Any tips for distance based target location?

[dimanizer]

Sorry if just a noob, but when told to search for a target X miles in some direction, how do you measure the distance and know whether you've offset the TGP far enough/too far from the reference point?

Thanks!

[wjmzwx]

2024/7/16 AM10点16分，dimanizer说：

Sorry if just a noob, but when told to search for a target X miles in some direction, how do you measure the distance and know whether you've offset the TGP far enough/too far from the reference point?

Thanks!

Hi bro， on your tgp screen，on the right side of your cross（it consists of four lines，two vertical and two horizontal）there is a number，it indicates  what is the length of one line（in meter）.You can use your cross lines as your ruler. Wish this will help you find your target.

Edited July 22, 2024 by wjmzwx

[dimanizer]

5 hours ago, wjmzwx said:

Hi bro， on your tgp screen，on the right side of your cross（it consists of four lines，two vertical and two horizontal）there is a number，it indicates  what is the length of one line（in meter）.You can use your cross lines as your ruler. Wish this will help you find your target.

 

Thanks for the reply @wjmzwx! Unfortunately, if they tell me that the target is for example 5 miles away from a reference point, and the ruler at the most zoomed out is about 150 meters, that's still pretty difficult .

The bottom left corner shows distance from plane to target in miles, so I now use that for a rough idea . 

[Nealius]

The way my dumb butt would probably do it is put the TGP on that reference point, then fly within 5nm of that reference point and look out the window, then draw a mental circle about that distance around the reference point. If I have a bearing as well, I would set the course line on the HSI and overfly the actual target to get a visual reference, and perhaps an OFLY markpoint, but OFLY markpoints in DCS always seem to be off by a few miles.

Edited July 23, 2024 by Nealius

[dimanizer]

@Nealius got me thinking... it's fairly simple math really, but would be nice if the DED had a calculator in there to help out. It then occurred to me that the VIP might make this easy. I just wonder whether this is what pilots use IRL. Overflying might not be an option if you're supposed to anchor (as is the case in the campaign). Thanks for your insight!

[wjmzwx]

5小时前，dimanizer说：

Thanks for the reply @wjmzwx! Unfortunately, if they tell me that the target is for example 5 miles away from a reference point, and the ruler at the most zoomed out is about 150 meters, that's still pretty difficult .

The bottom left corner shows distance from plane to target in miles, so I now use that for a rough idea . 

Oh！ You are right. 5 miles is too large a scale to tgp ruler. Or perhaps we can use oa1 and oa2，thouth they are in feet. Personally speeking， I think if my wingman can tally on it， he can lase it for me irl. Or tips me the coordinate.  After13 missions my eyes are burning， it's rather hard to find a small target in dcs. （Just wondering how my wingman spots the target，golden eyes for him/her.

 

 

By the way he can also send a datalink markpoint for us and we simply tms up it on hsd. It is so hard to use tgp to spot a target far from preplanned waypoint. I guess the whole campaign is a series lesson for us about how can we spot targets in different ways. Like it， but I don't think they do it irl often. 

Edited July 23, 2024 by wjmzwx

[CypherBlue]

For this mission I used the offset OA points to spot the target just use a web calculator to convert the miles to fr and input the bearing range into the OA in the DED and your TGP will be on the target easily

[dimanizer]

Thanks guys! I think that the offset aimpoint DED pages might indeed be the solution. I've forgotten those existed - never had a reason to use them before

[Nealius]

Can the TGP be slaved to OA points? I've only ever used them for pre-planned pop-up symbology so far and don't recall any systems slaving to them.

[dimanizer]

2 hours ago, Nealius said:

Can the TGP be slaved to OA points? I've only ever used them for pre-planned pop-up symbology so far and don't recall any systems slaving to them.

Yes, via the "sighting option" OSB (the text in the MFD says "TGT"). See page 277 in the manual for more

[dimanizer]

OA are only supported up to steerpoint 25 - meaning they can't be used with markpoints

[Nealius]

I suppose you could scribble in the coords of the markpoint then overwrite one of your 1~24 points (assuming 25 is Bullsey; might want to keep that one).