04 Basic Fixed Wing

Objectives

1. Demonstrate competent taxi and formation take-off procedures from land-based airfield

2. Demonstrate competent Offensive BFM in:

   a. 1v1 Air to Air engagement
   b. Unguided Air to Ground (A-G) weapon deployment (CBU)
   c. Laser Guided A-G weapon deployment (LGB)
   d. AGM characteristics and deployment

3. Demonstrate competent Defensive BFM and A-A missile avoidance.

4. Demonstrate competent Carrier Landing under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) conditions.

Pre-Requisites

To take part in the Basic Fixed Wing course, you will need to have completed the Basic Infantry Course (a pre-requisite for all further training in RIP) and you will need to have the JETS DLC installed. It is also highly recommended that you use a HOTAS stick and throttle, although this is not essential. Users of Keyboard/Mouse should ensure they are well practised in what keys they have bound to what controls, as the Instructor will not have the default, as he uses a HOTAS. For the remainder of this guide, it is assumed that some form of Flight Stick(s) or HOTAS is used.

In addition, it is also highly recommended that some form of head tracker is used, such as TrackIR, Facetrack NoIR or similar is used during flight.

Pre-Flight

Before commencing flight training, you should have set up your flight stick(s), with curves etc set to your own preference. In addition to this, there are several key commands that should be bound to your HOTAS. These are:

 a.  Targeting Camera (Opens TGP Screen)
 b.  Stabilize Turret (Ground Stabilize TGP)
 c.  Night Vision (cycles through vision modes)
 d.  Previous/Next (usually the mouse scroll wheel)
 e.  Use selected action
 f.  Fire
 g. Next/Previous Weapon
 h. Lock Target & Reveal Target (can be mapped to the same button/switch)
 i.  Next Target & Next Target (in vehicle) (can be mapped to same button/switch)
 j.  Countermeasure
 k. Zoom In/Out (not toggle)
 l. Push to talk
 m. Next/Previous channel (desirable but not essential)
 n. Gear Up/Down (desirable)
 o. Speedbrake
 p. Wheel Brake (desirable)

These controls are designed so that you do not need to take your hands from the HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick), when you most need to have control of your aircraft, ie during combat/takeoff/landing.

It is also recommended that you practise take-off and landing in your own time, so that you are fairly confident.

Take-Off

1. Taxi to Runway (keep speed < 30 kph – Normal Ops < 45 kph Emergency Ops)

2. Select Radar Panel and switch on. Panel 2 to pilot preference (Mini-map recommended)

3. Flaps to Half (land-based runway) or Full (Carrier Ops)

4. Increase throttle to full and rotate >250 kph, Gear up

5. At 350 kph, retract flaps

6. Climb to briefed altitude

Offensive BFM Air Air (A-A)

1. Locate bandit on Radar (up to 16km)

2. Press “Next Target”

3. Wait for lock tone and launch

 MR Missiles are Med Range active radar guided – Launch from 8km approx
 SR Missiles are short range heat seeking – Launch up to 2 km

4. Select most appropriate aspect for your missile (MR – on their 3/9 line, SR, on their 4/7 cone)

Sensors

The upgraded sensors on Arma Jets are extremely useful tools for target acquisition and engagement. Once a target is locked, key information about the target is displayed on the Radar Panel. This includes Type of target, Distance, Speed, Altitude etc. It is both A-A and A-G Radar, so can lock both target types. However, although it is capable of tracking multiple Air and Ground targets, it is restricted to locking only one target. It is also restricted to the the type of weapon selected, so if an A-G weapon is selected, it will not lock an A-A target and vice-versa (although it is sometimes possible to lock a hot target with a SR missile – Arma bug). In addition to this, it also gives a visual indication of where a laser is pointed. The Radar is able to track multiple lasers from both Air and Ground sources.

Weapons

There are various A-A and A-G weapons which can be carried by the aircraft in Arma, but they are all divided into the following groups:

Medium Range A-A

Short Range A-A

Unguided A-G bombs (General Purpose)

Unguided Rockets

Laser Guided bombs (GBU and CBU)

Heat seeking A-G Missiles (these are NOT Laser guided)

Guns/Cannons

The appropriate weapon should be selected for the individual target.

Missile Avoidance - Defensive BFM

If ARH (Active Radar Homing):

1. Put missile on 3/9 line and deploy countermeasures.

2. Once inside inner circle, complete high-g turns between 3 and 9 o'clock position, deploying countermeasures.

3. Turn away from threat and extend using full throttle, climb to altitude (altitude/speed = life)

If SR Heatseeking:

1. Deploy continuous countermeasures and make multiple high-g turns to defeat the missile's energy. Do not show your ass to a heatseeker, or you can expect one right up the pipe!

Guns:

Make multiple high-g turns, climbs, dives, throttle jinks and 'slide' to gain favourable aspect (angle of attack) on the enemy. DO NOT FLY STRAIGHT AND LEVEL!!!

Navigation

Since markers are automatically disabled on RIP servers, the use of navigation lines (Ctrl+RMB) is recommended with the mini-map displayed on one of the sensor panels.

In addition, if a marker is placed on the map, a navigation carrot is displayed below the compass tape on the HUD. This is present even when HUD markers are disabled.

TGP

The TGP is used for target acquisition/tracking, reconnaissance and Laser designation. It is recommended that those with multiple hat switches, assign one hatswitch as the mouse and use this to 'slew' the TGP cross-hair. Ground Stabilize will lock the TGP cross-hair in place. The TGP will continue to lock to this place, even beyond gimbals. The 'Target Lock' button/switch/key should be used to laser lock or lock/track moving targets. Once locked, the TGP will continue to track a moving target, providing the TGP remains within gimbal limits. Regardless of this, if target lock is lost beyond gimbal, once the TGP is brought back within gimbal limit, the TGP will continue to track the previous target. In order for a LGB to track to the target, the Laser Designator must continuously track the target. If Laser Lock is lost, it is likely that the bomb will miss.

Landing

Under VFR (Visual Flight Rule, ie you can see the runway), conduct an Overhead Break as follows:

1. Intercept the runway at the heading you wish to land on and fly the length of the runway – Speed 350kph

2. As you fly over the threshold, conduct a gentle 30 – 45 degree turn and extend flaps to full

3. Continue turn until you are flying the opposite direction with the runway to your side. Your outer missile rail should be flying down the runway.

4. As your tail fin hits the runway threshold, turn in towards the runway, lower you gear and decrease speed to approx 250 kph. Continue you r turn until you are lined up on runway heading.

5. Use gentle adjustments on your flight stick to stay on course, use your throttle to control your descent, but try to stay below 270 kph. Optimum landing speed is 240 – 250 kph.

6. Keep wings level and keep the 'meatball' just ahead of the runway threshold.

7. On touchdown, throttle back to idle and use wheel brakes if necessary.

For extra reference there is usually an ILS indicator on every runway, but not necessarily in both directions. This will be covered in more detail in IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) Landing in the Advanced Fixed Wing course (WIP).

Competency

A full briefing on the specific requirements to meet the minimum standard will be given to students prior to taking the course, but you can expect all of the above headings to be thoroughly tested. That said, a failure to hit/destroy certain targets does not necessarily mean a course failure.