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Falcon Standard Operating Procedures

Contents 1 Sortie Planning 2 Mission Wikis 3 Key Planning Items 4 Server Connection 5 TeamSpeak 6 Briefing 6.1 Detailed Briefing 6.2 Flight Lead Briefings 6.3 Timeliness 7 Commit & Departure 7.1 Connection Problems 7.2 Things to Check Before Taxi 7.3 Good Practices 8 Inflight 8.1 Fence Checks 9 Threat Reaction 9.1 Example 2-Ship Escort Threat Reaction Brief 9.2 Positive ID

Sortie Planning

Sortie planning can range from a quick heads-up on IRC to a fully planned and pre-distributed multi-ship mission. Essentially, the more planning that goes into a mission, the more you should be prepared to treat it seriously and fly it to the brief.

Mission Wikis

If you are pre-planning a mission, give consideration to posting the brief here on a new page on the wiki, linked from the Falcon Operations Centre. The brief page should be named by the convention YYYYMMDD_sortiename, e.g. 20060526_LightsOut where YYYYMMDD is the date of the planned first flight of the mission.

Ad-hoc planning will normally occur on IRC. Once the decision has been made to fly, make every effort to connect and get airborne without undue delay. Remember that in a multiplayer sortie other people are waiting on you to get airborne and, especially late at night, don't want to sit idle while you make a sandwich. If you must, launch, engage the F4AF autopilot and then go make your sandwich during the ingress.

Do not leave testing your F4AF installation or port forwarding until a prearranged sortie is briefing. Test your ability to connect beforehand to avoid delays.

Key Planning Items

The key items required from sortie planning are:

• The IP/hostname of the host
• The bandwidth settings (up/down) expected from pilots when joining
• The theatre (e.g. Korea 2005, Balkans 2010)
• Whether the sortie is a TE or Campaign
• The IP/hostname and channel of the Teamspeak server, and whether keybinds are required

Please write these down to avoid having to repeat them multiple times over TS.

Server Connection

Once you have the server and Teamspeak IP addresses and the sortie time is approaching, you can connect to the server. The SOP is this:

1. Pilots join the correct channel on Teamspeak and request a radio check in the next pause in conversation, e.g. "SQUINSON, RADIO CHECK". The response should be e.g. "SQUINSON, LOUD AND CLEAR", or as appropriate for the quality of the signal.
2. The host announces that the server is up. Pilots are free to join the server using the prearranged server IP and bandwidth. They should wait in the multiplayer lobby until...
3. The host announces that the mission is up. Pilots are free to join the mission. Pilots should stop their clock and commence the briefing.

TeamSpeak

Within the Teamspeak client you should bind keystrokes or HOTAS buttons to both the default transmit to the channel you are in and the guard channel. To do this, you have to add a keystroke to "whisper to multiple channels" within Teamspeak. In the Teamspeak client, Setting menu, Keybinding option, choose add, and add a "whisper to" all the flight channels (typically Flight 1, Flight2, Flight3, Flight4). This will allow you to use this keybinding to broadcast to all members of the strike package. Having added the binding, choose the Export button and export to a file. Then choose the Import button and import the file you just created. This will ensure your keybindings have taken effect. The keybinding CTRL number pad 0 can be used without conflicting with any default AF binding.

Briefing

The extent of the briefing will depend on the extent of the planning. Ad-hoc sorties may require little more than assigning slots, arming up, checking the route and announcing readiness to launch.

Detailed Briefing

For more detailed MP sorties, the pilots should organise:

• Slots, flight leads, callsigns and the overall mission commander
• Munition loadouts
• Routes and timings
• Precision target coordinates
• Roles and responsibilities
• Ramp or Taxi start preferences (all should be the same unless one flight is launching significantly earlier than another, in which case the earlier flight should taxi and the later one may choose taxi or ramp).

Flight Lead Briefings

Individual flight leads should pre-brief:

• Ingress/egress heights and speeds, incl F4AF TFR settings
• Rules of engagement including threat reactions
• Target allocations
• F4AF ALOW / F4AF BINGO settings
• F4AF S-J settings

When ready to go, each pilot should report, e.g. "SQUINSON GOOD TO GO".

