NAV doesn't buy you anything in that situation. From gear up to gear down I'm either in A/A or A/G master mode.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
F-16 dodges SAMs
- Thread starter scubasteve38
- Start date
NAV doesn't buy you anything in that situation. From gear up to gear down I'm either in A/A or A/G master mode.
Just don't tell paddles you push from marshal that way.
I'm in a field mindset at the moment...and it's glorious.
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
Heavy Useless Doohickie? You know, half the boxes in a Grumman product.
HUDs are for kids.... not us old dudes from the grease pencil days.Yeah, never experienced none o' dem doo-hickies!
BzB
Ya, situational awareness is overrated anyhow.
A few years back, I was stopping through Laughlin AFB for a gas and go, and was talking to some student pilots that were flying the T-38C which was about 4 years old at the time, and which has a HUD. I have extensive experience teaching student pilots in the T-38A, which does NOT have a HUD.
In the conversation, the students mentioned that they cannot go solo with a HUD. And should the HUD fail inflight on a solo, they are to return via a straight-in full stop. You know... on the dreaded "no HUD approach in perfect visual conditions".
I couldn't believe it.
No wonder so many of the pilots I fly with today can't hold an aimpoint +/-1000' on the runway, nor figure out what a 3.5 degree glideslope is by looking out the window.
I'll take my HUD-less A model everytime, thank you.
In the conversation, the students mentioned that they cannot go solo with a HUD. And should the HUD fail inflight on a solo, they are to return via a straight-in full stop. You know... on the dreaded "no HUD approach in perfect visual conditions".
I couldn't believe it.
No wonder so many of the pilots I fly with today can't hold an aimpoint +/-1000' on the runway, nor figure out what a 3.5 degree glideslope is by looking out the window.
I'll take my HUD-less A model everytime, thank you.
Situational awareness can be easily overloaded by way too much information that was intended to improve situational awareness... which ultimately often detracts from situational awareness.
More is not necessarily better. KISS. And one's IQ and ability to assess massive information drops to deep levels when under heavy fire.
Point in fact: My RO more than once turned off our RHAW gear because it was too distracting from accomplishing our mission. Too many SAM alerts, too many BBs on the scope, too many warbles, too many strobes, too many flashing red lights, too many beepers on Guard, etc.
Situational awareness? Hell we were being targeted from 360 degrees by various threats. We knew that!!! We knew our situation. Didn't need to be told. Overwhelming and superfluous warnings just distracted from us putting bombs on target. So we turned off most of those situational awareness crutches off to better accomplish our mission!
Tell me how you feel when they spend millions in for your platform on an upgrade to put a 400lbs system nobody asked for that now allows you to view your FLIR, your Wingmans FLIR, and the FLIR from a UAS in the stack.... All in the name of Situational Awareness.
Or my personal Favorite, the GFAS system which tells me what position Im taking fire from... so long as Im below 500 feet which I never am. And hey it only adds about 8 square feet of front plate drag and another couple hundred pounds.
Situational Awareness is getting your eyes outside the cockpit. But engineers and program management seems to think its putting yet another set of squiggly lines and warbles on a 5x5 inch screen thats so cluttered with BFT icons and other crap from our 1000 point load that I cant see the fucking actual map to know where I am.
I'm kind of an idiot, but it took me several CQ/FCLP evolutions (both RAG and first fleet) to realize that a "standby" approach in the Hornet was not what I thought it was initially. Turns out "standby" just meant switching the attitude reference switch to "stby" rather than actually turning the HUD off at night at the field and flying off the 4 pack. That being said, it was good practice should everything go to hell one day, and it gave me a new appreciation for the Prowler/E2/COD guys.
The lowly T-6 even has a HUD, which is an awfully nifty gizmo to have in a primary trainer. Sometimes the HUD will randomly come on to max bright (no on/off switch, doesn't have its own circuit breaker, just a dimmer switch that sometimes goes simply haywire regardless of pilot action/inaction). This unintentional feature is awfully nifty too, although not particularly helpful for SA
It was said somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but HUDs have come a long way from what they used to be and can still be decluttered and adjusted for what you want to see.
Sounds like your program office/test squadrons/whatever-the-army-equivalent-is sucks and/or the fleet doesn't provide the right feedback. And the HUD is for "outside the cockpit"... that's the whole point. When multi-crew helos stop routinely CFITing in straight and level flight in adverse weather, they'll convince me they don't need HUDs. Till then...
I trained and winged w/o any HUD to speak of, and I've flown a little bit in a gray plane with a HUD. It's better. It's usually SA-enhancing. It can also suck your SA if you're too retarded to look anywhere else. So like all things, if you suck, all the systems in the world can only help so much.
Seeing as pretty much every weapon I employ is essentially tied to requiring a HUD, I'll keep it.