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Navigating to Tanker Using Instruments


Shahriar0

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If you know where the tanker orbits you can navigate there vectoring from known waypoint then using radar to find it. You can also use simplified TACAN DME reading after calling the Intent to refuel and opening refueling door. This all assumes using F-15C.

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Thanks for commenting.

This is for the Su-33 and Su-30 mod. I do use TACAN for Tomcat and Viper but don't have a good solution for these two modules specifically. I can get fairly close to the tanker using combination of methods including what you mentioned, but for some unknown reason to me, when I get to a several miles of the tanker they start to circle before finally leveling off when I near the observation area! Chasing a circling tanker with lights off in pitch dark is not easy and requires instrumentation to line up. If tanker does not circle, I'll eventually catch up and get close and it will turn his lights on. Any ideas about making tankers not circle? Thx. 

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In STT lock you'll have his attitude and range, right with the symbol on the HUD. This should work for the line up and closure.

You can make the tanker fly long straight lines in ME but without lights and NVGs it's suicide and not realistic anyway.

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🖥️ Win10 i7-10700KF 32GB RTX3060   🥽 Rift S   🕹️ T16000M HOTAS   ✈️ FC3, F-14A/B, F-15E   ⚙️ CA   🚢 SC   🌐 NTTR, PG, Syria

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That's what I have in the ME, tanker orbits between waypoint 1 and 2 which are 100 miles apart in a straight line, but when I approach the tanker it starts to circle!

For using radar to get bearing/range information, I have tended not to lock them and fry the poor crew with high intensity radar beams in the past, but maybe I have to forego for these two modules. With Tomcat, I rely on TACAN without any source of light and don't switch to NVG until I am pre-contact and feet away from the basket. If only HB would fix the light of the probe which only illuminates a couple of feet in front of it instead of 15-20ft range, then I would not even need NVG for refuelling at night. What I have read is that IRIAF pilots did in fact refuel their Tomcats at night without using NVG gear during the war with Iraq in the 80s, so it is realistic.


Edited by Shahriar0
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On 1/23/2023 at 9:28 PM, Shahriar0 said:

What I have read is that IRIAF pilots did in fact refuel their Tomcats at night without using NVG gear during the war with Iraq in the 80s, so it is realistic.

It might have been the night but you don't know the lighting conditions (moon, dawn/dusk) and what lights were used for the tanker and the basket. No sane pilot would fly near the tanker in pitch black without lights.

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On 1/23/2023 at 9:28 PM, Shahriar0 said:

That's what I have in the ME, tanker orbits between waypoint 1 and 2 which are 100 miles apart in a straight line, but when I approach the tanker it starts to circle!

 

How do you have the tanker set up in ME? If you have a route consisting of three points and two last points are the place where the tanker is to be available - WPT-2 and WPT-3, then on the second - WPT2 you need to set it to "Race Track" and not "Circle" with the height and speed parameter. Then it will fly from point to point. If you set it to the "last" waypoint - in this case WPT3, it will not fly between points 2-3. And if you have the "Circle" parameter set, it will circle around that point. The question is how do you exactly "described" the tanker's route.

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4 hours ago, Nahen said:

How do you have the tanker set up in ME? If you have a route consisting of three points and two last points are the place where the tanker is to be available - WPT-2 and WPT-3, then on the second - WPT2 you need to set it to "Race Track" and not "Circle" with the height and speed parameter. Then it will fly from point to point. If you set it to the "last" waypoint - in this case WPT3, it will not fly between points 2-3. And if you have the "Circle" parameter set, it will circle around that point. The question is how do you exactly "described" the tanker's route.

The circling issue was an error on my part. I had an Orbit option leftover in one my multiple tanker waypoints. Sorry about that.

STT-Locking the tanker certainly worked and I had no problem finding and approaching the tanker until it turned its lights on before I changed to NAV mode and performed my night refueling. The refueling light works great by the way. Basket is perfectly illuminated. I wish Tomcat probe light was similar (although its red and has less intensity.)

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