DCS WORLD 2.7 UPDATE - F/A-18C Hornet Beginner Series: Air to Air Radar Usage

DCS WORLD 2.7 UPDATE - F/A-18C Hornet Beginner Series: Air to Air Radar Usage
Keybinds Required : 0:00
Powering on the radar : 3:20
Overview of RADAR symbology : 7:38
AIM-120C AMRAAM Radar Mode Configuration : 13:30
AIM-7 SPARROW Radar Mode Configuration : 14:51
AIM-9X Radar Mode Configuration : 16:20
Choosing which MFD to place radar and RWR on : 19:04
SA Page and Radar symbology explanation : 21:30
PRF Radar mode selection : 30:03
Track While Scan (TWS) radar mode and operation : 31:42
Radar Notching explanation : 39:45
Auto & Manual TWS Modes : 40:40
Summary of TWS radar operation & best practices : 44:20
AIM-9X radar operation and best practices : 47:10
AIM-& SPARROW RWS mode explanation : 48:53
With the release of patch 2.7 to DCS world and hopefully an increased number of new players being drawn to this amazing sim I thought I’d go over the basics for all of you wannabe virtual hornet pilots out there.
DCS Scratch Pad - github.com/rkusa/dcs-scratchpad
Torni's DCS Files - drive.google.com/drive/folder...
I do stream on Twitch every now and then so be sure to come say hello and give me some crap / torniquethd
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[@Mitissa515]

Sorry, super late getting to this one... S MODE refers to the selection of missile you're firing. When set to manual, you can press the AMRAMM button (I think it's '3' by default?) multiple times to toggle between which pylon you want the AIM to fire from. Setting it to Auto removes that ability and instead will come off the rail of whichever AIM makes sense. Ex: If the bandit is ~20 miles out at 11 o'clock the S MODE will release an AMRAMM from the left-wing (or left nose if none on the wings), similarly if the bandit is right at say 1 o'clock it will release a missile from the right-wing or nose.

[@pistolpeets9004]

Just getting into DCS, so I'm playing through the trainings and watching tutorials and your channel is gold! Very easy to understand and I love the KZbin bombing mission I found this morning. Thank you!

[@HallaghanH]

I've watched a lot of videos on the radar of the F18 but yours was by far the easiest and most complete to understand. Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge with the community. Learned a lot!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers mate, glad it made sense for you

[@jameswilliams1085]

Oh no.....another study video!!! This Will take time to absorb. Thank you SO much for this.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Practice practice practice mate

[@DutchCleveland]

Wow.. Thank you. Ive read and watched so many videos and no one break it down in a way that I can understand like you did. Seriously Ive spent WEEKS trying to learn the f18. This is by far the best.

[@chrisvanegmond3157]

Mate your Hornet series videos are top notch, exactly what I needed. The radar's been intimidating so this is great stuff. Thanks!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers mate, glad it made sense for you

[@MNHemiGuy]

Thank you... keep the updates coming. Great to see these redone with the new updates.

[@TorniQuetHD]

My pleasure mate, always good to revisit the basics over and over again

[@hobbytechgear4574]

One of the easiest video to understand thank you

[@terencewhite363]

I have been out of DCS and the Hornet for almost 2 years. Getting back into it is a challenge, with everything that has changed as well as remembering everything that that I knew before. Your series of tutorials are absolutely amazing. Thank you for the time and effort that you put into each one of them and don't change a thing about them, they are perfect.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad they have helped you out mate 👌🏻

[@sprinkle_some_crack_on_em8279]

This really helped me break out of the basics. I’m grateful

[@niklasp6056]

Your f/a 18 videos have really saved me. Thank you for putting in the time to make these videos!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad they help mate 🙏🏻

[@Try_n_2Tri]

Awesome. Consider myself 'competent' with the Hornet (due to your Dummies series) but this review was excellent. Keep this refresh series going - very necessary. Lots of channels are doing patch work videos to catch up on all the updates and add them to their already 2 year old libraries. You are redoing the whole series which is just more complete and thorough. Best hornet series on KZbin.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers mate, glad they are helping you out

[@patrickwoolbright1960]

Great stuff man! I really appreciate the walk through. I've watched some of the others, while they're good this one goes into examples and great detail. You've helped me understand why i didn't have any contacts show up. Keep up the good work my dude.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers mate, glad it helped you get your head around the radar a bit better

[@Bulla1963]

Excellent tutorial, really made things easy to understand and explained what I have been doing wrong when trying to find targets.

