Lixma 06 Posted January 27 Posted January 27 (edited) When using the gunzo dogfight-boresight mode the radar will auto-lock the first time, but if lock is lost the radar will no longer auto-acquire. I have to TMS up to 'wake it up' for the radar to auto-acquire. Is this normal behaviour? Edited January 28 by Lixma 06
skywalker22 Posted January 28 Posted January 28 AIM-120C-5 (ours) does not lock any target while it is still attached to the aircraft (it's radar is not powered yet). It's seeker turns on after the missile goes off the aircraft. So there should never be any auto-lock in boresight mode. When the missile goes off the aircraft, the radar turns on, and it tries to find any target (no matter if its friend of foe, IFF doesn't matter to it). We had quite a discussion here 2 years ago.
Lixma 06 Posted January 28 Author Posted January 28 Sorry, I meant while in dogfight (guns) boresight mode - I've edited the title. After the radar loses lock it will no longer auto-acquire. The radar appears to be emitting because there's no NO RAD indication on the HUD. Vertical scan works fine.
NytHawk Posted January 28 Posted January 28 (edited) 23 minutes ago, Lixma 06 said: Sorry, I meant while in dogfight (guns) boresight mode - I've edited the title. After the radar loses lock it will no longer auto-acquire. The radar appears to be emitting because there's no NO RAD indication on the HUD. Vertical scan works fine. After pressing TMS aft to unlock a target on the HUD scan mode, the FCR will automatically enter the NO RAD state, to re-enter HUD scan mode, you will need to press TMS right again. 17 hours ago, Lixma 06 said: Is this normal behaviour? Yes Edited January 28 by NytHawk
Lixma 06 Posted January 28 Author Posted January 28 56 minutes ago, NytHawk said: After pressing TMS aft to unlock a target on the HUD scan mode, the FCR will automatically enter the NO RAD state, to re-enter HUD scan mode, you will need to press TMS right again. I'm talking about Boresight mode.
NytHawk Posted January 28 Posted January 28 (edited) 41 minutes ago, Lixma 06 said: I'm talking about Boresight mode. My bad, but its a similar story. If you want to unlock a target in bore mode without entering NO RAD state, you can just use TMS forwards again. Edited January 28 by NytHawk
skywalker22 Posted January 28 Posted January 28 (edited) In boresight mode there is no onboard radar in use, you can also turn it off, as I did on the attached track. And you can clearly see the auto reacquiring target works, I didn't press anything to re-acquite the target. Maybe you just were doing it wrong. f-16_boresight_mode_reacquiring_target.trk Edited January 28 by skywalker22
Lixma 06 Posted January 28 Author Posted January 28 (edited) In Boresight Guns mode the radar dish is not re-centring after losing lock and gets stuck to the side. In this video I enter DGFT-Boresight mode, the target is locked automatically. I then drift left until the radar loses lock. Then I swing back and put the target on my nose but it will not auto-acquire. So I swing out further to the left and the target is re-acquired because my radar is pointing way out to the right - the position it was in when it dropped the target. This next video shows it affects both elevation and azimuth. Bug? I can't think of a good reason why, in a CAC Boresight mode, the radar would not automatically recentre after losing lock. F-16 ACM Boresight - Radar not re-centering 2.trk Edited January 28 by Lixma 06
Lixma 06 Posted January 28 Author Posted January 28 (edited) Update - it seems in all Dogfight Guns modes (haven't tried missiles) the radar gets stuck in the position it was pointing when it dropped lock on the target. See above post for Boresight mode. HUD mode - The target is locked up fine - I drift to the left and lose lock. The radar remains stuck pointing to the right. Vertical mode - Locks up fine - I drift away to break lock and then the radar tries to snap back but it actually settles on an offset scan zone to the left of centre. e: I threw up a bug report. Edited January 28 by Lixma 06
cptmrcalm Posted January 30 Posted January 30 You know, I've never reported this, but I have always been aware of this behaviour. For years and years. Even with Falcon BMS 15 years ago. So much so, I have a habit whereby I always TMS up and down to cycle it through to make sure when going in for the kill. Even when I first activate it. As we all know - 1 second is life or death in a dogfight. Its muscle memory now -but I've always wondered if it is a bug or not. 2 https://www.youtube.com/@cptmrcalm | https://www.instagram.com/cptmrcalm/ | https://twitter.com/cptmrcalm | https://www.tiktok.com/@cptmrcalm
Lixma 06 Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 I think our tendency to spam the TMS until we get a lock has masked the issue.
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