Can't find out how to use bombs

[Frederf]

I did a 1.5 minute align (1.4m is the earliest possible) and despite selecting blended in NAV>OPTIONS the HUD shows G1. After ~10 min airborne I got B1 (EAC sticks) but still no transfer alignment. I did an inflight alignment down to 0.8, still unsat. REINIT INS and  another in flight align. At all times the INS FOM was 6 which isn't good. INS was "I" status. I feel you have a maximum INS FOM for transfer alignment and I don't know any in-fight way to get it. EGI also shows DEGR on the STAT page.

I tried a 3.9min align... FOM 6... ALN UNS

I tried a 4.0min align... FOM 1... ALN RDY

Maybe in reality there is a way to get working JDAM after a less-than-full align but I can't see how in DCS.

[Yurgon]

4 hours ago, Frederf said:

I tried a 4.0min align... FOM 1... ALN RDY

That's great to know, thanks for taking the time to test this!

Regarding the previous question, I never would have thought someone would take off with an alignment status anything other than 4.0 0.8 and NAV flashing, because why would a pilot do that? There's always enough work to be done so I, for one, am not waiting for the INS to become ready. Unless the airfield is getting mortared and I'm in a bit of a hurry to get airborne, that is. Yes, I'm looking at you, The Enemy Within.

Without a track it's hard to tell what has happened there exactly, but it sounds as if some player just rush through the startup procedure and then run into very avoidable problems later on.

[ASAP]

14 minutes ago, Yurgon said:

Regarding the previous question, I never would have thought someone would take off with an alignment status anything other than 4.0 0.8 and NAV flashing, because why would a pilot do that? There's always enough work to be done so I, for one, am not waiting for the INS to become ready
 

 

Real world, they wouldn’t. real world they start the egi and cdu right after the APU. By the time they get both engines started, check flaps, speed brakes, flight controls, SAS, trim, wheel brakes, pitot heat, chop check, get ATIS, and set up their radios the alignment is complete only THEN do they turn on the cicu, iffcc, displays, etc. that’s the way the TO is written and doing other stuff just invites a ton of issues. 

if the jet was on alert it would be cocked and ready to go. When they got the scramble order the crew chief would start the APU and the alignment would be done by the time the pilot was done strapping in. 

The pilot could start taxiing before the alignment was complete, but the jet would still stop in arming long enough for the alignment to finish up while they are getting armed. It just doesn’t make sense to deliberately do something that will degrade your GPS like skipping the alignment or not letting it finish. In flight alignment is more of an emergency procedure and a fast alignment is a maintenance function  

They do train for GPS degraded ops, but that’s so they can be ready for when <profanity> breaks or gets jammed. It’s not something they do to save an extra 30 seconds of ground ops. 

[DN308]

6 hours ago, ASAP said:

Hopefully not insulting your intelligence, but are you getting a good EGI alignment on the ground before you takeoff? Are you waiting for the flashing INS NAV RDY  after a 4 minute alignment before hitting NAV on the CDU? You should have a FOM of D5/B1 on takeoff.

 

Affirm. 

Alignment done before moving the plane on the parking.

What had me posting that question is because I have never had that issue before the last couple of updates. I don’t say it’s linked but...

[DN308]

7 hours ago, Yurgon said:

That's great to know, thanks for taking the time to test this!

Regarding the previous question, I never would have thought someone would take off with an alignment status anything other than 4.0 0.8 and NAV flashing, because why would a pilot do that? There's always enough work to be done so I, for one, am not waiting for the INS to become ready. Unless the airfield is getting mortared and I'm in a bit of a hurry to get airborne, that is. Yes, I'm looking at you, The Enemy Within.

Without a track it's hard to tell what has happened there exactly, but it sounds as if some player just rush through the startup procedure and then run into very avoidable problems later on.

Alright, I know well The Ennemy Within... (me)

But, I still have to learn some things with the Hogs. 

So, waiting for the CDU to display POS NAV READY is not enough?

Whatever, I should have been lucky so far to never had this issue before...

I’ll do a track, but the one from the mission was too large to be posted. I will make a shortened mission to be able to share a track.

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by DN308

[jaylw314]

2 hours ago, DN308 said:

Alright, I know well The Ennemy Within...

But, I still have to learn some things with the Hogs. 

So, waiting for the CDU to display POS NAV READY is not enough?

