Maple Flag Missions - Advanced Flight Training Qualification

Is this campaign still available? Just finished the BFT and was really fun!

Hi Sabre....any word or progress when the AFT and the TT might be released by ED?

I have your originals from Maple Flags but have been fearful of restarting them figuring they may no longer work due to all the changes 1.5 has been receiving.

Thanks Jason

All I can say is soon.

I know that's not much of an answer but we are updating all the voice overs with professional recordings and this is taking longer than expected to complete.

The missions are in testing and I can say the new recordings take the campaign to the next level.

I think many will be pleased with this direction and this will be our standard going forward for all our campaigns.

AFT05 bug?

Hey, I've been looking forward to this DLC making it into the ED store since finishing the basic flight dlc. I've hit a snag though and I'm posting in this thread because I didn't see a dedicated forum for the new AAT DLC. I've tried AFT05, the illumination flares mission several times. I'm hitting all the waypoints, making the radio calls, and lighting up each group of vehicles, but I'm still getting a U.

Here is a track I just saved. http://inurbase.net/miscimages/aft05illuminationflaresU.trk

In this one, I lit up both truck columns at Target 1, all 3 formations at Target 2, and the moving truck column at Target 3. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

-Boogiesg

I was wondering the same thing...is there a sub forum for the AAT campaign?

AFT05 is unique in that the flares have limited forward kinetic energy when they drop due to the parachute opening.

You should try and drop when very close to the waypoint.

The trigger detection zone is about 1nm around the waypoint so if you drop further away it won't register the drop as being successful (even if the targets are lit).

Unfortunately there is no mission trigger to detect if a vehicle is lit other than detecting where the drop was done.

Ah, ok. I'll give it a try that way, focusing on the waypoints themselves.

Thank you.

I've done this mission at least 20 times over the weekend. I'm dropping the flares as close to the waypoint as possible, which is difficult for Target 3 because the convoy is moving and the Steerpoint is set at 8,000 ft. so I have to slew the targeting pod down and find them in a short amount of time. And then what? Is it the waypoint I'm still aiming for or the trucks.

There is something wrong with this mission.

Will it fail me if I turn the TGP on before being told to fence in?

Or not pressing the Fuel Test IND during fence in?

This is ridiculous. 1 NM radius is huge, I'm way closer than that every time.

How do I find out what I'm doing wrong?

We just retested the mission and it works fine.

In the practice mission briefing it indicates: "You must drop within 1nm of the target and under 6000' AGL for immediate ground illumination to pass this PO."

So make sure you are below 6000' AGL - we recommend 5500' or less.

You also need to setup the DSMS profile to drop in pairs.

The other thing we noticed is that the game engine sometimes has trouble detecting key presses so we recommend holding the weapon release button for a 2 or 3 second count.

If you are within these parameters you should hear the FE say "Target in sight!" when you have a successful drop.

For the convoy target the target zone is moving with the convoy so select a vehicle roughly in the middle and then repeat the items above.

You can enable the TGP ahead of the Fence In check but you can also circle around to re-engage if you don't hit the target the first time.

You can use the practice mission to perfect the tactics, techniques and procedures before trying the qualification mission.

Report back if you continue to have issues.

Got it!

The key was holding the weapon release button for about 3 seconds till the instructor says Well Done. I had been releasing the button too early. Thanks for help.

That was my problem! I was releasing at 8K. I didn't see the need to drop lower since I was just lighting up the area and WP was at 8K. If you don't mind I would make a suggestion. Either add the altitude for correct deployment in the brief or add that comment by the FE. Maybe it is in there and I missed, but that seems like a super important thing to know.

The practice mission does indicate the requirement in it's briefing text but we agree it should also be stated in the qualification mission itself.

We also thought we could add a "Check your altitude!" trigger if the player tries to drop from too high an altitude.

We will get those changes submitted to ED asap.

Loving your missions mate! One observation though...why do we always land and takeoff with a tailwind? Not a good habit for trainee pilots to get into! Your BFT campaign was the same too if I recall correctly.

We used it to ensure takeoff from the runway in a certain direction.

It's not much wind, except for the BFT10 mission - Instrument Flight Plan Navigation, as we wanted to challenge the players with the landing at night.

The practice mission does indicate the requirement in it's briefing text but we agree it should also be stated in the qualification mission itself.

