cannot reproduce and missing track file MAVS DO NOT HANDOFF

[Gregkar]

I don't know what else to do.... i watched all videos, i asked in ED Discord, none can help and i am not the only one with the same issue.

Mavs do not auto handoff. only way to work correctly is by visual mode and then work with the slew cursor on the weapon MFD page, which is extremely difficult because it is completely unresponsive.

So, what i do is this: i use almost exclusively the G and D mavericks, TPOD in Auto handoff mode, WPN page in PRE mode, i find the target with the TPOD and lock it by doing TMS Up long, i do this at 8nm distance or less. it works EVERY SINGLE time in an offline test mission i made in the mission editor but 0 times in multiplayer online servers. That's the only 2 occasions i tested it. i don't know if it works in offline campaigns, or other offline missions.
Also i am not the only one, i see comments in the servers about this quite frequently. On the other hand, i saw a viper on an online server the other day, came in hot, fired 6 mavs at the same, time killed everything on the ground and flew by.... HOW DID HE DO THAT?
Am i doing something wrong? Can someone please explain?

Edited January 29, 2021 by Gregkar

[kotor633]

Okay, and have you consulted Chuck's Guide pages 329 - 331 too?

 

[Gregkar]

No, i did now, but it describes same thing as i do

[kotor633]

Okay, and did you perform the boresight before (see page 328)?

[Gregkar]

no, this is the first time i read about it... thanx, i will test it

[kotor633]

I'm happy to help if I can

Oh, if you are new to DCS and may not be familiar with: ALWAYS a good first point of contact https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/113608-chucks-dcs-tutorial-library/

The F-16 is so far the first module where you have to carry out these steps for AGM-65.

[fudabidu]

4 hours ago, Gregkar said:

On the other hand, i saw a viper on an online server the other day, came in hot, fired 6 mavs at the same, time killed everything on the ground and flew by.... HOW DID HE DO THAT?

Using the WPN page directly is much faster, because you don't have to wait for the handoff to complete every time.
Scout the area with the TGP and memorize the position of each target, then command a handoff on one of them to act as a reference and launch. Now switch to the WPN page, slew to next target, TMS up, launch and repeat.

[DoctorVixen]

1 hour ago, fudabidu said:

Using the WPN page directly is much faster, because you don't have to wait for the handoff to complete every time.
Scout the area with the TGP and memorize the position of each target, then command a handoff on one of them to act as a reference and launch. Now switch to the WPN page, slew to next target, TMS up, launch and repeat.

yeah autohandoff sounds really great but it's a bit overrated, it works fine ( with aligned mavs).

You can see a lot better on the TGP, but the actual lock u won't be making sooner then just going manual on the mav seeker and lock yourself.

I like the handoff anyway because it gets the mav seeker somewhat close, i can still go SOI on WPN and lock from there. 

Mavericks are somewhat hard on the f16 compared to most planes, it took me quite some practise but i think they pretty much work as intended and somewhere in your procedure you forgot something, most probably the aligning part if u didn't start in flight.

 

If u still can't get it to work see if you can get it to work when starting in flight.

If starting from in flight works for u then it's pretty much that u need to align the mavs and you should be good to go.

Edited January 29, 2021 by DoctorVixen

[fudabidu]

Please, don't do it on the ground. The only reason it works is because the boresight mechanics are a placeholder. It's always going to be perfect, even if you do it wrong.

In the future you will get misalignments and I can already see all the "MAVs don't boresight after patch" posts, because people are adopting and sticking to bad habits.

[DoctorVixen]

1 hour ago, fudabidu said:

Using the WPN page directly is much faster, because you don't have to wait for the handoff to complete every time.
Scout the area with the TGP and memorize the position of each target, then command a handoff on one of them to act as a reference and launch. Now switch to the WPN page, slew to next target, TMS up, launch and repeat.

u can also first designate a target for every maverick lets say 6. then fire them all rapidly.

[fudabidu]

AFAIK it's only 1 target per pylon, so you can at best ripple fire 2 missiles.

[DoctorVixen]

1 minute ago, fudabidu said:

Please, don't do it on the ground. The only reason it works is because the boresight mechanics are a placeholder. It's always going to be perfect, even if you do it wrong.

In the future you will get misalignments and I can already see all the "MAVs don't boresight after patch" posts, because people are adopting and sticking to bad habits.

 

It's my current preference, but when they patch it it wont be anymore :P.

 

Another preference is that i pick a cbu-97 over a mav almost anytime anyway.

 

I am not a big fan of the obligatory alignment anyway, yeah its realistic i know.

 

Doing all the test before startup properly in an f14 is realistic too, takes 20 minutes , if it's obligatory then nobody is gonna fly the f14 on multiplayer. 

