DCS WORLD 2.7 UPDATE - F/A-18C Hornet Beginner Series: ATFLIR Targeting Pod

[@jebb125]

During my flight test days E/F hornet, I remember when we installed the first ATFLIR`s on VMFA-142 out of NAS Atlanta, we spend 2 weeks with the squadron teaching them all the basics, then we got a call from another skipper, then another, and another as they became available. I think it was around 2003. Gave the A+ hornets a bunch of capability in the gulf they desperately needed..

[@TorniQuetHD]

That is awesome mate!! Such a crazy bit of kit that enhances combat effectiveness for the hornet massively 👌🏻

[@jebb125]

@@TorniQuetHD tks for the videos, I forgot so much over the years being away from Naval Aviation and all the variants of the hornet.

[@TorniQuetHD]

@@jebb125 glad to help out mate

[@erfguuipo8084]

Cool story

[@hoetan9730]

Were you around when Filet was?

[@NR-qo1xn]

Cheers feckur.. seriously though thank u so much for your vids mate. You won't believe how much I've improved because of them. Keep'em coming ✌🏼

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad they are helping you out mate

[@DanBlake3rd]

Best ATFLIR tutorial yet. Thanks for taking the time to create it. Manuals put me to sleep :D

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers mate, glad it helped

[@mc81]

the one line i wouldn't expect in a video about the jhmcs "it's not that smart it can't tell where you're looking at" eitherway great video watched it all. helped a lot ...i hope

[@TorniQuetHD]

Referring to making the appropriate sensor the sensor of interest… ie if you have your ground radar as SOI and try and move your ATFLIR it will move the radar TDC not the ATFLIR. You have to tell the aircraft which sensor you want to control as it doesn’t know what you’re trying to do is what I meant 🤪

[@negativghostrdr]

I watched this on my iPad for the 2nd time and mostly listened while I sat in the hornet in VR and followed along. That was extremely effective! I finally understand how to use this system and what it’s capable of. Also, now understand the relationship between the targeting pod and laser guided bombs. A very complex system made understandable! Nice job TorniQuet! Much appreciated!

[@icedavis6680]

Your VIdeos have been exceptionally helpful! I think I have learned more about the F18-C in the last couple hours than my first 8 watching other videos. Thank you!

[@MrPhantom453]

Really comprehensive video mate. Most helpful. Well done Thanks!

[@Taxpayer_416]

This video is great. Ive been playing for a year now and I few times I was like - "Ohh I didnt know that"... thanks!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad you took something away from the video mate 🙏🏻

[@stuartjames7820]

Great video - nice to have a video that not only shows you what the buttons etc do, but also shares how to actually use these things in the wild. Thanks!

[@tackleberry1971]

Mate, Loving your channel. Really well delivered, and learning heaps. Cheers.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Thanks mate

[@danchuey]

Great video! Thanks! Not to be too technical, but.... LST stands for Laser SPOT Tracker

[@TorniQuetHD]

Thank you mate!! Appreciate the correction 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@kerbalette156]

By far the best tutorial on this. Thx

[@clevercat5844]

Now show us how to lock up UFO's with the ATFLIR! /Salute *Really enjoying your F/A-18C Hornet Beginners Series, amazing work TorniQuetHD!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Hahaha that would be pretty sick 😉 Glad you’re enjoying the series mate

[@alexandrerossi3553]

Amazing! I’m still a noob in DCS despite all the time I spent in that thing, just a few days without flying and just can’t remember anything … tks a lot! That really help! Hope you keep doing this tutorials because as DCS updates the old tutorial doesn’t work anymore like they used to. I’ll be waiting for a gps bomb run! How to store the fu@ing coordinates into the bombs and drop them all in a single pass! Cheers from Brazil!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers mate glad you take something away from the videos 🙏🏻 JDAMS are coming soon

[@Try_n_2Tri]

Just awesome. Thorough and easy to follow. Keep it going... this series is the best.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Thanks mate, glad it makes sense to you

[@Templar7832]

This is brilliant mate!! I was away in the military when this came out so I had no idea why it had changed and I've been wrestling with it. AWESOME vid mate thank you!!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it helped you out mate 👌🏻

[@TrickerDCS]

Dude where you been bro

[@TorniQuetHD]

I’m still here broooooooo. Just haven’t had much time for twitch these days but job hours are changing up soon so will see how it goes with squeezing in a few streams 🤞🏻 Love you long time tricker ❤️

[@TrickerDCS]

@@TorniQuetHD well look forward to seeing you again man, keep up the good work

[@TV1Bomber]

Great Job mate! It all seems so easy, the way you explain it. Once I get back to my warthog, it feels like I’m learning the Piano from Bach! 🎶

[@TorniQuetHD]

Cheers mate, hope it helped you out 🙏🏻

[@gregscholes9670]

Excellent, thanks.

