: . _________ ________ _____________ _____ | __ / : ___________/ _ \ \ __ _ / | \ ____ : \_/ -A : \______ \ | \_ _: \_/ \_/ | \ | \_ D_ / / _/ | / ___/ \_ | : : | _______/ `N _/ \ \_________/ | \________/ _____ | : \__________/ \ \_ : : \__________ R \___________/ . C A Y A G . Z G N PRESENTS MORE SHYTE FOR YOU ON THIS FINE BORING DAY ====================================================== TORNADO TYPED BY SHARD ======= CONTENTS -------- INTRODUCTION FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND THE MANUAL GETTING STARTED The Main Screen The Tornado User Interface Options / Exit buttons Preferences Explore Review Logs The Quickstart Users Guide FLIGHT OPTIONS Simulator Training Combat What Happens now? THE MISSION SELECTION SCREEN The Situation Menu Other Options Available THE MISSION PLANNER Introduction Section 1 - Using The Mission Planner - Basics Section 2 - Planning Your Own Missions Section 3 - Command Level DEBRIEF ELEMENTARY FLYING TRAINING Introduction Starting The Simulator Flying The Autopilot And Reading The HUD Level Turns And Autotrim The Autothrottle Stalling Wing Sweep Automated Landings Taking Off ADVANCED FLYING TRAINING Introduction More About Flaps and Slats Terrain Following (IDS Only) Maps, The MFD And The Tab Displays Setting Up Your Own Approach And Landing Manual Approaches Landings And Wind Direction Landing Damaged Aircraft Emergencies Spins And Spin Recovery EXTERNAL VIEWS WEAPONS CONVERSION Air To Ground Weapons Training In The Simulator Air To Air AIRCREW NOTES Cockpit Layout Avionics Reference Useful Checklists REFERENCE Glossary And Abbreviations INDEX INTRODUCTION ------------ Welcome to Tornado - the most comprehensive home computer combat flight simulator to date. Some of you will already know a good deal about aircraft and how to fly them, and some of you will be learning these things for the first time. We have tried hard to cater for both types of user and to design a product of considerable entertainment and educational value. Do not be overwhelmed by the huge manual. This is an immense product. Options range from no-nonsense Quickstart to the multi-aircraft multi mission campaigns, with exercises in the simulator to prepare you for a range of combat options unsurpassed by any other product. It is only possible to begin to appreciate the depth of Tornado after several hours of intensive use. We expect you to continue to discover new aspects of the product for months. Everybody, regardless of experience level, should start by looking at the separate Technical Supplement. This gives details of how to install the software, and describes any differences between the version supplied for your machine and the PC-compatible version upon which this manual is based. Tornado is a remarkably complete simulation of the Panavia Tornado GR.4 Interdictor / Strike (IDS) and F.3 Air Defence Variant (ADV) aircraft. The GR.4 will be the upgraded RAF version of the Tornado IDS currently flown by the RAF, the German, Italian and Saudi Arabian air forces. If you followed the air war in the Persian Gulf, you will know that this was the aircraft given the job of keeping the Iraqi air force on the ground by destroying its airfields. Its purpose in life is to penetrate deep into enemy territory by flying as low as possible as fast as possible, and deliver even the dumbest of "dumb" bombs with pinpoint accuracy. It can do all these things even at night, in thick fog. At low level, in the environment it was designed for, it is the fastest aircraft in the world. The Tornado ADV is in service with the RAF and Saudi Arabia. It is a modified version of the same airframe, equipped to serve as a long-range, long- endurance two seat interceptor. It has a more powerful radar optimised for air to-air fighting, and carries medium-range radar-guided missiles. As the name Air Defence Variant suggests, its intended role is to defend rather than attack, and it is normally expected to do this by shooting down enemy bombers. It shares the all-weather capability of the IDS version, but unlike the IDS it cannot terrain-follow. This level of performance demands a very sophisticated aircraft. Even with a crew of two, there is so much to do, and the situation can change so fast that most of the time the aircraft is flown by an extremely smart autopilot. You are about to step into the shoes of two very hard-working aircrew. But even if this is the first flight simulator you have ever bought, do not despair. You do not have to do it all at once, and we provide flight training from absolute beginner level if you need it. Simulating such a complex aircraft was not easy. It involved a phenomenal amount of research and design but the degree of authenticity achieved would not have been possible without the assistance of the Royal Air Force and British Aerospace. We have done everything we can to provide a detailed and accurate simulation of the aircraft's systems and flying qualities, with the invaluable help of many RAF Tornado aircrew. We have also provided a level of visual realism, density and detail which breaks new ground for a home computer simulation, but even this is only half the story. Precise automatic navigation demands precise and detailed flight planning, and our mission planning system is in many ways far in advance of the one the RAF uses at present. This is no reflection upon the people and organisations who developed the system in use - we have the advantage of nearly ten years of explosive technological progress since that system was designed. Within the last few months of Tornado's development, the UK Ministry of Defence has issued a development contract for a new mission planning system, to be used for the Harrier GR.7 and potentially the Tornado GR.4. It is called AMPA (Advanced Mission Planning Aid), due to be in service by early 1995, and the published description (in Flight International, 20 January 1993) sounds eerily familiar to those of us who specified and developed Tornados mission planning system. There is no question of one being a copy of the other - we simply came to very similar conclusions about what is possible and desirable to do with the available computer power. But you don`t have to wait until 1995. We never intended or presumed that this project would attract serious attention from the people who get to fly the real thing or from the aerospace Industry, so we were highly gratified when it did. This same product is now under consideration for professional groundbased training applications and we are delighted that our efforts are being recognised outside the entertainment market. Unlike any of our previous simulations, Tornado is designed to be the first of many new leading-edge products. We haven't succeeded in putting in everything that we wanted to no shortage of ideas - just time. These vast projects involve an unbelievable investment in man power and equipment and sooner or (usually) later, we have to get the product published in order to fund the next one. But we do what we enjoy most and we hope it shows, Thank you for purchasing Tornado - we hope you enjoy it. The Tornado team FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND THE MANUAL ---------------------------------- All users should check their Technical Supplement to find out how to install and start this software. This chapter covers two main topics: one is the "Front-end" of the program which among many other things lets you create logs, select missions and plan them; the other is the aircraft, how to fly it" how the weapons work and how to use them. Chapters about the "Front-end" Chapters 2 to 6 are the ones which describe the "Front end" Everyone needs to read them, and most of them are short chapters. The chapter describing the Mission Planner is the longest in the manual, but you only need to read the first third of it to start with. Chapter 2 - Getting Started This describes what you see on the opening screen and how to use it. It tells you how to start an automatic demonstration, or use the Quickstart option to leap into combat at a single bound. It also describes how to configure the software for your machine, set up selectable options, create Pilot logs and use the Explore and Review modes, which are good entertainment in themselves Chapter 3 - Flight Options This chapter covers the screen you reach by clicking on the large "Flight icon on the first screen. There are three basic flight modes: Simulator, Training and Combat; and there are four different varieties of the Combat Option: Mission Campaign, Command and Two-Player. All the options are briefly described Chapter 4 - Mission Selection Screen This is where you make your choice about what you are going to do within the Flight or Combat option you selected, and (for the Combat options), which of the three possible War Zones you are going to fly over. Chapter 5 - Mission Planner This is a monster of a chapter because the Mission planner is a very powerful and sophisticated piece of software. The chapter is divided into three self contained sections, and the user who just wants to fly preset missions for the moment can get all that is required from the first of these. Chapter 6 - Debriefing This brief chapter covers the report you see at the end of each flight and what to do about it if you don't like it. Chapters about tHe Aircraft and Weapons These are mainly long chapters covering many topics - if you are new to the subject there is a lot to learn. Experienced pilots can do a good deal of skipping. and try to pick up what they need by using the Aircrew Notes in conjunction with the Index. Chapter 7 - Elementary Flying Training This chapter is mainly for the benefit of users who know nothing about aircraft or flying, including those who have never had to worry about stalling or overspeeding before. If the aircraft refuses to fly or keeps shaking itself to pieces around you and you cannot work out what is going on, grit your teeth swallow your pride and start here. This chapter also covers automatic landings and taking off Chapter 8 - Advanced Flying Training Large parts of this chapter build on the previous one to take a novice up to a level where he or she can manoeuvre the aircraft freely, set up an approach and land with a minimum of automatic help. Some of the very powerful navigation systems and avionics of the Tornado are also described and the chapter concludes with a section on emergencies, including the spin recovery drill Chapter 9 - External Views This very short chapter describes the rich and flexible optionsfor out of aircraft views of yourself and others. Chapter 10 - Weapons Conversion This chapter should be required reading for everyone, though real Tornado pilots will be able to skim through it. They will find a few omissions and simplifications of the systems they know most other users will be faced with concepts and weapons they may never even have heard of before. You will never be truly effective until you can use all the possible weapons in all the possible modes, and you will not be able to do that unless you know this material, one way or another. Chapter 11 - Aircrew Notes This is a summary description of the aircraft instruments and avionics. A very experienced user may be able to get most of what he or she needs to know from this chapter in conjunction with the Control Summary card, using the Index to find detailed descriptions where more explanation is wanted. Once you know roughly what is available, you can use this chapter for quick reference Chapter 12 - Reference This gives drawings and basic data on aircraft, vehicles and weapons appearing in Tornado. Know your enemy - and your allies. We should add the Disclaimer that we are not trying to re-fight the Cold War; we chose CIS equipment for the "orange" forces because most of these systems correspond neatly, one to one, with "blue`s" Western equipment. As far as we are aware all the CIS equipment which features in Tornado is being actively marketed to the world at large, so "orange" could be almost anybody. Just add your favourite dictator and stir. GETTING STARTED --------------- The Main Screen All users should consult the separate Technical Supplement for details of how to install and run Tornado on their particular type of computer. If you find differences between what is described in this manual and what appears on your screen, check with the Technical Supplement. Once you have started the program and the title sequence has finished, you should find yourself looking at the Main Screen the "Front End" of Tornado. The overall structure of the program is shown opposite in diagram 2 1. The Flight Icon The Main Screen is dominated by the large triangular icon in the centre labelled "Flight" Do not do this straight away, but if you place the mouse pointer over this icon and click the left mouse button it will start you on the normal path to the aircraft, through further stages of selection and mission planning. The stages in this path are explained in two short chapters; "Flight Options" and "The Mission Selection Screen"; and one very long chapter on the Mission Planner Below the Flight icon are two smaller rectangular icons labelled "Demo" and "Quickstart". The Demo Icon Clicking on this icon changes it into a panel of separate buttons, each labeled to describe a different kind of demonstration display. If you want a demonstration of Tornado, place the mouse pointer over one of these buttons and click the left mouse button. After a pause for loading, the demonstration will start. When you have seen enough, hold down the Ctrl key and press Q to return to this screen The Quickstart Icon The Quickstart options will put you straight into the cockpit, in flight and in action. Though there is a vast depth of gameplay available in Tornado through the Mission Planning functions, not everyone will want to go through the whole process every time - and however keen you are it will take time to learn how to use the Mission Planner. Quickstart lets you bypass the planning process and the need to take off or land. Just like the Demo icon, the Quickstart icon changes into a panel of buttons when you click on it. Four choices are offered, easy and hard variations on air to air and air to-ground combat. Click on the one you want, and you will find yourself in the cockpit, in the thick of the action. The Air-to-ground options put you in the cockpit of an IDS (Interdictor/Strike) Tornado, with a payload of bombs, while the air to-air options give you a Tornado ADV (Air Defence Variant), the interceptor version, armed with air to air missiles Before you try out Quickstart, read the section at the end of this chapter which attempts to put over the absolute minimum you need to know to avoid instant frustration. The Easy Quickstart options make you immune to the enemys weapons and most of the consequences of hitting the ground, but it is still entirely possible to destroy or cripple the aircraft if you do not know roughly why and how to use the wing sweep system. The weapons systems are also realistic, and do not have the magical properties you may have come to expect If you want hits you are going to have to work for them The Tornado User Interface Most computer users should be able to handle our point-and-click system at a glance, but we do use a few novel conventions we have invented for our own purposes. Here we will try to explain how the system works from absolute basics upwards. Experienced users should bear with us - some of this will be new to them as well. Pointing and Clicking The front-end of the Tornado system (that is, everything outside the cockpit of the aircraft), is designed to be controlled exclusively by your mouse. The only time you will need to use the keyboard is to type in names when creating Pilot logs. To activate a function, you just move the mouse over your desk to place the mouse pointer symbol on the screen (a small upright cross) over an icon or a button (both are defined below), and click the left button on the mouse. The right mouse button is only used to move about and change zoom levels on the Mission Planner Map. Icons and Buttons Icons are picture-symbols with borders around them, like the Flight, Demo and Quickstart symbols on the Main Screen. Buttons are small outlined panels with text in them, like the rectangles marked "Options " and "Exit" in the lower right corner of the screen. Sometimes clicking on an icon or a button will cause an immediate action sometimes the icon will subdivide into smaller icons (or buttons) to offer you more choices, and sometimes it will call up a window (see below), which may display text and/or contain still more buttons. Many buttons will change colour when you click on them, to indicate that the function or option they control is selected (switched on). Sometimes you will see a row or column of buttons, only one of which may be selected at a time - these are often called "radio buttons". Most of the time the text on the buttons should tell you what they mean and what they do. If it is not oblious, check with this manual. If a button disappears after you make a selection, it is because that button`s function is now irrelelant or inappropriate. There are two special types of button which are peculiar to Tornado; the Cycle button and the Figure button Cycle buttons A Cycle button is a space-saling substitute for a bank of "radio buttons". It is a small square button with a circle/arrow symbol in it, always placed to the left of a short text panel describing an option or a state. Clicking on the Cycle button changes the text, selecting a different option or state. Up to four different options may be selectable by clicking repeatedly on a Cycle button. The first Cycle button you are likely to encounter is the one on the Preferences screen (see below) Figure buttons Figure