Air refueling success . . . after a fashion.

[SLangner]

It’s been a long and frustrating process, but yesterday I actually managed to hook up with the tanker in the first of the two air refueling training missions for more than one or two seconds.

As the training manual describes, it does take a light touch on the stick and throttle to successfully refuel . . . heck, even to stabilize in the pre-contact position.

In retrospect, I should have known this from the get-go, for several reasons. As a boomer, I found that a light ‘guiding’ touch on the boom’s control stick was needed for precise contacts, especially with fighters that had pop-up receptacles like the Phantom or Aardvark. And, while any fighter was close in, I could see their horizontal tailplanes in almost constant motion as the pilot made continuous itty-bitty corrections. Seeing throttle corrections were rare. Thanks to a couple of Aardvark drivers, I did see it demonstrated a couple of times during night refuelings. They’d drop back to pre-contact and light one of their afterburners. As they moved in for and maintained contact, I could see their throttle inputs by watching the afterburner plume.

Practice, practice, practice gang. The BMS programmers have done a bang-up job of giving us a realistic air combat simulator. Take advantage of it, frustrations and all, and enjoy.

[Blu3wolf]

Refuelling is good fun! For me, throttle correction happens quite a bit at the start of the load, and almost not at all by the end. I start with needing to dial in on the exact power setting to match the tanker, and I end up working it out, and being able to just pretty much leave it there.

Good work on getting a connect!

[Osmeen]

unlike before in BMS 4.33 the speeds are very accurate, so if tanker is at 300 and you are at 301 then you’ll advance. Besides, the tanker doesn’t shake like shakeera anymore when you are trying to connect.

[Mower]

I myself enjoy the AAR challenge moreso than combat at times…night time with the tanker in a turn for example.

One time I had only 200 pounds left…

[hoover]

Congrats on hitting “3rd base” for the first time, if only for a few seconds… that’s how it usually goes the first time

It’s always good to hear from the folks who’ve done it for real that BMS is as close as it can be to the real thing. I find it a lot easier to maintain contact for the first minute or so by considerably moving the throttle back and forth in order to stabilize the aircraft.

Managing to “top up” in AAR for the first time was one of my personal highlights of the year. It really is a very rewarding feeling. I also managed to do it online once or twice which increases the pressure exponentially if you know you have real folks out there waiting in line, drumming their fingers on the throttle waiting for you to finish the job, so to speak.

Happy new year & best wishes for 2016,

Uwe

[SLangner]

@hoover:

It’s always good to hear from the folks who’ve done it for real that BMS is as close as it can be to the real thing.

The Pilot Director Indicators’ (PDI lights on the bottom of the tanker) action closely mimics how I ‘told’ the receiver pilots what to do. On the -135 the PDI switches are next to the telescoping lever and are spring loaded to the ‘off’ position, which is why the PDI lights go out when the boomer is going for the contact.

[pandacat]

I learned a good tip from a youtube video. Hold the bottom of you stick instead of the top of your stick. The touches are finer that way.

[hoover]

@pandacat:

I learned a good tip from a youtube video. Hold the bottom of you stick instead of the top of your stick. The touches are finer that way.

+1 on that one, too, you have much finer control.

I just managed to stay on the boom through a tanker turn for the first time evar, yay! Disconnected once when entering the turn but managed to reconnect again and staid on until topped off at 12,200 lbs. Wohoo!

All the best & happy new years eve everyone!

Uwe

[Tomcat84]

Wiggle your toes.

It helps.

(seriously)

[Ripper]

Also old gun cross on end of boom is an easy to guide it in…

I’m with Mower AAR challenges can be fun… There is nothing like being at the end of the mission with 500 lbs of fuel and you have to make that contact to RTB.

[Creature_1stVFW]

@Tomcat84:

Wiggle your toes.

It helps.

(seriously)

yes it does!

[Wolfhound]

@SLangner:

Thanks to a couple of Aardvark drivers, I did see it demonstrated a couple of times during night refuelings. They’d drop back to pre-contact and light one of their afterburners. As they moved in for and maintained contact, I could see their throttle inputs by watching the afterburner plume.

That’s interesting SLangner. With the Strike Eagle, minimum burner is selected on the left engine and the right throttle is used to control positioning.

[SLangner]

Sweet! It’s been a long time, but today I finally got the urge to really tackle refueling, and I successfully got the ‘required’ offload, fighting my tendency to descend when that up close, and kinda-sorta got the hang of playing the throttle.

Despite the complexity, I’m gonna enjoy the next item on my ‘to learn’ list - LANTIRN/TFR. I get a kick out of being down in the weeds at the speed o’ heat.