carbolicus

Hi ASAP - Definitely not a troll here, I am an ex-professional pilot honest! However, not greatly experienced with DCS nor hi-fidelity aircraft! It’s just that with all the aeroplanes I flew you selected the ILS frequency, and localiser and glideslope indications then appeared on the ILS display with no further action and there was certainly no need to dial in the runway heading on the VOR as well. However, I never flew military aircraft (except for basic trainers Chipmunk, Bulldog and Slingsby) and so have no idea about how they handle ILS systems, and thanks for putting me right on the need to dial in the runway heading for the A10C. And yes, I was wrong about the need to set up your own TACAN - just experimented and realised that with TACAN off and ILS selected, if you dial in the runway heading on the HSI you do indeed get localiser info. However, if there is no TACAN near the airport (as in some on the Caucasus map which I’ve been using), setting up a man-portable TACAN at the end of the runway does mean you can get DME. This is useful, and in real life DMEs are often co-located with the ILS.

I’ve recently got the A10C and am just getting into the basics of instrument flying. Having commercial flying experience IRL I’ve noticed that the ILS, whilst functional enough, doesn’t seem to be quite realistic and I gather from this thread that it’s a DCS limitation that the course to the runway has - unrealistically - to be set in the HSI for the ILS to work. (Whether or not this works if there is no TACAN near the airport I haven’t yet discovered.) Whatever, here’s what I do to make the experience realistic enough to be satisfying: First, use the ruler in the Mission Editor to measure the exact heading of the runway and convert it to magnetic. Second, set up a man-portable TACAN beside the near end of the runway. This will effectively provide the localiser information which DCS currently seems not to (at least, that’s how it seems to me as I see it so far!) Now when you fly your ILS approach, if you dial in your TACAN frequency to the man-portable TACAN and set course to the exact runway magnetic heading, then the steering bars on the ADI will behave more or less exactly as the ILS deviation bars do on a conventional civilian-type VOR/ILS indicator. To be super-realistic, stick a bit of tape over the DME information on the HSI (if only, VR makes you feel almost as if you could do this!) and use the altimeter (set to QFE of course!) to gauge your distance from the runway threshold. And do it at night, in a strong gusty crosswind, with a 300 foot cloud base, in an under-powered light twin with one engine out, and in the words of Kipling “you’ll be a man my son!”

Just bought it and love it. It’s a pilot’s aeroplane and flies really nicely. It’s also great for old-fashioned instrument flying - if you want a challenge set up some bad weather and fly a cross-country just using the HSI and ADI, culminating in an ILS landing. It’s ideal practice for any trainee pilot in real life who’s studying for an Instrument Rating; wish I’d had it when I was doing mine!

Thanks guys, really appreciate you sorting this. Rather basic though the A10A is, the HSI is such a useful instrument for navigation when you don’t have moving maps etc! Just another point, reviewing an old instructional video on the A10A INS and HSI I did notice that the course indicator window in the top right of the original HSI presumably never has shown the correct course (as set via the Mission Editor). But this isn’t urgent to fix since you can’t dial a course in anyway with the A10A, it can only be set by the Mission Editor.

Track attached chaps. As you can see the HSI course deviation indicator no longer works correctly, and the correct course does not appear in the HSI top right indicator window as it should. For reference, see the HSI in the A10C. The old A10A HSI worked exactly like that, as it should. Many thanks! A10A HSI Problem.trk

Thanks chaps, I’ll do a quick track ASAP. Appreciate you’ll be on the case!

Hi Flappie - Can you see that the HSI (where that red pointer appears) now no longer works properly (see my post in the FC3 Bugs section)? Will that be fixed too in the next update please?

No need for a track, just try the a10a for 10 seconds and you will see the HSI no longer works. It now functions only as an ADF. However, the ILS actually is still fine, my mistake. You can still navigate with the HSI, just note that the only info it gives you is a bearing to the waypoint. You can then use the localiser on the ADI to track to the correct course. You’ll only know what the course actually is by memorising it when you set the mission up, since it no longer displays on the HSI. How on earth is it possible to pretty up cockpit visuals - and at the same time completely break a previously working HSI ??!

HSI and ILS now no longer work correctly since the latest update.

I fly the SU27 in VR for the pleasure of simply flying. I can’t even remember exactly how all the nav kit etc worked in the different types I flew as a commercial pilot, so I don’t care whether or not all the technical stuff is modelled correctly, I just want an experience which flies convincingly, in weather which looks convincing, and which enables me to replicate the enjoyable challenges of flying, for example, an ILS landing in bad weather. The SU27 seems to be the only FC3 aircraft where the autopilot works sensibly (even if technically unrealistic), and the TACAN and ILS are excellent. I even like the ADI, having got used to it! Is it technically correct? No idea, but I like it!

Just noticed something curious which doesn't seem right with the Hercules... When you fly trimmed out, straight and level, and increase power the nose falls; conversely, when you reduce power the nose rises. This is the opposite to what should happen, and seems like a bug to me. Does anyone know if this is being addressed?

Many thanks to whoever made this Hercules mod, it’s fantastic. The first aircraft I ever set foot inside was a Herc at an RAF Lyneham (UK) open day when I was 13. My first ever flight was as an Air Training Corps cadet in a Herc from Lyneham at the age of 14, and I logged around 20 hours of flying in them as a cadet (we lived just a few miles from Lyneham and in those innocent days of the early ‘70s there was little security on the base and in the school holidays we cadets would just walk onto the base in uniform and with our logbooks for ID, go to one of the five Herc squadron HQs and if there was a local flight scheduled they would usually take us). On one memorable occasion I got on a six-hour contour-flying exercise in the Scottish highlands, ten Hercs in line astern (we were number three) - absolutely amazing, steep turns at a few hundred feet through the valleys. It was quite something, standing behind the captain’s seat and looking out and upwards at a flock of sheep… It gave me the flying bug big time - the RAF wouldn’t have me (I was a little short-sighted) so in the end I went the civilian route and became a commercial pilot. I never flew a Herc for real but did fly a full-motion RAF Herc simulator thanks to an Air Force mate (he said it was so accurate that pilots fly most of the conversion course in it before finishing off with an hour or so in the real aeroplane). The DCS Herc certainly feels right compared to what I remember of my hour or so in the RAF simulator. I found it very stable and easy to fly, but I was impressed by the large amount of right rudder needed on take-off. I also wondered at the time if the RAF simulator was inaccurate in that the landing speed seemed so slow - well under 100 knots empty - but the DCS mod is just the same so it’s obviously right. I recently got a VR headset - and standing up behind the captain’s seat on a recorded track of a circuit, brought back so many memories - I was a 14-year-old ATC cadet all over again! Just a bit spooky with no-one in the pilots’ seats!