So ummmm yeah…this just in…air to air refueling is hard mmmmmkay?
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Best to just go ahead and unload the GAU-8 ammunition prior to takeoff to avoid any “accidents”…
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VR really helps with this… 
Yes I have heard this and there have been a number of times I’ve been tempted to don the Rift through my qualifying. (Aerobatics and formation flying for example.) The problem is, for every one of those moments, I’m also thankful for other moments where TIR seems to have been a benefit in qualifications. (Like the 9 line entry qual or trying to pick up your instructor from a distance in the formation flying quals.) Not wanting to jump back and forth between the two (much like I have to with shading when it comes to night missions, but I digress…), I opted for the method that I thought I was most likely to use day in and day out and that’s TIR for the moment.
Now back to the actual act of refueling itself, I was able during the practice missions to connect a few times, but actually staying connected for any significant period of time was not my forte. Seems like I would see something happening on the boom and I would overreact to it which from what I’m reading is pretty common for us newbs. The other thing I struggled with was figuring out the actual right altitude to approach the tanker with when cleared to join. Seemed like I was always just a bit out of reach of the boom and then when I’d get close the boom operator would pull the boom up and back like a tease.
I would be curious how many of you dial in any smoothness around your HOTAS to better facilitate this connection?
The biggest trap you can get yourself into with boom refueling is trying to fly off the boom instead of flying off the tanker. There’s an underpaid enlisted person in the back of that plane who’s whole job is doing the hard work to get the boom in the hole, “all” you need to do is keep the jet steady in the right spot.
So my technique is to approach the tanker with my FPM (or TVV, or whatever) directly on the tip of the boom. When you get close enough, the boom will rise to point up (and point at your receptacle) and that’s boom operator sign language to come closer. From then try your best to ignore the boom, and focus on what the tanker is doing. You’re looking a visual cue where the outermost (? it’s been a while, might be the innermost) engines on the KC-135 are just peaking out from your canopy bow. This vague, I’ll try and tank tonight and see if I can update it.
A thing to note generally, as I’m sure you noticed is the connectivity between your throttle input and your vertical velocity. More throttle will add a slight climb, less throttle is a slight dive. You can’t really stop this, just understand it will happen and anticipate it with your stick movements. Be vigilant against PIO.
Anyhow, once you are on the boom, congratulate yourself, you’ve done the hardest part. Take a mental image of how the Tanker looks when you connected. Your goal now is to keep it looking like that. Small, constant throttle and stick corrections are what will carry the day. Try and correct in one plane (i.e. left/right, up/down forward/back) at one time, using gentle stick corrections and small, constant throttle adjustments. You want to be quick reacting to alignment issues as they arise, but you will be more successful using gradual corrections than trying to fix things instantly with dramatic use of the controls. I find zooming out slightly helps. The temptation is going to be to fly the boom or focus on one part of the tanker, and that for me leads to PIO.
I’ve also noticed in myself, and others I’ve forced to watched tank, once connected there’s a fear of falling off because you’ll have to do it all again. Stressing yourself out leads to poor airmanship, and usually you’ll see them start to PIO as they try to instantly correct their problems, and fall right off the basket/boom. The trick is to relax, and be smooth about everything. Tell yourself to relax. Repeat it to yourself, out loud if necessary. It sounds stupid, but I will tell you from experience it helps.
As a parting note, understand the A-10 is unarguably the toughest thing to tank with in the game. It’s slow, it’s twitchy, the tanker has to do uncomfortable things to even affect the rejoin in the first place. Hawg tanking is my least favorite thing in DCS, and I have screenshots of myself sticking the probe of an AV-8B up the boom of a KC-135. That says something.
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Thanks near_blind. If I may, what is “PIO”? Pilot induced oopsie? I probably should have been more clear in my original post in that I wasn’t trying to fly the boom per say, but that raising of the boom when I got close had me all flustered. I also was having a hard time maintaining a good visual reference with the tanker with that huge boom taking up the majority of my windshield.
Pilot Induced Oscillations.
You correct your attitude, and then correct the correction, which leads to a correction of that correction…
Basically a porpoising motion that may escalate.
Here’s an example of a SAAB JAS 39 Gripen prototype. The pilot gets out of sync with the FBW (Fly By Wire) system…
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Well, somehow I passed the practice tonight. Think I’d like to make sure I can do that a few more times before taking the qual.
