F14 Air to Air Refueling and What Worked for Me

[__Duke__]

After about a 125 hours in DCS and the F14B, I am/was fine with most aspects from Carrier Landings to BFM, BVR and AG missions, except for Air to Air Refueling...

In the last 5 flight hours managed to make AAR work (14 refuels and counting ) by doing the following;

Use Autopilot Altitude Hold Initially to Trim Out the Plane - Through Voiceattack I have setup a 3 positon switch on my throttle base which allows me to do the multiple switches on the autopilot to hold pitch followed by the joystick nose wheel steering button all setup to the 3 position (down position = autopilot switches of, middle position = pitch hold, upper position = altitude hold with voiceattack performing the work).

Sweep wings to bomb mode leaving Altitude Hold On - After I am at about the right altitude behind or beside the tanker and using the Altitude Hold I swing the wings back to bomb mode (55 degr sweep back). With holding behind or beside the tanker at the same speed (250 or 350 kts or whatever speed) while still on Autopilot Altitude Hold this will adjust the trim for level flight. As reported and stated, bomb mode reduces sensitivity to pitch and role inputs and increase AoA and drag allowing more throttle in an operating area with finer/quicker control.

Extend probe and left rudder trim - Next I extend the probe and give some left rudder trim input to remove probe drag and resulting slight side slip. This prevents having to give left stick inpit or continious left rudder input with your feet removing another small challenge from staying in position. 

Disconnect Altitude Hold and Get on the Tanker Drogue - Once level and trimmed for pitch and yaw using Altitude Hold, I disconnect the autopilot and perform the routine of fine stick pitch & role and throttle movements to get into the Drogue and stay on it. The later becomes easier as you manage better throttle control and engagement speed, allowing you to stay on after stabbing.

Set stick pitch and role axis tunes to a curvature of 35 - I went from 15 to 25 and thought that was plenty. Tried more dead zone. Then recently I went to 35 with only 2 degree dead zone. This was key to allow for finer pitch and role (left/right) movements. While I have top notch rudder paddels as well, I find slight left and right role to get into position easier then yawing the plane. Rudder remains great for take off, cross wind landings and high AoA (> 15 units) BFM role inputs. Also 35 still works fine for the rest of regular flying and more aggressive BFM, although ideally there is a switch I setup together with some joystick program to go easily in flight from 35 to to say 20 or 15 and back. Still need to figure this out.

Balanced Dual Throttle Input - While I believe the 35 stick axis curvature has been the main step forward, i also switched off the split RX/RY throttles and use a single throttle input moving both handles, even though physically i have F15 Winwing dual throttles. Since I do not split throttles anyways and have them linked with a latch or pin mechanism included with these throttles this works fine. It reduces any left/right engine imbalance and additional lateral movement as I move the throttles back and forth to stay in position.  

All in all a very happy camper now... I assume the same would work fine for the F14A, be it the TF30 maybe slightly less responsive. Given the fine inputs and patience required I doubt there will be much difference though compared to the B with the GE110's.

Hope this helps to make it work for you, or perhaps some aspects of this approach.

Take care and happy days in the F14. Its in awesome plane, from its looks to all round capability. A true GOAT. 

 

 

    

Edited 11 hours ago by __Duke__