How to change tanker orbit properies

Greetings,

I am doing a sandbox mission for Nevada and would like to do the following thing.

I've got a KC-135 orbiting with refueling mission @ FL220 and 440 knots. That's good for F-15, however a bit too fast for the Hawg. So I want to make an F10 option for the tanker to select it's pattern between "High and fast" and "Low and slow".

The original orbit it set in such a way that WP 0 and 1 define orbit pattern, initial orbit task is supposed to terminate in 1.5 hours and then tanker goes to WP2 to land at Nellis.

So far I've created triggered task with orbit parameters for "Low and Slow" that is of a type AI Task Push. I trigger it in my very basic LUA upon selection of the F10 menu item. However, it seems that nothing happens. Even after completing one full circle tanker does not change orbit altitude and speed.

Many thanks for any insights!

Greetings,

 

I am doing a sandbox mission for Nevada and would like to do the following thing.

I've got a KC-135 orbiting with refueling mission @ FL220 and 440 knots. That's good for F-15, however a bit too fast for the Hawg. So I want to make an F10 option for the tanker to select it's pattern between "High and fast" and "Low and slow".

 

The original orbit it set in such a way that WP 0 and 1 define orbit pattern, initial orbit task is supposed to terminate in 1.5 hours and then tanker goes to WP2 to land at Nellis.

 

So far I've created triggered task with orbit parameters for "Low and Slow" that is of a type AI Task Push. I trigger it in my very basic LUA upon selection of the F10 menu item. However, it seems that nothing happens. Even after completing one full circle tanker does not change orbit altitude and speed.

 

Many thanks for any insights!

Hey Andrei,

ATP-56 is the current source document for air refueling. While I don't have access to the current version, I have access to the previous manual. While the format has changed, I know the speeds remained the same. Per the Flight manual,

The optimum Air Refueling Altitude and Airspeed for the A-10 is FL190, 210 KCAS

The optimum Air Refueling Altitude and Airspeed for the F-15 is FL300, 310 KCAS

(REF: ATP-56(B) ANNEX ZE OPR: HQ AMC/A3VK)

HOWEVER<

Normally we'd refuel F-15s between FL200-FL250 at 310KCAS

For the A-10...We'd start out at 210 and usually end up slowing down and descending if possible to a lower altitude. Also in real life the KC-135 has to be below a certain gross weight for refueling. It has to be light enough to slow to refueling speed (Usually with flaps 20*) another issue is deck angle. The Boom Line valve has to be closed between refueling to fuel from being siphoned out of the KC-135s tanks.

Hope this helps.

I put some time ago the NATO Air Refuel procedures on research section, check here for new document (last post):

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=135952

Hi Sierra99 and Dragon! Thank you very much for the insight on refueling practicalities. That's very good to know.

Unfortunately this doesn't help too much for the topic of dynamically adjusting holding pattern parameters :) I'll try to dig deeper into LUA, if I manage to solve this, I'll share the solution in this thread.

Hi Andrey.

Create four waypoints and make two orbit patterns for them.

So WP 1, Orbit, Race Track, 220 @ 400 knots.

WP 3, Orbit, Race Track, 190 @ 210 knots.

In triggered actions tab add "switch waypoint" to WP3 for the tanker.

In trigger menu, add Radio item (F10) asking the tanker to change the speed, for instance with FL1.

Set up another trigger, When FL1->true, AI task push: switch waypoint.

That should do the trick. If you add another switch waypoint task to move back to WP 1 and make triggers switched actions, you should be able to have that work whenever suits you. Hope that helps!

Hi Andrey.

Create four waypoints and make two orbit patterns for them.

So WP 1, Orbit, Race Track, 220 @ 400 knots.

WP 3, Orbit, Race Track, 190 @ 210 knots.

 

In triggered actions tab add "switch waypoint" to WP3 for the tanker.

 

In trigger menu, add Radio item (F10) asking the tanker to change the speed, for instance with FL1.

 

Set up another trigger, When FL1->true, AI task push: switch waypoint.

 

That should do the trick. If you add another switch waypoint task to move back to WP 1 and make triggers switched actions, you should be able to have that work whenever suits you. Hope that helps!

Brilliant! I will be checking this one out. :thumbup:

Hi Andrey.

Create four waypoints and make two orbit patterns for them.

So WP 1, Orbit, Race Track, 220 @ 400 knots.

WP 3, Orbit, Race Track, 190 @ 210 knots.

 

In triggered actions tab add "switch waypoint" to WP3 for the tanker.

 

In trigger menu, add Radio item (F10) asking the tanker to change the speed, for instance with FL1.

 

Set up another trigger, When FL1->true, AI task push: switch waypoint.

 

That should do the trick. If you add another switch waypoint task to move back to WP 1 and make triggers switched actions, you should be able to have that work whenever suits you. Hope that helps!

Hi!