Whatever, I should have been lucky so far to never had this issue before...

I’ll do a track, but the one from the mission was too large to be posted. I will make a shortened mission to be able to share a track.

 

More importantly, I can see in your screenshot on your CDU page that there is a * next to the INFLT button, suggesting you haven't pressed the NAV button yet.  In the upper right, I can see *** where there should be a D5, which shows your DTSAS FOM.  You are still in alignment mode

The "INS NAV RDY" cue comes on solid when a degraded EGI alignment is available and if you press the NAV button then, may not be sufficient for targeting.  The "INS NAV RDY" cue begins flashing when a full EGI alignment is available, and you should only press the NAV button then.  I have not tested what fails with a degraded EGI alignment, but based on the industrious people above, it sounds like it does cause problems.  I can't imagine anything works if you're not actually in NAV mode.

The time it takes for a full EGI alignment:

• Ground: 4.0
• Fast: 1.6 
• Inflight: 5.5-6.5

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by jaylw314

[DN308]

As a humble request may I ask someone here for a full and correct dark and cold startup procedure in regard with CDU and alignment ?

 I was assuming doing things right and that it was « automatic » but it’s not apparently. Compiling everything above I must confess that I am confused now… Maybe my English understanding not good enough (for sure is not).

many thanks in advance

[Yurgon]

4 hours ago, DN308 said:

As a humble request may I ask someone here for a full and correct dark and cold startup procedure in regard with CDU and alignment ?

The manual has a long chapter "Aircraft Startup Procedures" and then also a much more abbreviated checklist.

But the gist of it is: As soon as you have electrical power (either ground power or APU + APU GEN) available, switch on CDU and EGI and confirm the CDU is going through its built-in test.

After pretty exactly 4 minutes, the INS alignment status reads "T=     4.0 0.8" on the 3rd line from bottom, and "INS NAV READY" is flashing at the 2nd line from top. At this point, hit "NAV" at LSK R3 and observe that "INS NAV READY" disappears and an asterisk appears next to "* NAV".

Edit: The A-10C Iron Flag training campaign goes through the whole start-up with lots of narration and explanation. Mission 1 covers this topic in about 70 or so minutes. I can highly recommend it.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Yurgon
INS NAV READY should disappear, not become solid

[rforce]

also recommended "Basic Flight Training"

Start-up and Shutdown

believe me:

you WILL learn

 

[DN308]

1 hour ago, Yurgon said:

The manual has a long chapter "Aircraft Startup Procedures" and then also a much more abbreviated checklist.

But the gist of it is: As soon as you have electrical power (either ground power or APU + APU GEN) available, switch on CDU and EGI and confirm the CDU is going through its built-in test.

After pretty exactly 4 minutes, the INS alignment status reads "T=     4.0 0.8" on the 3rd line from bottom, and "INS NAV READY" is flashing at the 2nd line from top. At this point, hit "NAV" at LSK R3 and observe that "INS NAV READY" disappears and an asterisk appears next to "* NAV".

Edit: The A-10C Iron Flag training campaign goes through the whole start-up with lots of narration and explanation. Mission 1 covers this topic in about 70 or so minutes. I can highly recommend it.

 

Many thanks. I was in the process to try finishing the Persian Freedom campaign before starting the Iron Flag

[jaylw314]

2 hours ago, Yurgon said:

The manual has a long chapter "Aircraft Startup Procedures" and then also a much more abbreviated checklist.

But the gist of it is: As soon as you have electrical power (either ground power or APU + APU GEN) available, switch on CDU and EGI and confirm the CDU is going through its built-in test.

After pretty exactly 4 minutes, the INS alignment status reads "T=     4.0 0.8" on the 3rd line from bottom, and "INS NAV READY" is flashing at the 2nd line from top. At this point, hit "NAV" at LSK R3 and observe that "INS NAV READY" disappears and an asterisk appears next to "* NAV".

Edit: The A-10C Iron Flag training campaign goes through the whole start-up with lots of narration and explanation. Mission 1 covers this topic in about 70 or so minutes. I can highly recommend it.

 

@DN308 ^^

FYI, the line that says T= 4.0.0.8, the first two digits refer to the time you've spent in alignment mode (4 minutes in this case), so that will count up from 0.0 once alignment starts, so that should give you an idea of how much time you have left before full alignment.  The second two digits is GPS accuracy and will decrease over time