Stickler Posted April 6 Posted April 6 (edited) Observe the attached tracks and corresponding .acmis of Dive Laydown attacks with a reference aircraft, standard day, no wind, 1000/4000 ft release range settings, pickle ranges of 9000, 12000, 15000 and 18000 ft (SR, slant range) at 15° and 35° dive angle at pickle. Note that the horizontal range from target at which the bombs are released (BR = bomb range) is always between 100 and 200 ft less than the set release range: 1000 ft set release range SR (ft, pickle) SR (ft, rel.) ATL (ft) BR (ft) 18000 9673 9634 868 15000 7605 7557 850 12000 5950 5880 908 9000 4617 4524 923 4000 ft set release range SR (ft, pickle) SR (ft, rel.) ATL (ft) BR (ft) 18000 5996 4546 3909 15000 5701 4217 3837 12000 5172 3415 3884 9000 4632 2460 3925 I have flown several attempts with other parameters in addition to the ones documented here, and the results have always been similar. I was able to falsify the obvious theory of rack delay since the range error is not affected by the aircraft's ground speed at release. Also, there doesn't seem to be any significant rack delay in Laydown mode, either. My only hypotheses right now are either a wrongly calibrated release range dial/window or some kind of radar ranging error, possibly related to this post. DL_9000_15°.trk DL_12000_15°.trk DL_15000_15°.trk DL_18000_15°.trk DL_9000_35°.trk DL_12000_35°.trk DL_15000_35°.trk DL_18000_35°.trk dl_9000_15°.acmi dl_12000_15°.acmi dl_15000_15°.acmi dl_18000_15°.acmi dl_9000_35°.acmi dl_12000_35°.acmi dl_15000_35°.acmi dl_18000_35°.acmi Edited April 10 by Stickler 1
Stickler Posted April 13 Author Posted April 13 (edited) After some more tests, this issue affects not only DL, but DT as well. However, I believe I have been successfully able to trace this issue to the fact that after lock-on, the range bar tracks the trailing edge of radar returns while the actual object is at the leading edge. The APQ-120's pulse length error in SHORT PULSE is about 200 ft; Heatblur's pulse length error and block size error combined seem to be about 300 ft. The resulting error can be eliminated by using active pause, manually going half-action, moving the range bar to the leading edge of the return and then pickling. Given that without a human WSO this is impractical, single pilots can solve this issue by manually accounting for the pulse length error by using a longer release range or a release advance. Edited May 8 by Stickler
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