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Refueling in the Hornet


Bingo123

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Pro tip for people who have difficulty refueling..

 

 

 

 

1). fly level and match the speed of the tanker.

2). trim to fly level.

3). Turn on the autopilot. ( this is not a joke ).

 

Once you turn on the auto pilot, then your joystick in the plane become much less sensitive ( slow ), and it become much more easy to do fine adjustments left/right/up/down with your joystick.

 

This tip have helped many others who had problems with refueling :smilewink:

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I put a curve on my warthog, as I found it way too sensitive. Now I can get a full tank of gas :)

 

Please share the curve, thanks!

X-Plane 11.5x / DCS 2.5.6 / P3Dv5 / Aerofly FS 2 / War Thunder

 

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The DCS Hornet flies perfectly straight and level at 1G in unaccelerated flight.

 

But if you e.g increase the speed, the nose rises a tiny bit and you have to nudge the stick forward ever so slightly to keep the V/S at or close to 0. Alternatively you can make these tiny adjustments with trim.

 

Tried both ways and (at least on my install) with trim I can make even smaller adjustments, but you need to make them more often of course.

 

I prefer the non-trimming corrections since I don't see any reason why I should interfere with the FBW system.

 

If you have an old worn out joystick with a large dead zone, applying pitch corrections with the stick might lead to too large pitch corrections, so trimming might be the only way if you have to apply tiny corrections.


Edited by bbrz

i7-7700K 4.2GHz, 16GB, GTX 1070 

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As most people already said, it’s just PRACTICE. Nothing else.

 

Of course you will need to set your shit up; curves, learn formation flying, etc.

 

But you will fail misserably the first time you try. And the next one, and the next...and a few more; and at one point it would seem you almost can can connect for 5 full seconds...and then you will fail misserably again...you will want to throw the joystick against the monitor. But you will succeed eventually.

 

I can’t say how it happened to me; it was just like that. I thought I will never be able to do it. It seemed simply impossible. But now I can. How? Don’t know...honestly...just countless tries until it just worked.

 

So for alll of you guys that are still strugling, just keep at it. Don’t give up. It will come. Just keep at it; if you get stuck or too frustated, just let it go for a while. Then try again a few days; you’ll see the difference; and at some point you will simply be ale to do it naturally, without that much effort.

 

I’m not an expert at it, not even close; in fact I kind of suck at it, but I can really see the difference between my AAR now and back then; and it just keeps getting better.

 

So... TL;DR

 

PRACTICE :)

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I find the Hornet the easiest of all A/C to refuel by far. What I do:

 

 

1. I practice on Aerobatics Online (Beta). The KC-130 is set at 227 kts and 11,000 and respawns when empty.

2. Approve from behind about 100kts + (330-350kts) until 2nm out (TACAN based) and coast into preposition. I also raise my probe at 2nm out.

3. No need to trim as it is autotrim.

4. Match speed of 227kts about 100 feet behind and request rejoin.

5. Increase (walk the throttles) to about 228kts and plug in using the basket carrier as a reference, but your jet is level with chute.

6. Here you can use ATC to hold 227kts or use very small adjustments to stay at 227kts or move between 226-228kts. Don't use lateral stick movements, only rudder if needed, and very small (like very small) pitch if needed.

7. Don't forget to breathe lol.. When I first started way back when I would hold my breath..just makes you jerky.

 

 

 

 

I like to use AO online because the refuelers are constant (flight path, altitude, speed etc). I take off from Anapa, do a trap or two on the carrier, then refuel in air, then trap. It's a routine that works for practice, and if you get a couple others there refueling with you, you get to properly practice formation fueling etc.


Edited by Spetz

 

 

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Don´t know if it was stated already....if you need al little bit of "assistance" try using ATTH while lining up for the basket -you´ll have enough authority to make corrections with it...makes things a lot easier at first and you have less pilot induced oszillation. Anything else alrady said is true and needs no futher comment....practise is the key

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A10C, UH-1H, M2C, F5E, Gazelle, KA 50, F18C, DCS 2.5x OB

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Being relaxed is important. Really is.

 

When you're learning, and everyone is going: "Just keep at it it will work", and you fail, and get angry, you're getting yourself in a downward spiral of frustration. I shot down a tanker in anger, only to realise two seconds later, that I was on a multiplayer server. Embaressed and logged out.

 

Be confident. And when you make it the first time, you can really start to relax, because you know you did it... and things get easier fast.

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Siinji your 100% correct. I can't tell you how bad I was tensed right up when I first started doing this. Once you relax, its way easier.

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Don´t know if it was stated already....if you need al little bit of "assistance" try using ATTH while lining up for the basket -you´ll have enough authority to make corrections with it...makes things a lot easier at first and you have less pilot induced oszillation. Anything else alrady said is true and needs no futher comment....practise is the key

Great tip. TX.

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I thought I would never be able to do it. Got so frustrated my shoulders would be so tense and head would hurt. You just have to practice like others have said and relax. Somebody told me to twiddle my toes when I can feel I am tensing and it helps to be honest. Plant my feet flat on the ground and just keep saying relax relax. Never watch the basket, you look at that thing and you are all over. Walk the throttles all the time, if you stop moving them, you are screwed.

 

I found very very small curves better for control. I also found flying around for hours following the tanker was key. No fuel, just fly in formation with the tanker. When you are comfortable and relaxed, try fly up behind the pod. I kept it on the 10 deg line on the HUD in the gap, and just tried my best to keep it like that. That is basically where you will fly when connected. I still make a point of flying formation with the tanker for at least 10 minutes after I have filled up and do one AAR a day (not currently cause I am short one eye, but when I was flying)

 

Keep trying, it will happen...

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I've always been practicing on the S-3, so I had a reason to be proud when I made it. When I did that, I completely took her fuel which resulted in their crew aborting the process by a violent backstick RH turn that really made me think WTF just in the moment I had to realize that the crew was ejecting. Well, they don't even keep enough fuel for themselves to get back home apparently, and it's not separated rdlaugh.png

 

But also the KC-130 has not even a single drop more than the regular C-130. Definately something that needs to be worked on.

dcsdashie-hb-ed.jpg

 

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