Community A-4E

More exiting then the f-18 for me ;)

Yes, same here! Love this little jet. It was such a workhorse.

For the Community A-4E October Update, we’re excited to present a number of new features and capabilities for our mod:

Lighting

With the very-generous tips and suggestions from both SkateZilla and one of our 3rd party developers, we’ve implemented our first exterior lighting; red and green wingtip navigation lights, a flashing anti-collision beacon on top of the avionics hump, a white navigation light on the tail, and a bright taxi floodlight on the right main gear door. Navigation, tail and fuselage lights support both bright and dim settings, and may be programmed to flash or shine steadily. (Fuselage lighting and the refueling probe light will hopefully make it by next month.)

We also have early test interior lighting as well, with red and white flood lights in the cockpit. Realistic lighting is proving to be a challenge considering our limitations as unofficial developers, but we’ll keep plugging away.

AN/APG-53A Radar

We’ve been able to implement the AN/APG-53A terrain mapping radar in our A-4E mod. This radar features four main operating modes and submodes:

SEARCH: Long range scanning of major terrain features, using a 5 degree cone that sweeps 60 degrees of azimuth. Useful for identifying coastlines and mountains at night or in bad weather. Manually adjustable search beam from +10 to -15 degrees of elevation relative to the flight path. Search range is adjustable to 20nm or 40nm.

TERRAIN CLEARANCE - PLAN: Scans 60 degrees of azimuth along the flight path using an adjustable 1-5 degree beam height, at a range of up to 20nm. Plan range is adjustable to 10nm or 20nm.

TERRAIN CLEARANCE - PROFILE: 1-degree-wide vertical scan that sweeps antenna elevations from -15 to +10 degrees, to show altitude of terrain relative to the current flight path. Radar returns are overlaid with a virtual -1000’ scribe line. Includes aural and visual obstruction (OBST) warnings for impending low clearance. Profile range is adjustable to 10nm or 20nm.

AIR-TO-GROUND: Measures slant range along weapon datum for more accurate deployment of unguided munitions. Capable of locking terrain up to 15,000 yards away, with a fixed scale of 4000 yards per line on the scope. Requires a dive angle of at least 10 degrees over flat terrain to ensure enough return signal strength to hold a lock.

Additional APG-53A controls & adjustments:

Brilliance - brightness of the radar return screen

Storage - alters how long radar return data stays on the screen

Detail - adjusts cone diameter in TC-PLAN and TC-PROFILE modes

Gain - adjusts the filtering of weak radar returns

Reticle - alters the contrast of the range/azimuth markings on the screen (not yet implemented)

AoA Compensation - aligns radar elevation to flight path

Volume - controls the volume of the OBST warning tone

Red night filter - flips down to improve night vision

Mod limitation: The real APG-53A would be able to see a return from large ships in the ocean, for example. Our radar, however, will not show a return for ships or other vehicles.

Check out a 2 part detailled overview of the radar here:

ASN-41 Navigation Computer

APG-153(V) Doppler Navigation Radar

Next, we implemented the ASN-41 Navigation Computer and the APG-153(V) Doppler Navigation radar. The ASN-41 Navigation Computer features reports present position (in latitude/longitude) and stores up to two destination waypoints (D1 and D2) which the user can switch between at any time. Destination waypoints are manually adjustable mid flight. Bearing, Suggested Heading, and Range to waypoint are output to the BDHI (Bearing-Distance-Heading Indicator) when the BDHI is in NAV CMPTR mode. Traditionally, the pilot would either 1) Keep D2 as home base and adjust D1 as needed for each waypoint or 2) Ping-pong adjusting D2 while flying to D1 and vice versa.

For accuracy of position and calculation of suggested heading when there is wind in a mission, the ASN-41 receives ground-speed data from the APG-153(V) doppler radar, which allows it to calculate wind direction and speed relative to your indicated airspeed, and use that to adjust the recommended course to fly. This radar has Land and Sea modes (it’s more accurate when you correctly select the terrain you’re overflying). For cases where the radar fails to pick up a ground return, it remembers the most-recently gathered data and continues to feed that to the ASN-41 in “memory mode.” If the APG-153 has completely failed, you may enter wind strength, wind bearing, and magnetic declination manually into the ASN-41.

Mod limitation: To ease the use of the ASN-41 in DCS, we implemented waypoint switching based on mission waypoints that were created in the mission editor. “Next Target” and “Previous Target” keybinds will cycle the D1 waypoint through the coordinates defined in the mission. D2 will initialize itself to your home airbase. Pilots are free to ignore these keybinds and program D1 and D2 manually, if they want to be more realistic.