buttons are provided where you need precise control over a figure (usually a time, a speed or an altitude). The digits of the figure, sometimes grouped together, will be outlined to mark them as buttons. To change the figure, click on the button showing the digit(s) you are interested in. This will cause two further buttons to appear, marked with arrows, one above and one below the digit(s). Click on the arrow buttons to change the figure up and down by one; click and hold down the mouse button for rapid change. When you change a digit up past 9 or down past 0 the next digit up will also change up or down, even though it is not selected. You can instantly select another digit to change by clicking on it, or dismiss the arrow buttons by clicking again on the selected digit itself. Windows These are independent superimposed panels (like small inset screens within the larger screen) showing text, or groups of related buttons, or both. Each has a specific purpose. You will find most of them in the Mission Planner, though they do occur elsewhere. All the windows you will see in Tornado have a title Bar, which should usually explain what they are for. Any window may be moved (dragged) anywhere on the screen by clicking in the Title Bar and holding down the mouse button. Moving the mouse will then drag an outline of the window across the screen. When it is in the place where you want it, release the mouse button and the window will be redrawn in its new position. Most windows also have a Close box. This is found at the left-hand end of the Title Bar. Clicking in the Close box will close the window, causing it to disappear. Some windows do not have a Close box, either because there is no reason for closing them or because they are telling you something it would be unwise to ignore, like the Problems window in the Mission Planner which tells you when your flightplan is risky or outright suicidal. Windows can lie on top of one another, partly or totally overlapping. If the one you want is behind another, just click in the Title Bar of the window you are interested in to put it in front. On the PC version at least, you can choose whether the windows themselves are opaque or semi-transparent (see the preferences option below). OPTIONS.../EXIT BUTTONS In the bottom right corner of all screens (except when flying, exploring or going through a recognition review) is a pair of buttons, marked "Exit" and "Options" If you click on "Exit" you will go back to the previous screen, or if you are on the main screen (the first screen), you will be asked if you want to quit the program. Whenever this button is shown, the option is always available, and you can use it without incurring penalties. The upper of the two buttons, marked "Options" works in a different way. If you click on this and hold down the mouse button, it will expand into a menu showing the following options; System Allows you to quit the program immediately Preferences For fine-tuning the program for your equipment Explore Lets you explore any map as a disembodied eye Review Shows all military aircraft and fighting vehicles Log For creating, selecting or reviewing Pilot Logs Cancel Does nothing - the safe option! When the menu first appears, the "Cancel" item is under the mouse pointer. Keep holding the mouse button down and move the pointer up and down over the menu. You will see that each item is highlighted in turn as the pointer moves over it. Move the pointer back down over "Cancel" and release the button. The menu collapses back into the "Options" button, and nothing else happens - which is just what the "Cancel" option is supposed to do nothing. All the items in this menu work the same way; click on "Options..." and hold down the button, move the pointer till the item you want is highlighted, and then release the button. The "System" and "Cancel" options do not really need explaining. The other options are explained in the following sections. Several of these call up screens which themselves contain the "Options..." and "Exit" buttons. Clicking on "Exit" from any of these will return you to the previous screen. PREFERENCES This screen allows you to preset various optional features of the simulation, to select sound hardware where appropriate, and to turn the title music on and off. Many of these switches are provided to allow you to cut down on detail and improve speed, if you think that your computer is running too slowly - it takes a fast machine to run Tornado at a high frame rate if all the options are turned on. The switches on this screen divide into three groups. One of these groups almost exactly duplicates the switches avaIlable in flight using the Kneepad (Look Down) View, and is mainly concerned with setting up the simulation environment. On the Kneepad, you switch options by pressing the number keys on the top row of the keyboard, here you point and click. Simulation Preferences Visual Range In your outside views, nothing will be drawn beyond the selected Visual Range, which is given in miles. Click on a figure to select it. More <--- DETAIL ---> Less 25 20 15 10 5 Slower <--- SPEED ---> Faster Ground This switch will turn on or off most of the groups of trees and the field patterns we have provided to give a true sensation of speed and depth in low-level flight More <--- DETAIL ---> Less Textured Plain Slower <--- SPEED ---> Faster Hills We chose not to use the currently-fashionable Gouraud shading effect to represent undulating landscape. This looks very good in the distance, but makes it nearly impossible to judge your height above ground by eye because close to the aircraft the shading degenerates into an unstable shifting mass of colour. Instead, when this switch is set to "Textured" the faces making up the hills will subdivide into smaller counter-shaded faces as you approach them. This may not look as flashy, but it is stable, and it lets you judge depth and distance well enough to terrain follow manually - if you are up to it. More <--- DETAIL ---> Less Textured Plain Slower <--- SPEED ---> Faster Horizon This allows you to choose between a smoothly graduated horizon (Faded) and a plain blue sky ("Plain"). Click on the option of your choice. More <--- DETAIL ---> Less Faded Plain Slower <--- SPEED ---> Faster Sky This switch allows you to turn the thin layers of individual clouds on (textured) or off (Plain). The overcast effect (a thick solid cloud layer) will not be affected More <--- DETAIL ---> Less Textured Plain Slower <--- SPEED ---> Faster Ironwork This peculiarly-named switch controls whether you will see the cockpit canopy framework and the brackets supporting the Head-up Display. Turning this switch off will speed up the frame rate considerably on slower computers. More <--- DETAIL ---> Less On Off Slower <--- SPEED ---> Faster Control Device This switch allows you to select which of a range of possible devices you will use to fly the aircraft. Click on the Cycle button repeatedly to see the range of options available, then leave the desired option showing the options available will differ from one computer to another; those described here apply to the PC version, but users of ALL machines should check their Technical Supplement for changes: Keyboard 1 Pitch and roll control by numeric keypad / cursor keys. Control input increases the longer you hold the key down, but returns to neutral when the key is released. Keyboard 2 Pitch and roll control by numeric keypad/cursor keys. Control input increases the longer you hold the key down. When you release the key the control input stays at its last level - if you want to stop rolling or pitching you`ve got to make an opposite input, or hit the Autotrim key (5 - numeric pad). Joystick 1 Pitch and roll control by single analogue joystick in game port 1. Joystick 2 Pitch and roll control by analogue joystick in port 1, throttle and rudder control by second analogue joystick in port 2. Recalibrate Joystick This button is used to ensure that the computer recognises the centre position of your joystick(s). Let the joystick spring to its centre position and then click on this button. If you find that the aircraft is developing a persistent roll or a tendency to climb or dive, it is almost certainly because your joystick centre position is drifting over time. You can recalibrate in flight by centring the stick and hitting the Y key. Sound and Music Preferences Sound hardware varies a lot between computers - even between PCs. Check the Technical Supplement for your machine to sort out the specific details There are two options which will always be present on this page, however: Effects There are three "radio buttons" for this option "Off" switches off all sound effects; "On-Eng" gives you all sound effects except the noise of your own engines, and "On+Eng" gives you all sound effects including your own engine noise. Music This switches the front-end incidental music on or off Miscellaneous Preferences This is a catch-all group with a lot of unrelated options in it. Review Stills The digitised pictures of aircraft and vehicles available in Review mode (see below) are high quaiity images, but they do take up a lot of disc space. If you have installed a working copy of Tornado on a hard disc and you want to reclaim the disc-space used by these images you can click on the "Delete" button here to remove them from the installed copy. When you have deleted these images, you can only get them back by re-installing the program. Panel lighting This switch allows you to select red or green cockpit lighting for flying at night. Real Tornados may be fitted with either option, and we thought that both looked good. The brightness of the cockpit lighting is set according to how dark it is outside, and you can also adjust the HUD contrast to avoid dazzling yourself on a dark night (see the Cockpit Controls section on the Control Summary card). We recommend dimming the room lights when flying at night. Curve Segments On the Mission Planner map, curves are drawn in flightplans wherever you change course. When there are a lot of curves (and a lot of flightplans) to draw, producing smooth curves can take up a surprising amount of computer time - a smooth curve has to be drawn as a lot of short straight lines. The "radio buttons" for this option allow you to choose how many lines will be drawn to represent a curve. Smoother <--- CURVE ---> Coarser 32 16 8 4 2 Slower <--- SPEED ---> Faster Contour Interval Contours are shown on the Mission Planner map to give you an idea of the height and shape of hills. Like curve-drawing, this can consume a lot of processing power and slow your machine down noticeably. These radio buttons, let you select the interval between contours in feet. The lowest contour drawn is always the 250 line. More <--- CONTOURS ---> Fewer 250 500 1000 Slower <--- SPEED ---> Faster Windows This option may not be available for all versions. When it is, you have a choice between see through windows and solid ones. On the Mission PIanner map, transparent windows let you see through the window to the map, but solid windows are drawn faster. Transparent <--- WINDOWS ---> Solid Slower <--- SPEED ---> Faster EXPLORE Explore Mode is a highly useful feature which is also good fun. When you select the Explore option the screen changes to show you a full screen window onto a map of the current Flying Area. When in Simulator or Training modes, this will always be the Training Area, but when you select Combat, the Mission Selection Screen provides the facility to choose any one of three different War Zones. If you move the mouse pointer against any screen edge, the screen window will be dragged across the map in the corresponding direction. Click on the LEFT mouse button to zoom in, click RIGHT to zoom out. Note that when you do this the point under the mouse pointer will be moved to the centre of the screen. Click on some recognisable feature (a city or an airfield, say), and then hit the Spacabar or the Enter key. You will find that your view is now that of a disembodied eye floating sixteen feet above ground level at the spot you clicked upon. Using the keyboard, the mouse or joystick(s) you can now move at will in three dimensions at high speed, or hover on the spot. You can go almost anywhere and see anything except the positions of aircraft and vehicles. At any time you can flip back to the map screen, click on another point as far away as you like, and then return to the three-dimensional world at that spot. You can use this system for entertainment, for familiarising yourself with the landmarks, or within the Mission Planner to find out how your target will appear as you approach it. The military term generally used for this is Mission Rehearsal, and armed forces everywhere are trying to acquire this sort of facility, for obvious reasons. You will find a complete list of the Explore Mode controls in the separate Control Summary. To leave Explore mode, hold down the Ctrl key and hit Q REVIEW The Review feature allows you to see digitised photographs of the aircraft and military lehicles you will encounter, and compare them with the 3D models representing them in Tornado. There are two main purposes for this: on the one hand it helps you develop the ability to recognise friendly and enemy hardware. On the other, it shows off the models, of which we are very proud. The guiding principle in constructing these models has been that if you can recognise the real thing you should be able to recognise the model, and vice versa. When you enter Review mode, you will see the screen split between an upper display area where the models are shown and a lower area showing the aircraft or vehicle name with a control panel. The Icons on the panel are explained in diagram 2 2. Clicking on the film strip icon displays a full screen digitised picture. To return to the model display just click on either of the mouse buttons. Keystrokes can be substituted for some of the mouse commands (see the Control Summary) If you want more detailed information on a particular aircraft or vehicle, look it up in the Reference section of this manual. To leave Review mode hold down the Ctrl key and hit Q, or click on the Eject button. LOGS The Pilot Log system is a schizophrenic`s paradise: it allows you to be up to 20 different people. Any time you`re flying a Tornado, you are doing so under one of these 20 possible identities, with a name, a nominal RAF rank and a record of flying hours and experience. Most of these identities you create for yourself by choosing a name and typing in, but one is special - the default log. This log is supplied with the software, and is automatically selected every time you start Tornado. The log is in the name of Group Captain deFault and you can use it just like any other log, but it has several interesting features. One of Group Captain deFault`s good points is his rank equal to the highest available in Tornado. Using this log identity you are automatically qualified to play the Command wargame, which is only open to pilots who have earned the notional rank of Wing Commander or above (see the table of RAF ranks below). You can earn promotion for a pilot whose log you created yourself, but this sort of rank is not awarded lightly. See the Flight Options chapter to find out how to win promotion - we have made it possible to skip rank if you are good enough. The other good thing about Group Captain deFault is that he is indestructible. You are not do not attempt to emulate him. Actually, that is not quite true - it depends on your attitude to cheating. See the section below headed "Cheating" Whenever you play a Quickstart game, the deFault log will always be used, regardless of which log is selected. Using the Log Screen The Log Screen looks rather like the Mission Selection Screen, which you will come across elsewhere. The left-hand half of the screen is dedicated to displaying the Roster, a list of all existing pilots, by rank, name and status. A pilot`s status may be Actile, Missing, POW (Prisoner of War), KIT (Killed in Training), KIA (Killed in Action) or Dismissed. Only pilots with Active status can fly. Initially there is only Group Captain deFault`s name on the list. As you create identities for yourself, the list will expand downwards to its maximum of 20 names, in descending order of rank and experience. For reference, here are the RAF ranks we have unilaterally borrowed to indicate levels of experience and achievement, together with their USAF equivalents: RAF USAF Group Captain Colonel Wing Commander Lieutenant-Colonel Squadron Leader Major Flight Lieutenant Captain Flying Officer Lieutenant In real life, the relationship between RAF ranks and the size of the units led has changed since the ranks were named not long after the First World War. In general, a Wing Commander now commands a Squadron, and a Squadron Leader leads a Flight. The majority of operational aircrew hold the rank of Flight Lieutenant One of the names on the list will always be selected and highlighted. A smaller window on the right hand side of the screen (the Record window) shows details of the selected pilot`s record. When more than one name appears on the Roster, you can select which log to display by clicking on the name you want If you call up the Log Screen after selecting the "Command" wargame option, only the logs of qualified pilots will be shown on the Roster Creating, Deleting and Renaming Logs Buttons labelled "Create Log" "Rename" and "Delete Log" appear on the right hand side of the screen. These buttons will automatically be enabled and disabled depending on the situation. The "Create Log" button will only be available if there are less than 20 names on the Roster. If the Roster is full and you want to create a new identity, you must first delete an existing log. This is