Just picked up DCS: World and I've began doing some of my own reading and research on ADI/HSI/ILS online, after reading the theory behind it, your video demonstrates exactly what I've been learning and it all makes sense! Awesome video showcasing the need to understand your instruments when landing, and not to rely on eye-balling everything!
Glad you mentioned the proper course setting, most videos fail to mention that. The runway designation is not always the true setting and DCS actually models that. You need to compensate.
Excellent video/tutorial. Like others have said, by far the best I've found on RUclips. Covered (most) everything, great pacing, as well as entertaining. Question though, you don't mention anything about the AOA indexer? I've actually been looking for a video on it (I know the theory, but wanted to see it properly), and that's when I came to yours. Pretty much no one mentions it use, even when it appears they may be paying attention to it.
Mainly just see what it looks like when combined with everything else we are doing to land. I land regularly without much difficulty, but I rarely show the green ball when I do it. I'm one of those that the realism is the most important part, so I want to do it 'by the book'.
@@hololightful Ok, lots of text incoming. The short version is that AOA is controlled by your speed. Assuming you've got everything else under control, the bottom (up-facing) arrow means you're too fast and the top (down-facing) arrow means you're too slow, so adjust your speed accordingly. Adjust it promptly in the latter case, because you might be about to stall and die. The long version is that AOA is controlled by your elevator, either by stick pressure or trim. At the same time, vertical acceleration is controlled by lift, which is controlled by AOA and airspeed. This means that at any time you can pull back on the stick to get yourself on the correct AOA, but if you're going too fast above the ideal approach speed it'll launch you into the sky. The better method is to pull back on the throttle while trimming nose up to keep the flight path marker (FPM) on the horizon line until the green circle is illuminated on the AOA indexer, and then add just enough power to maintain that airspeed. Once you've done that, you can control descent angle mostly or entirely with the throttle: by reducing your airspeed slightly, the FPM will start moving down the pitch ladder as your descent rate increases, and it'll stop when you return the airspeed back to its trimmed value (that is, whatever the airspeed you were at when you trimmed it to be stable). The reason we use AOA instead of just saying "you should land at 130 knots" is because the correct landing speed can vary greatly depending on aircraft weight and configuration. Additionally, you're a lot less likely to accidentally find yourself dangerously slow on approach if you're keeping an eye on the AOA, because even if the aircraft doesn't stall you might end up with a tail strike from making up the lift deficit by having your nose too high. Carrier aircraft also have a special need to pay attention to AOA since they need to maintain a specific attitude to ensure the hook is in the correct position relative to the pilot's view of the meatball. It also helps if you're flying several different aircraft, since the AOA indexer always works the same way. There's no need to memorize a bunch of different numbers for approach speeds if you can just watch the AOA. Does that answer your question?
Best ILS Tutorial I`ve seen. Nice and easy to follow and to understand. Btw. how did you find out the differenz between the runway heading 07 and the realistic 064 ?
064 came from the kneeboard (0:45). If you want to take a closer look at the kneeboard pages, they're in the /DCS World/Bazar/terrain folder, and there's a more updated pdf in /DCS World/doc/charts. It'll be the three-digit bearing with the arrow next to it near the end of the runway. If it shows two numbers, use the one without the T (T = true, you want magnetic). Since in DCS you'll usually be landing at the same airport you took off from, you can also cheat a little by setting the bearing right before takeoff. If you're lined up properly with the runway your heading should be the same as the runway's, so you just turn the knob until the arrow lines up with your current heading. Just remember that it'll be backward if you end up landing the opposite direction, and won't match at all if you land at a different airfield.
Hey, awesome tutorial, really explained it to me. Can you give some advice on tweaking controls? I'm using the Thrustmaster Hotas X and got issues with careful movements: Spinning the stick (which is not possible in real life, pedals instead iirc) makes my plane spin and stall easily, so i can't use the indicator below the ADI. Up and down feel jerky. I often switch from +2 to -2 degree when trying to get 0 angel of attack.
