HoneyViper

Hey guy, I'm doing a JDAM training mission. I make sure that I have the FLIR switch to ON, but when I go to the TAC page the FLIR option doesn't appear. I fly around for a few minutes wondering if it will eventually appear but it doesn't. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

That's pretty cool. I didn't realise the dotted lines were targets.

When flying some of the pre-loaded missions that come with the F/A-18C like Alert 5 and Sweep, the air-to-air combat turns into an absolute cluster after a while. Missiles from different elements going after the same targets, no organisation in who is supposed to target whom. I get a sweet shot on towards a hostile but in the replay I see that one of the ship-borne SAMs on my team get there seconds before my missile for the kill. Even in my own flight I don't know what they're targeting. How is targeting supposed to be organised? Can I at least tell the guys in my 4-ship flight who to target?

Do you guys know of any squadrons that release Tacview files of their missions or where there's a bank of Tacview mission files for download? I would love to be able to watch a really well executed mission unfold and have the ability to analyse different segments of it, bonus if there was a YouTube counterpart to it.

Thanks, I've tried with no curve, 10% curve and 20% curve and I think I like it with just the slight curve so I'll keep it at the 10%.

Do you guys using the Orion stick put in an axis curve in the controller settings or do you find the range is good enough to leave it straight? Also what about a deadzone?

Are there any pre-made missions where you're all set up and just about to make that final turn, or heading in just after the final turn? This is the last little part I need to master for carrier landings, I'd like to get right in without having to do all the setup beforehand.

Mods: any chance to move this into to the general Controller Profiles forum? I just realised I posted it into this A-10 one accidentally.

So I did some more testing in Windows Controller Settings, and worked out that the left throttle is about 5% ahead of the right from the very start. Did some more reading and found an application called DIView and adjusted the calibration of the left and right throttles to roughly match. Worked well, but for some reason my entire DCS HOTAS profile got wiped (might have been because I reinstalled the X56 drivers and software in an attempt to reset the settings), so spent a good while setting up my profile again. Luckily I have it printed out next to me. Tested it all out, the engines are now mostly even all the way through the throttle. Only problem is, when I push the clip in to join the throttles, they are out of wack by about 5% now, ie the same problem but in reverse. Anyway, guess I'll be flying with dual throttles from now on. I'd still appreciate hearing from others who have different suggestions other than messing with DIView.

Wonder if anyone else has this problem with their X-56 throttles. When throttles are joined by pushing in the slider clip on the side of the throttle, the left and right throttle input in DCS is even. However, when I split the throttles by pulling the clip out, the input is not even. That is, when the throttles are flush next to each other, the power of the engines are slightly offset which causes my plane to tilt. I tested this in the Axis Command control options and found something very strange. When the throttles are joined together, the input indicator bars for right and left move evenly. However, the moment I unclip the slider the right throttle drops by about 5%. I've attached screen shots to show what I mean. The below image is when the throttles are joined: Then when I pull the clip out to separate the left and right, the right loses input: Really hoping to fix this because I'm getting better at Hornet carrier landings and I've been experimenting with "walking the throttle". This difference in power input makes it almost impossible. Thanks.

Hey Stearmandriver, tried it a few more times and yeah 30 degree bank angle works. Thanks. Dunno what I was doing all the other times where I stuffed it up, I think the bank angle was probably all over the place, but when I keep it right on 30 degrees from the break it lines up perfectly. Thanks again!

Good news everyone. Thanks to all your advice I can now do a VFR landing on land every time no sweat, and land on a carrier probably one every three times. I think the biggest hurdle I have now is the final turn, all the instructions say 30 degree bank angle, but when I do that I tend to overshoot. The good carrier landings that I have done tended to have been when I've done a 45 degree bank angle. I'm pretty sure I'm the right distance from the carrier - on the DDI my left wing tip just touches the course line, so I can't work out what's making me overshoot so much. In any case, really appreciate the tips here. Like I said in my previous response, turn out trimming isn't so confusing after all.

Well I played around with trim and the VV, it was actually quite easy. It seems all I need to do is trim the VV onto the E bracket and it kind of just stays there. I had thought that you were supposed to be trimming the thing the whole time. Apparently not. Getting better with the turns too, although still not very stable. The hardest turn is the final "30 degree" turn to come to the runway at 300ft AGL. But I find that a little power before the turn keeps me from sinking during the turn, and reducing power just before straightening out prevents ballooning.