Timeliness

When the agreed start time is reached, pilots in the mission screen are not required to wait for other pilots running late or having connection or configuration issues. Especially for pre-arranged and planned flights, DO NOT hold up flights because you didn't prepare properly or leave yourself enough time. If you are running late, stay out of the mission planning screen until all ready pilots have committed.

Commit & Departure

When all pilots have reported ready, the mission commander shall give the command "CLOCKS ON, ALL COMMIT".

It is not necessary to maintain radio silence during the commit wait, however mission-oriented chat takes priority over general blahblah. Remember that pilots in other flights may be taxying while you're still at the countdown clock, so don't talk over their comms.

Between the commencement of the first flight's taxi, and wheels up on the last flight's takeoff, voice comms shall be kept to an absolute minimum. It is very difficult to hear Tower calls when someone is yakking.

Connection Problems

If for whatever reason you fail to connect or have some sort of startup bug, close down F4AF completely and do not rejoin the mission until all pilots are airborne. At this time you can try to connect again. Trying to immediately rejoin can cause problems for other pilots. Rest assured, the AI rarely crashes your jet for you on takeoff.

If many people have problems connecting or starting, the mission commander may call for a full mission reset in which case everyone should disconnect from the mission and meet in the multiplayer lobby.

Things to Check Before Taxi

• Wind set in DED (SEQ from default page)
• HSI CRS set to expected takeoff runway
• Lights set to steady unless flight lead, in which case set to blink
• NWS engaged
• No caution lights or master caution
• ALOW set to below min TFR height and MSL FLOOR set to 1000' above minimum weapon release height
• BINGO set depending on length of egress
• DEST precision coords entered
• OA1/OA2/VIP/VRP set if doing popup
• STPT 1 set (stops AI getting confused)
• Bullseye set in MFDs (LIST-0-8-0)
• Taxi clearance received in order

Good Practices

Once in the cockpit, pilots should report so in order. So, if you are Falcon 12, you should wait for Falcon 11 to report "FALCON 11 IN THE PIT" before doing so yourself.

A good practice for realism's sake is to "safe" your aircraft on the ground. By default, the AI taxies with RF NORM, EWS AUTO and RADALT STBY. Set RF SILENT, EWS STBY and RADALT ON to avoid frying your ground crew and other taxying pilots.

When ready to taxi, report e.g. "FALCON 12 READY TO TAXI". When the flight lead is satisfied his flight is ready to taxi, he should call e.g. "FALCON 1 TAXYING". All pilots in that flight should request taxi in order from the tower and taxi in order under ATC control to the holding point.

F4AF ATC generally will not clear for 2-ship departures, so at the holding point each ship should request takeoff in order. Once e.g. Falcon 11 has requested takeoff, been cleared to line up and has been cleared for departure, Falcon 12 should request takeoff and so on.

Once lined up, check RF NORM, speedbrake in and clear for takeoff, then punch it.

Inflight

Once airborne, it is up to the flight leads to organise their flight. Generally you can expect the flight lead to intercept course to Steerpoint 2 and climb to ingress height using 80-90% throttle, to allow for later flight members to catch up.

Fence Checks

Flight leads should also call for a fence check e.g. "FALCON 1 FENCE IN" at an appropriate time prior to or at the FLOT. At this point all members of the flight should:

• Turn the master light switch off
• Turn on AVTR
• Check volumes and radio channels
• Set F4AF EWS? to MAN, SEMI or AUTO as desired
• Ensure the correct F4AF Countermeasures program is set
• Select Master Arm to ARM
• Check RWR on
• Ensure the RF switch is set to NORM
• Check radar on and mode
• Check F4AF S-J (tanks + noncritical A-G munitions set)
• Check SMS weapon setup
• Check fuel remaining
• Check distance from next steerpoint
• Check altitude

Once fenced in, each pilot should respond to the flight lead in order, stating position, height and fuel.

