F-16 Aerial Refueling Guide - How To Refuel In-Flight

🚀 Master the art of aerial refueling in the F-16 with Tricker's easy-to-follow guide! In this comprehensive tutorial, your friendly Airbus Pilot will walk you through the entire process of refueling your F-16 mid-flight. ⛽
Learn the essential techniques and strategies to successfully connect with the tanker aircraft and maintain a stable position during refueling. Tricker will share expert tips and tricks to help you overcome the challenges of aerial refueling and keep your F-16 flying longer. 🛩️
Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your virtual fighter pilot skills and conquer the skies with the F-16! Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe for more amazing content from Tricker. ✈️👍
Happy flying, and see you in the skies! 🌤️
Mission Download from Mulder76:
www.digitalcombatsimulator.co...
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*************Current Specs****************
CPU: Intel® Core™ Processor i9-11900KF
MOBO: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII HERO Z590 ATX
CPU Cooler: Phanteks Glacier One 360MP Liquid Cooling
Video Card 1: MSI Nvidia RTX 3080ti
HD: 1TB WD BLACK SN850 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
HD2: Samsung 970 2TB M.2
HD3: Samsung 512 GB SSD
HD4: WD 4TB 7200 RPM HD
RAM: G.Skill 64GB (16GBx4) DDR4/3200MHz
HOTAS: Warthog HOTAS
TrackIR 5 with Proclip
MFG Crosswind Rudder Pedals
GoXLR with Shure SM7B Microphone
*****************************************************
Hey pilots! Tricker here and I want to welcome you to my channel on combat aviation. I'm a real world pilot in the Airbus 319/320/321 series and I enjoy DCS World, Falcon BMS, Falcon 4.0, IL-2 Sturmovik, X-plane 11, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.
If you want to fly WWII aircraft over Normandy and the English Channel, then DCS World WWII is for you and they have plenty of aircraft to choose from such as the BF-109, FW-190, Spitfire, P-47 Thunderbolt, and P-51 Mustang. If you enjoy modern aerial combat then you want to focus more on DCS World products such as the F-16, A-10C Warthog, AH-64D Apache, F-15, F-14, JF-17, SU-27, Mirage, Mig-29, F-18 Hornet, Mi-8, Mi-24 Hind, Uh-1 Huey, Ka-50, F-5, Mig-21, AV-8b Harrier, and the F-4 Phantom. Some of the mods that are out there for DCS World are the F-22 Raptor, SU-57, A-4 Skyhawk, Rafale, and Gripen.
I enjoy other games such as Total War, Battlefield, War Thunder, Escape from Tarkov, as well as Squad.
#dcsworld #f16 #aerialrefueling

[@TrickerDCS]

Go get some fuel! Mission Download from Mulder76: www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3329609/

[@TheEarthwinders]

I'm Mulder76!!! This is so awesome! I'm glad someone is finding my mission useful and thank you for the credit! Cheers! Working on a much more involved campaign that's 6 months in the making so far. Can't wait to share it with the community soon. 3 more missions to finish.

[@TrickerDCS]

Awesome, thanks for the mission and keep up the great work!

[@ImpendingJoker]

About 2 weeks ago, I had set up my own mission with an aerial refueler in the air. After MONTHS of practicing this, I finally heard the sweet sweet words of, "You're taking fuel". I was so happy, I started laughing like a mad man. haha

[@stickmaster-jake]

that's impressive, practicing months in only two weeks!

