it would still "default" to that contact. But I never really saw anything in written evidence to support that. v6, boNes

OK, so that means that it was locked and then it was lost? Just clarifying because breaklock to me usually means I'm too close to fire and hence an X appears in my HUD. Thanks. v6, boNes Haha, pesky Apple! v6, boNes

The tracking gates disappear and the smaller cross blinks. I will try to reproduce and get a track file. Here is video of it. Right around the 3:00 mark and again around 4:25 v6, boNes

Yeah in English (My native language) a boat is a "she." Just customary as nouns are genderless. Going back to the trap---I wouldn't say use your throttles to keep AoA. Throttles are for position on the glideslope and altitude. Trim keeps you on AOA and if not, slight push or pull on the stick based on the AOA indexer will do it. Red up arrow means you're fast so pull back a bit until the donut appears to slow down and get back on AOA. Green down arrow means you're slow, push on the stick a bit to get back on the donut AOA and to speed up (although I fins just letting go of the stick momentarily corrects for it too). Oh and the other reason why you enter the break with wings back is because it looks friggin COOL! Trim trim trim! v6, boNes

There have been times when I am slewing an iMav seeker over to a target trying to get it to lock on. Instead of it doing so, it sometimes seems to lock and the crosshairs blink a couple of times but when I fire nothing happens, or sometimes it will launch but not hit anything. What is that blinking? Was I actually ground stabilizing it or something? I looked around for what the blinking means but couldn't find anything on it. v6, boNes

Depends on the language because alot of languages use genders in their nouns (English is not one of them). For instance, in Polish, a boat is feminine gender, so a boat is referred to as while in Russian it is masculine. So a boat in Russian would be referred to as "he" while in Polish as "she." v6, boNes

What Draconus means by RIGHT CTRL ENTER is it pops up a little on screen monitor that shows your control inputs. You can see your trim motion in it as well as your throttle and stick. The diamond is a little indicator where your trim is and how it is moving. Keep in mind also that the DLC is not really a slider per se. It is a spring loaded control so when you "slide" it forward, as soon as you release it it will pop back to the center position and vice versa. It's not meant to stay where you left it. AS for radio calls, these get squirrely. It depends on if realistic radio is set or not, but sometimes you have to tune the radio to the frequency first, but others not. Sometimes it is set to easy radio but it doesn't transmit properly. I think it's one of thoseATC things they are still working out but if you use the comm menus, it has more chance of working, jsut make sure you are using the right comm menu (com1 or com2). v6, boNes

If you are asking when they are used on the approach, from what I understand, if you are flying a good approach, you don't even need to use it and when you do, you should only need to tap it in the appropriate direction 2 times just before getting to the round down. v6, boNes

Yes, at night, unless you are on the cat ready to launch, having your lights on or lowering your hook means you have no brakes. v6, boNes

cool, thanks. So what is the purpose of the lightning strip? v6, boNes

You know that translucent line above your head on the canopy, I think it's for shattering the glass with a charge or something? Anyway I noticed that when you raise the canopy, that line stays in the closed position while the canopy opens, leaving it behind. Look on the deck just under Shawn's name and you will see the curved line that is actually part of the canopy. v6, boNes