Frederf

TACAN equipment has a warmup time of 85 seconds. You'll hear the ident tones immediately during the warmup time (famously there's a bug where the volume can't be changed during this interval), but the bearing and distance will not function. F5-Tacan-Cold-Fails-just-wait.trk

AP will automatically disengage but it's based on G or AOA (2g or 15AOA iirc). You can stick input in AP without disengaging it unless you trip the AOA/G limits. Stick authority is enough to override temporarily the AP in any case. E.g. if you're going to hit the ground you can grab the stick and pull. AP doesn't trim so out of trim condition counts as stick input which can reduce or eliminate the margin of authority the AP has. The normal way to fly with AP is to depress the paddle, maneuver, release the paddle. If you stick input without paddle it should go back to doing whatever it was doing. For roll channel that's either steering or bank hold which should be the new bank. For pitch it should keep the new pitch or altitude. I don't know if it'll try to fly back to the previous alt.

The DCS boom will not extend past 50.000% extension to achieve connection. In reality pre-connect PDL indications are directive in nature and I think fully manual in control. The directions would be based on your airplane type and rate of motion, "talking you on" with the lights. The PDLs in DCS are computer code so more interpretation by your is required. From that green-green position I would drift slowly along what is the known boom axis radially inward until contact is made. Post-contact the PDLs switch from directive to reactive, linked to the actual boom location. The light indications are still directive (if you fall back the "go forward" light comes on) but it's based on the fact that you have moved back which dragged the boom a certain way.

I have been told that there exists a ground crew checklist document which specifies exactly how the airplane is to be prepared prior to air crew arrival. Obviously if this checklist actually exists and can be viewed we will know exactly how the user should find the airplane.

KC-135, as modeled in DCS, is a full service airborne TACAN providing both bearing and range. There are such airplanes in real life, usually large ones because bearing equipment is large. Every airplane with TACAN equipment can provide distance service but it requires two-way communication. Bearing-only is when a full service station is not achieving two-way communication. Right now all DCS tanker TACANs are behaving like ground stations. If you set tanker to 1X and tune 1X in your airplane like it's a ground station you'll get normal service. If you tune in like it's an air station you'll get partial service. That's because when you're in not-the-right mode relative to the station you sometimes get some bleed over because the different modes and bands and pulse codes aren't 100% independent of each other. The fact that you get partial service when not fully configured to match with the station type causes a lot of confusion.

Repeating what's been said very well above: The COM override page lists every frequency for every channel preset but you can only read one at a time. You see lines 4 and 5 that say "PRE 2 (arrows) / 327.00"? That means that preset channel 2 is frequency 327.00 MHz. If you inc-dec the arrows you'll change to PRE 3, PRE 4, PRE 5, PRE 6 display on line four. As a result on line five the frequency listed there will be the XXX.XX MHz of that channel 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. You change the preset channel frequency of a channel by editing it on lines 4 and 5 of the COM override page. E.g. if you want to make channel 17 to 266 MHz then the actions are: Inc-dec until it says "PRE 17" DCS the *____* asterisks around the frequency on line five ICP 2 6 6 ENTR The CNI DED page will show what the radio is tuned to either as a channel number or as a manual frequency. So no, if you tune a channel number it will only display that channel number on the CNI page. If for whatever reason you wanted to display the frequency you'd have to type in the frequency manually on the COM override page even if it was identical to the frequency of a particular channel preset. But most pilots think in channel numbers because a channel preset as a particular function. "Flight, switch to channel 8." Everyone's channel 8 is the same and who channel 8 talks to (e.g. tanker) has always done that. You could look up the freq if you had to (kneeboard or through the lines 4/5 on COM page) but really you don't care. Tanker is 8 and 8 is tanker, whatever the freq. And as was stated, if you expect a certain order of radio use (ground, tower, departure, center, AWACS, approach, tower, ground) then why not make all those channels in that order so you can just inc-dec arrow increasing by one channel every phase of the mission? It's a bit of a rarity for an MP mission to be constructed with this concept. Such is the benefit of a data cartridge that lets you make all your adjustments in an air conditioned building and not sitting in the ejection seat on a sweltering ramp. The backup UHF load cover label is a good source for the mission file-defined channel presets but be aware that obviously it doesn't update in real time and there's no requirement physically that the BU UHF presets have anything to do with the UFC UHF presets. They're often set the same but they are actually independent and can be set entirely different. Don't expect that if you change preset on the BU radio that UFC will match and vice versa.

The FCR and TGP are not dragging each other around properly. The TGP moves the FCR okayish but the FCR isn't moving the TGP at all. You're not doing anything wrong. The FCR isn't keeping the ground map picture correct throughout the scanning process. When the cursors move you can't trust the picture you see until slewing stops and then the next scan is applied. A slow sweep of the TGP across the terrain will only have the FCR picture correct the instant the sweep passes the crosshairs. At all other times it's out of date, like a periodically updated bread crumb trail. I'm guessing if you controlled TGP and read off the coordinates of a particular target and then controlled FCR and read off the coordinates of the same target that the numbers would match. Attacking with either sensor based on what you see in that sensor should be working fine. Moving one sensor and having the other follow (and having its video be useful) is what's not all the way there yet.

