To reproduce a more realistic ramp start

I referred below:

[1] Holmes, Tony. US Navy F-14 Tomcat Units of Operation Iraqi Freedom (Combat Aircraft). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Version

[2] Hampton, Dan. Viper Pilot. William Morrow. Kindle Version.

[3] Baranek, Dave. Topgun Days: Dogfighting, Cheating Death, and Hollywood Glory as One of America's Best Fighter Jocks. Skyhorse. Kindle Version

I want to create a campaign with more realistic ramp start and formation of the package as described in [1], [2] and [3](of course, if it is true that [1], [2], and [3] are described the real life of the fighter pilots):

1) The pre-fight procedure as described in [1]:

　Tomcat crews would go ‘feet on the deck’ to their jets 45 minutes prior to launch, by which time the aircraft was fully fuelled, all systems (bar the engines) were up and running thanks to the jet’s auxiliary power unit and the pylon-mounted weapons, or TARPS pod, had been secured.

　The jet was then preflighted at deck level for 10-15 minutes, after which the Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) would climb aboard and commence his radar systems and avionics checks. With 30 minutes to run to launch, the air wing’s Air Boss (who runs the flight deck) would call ‘starts away’, and the aircraft were fired up. With everything functioning as it should be, the five Tomcats would be unchained and marshalled in a pre-ordained order to one of the ship’s four catapults for launching.

2) to reproduce the real life of the fighter pilots, I do not assume that the player always assigned to the lead of the 1st element of a package (in the real life of the pilots, even if he/she is a lieutenant colonel, he/she may be assigned to a wingman as described in [2](p.261)).

3) In the operating air-space, a four-ships package divided 2 x two-ships elements and act separately as described in [1]:

　Most strike groups were then divided into two mini packages once on station so as to cover any Periods of Vulnerability (known simply as vul time to naval aviators).

This tasking was easier to perform when dealing with smaller divisions of aircraft, rather than sending in a huge formation of jets that tended to get in each others’ way.

The first group, including a section of Tomcats operating exclusively as fighters (pre-1997), fighter-bombers or in the TARPS role, would commence its vul time, leaving the second package on station for a short while longer, prior to it too being committed.

4) As described in [3](p.47), when the carrier turn around to the leeward area, Air boss calls "Ship's in a turn", and all departure/recovery operations will stop until the carrier heading to windward again:

　As we prepared for another cat shot, the air boss came up on the radio and told everyone, “Ship’s in a turn.” This meant Constellation had reached the edge of our assigned operating area and needed to turn around to reposition. We would not go to the cat just yet. The airplanes flying overhead continued to hold, while those of us on deck just sat.

So I added two groups with 2 x F-14Bs as a four-ships package including 2 x two-ships elements as in 3) above, and specified the waypoint-type of the initial waypoint with 'Takeoff from ramp' and the start time with 45 minutes before from the departure time.

And assigned the player to the lead of the 2nd element.

But there were three problems.

A) when the AI group appeared in the 'World', starts its engine, taxi to catapult, connect it, and launch immediately.

　However, when the AI​ group starts at the same start time as the player's group, then the AI

group and the player's group will park at:

　#1 spot: player(the lead of 2nd element)

　#2 spot: the lead of AI group(the lead of 1st element)

　#3 spot: wingman of AI group(wingman of 1st element)

　#4 spot: wingman of player's group(wingman of 2nd element)

　so, when the lead of AI group starts to taxi to #1 catapult, player's aircraft is still at #1 spot, will collide.

B) Wingman of the player's group will wait for the player taxi starting, but when it starts to taxi, it always goes to #2 catapult(if the player will connect #1 catapult, wingman connect #3 catapult, not #2?)

C) Wingman will launch immediately when it ready to launch even if the player still does not launch and before depart time.

So I wish below:

I) the mission creator can assign aircraft to any parking spot with a catapult for launch.

II) the player's wingman does launch after the player launched.

III) add "visible before activate" or AI ON/OFF to the AI aircraft group, or make it possible to specify the engine start time and the taxi start time.

IX) ground power and air supply are already on/connected.

V) when the carrier turns around to leeward:

　- Air boss calls "Ship's in a turn"

　- and TACAN/ICLS will deactivate to stop the recovery operation.

　NOTE: however, currently, it is possible to implement them by LUA script, and during TACAN/ICLS deactivate AI aircraft keeps the holding pattern.

thanks for reading:)

rampstart_test.miz

Hold up. Since when did F-14s have APUs?

Hold up. Since when did F-14s have APUs?

F-14Ds?

EDIT: Nope

“If it’s on the internet it must be true“

- Abraham Lincoln

The quote of 1) is written in the section "OSW" in "Chapter one: OSW" in 'US Navy F-14 Tomcat Units of Operation Iraqi Freedom', and is described as a general F-14 preflight procedure in OSW.

Therefore, if the description in this book is true, it means that F-14 of CVW involved in Operation Southern Watch had an APU.

By the way, I don't trust the official information of F-14 based on section 2.5 of the following article:

https://elliott-labo.com/2020/03/29/the-justice-of-the-persian-gulf/

You can pretty easily ccomplish the situation of having AI aircraft spawn on deck at mission start, but delay their start up until a specified time. It involves setting the AI to start from ramp, checking "uncontrolled" and creating a task to start.

Everything else would be ok, but seems there are bigger priorities now, like visible landing area lighting and a FLOLS properly located on the deck. Those two things would go a long way lol.

You can pretty easily ccomplish the situation of having AI aircraft spawn on deck at mission start, but delay their start up until a specified time. It involves setting the AI to start from ramp, checking "uncontrolled" and creating a task to start.

Yes, and that works for all the AI but the wingman.

@Stearmandriver thanks for your advice.

It has been confirmed that delaying the start of taxiing until the specified time can be achieved by setting the 1st element to "uncontrol" and then "start" after the player starts taxi.

However, after "Start", the Lead of AI ​​group's tries to connect to the "#2" cat., and thus keeps waiting behind unless the player launch, and, as @Yoda967 says, the wingman launches from #3 cat...

It's hard to imagine any aircraft on the boat wouldn't have an APU. I know it is true. Just think of all the extra equipment on the deck.

Tomcats never had APUs. You can confirm this by a cursory search of NATOPS for A, B, and D variants.

It's hard to imagine any aircraft on the boat wouldn't have an APU. I know it is true. Just think of all the extra equipment on the deck.

You only need a 'huffer' as well as a ground power unit (if applicable).

Plenty of carrier-borne aircraft don't have APUs, the ones that do, that I can think of are F/A-18s (both legacy and super) and S-3 Vikings.

These days, only the E-2/C-2 need a Huffer. All Growlers and Super Hornets have APU's.