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I did a few rejoins with the tanker tonight, it was about as fun as I remember it being. The visual cue I was thinking of was the outer engines of the KC-135 peaking out of outside of the canopy bow. Also I found looking up helped. When I was in a correct-ish position, I could just see the position indicator on the boom above the canopy bow.
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Thanks near_blind.
Yeah it’s bundles of fun no question, but as I mentioned above I was able to complete the practice mission last evening thankfully. (I think it requires 6 instances of “taking fuel”?) I decided to try the mission again about 30 minutes later (gotta keep those new found skills fresh you know) and was able to fill my tanks from the 3000 pounds provided initially in the mission to full after a number of joins. Apparently I must have filled more than I was supposed to for the number of connections made as the practice mission wouldn’t go any further, but I was still pretty proud of my success. Definitely not skilled enough yet to go from almost empty to full tank in one connection or hang on in a turn, but I’ll take these baby steps for now. I also have a feeling this task is much harder with a fully armed aircraft and some wind…
I think what was key for me to learn last night was what I could use on the KC-135 to use as a visual cue as to what it was doing while I was attempting to fly in formation. I know many people use the inner or outer engines in relation to the canopy to guide them, but apparently the FOV I’m using makes this difficult because the inner ones disappear in the frame of the canopy and if I back my view up to see the outer ones I’m not comfortable. For a little bit I tried to interpret the lights at the front of the KC-135 (as I believe these are functional), but I quickly found that once the boom got in the way that wasn’t very helpful. What I ended up using strange as it may sound are the little bumps on the wings just inboard of the inner engines. I now have a general idea of where they need to be in my top canopy window in order for the boom operator to slowly extend the boom into the refueling port. Now it’s almost like I can tell if things are going to work because the boom operator moves slowly instead of trying to extend the boom quickly like flashing a sword. My goal is to attempt the practice yet again this evening and if things go well there I’ll maybe give the full qualification a go by this weekend.
One thing I should point out for anyone new to this practice mission is that there appears to be a bug in 2.5 for the shutdown after landing. I think the mission is designed for you to land in a particular direction (runway 25?), but tower calls you in on runway 7 and the instructor tells you after you land to park on the first reventment to your left after pulling off the runway to your right. Well I did that and nothing happened which I thought seemed odd. Then watched the lead land using the same runway and he had to taxi all the way around the airport to get to his programmed shut down spot which was the first reventment after landing if you were landing on 25. Moved my bird there after seeing him park and got the message I was ok to shut down and was provided that I passed the practice after that.
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After many attempts at the practice this week just to make sure I could both latch on and stay latched on for 10 seconds at a time, I have taken the day A to A qual and passed with a Q rating On to refueling at night.
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Congratz!
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Well, after a week where I didn’t get the opportunity to do much flying, I did finally get around to passing the practice mission for air to air refueling at night on Friday and just took my qual. Passed with a q minus thankfully… Definitely was a lot harder for me staying connected to the tanker at night for some reason so I was getting dangerously close to WP7 before I got my third and final decent timed connection. Glad that’s over!
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ATF03 complete. That one was easy compared to some of the other things I’ve been tested on so far. Even received a Q rating
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Decided that since I updated to the most recent beta yesterday I’d give VR another shot now that I’m much more “learned” when it comes to switches in the A10c. Man, I forgot how awesome it is to see the ENTIRE front panel without moving my head and how much better the Rift audio is over standard headphones. (Guessing this has to do with positional audio and some great effects ED have added for the upcoming hornet release.).
Anyway, I decided to retry the daytime air to air refueling practice mission and I was astonished how much easier it was for me to stay connected with the tanker in VR. Like one long complete tank connected as opposed to multiple like I was doing in TIR. Maybe that has to do with more experience to a degree I’m sure, but the 3D effect of the world can’t hurt :). Now if only I could actually see the tanker from 5nm out like I can in TIR…
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I agree. VR makes tanking and formation flying a lot easier. I also think it is more intuitive for finding ground targets with regards to craning my neck with the 1:1 ratio as opposed to TIR. The resolution really is the only drawback (and a significant one)…which is why I’m so excited for the next gens of hardware…
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Yeah I would agree Beach. In the end, I have a significant love and hate relationship with VR in DCS and that’s ultimately why I have never committed to it fully 
My two largest gripes are resolution at a distance and interactions with JTAC
Attempted ATF04 last night, but I think my use of the DCS current beta release potentially has the mission borked.
Seemed like I wasn’t getting any of the normal communications from my instructor as to what to do next in the qualifier. Plus, at the end when I landed the bird and shut down nothing happened indicating if I passed or failed.