Situation awereness
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Hello Pilots,
I’ve been flying Falcon BMS for few years.
I’m quite familiar with most basic operations: start, land, air refuel, avionics and deploying weapons.
The problem is that I haven’t even started a campaign. That’s because when I try to fly some mission,
I totally lost control over the battlefield.
My biggest hardware disadvantage is no track ir, so trying to look around takes some additional effort.
Anyway, when I try to fly over enemiy territory, I feel completely lost, airplanes are everywhere, suddenly
they are behind me, trying to select some order for my wingman, while keep turning and looking around using mouse.I feel like I’m missing something. Can I ask you to give me some advices how to learn control?
How to gain more situation awareness?Cheers
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Use the AWACS for picture and also nearest threads, which can also help you a lot
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+1 also if u r threatened the awacs will inform u. So remember your callsign and hear. When u are called u must react.
Finally join a squadron will help you greatly.
Sent from TapaTalk
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use AWACS menu, but never rely on it because AWACS coverage is spotty at the best of times
“contact is friendly”
“i don’t know, that looks like a MIG-29”
an archer flies off the rail and does a 50g turn off the rail to lead pursuit
“yep”remember that AWACS is far from omniscient, generally you can’t rely on him to see anything low, or to accurately ID targets if you are actually in a furball (he will call friendly things as enemy and enemy things as friendly. FREQUENTLY)
if you are actually having trouble maintaining SA, perhaps the best thing to do is just surround yourself with enemies. this may seem counter-intuitive, but if you fly near seoul for instance there’s always the sorting problem: of the 500 planes flying in your 40nm front arc, which ones are going to start shooting at you? if you fly instead near the west or east coasts (and especially if you ingress from the sea) pretty much everything in front or to the sides of you is almost certainly hostile. use AWACS declare and your TGP and just cut loose.
even to an adept pilot though, the first day is going to be extremely chaotic, there’s simply too much red air flying around everywhere for it not to be. once DPRKAF gets it’s wings clipped it’s actually easier; the first day is usually the hardest due to all the SAMs / air being intact and well-supplied.
my advice is if you’re getting your feet wet, just fly relatively safe DCAs, work on target sorting with the radar and the AWACS. fly defensively over seoul or covering the area between your home plate and the DMZ and take it one step at a time.
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This is one area at least that BMS is harder than the real thing would be. Or more like, there are tools to deal with these problems, that do not exist in BMS.
(No, Im not talking about IFF, although that is a small component of it).
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it’s harder in singleplayer. the F-16 RADAR isn’t an eye seeing eye, but a group of players one nearly can be.
the AIs are “useful” in that they are a deathstar of AMRAAMs, but pretty much nothing replaces friendlies in the air that are capable of communicating.
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Thanks guys for your tips,
I think joining some virtual squadron would be the best thing as I’m getting a bit tired of just shooting some dummy targets at Kotar after those years.
Do you all use track ir or just using mouse to look around? In my opinion it’s also one of the key issues.I know radar and avionics limitation pretty well and I’m aware of radar not being a God’s eye. It’s just when facing some enemies,
I fire a missile (usually wait for them to get close to no-escape zone) then I break left or right while trying to keep radar contact.
At this point it all starts. Missile sometimes doesn’t reach the target (happens, right?) and I loose the radar contact eventually.
And now they are there somewhere going on my six. The only thing I’m trying to do is to turn (usually too hard loosing energy),
switching my left hand to mouse to look around, while trying to ask wingman / AWACS to tell me what’s going on around me…Cheers guys
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if you aren’t confident at closing range you should just never allow it to happen. you’re an F-16 man, 'till you run out of AMRAAMs you’re a deathstar nothing can approach.
spot enemy group
go TWS
wait until approaching NEZ
fire next target fire next target fire next target fire next target
crank
wait for pitbull
leaverest in pieces as many MIGs as required
in the long term you should get used to fighting close in (certainly not impossible without trackIR protip: keep your eyes up, then roll the plane so the enemy is up, then maneuver from there)
in the short term though, nothing approaches an F-16 without catching active homing death.
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I’m the same I have been flying since Falcon 4.0. It’s a part of it. I know exactly what you mean. I use labels for a few missions then I try a few without and do good radar work. Like the above poster said you should focus on your mission and stand off. Also a great help is to use the data link so you can see where your wing-men are and the lead flights of your package. This will enhance your situation awareness a lot.
BTW if you want to fly online and do a few missions and do some blind leading the blind I will be glad to help out.