It sounds like maybe you need to set some axis curves. Go into the control setup, select the axis you want to tweak, and press "axis tune." Real life controls have a much larger "throw" than most game controllers which can make joysticks weirdly sensitive sometimes. By adding a few points of curve on every axis, the stick will become less sensitive toward the center and more sensitive around the edges, meaning that you'll still have the full range of control motion but fine movements around the center will be more precise. Hope that helps! You might also want to visit r/hoggit on reddit to talk to the DCS reddit community if you need more advice.
When I set up to record the last approach, I started in the air and forgot that the air start doesn't change the barometric altimeter setting away from the default to account for changes in weather. Kobuleti (the airfield) is actually about 50 feet ASL. If you request landing from ATC, they'll tell you the altimeter setting, but bear in mind that the setting they give you will be so that your altimeter will read zero on touchdown. If you're at a higher altitude airfield like those in Nevada in hot weather the setting ATC tries to give you might be beyond the range of your altimeter. I've gotten out of the habit of asking, or really having anything to do with ATC. The radar altimeter correctly shows the altitude AGL though. The number below the (baro) altitude on the HUD is the pitch angle, and the number below that in small text is the radar altitude (e.g. 440R for 440 ft AGL). Because I changed the setting through the test page, the radar altimeter tape shows just to the left of the baro altitude on the HUD, marked in hundreds of feet.
If I'm not mistaken, the altimeter setting provided by ATC will adjust the altimeter to show field elevation at touchdown. For instance, when landing at Denver International (approx 5,430') your altimeter should show about 5,430 or so at touchdown after you have made the ATC provided adjustment. In fact, small uncontrolled airports, with a unicom service lets say, have an altimeter in the airport office, and when an airplane calls in for local traffic advisories the attendant will set the altimeter to the field elevation and read the corresponding barometric setting and relay it to the incoming pilot. Radar altimeters are completely different, of course, and simply show altitude above ground. Anyway, that was a cool approach! What were your weather parameters?
Most of the time in real life that's correct. The pressure you've just described is called QNH. Oddly, DCS World's ATC gives QFE or Field Elevation pressure, so it reads zero on touchdown rather than the airfield altitude. In other words, instead of altitude above sea level, it gives you altitude above ground level with respect to the airfield. We can hope that we'll start getting QNH settings when the developers release the ATC overhaul. Feel free to google QNH and QFE to know more. One of the top results should be a detailed explanation from the Eagle Dynamics forums. Iirc it was the heavy winter weather preset with the wind redirected down the runway (since the video is meant to be about the ILS and not "check out my cool crosswind landing") and a fairly thick fog. 500 ft visibility or something like that.
I've never heard either term (QFE, QNH) used in real life, although all my time was General Aviation/Commercial in the US system or its equivalent. And I must admit more than just a few years ago. You typically would get the 'altimeter' from ATIS prior to taxi or from Approach or your destination tower when inbound like "King Air Seven-Six Tango, turn right heading zero-two-zero, cleared for the ILS runway Zero Five Approach, maintain four thousand until established, altimeter two niner niner two, tower one one eight point three". Or something similar. From a simulation standpoint, I suppose ATC instructions should be 'regionally-authentic'. I have a couple of other minor terminology type complaints - but it's probably better for me to just shut up at this point (grin).
No IAF or FAF? Circling minimums, or reverse sensing when flying s back corse. What about procedure turns? Holding patterns? Hahaha I’m finishing up my instrument rating
IIRC, this movie was made before the Nevada/NTTR map was released for DCS, and the Caucasus map doesn't include those approach plates. As far as I know the information for that sort of pattern work just isn't available. It's one of the reasons I included the disclaimer about this being more about the systems and less about procedure.
haha, yeah, I figured. I occasionally toyed with doing a video that covered that stuff though after Nevada came out, so it wasn't an unreasonable question.
Just picked up DCS: World and I've began doing some of my own reading and research on ADI/HSI/ILS online, after reading the theory behind it, your video demonstrates exactly what I've been learning and it all makes sense!
Awesome video showcasing the need to understand your instruments when landing, and not to rely on eye-balling everything!
this tutorial is really well made, I still need to work on my landings but this really helped a lot.
The best ILS tutorial by far! Great job.
Great work on this, brother. Glad to see the approach plates getting some love. Excellent landing.