[@julianmorrisco]

One thing that people might have said but it never registered with me - AAR (in DCS, anyway) is one of those tasks that clicks. It was for me, anyway. For over a year I feared AAR. I regularly failed and sometimes ended up taking it out on the tanker with a sidewinder :D. I watched tons of videos, followed instructions to the ‘T’ but it didn’t seem to help. Ok, I’m obviously a bit slow, and because it was so not-fun, I didn’t do it very often. Then one day I plugged in without struggling. It was initially in the Falcon, so I went to the Hornet. Same thing. It was like a light switch had been flipped! Don’t get me wrong, I still struggle occasionally and I’ve been known to use ‘police station’ language when the tanker decides to turn just as I’m about to connect but I find it hard to put myself back in the mind set where I never knew if I’d be able to get fuel. It means I’m a lot less miserly about fuel economy and I no longer dread those missions that require a top up towards the end, so I’d fail the whole mission after maybe an epic struggle against the enemy because I’d not be able to get enough fuel to make it home. TLDR - for me, AAR was one of those tasks that clicks into place after getting enough experience. If it seems frustrating and nearly impossible, just keep going. My experience was that almost suddenly, it became almost trivial.

[@Pman353]

I don’t know if this will help anyone but it helped me to think of it like driving a boat. You want to anticipate what is happening and make your input early so when the aircraft moves it all syncs up!

[@TrickerDCS]

Nice

[@TacticalFragAddict]

To be able to do that, it also pays off to set your joystick response up based on the F16 "gains". Once you open the refuel bay, response is going to be much more sensitive.

[@ReflectedSimulations]

Assigning 'Ready Precontact' to a HOTAS button is such a game changer, I had no idea this was a possibility. I hate to fiddle with the F10 menu in such situations. Thanks!

[@mace1367]

I struggle so much with boom refueling, yet have no trouble with the basket style and ppl tell me its more difficult. Thanks for the vid.

[@void1968able]

Well, the voice tone puts me in instant relaxing state, perfect for refueling :). Good hint: I never knew you could bind the "ready for pre-contact" to a joystick button. I messed up my smooth manouevers with that stupid key combos so many times... me being quite good at refueling at last this key command is still very valuable. "Transfer complete, disconnecting" is one of the most satisfying phrases. What might help: don't stare at one point, let your surrounding view and subconsciousness do the work. Like passing a truck with your car in a very narrow lane. Let your eyes fix a point in the distance and it works - still checking the F/A and U/D light of course. If you stare at the dangerous truck next to you then you'll over-steer, like the PIO pilot induced oscillation.

[@davidjames7382]

I have done a lot of A2A refueling in the F18 and did it once in the F16. You are absolutely right, takes a lot of practice!

[@asphelite]

Pretty sure that there will be many pilots finding this helpful, good stuff man!

[@GoofballVidProductions]

Took a full tank today, for the first time ever in VR. Used to be pretty good at it, some 20 years ago in Falcon 4, but this was my first in DCS.

[@TrickerDCS]

Hell yah dude

[@splashfreelance2376]

Excellent tutorial. I watched it as a refresh, I often find little things I didn't know or had forgotten even if I'm fairly confident in the task, and that's true for this video. I have two comments: AAR is one of those tasks that 'clicks'. I found it really hard. As in, I could never be sure I'd be able to get fuel and that could be anxiety inducing if I'd just done the hard yards on a mission and I needed to refuel to get home. But then, one day - snap. It stopped being hard and became almost routine I say almost, because depending on the day, the weather and probably if Jupiter was retrograde with Pluto or something, I'd struggle a little bit. But I was confident I'd get it and get home. The second comment, is these skills appear perishable. I didn't fly the F-16 for a while. I'd been happily refuelling the Mirages, the Hornet and the Harrier. Then about six months later I jumped back into the Viper and AAR was hard again. It only took me a few attempts to get back in the groove, but for a while there, it felt like my boom refuelling skills had vanished. I found it incredibly frustrating to learn in the first place, and seriously thought I'd never get it. I wondered if it was my el-cheapo HOTAS or just a permanent skill issue but no. Something eventually happens with eye hand coordination and 'click'. For some reason, I mastered boom refuelling before basket but now, maybe because I only have one plane that requires the boom at the moment (hello F4!), I find it a little harder. I also find the guide lights very difficult to see sometimes, but I've watched IRL refuelling and that's what it's like for the real pilots as well. At least on video, maybe with their eyes the lights are easier to see for them. But if anyone is struggling, my experience was that it was near impossible hard until one day it wasn't.

