How to program in gentle turns for formation flying

[ouseler]

I have made a little F14 training mission where I am practicing my parade and cruise formation flying.  I have programmed in what I thought were gentle turns, but the "lead" aircraft turns aggressively no matter how minor the course change.  How do I get the lead to make a gentle 10 to 20 degree bank instead of an 80 degree turn to the next waypoint?

[Dangerzone]

5 minutes ago, ouseler said:

I have made a little F14 training mission where I am practicing my parade and cruise formation flying.  I have programmed in what I thought were gentle turns, but the "lead" aircraft turns aggressively no matter how minor the course change.  How do I get the lead to make a gentle 10 to 20 degree bank instead of an 80 degree turn to the next waypoint?

I don't think there's a direct way to do this in DCS, but there may be a few 'hacks' that might work for you. 

One option that would allow not just gentle turns, but also formation aerobatics, etc would be a ghost replay. But this was requested back in 2012, and subsequent times since, but has not gained any traction:

 

 

As for the alternative or hack options - some of these may be worth trying:

1) Setup the flight you wish to fly with to do a racetrack orbit between 2 waypoints. It could be that racetrack orbits are more gentler than actual waypoint turns.

2) If racetrack orbits are no good - setup a KC-135 tanker to do a racetrack orbit while in 'tanking' mode instead and fly off it's wing. Not as good as a F14 - but might work for practise, or

3) Setup a KC-135 tanker for tanking in a racetrack orbit pattern, and then set some F14's to escort the tanker. If the tanker flies in gentle turns - then the F14's may follow.

4) Setup waypoints in 2 or 5 degree turns instead, and space them out evenly until you get the AI to fly a smooth and gentle turn right through to 80 degrees. (This would be a last resort and desperate option - but could work - that's untried

It could be that new settings have been introduced I'm unaware of to limit the bank angles on AI aircraft with WP commands, but if so I haven't come across them yet. No doubt someone will correct me if that's the case.

[ouseler]

Thanks for these suggestions.  Option 3 may be "doable".  

[markturner1960]

Quick answer is yes, you need to use the aerobatics feature and in there you can program the speed, bank angle and G the AI will use. There are a few formation trainer missions out there, download one of those and look in the mission editor how they get the AI to fly the sequence.