Yay, I was thinking about having two WP sets, but that particular implementation never came to my mind.

Many thanks, will give it a try!

Just to close the topic: implemented this thing as suggested by baltic_dragon.

WP0 - WP1 is the first orbit

WP2 - WP3 is the second one.

There is a triggered task for the tanker unit to push to WP2.

The switch, however is done using a bit of LUA:

-- Get groups

local _tankerGroup = Group.getByName("US KC-135 Tanker")

 

-- Get the tanker down

function tankerActions()

trigger.action.pushAITask(_tankerGroup, 1) -- Tanker low orbit

end

 

-- ADD SUB RADIO MENUs

local tankerMenu = missionCommands.addSubMenu("Tanker")

 

-- ADD MENU ITEMS

missionCommands.addCommand("Request low&slow orbit", tankerMenu, tankerActions, {}) -- Tanker low orbit

Glad it worked! :thumbup:

So does this mean that the route will only include 2 orbits ?

Is there no way for the Tankers to Orbit Indefinitely OR until they need to land and refuel ?

If they need to land and refuel, take off and return to an orbit race track, will they not do that on their own OR with some sort of Triggers ?

And finally, when you wrote > "Create four waypoints and make two orbit patterns for them.

So WP 1, Orbit, Race Track, 220 @ 400 knots.

WP 3, Orbit, Race Track, 190 @ 210 knots."

Are the commands "Orbit, Race Track" in the Lua Script OR are these Triggers or Commands or what ?

I have no idea because I am useless with the ME in general.

Any chance someone would make a reasonably simple Single Player Refueling mission for the Harrier in Caucus map ?

I'd love to have a Parking Lot Hot Start and Parking Lot Cold Start Harriers in a Refueling Mission that I can Train to fly and refuel in.

If I had such a mission to use and view in the ME, I might be able to start figuring the ME out a bit.

Not exactly what you asked for, but I had it handy and you can figure it out/modify from there.

By default the orbit command is indefinite, but the AI may break out of the orbit under a few conditions. Specifically if the group has another active task like CAP they will break orbit to engage targets. Also if damaged/really low on fuel they will RTB. If the aircraft can midair refuel and a tanker is available, they will divert to the nearest tanker.

What they were describing was the flight plan for a tanker and then using triggers/scripting to change which part of the flight plan is being used.

av8_tanker.miz

Thank you kindly Grimes. Much Appreciated.

Have a great week.

For the life of me, I cannot get this to work.

Any help, please? I think my waypoint triggers are not setup correctly.

Thanks!

I was setting up a mission with a tanker and once I placed the KC and it didn't work I would have to delete it and start again. It is almost like once the thing is in there it will not change. I got them all working, KC-135, KC-130, and the S-3, with a nice mellow race track orbit between two waypoints at 100nm apart. The S-3 has baby sea legs and RTBs early. In closing: I make the 1st WP with all the info. (Orbit, TACAN, Freqs) The next waypoint is out there a ways. If you have them take off leave WP 0 alone and start with WP1. Seems to work for me.

Scooternutz, thanks!

I think I have it working, and yes, having WP0 in use for the loiter orbit doesn't seem to work. Loiter being WP1-2, with tanker track being WP3-4, seems to work. I can send him back and forth between the two. My code is pretty crude, as I am a noob.

-- Tanker loiter orbit
function tankerLoiter()

   local _tankerGroup = Group.getByName("US KC-135MPRS Tanker")

local MoveLO =
{ 
	id = 'SwitchWaypoint', 
params = { 
	fromWaypointIndex = 3,  
	goToWaypointIndex = 1, 
} 
}

_tankerGroup:getController():setCommand(MoveLO)

end

-- Tanker Sierra-November orbit 
function tankerSierraNovember()
	 
   local _tankerGroup = Group.getByName("US KC-135MPRS Tanker")

local MoveSN =
{ 
	id = 'SwitchWaypoint', 
params = { 
	fromWaypointIndex = 1,  
	goToWaypointIndex = 3, 
} 
}

_tankerGroup:getController():setCommand(MoveSN)	

end

-- function tankerWhiskeyEcho()
-- trigger.action.pushAITask(_tankerGroup, 1) -- Tanker Whiskey-Echo orbit
-- end

-- ADD SUB RADIO MENUs
local tankerMenu = missionCommands.addSubMenu("Tanker")

-- ADD MENU ITEMS
missionCommands.addCommand("Request Sierra-November Track", tankerMenu, tankerSierraNovember, {}) -- Tanker Sierra-November Delivery Orbit
-- missionCommands.addCommand("Request Whiskey-Echo Track", tankerMenu, tankerWhiskeyEcho, {}) -- Tanker Whiskey-Echo Delivery Orbit
missionCommands.addCommand("Return to loiter", tankerMenu, tankerLoiter, {}) -- Tanker Return to Loiter