[@gofres]

Great video, this has really helped a lot!!

[@NicolasTremblay-r2i]

Awesome vidéo! Thank you

[@davidpodbury8415]

Man AWESOME video!!! Thanks so much this is fantastic!

[@prayong64]

Super tutorial, merci.

[@Lungolord]

By far the best tutorial, well done

[@StrongHarm]

I'm glad you're still putting out vids in this series, it's quality. I'm not a beginner, but I still learn at least one thing (usually many) from each of your vids. I tried your TDC axis tuning and my Warthog HOTAS is a lot more responsive. That was a great idea, using a practical example of finding an SA-6 site. It really brought the instruction together. Have you tried using the MFCD for viewing the FLIR? The picture is much cleaner when it's not in the monochrome that the DDIs are restricted to. I put the MFCD in night mode as well, because you have a much wider range of contrast. Another benefit is that I find it's easier to glance down quickly to the SA page on the right DDI instead of the MFCD, and my situational awareness demands a lot of glances. Great vid once again TQ thank you!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad you got something out of them mate ☺️ I do use the MFCD occasionally but I’m so used to having the SA page/HSI on that that it feels weird when I mess up my displays haha. If I’m really struggling to break a target out in the ground clutter I do switch to that to help with identifying targets for sure 👌🏻 Very good point though that it is much clearer to see with compared to the monochrome displays.

[@StrongHarm]

@@TorniQuetHD Yeah I struggle with that too. When I'm AA in the hornet I keep my SA page on the MFCD and use HOTAS binds to interact with it. When I go AG I repeatedly try to use those same bindings on the SA that's now on the DDI and it messes me up. It would be nice if each attack mode had a different bindings profile. Theoretically, you could create different binding profiles and activate them based on mission. That sounds like a pain though really. Probably just easier to use a monochrome FLIR haha.

[@Alien9828]

Absolutely on the ball mate, good stuff.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Thanks mate, glad you got something out of it 🙏🏻

[@weed89ilt]

Thanks Helped ALOT !!

[@radsy5821]

I know this was an ATFLIR video, but that little tip for switching between SA and HSI was worth the whole watch. Another little tip: once you find something (e.g. your SA-2 with the JHMCS), hit a markpoint on it so you can WPDESG back to it easily.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Love it mate! Great tip as well!! Just gotta remember to do that on the fly when shit hits the fan haha 🤪🤪

[@bruennlein]

Great job form the great Explainator! One thing about the Offset: As far as I saw that on the Lightening Tpod, its an offset for the drop-point of the bomb. So if you have a fast moving target, you can tell the CCRP to add some lead to it, because otherwise, you might miss. Especially, when dropping from high alitude on fast moving targets. I´ve tried that with the Lightening on a Ship, moving with 30 kts from around 25.000ft. Without offset, I missed, with offset, I could score hits. Maybe it´s the same here. Cheers...

[@doordoorim566]

tnx very much amazing video!!!

[@Allstar14234]

Great video! Cleared up a lot of aggrivation!!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it helped you out mate 🙏🏻

[@tempochannel6731]

Great tutorial. Onya

[@Gabriel4Drummer]

Great stuff!

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it helped matey

[@NR-qo1xn]

Don't we need to press the TDC depress after aligning 2 small crosses to set them? Thank you for probably the most comprehensive video on youtube of the Atflir after the updates.

[@TorniQuetHD]

As far as I know hitting the align button on the hmd page does the trick no dramas

[@NR-qo1xn]

@@TorniQuetHD noted and cheers

[@Erinthegato99]

Bruh did he just say "Welcome back fuckers"

[@TorniQuetHD]

You know it mate, gotta keep it real up in here 👌🏻

[@ComdrStew]

Good thing to get in the habit of doing is make a mark point when you find the target. If you do bump the slew, you can slew it back to that mark point.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Have def learnt this lesson the hard way ^^^^

[@masakari]

Only got to deploy with the ATFLIR once before I retired, but they were so much better than the Nite Hawk pods. CVN-71, 2005.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Jealous mate!!

