RIO questions. Lets start with TWS

Little help! Trying to learn RIO seat.

First couple of questions has to do with firing from a stable platform, I feel like the pilot is jinking around too much when I'm trying to sort targets, he thinks I can't operate the radar. Which, I can't, so he's technically right, but I'm gonna ask anyway.

1. Having trouble maintaining TWS during maneuvers. Antenna stabilization is "in" meaning I have it set to be stable to the horizon. I'm in TWS manual, sorting targets within 100 miles. Pilot maneuvers and all my contacts drop off. Radar elevation appears to be pegged at the lower end of the range, I have to scroll it back up to near zero elevation then I can re-acquire the targets. Is it the radar, or my controller maybe?

2. Even when I have targets sorted, all lined up with launch numbers, I noticed if they drift too far off the nose, say to 2 or 10 oclock, I can still see them on radar but they lose their launch priority numbers. Do we need to keep nose on the target to launch?

Ok I will answer number one as it's a common pilot mistake.

Most Pilots I fly with I have to teach to fly smooth when BVR if I need a 30 right use 30 degrees of bank and a Max of 40 bank is plenty. It can be fairly easy to gymbal the radar if you are not careful. When you crank get him to use 40 max again.

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For number 2 you need to go to tws manual after shooting and slew the radar around anticipating the turn. You are the one calling the turns so lead the tgts in the scope so they stay in scan. Tws auto is currently broken.

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Concur with WindyTX. It's all about crew coordination. The pilot needs to be predictable so you can keep the targets within the TWS cone. If he doesn't have his HSD on TID repeater, he should so he can see what you're dealing with. You give him a heading, and you give him a crank direction after shooting your Phoenixes.

The pilot also needs to understand that he will not see any HUD or VDI targeting indications in TWS. The TID repeater is all he gets.

Finally, you mentioned that Stab is In. FWIW, Stab In/Out only applies to Pulse mode. All Doppler modes are automatically horizon-stabilized.

2. Even when I have targets sorted, all lined up with launch numbers, I noticed if they drift too far off the nose, say to 2 or 10 oclock, I can still see them on radar but they lose their launch priority numbers. Do we need to keep nose on the target to launch?

It may have been that the track file was lost and a new one initiated? No other reason the radar should be dropping your launch order designations.

Thanks for the replies.

Pilot was wondering if we needed to keep the bandits right on the nose to get a launch order but that doesn't seem the case.

Honestly I'm leaning toward a controller glitch, suspect that's what's driving the radar to the gimbal limits. Not sure there's anything the pilot or radar is doing that could explain that behavior. I've been using a PS4 controller which is pretty handy but probably not 100% dcs compatible

Next question

3. So, I take it, TWS-Auto isn't doing much of anything right now? I can assign launch order and launch out of TWS-man?

4. But once TWS-auto is implemented, I should be able to get my radar adjusted in TWS-man, then snick it into TWS-auto and it'll keep em in view best it can, right?

1) Sounds like a messed up keybind or controller setting indeed.

3) Exactly.

4) Exactly.

Here's a question based on a problem I'm running into in the ME:

Night ready launch, good AWACS, everything seems fine.

Any command I give Jester about scan range, elevation, or tracking a target, he comes back with "Radar in Lock State".

What is 'Lock State' and why am I in it from mission start? Is this possible a glitch or bug having to do with the loadout? (2/2/4 mix of Aim-9 / 7 / 54C )

EDIT: Seems like it might be in the mode where it's locked on a target, but there is no target. If I give the command 'break lock', the radar screen flickers briefly to something different (the radar 'cone' in the display narrows momentarily) then it goes right back to what was before.

As someone who almost exclusively flies the F-14 in the backseat I have no clue what Jester would be talking about there. There is no special lock state, apart from the classic target lock on. :dunno:

I'm starting to think it's some form of glitch or snafu where the radar thinks it's 'locked on' to a target, maybe in STT or something like that. I tried two different things with esentially the same result.

1) I gave the command 'break lock.' Jester acknowledged it as though he was in fact locked onto a target. The radar repeater flickered briefly to a different view, then immediately returned to what it was. Any subsequent commands on the radar other than 'break lock' were met with: "AIRIO: Radar in lock state"

2) I jumped in the back seat and manually switched to TWS mode. When I went to the front seat and then back to the back again, it wasn't in TWS mode anymore, and I couldn't change the range or anything. Admittedly, I'm a pilot and I spend zero time in the back seat; normally I can make the systems accomplish tasks by asking Jester.

Could be this Group in the mission is borked. I've gone back to 'free flight' and a couple other missions in the pack I'm working on, and evrerything works fine. I'm going to experiment with some different loadouts to see if that matters (it shouldn't), and then maybe just erase the group and rebuild it. Since it's the 'player' group, it is critical to the mission. :p

Well, dug into it a little more. The findings are weird, to say the least.

Went back to a previous mission that works A-OK and rebuilt this one from scratch using that one as a template.

Long story short, this glitch only happens at night. If you set the mission time during daylight, radar works normally and Jester will do whatever you ask. Once it's dark, you get: "AIRIO: N/A; Radar in Lock State."

So what naturally comes to mind is that this might be caused by some switchology snafu that happens between day and night, when you change around the lighting modes and such. Again, I don't know enough about the RIO seat / radar to know if things for the radar are set up differently somehow at night. Anyone have any ideas?

...And, never mind. Figured it out, partially at least.

It's something in the AIRIO extension to VAICOM / Voice attack that's causing it. I disabled the AIRIO extention in the VAICOM plugin, went back to the radial menu, and everything worked the way it was supposed to. VAICOM just released an update for AIRIO and chatter; it must have a bug.

Update: Hollywood was able to verify the issue independently and is working on a fix. In the meantime, if you are flying a Tomcat mission at night and need the radar, you may need to disable the AIRIO extension for that sortie and go back to the radial Jester menu. The remainder of the VAICOM profile (for radios and such) works fine. It's just the AIRIO that's the issue.