 

[DoctorVixen]

8 minutes ago, fudabidu said:

AFAIK it's only 1 target per pylon, so you can at best ripple fire 2 missiles.

each mav has his own seeker, but i dont remember if u can step per missile or per pylon.

For alignment you only need to do it 1 per pylon, which pretty much makes not too much sense if u ask me. but i am no expert. But it suggests that only the pylon currently can be 'misaligned' whereas the maverick connected to the pylon is thus always perfectly aligned, but i am sure as hell not asking for an update :P/

[Gregkar]

WPN page is unsubale for me, idk why, tdc slew is SO sensitive, in FCR and TGP works PERFECT, In mav WPN page it's extremely difficult for me to slew

[Frederf]

Boresight calibration is saved per-pylon so when carrying LAU-88A the same value is used for all missiles on that launcher. If there is misalignment between missiles within the LAU-88A then you'd have to recalibrate after the first missile was expended. Presumably the majority of misalignment comes from the LAU/airplane interface and all missiles are pretty much the same direction.

 

RP2 only works for paired stations 3/7. In the case of LAU-88 on 3/7 RP2 will fire previously-locked missiles from those stations only. Only one missile per station can be active at once so a second missile firing right after the first isn't even theoretically possible. You can have two missiles tracking simultaneously and fire them with two button presses with RP1. I believe there is a sort of secondary connection to the next missile in queue which facilitates the Quick Draw functionality which pre-aims the next missile to look in the same place as the previous which makes follow up shots faster/easier. I think that was the line stolen from 4/8 support to be the secondary line on 3/7. You should find that after firing a missile on station 3 that the next one doesn't have to transit from boresight clamp as it's already nominally pointed where the first one was.

 

Ground alignment isn't as good as air alignment because the distances are shorter and parallax becomes an issue. It's still helpful to do it though as it makes the alignment better when aligning or checking alignment airborne later.

 

DCS is a bit goofy with handoff right now because it's not doing it on TMS forward release events. It should be a great workload saver requiring only a TMS forward press and release per missile instead of slewing the missiles manually which is not so easily especially during some dynamic maneuvering.

[DoctorVixen]

13 hours ago, Frederf said:

Boresight calibration is saved per-pylon so when carrying LAU-88A the same value is used for all missiles on that launcher. If there is misalignment between missiles within the LAU-88A then you'd have to recalibrate after the first missile was expended. Presumably the majority of misalignment comes from the LAU/airplane interface and all missiles are pretty much the same direction.

 

RP2 only works for paired stations 3/7. In the case of LAU-88 on 3/7 RP2 will fire previously-locked missiles from those stations only. Only one missile per station can be active at once so a second missile firing right after the first isn't even theoretically possible. You can have two missiles tracking simultaneously and fire them with two button presses with RP1. I believe there is a sort of secondary connection to the next missile in queue which facilitates the Quick Draw functionality which pre-aims the next missile to look in the same place as the previous which makes follow up shots faster/easier. I think that was the line stolen from 4/8 support to be the secondary line on 3/7. You should find that after firing a missile on station 3 that the next one doesn't have to transit from boresight clamp as it's already nominally pointed where the first one was.

 

Ground alignment isn't as good as air alignment because the distances are shorter and parallax becomes an issue. It's still helpful to do it though as it makes the alignment better when aligning or checking alignment airborne later.

 

DCS is a bit goofy with handoff right now because it's not doing it on TMS forward release events. It should be a great workload saver requiring only a TMS forward press and release per missile instead of slewing the missiles manually which is not so easily especially during some dynamic maneuvering.

 

Thank you for you answer,  impressive that you know al this. it makes a bit more sense now.

 

as for:

DCS is a bit goofy with handoff right now because it's not doing it on TMS forward release events. It should be a great workload saver requiring only a TMS forward press and release per missile instead of slewing the missiles manually which is not so easily especially during some dynamic maneuvering.

 

i am not having any problems with the autohandoff though, tms forward seems to work for me, if the autohandoff fails i can go tms aft from tgp and retry the handoff straight away.

 

made a track file where i handoff too early, i go tms aft and can retry, it works pretty ok.

 

 but from all the 6 missiles fired i think only 4 hit  (maybe i was outside of params, not sure), probably dropping 1 cbuu-97 would have been easier and more effective.

 

 

 

autohandoff.trk

[Frederf]

I can't view your track because of different version. But what I mean is that if TGP is already in point track and the missile isn't already locked then every time you stop slewing the TGP it will try to handoff. It shouldn't do that. It should only try to handoff when TMS forward is press-release even if the TGP is in point track.

[Coyote_One]

Sounds like you need to boresight first. Its worked for me every time.