Thanks for all your responses. Yes, my intention is to land it properly using the trim function etc. I think for the next little while I'll just do some higher altitude flying to get a better feel for trimming, banking, turning and getting the VV onto the E bracket. Then practice some straight in landings.

I think I've tried 100 times to do a VFR landing now, and almost every time I bounce around like a yo-yo and inevitably crash. I've watched videos like one dozens of times too to try and understand it, but my plane just never seems to stay at the speed or altitude or AoA it's supposed to be at. These are all the things that go wrong: At the left turn on the upwind leg when I try to pull 1% of speed, I can't even keep my velocity vector at the horizon line, I either gain or lose altitude rapidly. I guess I don't really know how to use the stick properly. After the left turn and when I've got my flaps and landing gear down, I can't keep the plane stable, I inevitably sink or lift, even if I come out of the turn at 130-150kts. Videos say "use the trim" but I have no idea what this really means. How long do I hold the "trim" switch up or down for? How can you keep track of how much you have trimmed? Sometimes I even find that my plane banks left or right because I've accidentally trimmed that way. And how do you get the trim back to neutral? My velocity vector and E brackets never really meet up; they're always flying past each other. Again, "use the trim" or "control altitude with thrust" means nothing to me - I do all that, but not knowing when or how much to use them means I'm just inputting random actions. Maintaining the 30 degree bank is a laugh - I find myself suddenly sinking or suddenly rising. Then when I have some semblance of control turns out I have turned too acutely and the runway is off to the right, or I've turned to obtusely and bye-bye runway. If by some miracle I've lined myself up to the runway, I still have to contend with the fact that the E bracket and velocity vector aren't aligned. Trying to align them shoots me up or draws me own. And again, "trimming" is of no help because I have no idea what trimming is actually doing. Bit of a rant, but I'm losing patience with this. Seriously how do you guys actually come to understand "trimming" and balancing the aircraft correctly in the air and turning while maintaining altitude and controlling your speed? It's all just so random for me.

Thanks for your help man.

Thanks for your replies, especially Bunny Clark. I think I understand the basics now. Yes, "fidelity" was not the right term regards the RWS. So the radar does show the exact location of the contact immediately after a return is received, but since RWS scans over a wider volume of space the exact location of the contact will inevitably move to a position too far beyond the last displayed position to provide accurate missile guidance. Of course you can limit the volume of space by changing the azimuth and bar settings, thus displaying a more accurate positional information on the DDI, but we have TWS for that purpose. Out of curiosity, in RWS does the computer still maintain a track file of contacts, albeit hidden? Or does it only create the file when LTWS is activated? Would it be accurate to say that they are all auto acquisition modes, just beaming the radar in different ways? And as soon as it detects a target within the parameters of the beam it locks it into STT. Thanks, I hadn't heard of Fast Acquistion before. I don't believe the manual or Chuck's guide mentions it. I had a quick play around and it seemed to work. Had a target STT'd out at about 30nm. The DDI kept flashing 'MEM' down the bottom, apparently it means this. Just had a play around with this, it didn't seem to acquire the "highest priority target based on range and closer speed", it just locked STT on the very first contact the radar picked up - unless there was something else going on just prior to entering STT and it did pick up multiple targets then prioritise? Thanks again.