What are the waypoints for the red flight? RWR indications? Maybe they finished their flight plan and went home. I would expect to see them at 45-50nm if they were approaching head on.

On the ground before first takeoff you can watch Kollsman knob directly change diamond vertical position. But takeoff with any setting and diamond magically corrects itself to true position and Kollsman has no effect. Landing again briefly I had two diamonds one at in-flight position and the other according to ground behavior in a vertical stack. Within a few seconds the system "fights" and the diamonds flicker about and it settles on the ground behavior. Seems that in-flight is completely ignoring anything the pilot does at least when it comes to diamond placement. This was with ISA conditions +15°C, 29.92(3)'' Hg. Notably FCR, radalt, GPS, etc. was off so only height data should be baro/INS. Next step is to investigate non-ISA temps and pressures to see what happens. F16 Ground-Air System Alt.trk

All the tankers behave like ground based TACAN now. It's affecting all planes.

If EO is selected weapon type it really matters what is the submode. For EO submode VIS, that's a visual submode and only FCR submode type AGR is allowed which won't paint a picture. AGR is the "CCIP of radar" just measuring a straight line distance through the target box. It would be helpful to know what FCR submode you were in and if this was only repeatable when carrying the ALQ. In a preplanned AG mode and then selecting a visual mark submode is just not happening now. Either selecting mark, HUD in a preplanned mode should cause normal visual functionality or the marks should just be the TD box position. The current inability to HUD mark at all in a preplanned AG mode is weird. TWS should change when TMS right is held for 500 or more milliseconds. Oddly DCS requires you to let go of the switch before it counts the time and decides if it was a short or a long press. TMS right is SOI-sensitive so if TGP is SOI it would control the TGP track mode instead. I'm not sure if it does the TWS switch in any SOI except FCR SOI.

It's called OFP in F-16 too (even in the DED pages where you can check version). "M" tapes are not the only tapes. I think "M" stands for "mission" or something. You have operational flight program, m-series, numbers numbers. Apparently there were "FTT" series at some point. There is evidence that the altitude figures are positioned on the circle symbol both earlier and later softwares than the DCS variant. E.g. an M1 and a M5+ OFP have alt numbers following the circle. Either it was changed and then changed again or it's a specific USAF preference to not have the numbers follow the circle.

Aileron is manual linkage to the pilot's muscles. There are booster systems which are optional by a switch which augment (replace) pilot muscle force with hydraulic actuation. The airplane within certain limits is able to be flown without hydraulic power to the ailerons. Older MiG-21 had no aileron booster at all. Confirm that extension of flaps in the blowback region (450 km/h+ for 25°, 370 km/h+ for 50°) causes primary hydraulic pressure to plummet uncontrollably. Extension of the flaps outside of the blowback region and then entering it by airspeed change does not cause this issue. Ceasing the condition in which the flaps were set in the blowback region by reducing airspeed below threshold or choosing a flap position that is not in the blowback region causes a recovery. If the hydraulic pressure allowed to progress to less than 0.8kg/cm^2 will cause a rapid decrease in JPT, loss of thrust, jumping RPM needles near 90%, and hydraulic pressure recovery does not occur.

None. With a two engine airplane the remaining engine has some utility. With one engine the crash takes care of the fire.

Everything works to some extent. Every "GPS" weapon is an "INS weapon which can incorporate GPS when available for improved performance." The airplanes also have the same behavior, INS with GPS for improved performance when available. Every piece of US military equipment is designed to function in the absence of GPS, just with a bit less performance due to not getting common position updates. JDAM for example doesn't even connect to GPS during short flights. It takes too long which is why the precision improves the longer it's in the air. JDAM works fine. It's an INS weapon. Your miss distances might be 10m instead of 3m but you can still use it.

To spin is to depart controlled flight which the FLCS is doing everything it can do to prevent. Authority in all axes goes away as you approach those limits. The limiters do their job very well in a single axis. To have a departure it usually requires approaching limits in two or more axes simultaneously as vigorously as possible. There are other factors like CG position, asymmetry of stores which make it more likely. I managed a spin in an upright deep stall. Here's a track. For extra credit take over once the deep stall fully develops and try to recover. F16 Deep Stall Spin.trk

