Yoda967

This was at Glenview Naval Air Station, and as I recall (it was 1986), I did say "CANTCO." In my defense, I was a student pilot on an early solo. My then-limited experience talking on a radio was all Surface Navy, and before I went to RT Talker school. (Training on the job in CIC back then was, "Here's your headset. When you want to talk, there's the foot pedal. Don't choke yourself on the cord." The OS's had better radio training than we FT's ever got.)

You haven't truly lived as a flying club pilot until you've been number 2 for takeoff behind a Marine C-130, had your instructor say, "Look behind us," and you were ahead of a section of F-4s. Or had the following conversation with the tower: TOWER: Cessna 35U, request you make your approach at 85 knots or better, over. PILOT: Uhhh, Cessna 35U CANTCO, over. TOWER: Roger, 35U, break, Tomcat 101, make a left 360 for a Cessna 152 on short final, over. TOMCAT: (exasperated sigh) Yeah, roger that.

In OB, it's been moved to Weather. Might try looking there.

Thank you, sir!!

It appears to be repeatable.

Yeah, I'm not sure that's it. I screwed up in my track file there and advanced the throttles too early, but retarded them again to fix the problem that gave me an alert. It's consistent now...every launch. And I'm ready for it. Still blacking out.

AAAAND, I *am* wrong. I'm seeing blackouts now for all my carrier launches, even with missions that worked before yesterday's update. Track file attached. TAKEOFF_BLACKOUT.trk

No, I'm saying that I've had it happen several times (in missions of my own creation) when I'd inadvertently put a tailwind over the deck. I then changed the mission so that there was a HEAD wind across the deck, eliminating the blackouts. It's an easy mistake to make: in DCS, the wind settings are for the direction the wind is GOING, not where it's COMING FROM. It's backwards from how we're taught to think about wind, at least where I learned to fly, in the US. In the real world, the crew works together to maneuver the carrier and operate the catapults in real time to ensure that the jet gets airborne within a specific airspeed range (11-20 knots above single-engine minimum controllable airspeed) without making the pilot black out. I could be wrong, of course. EDIT: I AM.

I don't believe this is a bug. I've had this happen several times, but only when there wasn't much wind across the deck. Try speeding the carrier up, and see if that helps. Edit: To explain a bit of what I think is happening -- the catapult power adjusts to launch the aircraft at a particular airspeed based on its weight. Of course, an airplane's ground speed is the sum of its airspeed and the wind speed. If it's headed into the wind, its ground speed is slower than its airspeed. With a fixed-length catapult, the amount of acceleration to reach the desired airspeed is greater when the wind speed is lower. You have to get going faster in the same distance. Harder acceleration means a greater chance of blackout. EDIT: DISREGARD. I WAS WRONG.

Yup. It's part of the preflight checks to check the PRF Select Switches on the bomb. Laser codes are published in the ATO/SPINS.

GBUs? Interesting. Do they display a laser code on the stores page? If so, maybe the CTLD JTAC will work for them.

Yup. That did it. Thanks!

Unfortunately, there's no way that I know of to move your own jet around on the deck before start (we'd all love it if there was), but you can add static aircraft and equipment to the carrier deck. There are some templates and an equipment mod in the DCS User files that should have instructions included, or you can search the forum for "carrier static aircraft" and come up with some ideas on how to do it yourself.

I hate this answer, but-- it depends. One of the reasons a JTAC will declare Type 3 control is that he unable to visualize the target directly. That's probably what's happening here, sicen visual ranges are reduced at night. Under the circumstances, it doesn't seem like he will. To get the JTAC to lase, you can move it closer to the target or use a remote laser platform, such as a UAV.

Been following this thread with interest. Spent all weekend working on getting my wingman to work as a separate group, but that won't work when flying off a carrier. (Adding a second group always starts a flight deck fire.) What I've learned, though, is that if your dash-2 is in the same group as the player, and you lead him past the target in visual range, you can then send him off to attack it. (He'll make some approximately right engagement calls - "In", "Missile away", "Off" - so you can call him to rejoin after he engages.) I'm beginning to think that the only way to do this is to keep the mission on the small side and use AI PUSH TASK to make the current target group the only non-invisible enemy group on the map.

+1 to what backspace340 said. My advice to people learning to land on the carrier is to start by practicing carrier-style landings on a runway. Get your landing attitude right first, then work on landing consistently on the touchdown zone markers in the proper attitude. It's MUCH easier to learn how to do that when the runway isn't moving. Once you can consistently fly a full carrier break pattern and put the Hornet down on the touchdown zone marker, then take it out to the boat and have a go.

After you place the aircraft, set the waypoint type to "Takeoff from Ramp (cold)".

Thanks. CTLD is "Complete Troops and Logistics Deployment", a scripting tool for DCS that includes some JTAC functions. You can find it here: https://github.com/ciribob/DCS-CTLD#jtac-automatic-targeting-and-laser

Update on this issue: The wingman has to "see" the targets to know they're there. I was thinking that maybe the wingman was not engaging because the LMAV defaults to laser code 1111 and the default JTAC laser defaults to 1688. Set up a test mission with CTLD to change the JTAC laser code and discovered that the wingman wouldn't engage until he'd "seen" ground targets. After that, I could turn him loose and he'd shoot LMAVs without any laser designation. (This has been confirmed by others: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=224778) Second test, same scenario, with JTAC set for laser code 1688, yielded the same results. Clearly, the wingman is not dependent on a laser desig. He's also closing mighty close to the targets...so much for standoff weapon. I also found that once the wingman has been "shown" the ground targets, you can lead him out several miles and order him to engage ground targets, and he'll go back and shoot. HOWEVER: If he shoots the target being lased, the default JTAC will call ABORT, ABORT, ABORT. (CTLD JTAC, not so much).

+1

If the JTAC called for LMAVs, the odds are he also specified type 2 control. Type 2 is used when the JTAC can't see the target or can't see the attacking aircraft, such as when there's a standoff weapon in play. The JTAC's job is not just to provide targeting info, but also to deconflict the airspace in the target area, so he needs to know where the players are, even when he can't see them. The IP INBOUND call isn't optional, even on subsequent runs. Neither is the IN call. You're telling the JTAC where you are in case he can't see you (which is likely in the case of an LMAV). Thinking of it another way, the JTAC will give the CAS aircraft an IP that's about 60 seconds of flight beyond weapons release on the target position on a specified bearing from the target. (In DCS, the JTAC doesn't do this, so you can ballpark it...either way, you're giving JTAC a 60 second head's up for weapons release when you call IP INBOUND.) You also need to make the IN call, which tells the JTAC that you're ready in all respects (except maybe range) for weapon release. In short: Unless you're shooting multiple missiles on a single run in, you need to reset the IP (go back out beyond the IP and establish yourself inbound before calling IP INBOUND), and go through the whole engagement process again.

Exactly. And before you fly, have a plan. "Patrol Route S10 between Tskhinvali and Gori." The mission briefing should give you an idea of where to start looking...if not, open it up in the ME and look where the spawn points are, then pick one or two. If you're just galavanting around the countryside, you're not accomplishing much. Some flights, you might find nothing. That's pretty realistic. There's a lot of info out there about Operation ALLIED FORCE, which was mostly this kind of mission (SCAR).

Yup. Tried that, too.

Thanks, Eagle. There being no datalink in the FA-18C yet, the desig method isn't an option. I've tried all the wingman "engage" options for ground targets, but -2 just won't engage with LMAVs. No joy.

I'm loving the LMAV in the Hornet...but I can't seem to get my wingman to engage with LMAVs. Anyone know how to make that happen?