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#4574270 - 07/12/21 05:43 PM Re: DCS: AV-8B [Re: Chucky]  
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Well, I found my first gripe of the AV-8B, which otherwise I am loving so far and is a fantastic jet:

Lack of ILS

Harrier uses AWLS apparently, which from what my limited Google searches can determine, is a specialized "all weather landing system" to this jet alone, which uses a pseudo-blend of TACAN freqs and ILS, minus the actual ILS frequency. In a Harrier, it seems there is no way to set the ILS frequency. This drove me nuts trying to land in zero visibility, as in the Viper, this is a simple affair through the DED. Not the harrier.

I did some more digging and since AWLS isn't implemented on DCS airfields, Razbam did a workaround by using a config file "AN_ARN128" for the Harrier, where inside each airbase has hardcoded the ILS frequency, and you reference this by setting both the AWLS channel and the TACAN channel. The catch, however, is the AWLS channel doesn't match up with the channel in the airfield reference guides, and instead seems to be hardcoded based on the region, where "1" is Caucuses, "2" is Nevada, "3" is Normandy and "4" is Persian Gulf. No Syria yet, I guess.

This seems to be a ghetto limitation of the original jet, but I can't complain given how old the plane is, but also obscure and not documented as to how this works in even Chuck's guide. I drove myself mad trying to get the localizer line to appear on the HUD so I could reference the correct bearing and angle to merge onto the runway properly when visibility as 50 feet or less.

Still, I managed to bring the bird down using TACAN and doing a barnstorming turn in the thunderstorm once over the runway and could calculate by the seat of my pants how I needed to turn once off the end while maintaining 50 feet altitude and ~150 kts to come back around and land on the pavement. This would have probably gotten me reprimanded, thrown in the brig, or worse, as I could have easily hit another plane landing/taking off. Without ILS, what are you gonna do with nowhere to divert with proper visibility?

So if anyone else encounters this, now you know why. I will test this afternoon and see, but for example, Nellis AFB says to choose channel 1, but in reality, I need to pick "2" because all Nevada runways use 2, despite saying otherwise.

Last edited by Mr_Blastman; 07/12/21 05:46 PM.
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#4574290 - 07/12/21 09:58 PM Re: DCS: AV-8B [Re: Chucky]  
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rollnloop. Offline
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I can imagine a few workarounds, but indeed thanks for info.

#4574291 - 07/12/21 10:20 PM Re: DCS: AV-8B [Re: Chucky]  
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Well, I tested channel 2 and that doesn't even work at Nevada. ILS seems to be busted there on the Harrier. Works perfectly in Caucuses though.

#4574720 - 07/19/21 03:58 AM Re: DCS: AV-8B [Re: Chucky]  
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I fekking did it!

Landed on a Tarawa class carrier in a live mission for the first time without damaging the airframe!

Hahaha yeah. What a rush.

#4575044 - 07/21/21 10:35 PM Re: DCS: AV-8B [Re: Chucky]  
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rollnloop. Offline
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Great job !

Dunno how you did it, but iirc my first was an almost conventionnal landing, just with a slower relative speed.

Next step is to land directly on your parking spot, took me a while.

Last edited by rollnloop.; 07/21/21 10:36 PM.
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