done by clicking on a disposable log to select it, then clicking on the "Delete Log" button. You will then be asked to click again to confirm that you really do want to lose this log. "Delete Log" will not be available if the currently selected log is that of Group Captain deFault. Clicking on the Create button brings up the Record window with a blank name and record. You can now type in the name you want, using Backspace to correct mistakes. When you are finished, click on the "OK" button at the bottom of the Record window, and your new pilot will be added to the roster. All new logs are created with the rank of Flying Officer. If you want to rename an existing pilot, select that log by clicking on the Roster and then click on the Rename button. This will activate the text cursor on the name line in the Record window, and you can use Backspace and type in the normal way. Click on OK when you are finished. Leaving the Log Screen When you have selected the Log you want to use, click on the Exit button in the lower right corner to leave this Screen. If the Log you have selected is not that of an Active pilot, a small window will appear to remind you that you cannot leave this screen until you have selected an Active log to use. The warning window will not disappear until you have done this, but it can be dragged out of the way. Cheating Everyone`s luck must run out sometime, especially if you make a habit of relying on it. In our last major simulator, "F-16 Combat Pilot" pilots who were killed or captured had their logs deleted, period. There were ways to get around this (like backing up your log files), but we received a lot of anguished phone calls from people who could not bear to lose their hard-earned records and privileges. This time around we have left it up to you to decide whether or not to accept the fortunes of war. At the end of every flight you will get a Debrief, and unless you are using the deFault log you will be offered a choice between logging the mission or wiping it off the record. If you choose to load it, the hours flown and any other achievements will be added to your record and if you did not make it, the status of the log will change to "Missing" "POW" "KIT" "KIA" or "Dismissed" There is no way back once the mission result is logged, so do not do this unless you are prepared to suffer the consequences. You cannot get killed or captured in the Simulator, or in a Two Player engagement. When you choose to log the result, you will be returned to the Mission Selection Screen, the Mission Planner, or the Flight Options screen, depending on the type of mission you were flying and its outcome. If you choose NOT to log the mission, however, absolutely no changes will be made to your log it will be as if the mission never happened. If you came through the Mission Planner, you will return to it with your last flightplan still intact (the clock will be set back if it is a Campaign or Command mission). so you can either try it again or exit from the Mission Planner in the normal way. THE QUICKSTART USER'S GUIDE or (The Tornado manual for the terminally impatient.) This brief section tries to give you the bare minimum information to try out the Easy Quickstart options without running into instant frustration. We cannot hope to accomplish more than that in a few paragraphs. Once you have had a quick blast, go back to the first chapter (Finding Your Way Around), and use it to figure out what you really need to read. All key references below correspond to the PC version. Check your Control Summary for correct control keys if you are not using a PC. Unlike many other simulators, Tornado does not provide an "arcade spaceship" flight model with unlimited engine power and instant acceleration or braking - you will have to learn to live with the limitations of a realistic aircraft. For the Quickstart options, we have made things much easier by giving you an aircraft that ignores the weight of fuel bombs and missiles and behaves as if it were carrying nothing but its own empty weight, though your fuel gauge will show full and your weapons will be replaced the moment you use them. You will also start off with the Autothrottle engaged, so the engines will throttle automatically to keep you at a set speed, which you can change up and down by using the throttle control device (+ and - keys or a second joystick). The most important difference between a Tornado and most other aircraft is that the Tornado has variable-sweep wings. You sweep these forward to manoeuvre better at low speeds, and back to accelerate to high speeds. If you try to go too fast for your wingsweep setting, the aircraft will start to shake and rumble, if you persist a warning will sound go on too long and the aircraft will shake itself to pieces. You can prevent this by sweeping the wings back at the first sign of trouble There are three stages of wingsweep, and each time you hit the S key, the wings will sweep back one stage. To turn off the warning if it sounds, hit the Master Warning Reset key (* or I key). This will turn off the flashing lights provided that you have fixed the problem, though the wing sweep system will jam in one position if you neglect the buffeting for too long. If you are flying slowly, and the aircraft will not turn fast enough or stops flying and drops its nose, sweep the wings forward by hitting the W key - once for each stage. If you are on an air-to-ground mission, just hit the Arm air-to-ground key ENTER key). This will arm your bombs and give you a bombsight on the Head Up Display (HUD). Your bombload is set to drop in Manual mode, which means that when you hit the Commit key (Spacebar or joystick button), the bombs will be released immediately, and they should fall where the short horizontal line (the CCIP) crosses the longer vertical one with a gap near the top (the Bomb Fall Line). If the top of the Bomb Fall Line is below the CCIP, it means that you`re too low the aircraft will probably be damaged or destroyed when the bombs go off. In Quickstart mode you can attack anything you like. When you use the Air-to-air option, the first thing you must do is turn on the radar in Airmode (Alt+R), which will bring up a plan display of the radar image on the central Multi-Function Display (MFD). Enemy aircraft in front of you will be shown as small square symbols. You must also hit Arm air-to-air (Alt + Enter) Now you can select which air to-air weapon you want (; key). In the Tornado ADV you have three air-to-air weapons to choose from; cannon for closer range (GUNS), heat-seeking short-range Sidewinder missiles (AIM9), and medium - range (up to 20 miles) radar-guided Active Sky Flash missiles (SKYF). The final thing you have to do is lock on to your target. There is a Designate key Caps Lock, which will select the target closest to dead-ahead. The symbol on the radar will now flash, and a target designator and other sighting symbols will be shown on the HUD. Be aware that the radar can see further than the seeker head on the Sidewinder missiles you will not be allowed to fire until the missile can see the target and you can hear the lock-on tone Refer to the Aircrew Notes " Chapter 11" to find out what the HUD symbols mean. FLIGHT OPTIONS -------------- In the centre of the Main Screen is the large triangular "Flight" icon. Click on this with the mouse pointer, and it divides to offer three choices: Simulator, Training, and Combat. At the same time the Demo and Quickstart icons will be replaced by icons for the Log and Preferences facilities. Clicking on these icons produces exactly the same result as selecting the corresponding items in the "Options..." menu" which is still available on this screen. If you want to go back in order to select Demo or Quickstart, click on the "Exit" button in the bottom right-hand corner. TORNADO caters for a very wide range of skill and knowledge. In the simulator or in live training a novice can learn how to fly, or an experienced pilot can become familiar with the aircraft and its systems and perform practice attacks with every available weapon. When you`re ready, and not before, click on the "Combat" icon to go to war - but don`t start with the Combat option unless you insist on learning the hard way! This chapter will explain the choices available to you. SIMULATOR This is the logical place to start, whatever your experience level. Crashes don`t matter in the simulator - just restart the exercise and repeat it until you don`t crash. You can even arrange that the aircraft will bounce off the ground rather than crash! The other great advantage of the simulator is that exercises can start in mid air. If you want flying training, read the Elementary and Advanced Flying Training chapters, and work through the simulator exercises recommended. More experienced pilots will probably want to familiarise themselves with the aircraft handling and systems here. Weapons training and practice is also available and highly convenient see the Weapons Conversion chapter for details. All the lives can be flown in the simulator with optional simulated enemy activity. There are also a number of exercises unique to the simulator, allowing you to practise emergency procedures like spin recovery, engine-out handling and landing, and landing with your wings stuck at maximum sweep. The simulator also provides a good range of "cheat modes". If you are using a log you have created yourself, flight time in the simulator will be recorded, though it will be logged as "Simulator Hours" rather than "Flying Hours". It still counts as experience. Simulator exercises always take place over the Training Area. TRAINING This offers live flight training. No-one will be shooting at you, but you can still kill yourself. You can avoid the consequences of your errors altogether if you wish - see the Pilot Log section under "Options" (and look for the heading "Cheating"). Live flight exercises must obliously start and finish on the ground - preferably on the runway. This facility mainly serves as a confidence builder once you have developed your skills in simulator exercises. Live training always takes place on the Training area map. COMBAT If you select "Combat" then you`re going to war. Don`t select this option until you`re ready for it. There are four different sub-options available," each of which is described below. If you are new to this sort of warfare, start working through the "Mission" list. If not, fly a "Mission" or two for practice and then go straight to the "Campaign" options. A successful Level 2 Campaign is the only way to qualify for "Command" in your own right, though any pilot may try out "Command" using the log identity of Group Captain deFault. Combat allows you to select and fight in any Flying Area except the Training Area After clicking on the "Combat" Icon" you are presented with a new screen showing four icons giving you a choice of four different types of play: Two-player lets you connect your computer to a friend`s and fight a human opponent one-to-one. The connection may be made directly or by modem. Any rank of pilot may use this facility. See the Technical Supplement for further details. Mission lets you choose from a selection of completely pre-planned missions. Each mission is a complete game in itself, and the outcome of any one mission has no effect on any other. This option is available to any rank. If any pilot successfully completes all the missions(s) he will be promoted to Flight Lieutenant, unless the current rank is already greater. Two Missions are different from all the others in that they are not pre-planned. These are the missions titled "Free Fire (IDS)" and "Free Fire (ADV)" where no targets are assigned and you are free to attack whatever you like. These missions are intended to serve as an introduction to the job of planning missions for yourself. Campaign lets you choose from a selection of scenarios. Each one requires you to fly a sequence of missions to achieve a final objective. The individual missions are not pre-planned in detail for you, but the objective for each is specified. The situation at the start of each mission reflects the success (or otherwise) of the previous one. The Campaign state may be saved at the end of each mission, to be continued later. This option is available to any rank. Campaigns are graded into two levels. In a Level One Campaign, you will be responsible for creating flightplans for just one aircraft your own. In a level Two Campaign, however, you must plan missions for a whole formation. Successful completion of a Level One Campaign will earn the pilot a promotion to Squadron Leader, whatever the current rank, but successful completion of a Level Two Campaign yields a promotion to Wing Commander. Command gives you total command authority to conduct your own air war. You must decide your own objectives as well as plan the missions and fly a proportion of them. The war continues until you win, lose or reach a stalemate but the status can be saved and reloaded so you don`t have to fight your war in one continuous session. n.b Only qualified pilots (with the rank of Wing Commander or above) can assume Command. Group Captain deFault is already qualified, but any new pilot only qualifies when (s)he logs at least one successful Level Two Campaign. A successful Command earns a promotion to Group Captain. WHAT HAPPENS NOW? Whether you select Simulator, Training or one of the Combat options, you will always find yourself on the Mission Selection Screen, which allows you to choose exactly what you will be doing, a specific Simulator or Training exercise, or a specific Combat situation. The Mission Selection Screen is described in detail in the next chapter. If you have selected Simulator, you may progress from selecting a given exercise straight to the cockpit. In all Training and Combat situations, and some Simulator exercises, however, you will move from the Mission Selector on to the Mission Planner, to review or create your flightplan or take command of your war. The Mission Planner is described in detail in a chapter of its own Once you have reviewed all the relevant data - at a minimum this will be your own flightplan and familiarised yourself with the target(s), the method of attack, and the threats from SAMs, AAA and fighters on or near the route, you will be able to check your aircraft`s fuel and weapon load, and add defensive weapons - weight permitting. When this is done, the mission flightplan is loaded into your aircraft`s navigation systems, and it`s time to take off. When the mission ends - one way or another - you`ll receive a debrief assessing your performance. At this point you will have the choice of whether to log the mission or not. If you`ve died or gone missing but think this was unfair DON'T LOG THE MISSION or else your log will be closed (this doesn`t apply to Group Captain deFault, who is indestructible). If the mission was unsuccessful, or if you just want to do it again for practice you can return to the Mission Planner, review or adjust the flightplan and then select "Take off" to go straight back to the cockpit. THE MISSION SELECTION SCREEN ---------------------------- There are two main sections on this screen. The large area on the left is the Situation Menu - a list of all the situation options which apply to the Flight mode you`ve selected - simulator or training exercises, single missions, Campaign Scenarios and saved games, or Command Scenarios and saved games. What you see on the right-hand side of this screen depends entirely upon the Flight Mode. This area is used to offer choices specific to each mode. See the separate sections below for details. THE SITUATION MENU Whichever Flight Option - Simulator, Training or Combat brought you to this screen, this part of the Mission Selection screen will always look much the same, and work in much the same way very much like the Pilot Log system. It offers you a list of situations or scenarios, from which you must select one. The range of situations offered will automatically be limited to those appropriate for the Simulator, Training, or whichever Combat option you have chosen. Each item on the list is a one-line description or title. To take a closer look at a possible choice, click on the line you`re interested in. A new window - the Briefing window will appear on the screen giving a fuller description, which may (depending on the situation) include such things as the Tasking order specifying the target(s), times and the number of aircraft, a summary of a complete Flightplan, the description of the military situation at the start of a Campaign or Command game, or a situation summary for a saved game. Two buttons will always appear at the bottom of this window; one marked Commit, and the other marked "Cancel". If this situation or mission appeals to you, and you want to do it, click on "Commit" to advance to the Mission Planner, or straight into the cockpit in the case of some Simulator exercises. You can still reverse your choice if necessary, by using the the "Options../Exit" device in the Mission Planner, or Ctrl Q in the cockpit. If you want to go back to the list and look at other possibilities, click on "Cancel" and the Briefing window will close, returning you to the Mission Selection list. There is no penalty for browsing. Situation Menu for Simulator A wide variety of training exercises are available here, some of which will pass you on to the Mission Planner, and some of which will put you straight into the cockpit in flight. Situation Menu for Training These are a selection of training exercises to be flown live. Because these are "real-world" exercises none of them permit you to start in mid air. Crashes can and usually will be fatal, striking unplanned targets will normally be cause for court-martial. Situation Menu