Ramp start in complet dark conditions
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Is there any light source available before the engine is running? I had the situation that I cound’t see anything in the cockpit before my wingman had his taxi lights on.
I know that it is possible with the keyboard key’s, but thats some kind of annoying.
Thanks for advice.
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@zwingli you can turn on the spotlight once you have the battery power on. There is discussion that in future releases that you may not have to flip main power switch on to simulate a pilot having a flashlight. See this thread for more info: https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/20879/nvg-fix-u2/4
While it’s unrealistic, you can use the NVGs too.
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Thx, for the quick answer!
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Just map the MAIN PWR switch.
- Main to BATT
- SHIFT + S
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@snake122 said in Ramp start in complet dark conditions:
@zwingli you can turn on the spotlight once you have the battery power on. There is discussion that in future releases that you may not have to flip main power switch on to simulate a pilot having a flashlight. See this thread for more info: https://forum.falcon-bms.com/topic/20879/nvg-fix-u2/4
While it’s unrealistic, you can use the NVGs too.
We need a flashlight, there is no doubt about it
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I usually just turn on the NVG until I can get the cockpit lamps up - the ground crew kept yelling at me for whipping out the Zippo lighter…
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@semlerpdx yep, as I said, that’s a unrealistic option available to us, but not having flashlight is unrealistic too
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This post is deleted! -
I’ll take care of this.
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it’s shift+alt +W to turn battery (twice for main power) then spotlight shift+s. In midnight with no moon even NVG won’t help
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This is why the IRL NVG (Gen2) I purchased has IR illumination, for zero light conditions. Soldier gear quite different from Pilot gear iirc… but IRL, this situation doesn’t exist, right? I mean, they have lights at the RAMP, no? Do pilots have to fumble through this with a handheld light in a blackout scramble situation?
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@semlerpdx said in Ramp start in complet dark conditions:
This is why the IRL NVG (Gen2) I purchased has IR illumination, for zero light conditions. Soldier gear quite different from Pilot gear iirc… but IRL, this situation doesn’t exist, right? I mean, they have lights at the RAMP, no? Do pilots have to fumble through this with a handheld light in a blackout scramble situation?
NVGs do to an extent. IR illuminators are on ground based NVGs of all generations actually (1gen is dependant on the illuminators), But again as I keep referencing, it is unrealistic to use NVGs to look inside the cockpit!
You set the focus of the NVGs prior to flight and don’t mess with it. You have to look under the NVGs to see things in the cockpit. I hate saying it, but see how DCS does this for a more realistic representation of how it works. Generally in fighters, the NVGs stay stowed until airborne is my understanding. Lead is supposed to kick out to a loose formation make a “goggles” call and the flight will call “goggled” when NVGs are on.
I do have a feeling that there is more ambient light going on than BMS on moonless nights, especially for training ops where ramp lights may be on or you are close to a city, especially with low-medium overcast. Complete blackout could be realistic for combat though, and I feel like they have that part right woth the latest ambient light tweak. There is the ambient light .cfg edit you can make. OTOH, I feel like the full moon is a little too bright.
2nd Gen+ NVGs can work with just starlight to illuminate, but again you aren’t going to use them for inside work. For a lot of pilots, using flashlights is a pretty common thing from the preflight on. It is part of the reason I’m a flashlight nut and always have one in my pocket (I’m just a civilian flight instructor though). Military pilots have some fancier options like mask mounted liplights, the new cheeklights look interesting though:
If I remember correctly, that video also talks about mounting the NVGs vs JHMCS (which having both on at the same time is another unrealistic thing you can do in BMS), if not Hasard has another video where he talks about the gear in his flight bag.
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I saw this reasently on youtube how the pilots manage it in the swiss airforce:
Min 28:24
There is the finger-spotlight.
By the way the language is Swiss German.
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@mav-jp and a lot of other stuff
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I ran into this recently with the new update doing a night flight…It was so dark I couldn’t find the switch for batter to turn on the spotlight and the NVG didn’t help. I clicked around randomly until I got lucky and found it but then I had to do a thorough check to see what else I had screwed up. It was pretty hilarious lol! I bound a voice command to ‘Night Start’ in FoxVox for now that turns on the battery and the spotlight for me now. Glad to hear I’m not the only one! These little changes, even when they make things challenging keep thing fresh - I found it ironically realistic since I didn’t have a flashlight on me at the time. I’m always look forward to the updates. Thanks BMS for all you do!