AAR in bad weather

IRL, what are the minimum visibility conditions to perform an AAR?

They just move tanker track to good weather or change the altitude. So, VFR.

In theory, but not so much always in practice. Sometimes there is no VFR area to move to. So you have to deal with what the gods give you. In that case the fighter will do a rejoin using its radar and slowly close the distance from astern to get close enough to the tanker to get a visual. It would be rare to have the clouds so thick that you couldn't see the tanker from at least the pre-contact or observation position. If it's that bad, you're likely not even flying that day. But yes, you can AAR in IFR conditions, but you would still need to be visual with the tanker to a degree once rejoined. I'm pretty sure if the WX was as bad as the video in the OP, there would be no attempt at refueling IRL.

In addition, yes the tanker would attempt to find the best weather if the track they were in was really bad. But I swear the converse is true that tanker pilots are all trained to find the one cloud to fly into on an otherwise VFR day. ;-)

IRL, what are the minimum visibility conditions to perform an AAR?

 

Next level: Make it a nighttime, same vis as in your vid, put on a VR set and turn all the strobes on, including the tanker. Then again... the light reflections in DCS might not be up to par. Time to find out.

IRL, what are the minimum visibility conditions to perform an AAR?

 

 

 

There are no published mins. If the weather sucks and you can’t get out of it, so be it. Find the tanker with your radar.

I don't think that's a realistic scenario. At standard refueling altitudes the only clouds you would find are Cb (or TCU), Ns, As.

What are the standard refueling altitudes? I always set the tanker on orbit at 25000ft or 30.000ft in ME... i guess that´s not correct/realistic?

What are the standard refueling altitudes? I always set the tanker on orbit at 25000ft or 30.000ft in ME... i guess that´s not correct/realistic?

As always, it depends. But the typical refueling altitudes for most fighters is in the high teens to low 20s. The higher you go, the harder it is to refuel and stay on the boom as you get heavy with gas. Especially if you're already heavyweight and draggy with ordinance. I would think 25-26K would be the max usually. 30K would be RTFO unless there was no other choice due to wx, but it would not be fun for the guy trying to hang on to the boom or drogue. You would likely be in at least min AB to stay connected.

As always, it depends. But the typical refueling altitudes for most fighters is in the high teens to low 20s. The higher you go, the harder it is to refuel and stay on the boom as you get heavy with gas. Especially if you're already heavyweight and draggy with ordinance. I would think 25-26K would be the max usually. 30K would be RTFO unless there was no other choice due to wx, but it would not be fun for the guy trying to hang on to the boom or drogue. You would likely be in at least min AB to stay connected.

I guess recovery tankers could also be considered "standard". They are a lot lower. 7k or so.

I hope the Supercarrier models "hawking" (the tanker positioning to help the ones running on fumes) Well, I'll be happy just to have the tanker orbit the moving boat:)

Thanks a lot for these infos. That´s interesting, as i´m always between 90-93% Mil-power depending on carried ordonance. Never had to use AB, but i assume the Hornets FM isn´t perfect yet. I haven´t tried AAR below 25k for a single time since i started to do AAR with the Hornet about a year ago. I´m comfortable with it now, but i guess trying to learn it at lower altitudes would´ve saved me a lot of frustration...

Well, NATO's ATP-56 (air-to-air refueling procedures) advise the following for F/A-18 A to G): 30,000 ft, 275 KIAS (or Mach .80), so I don't think it's a problem to do AAR at that altitude. As for refueling in the weather, I have read accounts from Vietnam and Desert Storm of that happening.

Thank you all for your answers and feedback!

I don't think that's a realistic scenario. At standard refueling altitudes the only clouds you would find are Cb (or TCU), Ns, As.

 

Cb - You would not fly in such cloud not even in TCU or any other well developed convective cloud.

 

Ns - You would encounter icing conditions, possibly turbulence and embedded convective clouds

 

As - Not tick enough, easy to fly above or bellow it.

 

Anyway, nice video, well done. :) DCS is sandbox that allows us to do things we cannot do irl.

Lol!

Thank you, and you're right, didn't seem realistic to me either, but hey, who doesn't like a challenge? :pilotfly:

Hopefully, the weather system in DCS will get overhauled soon.