Trying to get my head around this radar and the various functions is doing my head in. Here's a short little write-up based on my understanding, wondering if people can correct me where I'm wrong and respond to my questions? So there are four "main" modes, being: BVR for outside 10nm and is the default when you display the radar first time; ACM for dogfighting within 10nm; STT which for any kind of range but used to get a good shot off; and AACQ which just puts the radar into STT the moment it detects a target. For AACQ you hit right on the SCS. BVR BVR consists of two "sub" modes, RWS and TWS: RWS which is low fidelity and can't be used for a firing solution. This seems to be the "default" setting once you go into AA radar. It has the additional layer of LTWS to display tracking data, albeit can't be used for a firing solution because the fidelity of the track is not fine enough. TWS is the same emission as RWS but narrows the scan range which gives a higher refresh rate making the tracks more accurate. This is why TWS can be used for a firing solution, and the bonus being you don't have to go into STT and set off the bad guy's RWR. ACM Now for the ACM modes. Because you're in visual range of the bad guys, you lose the display on the DDI, right? Anyway, there seem to be four sub-modes: BST, VACQ, WACQ and GACQ. Pressing up on the SCS gets you BST, which stands for "boresight", it searches targets out to 10nm and will lock a target into STT when within 10nm and inside the dotted circle. But why would you choose this mode over, say, AACQ? Next there's VACQ by pressing down and WACQ by pressing left, but I don't get why you would use them over BST or AACQ, or even TWS for that matter (yes, I know TWS is BVR but it still seems useful within visual range)? Finally there's GACQ which you get to not by using the SCS, but using the weapon selector bringing up your gun. This will put the radar into STT when within 5nm of the target and it will guide you towards it for a good shot. However, you also seem to be able to select BST, VACQ and WACQ within the gun selection, effectively overriding GACQ. Additional Questions How do you move the diamond out of the radar DDI an into the other DDI or the MPCD? It seems that once I get into the radar DDI I'm stuck here. Actually, I've got out of it a couple of times by accident but didn't know how. A couple of times it looks like I have returned to the RWS screen, but the up/down arrows to zoom in/out where not there. What had gone on there? Thanks guys.

I have RAlt + \ for (Comm 1) and RCtl + \ (Comm 2) mapped to two HOTAS switches, so when I push either the radio options come appear and I click to the friendly I want to communicate with. I think it might be a mistake in the briefing notes for the 'Mission' version of 1989 Alert 5. When I click on the E-2 in Mission Planner it says frequency 251. In fact all the aircraft are on 251. But the briefing says Player Flight on 305 and AWACS / Strike Package on 264. In contrast, when you open the Hornet 1989 Campaign and fly the first mission, which is the same 1989 Alert 5, the frequency for the AWACS in the briefing notes matches the one for the E-2 in the mission editor, ie 264.

I'm running the 1989 Alert 5 mission with Easy Comms turned off. According to the mission brief the AWACS (Wizard) is on Chan 2 (264). I've set Comms 1 to that channel and ask the AWACS for bogey dope, but not getting a response. I tried it on Comms 2 and also did a manual input also. When I turn Easy Comms back on and ask the AWACS for bogey dope, he's appearing on manual freq 251. Turn Easy Comms back off again and manually tune one of the radios to 251, low and behold Wizard is talking to me again. Not sure what's going on here - a problem with the info in the briefing or something that I'm not understanding about the Hornet comms setup?

I didn't realise you could call inbound and get the runway number, I was just choosing one arbitrarily from the F10 map. Thanks mate!

Riiiight...the first plane I few in DCS was the F-5 which uses an analogue HSI. All coming together now, thanks!:thumbup:

Thanks for your replies. I don't think I explained myself properly but I think I see what is going on now. I originally thought the course line was supposed to point to the runway heading on the HSI compass points, so when I input a course line angle at 130 I expected it to point at 130. It didn't occur to me that it's relative to the TACAN beacon and nothing to do with the HSI compass points, at least until the two align. Example here: https://youtu.be/N8UC55gJUfc&t=9m22s Overkill inputs a course line of 073, but the arrow itself points to around the 110 degree mark on the HSI compass ring. This is what was confusing me, but I see now that relative to the north point on the HSI the arrow is indeed at 073, and the course line "moves" relative to the alignment of the aircraft and the beacon.

I'm just learning how to do TACAN navigation, thought I had it all sorted and was ready to approach a runway but it turned out the course line angle was off by about 20 or 30 degrees. I figured I must have input it incorrectly. Tried again a second time, made absolutely sure I put the course line in right - 130 degrees - but when I approached the airfield again I saw the bloody thing shifting. Anyone know what causes this? Another TACAN question, each runway has two angles painted at the end which are opposites. I know it doesn't really matter which one you use, but it's nice have the arrow end the direction you're flying rather than the opposite end. But how do we know which angle to input if we don't really know where we are relative to the runway when we input the TACAN/courseline data?

Your landing video was the best explanation of fighter landing I've seen. Thanks for all your work here.