for Missions Every mission here is pre-planned for you - except the missions titled "Free Fire". The range covers almost everything you can do with IDS and ADV Tornados. A range of missions exists for each of the three different War Zones, so there`s a good deal of choice. The relative difficulty level is indicated in the Briefing Window for each mission. Situation Menu for Campaigns The selection list for Campaigns is divided into sections. The upper of these sections is a list of scenarios, alternative starting situations for a Campaign mission sequence. Each scenario is tagged as Level 1 or Level 2, according to whether you will be expected to plan missions for 1 ) just your own aircraft, or 2) your whole flight. Level 2 requires more experience than Level 1, and obviously involves more work. There is an equivalent list of Campaign scenarios for each of the three War Zones The lower section of the list is available for saving and loading uncompleted Campaigns. If you exit from the Mission Planner in the middle of a Campaign, you will be asked whether or not you wish to save the game in order to return to it later. Saved games in the list are identified by scenario, Pilot Log name, and elapsed time within the campaign. You can save one Level 1 and one Level 2 Campaign per War Zone at any one time, a total of six. To reload a saved Campaign, just click on the appropriate slot in the list. The Briefing Window will provide a situation summary with the usual Commit and Cancel buttons. Situation Menu for Command This works very much like the Campaign menu described above, providing a list of alternative starting scenarios and one saved game slot per War Zone. Situation Menu for TwotPlayer Mode For details of how the two-player option works on your computer, consult the Technical Supplement OTHER OPTIONS AVAILABLE Choice of War Zones (Combat Modes) This applies only to Combat Flight Modes; Simulator and Training exercises always use the Training Area. In all Combat modes except Two-player you have the choice of three War Zones, each with different topography presenting a variety of strategic and tactical challenges and opportunities. When you enter the Mission Selection Screen in Combat modes, a map image of the currently selected War Zone is shown on the right-hand side of the screen. To the left of the title showing "WarZone 1" (or 2 or 3), is a small button showing a circle / arrow symbol. This is a Cycle button" and clicking on it will select each War Zone in turn. You will see many other Cycle buttons in the Mission Planner and elsewhere in Tornado, but they all work in the same way; clicking repeatedly on the button selects each option in turn from a range of two or more choices. Simulator Options This bank of switches controls features which can be provided in the simulator but are impossible in the real world. For every feature except Time there is a just one control; a Cycle button. Click on the Cycle buttons to set up the options you want. The list incudes: Feature Options Weapons Limited / Infinite Fuel Limited / Infinite G-LOC Possible / Impossible Aircraft Weight Actual / Minimum Aircraft Collisions Crash / Bounce Enemy Active / Inactive Time Set any start time on 24 Hour clock The Time option can be used to specify whether you fly in daylight, dawn/dusk or varying degrees of darkness. Hours, Minutes and Seconds each appear on a separate button. Click on the button for Hours, for example, and two separate buttons marked with arrows will appear above and below the Hours figure. Clicking on these will set the time forward or back. A single click will change the time by one hour; click and hold down the button for fast forward and fast reverse effects. Clicking again on the figure itself or on another column (eg. minutes or seconds) will dismiss the arrow buttons. When the Simulator mission takes you to the Mission Planner rather than straight into the cockpit you can override the time selection again from there, if you wish. THE MISSION PLANNER ------------------- Introduction This is the most important and the most powerful screen of all. Using it you can review or plan a single mission or a squadron`s flightplans for a whole air war down to the smallest detail. A vast amount of information is available, but you have absolute control over what is and is not displayed. Before you try to study this chapter in depth, we strongly suggest that you learn how to fly the aircraft and use the weapons. Mission planning doesn`t really make much sense till you`re ready to fly missions. How this chapter is organised Because the Mission Planner is so powerful and so rich in features, there is a lot of ground to cover in this chapter. Rather than force you to read it all from start to finish, we have broken the explanation down into three sections of which the beginner need only read the first. The first section covers the basic features of the Mission Planner, showing you how to move around the map, how to zoom in and out and how to use the key to control how much data is displayed on the map. This section teaches you how to review a preset Flightplan, and covers all you need to fly single Missions. The second section is intended for pilots aiming to plan their own missions, whether for a "Free Fire" Mission or to fly at Campaign level. It assumes that you have read and understood the first section, and explains how to create a Flightplan first for a single aircraft (Free Fire or Level One Campaign), and then for a whole flight of aircraft (Level Two Campaign). The third section covers the features you need at Command level. It assumes that you are familiar with the material in the first two sections. SECTION 1 - USING THE MISSION PLANNER - BASICS Select and Commit on any one of the Simulator or Training Missions with the prefix "IDS - OCU" so that you can reach this screen (you won`t have to fly the mission if you don`t want to). You`ll see a map in front of you, and a number of buttons down the right-hand side. We will refer to these in future as "Map Screen Buttons". Many of these buttons call up sub-windows on the screen, and several of these may be present at the same time. Every sub-window has a Title bar with a Close Box allowing the window to be dismissed or dragged. Windows may overlap one another, but right-clicking on any visible portion of a window will put it "in front" of any overlapping windows. You can close them all at once with the "Tidy" button. In order from top to bottom, the buttons read: Key Calls up the map Key, see below. Targets Used at Campaign level and above. Works in conjunction with the Category Flag to highlight all potential targets of a given kind. See Campaign section. Point Data Clicking on this button will bring up the Point Data Window. This gives details about the point on the map under the mouse pointer, including the grid coordinates, the ground height above Sea level, the nearest structure (if any) the estimated "floor" of radar coverage at that point and the current ownership (Allied or Enemy). The information in this window is only updated when the mouse is stationary. Briefing For Simulator Missions, or single Combat Missions, the button reads "Briefing" and calls up a window with an outline description of the mission, identical to the description you were offered when selecting the mission. At Campaign level it will read "Task" and at Command level it will read "Command" and will function differently. See the appropriate sections for details. Flightplan This button is used to bring up the Flightplan Window, which allows you to review, modify, or create flightplans for your own (and potentially other) aircraft. See below. Payload This button calls up the Payload Window, which is used to verify fuel and weapons load, and to load weapons for self-defence or attacks on targets of opportunity. See below. Met. Report This button calls up a weather (Met. for Meteorological) report giving wind direction and strength plus visibility and cloud heights. In the Simulator, some of these factors can be changed. See below. Centre This button zooms the map right out and centres it on the screen, so that you can instantly call up the big picture from wherever you are. Fit Clicking on this button will automatically set the zoom level and scroll the map so that the whole of the "current" flightplan is visible on the screen at once Tidy If you feel that the map is in danger of disappearing behind a solid sheet of overlapping windows, clicking on the "Tidy" button will close all open sub windows at once, except the Problems Window, which can only be dismissed by fixing the problems it`s bringing to your attention. See the second section for details of the Problems Window. Take-off When you`ve studied the briefing, the flightplan, the payload and the Met. report, click on this button. Provided that there are no major flaws in the flightplan, you will find yourself in the cockpit on the runway, after a pause to download the flightplan to your aircraft`s navigation systems. If the Problems Window (explained later) is active and showing an "ERROR" message, there`s something drastically wrong with your flightplan, and you won`t be allowed to take off until it`s fixed. This should never happen if you are simply flying preset single missions. The fun starts when you begin planning your own. The Key Button Click on this button and a "frame" of panels / buttons will appear down the left side and across the bottom of the screen showing the map symbols and their meaning. Like any other sub-window on this screen, it can be turned off by clicking on the Close button in the top left corner. The Key display is not just a passive display to help you identify map symbols. Each of its panels showing a symbol and its identification is also a button which controls whether or not that symbol will be drawn on the map. Using this feature, you can avoid cluttering the display with symbols you don`t need or want to see. To turn any symbol on or off, just click on the appropriate panel of the Key window. This can also be used to speed up the redrawing of the screen if your machine is running more slowly than you like - just turn off everything you think you can do without. When you first enter this screen the Key will be set to display just Physical data (contours, rivers and lakes), and Cultural data (roads, railways, power lines, structures. etc.), plus the Mission Flightplan or Task outline. Some of the symbol options relate to more advanced features which we will deal with later. In order from top to bottom down the left side: Contours Contour lines are shown for hills at variable intervals above (flat) ground level. Because drawing contours is a demanding task which can reduce a slow computer to a crawl, the vertical distance between contour lines can be set from the Preferences screen (available through Options). The lowest contour is the 250 feet line, and this is always drawn, whatever the interval setting. Rivers and Lakes Self-explanatory. Roads Self explanatory. Railways Self-explanatory. Power Lines Self-explanatory. Structures Symbol for buildings, bridges or embankments Airfields The runway layouts of the airfields themselves are always shown on the map, with the active runways distinguished by colour. This button acts only to turn the airfield name label on or off. ILS Coverage If your aircraft is within the ILS symbol and pointing in the general direction of the runway, your ILS (Instrument Landing System) will be active, and you may use it either to make an automatic approach or to guide a manual approach. Flightplan (Current) When a preset mission is loaded, your flightplan will be shown. At Campaign level and higher, this indicates the flightplan (among several) which you are currently reviewing or altering. Where the flightplan shows a change of course as you leave one waypoint and turn toward the next, a curve will be drawn. How smooth a curve you see is selectable from the Preferences Screen (accessible through "Options"), because drawing a large number of smooth Curves can be a heavy burden on slower computers. Flightplan (Other) When more than one flightplan is shown on the map, the ones which you are not currently reviewing or editing will be shown in a different colour. Category Flag This symbol issued by the Target Finder facility to highlight all potential targets in a particular category, for example road bridges, control towers, stores dumps etc. This feature is useful for the "Free Fire" Mission and at Campaign or Command Level. If you use the "Targets" button to call up the Target Finder this feature will be turned on automatically, and when you close it again this switch will return to its previous state, whether on or off. If the Category Flag is enabled in the key, the category symbols will still be shown even if the Target Finder is dismissed. Priority Flag This symbol is used by the Command Target Priority facility to highlight positions which are important targets for one reason or another. This feature is only used at Command level. Like the Category Flag, this feature will be turned on automatically when the Target Priority system is in use, and restored to its previous state afterwards. The other buttons along the bottom edge of the strip, are "split" buttons. Each is divided into three areas. These comprise the allied and enemy versions of the same symbol and the area below containing the legend text. Enemy symbols will normally appear in orange and allied in blue (check with the Technical Supplement for your machine if they don`t). Clicking on the symbol areas has just the effect you would expect - display of the allied or enemy symbols is turned on or off individually. Clicking below in the text area, however, INVERTS the selection state of both allied and enemy symbols at once - it gives you the exact opposite of what you have at the moment. In other words, if both allied and enemy symbols are off, clicking below will turn both on, clicking again will turn both off, but if, say, allied are on and enemy are off, clicking below will turn allied off and enemy on. From left to right the buttons are: AA Threat Areas known to be covered by AAA or SAMs are shown like this. The area shown illustrates the maximum effective range of the system deployed, and does not take account of terrain masking or range variation with altitude. Positions are not guaranteed to be precisely accurate. EWR Coverage Shows areas within theoretical range of Early Warning Radar stations. Does not take account of terrain masking - but you can get this information from the Flightplan Profile Window (see below), or from the Point Data Window. CAP Area Indicates a fighter CAP (Combat Air Patrol) area. Enemy positions are estimated, allied positions should be exact. This should give you some idea of where you might expect to find help or opposition. AWACS Track Shows the exact (allied) or estimated (enemy) "racetrack" which an AWACS aircraft flies when on station. Note that the enemy AWACS flies a figure of eight rather than a plain oval. AWACS is not always available to either side but when it is, interceptors will function more efficiently to defend the side(s) possessing it. The AWACS aircraft itself is a very high value target. Ground Forces Standard military symbology for an armoured unit. This is placed at known locations of major ground force formations. On the battlefield, in close reserve or en route to the battle area. Unless you actually plan to attack them, stay away from these forces - they're usually heavily defended. Moving and Zooming the Map Moving around the map and zooming in or out are done with the mouse, using the RIGHT button. To move a point on the map to the centre of the screen, just point and click (right) on it. The map will be redrawn with the selected point in the centre of the screen. To zoom in or out, click (right) and hold down. A small strip of boxes corresponding to the zoom-levels available will appear under the mouse-pointer, with the pointer on the current zoom level. This works very much like the Options... button. Keep holding the mouse button down! You may go straight to any other zoom level you like by simply moving the mouse pointer over the appropriate box in the strip and releasing the (right) mouse button. All About Waypoints The flightplan for the mission you loaded has already been created for you, and should be visible on the map when zoomed out. If it isn`t, you must have turned it off from the Key window - so turn it back on (using the panel marked "Current Flightplan"). If you`ve worked through the Advanced Flying Training chapter then you`ve seen something like this on the navigator`s PLN display. It`s a series of lines connecting labelled symbols in the shape of boxes, circles and triangles, and will usually loop back to a place near its starting point. A flightplan is composed of Waypoints and Legs. Waypoints are fixed points, represented by the symbols between the line sections, and a Leg is simply the path between one Waypoint and the next. Legs usually start with a curve and terminate at the next Waypoint as straight lines. Waypoints come in several flavours: Take-off Point The Take off Point" which is always Waypoint A, is obviously at the airfield from which you take off. Turning Points Turning Points are simply places where you change course - these are by far the most common type. They are labelled with capital letters following on from A, and the planned flight passes through them in alphabetical order. Initial Points Initial Points are the Turning Points from which you start the attack run on a ground target. They are labelled in the same sequence as other Turning Points. Targets Targets are labelled with the letters X, Y and theoretically Z, for the first, second and (most unlikely) third planned