[@yungcaco1443]

This works, I got it down in like 3 hours man. I feel pretty good considering some people here are saying it’s taken em months. Thanks!!

[@jonathonmcrae5671]

I feel a big thing to remember is something the Thunderbird pilots use while refueling, is to wiggle your fingers and toes every once in awhile

[@TrickerDCS]

Good point

[@roberthunt641]

Thanks for the good video. The pace of the commentary and actions makes it super helpful.

[@christurner666]

Another cracking video! Thanks Tricker!

[@SsgtHolland]

Very smooth, Tricker.

[@JamesCK1104]

Thanks for this video I needed it

[@thefridge71]

Love your videos mate. So simple and straight forward when you do it :)

[@martwint6]

Nice tutorial, really smooth. Sometimes the belly lights are hard to see. We need something like the Flols overlay of the carrier...

[@TrickerDCS]

Yah I would agree with you there!

[@trentsavation4817]

thanks for the vid

[@jonl.1603]

Nice flying, tricker! I find that if I put my fpm right on the tip of the boom OR top of hud supports touching the bottom of the tanker's inboard engines when getting into pre-contact, I'm at the correct height for refuel and only have to worry about fore/aft positioning. When you get close enough, the boom will lift up and get out of your way anyway. Irl, you dont fly under the boom, the boom operator pushes the boom all the way to his left to let you slide forward into contact position. Obviously not quite the same in dcs, but helps you deal with one less target when moving to contact. Another tip with throttle management: when you want to move forward or aft, blip your throttle in that direction for a moment then put the throttle back in its initial position. Do that repeatedly to get to your desired fore/aft position rather than big throttle movements to avoid pilot induced oscillation fore/aft.

[@TrickerDCS]

You hit the nail on the head! Nice comment

[@roter_milan]

Great video mate, thanks for this! You really make it look so easy 😅 Maybe I should begin a daily 30 minutes AAR session for myself. Greetings Milan

[@TrickerDCS]

Thanks brother, greetings from USA

[@roter_milan]

@@TrickerDCS And thanks for the mission link, maybe I'll try it in one of my upcoming videos 😀

[@TsZen876]

Beautiful

[@horstweihrauch1]

SUS 4:23 "let's go ahead and slide on in... As you can see as I'm sliding in everything is nice and gentle, i'm not yanking and banking on the stick, everything is smooth transition."

[@TrickerDCS]

Always be gentle :D

[@irishpat64]

Thank You

[@sedlo]

Nicely done, Tricker.

[@TrickerDCS]

Thank you kindly Mr Sedlo!

[@felixf4613]

Yesterday I sucesfully AAR the Harrier for the first time. Now this vid showed up. 😀 Next level. F-16

[@pd28cat]

Now having done this myself, I can appreciate how awesome Tricker is.

[@TrickerDCS]

Nice work!

[@stevo905]

Nice one!,any chance you can do a "how to" formation flying video,and do you use curves in your HOTAS settings? and if yes,what are your'e curves..

[@UWfalcin]

Managed today to fully reguel FA/18 with 3 fuel tanks on Growling sidewinder after not having tried since a year ago…And that was maybe 3 attempts that year. Managed to contact on command 5-6 times. Felt REALLY nice! Time to start doing this online. Everything changed when I started testing moving the joystick contantly and quickly with small motions but as gently as I could.

[@TrickerDCS]

Good for you! 👏🏻

[@phrozen755]

One of my favorite things to do in DCS :)

[@davidjames7382]

Always great videos Tricker! Just ordered some of my parts for my build last week. Ordering some more parts on Friday. Ordered my Foxxmounts last Friday. What stick, throttles and rudders do you use??

[@3dmax911]

i have master the f18 & f16 in every aspects !! and I succeeded to AAR in the f18 but not the f16 !! just for a few seconds !! really its the hardest thing to do in DCS !! thanks for the tips !!

