My parents came to visit, and so my dad and I played on Falcon 4.0 AF for a while on my 10' screen. Very nice with the new patch!

My dad's a pilot, so he flew. We started to run out of gas, though, so we tried to find a runway in Korea. I have an actual flight-map of Korea, that I bought for use with this game. We can find lots of airstrips, but couldn't figure out how to get our position in latitude and longitude.

I had the manual open on a laptop, and I searched the whole document, and could not find anyplace that shows us our current position. It's probably something really easy, we're just missing it.

Anyway, we finally just flew down the coast (having no idea where we were) until we spotted a runway. My dad landed the plane, and ... GET THIS... the engine quit about 3 seconds before touchdown. Three chirps, coasted to a halt with the engine off.

He said afterward that the experience was really quite harrowing. Shook him up pretty good. It was so realistic, that he was actually really scared of running out of gas and crashing!

It's just lucky we found that airstrip when we did.

You can get your jet's lat and long by using the MARK function.... with your radar in Air to Air mode, select 7-MARK on the ICP... when you then press ENTER on the ICP your current lat and long will be displayed in the DED.

To find rwys you might want to chk out TACAN channels and navigation.

If I'm not mistaken the sim's lat/long does NOT match up with a real world TPC (tactical pilotage chart). It does not work.

Your kneeboard shows your position. Crudely..but you are at the center of the map at all times, IIRC.

Yeah. In Korea, the lat is pretty close...but the long is a..er...long way off.

Seoul airbase is at about 127*06'49" east. In AF, it shows as ~ 128*07'....about a degree off....128*07' in the real world is roughly where hoensong is (straight south from Kuum Ni. Not exactly, but it's a whooooole lot closer than Seoul AB)

Precisely!...or not precisely!

Ah, okay. So, let me get this straight:

1. In order to obtain my position, I need to leave navigation mode and enter a weapons mode.

2. My position is useless anyway, because the simulation does not match the actual geography as shown on my chart.

So what should I have done? Assume we're flying around, and decide we want to land somewhere. How should we locate an airbase?

On your kneeboard, you are located somewhere in the middle of the picture. Using that guess work, look for an airbase near you.

Alright if you have downloaded the Navigation Volumes from http://users.skynet.be/F4Checklists/F4download.htm (middle of the page, make sure it is for AF)

In that volume you will find airbases for both friend and foe.

If Kunsan is you nearest base look for its TACAN channel: 075X, Range for TACAN is 100(meaning you can be 100 miles away and pick up a signal), runways are 16/34 L/R.

Need to know how to change TACAN? Look in my sig, Navigation! That tutorial is very basic, but it should help you find a place to land.

In order to use the MARK function to get your present position in lat and long, your radar has to be in air to air otherwise, if your radar is in air to ground mode your MARK will be located whereever your cursor is. This is all while still in NAV mode... no need to go to weapons mode.

Use the ingame info.

To find rwys you might want to chk out TACAN channels and navigation. Or, using the ingame info you could modify one of your steerpoints and input the lat and long of the airport of your choice and fly to it.

If I'm not mistaken, one of the pages of the DED shows your current (moving) position in lat/long.

List-6 perhaps?

Thanks for the info, guys. I'll try and figure it out.

I had an idea, by the way: If I knew the offset between the real LAT-LONG and the sim's LAT-LONG, I could calculate my position on my aeronautical chart. I would just need to include the offset.

Does anyone know if there is a DED page that shows position? I'll try it when I get home tonight...

--- Eric

I don't believe it's a simple offset. It might be as simple as playing as if it's a "flat" world, but I'm not sure. Didn't care enough to look that deeply.

Make sure you are in A-A radar (if not and your in A-G the mark will mark you cursor). On the ICP push the 7, followed by the ENT key. Now your DED there should be the coordinates. If look down in the HSD you will see a blue X also. The X marks the spot for the coordinates.

It's not a simple offset. It appears to have something to do with the projection used (Mercator/Lambert).