maxTRX

After that big wave hosed them down, they would probably focus their anger on boat's skipper more then me... I just stumbled on this RW vid, not as severe but still... LSOs have a tough job. https://youtu.be/oUSVJ-pncNs

I'm sure you guys have noticed this thread in Hornet's bug's forum: I've never flown any of the missions mentioned there and had no idea so many missions included such weird combinations of natural wind and boat speed.

Well, I only fly carrier ops with WOD between 25 ~ 35 kts., ok, I'll take 40, The wind component preferably lined up with FB but... I'll take BRC wind any day. The example you gave ~ 42 or so... I wouldn't snicker at it Just to finish my contribution... a clip of a trap w/ FB wind 6 kts. and boat 24kts. If tracks make a difference, I have them. https://youtu.be/it2olyX9kaE

The WOD breakdown does matter but I don't really need the trig., just have to look outside of the cockpit now and then, watch the rate of change (drift, etc) Let the boat drivers figure out the proper BRC... Oh wait, I'm driving the boat too, at least in SP Just to make sure I could still follow my own doctrine, I switched my usual 'Wind 6kts, boat 24kts' to 'Wind 24kts boat 6kts' Wind is exactly down the angle. I aimed for 1.3nm at 180, expecting a slight drift toward the boat on downwind. No big surprises there other then the power seemed sluggish again (no scientific proof though) similar to what we had few builds ago, trimming seemed slow as 'usual' and the ghost velocity vector was not using the 'horizon line' as reference... it showed way too high when pegged on the HUD frame. I thought this was fixed already. Well, it's back. Here's a 'non-instructional' vid. If this is what you're curious about, I can d/l the track too but I'm sure you realize the replay sometimes gets out of whack, especially when a/c did some turning. This one replayed correctly for the vid. Sorry about VR jitters, I don't use motion smoothing. I didn't bother with 'normal' conditions side by side unless needed. https://youtu.be/_f8V3eAE4tg

And... there's also a simple 'approach' to all this math: Eyeball. At whatever speed I come in from initial to break, I look at the boat after rolling out level and just before descending to 600 ft. trying to estimate if flying downwind exactly on BRC reciprocal will get me to 1.2 nm from the boat at 180 point. If I see I might be too close (pulled too tight for too long during break) then I might adjust my downwind couple of degrees out. Too far - I adjust the d/w in. I always keep my VV caged on initial so when I start rolling out of the break and see my ghost VV pegged to the left, I know the wind is stronger but it doesn't really matter (unless the wind is 99 kts as I demonstrated in my recent silly YT vid). I start 180 turn when abeam the ramp, preferably at 1.2 nm and fly instruments to get to 'around' 450 ft. at the 90. Quick peak at the boat becomes part of the scan. If I see the wind pushed me a second or two behind and below G/S, it's easy to catch up. The rest of the visual approach 'stuff' has been discussed countless times on these forums, including input from RW naval aviators. With practice you'll notice if your lineup corrections are excessive or insufficient immediately, even w/o LSO's chiming in.

I've setup a few gun fights with 'ace' AI Hornets and in almost all cases the 'aces' acted like they've taken too many booster shots. I agree with OP. All of my setups were head-on, at 22k ft. In the first fight, the AI blew through at high speed and didn't turn... hey, a valid choice. The second, 3rd and 4th fight: AI makes an 'early turn' too early and slows down in a descending turn toward the deck (the hills). I followed at corner speed above him and didn't gun him, just curious to see what the heck he was up to. AI continued at high alpha, popping flares like crazy until the 'deck'. So... in 4 out of 5 head-on setups AI Hornet flew into the ground. Then on the 6th hop, AI gave me a pretty good workout. We were on opposite sides of a circle for some time, then for no apparent reason he pulled up, did a pirouette and down he went... I still need to figure out what triggered his initial decision to fight like an 'ace' should. Well, ED also needs to figure out how an ace should fight...

Regardless of the aiming method, whether it's radar assisted (director reticle) or the funnel, it helps a lot to be in the same plane of motion as the target or close to it. When you drive your reticle or funnel cross onto the target, drive it up slightly ahead of the target as you start shooting (short bursts). Correct up or down a little. You'll get the feel. Out of plane snapshots are a bit more tricky and take some more practice. Now, as far as recording vids... I don't get too fancy with editing or quality of recording so, I simply use the capture feature of windows gaming. Looks like crap when recorded in real time in VR (G2) but it's good enough for debriefs. I didn't notice any drop in performance when recording directly from VR. I would prefer recording vids from mission tracks... if they were reliable but they are not. Especially A/A missions with lots of turning involved. Things will get out of whack in no time. Tracks are not too bad for A/G replays. After I get the raw in-game recording, I cut out the short clips of the footage I need. So.. as you can see I'm not an expert on video making. There are bunch of folks here that specialize in creating quality vids, using all kinds of fancy software. I'm sure you can find some good info on these boards.

would be cool to have AI LSOs recognizing the danger and jumping into the net.

HUD vid? Answers questions like this immediately.

I noticed that the heli's speed is the main factor for detection. I remember fighting a few helis in the past, some of them fairly big and all they had to do is slow down or go into hover to throw me off. After reading your post I decided to give it a try again. The results were the same as in the past. This time I placed a small heli (SA342 minigun) at 3k ft., at 2 different speeds. First at 30 kts., then at 110 kts. In both cases the helis were tasked 'nothing' so they didn't get very creative and flew at steady speeds. One thing that surprised me was a maddogged Amraam shot at a slow heli. It tracked and blasted the heli out of the sky. The Hornet's radar was blind. https://youtu.be/z1JQfptoktQ

First, is there a way to designate an L&S when in spot mode. When I bug the track with TDC, the radar exits spotlight and re-centers. Same, when pressing Undesig. button. (well, this one I can understand) No issues when designating in mini raster (or whatever the proper name is) Second: Currently, when L&S exists in TWS (AUTO or MAN) and it's placed to the side of scope's center, as soon as I switch back to RWS, the scan volume recenters and L&S is faded out. I assume that's not correct?