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@Cik:
spot enemy group
go TWS
wait until approaching NEZ
fire next target fire next target fire next target fire next target
crank
wait for pitbull
leaveIf only it were that easy.
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One rule of thumb I have when I feel less than supremely confident (often) is not to let threats occupy more than a 90 degree wedge of the RWR. When turning and running always go twice as far and twice as fast than you are tempted to. Not separating from the fight after your SA is in the bin far enough is a common mistake.
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Just as notice, you don’t need to buy TrackIR - if you already own a WebCam, try FaceTrackNoIR, or perhaps OpenTrack (don’t know if they have facetrack)
If your hardware isn’t the best, make yourself a Clip with IR Leds (for example from Remote Controller) - or perhaps even better nowadays, if you can get your hands on SMD Leds, to me they seem brighter and you won’t have problems with eventually installed IR/NON IR Filters.
There are a lot of constructionplans on the internet.
While the clip gets heavier due to cable+mount, the performance, precision and delay are much better than facetrack (Which needs very good light in your face). -
If you dont have TIR, you might try using the POV hat on your joystick instead. Its much quicker than trying to use the mouse.
Cik: thats a fairly optimistic approach. Tried it against human adversaries?
The biggest thing that is an issue in BMS is identifiying groups, I find. A lot of the prototypical tools dont work for this. With no minimum risk routing, no Link 16, and no IFF, we are down to just a few tools to classify contacts - point of origin criteria, positive ID by NCTR, or the obvious VID. To an extent we can apply High Fast Flyer criteria too, as friendlies are unlikely to adopt this sort of flight profile headed south (assuming korea theater).
Makes it a little hard to employ on timeline if you arent sure whether that group is friendly F-15s on RTB or ingressing attackers. About the only thing that makes it easier to tell is the AI’s infinite knowledge - as soon as you get detected, you are identified (wouldnt that be nice to have as the human pilot?). Which means they react if they are hostile, and keep on trucking if friendly.
RWR correlation can help, although the RWR slave radar mode is not implemented.
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TGP NARO 4.0x can ID targets far enough away to make VID before significant threat to life is incurred against most (non SU-27S/29S) targets.
i find that targets are easy enough to ID outside a furball
find group on radar
softlock
q2
hard lock to check for buddy spike and to let radar determine type
check closure speed, aspect, RWR correlate
if closure speed high, aspect is very hot, or RWR correlate shows hostile type, firing may be allowable at this point if they are threatening
if not, VID with TGP if able
if still unsure and unwilling to fire, either 1. turn away or 2. if you feel brave and/or the target is unthreatening in the forward aspect, head to VID in the mergebut hey, i wouldn’t argue against an implementation of any of that stuff :^)
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That works if the picture you committed on is SINGLE GROUP. Im pretty sure most everyone here can handle a single contact, or a single group, though. The interesting part comes in from trying to maintain that line, to keep hostiles further away than a certain radius. Not that hard for a single group… but when you are taking off and have 15 to 25 contacts on the radar inside 40 miles, you dont really have time to use the TGP to ID all of them. In fairness, even in a safer situation, CAPping over a fixed track with 6 to 8 groups downrange, hot - you cant get close enough to ID them with TGP while preserving enough range to go out and recommit.
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if you’re willing to engage on less information you easily can.
i was going through the full procedure but generally i feel comfortable shooting on two or three of those depending on which ones.
hot aspect targets angels 30 fast ^29 on RWR? i’ll shoot without VID NP. even better because TWS/hardlock will usually give MG29 radar ID if they are nose on.
anyway, you’re right that that’s the trick, but IMO if you are so outnumbered that you alone are responsible for such a wide area (and that apparently there are an enormous number of enemy machines out there completely undedicated to anything else) you’ve done something wrong already. sorting multiple groups is of course often required, but i never allow more than two into a range where they can actually shoot me at any one time, and at a low PK% at that.
assuming the enemy aren’t strobing, you can usually start picking up high contacts at ~50nm so you generally have quite a bit of time.
most of the threat in KTO comes from unspotted groups on the deck that do the mig-21 style zoomclimb shotgun thing, not the frontal attack strategy which only works if they physically outnumber the missiles available to your flight and some how have you enveloped such that retreat is not an option. even then, you’re likely to kill far more than you lose, though i wouldn’t exactly call getting shot down a victory in any case.
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You have an interesting experience with the sim, to be able to claim that taking off is doing something wrong.