[@naier02]

Thank you so much, just started playing and this helped me a ton!

[@Shawner556]

Really solid video man, thanks for taking the time to make this

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it helped out mate 👌🏻

[@Bushwookie_18]

Getting back into the hornet and your hornet vid series has been my go to m8

[@undertakerlux1]

Good job, mate....this is the one i was looking for...i have looked at other vids, but not a single had give me the right informations, i struggled with a radar lock and DL infos...this one has done it. Thanks.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it helped you out mate 👌🏻

[@alexandrerossi3553]

Tks! Very nice tutorials for the community !!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Thanks mate, glad it made sense for you

[@micaelh508]

@TorniQuetHD, thanks for a really really good video explaining the A/A radar in conjunction with Aim 120 and Aim 9X!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Hope it helped mate!!

[@thebananaman4430]

cheers man the vid helped a lot you made it really easy to follow along

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it makes sense mate 🙏🏻

[@Callsigntitan]

Man this video taught so much! Thank you!!!!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it helped you out mate 🙏🏻

[@Nate-ip4qo]

These have been really useful. Thanks!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad they help mate 🙏🏻

[@matk4731]

Bloody great work. Thanks for sharing 👍🏻👍🏻🙃🙃

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers matey!!

[@brianharris1830]

…that is an awesome video!!!

[@christophersullivan2438]

Yes! Been waiting for this

[@TorniQuetHD]

Hope it helps buddy!

[@snowy_cinematic]

Thank you so much, the best radar teach in youtube😊

[@TorniQuetHD]

Hope it made sense mate

[@lars9267]

Hi! I really like your tutorials and your way of teaching here. From now my favorite channel for DCS training. But it’s a while since you posted a video now, so are you planning something more or what is going on? Btw I and probaly many others would love to see some F-16 guides here also. Greetings from Norway.

[@TheRealSlimSteve]

Love your videos, but you got a thing wrong there. When you are slewing the cursor down towards the bottom of the screen, or up towards the top, the measured altitude readings of the radar vertical envelope don't change because the cursor is tilting the radar up or down, It is because the readings of the radar "cone" ahead of you change as you get closer or further away from the plane. The curser close to the plane will always show a smaller differential as you get closer, the top and bottom readings getting smaller. Conversely a cursor slewed very far away will show a much greater distance between the values, with heights and depths showing much greater differentials. Think about turning a pyramid on it's side with the plane at its point, and start measuring slices of the pyramid closer or further away. The cursor doesn't tilt the measurement, it just measures a bigger or smaller slice depending on how far away you are from the base of the pyramid. Other than that, great stuff!!

[@jimrowden7693]

Great video. I have the X56 also, but seem to have run out of buttons the way I am currently set up. At 42:33 you mentioned you have HOTAS stick bindings for Right MDI PB1, PB13, & PB11/12. What HOTAS buttons are you using for those PB's?

[@chartphred1]

Brilliant tutorial, thanks.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it helped out mate 🙏🏻

[@napnic]

Excellent thank you.👌

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it helped you out mate 🙏🏻

[@I___Jackal___I]

Really good explaining you are doing here. One thing I noticed you put a lot information in and introduce different terminology like notching etc.

