TheBigTatanka

Sierra, It's a 6K hour fighter guy asking me to figure out a way to turn up the lights. I was a tanker driver, and I remember them being brighter too. Anyway, some advice on how to mod the effect would be appreciated.

Is there anyone out there working on a way to increase the brightness of the position indicator lights on the tanker? Boom refueling would be easier if we could see the lights better. Dances

The other thing I will say.... As soon as you fire a AMRAAM from a STT lock, the target gets a missile launch warning on their RWR. That can't be right. It should just be a STT indication until the missile goes active at 15km. At 15km, they also get a M symbol populate on the RWR, in addition to the missile launch warning that they have had since launch.

Would it be possible to edit the texture or effect of the KC-135 boom tanker so we can see the lights easier? At the zoom level which I refuel, it can be very difficult to see the lights. Surely there is a way to brighten them up a bit. Best, Dances

Yes, It is frustrating to keep reading people writing, "it is active off the rail," when in fact it is not. The DCS AIM-120 goes "active" at 15km from the target. If you snip the wire, it seems to keep tracking to its last mid-course update point, and then still goes "active" at 15km from the target (how it knows that, i'm not sure -- I would think it should switch to HPRF as soon as the wire is snipped). Are we supposed to be getting a MPRF mode for the 120 at some point? That would be nice. I'm sure it's difficult to figure out where those ranges should be to switch over from one to the other.

Air to Air tacan was always reliable in the KC-135. It is THE way we executed our rendezvous, and worked great. Not having an air to air radar, it was our only sensor to make the geometry work. Thing was always spot on.

CBemson, We noticed the same issue last night. We could not get the TGP as SOI to designate a point. I'm out flying for a few days, so I can't test, but I think it has to do with the mission I was flying not having any waypoints set for the viper. I suspect they are still relying on waypoint movement to make this work. Did you have any waypoints in your mission? I did not, and it was also borked. Best, Dances

We've experienced some datalink problems when we set our air to air tacans. I'm wondering if the viper isn't using the same code as the F-18. Do you remember that the Hornet tied the MIDS to the tacan on the upper antenna, and had degraded performance (unusable frequencies) from 1-36 X/Y and the corresponding channels 63 above? I noticed that when you turn off the MIDS in the viper, you also lose the Tacan... so they seem to be linked. If they are using the same code, perhaps picking air to air tacan freqs in teh range 37+ and their corresponding channel will solve the issue. We will also work the issue in the v65th. Dances

The red triangle (hollow) is just a datalink fed piece of information. To target the contact yourself, you need to get a paint from your own radar. Most of the time the problem will be with the elevation strobe (El Strobe). Move your cursor to near the contact, and adjust your El Strobe to bracket the target's elevation (should be provided via datalink). Once you have the elevation bracketed, allow about 8 seconds for a 4 bar scan. The contact should populate as a white brick (just a digital indication that something is there), and you can target it with TMS forward. Good Luck.

Just wanted to thank the software guys and leadership (really anyone involved with the operation) for the latest patch. Viper is running very well now. Datalink has been consistently working in multiplayer, lock lines are back, the loft on the 120 is good inside of 45nm (goes wonky on 50nm shots), and the jet flies nicely. It was nice to see the progress on the liveries as well. Thanks for all of your work guys; these are tough times, but we will certainly do what we can to promote and support your work that keeps us in this hobby. Hoping for more fleshing out of the DED pages and FCR modes (DUEL TARGET TRACK please). Really hoping for a more complete systems jet before seeing too many new weapons added -- but supportive of whatever direction you guys go in. Our virtual squadron runs the jet in an aggressor role, and it is pretty well suited for that now. Cheers, Dances

Previous to the current version, lock lines appeared over datalink from wingmen. They no longer do. Track is not useful because it depends on actions from wingmen that cannot be seen. Previous procedure was to fly with someone in multiplayer in your same flight. On the HSD page everyone enabled XMT L16. Wingman would target a radar contact (SAM, or STT), and other members of their flight could see red lock lines. This was super useful. This procedure no longer works since 2.5.6. It was an amazing tool in 2.5.5 to be able to tell your wingmen "4, Target South Group, 3 share south group," and they could do it without comms. Looking forward to getting that back. Thanks ED buddies.

Can't wait for this. Will make for much better training, currently our comms are a bit of negative training.

Probably the place to post this.... Lock lines are also not working within your flight on the latest open beta.

Yes, XMT L16 to get lock lines. The datalink is just intermittent. Seems to go in and out and we can't figure out why. It might work when we are all on the ground, then go out when we get airborne. It does seem to help if we limit our flights to 2 ship elements. If you look in the datalink page 3 (i believe) of the DED where it shows each jet's number, if you have a 3 or 4 ship the numbers will be out of sequence, and we tend to have people lose datalink there. This isn't just AWACS contacts provided by datalink, but also the position of our wingmen within our flight.

It has to be Ground Speed. Same as TAS with no winds. It's valuable info.

+1 tail strobe does not transmit across multiplayer data, can only see own-ship strobe.

Currently the anti-collision light does not transmit across multiplayer. I guess I should post a bug notice, have not seen others report this. But it has been an issue since lights were activated.

New Aim-120 is very nice. Good Pk on much longer ranges maneuvering bandits. I'm getting .6 to .8 Pk on better than 20% range increase. As far as "improving" other missiles, who is to say the Soviet missiles aren't correct as is? Looking forward to what else comes down the pipe. Fox-3 Two Ship!

I think the missiles are better. I'm seeing the ability to take valid shots from further away than previously possible on maneuvering targets, with a Pk of .6-.8 depending on range and shot technique. Much more testing underway #williamtell

Enjoy guys, made by a real pro aviator. Let us know if there needs to be any clarification on when to start the turns. Basically for a 90 tac turn, you start when you are looking down the turning jet's intakes. For a 45 degree turns you start your turn when the turning jet is passing your 6 o'clock. Best,

When I was flying the tanker I would either call out turns over our AR freq if it was appropriate (I had an idea the receiver wasn't busy doing something else), or I would ask the boom to give the receiver a heads up on the turn if they had intercomm connection to the receiver. I think I tended to give notice more often to heavy receivers and B-1s than to fighters. Fighter guys were often doing other stuff while on the boom; and I didn't want to step on anyone. As a tanker guy you have 5 radios, so you are listening to a lot and should have good SA on when to talk and when to keep quiet. In DCS -- the tanker drivers roll into their banks a bit too fast, and the boom operators aren't aggressive enough. But it's nice how easy it is to refuel in the viper compared to other aircraft. pretty cool sim we have here.

Here is a video tutorial from three real world pilots on how to execute turning rejoins. Hope it helps you guys out there trying to fly by the book.

Lucky, I see guys screw the pooch on this a lot by having too much smash and not taking the bid to route early enough. They end up busting the 3/9 line and jamming up #3 and #4 who have to wait for them to get back in. Dances

Hope you guys find this helpful -- a lot of guys miss the mark when it comes to straight ahead rejoins, so here is a demo and explanation in the viper. We'll be making more dealing with turning rejoins, and pitch-outs and rejoins. [YOUTUBE]<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/er4_hJtTd9A" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/YOUTUBE] Also -- if someone could give me a tutorial on how to embed youtube videos in this forum, that would be much appreciated. Dances

A Viper dude I went to UPT with told me the differences are more to do with jets stationed stateside vs jets stationed overseas. And for the most part, it seems like a lot of ANG units operate older blocks; that is going to be mission dependent as well.