check procedures Maverick boresight error doesn't follow airplane orientation, instead it is north / south / east / west

[TobiasA]

I have no idea why I can't save tracks, that feature somehow got broken and it copies the same track over and over again. I am unable to save tracks, it just saves an old one each time, no idea why. Will try to fix it. So maybe someone can record a track for this.

I think I found out that if you boresight your mavericks flying south to north, then boresighting the mavericks will have a slight error along the length axis, so it will deviate a bit before or aft of the target (little bit to the south, little bit to the north).
If you now attack from east to west, the error will be to the side (still a bit north or a bit south, instead of long or short of the target), and maverick handoff will fail, because the error now matters, and you will land a significant distance away from your target. The error needs to be a angular one, not meters to the north / south / east / west something.

Steps to reproduce:
- Align your mavericks in the air, flying south to north. Check if they return to the target with TMS down, they will.
- Now fly around that target, and attack the same target with a 90 degree offset (west to east). You will see that your mavericks are now shifted left or right.
- Attack from the south, and alignment will be better again, because the error doesn't matter as much now (as you are a bit in front of or aft of the target, but the seeker will still point right at it)

Maybe someone can test that and record a track... Because my track feature broke. Attached a mission file to test, there is a single target a bit south of the others. Boresight your mavs and that target, fly out east and notice the direction and visible amount of the error.
Let me know if you see the same or not. Sounds weird, I know... So thanks for taking a look. Hope my description was understandable.
Tested with the ATP but I'm pretty sure it's the same with the Litening.

Mav_test_boresight.miz

Edited August 7 by TobiasA

[BIGNEWY]

Hi, 

we are going to need a track replay to understand what you are doing. 

How far are you from the points used for reference? Are you pointing your TPOD to the base of the chosen object, or centre mass? According to your description, it sounds you're not considering parallax errors when performing the procedure and, therefore, have a deviation. But this is speculative without a track.

 

To create a track replay fly the mission, reproduce the issue, then exit the mission, during the debrief window you will see an option to save track, then you should have that track in your saved games dcs track folder. 

 

thank you 

[TobiasA]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb BIGNEWY:

Hi, 

we are going to need a track replay to 

To create a track replay fly the mission, reproduce the issue, then exit the mission, during the debrief window you will see an option to save track, then you should have that track in your saved games dcs track folder. 

 

thank you 

I tried just that, I saved tracks earlier, but it saves the same old track over and over again.

One from last year...

Don't know why.

I am 7nm out.

[BIGNEWY]

Can you attach your dcs log please 

and have you disabled track replays in your autoexec by any chance?

[TobiasA]

vor 6 Stunden schrieb BIGNEWY:

and have you disabled track replays in your autoexec by any chance?

My genius is frightening, sometimes in a positive way, sometimes in a negative way. Thanks for pointing that out, I forgot about that. Stupid me copied the file from a buddy.

Attached is a track.

I align south to north. I can handoff my mavs.
Then I turn to the left, and fly in from the west. The target is offset to the left, the maverick points to a point south of the target. Handoff kinda works at larger distances, but not a bit closer, because the lateral offset becomes too large.
I fly over the target, come in from the east, and target is now offset to the right, maverick still points south.
I come in from the south, I can handoff.
So the mav doesn't have an angular offset but an offset in north / south / east / west direction which would explain why people like me that align mavs on their way in, usually in a different direction as the final attack, almost never are able to handoff, and other people never have this issue. It should be an angular offset, like always 0.003 degrees to the left and 0.05 degrees up, or probably depend on range since TGP and mavs aren't in the same axis. It should not be "always south".

Drop me a line if I messed up the track, I think it worked now.

Maverick_test_boresight.trk

[BIGNEWY]

On 8/8/2025 at 7:41 PM, TobiasA said:

My genius is frightening, sometimes in a positive way, sometimes in a negative way. Thanks for pointing that out, I forgot about that. Stupid me copied the file from a buddy.

Attached is a track.

I align south to north. I can handoff my mavs.
Then I turn to the left, and fly in from the west. The target is offset to the left, the maverick points to a point south of the target. Handoff kinda works at larger distances, but not a bit closer, because the lateral offset becomes too large.
I fly over the target, come in from the east, and target is now offset to the right, maverick still points south.
I come in from the south, I can handoff.
So the mav doesn't have an angular offset but an offset in north / south / east / west direction which would explain why people like me that align mavs on their way in, usually in a different direction as the final attack, almost never are able to handoff, and other people never have this issue. It should be an angular offset, like always 0.003 degrees to the left and 0.05 degrees up, or probably depend on range since TGP and mavs aren't in the same axis. It should not be "always south".