[@TorniQuetHD]

I will do a video on tactics to employ with the AIM-120C AMRAAM in another video, but if you want to watch an awesome KZbin video on notching and the like I’d recommend checking out this video from Jabbers. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mF7MZZiQjKlghNk

[@serolrom]

Awesome channel. This is where you get to learn the actual sh*t. Theory put to actual use.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Thanks buddy! Hopefully it made sense and helped you out 👍🏻

[@DanneJensen]

Legend🙌

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers mate!

[@robertdraco8404]

i'D LIKE TO SEE ONE about D/L radar contacts and the target symbology on your radar and what the shapes mean.

[@therocinante3443]

This video made it so I could jump in an 18 and help out In the RotorHeads server. Bravo!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Yeeeeww!! What can you do in the fixed wing stuff in rotorheads server?? Is there much to do??

[@Inserico]

After going through many, and I mean many big KZbin channels trying to learn the basics, your rendition is by far the clearest, the most suitably paced for my level of learning, very grateful to have come across your contents!! I just want to ask, bit off topic, did you map your A/A, A/G, and master arm/safe controls to anything? What did to map them to?

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers mate, glad the videos made sense to you 🙏🏻 I haven’t bound my master modes or master arm to anything on the HOTAS, I just use the mouse to select them during flight as required

[@Inserico]

@@TorniQuetHD do you fly VR normally?

[@TorniQuetHD]

@@Inserico nah mate trackIR all the way. VR doesn’t record well for videos or live streams… looks terrible compared to TrackIR. I’ve flown VR in DCS… it is amazing for sure, it just doesn’t look anywhere near as good when recorded is all

[@cosmosushi5222]

Thank you for the clear and concise breakdowns, you've made me a better Hornet driver for it. I especially appreciate that you explain why you do certain things as well as how to unf@ck yourself if you goober it up. Please keep up the great work and keep the content coming!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Thanks for the kind words mate, I try my best to make it as easy to understand as possible 👌🏻

[@wolfmanDCS]

Thanks!

[@wolfmanDCS]

Just a little something for the straight to the point and simplicity of all your content. Your my go to guy right there with Flying With OverKill.

[@marianobarrios832]

Thank you so much for this series! You have single-handedly helped me relearn the hornet! Question on the AMRAAMS in TWS. When we launch on a target to de need too keep them locked up until the missle goes active or can we turn and burn away?

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad the series helped you mate 🙏🏻

[@josiahsanne7818]

Gotta say some guys prefer to have a sparrow on multiplayer servers to avoid friendly fire. In cases of messy furballs of friendly and enemy fighters you'd want to make sure your AMRAAM doesn't accidentally pitbull onto a passing friendly.

[@ProfessorPottsy]

Not sure if I missed you mentioning this but for selecting a radar contact in TWS mode I always hit the middle button on the right that changes it from “MANUAL” to “Auto” which makes the radar search area follow the target you have locked up which is crucial if you’ll be cranking the plane left and right to bleed off an enemy missile’s energy that way it’ll keep lock easier all the way to the edge of the radar gimbal limit

[@ProfessorPottsy]

I should’ve waited because 5min later in the video you talked about this exact thing. Thanks for the helpful video my friend!

[@commanderstud2417]

I’m new to dcs and I frickn love it!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Welcome to the community mate!!!

[@kerbalette156]

Amaze vid. Come back please

[@Just-Steve]

My favorite is when I'm in TWS and firing on multiple targets and as I switch I start tracking the missiles I just fired. That's the best.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Hahaha

[@yeruschmift8422]

Thank you. Question: how do you choose a target out of the ones softlocked in TWS? Been struggling with that thing. A small note on 38:20. The numbers change because the radar sight is a cone. The cone is narrow near our aircraft and widens with the distance. The numbers are the top and the bottom of the cone at given distance. That also leads to the fact that the distance between the sides of the screen is actually very short near the bottom and much longer near the top.

[@yeruschmift8422]

Figured out that cycling targets is done via the undesignate button. But now I don't know how to drop lock completely.

