It is worth mentioning that all of @Baltic_Dragon’s training missions for the Harrier include full missions, as well as abbreviated missions so that you can refly the mission without having to go through the full mission briefing and checks. This is nice since you can fly the mission once, then (in my case), go back and fly the meat of the mission in VR. Some missions even include night and poor weather options. In this case, I flew the full air-to-air refueling mission, with all its tips and tricks, and the shortened version in VR for comparison.
We start out on the ramp at Kobuleti and ready to head out to the air refueling track where a KC-130 waits for our hilarious attempts…no doubt there are beers riding on the first plug-in…
Departing the airfield, we have full fuel…
This is always fun…
The instructor goes over how to set the BINGO fuel level, and how to dump fuel to reach the BINGO level. This is useful if you are having to perform a vertical landing to a forward operating base (FOB) or the ship and you need to get down to landing weight…
Once we hit the BINGO set level, the switches flip automatically out of the dump position and the BINGO warning annunciator sets off the master caution…
Now the instructor gives us some tips on finding the tanker using the TACAN air-to-air mode…
There he is…about 18nm away…I love the simplicity and familiarity of TACAN navigation…
As usual, all of the verbal instructions are supplemented with excellent kneeboard reference pages…
Probe out…
Wiggle the fingers…wiggle the toes…
We sidle up next to the tanker and soon we have clearance to make our first run at it…
The instructions to just put the center of the HUD on the left outside edge of the KC-130’s #1 (left outboard) prop arc works beautifully. You don’t even have to look at the drogue really…just let it slide down the left side of the canopy and odd are fair that it will end up hitting the probe…
Down to 2900 pounds…still a lot of gas left…
There we go…! Only took one or two attempts and she slid right in. Holding position on the KC-130 is pretty easy…just fly your position on the tanker and ignore everything else (well…mostly everything else…do watch out for that MiG-29 creeping up behind you…). Brings back memories of @EinsteinEP giving all of us some tips on finding marks on the plane to keep lined up with - just fly those and you’ll be in position.
Soon we are full of fuel and we ease back…I catch the tanker briefly in the FLIR camera…
Back to base for a nozzle 60 landing…
If tanking in 2D was pretty easy, tanking in VR is positively a cake walk. Better depth perception, better closure rate judgement, and just overall better ability to find the right spot and hold it…
So now I know how to start the plane, take-off in multiple modes, land in multiple modes, and air-to-air refuel…I’ll make an excellent mail delivery pilot to the LHA…!
