A question about markpoints and creating flightplan.

[bloomstomb]

I see some tutorials out there, they always have them making a flight plan after creating markpoint targets. My question is why? Why not just switch to marker mode, and flip and shoot through targets that way?

[Frostiken]

Markpoints are really just temporary. There's no real reason why you COULDN'T use them, but you can have far more waypoints than markpoints (25) and they won't get erased like markpoints do.

[Kaiza]

Yep you can, that's what I do, much quicker.

[bloomstomb]

Markpoints are really just temporary. There's no real reason why you COULDN'T use them, but you can have far more waypoints than markpoints (25) and they won't get erased like markpoints do.

 

25 is more than enough tho! And what do I care if they are temporary, those markpoints will be dead soon enough, and I can always wrap around back to A: (it will overwrite the previous markpoint A)

[bloomstomb]

Yep you can, that's what I do, much quicker.

 

Oh cool . Can you explain how you do it exactly, like lets say 3 targets, could ya walk through it.

[bloomstomb]

OK Ive been trying this out, Im pretty sure Im doing something wrong because it seems overly complicated. What I have to do is this

 

 

First mark them all, easy enough, and go into mark mode in steerpt.

 

 

Now when Im coolie short up, hud astrix, I can flip through the targets easily. BUT, the problem is i have to soi the maverick to fire it, then go back to hud astrix , change target, soi mav cam, china hat forward long, tm short up, fire,

 

 

Way too many steps.

 

Am I doing something wrong here?

[RodBorza]

The whole point of using Markpoints is to NOT use create a flight plan just to attack targets. People do that as a matter of personal preference.

I, for one, like to use Markpoints pure and simple. No messing around with the CDU when attacking targets. Some guys like to create flightplans for that; whatever works best for each one.

 

So, a little walktrough would be as follow:

(Notice: This is MY way of doing things. There's not the right or wrong way, as I said before, it is a matter of personal preference).

0) Trim the aircraft; level or bank it in a holding pattern and set AutoPilot to Hold at a safe altitude (10k+ will do it);

1) Set TGP on the right MFCD and TAd on the Left MFCD;

2) Make TGP Sensor of Interest (SOI) by selecting it again or holding coolie hat right long;

3) Find target and:

3.1) Use TMS right short to create a Mark point on it;

or

3.2) Lase the target;

3.3) Use TMS right short to create a Mark point on it, with increased accuracy (look for ExcessiveHeadspace excellent video on how to use the TGP on You Tube);

4) Repeat the same for the other two targets;

5) On the Up Front Controller Hit Func and 8 (Mark) to switch to Markpoints.

6) Ta-daaa!!! You can see on the TAD the Mark points you created. Also on the HUD, instead of seeing Waypoints names, you will see Mark A; B; C, etc...

7) Now comes the beautiful part of using mark points. Set the HUD as SOI, by making coolie hat up long;

8 ) With DMS Up or Down Short you can change Markpoints; and the beauty of all this is that the TGP will automatically follow the mark points position. And in case you were wondering, yep, that works for MAVs too! :thumbup:

9) That's it. Now you can select bombs; mavericks, rockets, guns wahtever and proceed to attack.

It seems a lot of things to remember, but with time all of this comes automatically. Ya know, I wrote all this from the top of my head, not even having to look at the manual or something. (beware: this is the kind of post DCS effect you can have afetr excessive A-10 playing).

 

Following are some links that proved to be very helpful.

Excessive Headspace TGP video (I thought of making you look for it, but since I'm a nice guy, here's the link):

 

Excessive Headspace Multiple JDAM Drop Guide video:

 

Chrisaky Markpoints Tutorial video:

 

Long, soewaht boring, but really helpful discussion on how to use markpoints to fire Mavs and how to do it:

See my posts on this page:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=72185&page=3

and this page:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=72185&page=6

and this page:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=72185&page=7

The rests of the posts are interesting, but it may confuse ya (if not already :D).

 

Good luck and good hunting!

[Frostiken]

There's a difference between a FLIGHTPLAN flightplan and, say, using markpoints for weapon employment...

