Bearing from ship to player

[Platypus]

On my carrier approach, I call "inbound" and DCS automatically announces the bearing from ship to player. For the sake of realism, I would like to determine this myself. Is there anywhere in the HSI where this is displayed? Many thanks!

[Recluse]

It will be in your HSI and HUD when the Carrier TACAN is selected. I guess it is assumed that the Pilot would have that information and thus reports their position when inbound so Mother knows where all her Chicks are.

 

 

[Swift.]

On the HSI there is a marker indicating bearing to the tacan, and another indicating the bearing away from the tacan.

[fmedges]

Yep 180 degrees from the to tacan arrow

[KittyVCAW-1]

The narrow solid green oval at the bottom of the HSI in this picture is the marker you use to determine this. It only shows when TCN is boxed on your DDI. In this example I used here I would call it 082.

[Platypus]

Many thanks for all the help! The answer turned out to be so simple. I was fixated on trying to find a digital readout. It makes perfect sense that the "tail" of the TACAN points right to the bearing from carrier to aircraft.  Much appreciated.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Platypus
Tweak

[Stearmandriver]

1 hour ago, Platypus said:

 I was fixated on trying to find a digital readout.

 

Just a heads up, there IS a digital readout - of sorts.  On the upper left corner of your HSI is your TACAN data block; it's circled in red in this pic and shows that the TACAN bears 261 degrees from you, is 3.0nm away, you'll be there in 30 mins (guessing active pause was on lol), and the TACAN station ID is CVN.

 

So you know where the ship bears from YOU; you just need the reciprocal heading to know where you bear from the ship.  It's 180 degrees opposite (I've always used the "subtract 200 and add 20" method).  So in this case, you'd report that you're "marking Mom's 081 for 3 miles".

 

Whether that's easier than interpolating where the tail of the needle is pointing depends on how comfortable you are with figuring a reciprocal heading on the fly.  It's arguably a degree or two more accurate, but that probably doesn't matter. 

 

[Platypus]

Thanks for the detail. Awesome information.

[KittyVCAW-1]

I'll have to try that -200 + 20 method. But I bet I get screwed up when passing through 360/000. Practice practice practice I guess.

[Stearmandriver]

5 hours ago, Jonnie2Bad said:

I'll have to try that -200 + 20 method. But I bet I get screwed up when passing through 360/000. Practice practice practice I guess.

Yep that's where it gets confusing.  If the original heading is less than 180, I go the other way:  add 200 then subtract 20.  Confuses everybody at first (including me), but once you get used to it it becomes kind of automatic. 

[Razor18]

16 hours ago, Jonnie2Bad said:

I'll have to try that -200 + 20 method. But I bet I get screwed up when passing through 360/000. Practice practice practice I guess.

 

From 360 to 180 degrees you should do the math the other way around: add 200 and subtract 20. If you don't want to do all the math with hundreds and tens, then simply add 2 to the first digit, and subtract 2 from the second. For instance: reciprocal of 140 is 1 + 2 = 3 (first digit), then 4 - 2 = 2 (second digit), so it is 320. The third digit always remains the same, leave that one alone.

 

The other way around: reciprocal of 240 will be (you can't add 2 to 2, because there is no heading beginnning with 4, so) : subtract 2 from the first digit and add 2 to the second: 2 - 2 = 0, and add 2 to the second digit: 4 + 2 = 6. Reciprocal is then 060.

 

Main rule: if you add to the first, then subtract from the second. If you subtract from the first, then add to the second.

 

Good luck !

Edited December 2, 2020 by Razor18

[KittyVCAW-1]

Ok hell yeah, I always struggled with doing math in my head. It always helped if I could visualize it/write it down. These are good tips, thank you so much.

[VIXEN413]

looking at the tail of the TACAN needle tonavoid maths... works wonders. 

[Razor18]

...if you are exactly on the course line at the time of peeking at it...

[Stearmandriver]

Aviation is full of times when you'll need a reciprocal heading or course.  Once you're used to doing it, it's not really math anymore.