Targeting problem when in auto-hover?!

[Raven Morpheus]

Hello

 

I went back to flying the Ka-50 the other day (after having tried and failed miserably to get to grips with the A-10C) and whilst I was playing the tutorial mission I've got (called How to takeoff and blow stuff up, I downloaded it from somewhere but can't recall where or who it was by) I noticed some behaviour with the Ka-50 I'd like to find a solution to.

 

Basically in that mission you end up hovering above a ridge line and looking through the monitor to line up Shkval for a shot or 3 with the Vhkrs missiles at 3 Leopard tanks.

 

Now, what I was finding was that with auto-hover on it was difficult to move the Shkval target reticule because either the Shkval itself was moving in a direction I didn't want it to, as though it was on auto-search, or the heli itself was turning/drifting/rotating thus giving the same effect on targeting.

 

It seems to do this after the 1st target, because lining up the reticule on the 1st target is as it should be - nice and easy with no unwanted movement.

 

To lock the target I'm pressing on Fire A on my X52 pro which is set via SST to press the lock target keypress. I then press the button again to unlock target to allow me to move the Shkval reticule and that's when I get the problem.

 

I think, that before when I was doing it I could press the lock target button, fire, then press the lock target button to unlock from the target and move to another target with no problem such as the Shkval going to auto-search or the heli turning/rotating/drifting.

 

I've tried pressing the trim button to set a new heading, obviously directly forward of where I am but that doesn't seem to fix the issue.

 

I've checked my controls to make sure they're not causing it, and they're not. I also don't have the "turn to target" button switched on - I'm well aware of that possibly being a cause.

 

 

Anyone have any ideas on what I'm doing wrong, or what is causing this?

Edited September 10, 2014 by Raven Morpheus

[BitMaster]

The Shkval does sometimes move "away".... it is described in some threads about the Ka already and it does happen occasionally and till today I have not read how you can trigger aka reproduce it by will.

 

Regarding the drift in Autohover, it is not perfectly stable. You have to manually compensate yaw with rudder trim, especially if you have AutoturntoTarget engaged and want it to do what it should.

 

Also, if you have ROUTE MODE engaged and the Autopilot Device is still on ( PVI800 ? ) it will always try to steer back to the set Waypoint. Disengage R, shut down the PVI800 and it will work as expected. Disabling Route mode alone will not fix it, afair I have to shut down the PVI or cancel settings to get the HuD marker back from the WP and the nose pointing correctly.

 

 

Many things grab into each other here, check it 1 by 1 and you will get it.

 

Bit

[Raven Morpheus]

Yeah I think Route Mode (and also a little bad trim) might be the culprit for me. I turned off Route Mode whilst targeting the MBT Leopards whilst on a re-run of the mission once I got to the target area and lo and behold I had better aiming with the Shkval. Guess I just never noticed it before.

 

Found another annoying problem though - the way target lock/unlock functions - I seem to recall (in BS1?) I just had to press the lock target button to unlock the target and then I could move the Shkval reticule freely, but now it seems I have to hold that button and move the Shkval reticule off the current target to get it to move freely? It's a little inconvenient that way because my target lock button is on Fire A, and my Shkval slew is on the silver POV switch on the X52, so obviously I can't quite do both at the same time as I don't have 2 thumbs on one hand - I need to remap slightly my controls I think...

Edited September 10, 2014 by Raven Morpheus

[Raptor9]

Raven Morpheus, I have an X52 (non-pro) and this is the config I've been using since BS1, and it works very well for me. Although I threw out trying to recreate the button locations of the actual Ka-50 cyclic and collective. I don't use the SST software, I program it directly in DCS Options menu. (The Latch button is used as a modifier, and the axis Y on top of the throttle is used as the yellow throttle lever axis)

 

Edited September 14, 2014 by Raptor9

[Raven Morpheus]

Er thanks but I think I'll stick with the one I've got. I just had to move a couple of buttons around to make it a bit more ergonomic, I now have the target lock button on the X52 throttle's "mouse" button. I can hold it whilst using the POV1 (the silver one on the X52 Pro stick) to move the reticule. With "lock target" on Fire A I couldn't do that without using 2 hands, for obvious reasons...

 

BTW your "lock target" button (Fire D) is where I have my collective brake button, I find that more ergonomic to hold each time I move the throttle than the hat up button. :smilewink:

Edited September 15, 2014 by Raven Morpheus

[Raptor9]

Nah, I wasn't suggesting you move all of them around, I was just putting that up as an example for reference (and for other people that might be looking for a different mapping scheme).

 

I actually don't use the collective brake/altitude assign button when I move the collective. I only bump it to update my reference altitude when using altitude hold mode. Most of the time I leave altitude hold channel off.