[@3dmax911]

After a lot of practice i finaly become good (not mastring) the A-A refuling for the F16 and the F15-E strike Eagle

[@HoundDogMech]

Love to ese a Video on the Arragement and Use of the Refuleig Light System on the Belly of the Tankers.

[@TrickerDCS]

Noted!

[@Tuuvas]

daaaym, Tricker pumping out these tutorial videos

[@TrickerDCS]

Next is with an Xbox controller 😈

[@Tuuvas]

@@TrickerDCS 👀 and while ... inverrrrted?

[@TrickerDCS]

Bahahaha yasss

[@Mak10z]

"Let's keep this in the groove, hey? Smooth moves, like smooth little babies." - Benny

[@stevel1458]

DCS should adjust the refueling speed. IRL, the F-16 is refueled at 315 KIAS. The "other simulator" uses 300 KCAS, which is more accurate.

[@Hatredy11]

The reasoning may be the A-10. Long ago, I remember first trying it with the A-10 and raging when I couldn't catch the tanker.

[@thecasualgamer1457]

Still training for this, as it really got me frustrated! Trying again and again. Still not managed a full refuel, but have managed contact and about 800lbs of fuel. Thanks for the guide, but still shot the KC-135 down for my last attempt

[@TrickerDCS]

Haha just practice something else and then come back. Take breaks and have fun with it

[@JayI]

Also a throttle with a long throw makes this much easier to dial in the power

[@tenevas666]

J'ai plus de 40 ans, j'aurais souhaité que DCS existe lorsque j'étais jeune, ;) depuis je suis sur DCS depuis en gros 2012 ou 2015 et c'est un bonheur.......il existe depuis 2008 me semble ;)

[@BigHESS2009]

Thank you! Great video, love your content! May I ask you, do you use reshade?

[@TrickerDCS]

Hey thank you! I do not, all default

[@BigHESS2009]

Oh wow, didn’t expect that! Thanks for the reply

[@marswor]

what are your curves for f16 if you don't mind sharing?

[@ilankeren1449]

for me personaly dogfighting in the f16 is way harder than aar. i would love a good tutorial on that

[@TrickerDCS]

BFM or bvr?

[@ilankeren1449]

@@TrickerDCS bfm

[@ramtin-s8722]

I also find this very difficult..not with the hornet , tho…the viper is pretty hard for me…but the air brakes really help ..and turning doesn’t work for me yet haha

[@simontwitchett672]

Your aircraft isn't moving all over the sky! What curves do you use for your joystick please?

[@TrickerDCS]

I just use 10 on pitch and roll for a warthog stick

[@MustardActual]

I think people depend a bit too much on "tips and tricks." AAR is a stupid hard thing to do as a beginner. Once you learn how, it's just gonna take a lot of time practicing. You just have to put the time in, there's no way around it. Great video, though:) Putting the pre contact command on the hotas is a great idea

[@maikchaos]

Well made video, I enjoyed watching a professional at work. I really enjoy watching your videos

[@sondrelima9982]

Try this with keebord and mouse😂

[@TrickerDCS]

Challenge accepted =D

[@sondrelima9982]

Looking forward to it😁

[@sschreck]

Tricker ASMR “Go get that sweet JP5”

[@alfredjr2k556]

That's right Tricker. Master arms off is the answer. Don't shoot the aerial tanker.

[@erkancolakoglu237]

the hud shows at the side you look how could you do it? I use tracker IR too but the hud doesnt show where I look.

[@captaininsano564]

That’s some high quality h2o right there…..

[@TrickerDCS]

Captain insano shows no mercy

[@gnranger]

My issue is holding position with the tanker. I can get contact, but no matter how hard I try to use smooth motions, I get massive PIO.

[@joytoys5669]

I'd like to try Track IR, how did you feel with yours, is that better than no track IR software? thanks

[@TrickerDCS]

Definitely use track ir

[@joytoys5669]

@@TrickerDCS well, it looks more stable than non-trackIR

[@badassoptic]

Not sure why KC135 keeps turning or increase speed without notifying me

[@jarrydlee7906]

Dude that was ridiculous. What flight stick and deadzone/curves do you use? My X-56 is impossible.

