Advice to mission designers re waypoint placement

[StrongHarm]

And as others have said, you shouldn't need a HUD reference for egress, you should know a direction of turn, heading and altitude.

 

Agreed, but you're going to have to do some research to find the best egress, and that's where Marks come in. If you can glance at your TAD (and that's all it should take) and see Marks...

 

A. target

B. AAA

C. AAA

D. Egress

 

for instance ... then you're good to go. You have situational awareness. The best thing about marks is not that you have a HUD reference, but that you can look at that TAD map overview (suggest FOV EXP (chinahat up) to slave to cursor for slew map and make north up) and get a sight picture of the battlefield. When setting up your egress mark, it's possible to slew the cursor around on the TAD and get elevations. The best egress point is one that is low level, masked by high level terrain, for instance. When you have your cursor over what you think is the best point, simply TMS right to create a mark for it.

 

Your Hawg provides everything you need to do max damage PLUS stay alive.

 

Seriously.

 

.

[Dominoes]

I think this confusion is caused by the tutorials showing you how to locate targets using waypoints that are on the ground. Then players assume that's how you find targets, and get confused when the actual mission way points are in the air.

 

 

Simple way to target the ground below the waypoint: TGP to boresight, point at approximate waypoint location, ground stabilize, slew TGP over the waypoint icon on the TAD.

Edited February 26, 2011 by Dominoes

[StrongHarm]

Easier, as the ED rep said: TAD cursor over waypoint and TMS right to mark for an initial target search point.

 

-iPhone

[Geskes]

You can set navigation points in the editor. These will appear in your CDU as mission points at ground level. So you can have a flightplan, and besides that, some mission points or even include those in your flight plan once you load your mission.

 

It is nice for MP also, if you do a briefing and divide targets, then every pilot can update his flightplan with the agreed target for him.

 

On a sidenote, you also dont have to set 16 flightplans in detail but only have to do a kind of IP and then leave it up to the pilot in what order / tactic / altitude / ingress / egress he wants to engage targets.THe nav points how up for every pilot in MP session.

 

You can also copy the waypoint in the cdu and lower the altitude on the copy if you are flying someone elses mission.

[shagrat]

Aaaah, but of course! All weapons which require the pilot to acquire the target area on the ground with the sensors, while flying in over enemy territory where he should be able to keep his head outside of the cockpit looking for threats (can you say "SAM launch"?).

 

Your Wingman will say "SAM launch - break left!" 'cause that is the reason you fly in pairs. Attacker attacks - Wingman covers!

 

Considering the nature of the missions, these waypoints would typically be recognizable ground features. That way, you can reduce pilot workload when WX conditions allow for navigation by pilotage, you can verify the performance of the nav system and you will be able to use them even if the navigation telly in the cockpit decides to switch over to a documentary on the effects of 23 mm rounds passing through avionics bays.

Nope, as I understood they have an elevation to hint at the appropriate altitude at the point when flying over it. We agree that dropping GBUs, or low drag Bombs from 30m AGL is rather pointless or thrilling, don't we?

 

Such waypoints would obviously have an elevation at ground level, as they will be used for different flight plans with different altitudes.

??? I think we have an idea of how high or low we wanna approach the AO?

 

In my mind, flight plan elevation may be a nice crutch for cross country flying but not for combat sorties.

...and helps a lot not to crash into a hillside or a mountain, while preparing your systems on a night mission.

 

The thing is: In real life pre-planned mission data is hours or even days old! Even with current information from drone or satellite a Tank or IFV rolling cross country will be far away from your "Target WP" by the time you arrive.

 

The WP marks an area where you look for suggested targets, AFAC, JTAC etc. provides current target data.

 

Read "A-10s over Kosovo" a fascinating book about real A-10 missions.:book:

...and they had the A-10A then and had to use binos and MK1 Eyeballs to find their targets. No TAD with WPs...:D

 

https://research.maxwell.af.mil/papers/ay2004/books/Haun.pdf

Edited February 27, 2011 by shagrat
added link