F-5E Tiger II: TACAN Navigation & Low Vis Landing Tutorial | DCS WORLD 

Rule of thumb: For every mile of range to the airfield, add 300 feet in altitude to determine your fixed approach point from which to start a 3 degree glidepath. So, 10 miles should be 3,000 feet.

In my humble opinion, The F-5 is the most beautiful aircraft ever built. I really love the designs of numerous, better performing and more modern jet fighters but the F-5, single seat, twin engine variant pictured in the thumbnail photo is the Most Beautiful of All. Just my opinion.

This is so much easier to comprehend than reading the text-only tutorials for the F-5. Don't know whose bright idea that was..

I'm a new sim pilot and you make it very easy to understand in ALL of your lessons! Thank you!

Some other nice things to know are the Machnumber *10 = nm/min approx. This is usefull for calculating descent rate and also the drift angle to compensate for x-wind. Lets say M=0.8 then NM/min is 8. Descent rate 2400ft/min. If the crosswind is 80kts then the drift angle = 80/8= 10 deg. Works on final also. This will give you a better starting point for shooting an approach.

The TACAN beacon isn't in the middle of the runway, that is why the deviation line is off to the left as you get very close to the airfield.

Getting back into DCS, this ol girl is great for learning basics, just the right amount of buttons and switches.

got to fly this more. Looking forward to this one

Thanks Cap, just got the F-5 yesterday this helped.

Thanks for this, a very clear explanation of a difficult subject. The only thing is I don’t think you said where you found the six degree magnetic variation, but I eventually found it on the airport map on the kneeboard.

Thanks Cap. Learning so much from the tutorials.

Had to pop over here and see what's up, since the DME on the F-5E Tutorial in the game won't move passed 57 DME....Nice... Yes, check sw. to ensure I was in T\R mode... "At fourteen miles, go 300 kts the start decent"... would love to, if I knew I was there. Would be nice to get the clock working too... Back in the day, figured 350 kts was good for about (very roughly) 5 miles a minute, so I can't even cross check that. Appreciate the info.

Firstly, your course line as drawn on the A10 map was not completely precise. Second, as you can see on the map, the TACAN station is not on the runway center line but slightly to the left - which was exactly what you experienced in the end. No big deal, you just want to be aware of this.

Batumi in game is course 119 degrees, and dcs manager is a great phone tool for the basic aerodrome stuff :)

Great video cap. The 1mi/300feet rule is a great one for a 3 degree glideslope. In an F5 at about 350 knots, I find this to be about a 2000ft/min descent. Also, until you start flying at slower speeds, you'll find that it's also about 3 degrees down on your artificial horizon (makes sense). TACANs are not usually that reliable inside 2nm. When I get to 2nm, I just point the plane at the TACAN arrow, and then stop using it. I actually have a pretty sweet procedure for doing a non-straight-in TACAN approach to an airfield (much of it comes from the DCS tutorial on TACAN for the F5, with a few modifications). I'm sure I'll post a video on it soon. Thanks again, your videos are keeping me in the air!

Hey cap, something you could include in this one if you ever want to add to it (or really for any aircraft that has a tacan system) is using tacan to guide you to pre-planned waypoints. Set a marker on your map, draw a line from the tacan station to it and adjust for magdev. You'll then have the range (needs to be in miles) from the tacan to your 'waypoint.' Once tuned to your tacan you can then just fly your hsi to that point. You should get the course from the tacan to the point as well so you can line up on it nice. It's a very simple system for flying waypoints and can be done pretty on the fly as long as you have a pencil and piece of paper handy to record the range/course.

This is a very well done and easy to understand tutorial, thanks.

just so wonderfully simple

Excelente video socio, me quedo completamente claro como usar el tacan en mi F-5. Saludos desde Chile.

What Matt Wagner says is correct. Now if you want to stay on glideslope multiply your speed (nm/min) by 300 for your vertical speed. Say you fly 240kts=4nm/min descend with 1200ft/min. The other thing is that when you get closer to the runway the deviation line will move to the left because the Tacan is left (North) of the runway. Nothing you can do about that. Usually the approach course will then be more north in order to cross the runway centerline a few miles before the runway.

Hello, Very nice illustration of the F-5E navigation instruments. It is also one of the rare times I see a comprehensive description about the difference between magnetic and true heading, something I actually discovered by accident when flying the F-5E over the NTTR map where the difference is about 12° I think. Really enjoyed watching it, makes me want to jump back in the F-5E again !

Runway headings are magnetic so just use the heading of the opposite runway save you having to draw a track on the map.

is there an F-20 Tigershark mod for arma 3? Like so many other people, I fell in love with the F-5E when I watched them pretend to be migs in Top Gun. I was pissed when the plan to upgrade them fell flat in the real world.

Easiest way to remember magnetic deviations GRid to Magnetic - subtract deviation Remember the phrase “Grand Ma sucks” Magnetic to Grid - add deviation “My Great Aunt”

Without vertical aid, this would be an NDB approach with a circle to land. A really neat approach, nowadays this would be a GPS based approach with the GPS providing lateral and vertical descent to a decision height.

Also, the TACAN is almost always offset from the runway, so while it can give you general guidance towards the runway, you'll have to transition to visual flying sooner, as the TACAN guidance won't bring you directly over the runway on course, in any case.

I love your vids

So, at 6:13 are you basically setting to compensate for declination?

I'm a huge Robotech fan, but I agree with you, Harmney Gold needs to allow Macross to come to North America.

you were 4 degrees off Cap at the end... you were saying the runway was 126 actual when it was 130 actual as per NOTAMS (NOTice For AirManS) otherwise another fine tutorial on an under-rated aircraft.

How are you dragging the straight white line on the f10 map? Can't figure it out. Just moves the map around.

I wish it just told you the runway headings in the aerodrome data.

I'd like to see you land during a storm with a plane that doesn't have ILS. I couldn't do it. TACAN is not precise enough.

Surely the runway number gives you the course line instantly ? no need to measure in F10 ?

this is broken in 2.7. It picks up Tacan distance, butt heading is wayyyy off

If the tacan transmits and receives can you set it to your wing man so you can always find him?

What is the HDG knob good for?

Another thing no one so far pointed out, on the HSI deviation the two lines on each side represent 5 and 10nm displacement to the side shown, on Russian planes it's 5 and 10km

What are you pressing to draw a line on the map?

No ILS??

BULLDOZER

C'est un avion qui dans la véritable vie ne va pas voler sans visibilité, trop dangereux. L'équipement de navigation est trop basique voir absent, c'est trop dangereux