How to a fire a Sparrow in a dogfight?

[coreyhkh]

For the life of me I cant get sparrows to work, I set up some flights with transport aircraft and and chasing them around the sky  using the dogfight mode yet I still cant fire the missile. All the you tube guys I have watched make it look easy. If this is how the real aircraft really was then In real life the guys that switched to the tomcat must have been incredibly impressed. 

Thanks for any insight 

[nikoel]

Easiest way to get you started

Master Arm on
Pinky switch to Radar (Aim7)
Once within 5nm of the bad guy Point COD Aim thingy at the bad guy (or good guy; if you're a bad guy)
Cage Mode
Jester Context Button Hold
1 Po-tae-to... 2 Po.. -> 4 Po-tae-to
Pull Trigger
Evil Laugh optional, but highly encouraged

Better still, don't do any of this and do the training mission which shows you an other method altogether

[Dragon1-1]

They certainly were impressed, Tomcat was designed taking into consideration the lessons from Vietnam. Phantom's problems with employing both Sparrows and even more finicky Falcons in a dogfight during that war are well documented. Sidewinders were the missile of choice for a reason. Between the long settling time, poor maneuverability and complex switchology, Sparrow is not something you want to rely on in a turning engagement. Using the dogfight mode with it is possible, but it's something you want to use for a visual shot against non-maneuvering targets.

Remember to respect the four second seeker settling time, if the Sparrows are going stupid, that's probably the reason. Other than that, make sure the radar is actually tracking. The training mission explains this quite well.

[nikoel]

An other method:
Master Arm on
Cage Mode
Press CAA mode switch

Next step might involve a little bit of thinking and using pinky switch. The designers of this plane doubled up the functions of the pinky switch. It's both weapon select and radar aim button that controls both at the same time. And yes, it was clearly an afterthought

Anyway, If bandit is to the left-ish of you, then select gun. If bandit is center-ish select Heater. If bandit to the right select Radar. They can be slightly below and moderately above the nose for this to work. Your mileage will vary

You know you will have the bandit locked if the lock solution makes sense. ie the reticle on the hud has unwound about the right amount (distance to bandit) and the display below the hud is giving a logical picture. If not, keep pressing that switch and try again

Note the bandit needs to be relatively close to you. In DCS terms you can see them - aka It's a BFM technique not BVR

If lock is good, it's time to count the Potatoes again and switch to Radar Missiles and press the trigger

Edited May 31, 2024 by nikoel

[coreyhkh]

Thank you I will try it out tonight 

[ricktoberfest]

3 hours ago, coreyhkh said:

For the life of me I cant get sparrows to work, I set up some flights with transport aircraft and and chasing them around the sky  using the dogfight mode yet I still cant fire the missile. All the you tube guys I have watched make it look easy. If this is how the real aircraft really was then In real life the guys that switched to the tomcat must have been incredibly impressed. 

Thanks for any insight 

Is this from a cold start?  If so make sure you’ve turned on the CW switch during fence in. It’s not really mentioned in the training for some reason. Also, you can turn the interlink off which will allow you to fire the missiles even if it’s not advisable from the computers view. 

Edited May 31, 2024 by ricktoberfest

[HawkEXO]

Or just "maddog" them and then FLOOD the target. Works great for me.

*I know maddog is not exactly the correct term, but you know what I mean.   Just turn off the interlock and launch them.