[RodBorza]

OK Ive been trying this out, Im pretty sure Im doing something wrong because it seems overly complicated. What I have to do is this

 

 

First mark them all, easy enough, and go into mark mode in steerpt.

 

 

Now when Im coolie short up, hud astrix, I can flip through the targets easily. BUT, the problem is i have to soi the maverick to fire it, then go back to hud astrix , change target, soi mav cam, china hat forward long, tm short up, fire,

 

 

Way too many steps.

 

Am I doing something wrong here?

 

Sorry, I dindt' see this post before writing my previous post.

The answer is: nope, you are not doing anything wrong.

What happens is the following:

1) You change Markpoints and the TGP and MAV follows; that's ok.

EDIT: The MAV will follow only if you do a China Hat Forward (slave all to SPI) first.

 

2) But when MAV is SOI and when you lock the Maverick, the MAV will NO longer be tracking a Markpoint, but its own target. That's why it won't follow the Mark points anymore;

3) So, everytime you fire a MAV, yes, you do have to China Hat Forward Long, select the HUD as SOI, change Markpoint, select MAV as SOI, Track, lock, Fire...and do it all again... :joystick:

If you want to shorten the way, you can use the rocker button on the UFC to select Markpoints, if you like.

 

4) There's no easier way as I know of. This happens because of the nature of the Maverick, that once locked in a target will track the target, not the Markpoints. If you really think about it, it will make sense...I hope :D. See previous post links on Maverick and markpoints discussion.

EDIT: When the MAv tracks a target, it breaks the slave mode.

Edited May 13, 2011 by RodBorza
Grammar, grammar, grammar, shouldn't have skipped so many English grammar classes :-)

[bloomstomb]

Rod thanks for that huge writeup +++.

 

Ok , I am flipping through targets in HUD soi mode, I marked 4 of them. But the problem is I need to get the mav to start seeking, and in order to do that i need to press the TM up short command, and inorder for that to work, mav has to be selected as SOI.

 

So I cant just flip through markpoints and fire off maverics, or am I doing it wrong?

 

Because looking at your writeup, Im doing pretty much the same thing, except It seems I have to go intop MAV CAM SOI mode so I can "paint" the target and fire the missle. Am I forgetting something?

[bloomstomb]

Sorry, I dindt' see this post before writing my previous post.

The answer is: nope, you are not doing anything wrong.

What happens is the following:

1) You change Markpoints and the TGP and MAV follows; that's ok.

2) But when MAV is SOI and when you lock the Maverick, the MAV will NO longer be tracking a Markpoint, but its own target. That's why it won't follow the Mark points anymore;

3) So, everytime you fire a MAV, yes, you do have to China Hat Forward Long, select the HUD as SOI, change Markpoint, select MAV as SOI, Track, lock, Fire...and do it all again... :joystick:

If you want to shorten the way, you can use the rocker button on the UFC to select Markpoints, if you like.

4) There's no easier way as I know of. This happens because of the nature of the Maverick, that once locked in a target will track the target, not the Markpoints. If you really think about it, it will make sense...I hope :D. See previous post links on Maverick and markpoints discussion.

 

Ahh yes , but thats the solution! Just use rocker to flip between targets:) That way I can keep my mavs SOI. THanks again, for clarifying that I am actually doing it right:)

 

 

and ignore my last response. We are sniping each other.

 

My solution was to assign the steer switch (on the AAP) to hotkeys. Saves a ton of time.

Edited May 13, 2011 by bloomstomb

[RodBorza]

Glad I could've helped!

Happy hunting!

[Thor77]

cool thing is also, if you're flying MP, your teammates will see your active markpoint if you select broadcast to all function

[RodBorza]

cool thing is also, if you're flying MP, your teammates will see your active markpoint if you select broadcast to all function

 

Hmm..interesting. :smartass:

Makes sense, because what you broadcast is the SPI, independently of it being a steerpoint, Markpoint or any point in space.

Thepeople who work in the defense industry are clever (err... not all of them, but anyway... :D)