Fence Check Example

(Falcon 11): FALCON 1 FENCE IN (wait) (Falcon 11): FALCON 11 FENCED IN TWO-ZERO FROM TWO AT ANGELS THIRTEEN WITH SIX THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED (Falcon 12): FALCON 12 FENCED IN TWO-THREE FROM TWO PASSING ANGELS ELEVEN WITH SIX THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED

Flight leads should also call for steerpoint changes and handle all coordination with other flights.

Threat Reaction

In order to ensure that the flight reacts predictably to various threats, reactions should be pre-briefed if possible. The flight lead may direct, for example, that a strike flight does not engage enemy air unless fired upon, relying on their escort to do their job. In general terms:

• Strike/CAS flights should avoid engaging anything until they have dropped their munitions on their target, unless directly attacked by threats that they cannot evade.
• SEAD flights should engage any significant surface to air threats on the ingress route if doing so helps achieve their mission. They should conserve sufficient munitions for their primary target and not engage airborne threats unless directly engaged by bandits they cannot evade.
• Escort/CAP flights should engage any air targets that may pose a threat to any aircraft in the mission package. They should not engage ground targets unless they cannot be evaded and pose an immediate threat.

Flight leads for A2A flights should brief engagement strategies for BVR and WVR threats.

Example 2-Ship Escort Threat Reaction Brief

Upon detection of a BVR threat:

Detecting pilot call target BRAA Ship 1 call ENGAGE POSTHOLE or DISREGARD as appropriate. If engaging, turn to target and execute immediate aggressive posthole: #1 high, nose & jammer hot, buster; #2 low, nose & jammer cold, buster. Ship 1 hard lock, positive ID and launch AMRAAM at maximum range. Beam left, maintaining lock, strobing jammer, climbing at corner speed. Talk #2 onto target. Ship 2 NOE buster to lethal range then nose hot, jammer strobing, lock, positive ID and launch. Ship 1 wait for either lock loss, autonomous or target beam. Turn to engage non-defensive bandits or drag/evade enemy fire as required.

The F4AF Missile Threat Reaction page describes aircraft vs missile defensive techniques.

Positive ID

There have been many occurrences of friendly fire (fratricide) in the VAAF's chequered history. These simple guidelines can help prevent deliberately firing on a target that turns out to be a friendly or, worse, a human friendly:

• IF IN DOUBT, CHECK FIRE. Unless you are sure it's a bandit, keep your thumb away from that pickle button.
• If an AWACS is available, always get the AWACS to declare any targets you are painting. Cursor over the target, single lock (not strictly required, but helps - no hard lock required) and hit Q-1-2 (TODO confirm).
• If someone else is declaring a target or getting a picture from AWACS, don't talk over them or request your own until the AWACS has finished transmitting.
• Maintain situational awareness. AWACS will advise of popup groups and threats. Think about where the FLOT is, where your own package should be, where enemy aircraft might be coming from.
• Use F4AF NCTR. This is not totally reliable, but might help you identify a head-on F16.
• Use the RAYGUN radio call. Hard lock your target with radar and call e.g. "FALCON 12, RAYGUN" over voice, and/or using the comms menus. Any friendly should respond with "BUDDY SPIKE". Additionally, any enemy should react to a hard lock, unless it's an older aircraft without an RWR.
• Get a verbal all clear, e.g. "FALCON 12 RAYGUN BOGEY IN LEFT DESCENDING TURN AT ANGELS FIFTEEN HEADED NORTH". Ideally all callsigns should respond e.g. "FALCON 11 NEGATIVE" so you know that it's not a human. Listen for calls like this - it could save your life! if you think a friendly might be locking you up, respond e.g. "FALCON 12 CHECK FIRE VIPER 21 GOING VERTICAL SMOKE ON". Do something that will let the guy know it's you. If he hears that call and doesn't see his target go vertical and start trailing smoke, he can rightly assume it wasn't you after all.
• If after all this you haven't got a positive ID, shoot the bugger. NO! STOP! Remember rule 1. If you're still not sure, you'll have to get in close and ID them visually. Do not fire unless you are convinced it's a bandit.