Hi guys heres my first try at a tutorial, hope it is helpful.
I got inpiration from Parrabellums awesome Dummies guide to blowing stuff up.
Mine is on Navigation and route plotting.
http://specs-game-tips.blogspot.com/Guide to Waypoints and Planning in DCS BlacksharkHi, welcome to my blog, Im going to go through how to set up your ABRIS and your PVI to plot a new route in DCS Blackshark.
Ok lets start with the real basics. If you look down and to the right you will find your ABRIS and PVI systems. Although these systems don't work directly in conjunction with each other (they are not electronically connected) used together they are a powerfull tool for navigation.
Dont be intimidated by how complicated it looks. At first I looked down and saw it and thought "bugger that". But after a little experimentation and reading I soon learnt how to use these two tools in conjunction with each other and with DCS Blackshark's autopilot system to plot my own course.
Setting up the ABRIS.We'll start with the ABRIS. The five buttons along the bottom are FSK buttons used for selecting modes, and the knob on the right is the manipulator, used for cycling through options and moving your waypoints.The far right FSK toggles the main mode and the others have different functions depending what mode you are in (the functions are labeled above).
First we have to set the ABRIS's coordinate system to decimal places ( the same as the PVI ).
To do this click the OPTION FSK ( far right ) , then the SETUP FSK (same one), click and drag the Manipulator Knob (MK) until the pop up menu is on UNITS and click the SETUP FSK again.
Now using either the MK or the UP and DOWN FSK's select both latitude and longitude
and click the CHANGE FSK on each. Finally click the NAV FSK to return to the main screen. ***Thanks LukeFF***
Now we will unload the current plan from the RAM. Click the PLAN FSK then the SELECT FSK , now click and drag on the (MK) to select UNLOAD from the pop up menu and select it using the FSK key underneath.
Now we have a clear map to work with.
Now lets add our waypoints.
Click the DRAW FSK now a green cursor will appear on the map, to move this turn the MK by left clicking and dragging it, to change the movement between vertical or horizontal right click the MK then turn it.
Move the cursor to the desired waypoint location and click the ADD FSK.
Now you can change the name of the waypoint by turning the MK or continue on by pressing the ENTER FSK. Next is the option to change the type of waypoint.
Here is a graphical representation from the DCS Blackshark manual showing different waypoint types.
Continue adding the waypoints you want, try to keep the amount of waypoints under six as your PVI can only store six.
Ok now click the PLAN FSK to go back to plan view, then click the ACTIVE FSK to make this flight plan the current plan. Then click the SELECT FSK scroll to SAVE and click it.
Now the ABRIS is all set.
*NOTE* This only saves it to the RAM memory, which means that if you quit the mission it will be deleted, there is a section on permanent saving in the DCS Blackshark manual and Ill add it to this one later.
Setting up the PVI.
When flying the steerpoint marker on your HUD is controlled by your PVI.Which means that it will not automatically direct you to those ABRIS points you plotted earlier (because the two systems are totally separate.). Route mode also relies on the PVI for its navigational information.
To change our PVI waypoints we are going to copy the Coordinates from our ABRIS and enter them into our PVI manually. To do that first change the PVI mode to EDIT.
Make sure the waypoint button is pressed, (this also works for Target points, I haven't tried the other two)
Click 1 to select waypoint one, press either 1 or 0. Zero to enter a positive number or One to enter a negative number. The little indicator on the left of the display lights up if it is set to negative.
Now copy the Latitude from the ABRIS plan into the PVI (round the last digit off) and click ENTER.
Then do the same with the Longitude. You can start again by pressing the RESET button
When your done, remember to set the PVI mode back to Operation.
And thats it, I know it seems like a lot but after a few missions it takes no time at all. Ive found it really useful when doing CAS missions, I can avoid the front line and sneak around the back to my targets.
I hope you found this stuff useful. Ill be adding more tut's on DCS Blackshark and other games in the future.
If you find any mistakes send me a message at seeker783 at hotmail.com.
Feel free to republish this tutorial as long as you give due credit.
Heres a link to the PDF version for printing...
PDF version Till next time.
[tR].Spec
www.tactical-response.nethttp://specs-game-tips.blogspot.com/