FA-18C Hornet: TACAN & ICLS(ILS) IFR Landing Tutorial | DCS WORLD

[@jamesmenzies5409]

Everything I know about flying the Hornet, I learned from Super Cap! Thanks for all the great videos!

[@grimreapers]

Pleasure

[@mrrobott9202]

2 years later and I'm just down diving deep headfirst holding my breath

[@Rspence_86]

@@mrrobott9202 did you miss the wire?

[@SonicTemples]

Tank slapper! That's a bike rider right there for you! One of the worst feelings of sheer gut wrenching panic a rider will ever experience.

[@stuart7840]

You keep adjusting your rate of descent using the pitch trim when you should use the throttle. Using the throttle would allow you to maintain the correct AoA.

[@noe-tobin]

Yeah that is pretty annoying. Every time he messes something up it's because of that. Everything is so much simpler when you set your trim to achieve on-speed-AOA and then only touch your throttle.

[@ProfessorPottsy]

@@noe-tobin yea I’m glad I learned from the start to get the proper. AoA set with the trim first and it’ll make things so much easier especially once you get really good, familiar with the speeds and decent rates you need for the different situations. I took a bit break so I’m a bit rusty but I used to be able to know just almost exactly when to start a glideslope from just about any range, and altitude. I had created a mission with an air spawn that required ya to get lined up and land on the carrier and I would practice that a bunch from all kinds of altitudes and weather conditions. I setup a very bad weather landing where the clouds were super thick starting at 5000feet and you couldn’t see anything through the clouds till the cloud deck was at about 500 feet so you’d have to just rely on the instruments and navigation aids to get lined up properly and on the right glideslope because you’d have to come out of the clouds and be landing within seconds since the clouds were so low, oh and i added a crosswind and rain too once lol

[@havinganap]

Yeah this is hopelessly outdated now..

[@raley-8469]

My landing preparations begin when I’m about 3nm out, I don’t have the patience to go at 200 kn for 15 miles 😂

[@Bluemax760]

Great tutorial, as always, thanks! One thing that made establishing on speed/AoA incredibly less hard for me is using trim for centering the FPM in the E-bracket (i.e. getting on AoA) and throttle for controlling descent rate (i.e. getting on speed). With correct trim, you will ALWAYS stay on AoA (i.e. centered in the E-bracket / yellow donut in the AoA indexer), regardless of your throttle input. Now the only thing you need to do is control speed (i.e. glideslope) with your throttle. Once you've realized that those two controls are actually separated, you've got a lot of guesswork off your table and a lot less of sweating is required to land on that carrier.

[@mcdjay]

Thank you for all the time and effort you put into all these videos. I really appreciate it and I am sure so many others do as well. You have been my flight instructor since i started flying in DCS 4 months ago. Cheers from Vancouver, Canada!

[@Erv704]

Great work Cap. I wish I could finally get air to air refueling correct because I fail badly every time with it. As always thanks for sharing.

[@cmibm6022]

Very nice landing! Very good explanation! Only, I would advise you to ensure that you are below the glide slope - in level flight - when you start to receive it. That way you will see the line coming quietly down and when you meet it, you just need to trim ever so slightly to follow it. No big deal, but I believe that it is how to do it IRL. At least this is what my instructor told me for landing a 737 (in a real training simulator).

[@jetfrostgaming]

In normal civilian stuff yes however, in a case III recovery you start from a marshal stack at a certain altitude and descend to it for hornets and tomcats IRL.

[@trottheblackdog]

That landing was the business mate!

[@RadicalEdward_115]

Great landing, that was insanely nice in my opinion, it looked smooth as butter

[@CaptainC6969]

I have my instrument rating in real life and this video was perfect for explaining TACAN and ICLS to me. I could imagine it would confuse the heck out of anyone new to instrument navigation lol

[@drunky504]

You keep losing the e bracket because you're fiddling with trim to get the altitude you want. Set the e bracket (only takes a second with practice) and adjust altitude by adding or removing power. Drove me crazy watching this haha

[@christopherandrade7785]

For a beginner that doesn’t know anything about flying, this seems extremely complicated haha

[@JohnBatman111]

also kind of scary, flying in total darkness

[@MichiG85]

Thats why beginners don´t land on carriers at night

[@jerkergustafsson623]

@@MichiG85 Agree haha.. I'm still grinding case I carrier landings both with and without the ICLS on just to feel confident. It's pointless not to learn it all from the basics. Imagine doing case 3 landings in real world!. Definately not for beginners hahaha

[@Mike-Holiday]

Gamergoon there is a quote from an astronaut whom first flew in the Navy, he was quoted saying like flying to space was nowhere near as stressful or hard as a case III.

