Is there a clever way to join a tanker for air to air refueling without wasting fuel and time?
I had some thrilling moments in the past with the Hornet and Tomcat when my inefficient rendezvous gave me very little fuel before I finally got even near the basket. No pressure
Especially when I try to intercept a tanker with head on aspect Iām never sure when to lead turn to come out right at the left wing. I follow my gut feeling but maybe there are some rules of thumb youād like to share.
ATP3342 would be the latest guidanceā¦
But from fighter perspective you do whatever necessary to join formation while being safe. So do some of that pilot stuff. Typically to lessen wasted time, fighters would request tanker to fly towards direction of where fighters are coming from. Then fighters would do high-g turn to burn off energy and position to whatever position boom operator requestsā¦be it left wing observation or in trail.
Thanks for the input so far. Iāve checked the slides and ATP 3342 (and even ATP 56). They describe the general procedures but are not very specific on the pilot technique for rendezvous (RV).
There are multiple RV procedures (Alpha to Golf). I learned in some of them even the tanker will do all the work and join up with the receiver. I think we will never see this in our sims but thatās not an issue for me
Letās assume I found the tanker, heās 20 nm in front of me an roughly heading my direction and will fly straight and level. How do I ācalculateā when to initiate a turn (other than just estimate and turn when feeling appropriate).
Due to the way pilots get trainedā¦this process becomes very natural through experience. You can try to find AFTTP3-3 KC-135, But those techniques are tanker to tanker rejoin.
Iād say first of all is to know and respect your bingo setting. Have a contingency and buffer for x amount of time and so on. Second, TACAN and knowing where the tanker is going relative to you. Stuff like speed might be harder to gather here; I have settings I prefer to use in missions to keep that part consistent, but otherwise they can be defaulted to a pretty damn slow speed. Lastly, being patient and not going to maximum thrust.
Canāt speak for the real world, just know what works in DCS. Give yourself plenty of room to work with and get the tanker visually, then go from there.
A question about peacetime air to air refueling. Last night after installing the stiffest springs in my Virpil base, I tried some formation flying and refueling in the Tomcat. In the Quick start > F-14 > Nevada > F-14B AAR, I jumped on the boomā¦
Once topped off, I slid to the reform area. As I moved to the right, I became aware of a pair of Marine AV-8Bs hanging out in the reform area. I hadnāt noticed them before. Hey, what are those jarheads doing there?
Given that I should have looked before sliding in their direction, my question is, do aircraft ever form up on the right side, even if they are waiting to refuel? Or does the conga line always begin on the left, observation area, and then move to the reform area after getting a drink?
Generally speaking, no - the area to the right and above the tanker would be for aircraft already complete and/or departing the tanker. Even if you were joining from the tankerās right side you would typically be expected to cross well under to the left side and then finish the join from there.
You can always deviate from normal procedures, provided youāve got a good reason, but youād definitely want to be talking about it so everyone in that formation is expecting it. Keep in mind real-world this has to work between different services (IE USN, USMC, USAF, etc) as well as mixed nationalities so it all has to be fairly standardized.
