Flight Tutorial 6

[MikeJ19]

Having finally successfully completed Flight Tutorial 5 a couple of times, I have moved onto the sixth in the series. I'm having trouble with a couple of things.

1. I have two UAVs and want to use one. They are available when I go to move them into the units assigned to mission box. But once I assign a mission to them, they turn red with "Ferry" being highlighted. This has also happened some times with the F16s.

2. I had three pairs of fighters flying CAP. After engaging a pair of enemy fighters, one pair status switches to RTB. I'm not sure why this is happening - I have not noticed it in earlier tutorials. I changed the doctrine setting under Air Ops weapon state RTB to No. However they are still RTB - see picture below. Any ideas of why?

Final question for now. I tried in a different tutorial to change the mission activation time - thinking that this might let me set when planes would take off - but it did not seem to do that. Any ideas?

Thanks,

[Cik]

the RTB state is sticky. you will have to unassign them from the mission and then re-assign them.

they are going RTB because their doctrine says to use the loadout to determine it's weapon state RTB- the mission state RTB for many loadouts for 4th gen+ fighters will be "shotgun, one engagement then RTB" thus, once the F-15s conclude their engagement, they will disengage from their patrol area and RTB.

in order to prevent this from happening, you need to set their doctrine at the side, mission, or group level to be "shotgun, all BVR weapons have been expended, disengage immediately" at which point they will check out of their CAP when they are out of AMRAAMs, and/or they reach their bingo fuel condition.

[MikeJ19]

Cik,

Thanks, this is very helpful and I will give it a try.

Have a good day,

[SirAndrew]

Hello Mike!
As Cik wrote, to cancel the RTB order you have to unassign (press U) and then reassign those units.
If you want to change the RTB Settings, the Air Ops section of the Doctrine Window is where you need to look. The 4 Weapons and Fuel Settings there are the ones that determine when a flight or airplane will RTB.

I've tested the tutorial and the UAVs seem to work fine. What mission you assigned them to?
They should be assigned to a Patrol mission, but I've just tested them and they take off even for an AAW Patrol.
What may be blocking them is that they have two different loadouts and the default setting for an AAW Patrol is two-ships formations (you can change that in the Mission page, it's in the middle of the first column) and "Enforce flight size" is selected (you can uncheck that at the bottom of the first column).
Two identical planes with different loadouts are considered different planes by the mission editor.

Regarding your last question, you can change the mission activation time in the mission page and the mission will start at that time. If it's a Patrol or Support mission the planes will take off immediately (well, just add 2-3 mins for taxiing and taking off), but if it's an Intercept mission (the default mission that the game will create when you select "Add new mission") the planes will take off only when the mission is triggered by an enemy or unknown plane.
And remember that if the airplanes added to the mission don't comply with the mission settings (flight size, 1/3 rule etc.), they won't take off.

Andrea

[MikeJ19]

Andrea,

I assigned the UAVs to a support mission - thinking that they were like the Gulfstreams. That probably explains why they good red.

Thanks also for the other information - this is all very helpful as I learn a completely new area.

All the best,

[MikeJ19]

Andrea,

I've completed most of the flight tutorials. They are very interesting and have helped me. I have learned a lot. Thanks for putting them together!

Now on to learning about the Navy...