Long post, but explaining stuff like this is part of my own continuing learning, you can never think about the basics enough! As I refine my understanding, so too should I be able to explain things more simply... as you can see below, I have a long way to go!
Checklists are good, there are many ways to start the aircraft. With Disco's checklist, his said to start the fuelpumps first, but for me that's the second step.
Some will tell you to wait until the engines are running and stable before starting up your CDU/CICU, but I usually do that immediately after switching on the right engine (only because alignment is the longest part of start-up so the sooner that's up the better).
Next up, Disco, landing! Start-up and take-off are the two most basic actions you can take. As simple as the landing procedures are (even ILS/TACAN are really simple to use) it's still something that takes a lot of practice to do right. We can also look at using Mavericks but for that you're going to need to map switches like I said (China Hat, Coolie Switch, long and short versions of both. Will also need Boat Switch, TMS up short, TMS up long). Once stuff gets more complicated you'll also need full TMS and DMS directions, short and long.
Mav is (in its easiest form where your waypoints already point to general enemy locations and presuming you've turned the MAV seeker on in the MAV page, selected MAVs in your DSMS, your TGP is hot and your master arm is on) is;
----TGP page----
* China-hat back long (slaves targeting pod {TGP} to current waypoint)
* Slew (to bring TGP directly onto target)
* While locating targets, china hat forward short increases magnification while DMS up and down will zoom, china-hat forward short again to reduce magnification
* Further to locating targets, boat switch forward, back and middle are your BHOT and WHOT and regular camera modes, good for getting targets to stand out from the background
* Begin Lase once you've linked your target up in the TGP (this will be insert key, same as nosewheel steering when on ground, use lase to ensure you're painting the target and not the known ground elevation behind it)
* TMS up short (to change to point-tracking mode)
* TMS up long (to set your target as the Sensor Point of Interest {SPI})
* Let go of Lase (you can also go into CTRL on the TGP page to set auto-lase, this means you just click it once to turn on and once for off rather than holding it down)
----switch to MAV page----
* China-hat forward long (slaves MAV seeker to the SPI as set in the TGP)
* Watch the aim-gate (lower left of MAV screen) and tap TMS up-short repeatedly
* When the crosshairs close, you have a lock, rifle your missile with the bomb key (space on the keyboard I think)
NOTE: you can fire within the aim-gate at any time and it will most likely hit the target anyway
* After this you can switch to your next MAV and just slew the camera a little, it will pick up on nearby signatures and lock them as well (remember to TMS up short)
* You can easily expend all MAVs in a single pass
* MAVs are fire and forget, you do not need to lase or keep the target in sight, this also allows you to come in low, pop-up, shoot your MAVs at a radar site/launcher then bugger off before the explosion
As I'm sure you can appreciate, all of that takes just a few seconds (except the target finding with the slew, this can be a **** if they're not out in the open) and quickly becomes second nature. MAVs are for me the easiest weapon to deploy after the Gau-8.
EDIT; probably a good idea to explain to basic but important concepts. It can be easy to think of the A-10C as one big working machine but it's actually a big bag of separate entities collaborating to keep it in the sky. Two important terms are SOI and SPI. As with anything I've typed in this post, people
should correct me where I've got it wrong.
SOI - Sensor of Interest. This is marked by a strong green border around whichever MFCD is SOI or an asterisk on the lower left of the HUD. You can use coolie hat right/left long to make an MFCD SOI or you can simply press the button on the MFCD twice (so TGP, say, to get to the TGP then that button again to make TGP SOI). The way I think of it is that my HOTAS commands are going to affect the SOI, so if my TGP is SOI then DMS up will zoom, but if my HUD is SOI, DMS up will change my waypoint.
SPI - Sensor Point of Interest. This is a location marked by the pilot that each sensor (left MFCD, right MFCD, HUD) will then communicate with or 'see'. So when I mark a target with TMS up long in the TGP, my Maverick isn't slaving to the actual target, it's simply pointing its seeker head at the location the TGP is pointing to and then attempting to get a lock on whatever is at that location.
by lordkabab » 6 Feb 13, 12:52 am 
It was damned fun though.
