Fangsout

No, Harrier does not and will not get a HMCS. There are no night attacks left outside of 203, only Radar birds in the fleet, and with 3 squadrons left and 1 more out the door in 2 years there isn't any reason to be bringing additional functionality. Most programs of record can't get new stuff past 5 years to sundown.

So the sim does a fairly decent job of showing how much pilot workload there is in the Harrier but I will say it’s a little harder when you don’t have the aerodynamic forces putting pressure on the stick. That said, AFC Alt Hold should hold level flight when it is engaged. I can’t recall how DCS models this but in the real jet trimming will disengage it. I usually paddle switch it off when I need to make a turn. Sometimes The jet you’re flying that day has AFC that sucks and will disengage on it’s own but I don’t think DCS models this. The key to avoiding unrecognized spatial D is to have a constant scan and good mission cross check time. Don’t get sucked into the pod or any other instruments for too long without looking at the HUD. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Only the day attack has a knob. The Night attacks and Radar birds both have switches. The missing feature that the real jet has is when the switch is activated the UFCP is energized and you can just type the course in that you want.

Correct, when you put it back in stby it goes to the stowed position.

No, there's only one as far as I know. You could theoretically edit it in the jet to be different.

You can also set up an NSEQ string in the jet, but it's usually only done preflight. The jet can hold a bunch of waypoints that we use for everything from runways to targets to points over the ground we use for course rules to get into ranges. So lets say for instance that my usual waypoints for navigation are 1-35, but the special ingress-target-egress routing is 36-45 and emergency diverts are 46-55, I can set them up in the NSEQ string (non sequential as in not 1-55). Also, when I have an NSEQ string, the route shows up visually on the EHSD with a line between the points I've selected. I can manually toggle through the points which is useful if I decide to skip a point, or have it auto sequence. I may not be using the NSEQ string until I FENCE in and descend into LAT and so it isnt clobbering up my display and I can navigate to things not in the NSEQ string. The EHSD gives us time to go to the next point, our command speed time on the UFCP shows us what speed we need to fly to make our TOT, and real time is displayed in the HUD. All of these tools help us to ensure our timing is perfect for our attack.

Exactly. Especially with the addition of Link 16, you can throw down a threat ring over a known pop-up surface to air threat to help you avoid it. A simplified version would be great, however the EHSD and pilot to vehicle interface right now is so rudimentary it would be less useful. One thing I use a lot in the actual plane is that we can throw a course line through the designation and we have a data block that tells you your abeam distance from the courseline. This helps immensely when trying to put the airplane in the right piece of sky to roll in on a target using the weaponeering we did on the ground.

No, carrying the gun and TPOD together is not restricted. In fact it is preferred to have a tpod designation to shoot at rather then trying to find it with your eyeball through the HUD and correct at the last second.

The night attack doesn't have these all of the HOTAS functionality that the radar jet does, buut in the 2+ we use the radar elevation switch to control zoom and the air program switch to fire the laser. All other sensor select switch functions are as described in the chart above except that to get out of TPOD hotas, you double down again. Going forward on the SSS would bring up the LMAV video if you were carrying one.

Yes, overlays are prepared in preflight on our planning computers. The latest software allows us to create overlays in the jet also but it's not something you want to be doing a lot.

NSEQ Navigation The NSEQ function allows us to set up an ingress and egress string to a target that is depicted on the moving map. We set it up on planning computers prior to flight. You can have it set up so that it auto sequences through the waypoints as you fly over them as a workload reducer when you're flying low altitude and mission cross check time is at a premium.

I'm not sure what generation Lightning pod is being modeled in DCS, but on the gen 4 pods we have now, the pod defaults to on with aircraft start. The old school way was a switch on the umbilical in the pylon like you mentioned. That's fine if you have it on 2, 5, or 6 but crawling under to get to the station 4 pylon would be a huge pain for the ordies. We pretty much exclusively carry on station 4 to avoid any asymmetry issues, and carry more bombs. The pod is smart enough to not enter stby mode until the INS is aligned. Until then it does internal checks and alignment.

IRL the pod defaults to on as well. Power can be cycled on the stores page. The pod will get turned off on deck if the outside air temperature is high to prevent overheating, but otherwise it's on and stowed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is a very annoying issue that I've run into as well. FWIW, fleet night attack and radar jets have a toggle switch instead of a knob. The value also displays on the scratch pad when you press the toggle and you can type in the course you want on the UFCP. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And now you see the real life implications of being a jump jet pilot. Lol Operating off of the boat allows us to be expeditionary, but not carry a lot of ordnance. Operating off of 12k’ runways lets us carry a lot, but then all the compromises our airplane makes for V/STOL become for nothing. Bottom line is if you suspect trailing edge damage, I would avoid using the flaps. Split flaps or flaps that don’t program together will induce the rolling moment you described. Something to consider if you’re doing a conventional landing with the flaps turned off/beeped up is that you will be landing really fast. Recommend a straight in and try to not touch down above the tire speed of 180 knots GS. Also jettison any ordnance and dump down to internals to get as light as possible. With no RCS damage, you can also use power nozzle braking to help you stop. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk