LOMAC Flaming Cliffs 2.0: Battlefield Air Interdiction at Gudauta (Part 2)

Decisions, decisions ... what to do next. The grid lines indicate 20x20 km. Click the image for an expanded view.

The mission is to destroy the enemy tanks before they reach the front line. Resources available: a two aircraft flight of A-10s armed with AGM-65Ds and an special operations team behind the enemy lines.

In the image above the small arrows indicate the likely route the enemy tanks will take: a small valley between the Caucasus mountains and a patch of hills. We will need the assistance of the SOF team to know if and how the tanks are moving. Two SA-11 launchers are already known to be operative: one in the valley and the other one near the coast line. At the front line, the enemy infantry will likely have a good supply of portable IR-guided missiles (MANPADS).

The environment for this mission is moderate to high threat. At least in my experience, the SA-11 is a nasty foe. The two-stage missiles it fires out range our AGM-65Ds by more than a dozen kilometers. The MANPADS threat is no slouch either: silent (you get no instruments warning when they are shoved up to your engines) and many (cheap and easy to transport), I never take any chances against them.

In the image above, the aircraft icons represent different approaches I considered.

"Front Door", is the diddle, diddle, straight up the middle approach. Conscious of my poor piloting skills, I abandoned it quickly because I tend to get too close to any target and the MANPADS would take me out of action rapidly. Also, there is the line of sight issue when one approaches frontally a column of vehicles moving down a road: they tend to have a smaller footprint in my sights and disappear all at once when they move through moderate elevations.

"Slalom" involves popping up from the mountain range, acquire, fire and bug out towards the cover offered by the Caucasus. I called it "slalom" because I tend to spend too much time acquiring, and using this attack approach would have me flying downhill from a starting altitude of 2,000 meters. One would think that in a situation like that the terrain clutter would protect an aircraft from the enemy radars target acquisition systems, but alas the SA-11 is a heck of an air defense that fires a heck of a missile.

Though not undefeatable, the SA-11in the valley complicates things beyond recognition. That SA-11 in the valley ... it needs to be put out of action.

Did you know that you can safely approach an enemy SA-11, without being fired at, if you fly at around 30 feet above the surface level? That trick could be used against the SA-11 in the coast line ("Salty") because flying at very low altitude is easier on water bodies. But that would still leave me with the task of dealing with the other SA-11 and we have only 8 AGM-65Ds in this flight. Suppressing just one SA-11 is all I can stomach right now.

Using the Death Canyon to approach and engage the SA-11 in the valley ("Trench Rat") is just a crazy idea I had. Useless. The SA-11 is just at the gate of the canyon. Where would I break if I get fired? Upwards?

With these ideas in mind my flight plan was born (see way points in the figure above). Way point (WP) 6 is where I will start my attack run on the SA-11 located in the valley. I will pop up above the mountains at WP6. The altitude of the Caucasus there is just 1,300 m (compare that to the 2,000 of "Slalom"). I will then dive onto the SA-11 and destroy it. May my shooting fail, hopefully I will be inside a 3 km ring around this SA-11 (these things can't fire at you if you are closer than 3 km) and with more freedom to asses the situation. WP7 is just an orientation point, I would prefer not to fly through it but rather take the tank targets from a distance.

WP5 is the initial point (IP) far enough from the real attack position. I kept the IP a bit far from where the shooting will happen because if my initial run fails earlier than I can shoot anything, I want to go back to the IP and re asses from the safety of a good covered position. In addition, remember that IPs should be easily recognizable from the air without the aid of instruments. Mountain peaks look the same when you are flying in combat, so I don't use them as IPs.

WP4 is the contact point (CP). This is where I will wait for the ground element to give us a go/no-go.

I chose WP2 at a landmark (where two rivers merge) and WP3 as an intermediate, general orientation WP. Remember, flying the A-10 in combat is more about sensibly using the terrain rather than chasing waypoints. I don't mean to fly straight between WP2 and WP3, and I don't see the need to complicate the flight plan with 25 extra waypoints that will become a chore to manage and follow during the flight.

In that spirit, we fly ...

Cheers,

LOMAC Flaming Cliffs 2.0: Battlefield Air Interdiction at Gudauta (Part 1)

Side note: I'm having a hell of a time at work and thus the lack of entries. Thanks for checking the blog anyway, folks. Much appreciated! :)

This is a debrief of a custom-made mission. I suck at geopolitics so I will not even attempt to think about a "big picture" type of background for this mission. The mission portrays the tip of the spear of US Army forces hastily advancing towards Gagra, Abkhazia. Irregular forces, equipped with hardware seized from the Georgian Army, are slowly retreating west and attempting to stand firm at every town they get into. The US westward push has been halted after a US Cavalry troop stops to rearm. Human intelligence (HUMINT) teams behind enemy lines have spotted irregular forces in a civilian truck shop near Gagra getting busy on a platoon of T-80s. These tanks will likely be moved 28 kilometers to the front lines within this hour.

Tactical situation. Note that couple of SA-11 launchers still active after the day of battle.

The day is coming to an end and it is imperative to destroy those tanks before they reach the front lines. After heavy fighting, the only air assets available at this time are a couple of A-10s. A team of special operation forces (SOF) located in the slopes of the Caucasus mountains has a panoramic view of the battlefield can provide fire coordination.

A brief remark on the mission we are to fly. If we would be flying US Army Apaches this mission would be simply called a "spoiling attack". Now that we are flying for the US Air Force, this type of mission would open a hell of a discussion. This is not close air support (CAS) because the enemy T-80s are not in contact with friendly troops (that's what we will try to avoid!). In old times (up to the Gulf War) this mission would be called "battlefield air interdiction" (BAI). But the US Air Force, in all its wisdom has slashed this type of missions from its doctrine and now calls it simply "air interdiction". There is more than wording behind all this. The elimination of BAI from the USAF doctrine has some spins that are more like a soap opera. The US Army/USAF inter service friction at the level of command that deals with funds procurement and doctrine writing is still alive and well.  If the map above would be made up to military standards, a line called "fire support coordination line" (FSCL) would be drawn somewhere west of the "forward line of own troops" (FLOT, the line located west of the US Cavalry troop in the map above). The FSCL is a magic line: in the space between the FLOT the FSCL, the Army commander in the ground has the control of fires coming out from any gun from anybody. Control is the keyword here. Control shapes tactics, tactics shape doctrine and doctrine shapes procurement. Put some clueless senator into the mix and the very future of the aircraft you are flying is at risk.

Enough digression. Let's take a look at the battlefield. The picture below shows the enemy troops disposition as seen from their point of view.

In the foreground, the position of the enemy tanks. These will soon move towards the frontline (in the background of the picture) using the small valley located between the Caucasus mountains (left) and the small hills in the right. The approximate positions of enemy infantry teams are also indicated. Enemy infantry is known to have portable, IR guided missiles. Finally, two SA-11 launchers (one located near the mountains, the other one near the coast) provide a moderate umbrella of defense against air attack. A very dominant terrain feature, the "Death Canyon" is also indicated.


Coming up next: mission planning.

Cheers,

LOMAC Flaming Cliffs 2.0: Grooming All My Cockpit Vices

Ideally, a pilot should have some visual routines (when and where to look at) that became so ingrained into him he doesn't need to think about them. Checking the "six pack" is one of those.

With DCS A-10 in the horizon, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the A-10 by flying it in LOMAC Flaming Cliffs 2.0 (FC2). Alas, I'm finding out that besides learning, I have to get rid of many vices/habits. The operation of the A-10 in FC2 is quite simplified and I wonder what's going to be of me when I sit my butt in the detailed virtual cockpit of DCS A-10. :)

Anyway, let's talk a bit about weapons delivery, specifically the AGM-65D. For the time being let's forget about low-high/high-low tactical approaches to the target area. I edited a mission just for practice: a couple of Shilkas near a bridge. I will just fly high out of their reach and try to find and destroy them.

The visual routine for finding the target, locking and firing an AGM-65 is quite different than what I thought. I am supposed to spend most of the time looking out, not staring at the TV monitor to the right. Ideally, acquire the target visually, ground stabilize the EO-aiming reticle near the target and make final adjustments by looking at the TV monitor. In this case I couldn't acquire the Shilkas visually, so I just ground stabilized the EO-aiming reticle in the general target area and made the final adjustments with the TV monitor.

Look up more. Note the tiny little white speckles in the cross-hairs of the TV monitor. Two Shilkas are about to be bagged.

The problem with fixing one's attention in the TV monitor while flying into a hot area is that one develops tunnel vision, looses situational awareness to threats, tends to fly straight (a sure treat for AAA gunners) and (in severe cases) stops flying.

 During night missions, you have an extra enemy: the lack of external visual cues. The temptation of using the IR seeker of the AGM-65D as a FLIR is just too much.

Survivor to all the surrounding destruction, a Shilka takes aim at our flight.

Gah! In top of all this crap I'm supposed to perform approach tactics ...

Cheers,

Exclusive Interview with The Red Pill's Dimitris Dranidis

The Red Pill (working title) is a naval/air simulation/war game being developed by a team of independent developers. As judged by the screenshots and after action reports posted at WarfareSims.com, The Red Pill  will be packed with realism and playability. This is an interview with one of the team members, Dimitris V. Dranidis. 

New "Red Pill" Screenshots

Ladies and gentlemen, this naval/air war game will kick some serious ass. A new batch of screenshots has been posted this weekend at Warfaresims.com.

The stunning screenshots are the first batch from an scenario named "Cans Only".

This is a simple ASuW-centered scenario addressing a hypothetical surface engagement exercise in the western Pacific in the summer of 2010. Two USN surface action groups, one of them including the amphibious ship USS Essex, must reach the Tokyo-Yukosuka area. Two JMSDF taskgroups act as OPFOR and must prevent them from doing so. There is no land-based air support or submarines; both sides must make do with their surface ships and what they can carry onboard. The Japanese have an advantage in numbers, but the US has more Aegis ships and lots more helicopters. The setup is 2-on-2 groups so there are plenty of decisions to make!

More details and screenshots here.

Cheers,

More "Red Pill" Screenshots

The team developing "Red Pill" has released two more screenshots and more details about this air/naval  war game.

From Warfaresims.com:

Here we see how a single A. Burke-class destroyer positioned in the Arabian Sea is able to threaten a wide range of Iranian targets with its Tomahawk cruise missiles (dark red range ring). The map view is deliberately zoomed out to display the globe.

L3 Link's Advanced Helmet Mounted Display

Simulation technology advances at an astonishing pace.

A short time ago L3-Link nailed a contract with the USAF to provide their "Advanced Helmet Mounted Display" gadget so it can be used to train F-16 pilots.

In a nutshell, this is an integrated helmet-mounted projector/transparent display that tracks the trainee's head position and projects the corresponding simulated environment image into a couple of specially designed semi-transparent glasses. Each of these display glasses can display at resolutions of 1280-by-1024 pixels, providing a continuous field of view of 100 degrees (horizontal) by 50 degrees (vertical). Combine that with head-motion sensing and you get 360 degrees coverage without using a single flat-panel display!

Please check out more details at L3-Link Simulation and Training.

Image is a courtesy of "L-3 Link Simulation & Training". Reproduced here with their permission.

Cheers,

Flight Safety for the Ka-50: Autorotation with both engines out

Two failed attempts to report today:

1. To autorotate and make a decent landing after a dual engine failure
2. To make a decent video

Cheers,

Flight Safety for the Ka-50: Autorotation with Engines at Idle

One of the myths about helicopter flying is that if your engine(s) quit, you are gone. Actually, helicopters can "autorotate", wiht the rotor blades moving like a windmill and providing limited lift. Autorotation is an important emergency procedure and real helicopter pilots practice it. In this entry, a practice autorotation with the engines at the idle position ...

War Gaming the Air Ops During the 2006 Lebanon War with HPS's "War over the Mideast"

The game: HPS's "War over the Mideast"

The mission: Attack Hezbollah concentrations in Lebanon

From the game's scenario description.

The 2006 Lebanon War was a 33-day military conflict between Hezbollah paramilitary forces Lebanon and Israel. Conflict started on 12 July 2006 The conflict began when Hezbollah militants fired rockets at Israeli border towns and terminated on 14 August 2006.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes on civilian towns and infrastructure targets throughout Lebanon.  The airstrikes were coupled with a ground invasion of southern Lebanon where Israel Defense Forces (IDF) engaged Hezbollah militants, who resisted using unconventional warfare techniques from hardened positions. After the ceasefire, some parts of Southern Lebanon remained uninhabitable due to unexploded cluster bomblets.

 When you load this scenario, it appears like the whole affair is going to be a turkey shoot. However, the mission objectives are quite demanding. Moreover, depending what you do with your Israeli aircraft, the Syrian Air Force gets really nervous and scrambles interceptors right away.

I can see Syria from here! The blue area on the right is a no fly-zone (yeah right, like flying over Lebanon was not no enough to piss off other Arab countries). Click the image to expand it.

See the red triangles coming from Syria? Interceptors! Click on the image to expand it.

Back to the drawing board here. I have to plan for air superiority. Who would have thought that attacking terrorists would need that?

Cheers,

DCS A-10C, Hands on Look at SimHQ

Oh man, the A-10C simulator from Eagle Dynamics has gotten me all excited now!

In this SimHQ feature, "Cat" describes her first hand experience with the simulator. Great article!

I'm very excited about this (bold is mine):

But wait: there's more. How would you like to see an AI tactical ground controller that will mark targets for you with smoke and give you a full 9-line brief? I saw it, guys. Artificial intelligence for wingmen is enhanced over what we've seen in the past, and you have more commands than ever before.

It seems like Eagle Dynamics is putting their act together about the ground component of the simulation. Given the nature of the missions of the A-10C (thinking of close air support here), it's almost a no brainer. In DCS-Black Shark, the missing tactical air control (either ground or air based) is a glaring omission.

Good times coming up!

Cheers,

Flight Safety for the Ka-50: Retreating Blade Stalls

Writing about "flight safety" for an aircraft that is supposed to fly right into the teeth of enemy anti-aircraft guns and missiles sounds like an oxymoron. However, attack helicopter pilots are taught and practice the principles of helicopter flight safety. This short series of "Flight Safety for the Ka-50" is intended to raise some awareness on the topic. The extended DCS Black Shark manual has great information on this topic, make sure to check it out.

Ever flew the Ka-50 straight and level around 295 Km/h, right when all alarms start buzzing, seconds before your blades disintegrate and you plummet into the ground? I have to confess that in all my ignorance I thought that this blade clipping was just the strength of the forward airspeed bending the blades downward, sometimes forcing the top blades into the bottom ones (doh! the top and bottom blades can't collide with each other!)

UPDATE 10/30/09: The top and bottom blades CAN hit each other. Thanks to faithful reader Loke for the correction (see "comments" below). Also, take a look at the following links:
Thread at the official DCS forums
News article on a Ka-50 crash due to top and bottom blades collision
SimHQ article on coaxial rotors aerodynamics

Doh! Rotor blades clipped at high forward airspeed. Image is clickeable.

What actually happens is that a stall of the rotor blades makes the blades flutter and fail structurally.

Stalls, the helicopter version
Every airfoil can stall and helicopter's ones are no exception. Actually there are two main types of stalls for helicopter airfoils: retreating blade stall and settling with power. In this entry, I will briefly mention retreating blade stalls. Settling with power will the topic of a future entry.

I'm no airfoil guru, so I will make this very simple. Imagine the simplest helicopter, with just two blades in its main rotor. The airspeed at each blade is what generates lift. When the helicopter is moving at a considerable forward airspeed, an interesting thing happens: at every turn of the main rotor there is a point where the instant airspeed at the blade moving forward is bigger than the one at the blade moving backwards (retreating blade).

A simple, two blade helicopter with the blades rotating counter-clockwise (the red arrows circle represents the rotation of the blades). The total airspeed at the advancing blade is the airspeed generated by the rotation of the blades plus the airspeed generated by forward movement. The total airspeed at the retreating blade is the airspeed generated by the rotation of the blades minus the airspeed generated by the forward movement. Click the image to enlarge it.

Eventually, if the forward airspeed is very high, the retreating blade will stall! Fortunatelly, retreating blade stalls are easy to avoid (don't exceed the maximum forward airspeed), easy to get out of plus and as frequent as stalls in fixed wing aircraft.

However, keep in mind that in the case of the Ka-50 the vibration generated by a retreating blade stall will eventually cause the blades to fail structurally. This has catastrophic consequences most of the times.

Dissymmetry of lift, de la Cierva and how this sim got me officially freaked out
Now, if you remember that in helicopters the airspeed at the blades is what generates lift you will realize that if the forward airspeed of the aircraft goes up, the advancing blade will generate more lift than the retreating blade. The result is that right half of the rotor disk will generate more lift than the left side. This is called dissymmetry of lift. The guy who solved this dissymetry of lift problem was the Spanish engineer and aviation pioneer Juan de la Cierva. De la Cierva invented the so-called flapping hinge, a device that allows the advancing blade to flap up (see third figure in this page).

This flap up of the advancing blade at high speeds is modelled in DCS Black Shark. See the screenshots below.

Flying at 60 Km/h IAS. The advancing blade in the bottom blade assembly has almost no "flap up". Click the image to enlarge.

Flying at 295 Km/h IAS. The advancing blade in the bottom blade assembly has an evident "flap up". Click the image to enlarge.

The level of detail in this simulation is un-freaking-believable!

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark: Nap of the Earth (NoE) Flying with the Radar-Altitude-Hold Flight Mode

The best way to deal with enemy radar-guided missiles while piloting the Ka-50 featured in DCS Black Shark is not to get shot at. Nap of the earth (NoE) flying reduces the chances of an enemy radar getting a lock at the Ka-50. NoE flying is very exhilarating, but requires a lot of concentration. This blog entry is about the use of the radar-altitude-hold flight mode to make that NoE flying a bit less stressful.

NoE flying. Click the image to expand it.

As soon as you get the Ka-50 flying straight and level (and low), hit the altitude hold button in the autopilot panel (see image below). Make sure that the mode of holding altitude is based on radar and not on barometric readings.

The altitude hold button on the autopilot control panel and the altitude source switch. Click the image to expand it.

The upper panel lights up with an easy-to-see reminder of what you have switched on. Click on the image to expand it.

Once the altitude hold flight mode has been engaged and you are flying straight, level and low hit the collective brake lever ([F] in the keyboard) to set your current altitude as the desired altitude. Your Ka-50 will now fly at the altitude you just selected. Your airspeed can be adjusted by slightly pushing (increase airspeed) and pulling (decrease airspeed) the cyclic. I repeat "slightly": if you move the nose of the Ka-50 more than 5 degrees up or down from level, your Ka-50 will climb or sink. In this screenshot I'm making 200 km/h at 7 meters of altitude without any effort. Click the image to expand.

The time has come to reduce the airspeed: pull the cyclic, but don't let the nose to go up more than 5 degrees or you will climb. Note the aircraft datum in the HUD display: nose is no more than 5 degrees up. In this example, I reduced the airspeed from 200 to ~120 km/h without changing my altitude too much (just one meter up!). Click the image to expand it.

Nose up to stop the Ka-50. Note the low altitude. Click the image to expand it.

Surprise! The radar-altitude-hold flight mode will automatically fly your Ka-50 over hills of moderate slopes. Click the image to expand it.

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark: Where did my target go?

Flying an attack helicopter in combat is a very demanding task. Keeping track on the targets, the threats, communications, weapon systems and flying the damn thing at the same time is the pinnacle of multitasking. Ed Macy put it very eloquently in his book "Apache": "... taking an Apache into battle is like playing an Xbox, a Playstation, and chess grand master simultaneously-while riding Disney World's biggest roller coaster ..." The information overload used to kick me hard when I couldn't find enemy units or landmarks I've seen in the Shkval just before performing hard evasive maneuvers. I reckon that probably the main cause for this is the shock of the near-(virtual) death experience (I tend to kill myself just maneuvering out of a missile's path). But I digress.

