A2A Refueling in VR - different visual clues.

Greetings aces

I've been training some A2A refuelling in the past days. I noticed that the visual clues seem to be off compared to what I saw in the tutorials by Maverick and the like. If I align the refueling pod of the tanker to the top cockpit strut the basket is too low to connect. That might have to do with the default head position in VR I guess. Generally spatial awarness is better in VR than on the flat screen so it's not a real problem but it might be off putting to nuggets trying to practice what they see in the video.

Anyone else has the same experience?

Kirin out

I've had a hard time figuring out the cues in VR as well.

This video makes it look easy, but in VR you cannot do what he does. Anyone with actual help would be great.

I don't fly often in VR but i've tried my hand at A2A refueling with and hands down I found it much easier than 2D. I gess my sugestion would be, not to reference anything, instead fly formation and use deepth percetion to insert the probe into the basket, really look at both and get a perception to where they both are. You'll find I belive that you can even often connect with movement on combined axis because you can just understand so well how everything is moving relative to everything else.

Yes the depth perception is great for everything actually. However, just blindly stabbing at the basket isn't exactly a great way to learn how to do something.

It is a great way to get frustrated and give up.

The only success I have had with it in VR is to line the pod up just left of the right rivot at the top of the front glass and fly in. This tends to put me a little bit left of the basket however. Moving to the right a bit on the way in screws up my sight picture.

Greetings aces

 

I've been training some A2A refuelling in the past days. I noticed that the visual clues seem to be off compared to what I saw in the tutorials by Maverick and the like. If I align the refueling pod of the tanker to the top cockpit strut the basket is too low to connect. That might have to do with the default head position in VR I guess. Generally spatial awarness is better in VR than on the flat screen so it's not a real problem but it might be off putting to nuggets trying to practice what they see in the video.

 

Anyone else has the same experience?

 

 

Kirin out

In the A2A tutorial thread some people say they are lowering their seat position in order to help with AAR. I'm going to try this myself.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4181370&postcount=235

The only success I have had with it in VR is to line the pod up just left of the right rivot at the top of the front glass and fly in. This tends to put me a little bit left of the basket however. Moving to the right a bit on the way in screws up my sight picture.

This is basically your answer. It is not like Mav came to us, and said: which cues should I use. He tested and tried and then came up with these cues, so they are a mere suggestion, and as correctly noticed, tied to monitor setups, not VR. In both approaches there are "blind" periods, where you just trust your cues and approach (easy does it). Glancing at the basket is ok, too. Mind you glancing, not flying from it. I always use my own cues. I watch and compare when I put it in, where my visual cues are, and look what they are or try to remember what they have been on approach.

When in VR i don't need any visual cues, i simply feel where my plane is in relation to tanker.

In Hornet or trimmed Tomcat it's easy.

I just did my first aerial refueling in the Tomcat in VR. I did use the queues making sure the left most engine pod of the tanker was center top in the central HUD piece of the canopy. My main issue has been throttle lag being so slightly off from my reactions, then overcorrections and then it's bobbing all over the place.

This time, I made multiple contacts it pulled away. I tried again, contact again, oops lost it. Third try was the charm. Was able to throttle up but not too much stayed and stayed with it for quite awhile. Gauges didn't look at the very top, though. Speed up a bit came up a bit, etc but never got a notification so after a few minutes of this slowed down and let him disconnect. Jester said I almost had it, dived away and saved the track. Maybe the tenth try in the Tomcat and tried 4 or 5 in the Hornet (without success). This time rather than bomb mode, I set the wings to manual at 25 degrees (just a hair under where they were normally at that speed) and engaged the autopilot (all 3 switches), which I had done before but not with the wings at that angle.

Of course, the replay doesn't work (known bug IIRC). At least it didn't crash on this one but seems to be unable to get off the Jester menu for contacting the tanker. Log entry now shows a successful refueling. This was my own mission and not the Instant Action mission, so will probably set the tankers freq as default and try it again with another track. Was too relieved to even think about screenshots, but next time for sure! Is there a bug where the tanker doesn't tell the Tomcat refueling is finished? Or was I not patient enough?

Is there a bug where the tanker doesn't tell the Tomcat refueling is finished? Or was I not patient enough?

You didn't check the fuel at refueling?! I always get "transfer complete" when full, then they disconnect you, both from KC-130 and KC-135 MPRS. The S-3 just disconnects due to his fuel state.

Yeah, that's one thing about the S-3. Never take a fuel-critical F-14 to it expecting a mid-mission fill up. A single Tomcat will suck it to bingo and still not be topped off. Take 3-5 thousand pounds and move on. I wish we could tell our wingmen how much gas they can take from a tanker.