[@yassm]

@@yeruschmift8422 hi. to drop lock use the reset button on the screen

[@knndyskful]

If we didn’t have KZbin where and how do we find this info? Does the game come with any manuals or is it all community education? I’m really interested in getting into this game bc it looks so fun but it also seems so detailed and complicated Also, if you’re looking for an F22 they just don’t show up on radar, correct? Bc of the stealth?

[@TorniQuetHD]

The game has built in training missions and tutorials you can fly as well as manuals too. A good place to go to for a DCS module information is chucks guides. Give DCS chucks guides a google and you can have a read on pretty much every module in DCS on how to setup keybinds all the way to employing weapons. F22 is stealth so yes it would be very hard to detect on the hornet radar for sure

[@xctsko4638]

Very nice tutorial but I cant still lock on target so I have to use Aim9s only.

[@pjslon9219]

The HI/MED part is wrong here, you don't need to be in HI mode for hot targets and MED for cold. Quote from the manual: "Medium PRF minimizes “blind zones” reduces false targets, better all-aspect detection but has less detection range. High PRF has greater range but has inferior low to medium aspect detection. Interleaved alternates Medium and High bar coverage."

[@andrewbrown8254]

Any chance for an updated Harm tutorial? I need to take out the the SAM sites before I can drop any bombs :)

[@TorniQuetHD]

In the works mate 👌🏻

[@coolguy6494]

nice toturial. just a suggestion it would be a lot more easier to watch these videos if the toturial name was in the start of the video title and in the thumbnail so its easier to know what the toturial is actually about before i click on the video.

[@tempestspace]

That was a great video so useful! I just have a question not sure what I'm doing wrong and can't find the answer anywhere. I'm playing PVP and I can see the datalink on the attack radar and i know I can't lock it. I change the elevation Like you say to match theirs but it's still not giving me anything like the block that I can lock onto. Sometimes I'll try from 80nm all the way until 20nm and then sometimes I get something it's very inconsistent. It's not as quick and easy as you show in the video not sure where I'm messing up

[@TorniQuetHD]

You have to pay attention to the targets aspect to you… if it is flying straight at you, put the radar in high PRF, if they are flanking or cold put it in medium PRF. Also if the contact is at low level and you are up high the radar will struggle to get a lock from range due to look down degradation of radar. If you are struggling you can try and get co altitude with the target and see if that helps too.

[@tempestspace]

@@TorniQuetHD it doesn't really matter what my altitudeis compared to them. Sometimes I'm at 25000ft and they are on 20000ft and still nothing. I do change between the PRF like you said but I still can't get them on my radar.

[@TorniQuetHD]

You could also be getting notched by them if it’s PvP, if they fly perpendicular to the nose of your aircraft your radar will not be able to see them also.

[@tempestspace]

@@TorniQuetHD the data link shows they are coming straight at me and my PRF is set to high and I still can't pick them up

[@TorniQuetHD]

@@tempestspace yeah it happens mate, the hornet radar has been changed a lot to be more realistic with the actual radar so you will struggle to get a lock outside of 40NM now, more likely around the 30NM mark depending on target aspect

[@AirspeedisLife]

awesome vid. I believe there is a way to display the target/aim on the hud but it would also move out of the hud and showed up if you move the screen for example if using VR or TrackIR it would lock the target without the need to move the nose of the aircraft towards the bandit. it would lock it by just moving your head towards the target/plane (using TrackIR) what do I press to activate that ? Id appreciate the help. please

[@TorniQuetHD]

I think you’re talking about using the JHMCS to lock targets up?? The circle that shows up in your helmet and when you place it over an aircraft it locks it up?? That is achieved by being in A/A master mode and then press sensor control switch forward and it will go to helmet acquisition mode as long as your JHMCS is turned on 👍🏻

[@Just-Steve]

To further help here; on the right hand side of the displays there's a dial that says HMD turn that all the way up. To activate the mode you're talking about, in the AIM-120 specifically (because its different for the AIM-9) you push sensor control switch up and you'll see two things; 1. There is now a ring on your HUD when looking forward or outside of the A/C. 2. If you glance at your radar when looking around you'll see it is no longer sweeping, but is now panning to where you are looking. The AMRAAM will go pitbull off the rails so you don't have to guide it, you can fire it and bug out immediately, so this is great for furballs or snapshots.