targets of a mission. CAP Start This is used to set up a Combat Air Patrol station for ADV missions. The relative positions of this point and the next waypoint (the CAP End point) define an oval racetrack, for your aircraft to patrol while waiting to intercept incoming enemy aircraft. CAP End See CAP Start, above. ADV flightplans only. Approach Point The Approach Point should be placed at the end of one ILS beam of the airfield at which you intend to land - you can make the ILS beam coverage visible on the map using the Key. It is labelled in the same sequence as the Turning Points. A Waypoint must obviously have a position on the map, and be one of the types listed above. But it will also have a lot of other data (call them attributes) associated with it. Here is a list of all the possible attributes: Label All waypoints have labels. This will be a single letter of the alphabet starting with A (for the Take-off Point) and continuing in order through the alphabet, except for Target waypoints, which will be labelled X, Y and Z in sequence. Type This will show one of: Take-off Turning Point Initial Point for (Target Label) (IDS flightplans only) Target (IDS flightplans only) CAP Start (ADV flightplans only) CAP End (ADV flightplans only) Approach Point for (Airfield Name) Position Coordinates are displayed in the title bar of a waypoint window. Head/Tail Wind Only Take-off and Approach Points have this attribute. It gives the strength in knots of the component of the wind which is blowing from ahead (Head wind) or from behind (Tail wind) as you take off or land: if you`ve got a Tail wind component you`re taking off or landing in the wrong direction. This should not happen with preset missions unless you insist on editing the flightplan. If you want to do this - read section 2 of this chapter. Cross-wind Only for Take off and Approach Points. This is the strength in knots of the component of the wind which is blowing across the runway as you take off or land. A strong crosswind can make an approach and landing quite difficult. Time All waypoints show a Time and Time Status. For a Take-off point, this is the take-off time. For all other waypoints it is the time at which you expect, or plan to pass or attack this point. The Status will show "Free" "Fixed" or "Bound" Refer to the second section of this chapter for the meaning of these terms, how to set the Time value, and a stern lecture on the knots you can tie yourself into by using this feature without understanding it. Altitude Every Waypoint type except Take-off Points will also have an altitude / ride height, and an AFDS Altitude Authority attribute. If the Altitude Authority is set at "Altitude Hold" the AFDS system will fly the leg to this waypoint at the given BAROMETRIC altitude, i.e. height above sea level. If the Altitude Authority setting is "Ride Height" the AFDS system will fly the leg Terrain Following at the Ride Height given, i.e clearance above the ground beneath the aircraft. Refer to the next section of this chapter for the method of setting heights. Speed All waypoint types except Take-off show a Speed and Speed Status. This is the average speed at which it is necessary to fly the leg approaching this waypoint in order to arrive at the Time shown. You may choose to have this speed displayed as IAS (Indicated Air Speed), or Mach Number. The speed at a Waypoint will also determine the radius of the turn at the start of the Leg to the next Waypoint. The Speed Status may be "Free" "Fixed" or "Bound" Refer to the second section of this chapter for the meaning of these terms and the method of setting speed. Like Time setting, this is a feature which must be used carefully. Target Target waypoints only. Shown on the waypoint window Title bar next to the map coordinates. Describes the target, e.g. road bridge, HAS, runway etc. Package data: Weapon Delivery Salvo Minimum recommended delivery height Target waypoints only. These parameters specify the Package of weapons to be used in attacking this target, and how the Package is to be delivered. Your aircraft`s load of ground attack weapons is divided into groups called Packages intended for particular targets. Weapon Packages and weapons in general are covered in detail in the Weapons Conversion chapter. Salvo size (number of weapons in the package) and Minimum Safe Delivery Height (eg. 1000ft or above) are shown. Refer to the second section of this chapter to find out how to change these settings. All the waypoint types and their attributes are listed in the table below Position Altitude Time IAS/Mach Target Package Headwind Crosswind Take off * * * * Turning * * * * Cap Start * * * * Cap End * * * * Initial * * * * Target * * * * * * Approach * * * * * * Reading the Flightplan and Waypoint Data Clicking on the Map Screen button marked "Flightplan" brings up the Flightplan Window. This window breaks down into three horizontal strips. The top strip (the Tool Strip) contains buttons to call up subwindows showing individual waypoint data, a Summary or a Profile (side view) of the flightplan, or to split and reformate waypoints when planning for multi aircraft missions. The middle strip (the Waypoint Strip) shows a button corresponding to the label (A,B,....X... F,G etc) of each waypoint in the flightplan, allowing you to select one at a time and at the lower left end buttons appear for inserting and deleting waypoints when appropriate. The lowest strip, the Aircraft Strip, shows the mission number in the daily sequence, plus individual buttons for all the aircraft in the formation. Like the waypoints, the aircraft are distinguished by letters A, B, C, etc. If this seems confusing, don`t blame us, it`s standard RAF practice. Aircraft callsigns are determined simply by the mission number (starting again from 1 every day) and the phonetic alphabet equivalent of the aircraft`s letter within the formation, e g 003Alpha, 003Bravo etc. The Formation Leader (you) is always aircraft A, which will be the only letter shown if this is a mission for a single aircraft. While this window is on-screen, clicking on the map with the LEFT mouse button has the effect of placing a new waypoint at the mouse position, so be careful. If you do accidentally create a new waypoint, just click ONCE on the "Delete" button in the bottom row of the Flightplan window before you do anything else. Select a zoom level of 2x or 3x and if it`s not already highlighted, click once on the Waypoint Strip button labelled A. This will select waypoint A, highlight the button, and if the waypoint is off-screen the map will automatically be re-centred and re-drawn to show it. You can also select any waypoint and highlight its Waypoint Strip button by left clicking inside the waypoint symbol on the map. Now click once on the Waypoint button in the Tool Strip. An additional window. the Waypoint Window, will appear, giving detailed data for the selected waypoint, showing all the attributes appropriate for its type. You can also call up this window by double-clicking (clicking twice in quick succession) on the Waypoint Strip button or the map symbol. Since this is a Take-off Point, the Time given will be your planned take-off time. If you select Waypoint B, then C and so on, the Waypoint window will remain on screen, displaying data for each of the waypoints in turn. This way you can step through the entire flightplan quickly and easily, reviewing the data for each waypoint and seeing it on the map, at any zoom level you wish to select. You can dismiss or drag the Flightplan window or the Waypoint window using the close box and the title bar, but remember that you can`t create or drag waypoints unless the Flightplan Window is open. If you close the Flightplan Window, the Waypoint Window will automatically close as well. Flightplan Summary Window If you click on the "Summary" button in the Flightplan window, you will be presented with a sub-window which summarises the whole flightplan in terms of times and actions. This may be compared with the Briefing description. It also shows fuel requirements, total flying time, etc. Flightplan Profile Window Clicking on the "Profile" button in the Flightplan Window brings up the Profile Window - a wide shallow window showing all or part of your flightplan straightened out and viewed from the side, with the profile of the terrain beneath it. Any preset mission will always show a flightplan which is above ground at all points. Areas where the flightplan takes you underground will be shown as solid rectangles in a contrasting colour! Above the profile is a shallow horizontal bar which changes colour to show whether you are flying over Allied or Enemy territory at each point in the Profile. Along the lower edge of the window is a row of buttons like the Waypoint Strip in the Flightplan window, one for every waypoint in the current flightplan. The buttons for the waypoints define the section of your flightplan which will be shown in profile - the ones shown highlighted are currently visible in the Profile Window. A single mouse click on a button will extend or retract the left or right end of the highlighted strip (whichever is closer) to the selected button and waypoint. Double-clicking on a waypoint button will bring up a profile covering three waypoints only; the one you clicked on, and those on either side of it. When you first call up this window or when you use the waypoint buttons to change the section of Profile in view, the lines representing your flightpath, the terrain below and the "ownership" of that terrain will be drawn quite rapidly. Once these are complete, the flightplan section will be checked against known AA Threats, and vertical hatching will be shown wherever it intersects a threat circle. After this is done, another (usually broken) line will appear on the Profile display, drawn more slowly from left to right. This shows, for every point along the Profile section, the altitude above which you will probably be visible known enemy ground radars - so obviously your flightplan should keep you below it wherever possible. The reason why the line appears slowly is quite simple - the line-of-sight calculations needed to show this data take a LOT of processing power, but they are performed as a "background task", and will not prevent you from moving about the map, zooming in or out, dragging windows or performing any other function, though if you change the flightplan by placing dragging or deleting waypoints the profile will need to redraw from scratch. We would suggest that before flying any mission you step through all the waypoints in the flightplan, familiarising yourself with the route, the speeds, the targets and the attack modes at least. Another very good idea is to use the Key to turn on the AA Threat and EWR overlays before you do this. Though it may slow your display down, it will ensure that you`re aware of where the hazards are, where you can afford to swing wide of your planned track, and where you absolutely must stick to it to avoid the enemy`s defences. If you feel the urge to customise your flightplan we suggest that you first read Section 2 of this chapter, "Planning your own Missions". That section is intended to prepare you for Campaign play, but there is nothing to prevent you from revising preset Mission flightplans, or planning a "Free Fire" mission for yourself. Just remember that the success of the preset Missions will be judged solely by the effectiveness of your attack on the briefed target - so make sure that you attack it. Mission Rehearsal using Explore Mode Another advanced facility which may be of considerable use in preparing for the mission is the "Explore Mode" which is available in the usual way via the Options../Exit box. Using this, you can enter a detailed simulation of the Flying Area and move freely about in it, to familiarise yourself with targets and the surrounding terrain, or any other part of the route. See chapter 2 and the separate Control Summary for details of how to use Explore Mode. If you wish to explore a particular area, just right-click on that point to centre it on the Mission Planner map before entering Explore Mode. You will find yourself on that spot. Conversely, when you exit Explore Mode and return to the Mission Planner, the map will be centred on your last position in Explore Mode, so cross referencing between map and simulation is easy and convenient. Met. Report Before taking off, click on the Map Screen Button marked "Met. Report". This will open a window to give you a meteorological report, telling you about wind strength / direction and visibility conditions. For Simulator missions, some of these weather characteristics can be changed. Wind Shows bearing in degrees (the direction the wind is blowing FROM). This can never be changed. Wind Speed is given in knots. For Simulator missions you can select any one of a range of windspeeds by clicking repeated on the Cycle button beside the text. Outside the Simulator, the Cycle button will not appear, and the wind strength is not optional. Visibility Four visibility conditions are possible; Light Cloud Only, Overcast, Fog and Thick Fog. Overcast is a thick continuous layer of cloud. When there is Fog there will always be an overcast as well. In the Simulator you can select any of these four conditions by using the Cycle button beside the text. Cloud Base and Tops figures are also shown in feet, and these cannot be changed. Effects of Weather on the Mission Wind This will mainly affect the length of your take-off and landing run, and the difficulty of your approach. We've already discussed these problems in the Advanced Flying Training chapter. The wind will rarely be so obliging as to blow directly along the runway available, so the idea is to take off and land in a direction which gives you a head-wind component rather than a tail-wind component. If you call up the Waypoint window for the Take-off or Approach Waypoints, you will see that the data for these waypoint types includes Head (or Tail) wind and Cross wind speeds. Any sensible arrangement of waypoint B (which governs take off direction) and the Approach Point (which determines landing direction) will show a Head-wind rather than a Tail-wind. The strength of the Cross wind component will largely determine the difficulty of the landing. Preset missions will always set up take-off and landing directions to take account of these factors, but be careful if you start modifying the flightplan. Cloud Obviously you can`t see through thick cloud, but neither can an infra red sensor or most lasers. This may degrade or utterly destroy the performance of heat-seeking missiles, but it will also defeat your TIALD (Thermal imaging and Laser Designator) cameras. Since laser guided bomb attacks can only be made using TIALD to designate the target. TIALD must be able to see the target if the attack is to succeed. Because you need to fly at about 23000` to give TIALD a wide enough field of view to track a target throughout an attack, this just can`t be done if there`s an overcast layer. Finally, the Stores Loading Check When you are satisfied that you understand the briefing, the flightplan, and any other relevant data, the last thing you must do is to verify that the aircraft is loaded with the correct weapons for the planned targets, add any defensive weapons desired (limited by weight and availability), and decide how much extra fuel you wish to carry. If a margin is available, or your targets cannot be planned, you can use the Payload Window to load weapons for attacks on targets of opportunity. The Payload Window The Payload window can be called up at any time by clicking on the Map Screen Button marked "Payload". This displays in diagrammatic form all possible external Stores and the aircraft hardpoints which can carry them, plus an indication of the fuel load, the total aircraft weight and the weight margin available. The ammunition tanks for your internal cannon will always be full at take-off, holding 180 rounds per gun. For IDS aircraft, four buttons on this window allow you to view and manipulate any one of the three possible weapon Packages, or the remaining (non-ground attack) stores. The buttons for weapon packages loaded for planned attacks will show X, Y, or Z. The contents of these packages cannot be changed except by changing the mission plan. If a package is empty or loaded for targets of-opportunity, the button will show a dash ("-"). The other button displays external stores which are not part of any weapon Package, like drop tanks, AIM9Ls and defensive pods and allows you to load or unload them. ADV aircraft do not carry ground attack weapons, but can carry Sky Flash which the IDS cannot, so the Payload screen for an ADV mission will show far fewer options, and there is no need to distinguish between packages. Stores (weapons or other external loads) are listed down the left-hand side of the Payload window, with a line running horizontally to the right from each beneath the aircraft diagram. At the right-hand end of the line is a panel showing the number left in stock at your airfield. Vertical lines descend from the aircraft diagram at the top of the window representing the hardpoints to which stores can be attached. Where the vertical line from a hardpoint meets the horizontal line from a store, a symbol or a group of symbols may be shown, which we explain below. If no symbol is shown where the lines meet, then it means that the store is not compatible with the hardpoint. Each symbol means that one store can be fitted at this location. Where more than one symbol is shown at a junction, this means that either there is more than one hardpoint there and / or a carrier can be fitted to attach more than one store. Both of these cases apply to the left and right belly hardpoints, where up to