Mission 13. I need a beer.

[Roosterfeet]

Successfully finished Mission 13 and with a 3 wire no less but I think I lost a year off my life. I feel like we could really use some moonlight in that mission until 1. ED fixes their night lighting, aircraft light sources and possibly night vision and 2. Heat Blur fixes the probe light on the F-14 that points the wrong way. Even with the gamma turned up, I couldn't see the S-3 well enough to get gas. Turns out that little bit of moonlight in mission 3 helped a lot. Then I couldn't see Paco even with goggles on until he was feet from me. I barely avoided a mid air. On the up side, the J-11 exploding right in front of me and the fireball that I flew past looked really cool. 

[Reflected]

Yeah, well, the Navy doesn't only fly at full moon

Congrats for completing the mission, it's not an easy one. You definitely deserve a beer. How was the EMCON Case 3?

I agree with you though:

- night lighting is messed up, way too dark

- nav lights are not visible enough

- also, the carrier lights are pretty dim too

- This is the first time I hear about the probe light. It's not pointing the right way? Is HB aware?

Edited February 19, 2023 by Reflected

[Roosterfeet]

EMCON Case 3 actually worked a lot better for me than I thought it would. I set my self up 21 miles and (if I remember correctly) 183 degrees from the waypoint and followed the other aircraft's anti-collision lights to the carrier's lineup light in the distance when it was time to commence. You can actually see those lights in DCS and the lineup light was key without ILS for the first few miles. I was concerned that I didn't have an ILS channel in the brief or on the card but ILS came on a few miles from the boat on the default channel as intended. The hardest part was the same as all pitch-black night landings, no visual horizon makes it really hard to make precise corrections. I was kind of all over the  place on the way down but I made it. It was exciting for sure.

 

As for the probe light, check out these threads:

There is a great video from a real Tomcat refueling at dusk in the first one. It shows that the real life light was pretty dim but it looks like it did more than what we have in DCS. It might have been enough to be useful in the dark of night. The second thread contains some speculation that it's pointed too far left.

Here are some screenshots that I took to show the effectiveness of the probe light in the dark taken a few feet from the hangar back wall. I've included one with the Hornet's probe light on just to illustrate what I was trying to see.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Roosterfeet

[vladd148]

I too have just finished this mission and I may be going bald now. I couldn't see the tanker well enough to tank and had to proceed without a sip of gas. Had to constantly use the F10 map as I could not see the flight even with the gamma fully up. On the case 3, everything was smooth up until the ILS needles which never worked for me. The result was 3 bolters, and a hookup finally with 2000lbs of gas left flying solely by the carrier lights and meatball

[Jayhawk1971]

Yep, this mission would have been less stressful (especially the first part) if it had been "in the pale moonlight" (little Deep Space 9 reference  ).

Edit:
I managed AAR by increasing the gamma, and dimming the HUD all the way down when using NVG's to eliminate the "backlighting". I use the 30-degree mark on the "A2A HUD" as a reference point for AAR, so I didn't want turn off the HUD completely.

I could AAR without NVG's in the previous night formation training mission. Goes to show that a little illumination goes a long way in DCS. I hope ED will get the nights right one day (soon).

Edited February 20, 2023 by Jayhawk1971

[dilbadil]

I also didn't get any needles, but I wasn't sure if that was the intention? I stayed on ICLS channel one the whole time but didn't get anything. I made it down at least, just adding my name here. I was all over the place coming in, though, so depending on how specific the trigger is to flying through a specific point, I could've just plain missed it.

[Reflected]

1 hour ago, dilbadil said:

I also didn't get any needles, but I wasn't sure if that was the intention? I stayed on ICLS channel one the whole time but didn't get anything. I made it down at least, just adding my name here. I was all over the place coming in, though, so depending on how specific the trigger is to flying through a specific point, I could've just plain missed it.

there is no trigger zone for the needles. It's just there, if your switchology (and approach)  is correct.

[Roosterfeet]

If you're having trouble getting ILS needles, check to make sure the AN/ARA-63 ILS power switch is on. I came back to the Tomcat after a long break and it may be faulty memory on my part but I think it used to be on by default.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Roosterfeet

[rmcclo]

I can't wait for Eagle Dynamics to extend the draw distance for the deck lighting for Supercarrier. I over-corrected when the lights came on and roll got all wobbly on me. Had to salvage it from the wave-off pattern.

I'm really good at AAR now, though, with all the repeat attempts on this one!

 

[sepruda]

Unfortunately I crashed into the deck. The marshall point confused me, the text said Chig entered it as a nav point - I flew towards it but before reaching it Chig calls out established, I kept flying toward it but could then see the carrier lights. I proceeded to head out on the 183 radial, establishing myself 22 dme from the waypoint and pushed on time. But the carrier looked far away still, as Chig called platform. Suddenly though I was almost on top of it, and I lost patience and tried for the landing anyway but hit too hard.

Would the correct approach have been to set a course from the wp? 

[Reflected]

Chig didn’t enter the point where you should marshal, but the reference point. Like the carrier is your reference point during normal case IIIs

[Shahriar0]

On 2/18/2023 at 11:44 PM, Reflected said:

This is the first time I hear about the probe light. It's not pointing the right way? Is HB aware?

 

The light probe still broken after all these months. See:

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/320999-f-14-refueling-probe-light/

 

[Reflected]

4 hours ago, Shahriar0 said:

The light probe still broken after all these months. See:

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/320999-f-14-refueling-probe-light/

 

I'm not sure the people who can fix it are monitoring this thread.