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Air Refueling - Any tips?


Madman777

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Hello Pilots!

 

I'm having great difficultly staying connected. It's possible my hands are not steady enough....or my X52 is not as accurate as it used to be when it was new...I don't know. I just cant seem to stay connected to the tanker for me than a few seconds.

 

Does anyone have any pointers ? Anything would help.:helpsmilie:

 

Thanks.

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I think that Trim is the biggest thing and controlling your speed. I just cannot get the thing to trim perfectly level, it's either to high or to low and I've tried everything I can think of. I can hook up for 5 to 10 seconds at a time and that's it.

 

Good luck, it takes time to master. There are a couple of good treads on this already with some very good suggestions.

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Don't sweat it, air refueling is one of the most incredibly hard and mind-numbingly frustrating things I've seen in a game :D

 

I can usually line up alright, I creep in at a snails pace, hook up, and then let off the throttle a bit... a bit too much, the KC-135 pulls away, I give a bit of throttle to catch up, too much, and then I overshoot and disconnect :/

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Don't sweat it, air refueling is one of the most incredibly hard and mind-numbingly frustrating things I've seen in a game :D

 

I can usually line up alright, I creep in at a snails pace, hook up, and then let off the throttle a bit... a bit too much, the KC-135 pulls away, I give a bit of throttle to catch up, too much, and then I overshoot and disconnect :/

 

Hey, that sounds like one of my hook-ups!! :thumbup:

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I think I set my curve to 15 on both x and y and a deadzone of 5 for both. I have an x52.

 

Without the curve it was nearly impossible for me. I still have a very large amount of trouble. I have yet to stay connected for more than maybe 15 seconds. Very challenging and takes a lot of practice.

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Settle in behind the tanker maybe 10m or so behind the boom. spend a couple of minutes checking your trim and throttle setting are set such that you can fly more or less hands off. This will be the same trim and throttle setting as when you connect, so memorise the sound of the engines at this setting, and do not touch the trim again. Note the speed.

 

To move in, give a nudge of the throttle and almost straight away reduce it to what it was (use the sound). watch how the speed reacts. you want it to go up maybe 2knots at most, then it should settle back to your original speed. Take note of how far this nudge got you towards the boom.

Do these nudges as necassary untill you are close to the boom, then the operator will stick it in the slot. You want to judge it so that on your final nudge, your speed reduces back to the original speed at the moment that you arrive at the refuelling position.

 

I find it is easier to be slightly higher than you would think correct. You cant really read the indicators at the front of the tanker from this position. I think it is better because it gives you a better view of the tanker and you can see how the coloured markers are getting moved on the boom, all without moving your head.

 

Its a lot of fun so enjoy the practising! It seems to take a little over a second for 100 pounds of fuel. So you typically need to hold the position for a minute or so.

 

Another useful thing is that if you disconnect, just hit the NWS botton to reset the system.

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post a video and let people point out what to do and what not to do :)

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My biggest problem was matching the speed. After some practicing I figured that the best habit would be to match some points on the tanker with the cockpit frame and stay in position no matter what. Same time keep an eye on the color of the boom. Try to anticipate the changes in the position and react accordingly with the throttle. As this is jet plane it takes a second of the engines to move the whole thing. Hence you need to be a second of two ahead of it. Of course as already mentioned every control move over a "millimeter" would result in disconnect.

 

Good luck!

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Regards!







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I think I set my curve to 15 on both x and y and a deadzone of 5 for both. I have an x52.

 

Without the curve it was nearly impossible for me.

Tho I own TM WH, I did the same. Placed deadzone of 3 and curve to 15 (I think) on both X and Y. I went for the tanker again. What a difference - OMG. Tho then I was having problem with mastering the speed. I managed to hook up but then all of the sudden the boom went in to red zone and I pulled back. Before fine tuning in the options I was literally all over the place.

 

I must say, placing that deadzone and curvature on the stick was a nice thing to do. Overall control of the jet turned out to be better.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KC-135Boom-operator-521.jpg

And he goes LOL when we fail :P

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Some of my biggest mistakes were looking at the wrong places while refueling. Don't use your HUD for anything at all. In fact, I would switch the IFCC off just to get rid of it (for refueling practice). Use your eyes to judge airspeed (and vertical speed) relative to the tanker. Secondly, DON'T look at the end of the refueling boom! Keep your eyes on the colored part, so you can always see if you need to accelerate or slow down. This way, you also have a nice view of the tanker, so you can see if you're drifting left or right.

