victorlima01

In certain scenarios the LSO might ask the pilot to turn on the lights. But these are rare occurences. However, since I'm not a naval aviator and cannot confirm this claim all the way, I'll dig a bit more into it and report back Edit: Heard back from a naval aviator. Here is his answer, verbatim: Taxi/landing light is NEVER on except for extreme low vis landings where paddles says “99 taxi lights on”. Daytime, no lights are ever used. Pinky switch is all the way aft. Night time, when ready to go, use the pinky switch and set the lights all the way forward to signal your salute for ready to launch on the cat. After trap and motion has stopped, bring the pinky switch aft as you bring the throttles to idle to turn off all your lights.

Yes, off all the time in the carrier environment. LSOs need to be able to look at the indexer lights. As a matter of fact all lights are off during deck ops and you use your strobe/anticollision lights as a form of saluting the launch officer to get you going on night ops

Just to give you a bit of perspective on RW ops though, jettisoning fuel tanks is a very rare occurrence. So much so that all navy pilots I’ve ever spoken to have never seen it happen even during deployments where they saw action. ETs are actually hard to come by and there’s a finite number of them on the boat. That being said, these are guys who’ve been flying in highly permissive environments these last 2 decades and who’ve never been in a knife fight. All bets are off if they were to engage other combat aircraft and I imagine the first order of business would be to make your bird leaner

Is the new Stennis module still planned? Hey guys, does anyone know if ED is still developing the new carrier module? COnsidering all the work that needs to be done on the Viper and Hornet I don't know where they stand anymore regarding this module's development. I'm not complaining or demanding anything, nor am I asking for a release date. I just want to know whether it's still something in the works, and if so I'll patiently await its release. Also, some months ago Wags talked about developing a mission data card where you could preload several preferences before launching a mission, such as Bullseye, waypoints, sequences, countermeasure programs etc. Does anyone know about that as well?

Sadly I can't help with your original question, but I'd like to point out that you should never, under any circumstances, use the spin recovery switch. When the F/A-18 was being tested they decided that the switch should not be used. Source: more than one retired USN Hornet pilot

can't release AG ordnance after update Has this been reported? After the last update I pickle but nothing happens. So far with everything I've tried: Jdams, LGBs, and GP bombs

I'm getting the same results. Can't remember if this only happens in MP, but I think so.

Ohhhhh man that would be so sweet.

Yep. Irrespective of the bugs I've never had so much fun on a sim. I've been waiting for over 15 years for a decent naval aviation platform to be released, since my Jane's F/A-18E days. The DCS hornet is a blast. No matter how far along it is (or isn't) in development you'll spend dozens of hours learning the ins and outs. Go for it.

You're right. No need. I think that would be for Case IIIs where you are flying IFR and theoretically flying on that radial. My bad

This is great work OP. Many thanks. And the ensuing discussion also has a wealth of information I didn't know. So thanks to everyone.

Honestly I think the cockpit 3d model is gorgeous, and all users will stand to gain much much more from systems that once in place will drastically improve simulation. It's been more than a year and still no TWS. Or INS/GPS. Or a ground mode for the radar. Or HUD symbology for the targeting pod. BTW I'm not complaining, just illustrating how there are indeed systems that should be in place before going back to the 3d model to look at the details of the rear aspect of the cockpit (where few people ever look, if at all). But to each his own.

Tacan course should only be set to final bearing (the angled deck's actual heading: BRC - 9 degrees), when flying case III until the needles show up. For case I recoveries the tacan course should be set to BRC.

No connection whatsoever. ICLS is one instrument in the boat, the tacan station is an entirely different instrument, and both emit different waves with distinct purposes. Please set your tacan according to the ship's tacan (which can be confirmed before loading the mission in the ME). The course should be the 180 reciprocal of the BRC (or the BRC itself, if you don't want to be picky). You use that on the HSI to line up with behind the ship (initial), and also to gauge your distance on the downwind leg (set HSI to 10nm scale). FOr you ti be somewhere in the 1.2-1.3 nm distance abeam at the 180, your wingtip on the HSI should be just touching the course at that scale. ICLS should be set to the channel in which the ship is broadcasting (also configured and confirmed in the ME beforehand). It should also be set to on and boxed in the HSI. That's it. It's different from a civillian ILS in many ways, but the most important and practical to you is that you do not have to tune a VHF radio frequency and select a course. Just tune in the channel. That can be done via UFC or the manual knob on the left console.

