Um... Does my wingman/section ever refuel, or is it just me?

Or... "Do I look fat on this viking?"

If there is a Refuelling Waypoint action, the entire flight will take their turns on the hose. I don't recall for sure, but even in the absence of a WP action if you initiate a Refuelling with a tanker, your AI wingies will fly formation off to the side and take their turns when you come off. I always found that it took such a long time for me to get on and gas up, much less wait for additional flight members that I used more fuel and was farther off course than if I never refuelled. When you call for a tanker, it will take up a heading about 10 degrees (IIRC) off the heading your were flying, so I always made sure I was headed toward home or the carrier when I called for a tanker so at least I would be getting closer as I chased it down. If refuelling on Ingress, I would point toward the action, but sometimes feared luring the tanker into danger this way.

I've never had them refuel. Only me, once I disconnect, the tanker zooms off back in its orbit.
Now, my flight, if close, is affected by my refueling.

Am I missing something?

This behavior depends on the "realistic accuracy" and "realistic duration" refueling option settings.

Ahhh right... I think it is more the duration that causes the wingies to refuel...otherwise a quick cutscene and the Player is off...but in this case, I believe the wingies are auto-refueled as well.

Oh snap.

Hi Guys,

I have time to do some aerial refueling training.
However I find it very difficult to do it with both realistic option checked in this sim.
This is harder than in bms433, janes fa18 seems to glide left and right very easily.

Is it really doable?
Any advices on how to do it?

Yes, a nice workaround in a form of Alt-F command and off you go to get the bloody fuel - air refuelling is the only element of the sim here that I gladly skip with this cheat as first - I have never been into that, secondly - it is irritatingly awkward when done manually and I have had lots of patience practising every other aspect of this flight sime for literally months. Now I even land on a carrier manually with all sorts of malfunctions in all weather types and despite of the time of the day - once I even couldn't see the ramp too well like it was an early Phantom model back in the early '60s ... Well, practice makes perfect, but air refuelling here is a major game stopper - along with difficulty of most of the missions when flown in a single player mode and unacceptable level of losses that the AI companions sustain, but even that is to be offset with a lot of training and patience, but air refuelling ... come on.

Unless you're really hooked upon that particular part - save yourself the time and effort and focus on having fun, there are lots of oter difficult things here to cope with in this truly amazing naval aviation simulation.

Thanks for the reply burroughs.
after doing some more training, I can say that it is doable, but it is very very hard.
Both your joystick and throttle must be capable of very very small input,
and try to remember the nearer you get to the refueling aircraft, the smallest change you need to do.
Compared to dcs and bms, the refueling process in this sim is the hardest of all.

I have just reinstalled my dcs su-33 to compare the refueling process since I do not remember it to be this hard in dcs.
Su-33 has the same "probe-and-drogue" refuel system that used in janes fa18.
And after trying it again, I can assure you that it is a lot easier to do than janes fa18.
So I think there might be a bug in janes fa18 regarding the refueling process?

Also after trying it with and without DXTControl,
there is a difference in the fa18 sliding behaviour.
With DXTControl the sliding is somewhat unnatural and exaggerated,
I find it easier to refuel without DXTControl.