Ability to Declare "Training" to Other Vehicle Commanders

[Rex]

For example:

1. The ability to practice AA Refueling without  the refueling plane yanking the hose away.

2.  The ability to do touch & gos on the carrier or get an LSO landing grade or the without having to use proper radio ops starting from 10 nm out.

3. The ability to request a Case II/III landing even in fair weather for practice and/or for when you're dangerously low on fuel.

Some method to give refueling pilots, LSO, ship captains, etc the ability to realize that we are training/practicing.  Some of these skills take some time to acquire.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Rex

[SharpeXB]

9 hours ago, Rex said:

The ability to practice AA Refueling without  the refueling plane yanking the hose away.

The boom operator isn’t “yanking it away” they’re moving it in preparation to connect it. Don’t try to chase the boom Just fly into position and they’ll connect it. Not sure what “yanking the hose away” means. As much as I’ve seen the tanker deploying a drogue (hose) never takes it back unless you cancel or complete the refueling.  

Edited November 21, 2022 by SharpeXB

[Dangerzone]

17 hours ago, Rex said:

For example:

1. The ability to practice AA Refueling without  the refueling plane yanking the hose away.

2.  The ability to do touch & gos on the carrier or get an LSO landing grade or the without having to use proper radio ops starting from 10 nm out.

3. The ability to request a Case II/III landing even in fair weather for practice and/or for when you're dangerously low on fuel.

Some method to give refueling pilots, LSO, ship captains, etc the ability to realize that we are training/practicing.  Some of these skills take some time to acquire.

 

Hi Rex,

Not stepping in on your request - just some things that may be helpful:

If the hose is being 'yanked' away - it's because the pilot is dropping back. If on the other hand you mean that they retract the hose if you haven't connected within a certain period of time and at some stage become too far away, IIRC you can bind 'Ready Precontact' as a button which may be helpful as a workaround. 

In regards to Case II/III landings - it is possible to do this with VAICOM. You can make calls like 'Commencing, Platform, etc' which the last time I used put the ship straight into Case III mode even though the weather was fine. 

As for training on the LSO grading - maybe check out MOOSE. They have Airboss and the ability to report some pretty cool stuff (including graphs of your approach such as the attached). You don't need to do the full calls - you can just call 'EMERGENCY' from the F10 menu which activates it.

I know these are a little OT from your request (in that they're more workarounds instead of native features) - but just incase they're helpful.

Cheers

DZ

[Rex]

On 11/21/2022 at 5:12 AM, SharpeXB said:

The boom operator isn’t “yanking it away” they’re moving it in preparation to connect it. Don’t try to chase the boom Just fly into position and they’ll connect it. Not sure what “yanking the hose away” means. As much as I’ve seen the tanker deploying a drogue (hose) never takes it back unless you cancel or complete the refueling.  

 

 Oh no! I'm so sorry!  I can't believe I did that, especially after what happened to me!  

See, about a month ago, I paged a co-worker about an issue, and when they replied, I said "Sorry for paging you, I hope I didn't take you away from anything important."

"Eh, you yanked me away from the oncall meeting", he replied, "so I owe you a heartfelt thanks!"

Wait ... what?  OMG, I was so confused!

"Wait, I didn't yank you out of the meeting!", I protested, "We're not even in the same state!  How could I have yanked you out of the meeting?! You're a liar! You're a big, fat liar!  I'm calling HR!"

Let me tell you, I almost called HR too.  Goodness, I was so angry, but I calmed down once he explained to me that it was common American colloquialism since the turn of the 19th century.  He thought I was being pendantic, but I had totally never heard of it!

Anyway, having just been a victim of that phrase myself, I should have been a little more cautious.  

Please accept my apology.

I have no excuse.

