Love watching this guy. His vids are rare and far between though.
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Gold. I love videos of real aircraft cockpit systems. They always raise interesting questions!
Something l noticed about his HUD display: the carets (sideways v’s next to the flight path marker) move up and down with relation to airspeed, not total energy. The carets look similar to those on the M2000C, but those carets, at least in DCS, indicate relative change in total energy (hg + 0.5V^2).
Knowing your rate of change in total energy can be helpful in ACM maneuvering, so it makes sense that an aircraft developer might use that instead of airspeed, but having a visual indication of airspeed acceleration is also useful, so that’s completely believable, too. However, in this M2000C solo video, the carets change relative to airspeed, not total energy.
Hrmmm…
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I found this very helpful explanation of the energy carets by sedenion on the ED forums:
The carets (> <) indicate the angle (inclination) the aircraft should have to keep its velocity (speed) constant. So, if you align (by pulling aircraft nose up or down) the “velocity vector” (–o–) with the carets (> <), the aircraft should keep its speed. If the carets (> <) is above the “velocity vector” (–o–) , that means that you should pull up to keep your speed constant, and that means that if you don’t pull up, you will accelerate. In the opposite, if the carets (> <) are bellow the “velocity vector” (–o–) that means that you should put your nose down to keep you speed constant, and that means that if you don’t, you will lose speed.
In theory the carets (> <) show the exact and real inclination angle in the horizontal scale, but in the mirage 2000 the scale is divided by three if i’am correct. So it’s little more symbolic, but, that works equally: carets (> <) aligned to “velocity vector” (–o–) == constant speed.
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Man their Hawks are cool. Full color moving map display, RWR, data link, and you can actually punch in freqs on the UFCP.
If you haven’t already, check out his other videos. Really cool stuff.
Yeah, his stuff is just superb. I’m actually a subscriber to his page and always take the time to watch his videos. Quite instructional to say the least.
Sounds like the Carets show when you are on the Ps curve or when you depart from it. Seems like a fairly useful feature especially in a bfm engagement.
Essentially, this is how the carets DCS M2000C perform, but the carets from the real M2000C HUD in that video I linked above appear to be purely airspeed acceleration indicators.
Again, I could see how either could be useful, but is there a way to switch from delta energy to delta airspeed in the M2000C?
Delta energy and delta airspeed are the same thing in a BFM engagement. You know if you are holding or increasing energy by what your airspeed is doing, now altitude also plays into this but that is potential that you can utilize, the Carets show you what your energy is doing right now, and whether you are depleting energy (which if you are doing on purpose for a climb or some specific thing you should be able to tell) or increasing it. Think about flying formation and doing a delayed tac turn and the contract is to fly at 350knots g to hold airspeed in an energy sustaining turn. It will be super easy with the carets, just keep the VV centered in em during your pull in the turn, and you will maintain energy.
Same applies in a bfm engagement, if I am bleeding energy, then the carets will tell me when I am sustaining as I either ease off, or I bury my nose to convert the potential (altitude/vertical turning room) energy into airspeed.
My point was that in DCS M2000C I can maintain a zero caret condition (level with the FPM) while increasing airspeed (in a dive) and with decreasing airspeed (in a climb), which is counter to the behavior shown in the real in-flight HUD video (indicates solely change in airspeed, not specific energy, aka Ps, aka “pee sub ess”, aka “the water of life”).
While the difference may be minor (the effect of change in velocity squared is going to dominate the effect change in altitude on specific energy), the two methods are not the same, and while I’m not normally a rivet counter, I’m very interested in the fact that there’s a difference between the model and the real plane.
Of course, I could be completely wrong on either the DCS M2000C implementation or my interpretation of the video. I’ll put some pics/maths together later (possibly Tues night) to show my observations.
On further analysis, the carets in the DCS M2000C do show relative acceleration, but in TRUE airspeed. I was comparing the carets to the airspeed indicated on the HUD, which was INDICATED. So, while I was maintaining more or less a constant TRUE airspeed in a dive and climb (flying the caret to zero), my indicated airspeed would change as a function of altitude, so I thought the carets might be showing energy, not airspeed.
But nope. True airspeed.
CONFIRMEDED.