ARN-52(V) TACAN

The ARN-52(V) TACAN receiver is a homing radio used to provide bearing and range to specially designed TACAN beacons on the ground. It supports 126 channels on the X band (1X through 126X) in either REC (bearing only) or T/R (bearing and range) modes. It has an effective range of up to 225 nautical miles, provided the station isn’t obscured by terrain. This model of TACAN radio cannot receive “Y” channels.

Bearing information is displayed with needle 2 on the BDHI when the BDHI is in “TACAN” mode. Range information is displayed on the same gauge when in T/R mode. If the signal is lost, the needle will revert to a default position and the distance measuring equipment will show the “OFF” flag.

Mod Limitation: Air-to-air TACAN ranging is not supported.

Angle-of-Attack Ladder

Per the design of the AoA system in the A-4, it will highlight when you’re on a stabilized on a 4-degree glide slope by showing the amber circle. If you’re descending too steeply (more than 0.5 degrees above glide slope), the green carrot will light up to indicate that you should accelerate. If you’re too shallow (more than 0.5 degrees below glide slope) then the red carrot will light up indicating you need to slow down.

Check out an overview of the systems and combat mission here:

Thanks for all of your support so far, and stay tuned for more next month!

Great Work Guys keep at it...Cant wait to fly this beautiful piece of art...Salute!

Sweet!!!!!

One more quickie demonstration that didn't make it into the other videos...

gyrovague was able to implement having the red filter affect the radar scope color, for night missions. Since lua controllers are rendered last, they're normally unaffected by cockpit materials (the radar's red plastic glare shield) from 3ds, so this actually required some tricks.

Nice work, guys! :)

Fantastic update you have done! Really can't wait to fly this in DCS.

In 3D is very beatifull..... good work....i am waiting for it.

wow. great work i cant wait for this. ;)

Great work, guys! Awesome quality for a mod.

Keep it up boiys

Actually I didn't understand anything about ground radar ag mod. But plane and it's potential looks amazing. Keep it up this great work. Can't wait to try

Great update and vids :thumbup:

Crazy for a community mod, great work :thumbup:

Very impressed, guys. That radar stuff is not simple!

Actually I didn't understand anything about ground radar ag mod. But plane and it's potential looks amazing. Keep it up this great work. Can't wait to try

The AG mod is just a ranging mode that triggers if you're in the AG mode and diving at 10° or more. The line stops sweeping when you're within max range (15000 yards) and its location on the screen shows the distance of the thing you're pointed at.

FYI, part 2 of my radar introduction video has a number of text bubbles to explain what the A2G mode is showing and why.

To summarize, a green line indicating slant range will continuously sweep top-to-bottom until it acquires a lock. Once it has a lock, the black horizontal lines on the display indicate 4000 yards per line, along the weapon datum. So if the green line is 3 lines up from the bottom, the slant range is thus 12,000 yards. As you continue your dive, the bright green line will move down in the display until it reaches the bottom, at which point you fly into the earth. =P

The maximum range is roughly 15,000 yards, thus the furthest lock you'll see is slightly below the 4th line.

At this point it's just a radar capability, but eventually we'll have it integrated with the gunsight elevation adjustment, to allow accurate release of unguided weapons per the A-4s published ballistic tables. It won't be anywhere close to the accuracy of a modern CCIP pipper, but for the era, it was about as good as it got until the newer fire control radars and ballistic computers in the A-6 and A-7 arrived.

Awesome update Gos! Thank you. I can't wait to see this on a carrier.......with me in the cockpit!!! :pilotfly:

I made a short video to demonstrate one of the features we implemented back in August:

You can see the gunsight reflector glass animating when the knob is turned, and the projected gunsight still maintains correct clipping at high and low angles of the glass. Now that we're starting to calibrate the sights for the weapon releases (gunsight mil angles for combinations of airspeed, weapon, dive angle and altitude), we've run into a problem, so ultimately we may be forced to abandon this animated reflector glass. I thought it was cool enough to show it in action here, hoping we can find a way to solve the issue and keep it in.

August 2016 Update

 

• Adjustable projected gunsight and animated reflector glass with dynamic clipmask is implemented. This includes gunsight day/night switch and brightness control.
  

 

Why you cannot represent ground units or ships in the radar?

Why you cannot represent ground units or ships in the radar?

Skyhawk's radar was not able to represent ground units. It could display ships, and the terrain edges. In fact, the main purpose of this radar is to display obstacles.

Yup. It was mostly to find mountains and coastlines, for navigation in bad weather. In air-to-ground mode, it tells you slant range to assist with targeting, but it can't tell you if you're pointed at a tank or a hill. It has no integration into the weapon system.