[@Aleksandar6ix]

@@jerkergustafsson623 for beginners, I suggest using a regular flight Sim alongside dcs

[@highhurstfarmandholidaycot526]

Really nice video. Just a couple of observations. On final descent the target Rod should be 5 x ground speed (130kts=750feet per min)Pitch and roll to control position on ICLS and power to control Rod and AoA. Always intercept the Glideslope from below- usually 2000ft at 10nm. Monitor the glideslope bar and as it reaches the PPI pitch down to intercept it and reduce power to set the Rod. Trim and adjust as reqd. Having set the Radalt to 500ft look up to Identify the landing point on the carrier and continue descent to 400ft-go around at 400 ft if landing point unseen or no ball and try again. Good luck.

[@EcliPsMonKey]

as someone doing their ATPLs at the moment this is genuinely more informative than a lot of the lessons given by my actual flying instructors! well done :)

[@wawawuu]

You could probably use DCS as a simulator for additional learning and praxis.

[@ahshiit]

I find it much easier to think about it this way, "Trim for E-bracket and Throttle for pitch".

[@frankster1969]

Yes, he is confusing the crap out of this when he keep talking about constantly trimming. Once the correct AOA is achieved I simply use throttle to control altitude...

[@equalsql7508]

Very useful so thanks for posting this, I did need to slow the video down to 0.75 though to keep up with you. ☺️

[@smo0they]

Love this game now! Love your tutorials too. Credit served and well deserved

[@LadanSoodmand]

Very helpful video for me mate, as I just started night landing using ILS and TACAN. Still working on it. I'm not a perfect Cap either tbh, so I guess we can say that we're both learning :). Thanks for this tutorial.

[@Aleksandar6ix]

The tick mark on your HGS heading tape only appears when you are going direct to as a bearing. Not there when flying a radial due to using the CDI. Also helpful is to know the glideslope angle of 3.5 degrees... You can put your trend vector at 3 degrees in reference to the attitude indicator and you'll maintain glideslope.

[@warumdennnicht1367]

Thanks for your videos. I have bought the F18 4 days ago and I know so much cause of your vids. Thanks

[@grimreapers]

thx

[@warumdennnicht1367]

@@grimreapers No problem😉

[@minamihasaki4325]

How's everything turning out in the F/A-18C Hornet?

[@Baked_Joker]

Great video I learned something from a f18 pilot podcast that may be helpful when performing carrier landings they use a measurement- (400 feet of ALT every 1 mile) example 10 miles 4000, feet 5 miles 2000 feet, and so on. I used it on DCS with ILS and it seems fairly accurate. Just a helpful tip for the next guy!

[@vale.44peru]

One small yet super important tip, when at low airspeeds, you want to use the THROTTLE to adjust your altitude and PITCH to adjust your speed. Thus when you trim your A/C you’re essentially telling it “Ok no matter what KEEP THIS SPEED” and it will do that by changing the AoA, if it’s too slow it will dump the nose down and get back that speed (and viceversa), for this reason once you’re trimmed out at the correct airspeed you should no longer touch the trim, and if you need to make some adjustmenst to the descent angle/rate use the THROTTLE

[@932goldengates]

beautiful job! you have taught me a lot so far.

[@lorre007]

Can someone tell me how he knows that the ICLS channel is at 11X? (2:07)

[@rodolfoinnocentirisaliti390]

Pretty sure you either get that from the briefing or remembering it when making the mission

[@HeliShed]

Fairplay cap - good example mate.

[@lukemchale-jones3041]

Great video. Thanks Cap.

[@davidabarak]

