TACAN to find wingman?

Anyone familiar with using TACAN to find your wingman distance (and/or bearing) in the Harrier? You can use TACAN like this in the Mirage, but when following the same steps in the Harrier all I could get was a spinning TACAN icon around my aircraft in the HSI. Anyone have success?

TACAN to wingman instructions for Mirage (followed this, but in context of the Harrier):

1. Set TACAN rotary to A/A and X or Y.
   
2. Use a separation between leader and wingman of 63 channels.
   
3. For example you on Channel 3 and your wingman on Channel 66.
   
4. Move the HSI rotary to TACAN.
   
5. You will see on the HSI distance display your distance with your wingman.
   

No clue about this for Harrier and never knew you could do that with the Mirage, thanks for the education :thumbup:

I would say though, that you and your wing man could use the TACAN to locate each other by just tuning in the same station and comparing bearing and distance with each other. It does require some mental gymnastics but it is doable.

• Use a separation between leader and wingman of 63 channels.
  
• For example you on Channel 3 and your wingman on Channel 66.
  

Why the channel separation?

Because this is how it works for A/A.

Why the channel separation?

Because TACAN ranging works on a challenge/ reply principle.

The aircraft challenge on one frequency, the signal is processed in the station (within a known delay), then station reply on another paired frequency.

Range is known by measuring the time between challenge & reply.

For instance:

____XMIT RCV

03Y: 1087 1150 MHz

66Y: 1150 1087 MHz

This doesn't work with X channel though. I don't remember how the AA change the things...

Anyone familiar with using TACAN to find your wingman distance (and/or bearing) in the Harrier? You can use TACAN like this in the Mirage, but when following the same steps in the Harrier all I could get was a spinning TACAN icon around my aircraft in the HSI. Anyone have success?

 

TACAN to wingman instructions for Mirage (followed this, but in context of the Harrier):

1. Set TACAN rotary to A/A and X or Y.
   
2. Use a separation between leader and wingman of 63 channels.
   
3. For example you on Channel 3 and your wingman on Channel 66.
   
4. Move the HSI rotary to TACAN.
   
5. You will see on the HSI distance display your distance with your wingman.
   

Anyone checked this with Y Band?

No joy with Harrier, X or Y.

It should work, range-only, if lead is example 10Y A/A and wingman is 73Y A/A.

If that doesn't work then the module isn't modeled correctly.

For real, air to air tacan is only a distance, NEVER a radial. don't know how the sim performs though as never tried it. A to A tacan only ever backed up the radar info anyway....or confirmed the point to the turnabout for the GCI controlled 180 join.

Does the Mirage have it's own TACAN??? It seems odd to me that it would have one at all. Maybe some sort of DATA LINK function between the two aircraft involving a TACAN on the ground?

Does the Mirage have it's own TACAN??? It seems odd to me that it would have one at all. Maybe some sort of DATA LINK function between the two aircraft involving a TACAN on the ground?

We were speaking about the Harrier, but the Mirage 2000 does have TACAN, and it gives range only information with any other TACAN equipped aircraft, as long as the proper settings are used.

It does works in DCS for M-2000C with other modules, I don’t know for the DCS Harrier.

F5 has too

falcon has one. think it's a standard feature. nice for measuring distance for formation keeping at medium-long range.

Even 25 years ago when I flew the Tornado, the TACAN was rarely used as a navigation aid due to the nav kit on the aircraft making the job of navigation a lot easier. When I was instructing on the hawk T1a however, it was used for navigation at High level since the only nav kit was the pilot's brain coupled with map and stopwatch.

TACAN generally remains on military aircraft as a backup airfield approach aid in the event that ILS/PAR/SRA approach is not available... or as described here to get an idea of the tanker's range thus knowing where to start looking for it on air to air mode on the radar.

I never used it to find wingman distance as you were always "visual" in tactical formation. If you ended up "blind" we just asked for a reference to bullseye or a common waypoint in our plan.

If I recall correctly, the tacan frequency change dials were a pain to get to in the cockpit when bundled up in immersion suit and flying kit after eating too many pies....and therefore not so easy to fiddle with without crashing into the ground whilst busy in the cockpit ..a jet with UFC would find it a lot easier to add 63 to your present channel.

Quick and easy was :

Cobra 1: "where are you... you muppet?"

Cobra 2: "over the N in newcastle"..says wingman looking at his moving map display!

TACAN works to show distance in A/A mode.

I find it better to find a TACAN station somewhere near your AO and use it as a sort of “bullseye” for your flight. It helps when evasive maneuvering spreads out your flight because it gives range and bearing to a common point.

Even 25 years ago when I flew the Tornado, the TACAN was rarely used as a navigation aid due to the nav kit on the aircraft making the job of navigation a lot easier. When I was instructing on the hawk T1a however, it was used for navigation at High level since the only nav kit was the pilot's brain coupled with map and stopwatch.

 

TACAN generally remains on military aircraft as a backup airfield approach aid in the event that ILS/PAR/SRA approach is not available... or as described here to get an idea of the tanker's range thus knowing where to start looking for it on air to air mode on the radar.

 

I never used it to find wingman distance as you were always "visual" in tactical formation. If you ended up "blind" we just asked for a reference to bullseye or a common waypoint in our plan.

 

If I recall correctly, the tacan frequency change dials were a pain to get to in the cockpit when bundled up in immersion suit and flying kit after eating too many pies....and therefore not so easy to fiddle with without crashing into the ground whilst busy in the cockpit ..a jet with UFC would find it a lot easier to add 63 to your present channel.

 

Quick and easy was :

Cobra 1: "where are you... you muppet?"

Cobra 2: "over the N in newcastle"..says wingman looking at his moving map display!

For naval aviation is very important... Carrier Tacan. But as you mentioned, now a days with the INS the aircraft have, it does not make that much sense I guess unless used as a backup navigation aid.

Did you ever resolve this? I'm having the exact same problem in the Harrier, even after a completely fresh instal. Contacted Razbam but they have ignored me so far, it's driving me nuts.