Help a noob out! (Please?)

[Wags94]

I've just recently picked up LOMAC again after playing DCS: Black Shark for the longest time (Going Mach 2 with my hair on fire was something I missed :P), and I have come to realize that I am terrible at Beyond Visual Range Air to Air combat.

 

Now, before anybody says anything, I've been searching through various forums (This forum, The LOMAC forum on ubi.com, Lockonfiles, etc.) on the topic of BVR fighting. So don't blame me for not trying to figure it out, or don't blame me for spamming.

 

With that being said, a tactic I've been seeing people recommending is "notching." Can somebody tell me what notching is? From what I've gathered, it seems like I'm supposed to fly away from an incoming missile, keeping it between my 3 and 9 o' clock positions. That's all?

 

The thread I've been reading in particular to help me is this one. In the thread I've linked, the words "notch" and "notching" are thrown around quite a bit. I still know nothing about it.

 

What is the "F-pole?" I've watched some of Ironhand's tutorials, and he "F-poles" in one of them. It looks to me like Ironhand just dived. I'm going to assume that there is more to "F-poling" than just diving. Somebody please explain to me this tactic.

 

EDIT/ADDITION: Also, what exactly is "beaming?"

 

Also, I fly v1.02, I'm not sure if that has an effect on tactics, but I'm quite sure some of the aircraft systems are different between v1.02 and FC v1.12

 

Help! :P

Edited February 4, 2010 by Wags94

[Frostie]

Simply put beaming is keeping a bandit at the 3/9 of your ship to try and achieve a notch on his radar so his radar is unable to pick up your contact. When your notching your not picked up or your contact is rejected by his radar.

 

The F-pole is another issue (F-Pole means the missile flight time from shooter to target) and is used for the BVR engagement. Here you reduce the time it takes for a bandits missile to reach you while keeping a lock on that bandit by keeping him at full gimbals (max limit at either end of your radar). After launching you crank one way only, either left or right and by keeping this state you increase the flight distance (F-Pole) for the bandits missile to you.

[Aeroscout]

First, welcome to Lockon!

Second. Get FC, and FC2.0 when it comes out. It's worth the money, not only for a better game, but also to support the company making the simulators.

Third. There are several different types of Poles, as described here:

A-Pole - Distance from launching aircraft to target when a missile begins active guidance.

F-Pole - Distance from launching aircraft to target when a missile endgames/impacts.

E-Pole - Distance from a threat aircraft that evasive maneovers can be expected to kinamatically defeat any missile the bandit is launching or could have launched.

By F-Poling, Ironhand and others merely mean using a F-Pole Technique in which you attempt to increase the F-Pole as much as you can without putting the target outside of the gimbal limits of your radar. This involves turning away as far as you can while still maintaining lock. This makes the missile have to fly farther than it would if you had continued flying straight ahead.

 

Beaming is a little different. Beaming or notching involves diving so the missile must look down on you and turning 90 degrees to the missile, which puts it on your 3/9 line. By forcing the missile or enemy plane to look down on you, it could loose lock in all the ground clutter. the radar measures closure rates to separate targets from random noise. You eliminate any closure rate differential by turning 90 degrees. This also increases the F-pole as much as you can without turning completely away. However, you will not be able to lock the attacking aircraft as he will be out of your gimbal limits.

 

I hope this helps. I'm sure you know of Ironhand's site. You could also check out my youtube page (see sig) where I have made a few tutorials of my own. While they're not anywhere close to the level of Ironhand's tutorials, I believe a few have found them useful.

 

Aero