Glad you mentioned the proper course setting, most videos fail to mention that. The runway designation is not always the true setting and DCS actually models that. You need to compensate.
By far the best tutorial I've seen on ils! Thanks!
I'm so tryin' that now! Great vid, thanks!
Awesome video ! Excellent ! Thank you !
Excellent video/tutorial. Like others have said, by far the best I've found on RUclips. Covered (most) everything, great pacing, as well as entertaining. Question though, you don't mention anything about the AOA indexer? I've actually been looking for a video on it (I know the theory, but wanted to see it properly), and that's when I came to yours. Pretty much no one mentions it use, even when it appears they may be paying attention to it.
What specifically did you want to know?
Mainly just see what it looks like when combined with everything else we are doing to land. I land regularly without much difficulty, but I rarely show the green ball when I do it. I'm one of those that the realism is the most important part, so I want to do it 'by the book'.
@@hololightful Ok, lots of text incoming.
The short version is that AOA is controlled by your speed. Assuming you've got everything else under control, the bottom (up-facing) arrow means you're too fast and the top (down-facing) arrow means you're too slow, so adjust your speed accordingly. Adjust it promptly in the latter case, because you might be about to stall and die.
The long version is that AOA is controlled by your elevator, either by stick pressure or trim. At the same time, vertical acceleration is controlled by lift, which is controlled by AOA and airspeed. This means that at any time you can pull back on the stick to get yourself on the correct AOA, but if you're going too fast above the ideal approach speed it'll launch you into the sky. The better method is to pull back on the throttle while trimming nose up to keep the flight path marker (FPM) on the horizon line until the green circle is illuminated on the AOA indexer, and then add just enough power to maintain that airspeed. Once you've done that, you can control descent angle mostly or entirely with the throttle: by reducing your airspeed slightly, the FPM will start moving down the pitch ladder as your descent rate increases, and it'll stop when you return the airspeed back to its trimmed value (that is, whatever the airspeed you were at when you trimmed it to be stable).
The reason we use AOA instead of just saying "you should land at 130 knots" is because the correct landing speed can vary greatly depending on aircraft weight and configuration. Additionally, you're a lot less likely to accidentally find yourself dangerously slow on approach if you're keeping an eye on the AOA, because even if the aircraft doesn't stall you might end up with a tail strike from making up the lift deficit by having your nose too high. Carrier aircraft also have a special need to pay attention to AOA since they need to maintain a specific attitude to ensure the hook is in the correct position relative to the pilot's view of the meatball.
It also helps if you're flying several different aircraft, since the AOA indexer always works the same way. There's no need to memorize a bunch of different numbers for approach speeds if you can just watch the AOA.
Does that answer your question?
what is the sound just before the landing? i swear i heard heartbeat sound
That's right. Being barely a hundred feet over the ground, unable to see the runway, and in a descent can all get pretty nerve-wracking!
Best ILS Tutorial I`ve seen. Nice and easy to follow and to understand. Btw. how did you find out the differenz between the runway heading 07 and the realistic 064 ?
064 came from the kneeboard (0:45). If you want to take a closer look at the kneeboard pages, they're in the /DCS World/Bazar/terrain folder, and there's a more updated pdf in /DCS World/doc/charts. It'll be the three-digit bearing with the arrow next to it near the end of the runway. If it shows two numbers, use the one without the T (T = true, you want magnetic).
Since in DCS you'll usually be landing at the same airport you took off from, you can also cheat a little by setting the bearing right before takeoff. If you're lined up properly with the runway your heading should be the same as the runway's, so you just turn the knob until the arrow lines up with your current heading. Just remember that it'll be backward if you end up landing the opposite direction, and won't match at all if you land at a different airfield.
confirmed best ils tutorial
Now that's impressive!
Hey, awesome tutorial, really explained it to me.
Can you give some advice on tweaking controls? I'm using the Thrustmaster Hotas X and got issues with careful movements:
Spinning the stick (which is not possible in real life, pedals instead iirc) makes my plane spin and stall easily, so i can't use the indicator below the ADI.
Up and down feel jerky. I often switch from +2 to -2 degree when trying to get 0 angel of attack.