Remember to click your nose wheel steering button when you disconnect, so the refueling port will be able to reconnect to the boom.

As skypirate said, try to anticipate! Or, learn to anticipate. When you put your throttle forward, the aircraft won't respond immediately, so you have to wait for the response of your inputs, and when you accelerate, the aircraft will pitch up slightly, and (obviously) pitch down when you slow down.

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Great tips! Will have to try again tonight. Hopefully the men in the tankers don't find out about the last tanker that crashed and burned last night as I tried to gas up. :-) :-)

i7-12700k, 32GB Ram, RTX 3060 12GB, TrackIR 5, Lots of SSD Space, etc etc

DCS World - All the cool modules

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Great tips! Will have to try again tonight. Hopefully the men in the tankers don't find out about the last tanker that crashed and burned last night as I tried to gas up. :-) :-)

To avoid that, make sure you have gun switch in SAFE position. So when you go mad and start clicky clicky on trigger ... none of the *whoppsss* follows :lol:

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Deadzones on a good joystick imho is a bad thing. Accurate formation flying involves small as well as large movements. If you have a deadzone those small movements get damped and a PIO can result.

 

A buddy reckoned deadzones would be a good idea, 1 flight later and he's removed em.

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Yeah for me with an X-52 it was all about getting the throttle curve I needed below the stiffer part of the throttle which involved moving it to -15. The stick I run at +10-15. Still took about 3 hours of practice to get it right.

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Are those settings only for AAR or always that way?

Well my TM WH registered movement even before I pulled it out of *center*. I was looking at axis movement in options and i saw that when ever i place the hand on it or off it there was a slight movement. I decided then that i will place a really small (3) deadzone. Still as I'm kinda getting used to A10C model, some fine flying (aerial refueling) and A10 is not a jet that would easily tolerate the prolonged high G pulls like F15, etc .. I decided that I might as well reduce the initial sensitivity on axis - curvature. Overall I find it pleasing and I make less corrections on landing / tanking approach.

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To avoid that, make sure you have gun switch in SAFE position. So when you go mad and start clicky clicky on trigger ... none of the *whoppsss* follows :lol:

 

I'm always mad(man)...hehe

 

No what happened was I came in to fast in one attempt and bumped the tanker a little to hard. A few times I got really upset and tried to use my gun to kill the tanker, but the mission I made there are have no weapons, not even gun on board. Oh well.

i7-12700k, 32GB Ram, RTX 3060 12GB, TrackIR 5, Lots of SSD Space, etc etc

DCS World - All the cool modules

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Also, I find it is easier if you are a bit heavier, so load her up with plenty of bombs. Makes everything a bit less twitchy.

Technical Specs: Asus G73JW gaming laptop... i7-740QM 1.73GHz ... GTX460m 1.5GB ... 8GB DDR5 RAM ... Win7 64 ... TIR5 ... Thrustmaster T16000m

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Not to mention i was once on such a nice lineup and going in slowly and everything was PERFECT. Until! I was flying there for 2 minutes perfectly STEADY and he kept the boom on my left side. I figured out that i did not open up the receptacle :helpsmilie:

 

After that it (I) went haywire :joystick:

 

Gave up for the day :P

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  • 2 weeks later...

The A2A refueling is incredibly hard. I do need to practice it more but I cant help but wonder if it is this difficult in real life... Might try it with the view zoomed out a bit next time. More peripheral vision might help. I can get a full load of fuel but it takes many reconnects. Meanwhile my wingies are all flaming out as I try to get a few more drops... lol

 

Have a peek at this kewl vid. AR Blue Angel FA-18. I know the probe and drogue used here is different than the A-10 uses but still a great vid from the cockpit of the Hornet while taking gas and going through clouds. commentary from the Hornet driver.

 


Edited by lobo**

Lobo's DCS A-10C Normal Checklist & Quick Reference Handbook current version 8D available here:

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/172905/

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I'm glad that they have improved it so you have to keep yourself steady on the boom instead of being automated. A2A refueling was one of my favorite things about Falcon 4AF and always wished they would do the same for lockOn and DCS. Be cool if you could get rid of the automated refueling on the Blackshark so you have to keep it steady.

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