four of many stores can be fitted there are two hardpoints and each can be fitted with a double carrier. Store/Hardpoint Symbology Symbol Meaning Store symbol A store in the current package (selected by clicking on a Package button) is fitted at this point. Greyed symbol A store in a different package (not the currently selected one) is fitted at this point. Raised button This point is available for this store within the current package Flush button This point is available for this store, but not within the current package. This is either because the type of store is inappropriate (e.g. drop tank in a ground attack package) or because it would violate the rule that each ground attack package must contain only one type of store. Sunken button It would be possible of it this store to this point. but only if you unload something else. If a target-of-opportunity package (or the "Other" package) is selected, stores may be loaded or unloaded by placing the mouse pointer on a Raised Button or a Store symbol and clicking with the left button. None of the other symbols will respond if you click on them. Two other buttons appear at the upper right of this window, under the Package selection buttons. These are marked "Standard" and "Clear Package". Clicking on the "Standard" button will set up a load that consists of weapon packages for planned targets, plus drop tanks as appropriate. The defensive pods and 2 AIM9L. All other stores will be removed. When you first call up the Payload window after loading or creating a mission, the aircraft will be loaded exactly the way the Standard button would do it. The Clear Package button will only be active if the currently selected package is NOT "X" "Y" or "Z". Clicking on this button will unload all stores in the currently selected package, except for external tanks if these are essential for the planned mission. Weight and Fuel At the upper left corner of the screen figures are shown for All-up Weight (aircraft plus all fuel and stores), Stores Weight (excluding fuel in drop tanks), Fuel Weight (including fuel in drop tanks), and Weight Margin, which is the difference between All up Weight and Maximum Take-Off Weight(MTOW). All of these weight figures are passive displays except for Fuel Weight, which can be used to load or unload fuel. Whenever a mission flightplan is loaded, created or changed, a minimum fuel requirement is automatically calculated for the distances and speeds specified, plus a fixed margin of 1500 kg. (3300 lbs.). This calculated minimum fuel weight will be shown as already loaded when you first open the Payload Window. If more fuel is required for the mission than the internal tanks can hold, then external tanks will be shown as fitted. If the external tanks are fitted then they will always be full, and internal fuel will always be topped up to maximum as well. When external tanks are NOT fitted, you can change your Internal fuel loading by means of the Fuel Weight display. Click on the digit of the Fuel Weight figure which you wish to change. This will cause buttons showing arrow symbols to appear below and above the digit. Click on the arrows to change the digit up or down. Click and hold down for rapid change. Digits above or below will be affected as the changing digit passes upwards through 9 or downwards through 0. To change a different digit, just click on that digit instead and the arrow buttons will move over. The arrow buttons can be dismissed altogether by clicking a second time on the digit between them. Using the arrow buttons you can increase the fuel quantity up to the maximum internal fuel figure. If you want more, this can only be done by loading full external tanks (in the "Other" package). If you reduce the fuel load to below the calculated minimum requirement, a small window called the Problems Window will automatically appear on the screen. Many different messages can and will appear in the Problems Window when you start to plan your own missions, but this one will say something like ERROR: 001 A - Not enough fuel for flightplan. This means what it says: you have too little fuel to fly the flightplan, and you won`t be allowed to take off until you`ve either loaded more fuel or replanned the route to reduce the fuel requirement. For more detail on the Problems Window, see the second section of this chapter. What to load? The "Standard. option" will always load certain items if there are hardpoints to take them. For the IDS these are the defensive pods (chaff and flare dispenser on the starboard outer wing pylon, ECM pod on the port outer), and a pair of AIM9L for self-defence, one on each inner wing pylon. Other stores may be loaded in these places, but think hard before you leave the defensive pods at home. If you do, you will have NO chaff or flares or ECM! This does not apply to the Tornado ADV, because all these items are internal on that aircraft. The AIM9L are more genuinely optional. Without them your only air to air weapon is the gun, but standard tactical doctrine for a Tornado IDS faced with an interceptor can be summed up in two words: Run away! On the other hand this means that you immediately grant the enemy a "mission kill" - you`re still alive" but your mission is dead. The decision is up to you, but because the weight and drag of the AIM9L are comparatively small we would suggest that you carry them unless you definitely need the stores points for something else, like ALARM. If you want to load these items for yourself, remember that you must click on the "Other" package button first. Another discretionary form of defensive armament (though sometimes these will be the weapons specified for your planned attack) would be ALARM anti- radar missiles to use in Direct mode against SAM or AAA threats in your way but these are fairly heavy, and you may not have suitable hardpoints free to carry them. If you do decide you want to take some, first click on any package button showing "-" to assign them to a package which is currently used. If there are free Packages, free stores points and a sufficient weight margin, you may if you wish load extra ground attack weapons for unplanned targets - Targets of Opportunity. Just click on a Package button showing "-", and add the weapons you want. All weapons in one Package must be of the same type The delivery mode for such a package will automatically be set to manual delivery, or its nearest equivalent for the weapon concerned, but it can be changed in the air using the Stores Management Display. See the Weapons Conversion chapter and / or the Aircrew Notes section on the Navigator`s Cockpit Layout for details of how to do this. Keep it in mind that a heavily loaded aircraft will handle more sluggishly and fly more slowly than an aircraft with a lighter load. An aircraft loaded near its maximum take-off weight will need careful, smooth flying to avoid stalling when flying at low speeds. Sometimes a maximum load is unavoidable, but don`t make a habit of taking all of your weight margin as extra fuel or weapons. Starting the Mission When you are satisfied that you have absorbed all the necessary information and that the aircraft is suitably loaded for the mission, you can click on the map Screen Button labelled "Take off". After a brief pause to download the flightplan to your aircraft, you will find yourself in the cockpit, on the runway, with immediate clearance to take off. Before you do so, be sure you have worked through the "Taking Off" section in the Elementary Flying Training chapter, or at the very least consulted the checklist given in the Aircrew Notes. Final Exercises Now that you can read the flightplan before you take off, we suggest that you try out the Bombing Range exercises available under the Trainig option. Remember that this is live flying, not like the Simulator. You can`t arrange for the aircraft to bounce off the ground, you must fly the aircraft at actual weight, and you can`t just blow up or shoot down anything that takes your fancy. The Debrief for the Bombing range exercises will include a score for accuracy (see the Debrief chapter for details). Once you`ve done these, try the Training exercises tagged "OCU" (Operational Conversion Unit), which simulate actual missions apart from enemy fire, then go back to the Simulator, where another more difficult and realistic set of OCU missions (plus air combat exercises) are available. Switch on enemy activity and as much realism as you can handle, then try these out against a simulated enemy, in all weathers. We cover how to use AFDS Track mode to follow an IDS flightplan in the advanced Flying Training chapter. For an ADV flightplan which may contain a CAP pattern. It`s very similar. Just take off and engage Track mode. The AFDS will fly you to the CAP Start and feed you into the pattern. If left under AFDS control the aircraft will loop between CAP Start and CAP End points until it runs out of fuel. You can break out of the rut by either disengaging the AFDS or using the "Skip to next waypoint" key to advance the selected waypoint past the CAP End point. There`s a Simulator OCU CAP mission which lets you try this out. When you can fly and survive the OCU missions against the worst the simulator can throw at you, you`re good enough to take your chances in Combat. Start with the single Mission options. You have three different War Zones to fight over, so it`ll take you some time to exhaust all these possibilities. Some of the missions are solo exercises, some of them involve coordinating with other aircraft - remember that timekeeping is just as important as accuracy. When you think that you`re getting the hang of it and you understand the tactical problems, move on to the next section and put your own ideas into practice. SECTION 2 - PLANNING YOUR OWN MISSIONS 2a 'FREE FIRE' and LEVEl 1 CAMPAIGNS This section assumes that you have read and understood all the instructions on basic use of the Mission Planner given in the preceding section. There are several ways to get started on planning missions for yourself. You can try editing some of the Simulator Missions for practice, and then go on to Combat or you can select "Mission" from the "Combat" screen, followed by either of the Missions titled "Free Fire" from the Selection Menu. When you arrive at the Mission Planner for a "Free Fire" mission there will be no preset mission plan at all, and it`s up to you to select a target, a patrol station or other obective and create a flightplan. Apart from the need to define your own objective and flightplan, a "Free Fire" mission works exactly like any other single mission, and is entirely self-contained. The Campaign option is the next step up, providing a connected series of missions set in a military situation which evolves over time. If you choose "Campaign" on the "Combat" screen, and one of the Level 1 Campaign scenarios you will see a bare outline of a mission which simply specifies an objective, rather than a complete flightplan. This outline is your Task for the next mission, and you must do all the detailed planning, then fly it. When (and if) you return from that mission your commander will present you with a new Task to plan and fly. The Campaign will last for as many missions as it takes to accomplish the Campaign objectives, or to lose the war, or until a stalemate is reached. When you need a break, you can exit from the Mission Planner to the Mission Selection Screen and save the current situation to reload and continue later. IDS missions in a campaign will have a variety of aims. They might be directed at reducing the enemy`s air-power (Counter-Air Operations), denying him the routes he needs to supply or move his ground forces (Interdiction Operations)., destroying other vital enemy installations (Attack Operations), or beating down AA threats to clear the way for further strikes (Defence Suppression). You may also be called upon to provide Close Air Support, attacking enemy ground forces actually on the battlefield. This will only happen if your side is in a truly desperate situation - and if it does, your chances of survival are not good. The best way to avoid this is to succeed in your primary missions. After each mission, the Task for the next will reflect your degree of success so far, and its effect on the military situation on the ground. At this level you don`t have to decide what to hit or when The Task specifies the time and the target, the nature of the target dictates the choice of weapon but it is up to you to decide how to reach the target, attack it and return with the maximum probability of success and the minimum risk. If you are trying out the "Free Fire" Missions, you can choose anything on the map as your target and you can land at any airfield you like, provided its allied, but you will always start at the same airfield. On the map you`ll see that the Take off waypoint A is already set, marking your position. Read, or suffer the consequences... This is not a threat, it`s a friendly warning. This section aims to cover all you need to know to create flightplans, though we can only give you general advice on tactics. Some of this material is relevant to Campaign play, some is only relevant to "Free Fire" missions. Which ever of these options you plan to try out, read all of this section first - once you start creating and editing missions you have enough freedom of action to screw up in a big way! It`s vital that you understand what you`re doing - you`ll soon discover that you won`t be allowed to take off if your flightplan doesn`t make sense. Turning a Task into a Flightplan When you select a Campaign scenario on the Mission Selection Screen, instead of the Briefing you would expect for a single mission you will see a summary describing the military situation at the time the Campaign starts. The title of the Campaign scenario itself should give you some clue as to what to expect. When you Commit and move to the Mission Planner, two differences should be seen: a) there is a flightplan laid out, but it`s just a skeleton, and b) the Map Screen Button which used to say "Briefing" is now titled "Task". Click on the Task button to see the Air Tasking Message - these are your orders. They will describe the type of mission in terms of role (Attack, Interdict, Counter-Air etc.), the type and callsigns of the aircraft taking part, the position and nature of the target(s), the type of weapon to be used and the time for the attack. Times may be specified as TOT (Time On Target), which must be achieved in order to coordinate with other activity, or as NLT (Not Later Than), which leaves you with some discretion. In Level One Campaigns, you will only need to create a flightplan for yourself, and the following paragraphs deal mainly with that situation, deferring the problems of multi-aircraft mission planning (Level Two Campaigns) till later. Problems, Warnings and Errors When you first see the skeleton flightplan of a new Task on the Mission Planner map, you`ll often notice a small window without a close box, titled "Problems". This appears because the Task outline as it stands is not a viable flightplan, and the planning support systems are automatically alerting you to the fact. The planning systems apply a set of rules to any flight plan to detect unreasonable situations such as unflyable course changes, impossible or improbable timings and speeds, or Initial Points too close to the target. When a flightplan bends or breaks these rules, the Problems window will automatically appear with a list of messages. These messages will start with either "ERROR" for a problem which must be fixed before you take off, or "WARNING" when the problem is not so serious as to completely invalidate the flightplan. You can either tackle these problems immediately or leave them until later, but you will not be permitted to download the flightplan and take off while any ERROR message appears in the list. Every message is tagged with the callsign (mission number plus letter) of the aircraft to which it applies: 003 A for example. This is done so that when you`re planning multi aircraft missions you know which message applies to which aircraft. Setting and Moving Waypoints If you are planning a "Free Fire" mission there will be only one waypoint on the map when you enter the Mission Planner - the Takeoff Point, where you and your aircraft are based. You will have to lay down all the other waypoints for the mission yourself. If you are starting a Campaign, an IDS Task outline will usually preset Target Waypoint(s), and an ADV Task will usually preset a CAP point, depending on the nature of the mission, plus an Approach Point. You will generally create your flightplan by inserting extra waypoints between the ones you are given, and then dragging them into position. Both operations are quite straightforward, and complications only arise when you place waypoints too close together, so for your initial experiments it is best if you keep waypoints spaced well apart. In order to start placing or moving waypoints you must first click on the Map Screen Button labelled "Flightplan" thus opening the Flightplan Window. Remember that a flightplan may have up to 15 waypoints, but no more. When the limit is reached, the system will refuse to create any more. Placing Waypoints Clicking anywhere on the map with the LEFT mouse button will place a new waypoint at that point, adding it to the end of your current flightplan. The new waypoint will be a Turning Point by default unless it is placed in the ILS coverage of an allied airfield, in which case it will be created as an Approach Point. Dragging Waypoints Place the mouse pointer crosshair on the symbol of the waypoint you wish to move and hold down the LEFT mouse button. While you hold the button down you may drag the waypoint about the map by moving