The I-251 "Shkval" electro-optical targeting system offers a great way to find back that enemy unit, landmark or general terrain area I have just been watching before maneuvering the Black Shark. The trick is locking the Shkval onto that point of interest before losing sight of it.

Locked into a multistory building. Please note the appearance of the building in front of the one I've locked. Click for an expanded view.

Now performing a 360 degrees turn while descending. I've lost sight of the building and off course the lock on it. Click for an expanded view.


Turn and descent complete. Now looking at the general area again from a lower altitude, the Shkval is in ground stabilized mode pointing just a few dozen meters ahead of the previous lock (do you recognize the building that was in front of my previous lock?). Click for an expanded view.

Everytime you lock onto something, the Shkval stores the target's angular coordinates and range into it's memory. I suppose this allows the targeting system to point itself back into the area you have locked into. I'm sure that there has to be a limit for how long in time or how far spatially you can be from the original lock-on in order to get the targeting system keeping the data in its memory. But as you can see I descended a lot from my original lock-on position, turned 360 degrees and still the targeting system was ground-stabilized fairly close to the original lock-on.

Cheers,

Strike mission right into a SAM nest

The flight sim: "Wings over Vietnam"
The mission: Strike a North Vietnamese airbase
The machine: F4J Phantom II

I've chosen a low flying approach into the target zone. That little box on the dashboard is a RWR/threat indicator. The North Vietnamese are painting us with all the have. In the background, two SA-2 SAMs have been launched in quick sequence. Click on the image to expand.

After striking the airbase with free-fall bombs, I egress the target zone with a steep climb, jinking and watching for SAMs. Burning fuel tanks can be seen in the airbase. Click the image to expand.

RTB, finally. Fast but with the throttle just short of afterburners. The North Vietnamese will send some interceptors sooner than later. Click on the image to expand.

The angle of attack(AoA, red square) indicator of the "Double Ugly". It really shows that this aircraft was designed for the US Navy (by that time Navy aviators were trained to land at a fixed AoA rather than at a fixed airspeed). Click in the image to expand.

This flight simulator is a strange thing. It seems to capture the feeling of fighting over Vietnam during the 60-70's, but so many simplifications are starting to drain the fun.

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark: "A Stick and Rudder Man's Guide" at SimHQ

Frank "Dart" Giger (SimHQ Aviation and Air Combat co-Editor) has written a wonderful article on how tackle the complex task of flying the Black Shark.

Mr. Giger is a great writer and a straight forward thinker. His previous article on DRM schemes in games was brilliant.

As I recently started to fly "Wings over Vietnam", with its extremely simplified avionics and target acquisition systems, I found the following paragraph spot on (bold is mine):

I dislike “switch simulations” with a passion. Nothing sucks the joy from my soul quite like the word procedure in relationship to the operation of flight simulation, and referring to an aircraft as a platform is the height of insult in my book. It’s not the technical brilliance of the band and the craftsmanship of the floor that that excites me near as much as the woman I’m dancing with, after all — and it’s the only reason I’m there, to be honest.

Cheers,

Flight simming the air war over Vietnam

Just in time for my new work schedule with almost no free time, a new itch: air combat during the Vietnam era.

I installed my long-forgotten copy of "Wings over Vietnam" (WoV, from Thirdwire) and I took off to the virtual skies of Vietnam. This flight simulator is certainly not the cup of tea of the hardcore crowd out there. WoV doesn't feature detailed avionics, weapons targeting procedures, mission planning or a clickeable cockpit. Hell, you can even land your aircraft in the middle of the jungle!

In my case I am just happy with just some sort of fidelity in the flight modeling and weapons performance. To a certain extent, WoV delivers in those departments. In any case, WoV looks like the only choice I have.

Just as fighter pilots described in the abundant literature about the air war in Vietnam, flying the Phantom II is like flying a brick. Click the image for a better view.

