Pilot's knowledge about radar...

[Donut]

How much knowledge does the F-14 pilot have on the radar and it's use? What is covered during training? In the Hornet and Viper, the pilot must obviously know everything about the radar and how to operate it, but that is not the case when you have a RIO.

[Victory205]

How much knowledge does the F-14 pilot have on the radar and it's use? What is covered during training? In the Hornet and Viper, the pilot must obviously know everything about the radar and how to operate it, but that is not the case when you have a RIO.

 

Everything.

 

Some pilots were very invested in knowing the system and technique, some brain dumped most of it, but RAG students went to the same classes and sims. Either way, experienced pilots ended up flying with FNG RIOs and had to help them at some point. Experienced RIOs broke in nugget pilots on shipboard operations and tactics. Very much a team effort with constant communication between front and back. We even attended the RIO only sims, standing outside at the instructors console, which was a great learning experience. It gets very complicated with respect to ECM and ECCM.

 

My back seat hop was a blast. As you know, lots to play with.

[RustBelt]

Who’s the “Executive” in the crew? Pilot or RIO? I would think Pilot since RIO isn’t trained to fly. But how is that dealt with when the Pilot is a newb and the RIO is experienced?

[KlarSnow]

Cant specifically speak for the tomcat but in the Strike Eagle its very much a team effort, with different responsibilities at different stages and times. The pilot is the final button pusher on any ordnance leaving the jet, so in that sense you could say they are "executive" but woe betide the pilot who releases a bomb without his WSO's consent, anytime I've seen something like that happen its never ended well. Either the pilot thinks he has more SA than he does, or the WSO is behind and needs to catch up, either way, the bomb probly shouldn't have been dropped. Both aircrew are voting members at pretty much all times.

 

If theres any doubt either aircrew can veto verbally a release, and you build up trust in each others skills that nobody is just gonna go rogue and do something without the other crewmembers consent.

 

As far as tactics, its all known by both crewmembers what is or should be happening at any one moment, so you both back eachother up on what you are doing with the jet. If the WSO sees something and calls for a break turn, again, the trust is built up in training so the pilot will just break as directed immediately. I've voice actuated my pilot to maneuver against a bandit I was tally with but he wasnt and he just flew as directed until he got tally.

 

As for how to deal with varying experience levels, if a backseater has more experience then they will push that SA forward, and usually the pilot does what the more experienced backseater directs. If the pilot has more experience and can pass things back for the WSO then the same will happen. Its all a plus plus game to be the best crew you can.

 

There isnt usually a whole lotta disagreement between the two of you, its much more adding SA to each others buckets and staying as much on the same page as you can. As soon as you are not thats where crew breakdowns occur.

 

For example adapting it a bit for the Tomcat in DCS if there were contacts in front of you, strike eagle crew contracts wouldn't really have much discussion about who you were targeting, you would both know from the brief/tactics study, which bandit was the priority, and the RIO would be automatically working and targeting the appropriate contact without any input from the pilot. Any alterations to that would come from the flight lead. Or if say the pilot saw something going wrong or not as expected (RIO targeting the wrong thing) He would then query it, then there would probly be some handoff comm of "targeted, your missile" from the RIO to the pilot, then the pilot shoots at the appropriate time based again on tactics.

 

If it was complex or a lower SA moment there might be some discussion like "We got the right contact right?" "Yup right contact" as the RIO is targetting it, just to keep the SA up between the two crewmembers.

[RustBelt]

So there’s no designated “Pilot” in Command, both crew-members are fully responsible for everything the aircraft does?

[KlarSnow]

the pilot is always the pilot in command, he has the pilot wings, and is responsible for actually flying the plane, but yes both crew are responsible for the aircraft, especially in a tactical situation. Really the situation where there is a disagreement like you are aluding to doesnt happen very often, its always a plus plus game where the backseaters suggestion is 99% of the time adding SA and vice versa, not a disagreement about well we should crank left or not.

 

IE usually when the backseater says something directive like that, the pilot has built up trust due to combined training so does it immediately, theres no questioning it unless its something that is patently dumb.

Edited January 2, 2020 by KlarSnow

[Victory205]

The flight lead was usually the senior pilot in the flight, assuming that he or she was qualified to lead the number of aircraft in the flight.

 

The Senior Crewmember, no matter what seat, was usually the Mission Commander. That could change, depending upon the size, scope and distribution of assets and the experience or recency of the Senior crew member. Sometimes, say on a large strike of some sort, there was an overall Mission Commander, a Fighter Lead, a Recce lead, etc. Depends upon the Airwing policy.

 

In an individual engagement, the person or crew with the best SA, system status, tactical position, etc could assume the tactical lead, and that designation could change within the fight as well as SA changed due to jamming, failure, missile expenditure, fuel status...you name it.

 

Loose Deuce concept, which is learned very early in the tactical portion of training command for the jet pilot.

 

That flexibility is a huge advantage.

[Victory205]

Heh, there is rank in the cockpit. You’ll understand in spades when you get back on the ground.

[Spiceman]

Lol... love the signature.

[Extranajero]

This excellent podcast has about an hour of input from one of the Tomcat pilots who helped Heatblur :- http://omegataupodcast.net/333-flying-and-simulating-the-f-14-tomcat

 

He talks about Pilot\RIO task sharing, the whole thing is really, really interesting