Virtual Backseaters Volume I: F-14 Radar Intercept Officer

[Karon]

Hey folks,

in 2018 I opened FlyAndWire.com. Initially focused on Arduino, I then got sucked into the F-14 rear seat stuff and I delved more and more into its details. However, the blog-style format of the website is not suitable for conveying a sense of progression and structure. On the contrary, it has the effect of scattering related articles all over the place, depending on when they are posted. Therefore, I decided to wrap everything together into a single book: "Virtual Backseaters volume I: F-14 Radar Intercept Officer". The goal of this sort of extended manual is to finally give more homogeneity to the content, and a better separation between basic and simple concepts, and the more complex ones.
The approach is closer to "simulative" rather than "casual", but the objective is the application of the contents to DCS, hence the word "Virtual" as the very first one in the title of the book. There is a lot of room to go deeper if you want! For this very reason, it may not be suitable for fresh new RIOs: for you, Heatblur's excellent manual is definitely the best place to start.

Post the release of the first draft I received many comments and suggestions and I implemented most of them. Feel free to share your thoughts!

Contents

I published two public drafts so far. I am still very much in the "content-assembly" phase. There are numerous errors in terms of grammar, lexicon and other imprecisions. Those will be dealt with once the core of the book is done.
If you wonder what the "Volume I" thing is about, this book is dedicated to the F-14 Radar Intercept Officer. If everything goes as planned and Volume II will focus on the A6 B/N (V3 to the F-4 and V4 to the Tornado IDS - pls HB! ).

Releases

• 10/09/2022 - Fifth public draft. Article.
• 25/03/2022 - Fourth public draft. Article.
• 08/12/2021 - Third public draft. Article.
• 24/10/2021 - Second public draft. Article.
• 09/10/2021 - First public draft. Article.

DOWNLOAD

The most recent version is available in this page.

Changelog

• 10/09/2022 Draft 108S: Public Draft V;
• 05/05/2022 Draft 108S: Public Draft IV update;
• 24/03/2022 Draft 103S: Public Draft IV;
• 16/03/2022 Draft 95: 655 pages. 200 more than the last public draft;
• 24/02/2022 Draft 90: 600 pages. Almost there…;
• 26/01/2022 Draft 84: 554 pages, 100 more than the last public draft;
• 09/01/2022 Draft 77: 500 pages!
• 08/12/2021 Draft 71b: Public Draft III;
• 08/12/2021 Draft 71: Public Draft III, RC1;
• 03/12/2021 Draft 70: decreased pages margins. “Lost” 15 pages;
• 24/10/2021 Draft 61: Draft II released;
• 21/10/2021 Draft 60: Public Draft II, RC1
• 11/10/2021 Draft 56: First round of corrections;
• 09/10/2021 Draft 54: Draft I released;
• 09/10/2021 Draft 53: Public Draft I, RC2;
• 06/10/2021 Draft 51: Public Draft I, RC1;
• 05/10/2021 Draft 47: first private release for feedback;
• 02/09/2021 Draft 1: opera start.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Karon

[Karon]

Third Public Draft released. First post updated.

More info about the release, here.

[Karon]

Fourth Public Draft released. Post updated with the link to the article (or just click here ).

[Karon]

Parallel to the book, I planned to make a series of short videos aiming to visualize concepts that otherwise would be hard to understand.

The first of the these videos was released 7 months ago, and it's about the DDD in Pulse Doppler mode.

I released the second yesterday, this time the topic is the synchronisation of the computed magnetic variation in case of carrier operations.

More will follow (spare time allowing).

[Sacarino111]

Hi.

Thanks a lot for your effort and work, Keep them coming!

Saludos.

Saca111

[Karon]

Pushed an update to Draft IV: mostly minor corrections and a few additions, taking the total to 650 pages.

[Karon]

A short video to complement the discussion about bombing present in the upcoming Draft 5 of my book. In particular, level toss bombing and self-lased dive toss bombing are demonstrated.
Although these elementary procedures and primarily the Pilot's bread&butter, the RIO is still involved in a monitoring position, offering guidance, and help to manage the flight parameters, countermeasures, scanning for threats and so on. Something that clearly misses in this video.

 

[Karon]

Another brief video hastily put together to close the discussion about simplified the intercept by covering the last step: the stern conversion turn.

As in the previous part, the techniques use the TID to place the target in a certain position, before starting the turn. No manuals involved!

 

[Indianajon]

This is an amazing resource! Thanks for all your hard work! It's proven that the front seat is a much easier position but this is too tempting a challenge not to follow through with. 

[Karon]

As per many other recent articles on the website, the discussion about the AN/ASN-92 INS was created with the book in mind, and then ported to the web.

I recently added a new video and Chapter/Article to complement and, hopefully, close the topic. The occasion is the recent bugfix deployed to sort out the HDG Pushbutton that was affected by a nasty bug in some conditions; the quickest way to sort out a desynchronised AHRS when operating from a carrier.

This is something every F-14 crew should be aware of, as it can drastically impact the efficiency of the aircraft in a mission.

Related article: https://flyandwire.com/2022/08/09/must-know-fix-an-f-14-departing-from-a-carrier-an-asn-92-bugfix/

 

[Karon]

Quick look at the new AIM-54.

