Editing waypoints to be on the ground?

Hay Guys,

I tried with searching but no joy: is there any way in a campaign to edit preplanned mission waypoints on the fly, to be on the ground instead of in the air, floating over the ground objective?

Thx

Yes, easy. On CDU, get to the waypoint page and make sure the data for the waypoint is shown. You’ll see the preprogrammed elevation there along the left side of the display. Punch in the elevation you want into into the scratchpad and then press it he OSB next to the elevation on the display in order to set it. That’s it.

Now, if you don’t know the elevation (usually 0 is good enough to get your TGP close enough), then you can do one of two things:

1. Make note of the coordinates of the waypoint and then create a new waypoint with those coords. The ground elevation will automatically be set.

2. Set TAD as SOI, slew the cursor directly on top of the waypoint. TMS up long to make the TAD SPI, then TMS right short to create a markpoint on top of it. Switch your selector to markpoint (which is like a new waypoint at 0 ft AGL) and then slew your TGP to it.

Depends a bit on how much “on the fly” we're talking about here, but I'll copy-paste my answer from here on the assumption that you're facing similar issues as the OP in that thread.

By default, steerpoints are assigned to the planned flight altitude (usually 6562' MSL if not changed in the mission editor). If you set the steerpoint as SPI, it will point to that point in space, including that altitude.

If you check the HUD explanation on p363 in the manual, you'll see line item #16 — this is what tells you the current target range and altitude data (in the manual, it shows “DTS” because that's where it gets that data from in that particular situation). If you have a steerpoint selected and SPI slaved to it, it should show the steerpoint/SPI altitude if one has been entered, or DTS if it's still at the default stored value.

To solve your problem, there are a couple of things you can do.

1. You can go through the flight plan in the mission editor to ensure that all steerpoints actually sit at 0 AGL, which requires a bit of pre-planning (and isn't available online), but changes the stored DTS value.

2. Once in the mission, you can edit the steerpoint elevation in the CDU, which is a bit of a faff, but changes the stored value to something other than what's in the DTS.

or

3. That line item #16 mentioned above? You can edit it directly and immediately from the UFC using the “DATA” rocker. Check pages 254–257 in the manual for all the gory details, but essentially, you can enter an elevation edit mode right on the HUD and either use the data rocker to step that elevation down to ground level or just enter a number, press the UFC ENT key to make that the elevation, et voilà, your steerpoint is now on the ground (or near enough) as it should be. If the steerpoint is SPI, the SPI will of course follow it down into the ground.

So, basically:

1. STPT as SPI and Slave all to SPI as usual, and look at a lot of pointless sky.
   
2. HUD as SOI (mainly for good measure so you don't accidentally change anything else).
   
3. UFC DATA rocker up or down – the altitude for the target (in this case the STPT) will show up if it didn't before, blinking to denote edit mode is active.
   
4. Punch in a sensible number on the UFC (if you know the actual ground level, punch in that number; if not, try 0 — worst case is you're pointing down too much and have to slew the SPI upwards a little to see your target).
   
5. Confirm with UFC ENT (twice: once to enter the number, once more to exit edit mode) — the target altitude number will go steady to signify you're no longer editing; the SPI and any sensors slaved to it will move over to the new altitude and hopefully show something blow-up:able.
   
6. Go about your business.
   

I tried in a training mission, changed the altitude of the waypoint ahead (was originally 13100, entered 16000 in the scratchpad, pressed LSK for ALT, 16000 was appearing), but it didn't jump higher in the HUD. A bit more help what to press maybe?

Editing waypoints to be on the ground?

I tried in a training mission, changed the altitude of the waypoint ahead (was originally 13100, entered 16000 in the scratchpad, pressed LSK for ALT, 16000 was appearing), but it didn't jump higher in the HUD. A bit more help what to press maybe?

How far away from the waypoint were you, and at what altitude? I bet it moved ever so slightly it was undetectable. Did you try flying to it? If you keep in centered the whole time, you will hit it at 16000 feet.

Sorry, my bad. Found it, works.