Just a final observation: If I offset the scan volume no more then 45 ,50 deg., the L&S was never lost and the scan volume did not do this brief 'shuffle' to the center and back. I tried entering RAID from TWS MAN. When exiting RAID, the radar was back in TWS MAN. I'm not sure if this is correct. I think Jake525 mentioned is should exit to TWS AUTO. https://youtu.be/c3RCN1JSwu0

Well, in that case I don't follow but if that's a bug I can probably live with it. EDIT: After watching this again I see what you're talking about. It's not doing this consistently though. The scan goes briefly toward the center then comes back to where it was before entering RAID. As I was getting closer, the lock was harder to maintain even without going in and out of RAID but yeah, I can see the issue.

It's always good to hear 'readback correct' from JTAC or whoever gave you the grid. Then, if you can verify on sensors or eyeballs...

So, would this be considered expected behavior?: https://youtu.be/vDyiPr82GbM

@MARLAN_ Did this change in the latest hotfix? I didn't even bother updating... no fixes I'm interested in. In OB v. 2.7.7.14727 the mech is correct, at least on my rig (in SP). The only time I saw elev. reset was when switching from TWS (L&S designated) to RWS. L&S was lost. EDIT: As far as azimuth goes, there was no issue either. Well, once you're in RAID, you only have some room to maneuver. When the limit is reached, you'll loose L&S and out of RAID. The antenna will still point where the the L&S was lost. I was in TWS AUTO before I entered RAID. Since I mentioned switch from TWS to RWS... When there was no L&S in TWS MAN and I moved the antenna in el. and az., switching to RWS retained the antenna position.

Jeez, I noticed degraded Amraam performance in single player but this...

The ICLS was probably fixed, then again, the deck pitching has been dumbed down a lot so I can't say for sure. With 15, 20 knot wind (30, 35 WOD) the 'bullseye' seems to be stable in pitch. The deck movement is very moderate and slow. So... I modified the test a little and then the test became entertainment: https://youtu.be/b_IRbW_1Ob8

The way it works currently: Within 10 nm, your target designated, Your FLIR in INR mode - bump your SCS switch up toward HUD to use AGR ranging. If your FLIR is in SCENE or AUTO modes (using ATFLIR in this example) - bump the SCS switch up toward HUD. 'FLIR' will show up on HUD as the ranging sensor (I'm not sure if AGR is also working to 'help' in this case) So, it does work within roughly 10, 9.xx nm slant range.

Welcome back hein22. A bonus answer to a question you didn't ask: Can my radar AACQ my own Amraams so I can bump lock them as L&S? The answer... resounding yes! I had too much coffee this morning...

Sometimes the best part of a mission is sightseeing... Punching through clouds and running into scenery I haven't seen before is always fun:

I tested it some more. Seems like there's no need to trim to any specific AOA. Once ATC is engaged and settles after the initial 'craziness' it slowly gets to the middle of a bracket. It disables the manual trim... fine, I can deal with it. In order to avoid the scary power idle dip and loss of altitude (around 350 ft) I tried engaging the ATC right after lowering gear/flaps at around 220 or in the break. The 'ATC' did not show on the HUD until I slowed down a little. I guess it's a function of LE flaps extending to a certain angle (I don't remember exactly) so... as I'm leveling and slowing down, the worst of the initial power dip is behind me. Still, the corrections are slow. The stick movements need to be quick, just taps up and down instead of smooth deflections. (I've read that's the way it's done in RW) Straight in approaches are fairly easy. Case I... I've managed a few but they were not pretty. The power corrections during turns are actually not that bad but the roll out in the groove with only seconds to get everything on numbers, not that easy... for me at least. The main 2 problems in my opinion are: the power dip on ATC start and the corrections are slow. If ATC is engaged when approaching on-speed (trimmed or not) the loss of power and altitude is unacceptable.

Whenever I think I have the AI 'thing' figured out... something else comes along. This time I'm not sure if the issue is the weapon (CBU105) or F15E's pilot logic or most likely combination of both. I was running this little scenario trying to coordinate an attack with a Mudhen. First thing I had to do is remove the 'CAS-a' line from WPT 0 (advanced setup) in the F15E's flight plan. Other wise the Mudhen would go after some other, less significant targets I had placed on the map. At the initial point the target group, weapons, the amount to be used (all) were all specified and the jet was hauling ass toward the targets. It dropped only 2 CBU105's and the bomblets exploded 2000 ft. long. The egress waypoint called for 600 knots run but the Mudhen decided to extend the boards and casually turned above the target and headed out. After a few miles the AI decided to reattack. This time all remaining CBU105's were dropped and found their targets. https://youtu.be/MzM9IzD_L5A

I gave it a quick test on my way back from a mission... it's way behind the curve. Too slow, regardless whether it was activated when on speed or at 220 kts. After initial power down to flt idle (it shouldn't do this when the jet is on speed) it took too long to capture the proper AOA again. When I engaged ATC at 220 kts, the power to idle was no reason to worry but when onspeed AOA crept up, the power didn't catch it in timely manner and since I was already at 1200 ft. my butt 'tightened up' a little when I saw the VV dip way too much. I can anticipate and do corrections manually a lot better. It needs to be tweaked... in my opinion.

I've seen it too. I had 2 Mudhens drop couple of CBU105's and they drifted off quite a distance from an assigned target group. I captured this on a vid. (F2 view) I'll post it tomorrow.