The fact that we're limited in our capabilities since we're unofficial just happens to fit more-or-less with that reality, which is convenient.

Beautiful work. Very similar tech to the F-4Es I used to ride around in - and we often worked with A-4s (usually Marines) at Red Flag.

And we often flew DACT against the Mongoose A-4s - stripped down with the big P-408 engine - and those were REALLY tough to beat! Any chance...?

But I don't understand the description of the AOA iindexer lights:

"Angle-of-Attack Ladder

Per the design of the AoA system in the A-4, it will highlight when you’re on a stabilized on a 4-degree glide slope by showing the amber circle. If you’re descending too steeply (more than 0.5 degrees above glide slope), the green carrot will light up to indicate that you should accelerate. If you’re too shallow (more than 0.5 degrees below glide slope) then the red carrot will light up indicating you need to slow down."

In every military jet I've flown in, the standard US AOA indexer lights show just that - your approach (usually) angle of attack: red up chevron for too slow, green donut for on-speed, and yellow down chevron for too fast. They NEVER had anything to do with the approach glide slope; the jet doesn't care what angle you are coming down at - it just cares about the AOA. So you can be low or high on an approach and be on speed (donut), or you could be right on the glideslope (ILS needles centered on the ball) and be fast or slow. What the AOA indexer allows you to do is not look at the airspeed indicator while judging the approach and correcting for high/low. The F-4 added an aural tone that made it even easier, BTW.

So unless the A-4 had some weird Navy system (always a possibility) - perhaps there is some confusion?

By the way, they appear to work correctly in the video - a really steep approach starting fast (red ^: slow down!) transitioning to a steep on speed/slightly slow final (green O/yellow down chevron).

Looking forward to trying it out!

Cheers,

Vulture

"Angle-of-Attack Ladder

Per the design of the AoA system in the A-4, it will highlight when you’re on a stabilized on a 4-degree glide slope by showing the amber circle. If you’re descending too steeply (more than 0.5 degrees above glide slope), the green carrot will light up to indicate that you should accelerate. If you’re too shallow (more than 0.5 degrees below glide slope) then the red carrot will light up indicating you need to slow down."

 

In every military jet I've flown in, the standard US AOA indexer lights show just that - your approach (usually) angle of attack: red up chevron for too slow, green donut for on-speed, and yellow down chevron for too fast. They NEVER had anything to do with the approach glide slope; the jet doesn't care what angle you are coming down at - it just cares about the AOA. So you can be low or high on an approach and be on speed (donut), or you could be right on the glideslope (ILS needles centered on the ball) and be fast or slow. What the AOA indexer allows you to do is not look at the airspeed indicator while judging the approach and correcting for high/low. The F-4 added an aural tone that made it even easier, BTW.

 

So unless the A-4 had some weird Navy system (always a possibility) - perhaps there is some confusion?

 

By the way, they appear to work correctly in the video - a really steep approach starting fast (red ^: slow down!) transitioning to a steep on speed/slightly slow final (green O/yellow down chevron).

 

Looking forward to trying it out!

 

Cheers,

 

Vulture

My description assumed you were already on a stabilized approach. In the code, everything is keyed to AoA as you suggest, which is fundamentally a function of gross weight and airspeed when stable. The lights are accurate relative to the AoA gauge recommendations in units, but not the markers on said gauge.

We still have excessive lift at low speed by about 11% or so that we need to tune (we'll get to it in the next month or so), and we want to make the climb, cruise, and approach AoA markers adjustable too. Removing the excess lift will require a bit more AoA for the same approach, or the inverse, it means that stabilized center-donut approaches will be slightly faster and shallower.

Once those two things are sorted, we expect it to behave exactly as you suggest. (Interesting to note though that various period documentation always refers to the indicators in terms of high or low, not fast or slow)

The A-4 btw has a golden donut for on-speed, and green down-chevron, per AFC 456 which is what we implemented. Older A-4s without that modification only used red. The green donut must have been a newer design in other aircraft, or possibly in the A-4M, but we have no "M" documentation.

--gos

gos,

Ok, that kinda makes sense - and I'm recalling the colors from (old) memory. What you guys are doing is amazing - I'm totally impressed, and I've been working on state of the art fighter simulators for 20 years...

Hi low vs slow fast makes sense when you understand the basic concept of AOA. Funny that some current jets just show the AOA units, and you have to relate the number to what you want for the condition of flight (F-15E comes to mind, 22 units for approach - in the HUD, various for different turns, no indexer lights at all). The F-16 (and other) AOA "staple" is a popular solution...

Cheers!

Vulture