[@JordanBulthuis]

Another trick to get the fa18 aligned faster with the INS. You click the STDG button on the bottom screen as it’s aligning. It makes the hornet aligned in about a minute or teo

[@TorniQuetHD]

Also with the INS as I was made aware by another comment in the videos is to not put your INS to CV or GND until your left engine is up and running or else it can cause alignment issues in flight

[@erfguuipo8084]

This is so cool. Enjoyed it. Ty. It would help if you could tell us where the moving truck was so we can also laser it and follow along.

[@TorniQuetHD]

The moving truck is not at Batumi all the time, you’ll have to place a unit into the mission editor and give it waypoints to practice that stuff

[@Lil-Bear82]

Gr8 info-thx bud

[@TorniQuetHD]

👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

[@lcockcroft]

As always a great video to help out us newbs. Would you please consider making a Radar A2A BVR video? The radar on the F18 can be a little overwhelming, and thanks again for what you do.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Yep videos are in the works mate 👌🏻

[@banaantjexx164]

Another thing I'd like to add is that the AMPCD is colorized, unlike the other 2 MFD's left and right of the UFC, this makes it a lot easier to spot targets in the IR modes for both the ATFLIR and the LITENING pod.

[@TorniQuetHD]

I agree it looks much cleaner on the bottom display but I also like having the pilot body and stick showing which makes it a pain to constantly look around to see the screen past the stick, so I just make do with the top displays for immersion 👌🏻

[@lasselahti4056]

Why i have problems locking ir mavericks on moving targets with ATFLIR. How should i really do it. I put scene cursor in front of moving vehicle->sensor switch to right (tgt pod in right disp) ->goes to automode->tracks ok->slew to maverick->uncage if not already->fire->notice that it just flies where target was at the moment you pressed fire. What am I doing wrong?

[@PappyGunn]

VVSLV: I thought that was the "snowplow: mode. If you look at the display it tells you the pod is looking 16 degrees below the horizon. Your display shows the line on the tarmac. I think...

[@TorniQuetHD]

VVSLV stands for velocity vector slave so it does slave to the velocity vector, I believe when you unbox VVSLV it then goes into snowplow mode. Will have to have a read of chucks guide again for the hornet 🤔

[@Tuscarora]

My screen looks just like yours but .....When I push Velocity Vector Slave nothing happens....no TV comes on. VVSLV does not get boxed. EDIT: Nevermind. Apparently I had to be in the air to do it.

[@erfguuipo8084]

I do like this pod function but it's driving me crazy I cannot see targets when they blend it with the environment on Caucasus. Ifrared also don't work well. Litening pod is nicer but that wide zoom and narrow using raid button drives me mad it doesn't work all the time.

[@TorniQuetHD]

They have reworked the FLIR imagery so if a vehicle has been sitting stationary it will not show up on FLIR anymore, it only picks up on contrast of temperature so if the vehicles engine is hot compared to the ground it will show up. As most vehicles are placed into missions stationary and don’t drive around or shoot until they have been attacked it is a lot harder to pick them out like real life now.

[@erfguuipo8084]

Man I have trouble finding targets they blend so well with the background sometimes. Any tips please help.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Try switching the display modes of the ATFLIR… go from white hot to black hot and TV… see if one is more clear than the others and go with that. Also adjust the gain and levels for the ATFLIR to get a clearer picture in different lighting conditions.

[@daviddoyle982]

Besides age, is there any reason you’d pick on other the other, besides ones new and other old, due to mission parameters, weather or munition types? Genuinely very curious.

[@TorniQuetHD]

No real reason mate, which ever one suits you better I guess

[@daviddoyle982]

@@TorniQuetHD Cheers mate 🇦🇺

[@erfguuipo8084]

Make a video on dodging Sam missiles with various methods!?

[@TorniQuetHD]

The best defence is to not let them shoot at you in the first place 👌🏻 but the other defences would be trying to put the SAM radar in the notch so it loses lock whilst deploying chaff and in IR SAM defences it is throttles out of Afterburner and pop flares to try and decoy the IR missile inbound

[@erfguuipo8084]

@@TorniQuetHD afterburner is faster though ? I thought to attack certain Sam sites you need them to shoot you ? So confusing hey. Different sam has different detection and stuff. How come sometimes the warning beeps but they don't fire at me ? When do they actually fire ?