During the Vietnam war, flight physiologists wanted to see how much stress pilots were experiencing during combat flying. Before arriving on station, the pilots would activate some sort of mini monitors that measured heart and breathing rates. As could be expected, flying in combat was stressful. Once finished with their missions, the pilots were to turn off their monitors. However, sometimes they forgot, and sometimes they forgot on missions that required them to make night traps. It was discovered that carrier landings at night were more stressful than flying in combat. "Oh, sugar!" As others have mentioned, alpha (angle of attack) at these slow speeds is done using pitch trim and fore/aft stick inputs.... _and_ throttle control. Technically, the power inputs aren't used for obtaining the correct alpha, but it's all a balancing act and so when alpha changes power adjustments might be needed, and when power changes are made alpha changes might be needed. I wonder what the wind conditions for the demo were. ### EDIT: I just watched the video again and noticed that the instructions regarding the AOA indicator were backwards (or I misunderstood what was said). Because the aircraft is us supposed to be fairly close to its stall speed, everything about controlling angle speed and rate of descent is backwards compared to normal flying. My apologies if I'm belaboring all this, but I thought describing it simplest terms might be helpful. *Situation: *Fast - angle of attack is too low, red chevron points up (slow down). *Correction:* Pull the nose up. Because you're now slower and closer to the stall speed, you need to add power to get on speed. *Situation:* Slow - angle of attack is too high, green chevron points down (speed up). *Correction:* Push the nose down. Because you're now faster and farther from the stall speed, you'll need to reduce power to get on speed. *Situation*: Descending too rapidly (currently below glideslope or above glideslope but will be below glideslope soon unless you correct). *Correction*: Add power to decrease your rate of descent to intersect the glideslope, and then adjust power to maintain glideslope. You'll likely be too fast now, so you'll need to pull the nose up a little to get back on speed. *Situation*: Not descending fast enough (currently above glideslope or below glideslope but will soon be above glideslope unless you correct). *Correction*: Reduce power to increase your rate of decent to intersect the glideslope, and then adjust power to maintain glideslope. You'll likely be too slow now, so you'll need to push the nose down a little to get back on speed. ### The pilots in S-3 Vikings (and E-2Cs and A-3Ds; A-6s, EA-6Bs and A-7s had HUDs but I don't know if any navigation data was displayed on them) didn't have it quite so easy - there were no HUDS* - I think it was pretty much head-down until the LSO stepped in. TACAN data was on both video displays on the instrument panel. Someone in CATCC would say something like "say needles," and the pilot might say something like "up and right." CATCC would confirm that and that would tell the pilot everything was in agreement, and at that point the pilot could "fly the needles" until handed over to the LSO at 3/4 mile. *Bombing in Vikings was a treat, too, because there were no HUDs. For the first 10+ years, pilots would make a T mark (it might have been inverted, I can't remember) on the windscreen with a grease pencil. Eventually, after I got out in 1987, someone got the brilliant idea of putting a permanent T on the windscreen, I'm guessing with thin black tape. Compared to Hornets and I suppose E-2Ds, Vikings were very manual airplanes. We had ACLS, either a forefather of ICLS, or the exact same thing with a different acronym.

[@jasonaquino8232]

If I make the Grim Squadron, I am totaly gonna buy those shirts and sweaters...walk around feeling all bad. Yeah. They need a hat, high quality one.

[@robertcras8151]

There are 2 types of navigation, TACAN and ICLS. In the Hornet there are 4 types of navigation.... huh? How do these 2 sentences correlate?

[@eknight101]

Just think of what a real pilot goes through having to line up tacan, icls, vector and E bracket all at the same time without the luxury of pausing mid flight.

[@Krendor123]

Thats why the train it every day. With enough training you need to think much less about it and you do things like automated.

[@pietrekt8026]

IRL pilot doesn't need to explain everything, and those things are set pretty fast without explaining

[@qiyuxuan9437]

Well, just use AP, and altitude hold😂 They probably can do it much faster on the real aircraft than clicking in a virtual cockpit too.

[@Millsprinkles569]

Also helps to have actual hands instead of a mouse

[@danvercillo]

Nice work Cap!

[@eduspalace]

First of all, congratulations for your excelent videos! My questions is how you Know the ILS of the carrier? Thanks in advance

[@grimreapers]

I will say in mission briefing. Also maybe in Kneeboard.

[@bmg50barrett74]

How do you select a certain runway's ICLS if there are a bunch of airfields close together?

[@sloppydog4831]

Nicely done, cap!

[@HO-bndk]

I will try this next time I play DCS (I've never done a night ejection yet) 😕

[@thomaslamont3237]

Thanks a lot for doing this, very helpful :)

[@unsaved013]

Nice landing. Sadly I still mess up daytime carrier landings so it'll be a while before i try one in the dark. Question, did you leave the hud and everything turned up to make sure we could see them in the video? Was pretty bright and hard to see the carrier lights for awhile.

[@grimreapers]

Ya just to help you see. Don't normally do that.