the mouse. "Rubber Lines" will be drawn to show the new legs to and from the waypoint affected. When you release the mouse button the waypoint is "dropped" in its new position, and the legs to and from will be redrawn, together with the curve of the turn following the waypoint. Depending on how far you moved the waypoint, other legs and curves may also be affected. The smoothness or otherwise of the curve drawn can be adjusted on the Preferences screen. Note that dragging a waypoint also selects it (see below). Dragging a waypoint from place to place will not change its Type unless it enters or leaves the ILS coverage of an Allied airfield. A Turning Point dragged into ILS coverage can become an Approach Point, and an Approach Point dragged out of ILS coverage reverts to a plain Turning Point. Selecting waypoints A waypoint must be selected before certain operations can be performed upon it. The letter of the selected waypoint is highlighted in the Flightplan Window. Waypoints may be selected either by clicking on the appropriate letter in the Flightplan Window, or by clicking inside the appropriate waypoint symbol on the map. Deleting Waypoints The Delete button is not shown in the Waypoint Strip of the Flightplan Window unless it`s permissible to delete the selected waypoint. Clicking on this button deletes the selected waypoint, as you`d expect, and causes waypoints later in the flightplan to be relabelled as necessary. Earlier and later curves and legs may be affected by the deletion. Waypoint A can never be deleted. When working with a flightplan for multiple aircraft, only formation waypoints may be deleted. Inserting Waypoints The Insert button is not shown in the Waypoint Strip of the Flightplan Window unless it`s possible to insert a new waypoint BEFORE the currently selected one. New waypoints are inserted halfway between existing ones, and must be dragged to their desired positions. Waypoints after the insertion point will be relabelled as necessary. Waypoints cannot be inserted if all 15 available waypoints are already used. When working with a flightplan for multiple aircraft, insertions can only be made in legs common to all aircraft in the formation. Turning Circles As you should already know, the planning system plots a curve after each waypoint, leading into the straight leg towards the next. The radius of the curve is governed by the Speed set for the adjacent waypoint and the control authority of the AFDS system: the faster the speed, the wider the turn. When you are dragging waypoints about, the legs to and from the waypoint are drawn as "rubber lines" but the curve is not drawn (this is to Speed up the screen redraw). However, the turning circle calculations are still performed and the lengths and directions of the legs are accurate. Because the direction INTO the next waypoint is changed, the curve out of that waypoint will change also, affecting the direction into the next, and so on. The effects will ripple on through the flightplan for a greater or lesser distance depending on how large a change you made, but you will not see the ripple effect until you drop the waypoint in place and the legs affected are redrawn. For this reason, if you wish to control the precise direction of more than one leg in a flightplan (e.g. for a JP.233 attack run or an approach for landing) it is best to lay out all the waypoints first, then precisely place the Target Waypoint(s), select weapon(s) and delivery mode(s), set any fixed Speeds (and/or times) and only then to work through the flightplan in order from start to finish dragging waypoints to set direction, so that changes rippling forward affect only the legs which you have not yet adJusted. Two kinds of problem can arise when you place two waypoints too close together. The first of these problems can affect any pair of waypoints, and happens when the second waypoint is INSIDE the diameter of the turning circle curve from the first. Diagram 5.7 shows that this means it is quite impossible for the aircraft ever to reach the second waypoint by turning towards it - instead it will circle until you use the Next Waypoint key to skip the offending waypoint. Not only will this type of error be flagged in the Problems Window (e.g. "WARNING: OO1A - C too close to B.), but the curve will not be drawn and the preceding and following legs will meet at the waypoint as straight lines. The second type of problem affects only Initial Points and Targets. The planning system calculates how far back from the target the weapon will be released, and demands that you must have time to line up on a straight attack run before you reach the release point (or the pull-up point for a Loft attack). This type of problem will be flagged in the Problems Window (eb. "WARNING. 002A - IP too close to X"). Target Waypoints and Attacks We`ve now covered the procedure for placing Turning (or Approach) waypoints, but position is only one of the attributes of a waypoint. Many of the other attributes (Time, Speed, Altitude etc.) can also be adjusted as necessary, and the Target Waypoint is the type which most often requires tinkering of this sort, as well as the setting up of the weapons Package for the attack. Because it`s the most critical type of waypoint, we`ll cover its set-up in detail, though you won`t need to perform this entire operation from scratch unless you are planning a "Free Fire" mission or playing at Command level. Creating and Placing a Target Waypoint (IDS only). The accurate placement of a Target Waypoint is obviously critical. The first problem is to identify the target on the map. Assuming that you know what type of target you want to hit and roughly where it is, centre the map on the approximate position and place a standard Turning Point waypoint there. There are two ways of doing this: one is to call up the Point Data Window and explore with the mouse pointer, the other is to use the Target Finder, which can also be useful for choosing targets in the first place. Click on the Map Screen Button labelled Targets, which calls up a window showing two lists. Click on an item in the left list to select a category of target (Military, Transport etc.). The right list will change to display a list of individual types of target in the selected category (e.g. Hangar, Hardened Munitions Store etc.). Click on the type which describes your target. Every target of that type on the map will now be marked by the Category Flag symbol, helping you pick out your intended target from other buildings in the same area. Category Flag symbols will be shown on the map while the Target Finder window is open regardless of whether or not Category Flags are turned on in the Key. When you close the Target Finder window, the Category Flag symbols will disappear unless they are enabled by the Key. Drag your intended Target waypoint (still a Turning Point at this stage) to the target and drop it there. Now call up the Waypoint Window if it isn`t already open. At the left end of the line displaying the waypoint. Type is a button showing a small circular symbol. This is a Cycle button, used to cycle through a range of alternative options. As you can see, there are many other buttons of this type in a Waypoint Window. Click once on the Type Cycle button. The waypoint Type changes from Turning Point to Target, the label changes to X, Y or Z, the Waypoint Window expands and acquires the extra displays necessary to define the weapon Package, and the waypoint symbol on the map changes shape and "snaps" to the intended target. Whenever you change a Turning Point into a Target waypoint, the waypoint will snap to the exact position of the nearest object. If Category Flag display is enabled, it will snap to the nearest flagged object. The "snapping" feature can be disabled by holding down the Alt key while dragging the Target Waypoint The Turning Point before the Target will automatically change to an Initial Point. The planning systems will also select a default weapon Package based on the type of Target, but if you like you may change this. To select a Weapon type just click on the desired button in the Weapon display. If the weapon type has more than one possible delivery mode you may choose from the available options by clicking repeatedly on the Cycle button at the left of the Delivery display. At the right of the Delivery display is the Safety Height Button; clicking on this sets the waypoint Altitude to the minimum safe height. Below this is the Salvo Size display, showing how many weapons there are in the Package. The Cycle button beside it can be used to select a size of 1, 2 or 4 weapons, depending on the type. The button to the right shows the recommended salvo size for the recommended weapon, and clicking on this will set that figure. Setting up a CAP Station (ADV only) The "typical" ADV Combat Air Patrol mission involves taking off, flying to a given position and altitude, and then flying round and round in a "racetrack" pattern waiting to intercept enemy aircraft. In order to set up a CAP mission, create a skeleton flightplan (if it`s not provided) and place a Turning point roughly where you want each end of your racetrack pattern to be. Space them fairly well apart to start with. Now select the first of these two waypoints and call up the Waypoint Window. Click on the Cycle button for the waypoint Type, and it will change to "CAP start". This will automatically convert the next Turning Point into a "CAP End" and you should see the leg between the two change into a circuit with rounded ends - your CAP pattern. Normal practice would be to line the racetrack up so that the long axis points in the general direction of the enemy. This means that on one of the two "straights" you`re pointing your radar (set for maximum range) in the direction from which you expect business, on the other you`re mainly watching your Radar Warning Receiver, and at the ends you sweep the airspace on either side of the pattern. Once a CAP pattern is set in a flightplan you will not be allowed to change the types of any other waypoints, though you can still insert, delete or drag points as usual. You can still go back to the CAP Start point and change it back to a "Turning Point" though. This will also change the End point and give each Turning Point an active Type Cycle button again. Times of waypoints after a CAP pattern are obviously fairly meaningless you don`t know how long you`ll be waiting there. Altitude For normal air-to ground operations the Altitude Authority Mode shows "Ride Height" and the value set is 200 (feet), so that if the aircraft is under AFDS Track mode control it will fly these legs terrain-following at 200 feet. We have just mentioned the button which copies the minimum Safe Height for the selected weapon type into the Altitude fire but in fact you can set up any feasible combination of Authority Mode and value. Clicking on the Cycle button at the left of the display changes the mode from "Ride Height" to "Altitude Hold" or vice versa. When changing from "Altitude Hold" to "Ride Height" the altitude figure will "snap" to the nearest valid setting which is available for terrain following (200, 300, 400, 500, 750, 1000 or 1500 feet). If you have selected "Ride Height" and you want to change the actual height value, click on the button showing the value itself. This will call up two buttons showing arrows, one above and one below the figure. Clicking on the upper arrow button will change the height figure to the next valid ride height UP (if any), and clicking on the lower arrow button will change to the next valid height DOWN. Clicking on either button and holding the mouse button down will cause the figure to change rapidly. Clicking again on the figure itself will dismiss the arrow buttons. If you select "Altitude Hold" as the "Altitude Authority Mode" each digit of the altitude figure will appear as a separate button. Clicking on any of these will call up arrow buttons to change one digit at a time up or down. Note that a "carry" will affect the next digit to the left or right as you change any one digit up past 9 or down past 0. If you`re planning legs set for Altitude Hold, don`t forget to check the Flightplan Profile Window to make sure that you`re not proposing to fly through hills. The planning system will check your altitude on the Attack run against the minimum Safe Height for weapon release, and issue a WARNING if its set too low. If you`re going to fly the attack run manually you can ignore the warning and run in as low as you like provided that you`re at a safe height (for horizontal distance) by the time your bombs explode. Times and Speeds If you`ve been trying out these procedures as you go, you may have noticed that when you change a waypoint`s Type from Turning Point to Target, the Speed setting for the Target Waypoint changes to a higher figure, depending upon the weapon type selected. The system uses two default values for speed, 420 knots as a standard cruise, and 550 knots as a standard speed for attack runs; and it will normally calculate waypoint times using these values. If you wish, however, you may set any feasible speed value you want for any leg, and if you do the Speed status will change from "Free" to "Fixed". "Fixed" status means that the planning systems will juggle other times and speeds which have "Free" status as much as necessary in order to ensure that you can fly your attack run at this speed and still maintain your timetable. If a Time On Target (TOT) is specified in the Tasking Message, it would be normal for the time at the Target waypoint to be set as "Fixed" too. Regardless of what the Tasking Message specifies this should be mandatory if more than one aircraft is involved "In the operation" though each aircraft`s TOT may be different by a few seconds, Times and Speeds are closely bound together, so it makes sense to deal with both at once. Time and Speed status can be changed using the Cycle buttons at the left of their respective display lines, but it would be more common to change the actual Time or Speed value first, which will automatically change a "Free" status to "Fixed". Changing the Speed value is done just like changing the Altitude value, by clicking on a digit and then using the arrow buttons. Use the Cycle button to the left of the value to change the speed representation between Knots, IAS and Mach Number, whichever is more convenient. The Time value is changed in a similar way, except that here there are buttons for hours, minutes and seconds rather than for the individual digits. Time and Speed Problems A waypoint`s Time is the planned time of arrival (and / or departure) at that waypoint. The Speed is the average speed over the preceding leg of the flightplan which will get you there at that time. Speed at a waypoint is also used to calculate the radius of the turn on to the next leg, so you`d better wait till you`re on the straight run to the next waypoint before you accelerate or decelerate Calculating the Times and Speeds by hand and making them fit together would be very tedious, time-consuming and error-prone, so the planning systems will automatically recalculate and check all Times and Speeds every time a waypoint is created, moved or deleted. The system is very capable, it saves you a great deal of work, and it won`t create impossible timetables unless you flatly order it to - and even then it will use the Problems Window to inform you that you are asking for the impossible or the unlikely. We`ve tried to make this system as intelligent and easy to use as possible, but the laws of physics impose a number of irksome restrictions, given that we`re simulating a Tornado rather than a Time Machine. It`s easy to be carried away by the possibilities of the scheduling system - and if you are, you run the risk of ending up in a straitjacket, one way or another. You need an appreciation of what`s possible and what isn`t. Let`s assume that we have a target (X) ten nautical miles away from its Initial Point (call it D). The Time at X is 12:00:00 Fixed Speed is 600 Knots Fixed (see diagram 5.9). If you were to look at the Waypoint data for D, you`d find the Time at D showing as 11:59:00 Bound, and you would be unable to change status or value directly, though the Time would change if you dragged D to a different position. Whats going on? The Speed of 600 knots for the leg D X dictates exactly how long it should take to fly the distance from D to X: at 600 knots you`ll cover the 10 nautical miles from D to X in 1 minute. That means that you MUST pass D at 11:59:00 - no other answer is possible unless you start allowing for variable speeds over the leg. That would open up a can of worms which we would prefer to keep firmly shut. That`s why the Time status at D is "Bound". There is another variant of the same problem. If you Fix the Times of two adjacent waypoints, the Speed for the leg between them (the one given for the second waypoint) becomes Bound; it is dictated absolutely by the Times and the distance between the waypoints. The best way to avoid creating problems for yourself is to Fix Times and Speeds only when necessary and most of the time it`s not necessary, under normal circumstances the only Time in a mission which needs to be fixed is the Time-On-Target, and the only legs where Speed need be fixed are legs where you have no choice but to cross defended zones. Tactics for Mission Planning We`ve now covered the mechanics of manipulating waypoints in the Mission Planner, but the really important question is; what to do with them? What you should be trying to achieve is the most effective attack possible with the minimum risk. It`s time to look at tactics. Assuming that you know what your target is, you can either accept the weapons package which is given in the Tasking Order or selected automatically by the planning systems, or you can use your own judgement to find some alternative type of attack which will increase your accuracy or decrease your risk or ideally both. To make this sort of judgement for yourself you`ll need to be familiar with all the weapons, their capabilities, their delivery modes and the sort of accuracy achievable with each. The best and safest way to acquire a feel for the subject is to practise intensively in the Simulator. Assessing the risks, however, really requires practical live experience of trying to penetrate enemy territory, defend yourself and deliver attacks under fire. You`ll have to acquire this experience for yourself, but we`ll try to give you some idea of the questions you should be asking yourself: Choosing the Axis of Attack The direction in which you make your attack may largely determine its success, for several reasons. Your direction of approach should to strike the best possible compromise between three demands which frequently conflict with one another: 1: The ideal Attack Run on a defended target is the one which overflies no AA threats and uses the terrain to mask you from the target defences until the last possible moment. 