Training 5 Mar

[Flyco]

All being well, I will run an A-10C training night on my server. Brief at 1930.

[0413 Luis]

Thank you.
Count me in please.

[0405 Andrew]

If there's space and I'm able, I will be there.

[oz555]

Count me in

[0405 Andrew]

Unfortunately I won't be making it tonight, have a good evening.

[0413 Luis]

Great training yesterday.
Thank you.

[Flyco]

Last night's wasn't too bad at all. We got all the targets, and only lost one ac.

Start was a bit of a mess, for which I apologise - I think my headset loses focus somehow and cuts out - I will try and fix that.

The outbound formation was OK, but we do need to tighten it a bit, and spread out laterally more - it was nearly line astern. With the A-10 if your keep the guy you are primarily formatting on, pretty much centred in your right or left-hand side screen, that will be about 45 degrees, and if you keep close enough to easily identify the type, that is a reasonable distance. If you have Tacview review the flight and you will see how spread out in a line we were. Nevertheless we were a single formation and it was better than the last one.

I was at fault in us having problems finding the target initially. We were in the wrong flight for that target - as I say my fault. In the target area, it went fairly well. Main points to note are SAMS KILL, stay out of their zone - Louis was lucky, the next guy less lucky. Also stay aware of where other ac are, both visually and using the TAC - Louis and I very nearly collided - we will share the blame for that.

Weapon use was sound, but you can see the need to identify targets, when it is free-for-all like that. As a general rule, once you have identified a target and are running in, call: giving callsign, Tgt ID, and time to delivery/impact. Where the targets are that close, give at least the first 3 numbers of both 5-figure blocks - you can usually omit the 2-letter prefix, but I find it helps as it allows those listening to realise that it is a co-ordinate and so be ready to note the numbers. I always fly with a kneepad and write down the 6 figures as I hear them, and cross them out when they are hit. That way, if there is a miss, I can call someone else to hit it. Where targets are very close you can give the first 4 figures of each 5 figure block. I like an estimate hit time, so that if someone else is also running in on that target, they can continue and if there is a miss they can take the shot. The order we took the targets out in was also exemplary SAMs, then AAA, then armour then transport.

The recovery was really quite sound. Form up was quite reasonable, and considering that was the first time we had flown that procedure it went quite well, even the swop in positions wasn't a major problem. The let-down was based on the published chart in DCS for a visual arrival at Vaziani. The change to echelon was reasonable, and although we never got really close enough, we were all on the runway with just over a minute - which is good going - then I screwed up by having to use the over-run! That's what happens when I listen to my patter rather than flying the aircraft.

All in all a good night, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you.

[Paul(Dragon)0043]

Yea, apart from me eating a couple of Tunguska missiles, which was entirely my fault, i was heads down using the TGP, and didn't check my RWR (amateur) to see that I had wandered into lethal range of the Tunguska. 2nd flight much better, The break and landing was very pretty. Overall a very enjoyable evening.

[0413 Luis]

I will take 3 lessons from yesterday sortie.
1-My speed to join formation, I start to recognize is due to bad trimming.
2- Target ID, finaly got it
3- estimate hit target. (Someting to study)

About we almost crash in air, I must assume it was my fault, not yours, I was the one going the oposite direction to join formation and I knew you were comming my direction, I was head down looking at TAD and when I look to front you were very big in my HUD , you advise you were descending and I didn't pay attention. Sorry for that.

But I guess it went really well. Each time better, in my opinion. Is a matter of repeat until do it eyes closed... so to speak...

[oz555]

Thanks for the detailed feedback Alan. Really enjoyed the sortie and nice to see us improving.

A few points from my perspective,

On approach to the target area you were the one to find the enemy first and read out the coordinates to us. As I fly in VR, I cannot realistically have a pen and paper to hand so must type directly into the CDU as I'm hearing them. To get myself in a position to do this accurately needs a little time to set up, so a warning that coordinates are inbound and a few seconds to get sorted would be appreciated.


I found the descent and approach to Vaziani to be quite confusing, particularly while trying to maintain formation. I watched the Tacview afterwards and what appeared at the time to be an exercise in going round in circles was actually a nicely orchestrated landing procedure. My point being, having a little foreknowledge on the exact landing procedure we were going to use would have helped a lot in keeping things tidy. Perhaps we could discuss the approach during the briefing or confirm that the airfield approach patterns in the kneeboard are the ones that will be used so that we can study them.

Thanks again for your efforts and looking forward to the next one.

Cheers

Mike