DCS World Indicated Airspeed - Ground Speed - True Airspeed & Mach Tutorial 

Hey guys! I hope this helps you better understand the differences between the 4 different types of speed displayed to you in the cockpit of modern jets in DCS, or Microsoft Flight Simulator!

Good information! Another great way to see how altitude effects IAS is to watch space shuttle entry videos from the cockpit. When they are first entering the atmosphere, they are doing a ground /true airspeed of 25,000 knots but indicating zero knots. It is interesting to watch the indicated airspeed come alive and slowly increase as they descend.

Thank you for this I have been reading ground and air speed as well as true airspeed incorrectly on that gauge in the tomcat all this time. I always thought that 12 to 4 o clock section was the indicated airspeed :( This will help much better with landing on the aircraft carrier and using the True airspeed to help with refueling the tomcat in the air. This is why I love DCS all this technical stuff really pushes you to treat the module as if you are flying a real aircraft! Understanding how the gauges works is a big step in that direction.

7:52 nice

That was great info, and gave me a clear reason why my airspeed at higher altitudes drops signifyingly.

Your videos should be mandatory education for new players. :)

I really enjoyed this man!! Well done! But you did miss the opportunity to "break the mach meter". Especially in the Blackbird. That would've been kick ass!

thanks for the video! could you please make a video in the editor, where you explain how you managed to add civilian air traffic like in the mission on caucasus where you unfortunately crashed while strafing

Problem is TAS cant be efficiiently monitored as we use lower "mfd" for jesters radar (to clone what he sees).

Hi, Spudknocker. May I ask you? How do you make gaming videos? Camera on-screen or using some software to convert track files into a video format? Can you advise? Thank you!

Which one is the same as a reading from a radar gun telling how fast you're moving?

Okay first off, great video. But how are you getting perfect trim every time? Your VSI was glued to 0 while you were waving your mouse around and talking and everything lol, I can hold altitude/formation but I'd have a little fluctuation unless I got lucky with absolutely perfect trim.

Just a slight OT Question. Do you have a guide for using the Quest 2 in DCS?, I saw your tutorial about getting great video output but was wondering about if you have one to get a better display output in the VR goggles. I've used your guide and the output on my video monitor has been spectacular as a result, unfortunately the output in the Quest goggles looks like it's got a layer of Vaseline.

Since the speed of sound decreases with altitude, isn't Mach number as inaccurate as indicated airspeed? So why even bother with Much number?If I want to join my flight, indicated airspeed will be the same for all members, so it really does not matter if it is inaccurate. True airspeed is only relevant when I need to do navigation to estimate time to target and other ground related calculations (arrival time to destination etc). Again Mach number is not relevant so why is it even used?

I thought I understood this all pretty well but as usual by watching one of your videos I have learned something new.

perfectly explained! thnx a lot!

International mile, US mile, nautical mile, huge number of historical miles ... IAS/TAS.. MARCH!? How to not get crazy

Also imprtant to highlight that: GS = TAS +/- wind component (speed) Air temperature generally effects air density, where colder air is denser then warmer air. The lower the outside air temperature is (so the air is colder/denser), the less airspeed you need to break the local speed of sound aka sound barrier (Mach 1.0). The what airspeed increases/decreases in relation to what can be also be quite simply explained if you understand the rational behind each airspeed type, as Spudknocker has done it for you. If you look at it from the IAS perspective (within normal flight envelopes of course): - if you maintain constant IAS while climbing your TAS will increase, your Mach number also due to the lower and lower outside air temperature which affetcts air density; - if you maintain constant IAS while descending your TAS will decrease, your Mach number also due to the higher and higher outside air temperature which affetcts air density; If you look at it from the TAS perspective (within normal flight envelopes of course): - if you maintain constant TAS while climbing your IAS will decrease, while your Mach number will increase due to the lower and lower outside air temperature which affetcts air density; - if you maintain constant TAS while descending your IAS will increase, while your Mach number will decrease due to the higher and higher outside air temperature which affetcts air density. I hope that this simple comparison with Spudknocker's excellent explaination helps you guys to understand the relationship between these type of airspeeds.

Speed and angles, right? I like angels as well :p

Good stuff. One of the most misunderstood things is estimating wind. Lots of folks look at their IAS and GS and calculate wind off that. This is incorrect though as you need to use TAS vs GS to calculate the wind. 100KIAS with 150KGS isn’t a 50 kt wind aloft. 120KTAS with 150KGS is 30kts aloft.

very interesting, thanks!

lovely

Hey Spud, I have a question that is irrelevant to this video, but I thought you may know the answer. In the Mirage F1 teaser + preview videos, we only get to see the 4x bomb rack under the fuselage. The South African Mirage F1AZ could carry the 4x bomb racks on the inboard wing pylons as well. Were these 4x bomb racks for the wings exclusive to the F1AZ? Or were they from Dassault or Matra for use on all F1s? I couldn’t find an answer online, so I figured you may know! Pains me that I don’t know, considering my granddad maintained F1s in the South African Border War! I’m really curious if the F1CE/BE/EE/M could have the 14 bomb config that the F1AZ could.

New intro?

Thanks for the information, but just to clarify for my self. IAS is for you to use when you fly your aircraft, Stall speeds etc. GS is mostly for navigation and calculating ETA etc. Mach is so you can talk with other aircrafts and use a common factor. What do you need TAS and CAS for then?

I never knew we had ground speed or tas in the pit!

Learnt so much in 21 mins and it was surprisingly interesting. Been meaning to demistify this topic for like forever. Kudos