[@TorniQuetHD]

@@erfguuipo8084 infrared SAM’s will give you no warning they have you locked or when they have fired at you… it locks onto your heat signature from the exhaust… so if you’re in full afterburner you are a giant hot spot for the missile to lock onto and follow, hence why coming out of afterburner and popping flares to try and get the missile to lock onto them instead of you. Radar SAM’s will give you the warning and when they fire your RWR will go off even more letting you know it has detected an incoming missile. RADAR = Notching and Chaff, INFRARED = Out of afterburner and lots of flares

[@erfguuipo8084]

@@TorniQuetHD make a video bro

[@TV1Bomber]

@@erfguuipo8084 Look online for DCS SAM threats spreadsheet: this will tell you what the SAM number is, ie, ‘06’ on your RWR… refer to your sheet… it will show you max engagement range of 13 nautical miles. Cross reference this with your ‘SA’ page and threat rings. It’s not perfect but with practice you can determine what is firing at you! You’ll know whether to notch or burn and go cold. I’m only learning myself, so anyone else got some better tips I’m all ears. Be aware like TQ said… infrared missiles give you no warning. Good news is they are generally short range only. If you get low and slow over an AO pop flares as precaution.

[@joni.r3947]

At 41:00 when you regain altitude and lock on the sa site, the targeting pod stays at the same location as when you targeted it before the drive, when i do it the targeting pod "looses" the lock and goes for a completely different area than what i originally pointed at. Are you using area track or some other thing to keep the targeting pod at the same place after remerging from the dive?

[@TorniQuetHD]

Hey mate, yeah the 1st time I dived away my pod did exactly what yours does do on the second attempt on e I designated the missile launch via the JHMCS I switched my SOI to the FLIR and then just bumped the TDC a hair and pressed TDC depress before I dove down out away from the threat and it stayed in the spot perfectly. Someone else in the comments also said you can designate a target via JHMC and then hit MARK on the HSI to create a mark point you can target designate later to come back and find it.

[@joni.r3947]

@@TorniQuetHD thanks man im gonna try it

[@DanneJensen]

Can you share your trackir profile pls? Great video for a noob like me btw 🙌

[@TorniQuetHD]

My trackIR profile is in my discord if you want to steal it mate. Discord link in the description

[@ColonelAkirNakesh]

Tagging a bad guy on my JHMCS then not switching SOI to TGP gets me every time!! Great practical tips but thanks most of all for the TDC curves, they're perfect. Til now it's always been too sluggish or too twitchy. What are your rudder and zoom slider curves? I feel my TFRPs are too twitchy and ATC must think I'm drunk when trying to stay centered taking off.

[@TorniQuetHD]

Glad it helped mate. Rudder is set to 15 curvature and I don’t use the zoom slider, I’ve got zoom in slow and zoom out slow bound for my zoom

[@erfguuipo8084]

Bro can you bookmark a spot with the aftlir pod? Can you save a spot as a way point?

[@TorniQuetHD]

Hit Mk on the top middle of HSI when you have designated a spot on the ground mate

[@erfguuipo8084]

@@TorniQuetHD omg thanks bro I will try it later at work now.

[@erfguuipo8084]

Is it required for hot start ??

[@TorniQuetHD]

@@erfguuipo8084 don’t bloody hot start mate, cmon you’re better than that, it literally takes 3mins tops to get the jet configured and ready to taxi 💪🏻💪🏻

[@erfguuipo8084]

@@TorniQuetHD yea bro my cold start is not too bad but sometimes I keep dying over n over kinda get sick of it cold starting...I learnt how to use external power and by luck I know how to turn it on while engine is on and then able to switch engine off and keep power on. You should do a tutorial on using ground power!!

[@erfguuipo8084]

Is the hmd alignment necessary. I never do it . I feel it was like a gimmick, it doesn't change anything? Have you tried without ?

[@TorniQuetHD]

It is def required if you’re using it to designate targets on the ground mate. If you don’t align it your tpod and helmet out out of whack and you will have all sorts of issues

[@erfguuipo8084]

@@TorniQuetHD hmm I'd that why I always have problems