It sounds like maybe you need to set some axis curves. Go into the control setup, select the axis you want to tweak, and press "axis tune."
Real life controls have a much larger "throw" than most game controllers which can make joysticks weirdly sensitive sometimes. By adding a few points of curve on every axis, the stick will become less sensitive toward the center and more sensitive around the edges, meaning that you'll still have the full range of control motion but fine movements around the center will be more precise. Hope that helps!
You might also want to visit r/hoggit on reddit to talk to the DCS reddit community if you need more advice.
Thank you, I'll try that and see how it performs.
Wow, nice approach! Looks like both the barometric and radar altimeters show field elevation to be 1,000 feet?
When I set up to record the last approach, I started in the air and forgot that the air start doesn't change the barometric altimeter setting away from the default to account for changes in weather. Kobuleti (the airfield) is actually about 50 feet ASL.
If you request landing from ATC, they'll tell you the altimeter setting, but bear in mind that the setting they give you will be so that your altimeter will read zero on touchdown. If you're at a higher altitude airfield like those in Nevada in hot weather the setting ATC tries to give you might be beyond the range of your altimeter. I've gotten out of the habit of asking, or really having anything to do with ATC.
The radar altimeter correctly shows the altitude AGL though. The number below the (baro) altitude on the HUD is the pitch angle, and the number below that in small text is the radar altitude (e.g. 440R for 440 ft AGL). Because I changed the setting through the test page, the radar altimeter tape shows just to the left of the baro altitude on the HUD, marked in hundreds of feet.
If I'm not mistaken, the altimeter setting provided by ATC will adjust the altimeter to show field elevation at touchdown. For instance, when landing at Denver International (approx 5,430') your altimeter should show about 5,430 or so at touchdown after you have made the ATC provided adjustment. In fact, small uncontrolled airports, with a unicom service lets say, have an altimeter in the airport office, and when an airplane calls in for local traffic advisories the attendant will set the altimeter to the field elevation and read the corresponding barometric setting and relay it to the incoming pilot. Radar altimeters are completely different, of course, and simply show altitude above ground. Anyway, that was a cool approach! What were your weather parameters?
Most of the time in real life that's correct. The pressure you've just described is called QNH. Oddly, DCS World's ATC gives QFE or Field Elevation pressure, so it reads zero on touchdown rather than the airfield altitude. In other words, instead of altitude above sea level, it gives you altitude above ground level with respect to the airfield. We can hope that we'll start getting QNH settings when the developers release the ATC overhaul.
Feel free to google QNH and QFE to know more. One of the top results should be a detailed explanation from the Eagle Dynamics forums.
Iirc it was the heavy winter weather preset with the wind redirected down the runway (since the video is meant to be about the ILS and not "check out my cool crosswind landing") and a fairly thick fog. 500 ft visibility or something like that.
I've never heard either term (QFE, QNH) used in real life, although all my time was General Aviation/Commercial in the US system or its equivalent. And I must admit more than just a few years ago. You typically would get the 'altimeter' from ATIS prior to taxi or from Approach or your destination tower when inbound like "King Air Seven-Six Tango, turn right heading zero-two-zero, cleared for the ILS runway Zero Five Approach, maintain four thousand until established, altimeter two niner niner two, tower one one eight point three". Or something similar. From a simulation standpoint, I suppose ATC instructions should be 'regionally-authentic'. I have a couple of other minor terminology type complaints - but it's probably better for me to just shut up at this point (grin).
awesome!
No IAF or FAF? Circling minimums, or reverse sensing when flying s back corse. What about procedure turns? Holding patterns? Hahaha I’m finishing up my instrument rating
IIRC, this movie was made before the Nevada/NTTR map was released for DCS, and the Caucasus map doesn't include those approach plates. As far as I know the information for that sort of pattern work just isn't available. It's one of the reasons I included the disclaimer about this being more about the systems and less about procedure.
Sc Avenger totally messing with you hahaha
haha, yeah, I figured. I occasionally toyed with doing a video that covered that stuff though after Nevada came out, so it wasn't an unreasonable question.
White, white, white... bipbipbip... white,white,TRUCK!!
Best