According to some squadrons' SOPs you usually climb at mil and 300 kt CAS until 10000. From them onwards shallow out a bit to accelerate to 350 and continue climbing at that indicated airspeed. If you're going to a high cruise altitude you'll want to transition to mach somewhere in the low 20s. Source: a couple hornet drivers and the fighter pilot podcast

I do the following and consistently get good results, hopefully it works for you: Considering a 350-400 kt overhead speed, break at 3.5 to 4 Gs. You'll notice that to acocmplish this turn you'll pretty much be flying with the wings perpendicular to the ground, just like you noticed. I don't buy into that 40-50 degree aob thing. Do what needs to be done. Around 90 degrees into the turn ease off to around 2 Gs. and continuing easing off as you reach the BRC reciprocal. If you break further than a 1 NM from the bow, maintain a level break. If you break over the bow or closer to it than a mile away, I recommend foregoing the level break and starting a descent to 600' once you reach the break's "90", or else you'll arrive at the abeam too high and not configured for AOA. This tidbit of infomation I got from one of the rw drivers that frequented this forum. If you worry too much about a level break and you're leading a 4-ship at 400 kts where you have to break early, you'll be high at the abeam. Flaps and gear come down as soon as you reach 250, no matter where that happens in the turn. Do some of that pilot sh!t to avoid the ballooning effect. I find trimming for on-speed on-AOA one of the hardest parts of all this. But all rw drivers out there say it's actually easier in the real bird, specially the post-lot 20 airframes that will tell you on the HUD what AOA you're trimmed for. A good rule of thumb is about 3 seconds of trim actively being held to achieve on speed on-aoa. It takes a lot of practice and like Lex said, a good pass starts all the way back in your break.

QFE should never be referenced in the carrier environment, only QNH. But since the carrier is operating at MSL QFE will always be the same as QNH. However, it is incorrect to reference QFE. For now I would not worry about comms during case I recoveries. You can grab the carrier's BRC from the F10 view, and plan to join the stack accordingly. Getting authorization to land for now is only important in Case III recoveries since you need the lighting to work.

Redkite's tutorial and Wags' video

Just to add to the mix I bombed a bunch of stuff yesterday in MP in the Caucasus using LGBs. I think I was on the Hoggit server. Worked fine

That's simply untrue. Most pilots really don't use ATC that much. But it is not uncommon for a flight lead on admin part of a flight or during cross-country to engage ATC during cruise. Also, ATC for approach is only ever used by the more experienced pilots. In fact I believe most hornet/rhino squadrons prohibit their junior officers from using atc for approach in normal ops.

You're welcome, although others have provided the same answer before me. Also, the TDC in the real bird is so much better and smoother than what we have (in the warthog at least). For example, I complained to one of these two pilots I mentioned that I wasn't being able to "sweeten up" the target diamond during pop-up bombing runs using auto-delivery. I found the TDC sluggish and very imprecise. Since this pilot had a warthog hotas for DCS he commented that the real TDC is much more precise, and a bit faster to slew around too. So it's not having these little tidbits of information from everyday operations that makes us sometimes assume wrongly. Anyway, you can ask this sort of question straight to the same guys that have been helping me out. Just join Lex's discord. There's a handful of military operators there who're very helpful and patient.

To the OP: according to at least two different real world F/A18C operators, ATCs were very seldomly used, and never during the tactical phases of flight. I'd imagine if they were to be used during the tactical portion of flight it would be while orbiting a holding fix for CAS missions and the pilot would be operating the TDC to find and designate targets with the Atflir. In that situation the throttles move very little and I don't see how having your left hand resting over them would affect the ATC servos or be a nuisance to operating the TDC.

This. If you were using the Tpod and zooming in on a target before using the a2a radar your antenna elevation will be way off. You have to recenter it. In the real bird the switch has a spring that recenters elevation I think.

I've talked to a couple of Hornet drivers who said they'd only ever use autopilot functions when on admin phases of their flights or stateside on cross-countries. Never when going over the beach. Same with autothrottle. Also, if you're a wingman you can pretty much forget an autopilot or atc exists... and most if not all USN flights are scheduled at least in sections. Solo flights are unusual from what I gather.

Even though dumb bombs are used very rarely in combat nowadays because ROE typically require pinpoint accuracy and zero collateral damage, USN pilots practice a lot of unguided deliveries. According to a recent discussion in GB's discord, nowadays most rhino drivers favor auto delivery mode when rolling in and they sweeten up the solution during the run-in. This way they achieve very accurate bombing runs, but obviously not as consistent as they'd be with precision-guided munitions. In my opinion MK-82s do not reflect this level of accuracy in-game. Also, I find CCIP bombing much more accurate than auto-deliveries (in the F/A-18 in DCS). Might not be as realistic as what's being in today's Navy, but it usually gets the job done and is a ton of fun