How to Activate Supercarrier Landing Area Lights at Night?

[Bingo41]

Hi,

 

I am writing this on behalf of another friend who has the Supercarrier.

 

Attached are two images, both night landings. One which shows the landing area lights illuminated on older carrier, Image–1 Stennis, and the other Image-2 Supercarrier, with no landing or center line lights illuminated. Like my friend, I have also not been able to get the Supercarrier lights to come on my system as well.

 

Note, even though the approach to the Supercarrier is off the center line, I would think the lights would still come on?

 

Is this due to a missing feature not yet implemented, or is there something we may not be doing correctly that may be causing this issue?

 

Bill Clark

Edited June 6, 2020 by Bingo41

[Tholozor]

Did the pilot in the second image call the carrier for inbound and follow the proper CASE procedure? Supercarrier will keep lights on standard night lighting until an aircraft is inbound.

[Bingo41]

Tholozor,

 

Thanks for your response.

 

My friend didn't get a chance to fly last evening, but he will today.

 

From your response, you have successfully done the CASE III, and had the landing area lights turn?

 

Bill Clark

[Ginsu80]

I have flown several CASE III approaches, and on each the lights have been on for me. One thing I have noticed is that the Long Range Laser Lineup System is visible for miles, but, the rabbit lights and LA lights are dim and can only be visually acquired from a couple miles.

 

Edit: At your TACAN distance though they should be on. I'm thinking you needed to call inbound on comms. Flow is Inbound, Established, Commencing, Platform. Most of the other calls, Needles and such, are automated until the ball call if I remember correctly.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Ginsu80

[jzakrzeski]

FWIW using Vaicom I call ESTABLISHED on holding entry, COMMENCING at approach time, CHECK IN during initial decent to PLATFORM at 5000, respond to "say needles" with NEEDLES, and I usually start faintly seeing deck lighting just before BALL/glidepath intercept.

 

I have found on my first one or two CASE III that the lights weren't at all visible if I missed any calls in that segment leading up to BALL, but I could be wrong. I was shocked by how dim they were but the LRLLS was clearly visible as far back as marshal pattern and I was on instruments anyway.

 

EDIT: that is to say I must manually call "NEEDLES" and "BALL" for the process to work and the lights to show up, nothing was automatic about those triggers.

Edited June 9, 2020 by jzakrzeski

[Stearmandriver]

FWIW using Vaicom I call ESTABLISHED on holding entry, COMMENCING at approach time, CHECK IN during initial decent to PLATFORM at 5000, respond to "say needles" with NEEDLES, and I usually start faintly seeing deck lighting just before BALL/glidepath intercept.

 

I have found on my first one or two CASE III that the lights weren't at all visible if I missed any calls in that segment leading up to BALL, but I could be wrong. I was shocked by how dim they were but the LRLLS was clearly visible as far back as marshal pattern and I was on instruments anyway.

 

EDIT: that is to say I must manually call "NEEDLES" and "BALL" for the process to work and the lights to show up, nothing was automatic about those triggers.

 

Interesting, I tried my first Case IIIs last night and I thought the "needles" call was automatic. It did occur without my input and I was instructed to fly needles, but then the landing area lights were extremely dim. Thet WERE on, and I saw them turn off after my trap... but they were so dim that I could barely see them even sitting in the landing area. They didn't become visible on approach until the ramp.

 

I will try a manual Needles call next time.

[Bingo41]

I flew just a moment ago and attempted to follow the CASE III procedure.

 

I did call Inbound, Established, and Commence commands. But I forgot Platform, and calling the Ball, and probably a few other things. I will practice some more this afternoon.

 

I thought I would point out that I usually fly in VR mode, with an Oculus Rift S model headset. The long range laser shows up as very bright and really easy to see at night. When I got in close I had no problem seeing the landing lights, however, the artificial IFOLS that shows up in the cockpit was really bright.

 

Adjusting cockpit lighting is a challenge to get the right balance of brightness versus outside dark. I have to turn the HUD down very low to not blot out the outside detail.

 

I probably could have trapped this first time (pure luck) but forgot to lower the hook. This CASE III stuff really tests your flying skills.

 

I assume most every one commenting above are just using their monitor for viewing, and not headset?

 

I have discovered, unless the room you are simming in is not totally dark, it is even harder to see deck lighting. VR mode seems to work better at night for me because it blocks ambient light in room. Daytime is a little easier in Monitor mode compared to the headset because of headset resolution limitations.

 

Bill Clark

[Stearmandriver]

Yes monitor for me. I flew another one today and got aboard, even hit my marshal point at assigned push time, made every call (needles call IS automatic, the only thing I'd missed the first time was checking in with approach but I got it this time, didn't matter though). Even still, the landing area lights were ridiculously dim, I had no reference in close other than the ball and the long range lineup laser (which is visible for miles). I honestly couldn't see the landing area lights at all until my nose was already over the ramp. Sitting there after after the trap, I (barely) saw the rabbit strobe by a couple times before the landing area lights shut off.

 

Even replaying the trap and standing on the LSOV platform, I could BARELY see the landing area lights... and I was standing right next to them. I also noted that even though my aircraft lights (position, strobe, form) were on for the pass, I couldn't see my aircraft on the LSO station PLAT camera at all, and could only see the aircraft visually as it crossed the ramp. I do not know how bright carrier deck lighting is supposed to be, but I know for certain you can see position lights and a beacon several miles away in real life.

 

So at least on my system, some lighting effects are dinked up. I'm running a gamma of around 1.7; seems to be a good compromise between brightness and contrast. Anyone finding anything that helps with this?