Newbie, can't understand the HSI

[darklanov]

Hello everyone

I am a fairly new DCS player. I have been flying in DCS for about two months now with the SU-25t, and I picked up the F-5 in the Halloween sale. Before DCS I have no experience in aviation or flight sim. I come from Ace Combat. Now, on the F-5, I am learning how to intercept air targets. I came to a training exercise where the AWACS gave me a BRA call. The exercise told me to follow a magnetic course of 300. I have no idea what that means or how to do it. All tutorials on youtube and forums say the same thing, just follow the course given to you with the HSI. Yeah, but HOW? I need help I'm lost.

[randomTOTEN]

Welcome! I think you made an excellent choice starting with the F-5.

What mission was this? Where can I find it?

Check out this cool video. The T-38 Talon is a two seat training version of your F-5. In this example you will see quite a lot of equipment that isn't in our export sale Light Fighter, but the ADI/HSI are the same, and it shows you proper techniques (and it's RL footage, how cool is that?).

Also, you can experiment with any number of web based VOR trainers. A VOR is a civilian substitution for military navigation equipment. You should consider them mostly identical from the cockpit (don't grill me too much on that guys).

http://www.luizmonteiro.com/learning_hsi_sim.aspx

....imagine that... a simulator for a simulator.

[Snappy]

Ok,

I hope you do know which instrument the HSI is. If not, check the manual or search the internet.

Above its rotating compass rose is short vertical white line(at the 12 o’clock position so to say).That is the marker for your own aircraft s heading. Now simply fly a turn and watch the compass rose rotate until the 30 (stands for 300 degrees, the last 0 is omitted from the instrument) is under that white line. Now you re flying on heading 300 towards the awacs target.

hope this helps,

regards, 

Snappy 

Edit : I attached a picture, 1 is the vertical line, 2 is the 30 for heading 300, sorry for the bad quality,writing on mobile 

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Snappy

[cw4ogden]

3 hours ago, darklanov said:

Hello everyone

I am a fairly new DCS player. I have been flying in DCS for about two months now with the SU-25t, and I picked up the F-5 in the Halloween sale. Before DCS I have no experience in aviation or flight sim. I come from Ace Combat. Now, on the F-5, I am learning how to intercept air targets. I came to a training exercise where the AWACS gave me a BRA call. The exercise told me to follow a magnetic course of 300. I have no idea what that means or how to do it. All tutorials on youtube and forums say the same thing, just follow the course given to you with the HSI. Yeah, but HOW? I need help I'm lost.

I think the simple answer was overlooked here.  To follow a magnetic course (no wind) of 300 you turn the aircraft until 300 is under the lubber line, or the 12 oclock position.  

A bearing to a target or airfield is just a heading.  If the tutorial is about using the tacan, or if the reference a "radial" to fly that may be different, but for awacs calls, it should be just pointing the aircraft the direction they indicate bogies are.

Basically what Snappy said.  Didn't see He'd said much the same thing.

Edited November 6, 2021 by cw4ogden

[darklanov]

3 hours ago, randomTOTEN said:

Welcome! I think you made an excellent choice starting with the F-5.

What mission was this? Where can I find it?

Check out this cool video. The T-38 Talon is a two seat training version of your F-5. In this example you will see quite a lot of equipment that isn't in our export sale Light Fighter, but the ADI/HSI are the same, and it shows you proper techniques (and it's RL footage, how cool is that?).

Also, you can experiment with any number of web based VOR trainers. A VOR is a civilian substitution for military navigation equipment. You should consider them mostly identical from the cockpit (don't grill me too much on that guys).

http://www.luizmonteiro.com/learning_hsi_sim.aspx

....imagine that... a simulator for a simulator.

Thank you that was very helpful. The mission is the 4th training mission called Air-to-air missile employment. The video was great. I was confused at first but then I figured it out. Basically, since I have no aviation background, I had no idea that the numbers of the HSI are abbreviations, meaning 30 = 300 etc. I also learned the meanings of the symbols of the HSI. Thanks

[darklanov]

3 hours ago, Snappy said:

Ok,

I hope you do know which instrument the HSI is. If not, check the manual or search the internet.

Above its rotating compass rose is short vertical white line(at the 12 o’clock position so to say).That is the marker for your own aircraft s heading. Now simply fly a turn and watch the compass rose rotate until the 30 (stands for 300 degrees, the last 0 is omitted from the instrument) is under that white line. Now you re flying on heading 300 towards the awacs target.

hope this helps,

regards, 

Snappy 

Edit : I attached a picture, 1 is the vertical line, 2 is the 30 for heading 300, sorry for the bad quality,writing on mobile 

 

Thanks. Flying in the SU-35t gave me a general ideas about the various flight instruments. The HSi, I kinda knew what it was, some kind of a compass, but I didn't know how to use it. Until you told me, I had no idea that those numbers were actually abbreviations and in some cases you need to add a zero. And now I have a clearer picture of how to use it. Thanks

 

[darklanov]

44 minutes ago, cw4ogden said:

I think the simple answer was overlooked here.  To follow a magnetic course (no wind) of 300 you turn the aircraft until 300 is under the lubber line, or the 12 oclock position.  

A bearing to a target or airfield is just a heading.  If the tutorial is about using the tacan, or if the reference a "radial" to fly that may be different, but for awacs calls, it should be just pointing the aircraft the direction they indicate bogies are.

Basically what Snappy said.  Didn't see He'd said much the same thing.

 

Thanks. Snappy explained that a zero is omitted in the HSI numbers, and I had no idea about the symbols of the HSI. Now thanks to all your very helpful posts things are getting clearer. After the startup+takeoff and landing training missions, I skipped the navigation and Tacan tutorial and went to the air to air intercept. Now I know how to interpret BRA and intercept the target, but I think the navigation training mission will include more complicated features of the HSI, I might come back for more questions.

[randomTOTEN]

Highly recommend the navigation mission. If you have a problem with the HSI where nothing seems to be working, turn the TACAN radio OFF and back ON again. It's a minor DCS thing that sometimes trips people up.