Behind Enemy Lines | F/A-18C Fighter Sweep & SEAD

[@OrionRox]

Nice video! 11:24, I believe the main reason you lost the lock there was because the radar was still in the MAN mode, one of the most important buttons to bind for the F18's radar in TWS mode is MAN/AUTO click. Once you got a lock in MAN mode switch to AUTO and the radar will adjust both elevation and azimuth to keep tracking the target, only at this point you could crank the aircraft without worrying about changing the radar setting (elevation and azimuth). Also, don't forget AZEL! Press SCS left to enable AZ/EL mode (assume you have radar displayed on the right DDI and the targeting pod is closed), AZ/EL would provide you a 3d view of the radar scope, and combined with the datalink this is extremely useful. Two extra tips: 1) change PRF would help, if the target is HOT, use HI, otherwise use MED. 2) For TWS change the target aging under the DATA category to 8 or higher, this should help as well!

[@CommandT]

Ah thanks, yes this is very old video. I think I’m a bit more competent now 🙂

[@SEJay-gj2cv]

Hey man, just found your channel and loving it! I smashed the living daylight out the that like button lol Subbed and looking forward to seeing more of your videos. I'm just learning the ropes on the bug, so gotta admit it's actually refreshing to see someone who's maybe not perfect on all the systems, but a darn good pilot and someone I can learn alongside with :) Thank you!

[@CommandT]

Great! Glad you enjoyed :)

[@Deltasayan]

Congrats on the 1K mate!!

[@CommandT]

Thanks!!

[@Genital_Malaise]

Thanks for the content...

[@CommandT]

Sure thing!!

[@zerojoom]

Wow you made that a2a refueling look super easy! Really nice flying skill with cool vid!

[@CommandT]

Cheers :)

[@Lochaby]

Boresight mode FTL!

[@user-uf8lp6ug8z]

the S is just an EWR system..so just a search radar. the SA 6 would still be up. You were high up while searching for it. I always lower my nose a bit when searching. I think the search "window" is very narrow for the HARMs

[@TheWoodWorkingPilot]

nice work! I'd love it if there would have been a TacView of it at the end. P.S. Can this mission be downloaded somewhere?

[@shaymcquaid]

As a one time Airborne Infantryman: Losing 50% of of your charge was NOT a success! =P Great Video. thanks!

[@CommandT]

Indeed! Thanks :)

[@Fil-Dev]

I also find it super difficult to manage the radar in close range encounters on the F/A18. I suppose the F16 radar is a bit overpowered in-game, but it's so much easier to track and lock onto targets compared to the Hornet.

[@RedSky1895]

Use the HMD. It displays datalink contacts with 40nm by default (editable under HMD -> Reject Setup from the DDI menu). Look at the thing and lock it in ACM modes. Super fast and intuitive. Don't try to use the B-scope display within 10nm.

[@CommandT]

Yeah at the moment the Hornet's radar is absolutely terrible. Radar drops lock all the time. Very frustrating!

[@daniellebduska9972]

​@@CommandT Is it a radar problem or the fact that migs used their jamm. But I also see that after the F/A-18 module update, the radar performance deteriorated significantly.

[@CommandT]

@@daniellebduska9972 I think the radar is just not as good as it was/ meant to be. I suspect ED purposefully reduced it's ability to keep lock. Why I do not know but I don't think it should be like that.

[@SpaceGaucho_]

@@CommandT hey man, nice vid and channel. if this was recorded around 2-3 weeks ago, yeah there was a bug going on and ED fixed it (it is also true that they made the radar less effective). otherwise I'd recommend always going tws decreasing the bar scan to 2 and azimuth to 40/20 depending on your SA lvl. that should keep you in a soft lock state. they also changed the behavior on tws man, you have to now depress on the cursor position you want the radar to scan. also helps going into bais mode. once you soft lock a track it's very useful to have the manual/bias/auto radar mode mpcd button (not sure if it's called like that haha) bound so that you can quickly set the radar to automatically keep redar elevation and azimuth optimal for that track. hope that helps! cheers

[@acrobaticfish]

What’s the difference between “flow” and “reference” on the heading?

[@CommandT]

Flow means you turn your plane on that heading irrespective of what the other guy is doing or where he is. Just head in that direction essentially. Reference means you are to be on that heading in formation relative to lead. In our case we were a fair distance apart but we were both on that heading in line abreast.

[@acrobaticfish]

@@CommandT Thank you! Your vids are rad.

[@CameTo]

Hey I love your stuff, you know I've mentioned it before, but this time you were dead! That ai would have killed you while you were fiddling with the radar still inside 4nm head on. I assume he didn't shoot because they had guns only, or there's a new bug, as you were locked up the whole time. You need to practice with your radar a bit... Here's something, when you switch through missiles fox1,2,3 (even if you don't carry them) you can "save" the specific radar settings to the modes, for example, I always have my fox1 radar mode far and wide, I rarely carry them, but my fox 3 mode is fully narrow, if you know where the guy is (the rwr is overlaid on the scope) you don't need to be wasting precious time having the gimbal going umpteen degrees either side. This way in combat I press 1 button to go from fox1-3 and all the radar options jump over to a Fully narrow, high PRF with 6bar scan. It's a very quick sweep without requiring to be too accurate on the height. You have the WH, that fiction lever is my radar elevation lever. But as soon as you cross 10nm it's deadly pointless trying to use the radar, you already have your HMD on, go straight into boresight or virtual scan, if you don't know exactly where he is, go into wide acquisition. it's a very methodical series of steps, especially assuming like this example, you don't get fired at. Takeaway, practice quickly scanning radar in large areas then small areas and back. Save your custom fox modes (choose a mode, setup your radar, hit save, choose the next mode etc). Ideally you want something big and wide, something long and thin, and maybe something in a happy medium. Finally, with or without HMD, as soon as the range is within 10, come off that little radar and cycle your ACMI modes to most suitable one, if you see him boresight, if you don't see him but know vaguely based on rwr, go vertical and rotate the nose a bit, and if you are less aware, go wide. You need your head out the window to be ready with flares anyways. You can always practice this with invincible mode Vs 4 expert ai in su27s (with mix of missiles) by yourself. The idea isn't necessarily to kill them all without being hit, just getting used to radar.

[@CommandT]

Yep, good advice, thanks! I'll get some practice in at some point! One thing in my defense though is this stupid radar drops lock so easily that I shouldn't have to constantly try to re-acquire someone. And as you saw there at low level it was extremely poor vis so scanning the sky randomly in boresight felt like it would be more time-consuming than just locking him up on radar. Obviously if we were visual I would just go into an ACM mode straight away. But given how tricky it was to lock him up I would actually agree that scanning the fog in front in boresight would have been better than fiddling with the radar scope! Every day is a school day for me anyway :)

[@carrierlandinghdlegacyhorn2686]

How about joining the virtual Blue Angels

[@CommandT]

Sounds great, I'd love to but got no time.

[@carrierlandinghdlegacyhorn2686]

@@CommandT ah I see. Yes it requires a lot of practice.