[@Trax117]

The point is... how to get TCN Course for the runway of the Carrier to land on it without external info ( mission editor, F10 Screen, etc... )

[@TheLateNightUniShow]

Use can use your Kneeboard, hold 'k' to bring it up and press brackets '[, ]' to page through it. All data should be there. press 'Shift + K' to toggle kneeboard. Sadly not available on carrier.

[@vortex6818]

A little irrelevant here But how do you have the lights on the carrier? I am doing a night T/O on the Stennis but its dark with no lights except for the island and the ball. Is this a setting problem? Or does the lights only come on when an aircraft is on approach?

[@grimreapers]

Once your speak to ATC they should turn lights on I believe

[@tribolex]

what is this left thing on your side? The Trim thing? Is this a mod? Where do I get this?

[@hmabboud]

15:40...How did you feel that your above the glide slope? What indicator?

[@Jimbo-in-Thailand]

@Captain Solo - From what I've gleaned from these tutorials I think the general rule is glideslope altitude should be 300 feet x distance in miles from the target point. In this case he's 8.6 miles from the target at 2710 feet altitude. He knows he should be a little lower at 8.6 miles x 300 feet = 2580 feet altitude to intercept the glideslope. Hope that helped.

[@hmabboud]

Jimbo in Thailand Thanks 😊 Why 300? Is it because this should be the descent rate?

[@Jimbo-in-Thailand]

@@hmabboud No, not descent rate. It's the fixed 3° angle that you should follow (localizer glide path) that's measured relative to the ground and is standard. The rough rule of thumb above merely helps to easily approximate the altitude you should be at to easily intercept the localizer glide path, depending on how far away you are from the landing point, in this case the carrier deck. Of course, once you intercept the localizer glide path you would vary your descent rate as required to stay on the glide path. Hope that's a little more clear. :)

[@hmabboud]

@@Jimbo-in-Thailand Is it 3° angle or 300 feet?

[@Jimbo-in-Thailand]

@@hmabboud Sorry, I don't understand your question. What do you mean when you ask: "Is it 3° angle or 300 feet?"

[@jaycal1920]

The donut aoa indicator light. It will flash on and off is something isnt right like tailhook is up. I found that half flaps gives more stability it will be a faster approach but much more stable. The aoa indicator is also a speed indicator if you like. Red means slow green means go. Up down. Green speed up, red slow down. Dont forget your landing lights.. maybe the LSO doesnt like it.

[@panzerpunisher7028]

Just te be sure: ADFs are used to fly to NDBs (Non Directional Beacons), not VORs.

[@grimreapers]

Thx. In DCS they can be used to find VORs.

[@panzerpunisher7028]

@@grimreapers Apologies Cap, I didn't know that. Funny that ED simulates most parts correctly but when it comes to radionav it's like 'naahhh, good enough'.

[@paulraymond3622]

Maybe its an RMI? Radio Magnetic Indicator, similar to an ADF, it just points to the station. Actually it's really helpful identifying step down fixes on an instrument approach (for us lazy pilots... you don't have to keep twisting OBS over a fix...) (5 T's)(Look at the tail of the needle for where you are, makes life a piece of piss) (Now you know what country I'm from) But I might be completely wrong, in which case do what my wife dose and completely ignore anything i said for my entire life. Super Cap is the best.

[@paulraymond3622]

If need the 5 Ts let me know, pretty sure a quick search would find them

[@manizaeim]

I think u may glide on -3, base on the training mission of the dcs

[@Yatzeck]

Nice but no landing lights. It is correct? Another informative video, thank you mate!

[@peterromero6200]

Just a question on terminology; Speaking of radials. Correct me if I am wrong here please as I’ll new to all this, but you’re not on the 350deg radial? This is the course line. The radial you are on would be the be reciprocal which would be the 170deg. So technically, aren’t you on the 170 radial inbound?

[@Blakearmin]

This was SO helpful! I love your videos. I wouldn't be able to fly without your tutorials. Question though - how'd you change the instrument light color to that blue? Is that a mod only?

[@AlienPrague]

Novice question, why you dont go to that carrier pattern as everybody else or how its shown in DCS training? Is your landing correct procedure or not?

[@Lukania]

Only issue I saw was that ILS systems are intercepted at 30° or less. Thanks for the vid!

[@grimreapers]

thx

[@LoiteringReaper]

Remember to extend hook before landing.

[@jaycal1920]

What costs more? An F/A-18C Hornet or the back end of an Aircraft Carrier?