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wat
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Hello Pilots,
I’ve been flying Falcon BMS for few years.
I’m quite familiar with most basic operations: start, land, air refuel, avionics and deploying weapons.
The problem is that I haven’t even started a campaign. That’s because when I try to fly some mission,
I totally lost control over the battlefield.
My biggest hardware disadvantage is no track ir, so trying to look around takes some additional effort.
Anyway, when I try to fly over enemiy territory, I feel completely lost, airplanes are everywhere, suddenly
they are behind me, trying to select some order for my wingman, while keep turning and looking around using mouse.I feel like I’m missing something. Can I ask you to give me some advices how to learn control?
How to gain more situation awareness?Cheers
Don’t be deceived by thinking that SA is solely knowing where the enemy is. SA starts with the most basic fundamentals and builds on.
SA of what your jet is doing (speed, heading ,altitude etc) and where it, is the first step to build good SA. Then, you will need to have SA of your flight. You will need to know where your wingmen are (if you are lead) or maintain your briefed formation position (if you’re a wingman).Assuming your wingman is spread although in reality he is 20nm behind will screw things up.
Next comes knowing where other friendly flights are in relation with yours. Once you have sorted the friendlies out, you can move on to the enemy.
Here are some ideas to help you out.
Plot enemy foward operation bases on your MFD. Knowing where the enemy might takeoff is very handy.
Use the bullseye to your advantage by placing it somewhere useful.
If you’re flying a strike mission, the ideal place would be the target steer point. This would act as a border dividing an area for bad guys and good guys. Assuming your attack orientation is north, anything at bearings from 270 to 090 (clockwise) is in enemy territory. Set a range from the BE centre that would act as commit or abort flag. If any bandit is at or within this range (when you will be executing the ground attack target), will cause a serious threat, therefore triggering reaction.
MENTALLY knowing where the enemy is what you’re looking for… right? Imagine you have just dropped your AG load and started your egress southbound from your TGT/bullseye.Naturally you might call AWACS and ask for a picture. AWACS responds with 360/20. Immediately you know tha bandit group is 20nm north of your target and by checking own ship BE, it is very easy to plot mentally where the bandit is in relation to you and at what range.
I would advise you to print out a map of your engagement area with the BE ( range rings and bearings). Plot your jet onto the map by using your own ship BE and bandit group BE at any given moment. This will give you a visual picture of the situation. After a while you may not even need it.
If you flying AA, as a rule of thumb, place the BE so it will be visible in the FCR (It already visible in AG because it’s your target). If you flying a CAP with orientation N/S for example, place it so it will be visible in the top half of your 80nm FCR scope.
Last and not least, formulate a plan and stick to it. Don’t go wondering off chasing MiG’s -
@Cik:
if you’re willing to engage on less information you easily can.
i was going through the full procedure but generally i feel comfortable shooting on two or three of those depending on which ones.
hot aspect targets angels 30 fast ^29 on RWR? i’ll shoot without VID NP. even better because TWS/hardlock will usually give MG29 radar ID if they are nose on.
anyway, you’re right that that’s the trick, but IMO if you are so outnumbered that you alone are responsible for such a wide area (and that apparently there are an enormous number of enemy machines out there completely undedicated to anything else) you’ve done something wrong already. sorting multiple groups is of course often required, but i never allow more than two into a range where they can actually shoot me at any one time, and at a low PK% at that.
assuming the enemy aren’t strobing, you can usually start picking up high contacts at ~50nm so you generally have quite a bit of time.
most of the threat in KTO comes from unspotted groups on the deck that do the mig-21 style zoomclimb shotgun thing, not the frontal attack strategy which only works if they physically outnumber the missiles available to your flight and some how have you enveloped such that retreat is not an option. even then, you’re likely to kill far more than you lose, though i wouldn’t exactly call getting shot down a victory in any case.
I can only imagine how many invalid decs you’ve shot or times you’ve fratted. It takes a lot more than this to shoot someone.
You need:
LOF + PEI + HA/HI = Hostile
Since there are no interrogators in the sim you need to get LOF from AWACS or use some type of “Gopher” criteria. For PEI you can use NCTR or AWACS. And for HA/HI, it’s usually defined as being airborne and in the area. Then, and only then, can I shoot someone (DCA can change things a little). But even if I know it’s a Non-friendly SU-30, I can’t just go killing it. He needs to commit a HA.
Additionally, you can’t use your RWR to ID groups. It needs to meet group criteria (3 NM).