 

P.S. Oh the tanker RETRACTS the hose before you're done if you break contact and fall back a little bit.  Of course, the don't do that in real life when pilots are training.  They leave it out there so they can practice the valuable skill of air-to-air refueling.  They call this leaving-the-host-out thing ... "training".   That's why I used the word "Training" in my request.  I get that my "yank" terminology completely obfuscated the point, though.

[Rex]

On 11/21/2022 at 2:32 PM, Dangerzone said:

Hi Rex,

Not stepping in on your request - just some things that may be helpful:

If the hose is being 'yanked' away - it's because the pilot is dropping back. If on the other hand you mean that they retract the hose if you haven't connected within a certain period of time and at some stage become too far away, IIRC you can bind 'Ready Precontact' as a button which may be helpful as a workaround. 

In regards to Case II/III landings - it is possible to do this with VAICOM. You can make calls like 'Commencing, Platform, etc' which the last time I used put the ship straight into Case III mode even though the weather was fine. 

As for training on the LSO grading - maybe check out MOOSE. They have Airboss and the ability to report some pretty cool stuff (including graphs of your approach such as the attached). You don't need to do the full calls - you can just call 'EMERGENCY' from the F10 menu which activates it.

I know these are a little OT from your request (in that they're more workarounds instead of native features) - but just incase they're helpful.

Cheers

DZ

Yes, it is being RETRACTED (lol, sorry, yank is a common word where I'm from, and one of the dictionary definitions is "the sudden removal of someone or something" ... the hose being the something in this case).  Anyway, yes, it is RETRACTED because I break contact with the hose and drop back.  I drop back because I am not very good, and am trying to learn the skill, and I know they retract it normally when you break contact ... which is exactly what Is happening in my case.  That's why I was requesting a mode where the operator would leave the hose extended.  That way, if you break contact, he will leave it out, allowing you to work your way back and reconnect.

If I'm not mistaken, this is how it works in real life.  When the pilots are training, they leave the hose extended instead of retracting .. so they can keep trying.

The last time I was training for A-A refueling, it was super-aggressive with pulling it back.  I didn't drop back more than 5-10 feet, and it was retracted.  This makes acquiring the valuable skill of AA refueling more difficult. In my humble opinion of course.

I didn't know you could do that with the Case II/III landings!   I'll check it out!  I'll also check out MOOSE.  I have it loaded up in my template missions by default, but I haven't put it through its paces yet.  This gives me something to try.

Much appreciated!

 

[SharpeXB]

9 hours ago, Rex said:

 Oh no! I'm so sorry!  I can't believe I did that, especially after what happened to me!  

See, about a month ago, I paged a co-worker about an issue, and when they replied, I said "Sorry for paging you, I hope I didn't take you away from anything important."

"Eh, you yanked me away from the oncall meeting", he replied, "so I owe you a heartfelt thanks!"

Wait ... what?  OMG, I was so confused!

"Wait, I didn't yank you out of the meeting!", I protested, "We're not even in the same state!  How could I have yanked you out of the meeting?! You're a liar! You're a big, fat liar!  I'm calling HR!"

Let me tell you, I almost called HR too.  Goodness, I was so angry, but I calmed down once he explained to me that it was common American colloquialism since the turn of the 19th century.  He thought I was being pendantic, but I had totally never heard of it!

Anyway, having just been a victim of that phrase myself, I should have been a little more cautious.  

Please accept my apology.

I have no excuse.

 

P.S. Oh the tanker RETRACTS the hose before you're done if you break contact and fall back a little bit.  Of course, the don't do that in real life when pilots are training.  They leave it out there so they can practice the valuable skill of air-to-air refueling.  They call this leaving-the-host-out thing ... "training".   That's why I used the word "Training" in my request.  I get that my "yank" terminology completely obfuscated the point, though.

I get what you meant. Just try not to fall back so far and the tanker won’t quit the process. Or you can just use the radio commands to request refueling again. 
For a moment I thought you were talking about the USAF boom. That indeed gets seemingly “yanked away” when the operator readies it to connect.