investigating AI AWACS (and maybe others such as ATC?) give contact direction calls in degrees TRUE instead of MAG

[norman99]

As the title says, AWACS give contact calls reference °TRUE instead of °MAGNETIC. I'm not sure if ATC vectors are also referencing TRUE not MAG.

All calls to aircraft should be made referencing °MAG, as this is what is readily available in the cockpit. It is the real world standard for all aviation direction referencing, except certain wind forecasts and ops in the polar region, which doesn't affect DCS.

The following image shows the AWACS call direction in the text at the top of the screen, and the actual contact BRA on the SA page. The 13° difference is exactly explained by the 12° MAG VAR of Nevada (+1° for the slight delay between my bogey dope request and taking the screenshot.)

Edited May 3, 2022 by norman99

[NineLine]

Will look into it.

[Ahmed]

Hi,

The A/A WPT bearing and range indications (both ownship and cursor), and the BRA indications in the ATTK format are showing in TRUE instead of MAG.

The  A/A WPT bearing and range and the cursor bearing and range in the SA page are also showing TRUE bearing instead of MAG (BRA curiously is correctly showing MAG here)

Regards,

 

true_aawpt.trk

[MARLAN_]

Thanks for this post! I also noticed this and hadn't got around to reporting it yet.

[Blackfyre]

FYI

 

[Ahmed]

On 5/30/2022 at 12:34 AM, Blackfyre said:

FYI

 

It's not exactly the same issue, as he reported AWACS BRAA being true (a core game issue) and I reported that several hornet displays report true bearings instead of magnetic for various indications that should be magnetic (Hornet ATTK/SA systems issue), but I'll assume that the team took note despite this ending up merged.

[Blackfyre]

11 minutes ago, Ahmed said:

It's not exactly the same issue, as he reported AWACS BRAA being true (a core game issue) and I reported that several hornet displays report true bearings instead of magnetic for various indications that should be magnetic (Hornet ATTK/SA systems issue), but I'll assume that the team took note despite this ending up merged.

Oops, my bad. I should have been more wordy... I mean there is more general issue with MAG and TRUE that connected with your report and ED have payed some attention to it. To my mind, current TRUE bearings in some Hornet systems more convenient now, though it is a bug all the same. I think, it was previously reported (may be a few times). For example, there was a wish about more consistent TRUE and MAG bearings:

 

P.S. As far as I remember, ED said in Russian forum that TRUE vs MAG issue in general calls will not be addressed until new communication system arrives. Don't quote on me, I might be wrong.

[JEFX]

Cant wait for this new communications system!!!