My first encounters with the MIG-17 were not pretty. If you are flying a Phantom, avoid a turning fight with this guy! Click the image for a better view.

If this goes well and time allows, I would like to purchase Yankee Air Pirate 2.

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark Controls Lockup? Try this.

The latest patch for DCS Black Shark has implemented a new and default trimmer implementation. It works like this: once you hit the trimmer button, any input from your joystick and rudder pedals will be ignored until you center them. Most of the times this new trimmer implementation works like a charm, but if you fail to center your joystick and rudder any further input from them will be ignored (controls lockup, yikes!).

If your joystick and rudder pedals are not properly calibrated/centered, these lockups will happen when you least want them. Joysticks and pedals generating a moderate amount of "noise" will also produce these lockups.

To avoid these lockups, I suggest you go into the game's option suite, controls tab, axis commands and click on the "tune axis" option. Once in the axis tune panel, provide a small amount of "dead zone" to the axis of your controllers. The amount of "dead zone" depends on how noisy your controls are.



Cheers,

Where's All That Nagging Coming From: the Black Shark's ADF

I'm compulsively trying to figure out instrument landings in DCS Black Shark.

This entry, though, is about one capability of the Black Shark that I bumped into while experimenting with the instruments. After some manual reading, I found out that this feature is actually documented there (warning, this is not a discovery of any sort!). Flipping switches and then go to read the manual to understand what the hell just happened is not the optimal way to learn, but alas the manual's style will never engage me in a cover-to-cover reading madness.

Anyway, here is the thing. The Black Shark has an electronic system to find the direction of radio transmissions. It's called the "ARK-22 ADF" (ADF stands for automatic direction finder). The ARK-22 ADF controls the Radio Magnetic Indicator (RMI) needle on the Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI), pointing it in the direction of the transmitting signal. The ARK-22 ADF is vital to point the pilot towards airport radio beacons that transmit a radio signal with all the information needed for instrument landings.

It turns out that the ARK-22 ADF can be used to find the direction of incoming regular radio transmissions. Who ever talks to you by radio, you can see in the HSI where the transmission came from.

Talking with the guys at the FARP. The red caret (actually named RMI-2) at the HSI (horizontal situation indicator) wheel (right panel, ABRIS screen) shows where the transmission came from. Click the image for a better view.

Another example. This time my wingman is answering my request to change formation. Note how the red caret in the HSI wheel (right panel) shows the direction from which the wingman is transmitting. Click the image for a better view.

Not bad for an helicopter that doesn't have a radar warning receiver! ;)

Cheers,

Putting my (Pilot) Act Together: Instruments Landing

As I mentioned in a previous entry, the flight instructors over at the ECV 56 Condor (a virtual squadron headquartered in Argentina) are holding training sessions on instrument landings with the DCS Black Shark.

Is in times like this that it becomes clear how good pilots they are. Is in times like this that I feel like I'm crashing a party. :) So, time to learn those things I never did and to re-learn those things that I gave little attention in my past short virtual pilot career.

How to land by instruments is a thing I never understood completely back in my combat flight simulator days. In perspective, I pretty much got shot down during most missions. So my landings were always few and very happy occassions.

For being such a lousy virtual pilot, I deserve to be punished and learn instrument landings in X-Plane's Cessna. But instead I treated myself to the virtual cockpit of an F-16 in Falcon 4 Allied Force (F4AF). This is a bit like learning to drive a car in a Ferrari.

My excuse is that F4AF's manual is very well written and detailed. Given the age of this simulator, there is also plenty of material online.

I finally could understand what the fuzz is all about instrument landings.

After "tuning in" to an airport TACAN station, the horizontal situation indication (HSI, inside the red square) graphically represents my aircraft's position relative to the runway. Click the image to enlarge.

Once moderatly aligned with the cues in the HSI, is time to use the ILS vertical and horizontal bars (inside the red square) to catch a ride on an optimal glideslope (not the case here, but close enough). Click the image to enlarge.

I landed pretty but with too much forward airspeed. This particular runway (16L, Kunsan, South Korea) is very short and breaking without eating the airbase fence is quite a thrill. Click the image to enlarge.

Cheers,