[@erfguuipo8084]

Hey, I been asking in forum about targeting helicopters. Or is there a setting we need to set to detect those enemy helicopters? Radar may show them but you cantt lock them... please help. Some people say it is bug.

[@TorniQuetHD]

You probably have to be co-level or lower than them to get a good lock due to ground clutter on the radar? I generally don’t bother trying to take helos out in the hornet unless I absolutely had to

[@comieodor]

"S Mode" is apparently a classified function in the real jet - and DCS doesn't model its function at all. Not an expert, that's just what Reddit reckons anyway. I assume its visible in reference photo's of the real jet, so ED put it in, despite not knowing themselves what it's for.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers for the info mate!! Good to know ☺️

[@mobius7089]

This is correct, you look in the RW manuals for it and it's just labeled "see classified supplement xxx"

[@azzido851]

Bro, can u make a mission like it was with Basic Flight Consolidation?

[@TorniQuetHD]

For an air to air engagement??

[@azzido851]

@@TorniQuetHD Yes:)

[@SeppMaier8877]

How to abort a rws or tws lock?

[@mobius7089]

22:31 don't do that, just press SCS aft twice. Since the HSI is in the AMPCD, SCS aft once sets TDC priority, aft again with HSI as TDC priority swaps to the SA. With the AMPCD on a display that can't accept priority, SCS aft cues HSI. Don't think I've ever pressed the HSI or SA buttons on the AMPCD. Since you didn't mention it, at 26:27 to the right of the call sign is the aircrafts fuel state. 31:50 This is not true. Zero difference in targeting between RWS and TWS. A RWS L+S is the same as a TWS L+S. 32:36 To be clear, a STT "lock" from TWS will still warn the target. 37:30 L+S designation* 38:09 That is not what's happening. The radar elevation IS NOT CHANGING. Think of the radar scan as a cone out the nose of the aircraft. The closer you are to the nose of the jet, the smaller the width of the cone is in the y-axis. Hence why you upper and lower scan volume boundaries increase when moving the cursor away, and increases when you bring it closer to the aircraft. 39:58 That track is not notching, he's simply outside of the radar maximum range in MPRF. 41:28 you lost lock because you told the radar to point elsewhere... plus you didn't adjust the hit age out on the data subformat. 42:55 You can just use the TDC 44:31 Same is true for positive Vc in general 45:20 To clarify you can only notch an emitter that is above you. Notch works from you hiding in the ground clutter. I noticed that you didn't mention NWS for track stepping. 52:08 all that can be done with the HOTAS by default with the TDC.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers matey!! 👌🏻

[@army2207]

Can you work for grimreapers so they can have better tutorials

[@TorniQuetHD]

Haha grim reapers definitely got me into DCS so I’ve got no issues with CAP 👌🏻

[@army2207]

@@TorniQuetHD i love Cap, but some of his tutorials need some work then again he doesnt have all the time for planes that require hours and hours to learn

[@TorniQuetHD]

@@army2207 yeah it is a full time job pretty much for him so he needs to put content out to make money to pay the bills so the tutorials have dropped away unfortunately by the looks.

[@user-pc4xc3rb7l]

My god!!!! Amran 80 Ona copse, get a diamond on the tdc, use the sa page to pull in the……..e2 brah. I’m flying spitfires now on Normandy 2.0. I’m frustrated enough dealing with the difference between boost and rpm. It’s getting up my nose. Jargon and abbreviations are annoying, nonsensical. Dcs has been run and taken over by dweebs who don’t work a 9 to 5.