 

We also thought we could add a "Check your altitude!" trigger if the player tries to drop from too high an altitude.

 

We will get those changes submitted to ED asap.

lol I didn't do the practice missions because it was just a refresher for me. I hadn't flown for a little bit due to me moving. So when this came out I downloaded it to refreshed everything up.

Three years later hoping to revive a dead thread. I'm working my way through the AFT lessons and everything has been going relatively smoothly. After cracking the night refueling I felt I could do anything! Until Mission 5. I can't pass the flares mission. I've taken all the advice listed here and on Recon Stewart's video page, but I keep failing and I don't know why.

I often get Check the target" from the FE even though the flares are visible directly over the target. I hold the weapon release button for three seconds. I've tried it at 6000, 5700, 5400, 5200, and 3200 feet. I've had the "Check your altitude" warning at anything above 6000, but also at 5200. No warnings at lower altitudes, not even one saying I broke the Hard Deck limit at 3200. I'm dropping in pairs and when I circle back I can see the flares right on target. Any thoughts if anyone is still listening?

It looks like you are doing everything correctly but without a trk file to watch it's hard to say. Have you tried dropping when directly over the target? The flares tend to drop straight down so dropping them earlier might put them outside the trigger zone. Do you hear the pilot say "2 away" when the flares drop? If not then try holding the pickle button down longer.

You could also try a DCS Repair. That's corrected trigger issues for others in the past.

Does it happen in both the campaign and practice missions or just one of the them?

We will retest the missions and see if we can reproduce it.

Thanks for the quick reply. I've had this happen in both the practice and qualifying missions. The best I've managed is to get an acknowledgement of two targets seen in one mission, but the parameters were the same in all three target passes.

I do hear the "2 away" call, usually followed by either "Check the target area" or "Check your altitude."

I can see the targets clearly from the cockpit when I circle back, and Tacview shows the flares drifting down right on top of the targets, though the initial drop shows the flares released before I'm over the target so maybe that's the problem. I'll try releasing them a little later than the CCRP suggests.

Come to think of it, I've usually only had success when I pickle twice over the target, so maybe it's the 2nd set of flares that's activating the trigger and the first drop is too early. I'll go give that a try. Thanks again.

Here is a screen cap from the Tacview of my last practice session for AFT 05.

https://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=219111&stc=1&d=1570816610

This is the drop on the first target. I've just dropped two pairs of flares from 5700 feet (the first right when the CCRP cued me, and the 2nd shortly after) and you can see the 2nd pair is right over the target.

I got the "2 away" call, twice, but that was followed only by "Check target area." When I circled back, the target marker smoke was right in the middle of the illumination zone.

The same thing happens in the qualifying mission as well. Sometimes I get the call that the target is visible and I should move on, but that's rare. I don't know what else to try.

Thanks for the info.

Unfortunately the ME doesn't allow us to test for the illumination radius so we can only test where you drop the flares and at what height. We used to be able to use the bomb in zone trigger but they removed flares from that test.

I checked the triggers and we test 3 things to consider a successful drop:

1. That are you are below 6000 feet.

2. That you are within 0.5 nm of the target (target zone).

3. That the release weapons button is pressed during the above two conditions.

I suspect you are just missing out on the edge of the trigger zone (we probably should make it bigger since the illumination does now light up the target even if dropped further away).

Try dropping when you are right on top of the waypoint (ignoring the CCRP indication). This should ensure you are within the target zone and if you are at the right altitude you should get a successful message from the FE saying 'Target in Sight". We have some updates planned so we will consider making the zones bigger to account for the improved illumination when dropping from farther away.

Thanks for taking the time (especially three years after the last post in this thread!) to reply and I'll give that a try next time around.

Managed to pass AFT Mission 5 today. It took every flare I had, but I'm moving on! Thanks for all your help Sabre-TLA.

Good job! :thumbup:

Hello! first mission - I cant finish.

landed on 25, turned right.

All goes good, but parking - nothing happens when i get parking 42.

also I tried next place 41 - same thing, nothing.

whats wrong?

The parking trigger was updated to cover the whole airfield so it shouldn't matter which spot you pick to part in.

Make sure you turn off the battery as that is the indication that everything is shutdown.

Please post a trk or email us at mapleflagmissions@gmail.com and we can investigate further.