DCS Harrier-First Time Trying to Refuel in the Air

First time trying the air to air refueling capability in the DCS Harrier. Attempted three flights tonight. Remembered to stay calm, relax, relax, relax. What do you know, it worked. :slight_smile:

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Nice work. My refueling requires much more jabbing and stabbing.

That was pretty much my first attempt of the three I did that night. Two was better and three was the best of which this video was taken.

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Lets dig this one up again, shall we:

I find this one the hardest to do AR in, even in VR. Hornet, Tomcat, and all ā€˜boomersā€™ no problems at all. This one finds me cussin at the basket quite often. :angry:

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Clicheā€™d advice by this point probably, but flaps in CRUISE? Definitely not the easiest to refuel, but still not as hard as any of the booms for me.

I found the harrier one of the easiest of the bunch, second only to the A-4. Great engine response makes it easy to stay plugged, unlike that cursed turkeybird :supervillain:

Hmmmm :thinking:

No, or at least itā€™s not in my ā€˜processā€™. Hopefully I wonā€™t forget that tip by the time I get back around to the Harrier.

Iā€™ll have to dig through my real-world documents again but Iā€™m pretty sure thatā€™s part of the refuel procedure to prevent them from moving around as youā€™re joining on the tanker.

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The key to the Harrier (confirmed to me by a real former pilot)?: line up the basket with the status lights on the canopy bow. This will position it correctly on the y-axis. The x-axis takes a little trial and error but you get it once and it will stick. Quite easy in VR.

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That too. On the KC130 it also helps to align the centerline of your HUD withā€¦something on the wing but itā€™s been so long I forgot.

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I still remember my calves shaking from standing on the rudder pedals the first timeā€¦even though theyā€™re not brakes!

I think the biggest thing is that you have to set
the basket up using your checkpoints then add just a little power to make the attempt.

If you creep up on it, itā€™s almost impossible not to look at the basket and start PIOing.

For some real fun do it behind a C-130, low altitude, at night. That basket is swinging everywhere!

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Could you please elaborate what these were in the Harrier?

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A little old but new to me. 2,000NM Harrier strike!

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Well these were fairly individual as some things just arenā€™t that exact.

Itā€™s been a long time, but @smokinhole has one of the more common ones. Before that point, Iā€™d try to fly the basket on kind of an imaginary line between the lower top corner of the HUD and the refueling lights. As much as possible once I got into that position where the basket sat just outside the canopy bow and was stable, I tried my hardest to choose a point on the wing ahead and not look at the basket.

Itā€™s a bit of a disadvantage in DCS that you canā€™t see the probe even in your peripheral vision. But in DCS I think thereā€™s anywhere between some and way less movement in the basket in RL, so they kind of balance out.

Having just given it a whack in the training mission, Iā€™d say that keeping your feet as much off the rudders as possible and being trimmed up either completely or perhaps a click nose down so you get some feel really seems to help.

That and not stagnating and ā€œfishingā€ for it which is not only ineffective, but also exhausting!

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The longest leg I ever flew was Hawaii to Guam, 3300NM. No strike involved and no boat landing at the end, which was a good thing. I could barely feel my legs at the end of it!

My hats off to the Strike Eagle guys who routinely flew those kind of missions.

Thereā€™s something to be said for short combat radius! :wink:

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More. MORE! Give us more, @Deacon211! I canā€™t tell you how many Marine helicopter and F-18 pilots Iā€™ve flown with who viewed the Harrier with fear and awe. Harrier pilots also, to a man, have been the funniest, most laid back pilots of any background Iā€™ve flown with. Anyway, thatā€™s enough sunshine up your skirt. Tell more stories or Iā€™ll keep doing it!

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Hehe, must be that gallows humor. Wild Weasel guys must be funny as Hell! :rofl:

Thank you very much. She was a good little jet. You just had to respect her.

I loved the mission. While there were many sexy jets Iā€™d like to have flown, it was nice being there for the grunts. CAS was not the easiest mission, (actually Iā€™m not sure there was one :thinking:) but really satisfying when you did it right.

Of course, I didnā€™t fly the Harrier for all that long, so I donā€™t have too many storiesā€¦

ā€¦at least not ones Iā€™ll admit to! :laughing:

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More like this please. I have two DCS modules that are really cool aircraft that I had to have, but were just a bit daunting and overloaded my meagre brain so I have hardly touched them. One is the Harrier - specifically the transition from forward flight to hover.

The other is the Viggen - and just about everything with the ā€˜avionicsā€™.

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@Harry_Bumcrack the Viggen isnā€™t complicated at all

Filp ā€œborkā€ to ā€œborkā€ and verify the light labeled ā€œborkā€ indicates ā€œborkā€
Rotate dial ā€œBorkā€ to ā€œborkā€ ensuring the pointer indicates ā€œBorkā€

In all seriousness the key to me for the Viggen was just worrying about the procedure and settings for the mission I was about to fly. The Viggen really just does one thing at a time. Itā€™s not a modern jet that will self escort etc.

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