Part I, guidance: https://flyandwire.com/2022/09/05/new-aim-54-brief-look-part-i-guidance/

Part II, energy: https://flyandwire.com/2022/09/05/new-aim-54-brief-look-part-ii-energy/

These will supersede the current Pk model in the book. I do not plan to adjust the Timeline right now (draft 5 is already taking far too long!).

 

[Indianajon]

On 9/5/2022 at 11:16 PM, Karon said:

Quick look at the new AIM-54.

Part I, guidance: https://flyandwire.com/2022/09/05/new-aim-54-brief-look-part-i-guidance/

Part II, energy: https://flyandwire.com/2022/09/05/new-aim-54-brief-look-part-ii-energy/

These will supersede the current Pk model in the book. I do not plan to adjust the Timeline right now (draft 5 is already taking far too long!).

 

Have just finished reading through the above and want to say a huge thank you for the work you do. Although I haven't had a chance to put your latest teachings and observations to practice yet, I do feel much more confident now in understanding the how's and the whys. You are definitely the community SME in my mind and alot more helpful than the contradictory rants on the heatblur forum at the moment.

[Karon]

On 9/7/2022 at 11:04 AM, Indianajon said:

Have just finished reading through the above and want to say a huge thank you for the work you do. Although I haven't had a chance to put your latest teachings and observations to practice yet, I do feel much more confident now in understanding the how's and the whys. You are definitely the community SME in my mind and alot more helpful than the contradictory rants on the heatblur forum at the moment.

Thanks mate
You know, generally speaking, I understand the rants, but I don't justify them. As you said, it's usually a case of not understand what happens. In this regard, I managed to fly a couple of hours on Blueflag last weekend to test the new 54 with old firing parameters. I'm putting together a short video covering some stuff such as what I look for before shooting, what to look on the DDD. For example, I lost guidance for ZDF, and I knew it was about to happen, and I knew what was going on, but perhaps a new player can be confused and blame the DCS / F-14 rather than himself.

 

And that being said, Draft V is out now. More information here: https://flyandwire.com/2022/09/12/virtual-backseaters-vol-i-public-draft-v/

Some of the additions include:

• Air-to-ground;
• Timeline;
• Air intercepts;
• General updates;

Plus other topics I already covered on the website, such as:

• INS “Must know” issue and fix when operating from a carrier;
• AIM-54 v2 first look;
• Simplified stern conversion, to conclude the more immediate approach to timelines and intercepts;

Feedback is always welcome!

 

[kotor633]

Hi,
Just amazing what you deliver here! Thank you for that (hope I'll find time to dig deeper). Something like that for the Apache...

[Karon]

3 hours ago, kotor633 said:

Hi,
Just amazing what you deliver here! Thank you for that (hope I'll find time to dig deeper). Something like that for the Apache...

Thanks!
The original plan was focusing on the F-4 post F-14, which is easy because it's very similar to the Tomcat, especially the Navy version, and then the A-6. That's why I poured a lot of time into concepts that do not immediately come to mind when the Tomcat is discussed, such as Kill Boxes, or "old-style" intercepts. The F-14 can use these concepts proficiently, and they were bread and butter for the late A-6 (KB) and F-4 (intercepts).

Although I spent my first 11 years in DCS flying only the Ka-50, I don't think I will do anything like this for the AH-64. I don't think it is necessary: the Apache is a very common aircraft, and sources are plenty. Moreover, you have RL pilots talking about it, such as Casmo. They can make much better content with a fraction of the effort.

The only aircraft I'd throw everything away to work on it is the Tornado though!

[kotor633]

vor 5 Minuten schrieb Karon:

Although I spent my first 11 years in DCS flying only the Ka-50, I don't think I will do anything like this for the AH-64. I don't think it is necessary: the Apache is a very common aircraft, and sources are plenty. Moreover, you have RL pilots talking about it, such as Casmo. They can make much better content with a fraction of the effort.

The only aircraft I'd throw everything away to work on it is the Tornado though!

So when I need info for the AH-64D in DCS, the CASMO videos are my first port of call! There is currently no alternative to this. Unless the vids from Volk

All right, tornado. A long term issue in DCS... Would be the crowning glory for me, too!

[Karon]

In an effort to update and review the Air-to-air part of the book, I recently put together something long overdue: a look at the AIM-7 Sparrow.
Since incorporating the whole study into the book would be overkill, I started by posting the study on the website as a reference, whilst the book will have a more succinct recap.

I launched about a thousand missiles, focusing partially on the 7F, but mostly on the 7P.
Everyone knows how the Sparrow performs already, and how to make the best out of it. Still, I noticed a few interesting properties of the missile, that will affect how I use it in the future.

• Part I;
• Part II;
• Part III.

[Karon]

Another "mini-series" coming in Draft VI, along other content not posted on the website, is a (sad) look at jamming.

• Part I: Introduction;
• Part II: F-14 Avionics;
• Part III: Engaging jamming targets.

Unfortunately, jamming highlighted yet again all the issues that DCS has when it comes to combat and interaction between your aircraft and any object. The "peculiar" implementation of jamming de facto annuls the boundary between exploit and sheer bad game mechanics. So, along as a premise to Part III, there is this: DCS - A poor combat sim.

 

Lastly, as mentioned in the past, I plan to make a few more short videos to complement the book. I made a couple of them for Jamming:

 

So, what is left to do to complete the book? Well, potentially a lot, but I have decided to cut a few parts, and I am looking forward to moving to something else (both games and modules), away from the nonsense of modern modules, which are the usual opponents of the F-14 in most servers.