[@TrickerDCS]

Thrustmaster HOTAS

[@eatthisvr6]

is the left hand light forward/back and the right elevation?

[@TrickerDCS]

lol wut

[@eatthisvr6]

@@TrickerDCS which light shoes what info

[@TrickerDCS]

@@eatthisvr6 ah sorry, left is up and down, right is foreword and back

[@scrag0416]

Man I am struggling with this. Had it down.....then transitioned to the F-14 and got that down...came back to the F-16 and it's like data dumped it all. I am al over the sky.....keep practicing I guess.

[@cesarferrolho1647]

My problem is that when i get contact, the plane always seems to want to slow down and descend, even if it was having the opposite attitude just before contact, we are talking about small changes of course, but still, that tendency seems to manifest... also, rather hard to trim the plane for level flight, even for 5 seconds...

[@mrsirkosky7618]

5:21 i just literally tried to zoom in with the standard DCS keys to see the lights on the belly.........

[@TrickerDCS]

lol

[@M60A3]

On the mission I ask and he tells me « no can do, chicks in tow » like its a single player mission could I not have to wait

[@Hatredy11]

Whoever designed the light system must have been dyslexic. The lights on the left correspond to stick movement and the lights on the right are corrected with throttle. Am I wrong?

[@Heitzsche]

Ah yes, the only thing i dread having to learn with the F-16. 😅

[@MNHemiGuy]

HOTAS curves?

[@TrickerDCS]

10 and 10

[@Virtch]

i dont have trouble getting into position, but maintaining that position is what kills me. literally. i pulled up a little too much on my most recent flight, and then end of the boom killed my pilot. i then decided "yeah i need help"

[@horstweihrauch1]

tutorial how to get chad voice when?

[@sondrelima9982]

Try with mose and keyboard, or you cant do that???Do you accept the challenge???

[@chadvader974]

hours and hours and hours and hours and hours ive tried to do this and cant.......

[@IulknPdshb]

The biggest mistake is not setting high curvature on roll and pitch on the hotas. So don't make that mistake

[@billh308]

They didn't teach this at ATP

[@TrickerDCS]

Only how to make trains 🚂

[@JayDKBGames]

IM good UNTIL THE TURN LOL

[@SPFLDAngler]

Whenever I see landing/refueling videos on dedicated DCS channels I always want to see them try it with a crappy HOTAS One or any of the other awful T.Flight cheapass “console” HOTAS. You absolutely cannot get precise smooth movements out of it and the throttle? Lmfao… I have the curve set to 60 and a dead one of 8 for X/Y just to get some tiny semblance of control. The stick is stiff as hell and the tighten/loosen knob does nothing. You have to have the throttle and stick connected as one because the stick base isn’t heavy or wide enough to keep it stable on its own. I tried using it on a desk and if you try to roll the entire thing just tips over. I have to play with the whole thing on my lap. I ain’t shelling out near 100$ to get desk mounts for it and not drilling through my desk lol

[@SPFLDAngler]

If you say “ well just push down on the stick to roll” nope. They are so damn cheap that any pressure on the handrest of the stick will separate it. Like it literally pulls away and nearly snaps off if you do any more than rest your wrist lightly on it.

[@MrBlueGameReal571]

they wont even respond to me

[@TrickerDCS]

Make sure you’re on the right frequency

[@MrBlueGameReal571]

it worked thank you!@@TrickerDCS

[@Carnados]

its SOOOO tedious

[@SuperAd1980]

Refuelling "Made Easy" 1st thing you said... "Remember this is HARD" DOWNVOTE and moving on! 👎👎 I hate liars! 👎👎

[@TrickerDCS]

It’s a hard task to complete according to all fighter pilots 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@extech921]

This is a joke .

[@TrickerDCS]

It’s not April fools anymore

[@SASCAT1972]

I get that it’s a learned skill, but there should be an ‘easy refuel’ option for those of us wanting realism in everything but still need help with this.