Refuelling Probe light?!

[TEMPEST.114]

I'm learning night tanking in the F14, after being very successful in the F18 and for the life of me I can't find the probe light.

 

Any help or is it still a missing feature?

[draconus]

http://www.heatblur.se/F-14Manual/general.html#external-lighting

The refueling probe light is used to illuminate the refueling probe and is automatically enabled with probe extension.

All external light controls are located on the Master Light Control Panel except for the exterior lights switch on the left throttle (see Throttle) which disables or enables all external lights apart from the approach lights.

Haven't tested lately but it might be less bright than you expect.

[TEMPEST.114]

All external lights on (except probe).

Cold start with Jester

Probe extended, no light on external view anywhere near probe, and no light on ground from inside cockpit.

[sLYFa]

The probe light is there, its just ridiculously dim and therefore useless

[viper2097]

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=241064

[maxTRX]

I don't have the cat so I can't compare.

Check this RW vid:

 

 

Start at 3:10

[IronMike]

Sorry guys, I think I forgot to put down a tracker for it, I did now. We'll see if we cant fine tune it soon. Apologies for forgetting about it.

[TEMPEST.114]

Thank you IronMike. I appreciate you reading these threads and replying. A+

[IronMike]

Thank you IronMike. I appreciate you reading these threads and replying. A+

 

 

My pleasure, as always. :)

[Callsign JoNay]

I don't have the cat so I can't compare.

Check this RW vid:

 

 

Start at 3:10

 

I just started learning the F-14. I was going to come here and report the probe light problems, but it seems that the probe light is pretty dim in real life based on that video.

 

That being said, I'm seeing zero illumination in the sim. I can see the light turning on in the external model, but no light actually illuminating the environment. Seems to be the exact same bug that plagued the F-18 for so long and was only recently fixed.

[Callsign JoNay]

I take it back, the probe light is working. But it seems to be pointing in a direction that's not very useful. You only see it reflect off the basket if you're about to connect but you miss high.

 

Is this accurate to real life?

 

[tech_op2000]

Refueling at night without using the nvg's is damn near impossible with that refueling light. it is crazy dim and not pointed in a very useful direction. That said, I would suspect it to be a poor design choice on the tomcat engineers rather than on heatblur. 
Here are some views of it:

[Dragon1-1]

It's there, but I noticed that it, like most lights in DCS, illuminates things at a far shorter range than they should. Aside from the alignment issue, I'm pretty sure that the real thing can actually illuminate a good part of the whole tanker at precontact. You shouldn't expect too much from a dinky red night vision light, but I don't think it should be completely useless, either.

[LanceCriminal86]

Between talking to a couple of RIOs and reading some NATO AAR docs, the probe light isn't intended to be like a headlight on a car. The tanker itself has lighting (with the layout depending on the AC), and the probe light generally helped out to about ~20 feet from what I was told. Ambient light and lighting from the tanker obviously would +/- that, but it sounded like the visibility is somewhere in-between where it is now (practically in the basket) and what some folks want to see (totally illuminating out to precontact).

So, aircraft like the S-3 and future KA-6, it's going to remain a challenge, but the probe light should help some there since you have to be in pretty close anyways tanking off of those jets. With KC-10s, British Tristars, KC-135s, and I believe KC-130s, some had illumination actually in the basket, while others had ambient lighting and spotlights underneath the aircraft to provide illumination of the basket and hose between the tanker and tankee.

I don't know if we currently have it but depending on dates, some tanking baskets should have illumination, either illuminated strips like formation lights, or actual lights behind the basket that would make it "glow" a little.

[GumidekCZ]

On 9/23/2020 at 7:19 PM, IronMike said:

Sorry guys, I think I forgot to put down a tracker for it, I did now. We'll see if we cant fine tune it soon. Apologies for forgetting about it.

Any progress there behind the doors? We started flying Tomcat in 2023 with this issue still unresolved. Still unable to refuel at pitch black night because of poor refuel light.

[Uxi]

When I do night refueling with my squadron, we generally turn the gamma up to compensate for the current state of lighting. 

[diveplane]

ed need to tune the lights better in this sim for further distances.

[RustBelt]

On 4/4/2024 at 10:30 AM, diveplane said:

ed need to tune the lights better in this sim for further distances.

Been saying that since 2.5 dropped. 

[The_Tau]

F-18 has very nice and bright AAR light... Maybe too bright, but at least night AAR is possible...

[Mnemonic]

+1 for fixing Tomcat probe light, it’s completely invisible. It’s working alright on F/A-18, but doesn’t work at all on F-14

[wngover]

+1 for "Enhancing" Tomcat probe light for night tanking.  The current lighting conditions make it extremely difficult without using a 'gama adjustment' or the NVGs.  Not asking for a 'headlight' but something seems to need to be adjusted.  Increasing the ambient lighting from the Tomcat to reflect off basket or improved ambient light range from tanker to backlight hose and basket.  In fair to clear skies, there should be enough residual lighting around to create a more prominent shadow of the hose and basket.