[@BobSmith-uu5kj]

Never intercept an ils radial or other vectors at 90 degrees. Always 30 degrees intercept. Had fun 20 years ago when I got my ifr ticket that u should not do it like in flight sim ... cowboy turns :-)

[@satanicdude]

Hi, noob here, I have two issues with this gude: 1. I am unable to not fall like a rock at 130(knots?) like you show in the video [flaps at full, nose up in the air] 2. The TACAN course line does not align with what ILS tells me. like at all. Is there a way to have a HUD element that shows the precise direction of the carrier?

[@bradcfi2]

Very Impressive!

[@rpersen]

What do pilots do during landing if they suddenly really needs to use the bathroom?

[@grimreapers]

Piddle pack?

[@Millsprinkles569]

Did you give it a little right rudder on your approach?

[@shakikahnaf9783]

Is it better to display the ADI on the right DDI during descent ?

[@patattack1919]

If the you don't know the course of the runway, does the carrier tell you this information? Would the carrier say runway 35?

[@jerkergustafsson623]

Yes they do.. A carrier always sails up against the wind when launching and recovering aircraft so the course and heading of the runway can change and probably will change from time to another

[@floydkershner6591]

Your videos are among the best. Could I respectfully request this video be redone in daytime and English ATC instead of Russian. Also has anything changed in the 4 yrs since this was created?

[@Mr-P00sh]

Thanks SuperCap :)

[@grimreapers]

Pleasure superMatt

[@IanExploringLife]

What was the map app you used to check the radio range?

[@Darthybuddy]

click f10 in game to view the map. there is then a measuring tool up at the top of the screen you can use to find bearings and ranges.

[@scarecrow1323]

hey Cap... do you know if you've already done a video on general auto pilot functions and their uses.. when and why... possibly I just can't find it in your playlist. thnx.

[@grimreapers]

will add to list

[@markcomputertech7997]

Course line does not show up when I click on the crs button.

[@grimreapers]

click and hold for 5 seconds.

[@grimreapers]

try that

[@davidschmid3949]

You have to hit TCN on the HSI

[@hmabboud]

I had the velocity vector in the middle of the bracket and then I realized that I was over the airport. I dont understand why it didnt get me on the runway. Anybody?

[@lierzlorentz9374]

Velocity vector in the middle of E bracket only means you are at 8.1 degrees of AOA, which will allow you to hook up the wire on the carrier. To land your aircraft, you have to point your velocity vector to the near end of the runway at the same time. Keep your trim and adjust your throttle to do that.

[@HO-bndk]

Does X and Y in a TACAN code actually mean anything?

[@grimreapers]

Someone must know?

[@BorisJohnsonMayor]

How to land when airfield has no TACAN or ILS in IFR conditions?

[@grimreapers]

Glad you asked! Use the ADF/VOR system to home in on the Inner and Outer beacons. Range to threshold is given by the beacon above warning. Glideslope is calculated by 300ft per mile. Course can be set on any manual or digital HSI.

[@glennet9613]

There is a free mod which adds ICLS to some Nevada and Caucasus airfields, you just replace the beacon files. Great for practicing. www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3303095/

[@Krendor123]

The F-18C we got it a pure carrier aircraft. It will never land on an airfield in IFR conditions, but divert to a VFR one or the carrier. If IFR conditions form you wouldn't take off in the first place - this is why weather forecast is so important, also for civil flights.

[@jerkergustafsson623]

@@Krendor123 Stick to the question mate :). The question is as relevant as any other since that situation could very well arise if there's no other option.

[@EnsPulver]

@@grimreapers Get Radar Approach or go elsewhere.

[@arrow2985]

magnifique

[@Mike-Holiday]

Magic!

[@jeans1515]

Everyone says 8 degrees up for carrier, but it is ALWAYS six degrees when you actually see people land. Odd

[@minamihasaki4325]

It's 8 degrees angle of attack, not 8 degrees pitch. The two are different, if you're going the correct speed, then the math adds up for the two to be the same. 5 degrees of pitch, and a 3 degree glide slope equals 8 degrees AOA if you're on speed.

[@minamihasaki4325]

He's a video (from Wags), if you need a visual representation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqWQeHqnes9kf7s

[@sloppydog4831]

This helped a lot. The.

[@jasonaquino8232]

The Aricraft carrier communications is speaking Russian...Uhh did you just land on an enemy carrier? HAHAHA...

[@bryanbishop2377]

Let me be clear. I don't ever want you to explain what you are doing with the, "stick." Clear?

[@thehitchslap]

Slow the hell down for christs sake!!!!!!