2: In any unguided bomb or dispenser attack, the salvo or the submunitions have the greatest probability of landing in an area or "footprint" which is relatively long in your direction of flight and relatively narrow from side to side (see diagram 5.11). The ideal Attack Run will exploit this effect to maximise the chance of destroying something worthwhile. The simplest example of this is a JP233 attack on a runway. If your Attack Run takes you over the runway along its length, or (even better) at a small angle to it, almost all of the submunitions will fall on the runway, making the maximum number of holes in it. If you make your attack at right angles across the runway, a much smaller proportion of the submunitions will fall on the runway itself, and most will be wasted. Military installations, especially airfields, are frequently laid out in such a way as to avoid concentrating too many targets in a straight line, but it will almost always be possible to identify good and bad directions for an attack. 3: The ideal Egress Run from a target is the one offering the fastest way back into cover, leading to the quickest safe exit from enemy territory. Routing to and from the target area Having set up the Target Waypoint and the waypoints immediately before and after it, the next thing to do is to construct the rest of your route from take off to Initial Point, and then back to the airfield at which you intend to land. Creating the waypoints to do this is easy using the Insert button, and you can drag the resulting waypoints about the map at will. The problem is deciding where to put them. Here are some of the factors which should affect your decisions: AA Threats: Many if not all of the enemy`s AAA and SAM sites will be known, and also the effective ranges of the weapons there. It`s obviously not a good idea to fly within range of these if you can avoid it. You can use the Key to command the display of the relevant threat circles, showing the areas to avoid. If at all possible you should also avoid any area where there is large scale ground fighting in progress, or indeed any area where enemy ground forces are thought to be present in large numbers. Remember that unless your intelligence is perfect, you don`t know the position of every last threat, and the positions of the ones you do know about can`t usually be given with absolute precision the threats are mobile, and its in the enemy`s interests to move them about from time to time. Be wary of narrow gaps between threat circles - the gap may not exist in real life. When trying to assess where unknown defences are most likely to be placed, ask yourself where the potential targets are. If it`s obviously worth your while to attack it, it should be equally obvious to the enemy that he needs to defend it. Radars. The positions of the enemy Early Warning Radar stations are known together with their coverage. You can use the Key to show the estimated coverage. An estimated floor, of radar coverage - the height below which you must fly to avoid detection by ground radars - is also available in the Profile window for your route, or the Point Data window for any point on the map, but this is only an approximate value. If you want to postpone detection and the resulting interception by enemy fighters for as long as possible, you should a) stay as low as reasonably possible, and b)stay in hilly areas as much as possible, to obtain the best masking effect. The Profile window is especially useful in minimising your chances of detection. If the enemy has an AWACS aircraft on station, you must assume that he can see you almost anywhere. Fighters. If the enemy can track you, he will dispatch fighters to intercept if he can - or you might simply cross the path of a standing fighter patrol. You can use the Key to show likely enemy CAP (Combat Air Patrol) stations, where Fighters circle ready to be directed to intercept intruders like yourself. If this data is reasonably reliable, it will give you a feeling for the likely speed of the enemy`s response if and when he detects you. More rarely, fighters might be scrambled from readiness on the ground to intercept you, but this gives a much slower response and is therefore less dangerous - unless the enemy saw you coming from a long way off. Distance Flying at maximum weight, especially in enemy airspace, is to be avoided if at all possible. The length of your route, the load you carry, and the speeds at which you plan to fly will all influence your fuel requirement. Therefore the distance factor must be balanced against the others given above. The estimated fuel consumption for the flight is shown in the Analysis window. Selecting Take-off and Landing Direction Call up the Met. Report and study the wind strength and direction. Now set up the first waypoint after take-off (inserting a new one if necessary) so that you will be taking off with a head wind component. See diagram 5.13 for an explanation of how the direction of the first leg dictates which runway you will be set up to use. As for landing; the Approach point specified in the Task will normally be set up to land you into wind, and you will not need to change this unless you wish to land somewhere else (see below). Landing away from base If the distance you have to fly becomes excessive, you might consider planning to land at another allied airfield This is always possible, as in the case of diversion for an emergency landing. The only penalty for this is that during a Campaign the time required for the ferry flight back to your operating base will delay the start of your next mission. When you return to the Mission Planner your aircraft will be shown at its base airfield - the time for the ferry flight will already have been added to the clock. If you have to make an emergency landing on a road in Allied territory, you can be back at your base with a time penalty of no more than a few hours, but it may take a day or more to return your aircraft to the flight line. If reserve aircraft are available you`ll notice no change in your strength, but if your reserves are depleted then your strength will be reduced temporarily. The same effect may be observed when your aircraft returns damaged and needs repair, or when heavy losses in the air or on the ground outstrip the rate of replacement. Relocating to another airfield As the campaign progresses, your commander may decide to base you at a different airfield. This decision could be prompted by a variety of factors. For example, your current base might be threatened by an enemy advance or badly damaged by air attack, your priority targets might be clustered on the other side of the map, or enemy action might have disrupted the supply system in the base area. When the order comes to do this, the Air Tasking Message will conclude with a line like "Relocating to Allied 3" and the skeleton flightplan will show a landing at the new base. Landing anywhere else will incur the ferry-flight delay. SECTION 2b - LEVEL TWO CAMPAIGNS At this level you are responsible for creating flightplans for your whole formation of Tornados and selling up coordinated attacks. This section assumes that you have masytered the process of mission planning for a single aircraft. A Task at this level will normally prescribe an attack on a large enemy installation an airfield, for example - assign targets to each aircraft and specify a Time on Target. It will be your responsibility to set up the individual attacks and their precise timing. Here is a list of basic principles for achieving a successful coordinated attack: 1 : Concentration in Time. No-one reacts instantly: it always takes time to grasp the situation and work out a response. This is true of AAA and SAM crews and also of their equipment it takes time to slew and elevate a gun barrel or a launcher, and time to defeat your ECM. If your entire attack is compressed into the space of a few seconds with no advance warning you may be gone almost before the enemy has started shooting. If your attack consists of four aircraft making separate passes in sequence, the first aircraft through may escape undamaged but the rest will almost certainly be shot to pieces. Even if you don`t achieve complete surprise, you can still hope to saturate the defences. The idea here is that you have many guns shooting at many different aircraft rather than many guns shooting at one aircraft at a time. 2: Dispersion in space. So you set up your attack with four Tornados making a single fast sweep over the target in tight formation. You`re in and out in thirty seconds or less, but everybody gets hit. What went wrong? This should be obvious - all the defences were shooting in the same general direction at the same time. The enemy can concentrate all his firepower on the small volume of space which contains all of your aircraft, and stands an excellent chance of hitting something, even if it wasn`t what he was aiming at. If you send the aircraft in from many different directions at the same time, you divide the enemy`s fire and reduce his chances of scoring a hit. 3: Go for the defences first, and do it from as far away as possible. ALARM`s Indirect mode was designed for situations like this, but when the weapon is "loitering" there may be quite a delay between the time when the defence radars turn on, and the time the missile hits them. You may need to provoke the defenders into turning on their radars BEFORE the strike arrives but if you`re going to alert them it would not be a good idea to concentrate their attention in the direction from which the main strike is approaching. Another "stand off" tactic would be to pop up far enough to see the defences on your ground radar, designate them as targets-of-opportunity, and then perform a loft attack on them. The main difficulty here is in identifying defences on the radar display, which can only be done on the basis of their positions around the field. It is standard practice to set up AAA close to each end of a runway to give the sites a minimum-deflection shot against a runway cratering attack, but SAM launchers may be harder to spot. Obviously a single attack of this type can only hope to take out a single site, but this might be a good way of achieving the object stated above - shocking the enemy into activating his search and weapon radars so that ALARM can home on them. If you have to provide a visible threat in order to attract his attention, it might as well be a real one. 4: Try to avoid blowing each other up. This should be obvious, but it's well worth repeating. Don't set up the attacks so that one aircraft flies through the debris hemisphere of another`s bombs. Assume that a 1000 lb bomb has a debris hemisphere of 1000-feet (305 m) radius, and that a separation of 200 feet (61 m) is adequate for all other weapons. You can estimate distances using the coordinate displays on the Target Waypoint and Point Data windows - the coordinate values are in tens of metres. While you`re at it, try to anticipate and avoid potential collisions. You can achieve separation by varying approach direction, altitude or Time-On-Target (but only within a couple of seconds either way - see next point). 5: Be on time. If you`re not, not only will you waste all your planning, but the risk will be increased for every aircraft involved, as you sacrifice one or more of the principles given above. Arriving on schedule is the responsibility of the individual aircrew, but it`s up to you as planner to ensure that the mission timetable has enough slack in it to survive minor mishaps and diversions. As with all "wish lists" of this sort, it may be difficult or impossible to achieve all of these objectives at once. You`ll have to decide for yourself how to strike the balance between them. The enemy's disposition and level of awareness will determine just how much you can get away with. Flightplans for Formations At Campaign Level Two, when you enter the Mission Planner you will see a Task outline, just as at Level One. For most of any Flightplan, all your aircraft will be flying the same route in a widely spaced formation, and their individual waypoints, legs and times are automatically generated at an offset from the formation leader. Approaching the Target, the formation will split as aircraft diverge to their individual Initial Points to start their separate Attack Runs on different targets. Each aircraft will then follow its own Egress Run until the formation reforms at a set rendezvous, with timings and speeds set up so that all aircraft arrive simultaneously at their correct positions. They then follow a common route (with automatically staggered Waypoints and Times) back to the airfield for landing. In a Formation Flightplan there will be one button in the Aircraft Strip of the Flightplan Window for each aircraft in the formation A is the Formation Leader - you. Clicking on an aircraft letter selects that aircraft's flightplan for viewing and editing. All aircraft in a formation will have exactly the same number of waypoints and legs in their flightplans. Some will be formation waypoints, where the Formation Leader`s waypoint automatically determines the position of the corresponding waypoint for every other aircraft currently in the formation. Others are independent waypoints, where each aircraft`s position and all other waypoint attributes can be set individually, within certain limits. Limitations on Waypoint Editing Insertion or deletion of waypoints can only be done when the waypoints or legs affected are common to all the aircraft in the formation. Buttons for functions not allowed for the current waypoint will be disabled. This is why the skeleton flightplan generated for a multi-aircraft mission includes a Turning Point between Take-off and Target, and another between Target and Approach Point. If these waypoints were not included you`d find it much less conveinient to insert new waypoints in the flightplan - don`t delete them. Split and Formate The right most button in the Tool Strip of the Flightplan Window will show two alternative legends according to the nature of the currently selected waypoint - "Split" or "Formate". When the selected waypoint is a formation waypoint, it will show "Split" and clicking on the button will make this into an individual waypoint for all aircraft in the formation. You`ll be able to see the effect of this on the map since the individual waypoints will automatically spread out from the original position. Each independent waypoint will be of the same Type (Turning Point or Target) as the formation waypoint which was split to produce them. All other waypoint attributes except position will also be inherited. You can now use the buttons in the Aircraft Strip of the Flightplan window to select the flightplan of any aircraft in the formation. Each aircraft`s independant waypoints may be dragged about or edited in any way you like, provided that it`s physically possible for each aircraft to fly its independent track and rejoin the formation on time at the next formation waypoint. If you`re asking for the improbable or the impossible, you`ll see a WARNING or ERROR in the Problems window. This obviously adds another kink to the problem of "Bound" Times and Speeds, but once again the problem is inherent in the situation, and you`ll have to learn to handle it by experiment. When the selected waypoint is an independent waypoint, the button will show "Formate". Let`s say that your currently selected waypoint is D, an independant waypoint, and you`ve selected aircraft B`s flightplan. Clicking on "Formate" will turn D into a formation waypoint at the same position. The formation waypoint attributes will be inherited from the original independent waypoint. This system of setting all waypoint attributes from the one selected to split or formate upon is intended to save you time and trouble. For example: at Command level you`ll be creating flightplans for multiple aircraft attacks from scratch, and the inheritance system means that you can create one target waypoint for the formation, then split it into as many independant target waypoints as you have aircraft. If we didn`t support this, you`d need to change the type of every independant waypoint by hand! As ever, every silver lining has a cloud. The skeleton flightplan automatically generated from the Tasking Message will give every aircraft an identical Time- On-Target. If the targets are closely spaced, this would result in your aircraft blowing one another up. As we suggested above, you will need to adjust direction, altitude and time of attack to ensure that this doesn`t happen. EnD oF PaRt oNe....