Drop me a line if I messed up the track, I think it worked now.

Maverick_test_boresight.trk 3.16 MB · 5 downloads

Hi, thanks for the track. 

First of all, you're air-starting this flight, when this happens the weapons are pre-boresighted, there's no need to perform this alignment. I'd assume you did this just for demonstration purposes and refer to the boresighting from a cold start, which is indeed required.

However, from your track you're performing this boresighting way too close to the target area and this will introduce a major parallax error. It's advised boresighting should be performed at or above 3nm (at least) to reduce these errors. Just be aware that the TPOD and the Maverick units are looking from different POVs and therefore, parallax is inevitable.

 

hope that helps

[TobiasA]

vor 56 Minuten schrieb BIGNEWY:

Hi, thanks for the track. 

First of all, you're air-starting this flight, when this happens the weapons are pre-boresighted, there's no need to perform this alignment. I'd assume you did this just for demonstration purposes and refer to the boresighting from a cold start, which is indeed required.

However, from your track you're performing this boresighting way too close to the target area and this will introduce a major parallax error. It's advised boresighting should be performed at or above 3nm (at least) to reduce these errors. Just be aware that the TPOD and the Maverick units are looking from different POVs and therefore, parallax is inevitable.

 

hope that helps

Thanks for taking your time to watch the track!

I am fully ok with the amount of the error. It's a bit hard to explain, but the issue is that the error is always pointing south.

If you come from the south as I aligned, it will be a bit short but ok when you lock at about the same distance. It works as intended there. However, if I come in from the west the error points south (to my right) and if I come in from the east then it still points south (to my left).

Offsets should be angles (with parallax error of course) but not north or south. It's an angular error, not a cartesian one. It should always be short / left / right then, no matter the direction I am flying too.

[TobiasA]

The thing is that in the original direction, the error is negligible and 90 degrees to the left or right, it is sideways and the handoff won't work. Even though that in the original direction it is fine.

It should be the same error in every direction you are flying, and if you are aligning at the same range and about the same dive angle then the result should be somewhat close even if you come from a different direction. 

I hope this was understandable, sometimes things are hard to explain with words.

[Rongor]

You never mentioned exact boresight distances and stations. Also you didn't mention these for your handoff attempts. So this could still all be coincidental.

For each of the both smart stations carrying Mavericks, you have to boresight independently.
After both boresightings, both stations' Mavericks will point exactly at the TGP's POV only at the exact distance, relative nose bearing and elevation as both the TGP and the respective station's Mavericks were in the moment of boresighting.

If you boresighted the left station at 4 NM and then later attempt to handoff to a Maverick at 8 NM, a maverick hanging under your port wing will point to the right of the target.
If you boresighted the starboard station at 8 NM distance and 4000 ft altitude and then later try to handoff to a maverick on that station from 20000 ft and in 4 NM distance, the Maverick will also point to the right of the target and the chance of seeing errors in elevation will be be high. 

[TobiasA]

vor 8 Stunden schrieb Rongor:

You never mentioned exact boresight distances and stations. Also you didn't mention these for your handoff attempts. So this could still all be coincidental.

For each of the both smart stations carrying Mavericks, you have to boresight independently.
After both boresightings, both stations' Mavericks will point exactly at the TGP's POV only at the exact distance, relative nose bearing and elevation as both the TGP and the respective station's Mavericks were in the moment of boresighting.

If you boresighted the left station at 4 NM and then later attempt to handoff to a Maverick at 8 NM, a maverick hanging under your port wing will point to the right of the target.
If you boresighted the starboard station at 8 NM distance and 4000 ft altitude and then later try to handoff to a maverick on that station from 20000 ft and in 4 NM distance, the Maverick will also point to the right of the target and the chance of seeing errors in elevation will be be high. 

Yes. Of course. If it was implemented as you say, then the error should change with range.

It does not.

It should be perfect at your boresighted range, and then it would drift away the further you are away from that range.

But that's not what it does.

[TobiasA]

So I guess this is not seen as a bug, that any boresight error is always pointing in the same direction on earth? Even if you fly in from the exact other direction, it is always pointing south and it's not an angular error but always pointing south in that case?
It is pointing left when coming from the right and pointing right when coming from the left, and pointing down if coming from the front.

Is this being overlooked or do I need to provide more info? Or is it not seen as a bug that the error is pointing into a different direction depending on if you are heading south, north, east or west?