The crosshairs are short when self-tracking and long when slaved. At least I thought that's supposed to be the convention. I notice that TMS aft once from area track is long crosshairs but definitely not slaved. In any case, TGP is slaved to steerpoint if you press TMS aft a bunch or press CZ. When slaved to steer the crosshairs (whiskers) are long. I ask because if the steerpoint is not at the surface then you'll deliver your bomb to a point in space in mid air. It will then fly through this midair point and l and somewhere unexpected on the far side. When TGP is area tracking I have a lot more confidence that the target location is on the surface. Notice there is no range indication like T6.6 in the lower left corner. I see in your pictures the elevation reported by the TGP is 25' which should be surface. I also see green text. Is that a mod? As crazy as it sounds mods can do weird things even when it doesn't seem like it should be related at all. Reasons for a miss can usually be categorized as: aimpoint wasn't at the target, airplane wasn't where airplane thought it was, or ballistics prediction from airplane to aimpoint is inaccurate to the actual bomb. Making sure the TGP reported position is equal to the target position should take care of the first one. I'm suspicious of the second category noting that your radar altimeter is much higher than your barometric altimeter. Your airplane thinks its 1200' lower than the distance from you to dirt. I am gathering examples and notice that when temperature and pressure are non standard there are significant vertical errors in HUD symbol display. This suggests something strange with ownship assumed altitude. I would be interested in seeing the INS page SALT value and the info bar (Ctrl-Y) true altitude at the same time for comparison.

TO/LDG CONFIG is a warning item and gets a "warning, warning" (higher priority than LSWT). It's not the same as the low speed warning tone (LSWT) which happens based on IAS & pitch parameters. TO/LDG CONFIG warning is based on >10kft, <190KCAS, VS <-250fpm with any landing item not set for landing TEFs not down, LG not locked down. The idea is to warn you before attempting a landing that something is not OK to land or takeoff. It will not alert simply based on low speed, stall or similar.

I notice your TGP has long whiskers indicating it's slaved to steerpoint. Either your steerpoint is not at the surface level or the airplane is having an altitimetry error such that it is higher/lower than it thinks it is. What is the pressure and temperature of the mission? If you set TGP to area track and slew over targets is TD box on HUD over tanks?

The double tap TMS aft CZ shortcut was added in a later OFP. The only hands-on CZ we get is the TGP SOI TMS aft (enough times).

Currently if you have a nav point 25 then BE will appear at that nav point 25 and not in the mission BE position. Apparently you can only set the BE to be represented by points 1-25 (some F-16 1-25, some 1-99). Of course certain number ranges are a bad idea because they could be overwritten at any time which would move BE unexpectedly. Really the F-16 shouldn't be assigned flight plan steerpoints outside of 1-25 as that's the maximum size of the connected dots. Those are the only ones that can be DTC initialized. 26+ is for marks, lines, PPTs, DL, weapons, etc. Of course you can type stuff in UFC outside that range but what a lot of work and you can get odd behaviors. The mission maker should probably limit the flight plan to 24-25 waypoints and/or DCS should only put the first 24-25 points from the flight plan in slots 1 through 24-25.

Not properly but sort of if you're willing to use slew deltas. The fix stuff is placeholder. A squat fix is normal procedure to have a steerpoint at a known airbase location (parking spot, taxiway intersection, hold short, etc.). You do an alignment, set NAV, then drive over that spot to do a navigation fix while parked on the ground. This updates the 0.1' accurate alignment to 0.001'. You can also do an airborne fix does the same thing, but differently. Plus if you're stationary for a while a squat fix will calibrate the zero velocities (aka zero velocity update). Thing is in DCS even though INS page only displays to the nearest 0.1', it's actually storing much more precision than that "off screen." So if you just hit ENTR to confirm L/L on alignment you're accepting position to 0.001' (or more) precision. If you manually type in a position (even if identical to current display) e.g. N-4-1-3-6-2-ENTR E-0-4-1-3-6-4-ENTR, it's not the same stored value. You can never type in the full precision the mission started with. But normally that's fine to just be close. The better your initial position the faster the alignment (8min is a maximum up to ~70 latitude). The fine position is adjusted with fixes. What you can do is slew the GM FCR over where you know a steerpoint should be and then never hit CZ after that. That will adjust all your steerpoints by the systematic alignment error. Naturally with GPS you do get updates (a few times per second) which adjusts the INS to truth pretty fast, if available.

The CZ function is present on AG TGP and AG FCR pages (even when off, but that's currently missing). If you can find the CZ button and click it I've never had it not do what it's supposed to. The way you diagnose CZ is by doing small slews and pressing CZ. If it keeps putting the FCR cursors back in the same spot then there's nothing wrong with CZ. Either your spot's wrong or your INS is. If each CZ press acts like nothing happened and the slews pile on top of each other that's a problem with CZ.

I don't know if CEP50 or CEP80 but full alignment should be more than usable over 20 minutes without GPS. Be aware we align to the nearest tenth of minute so unless we do a squat fix it's only useful to compare before and after drift. The points won't be exact unless we do a fix of some kind.

Refueling should recharge the compressed air supply in the accumulators just like in other modules.