DCS Ka-50 Black Shark - Helmet Slew-Locking, Scoping and Sniping ‘n Bendin’ Bullets
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
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00:00 Intro
02:29 Recon by Looking
05:25 Lock, Slew-Locking & Tracking Gates
08:49 Laser Ranging, Inertial Tracking & Re-Locking
13:01 Vikhr Missiles
15:23 Kh-25 Missile. Singular.
15:43 The Sniper Cannon
17:41 Basic Tips
19:09 Escaping Incoming Fire
19:51 Bendin' Bullets, Trick Shots & Volleys
21:27 Summary
The Helmet Mounted Sight is great for improving your situational awareness & locking stuff FORWARDS. You’ve still got little awareness to your left and right, so shouldn’t be doing AC-130 orbits. To scout out an area, scope out the area by pointing your Shkval at it. Having a Werewolf Pack helps speed this up rather than having you relocate as much.
Coincidentally the A-10c HMCS has just come out, which is awesome in different ways - you can mark points of interest rapidly, see them on your sides and share them well. The Shark’s lower tech HMS can’t help you see stuff that’s off your nose, lacks FLIR and while you can datalinks targets or nav points it’s not as easy or obvious. The Shkval however, does automatically snap-lock targets if you do it right, allowing you to fire almost immediately if you’re in range since you’re already pointed forwards and you’ve just identified it visually as friend/foe. While you can’t see through obstacles, if your tracking gate is the right size and you move the sight slowly enough across a treeline, it can pick up a vehicle your eyes might have missed with Slew-Locking.
Most of these tips are assuming your mission profile is sniping armour or air defence which is equally capable of taking you out as you are them in the right circumstance. If your mission needs something else to be done, with a time limit or lesser threat, adapt as necessary.
The Nevada intro has almost every air defence unit (including WWII assets), plus a decent component of the Armor section (tanks, BMPs, etc.). By accident I left out a few Sa-10 and Sa-3 components. Testing it afterwards with those units the same tactic applied - there would have just been more ‘undefended’ things to put single shells in in the mopup at the end. But yes, you can clear the whole map of 60 units with one payload of 40 S-8KOM + 12 Vikhrs, Full fuel and guns. It’s not masterly skill, it’s just patience and knowing what to take out at range with what. Of course that was everything out in the open - you might be more sneaky and put short range defences around gulleys and such to begin with. Either way I can’t think of another aircraft in DCS that can do this in the same payload - the SA-15s will shoot down many incoming HARMs (unsure if glide bombs are targeted at the moment in DCS), most aircraft can’t go beneath the ceiling of Rapiers and the other helos will be melted by the TOW missiles.
As for the fun in cruise missiles, yes, I’m sure you can make a scenario where launching a cruise missile requires inputting last minute coordinates over radio static while dodging flak in the middle of SAM alley through mountain corridors…..buuuut you could have same scenario with a Black Shark where you’re also required to actually visually acquire & lock the target.
Fun Fact: the Ka-50 was originally called the Werewolf, until the “Black Shark” movie made it famous under that name. “Werewolf Pack” sounds cooler than a “Shiver of Sharks”.
Fun Fact #2: Elite Russian pilots are called “Sniper Pilots”. Somewhat coincidence, but fits with the topic of this vid.
One way to practice the HMS on civilians… cough… trailing a civilian car in a town, trying to keep it locked up in the HMS with weapons angled to take the shot while staying close and low. This forces intuitive control of your speed, slip and hover along with the head tracking to make the HMS sing.
Too close or too far and your HMS movements overshoot uncomfortably. Learn to let go of Uncage Shkval at the right moment before a radical maneuver, so your reticule is close to the target that you can align your HMS to the circle again soon and resume HMS tracking. Part of the mastery isn’t just the piloting to have a stable platform you’re not worried about crashing and a natural HMS movement that can lock targets, but also knowing when the HMS isn’t going to easily lock a target at that range/zoom and instead let go for manual hat slewing.
Supposedly the Ka-52 cost $16 million in May 2011, while the Apache D (much larger economies of scale in it’s production) was $33 in 2010. Both have radar, FLIR and other expensive bits the Ka-50 didn’t. Scant info I’ve found suggests the Vikhr costs a fraction of the intelligent Hellfire.
I've tested everything in DCS Openbeta versions of Sep-Oct 2020. Some of the vid was done with an OpenBeta bug making the Vikhr reticule not drop down to the target and the launchers appear to point down from external view, but I don’t believe it affected the results or tactics.
Any significant errors/changes from patches, time willing, I'll pin a comment. - Hry
Amazing! Maybe the best video I have watched about Ka-50.
came on to say the same thing.
Enjoying your content . More please :)
On it!
Good advice, thanks for sharing :)
Hey Volk, I watched quite a lot of your videos and it’s very useful to revisit them from time to time since there is a lot of info and testing done by you. I will put the „reset“ laser button (front panel next to man/auto laser designator) into my routine from now. I didn’t know that it keeps the range info. Thanks 🙏 😊 for sharing.
Glad it helps
That was amazing. Enough tips to fill a notebook. Thank you, master! Subbed.
great video that really discusses the nuances of this bird and its system. amazing content
Awesome video! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
my pleasure
Comment for the algorithm, keep the content coming, my new fav DCS rotor head channel. Also awesome intro.
Thanks a lot!
My pleasure
Another great video mate, thanks 👍
me casually watching a SA-19 for my bud in an Apache and seeing it shoot
"oi its shooting at you"
bud jinks and looses a hellfire shot
me still looking at the SA-19 and sees something get bigger
"hang on a sec- OH SHI-"
hehe. sounds famliair
exelent👌👌
Thanks
The Ka-50 has simulated contrast-locking since years ago. The reason you can lock a target in spite of setting the IT-23 contrast way off is you only did just that: Set the contrast of the IT-23 display, but not the camera. I've had several missions in PG close to sundown where the range at which you could effectively track a vehicle was reduced, and I had to get closer still for the lock to stop randomly disengaging. Even though I was able to see reasonably well on the display by fiddling with the knobs, once again, that doesn't really have an effect on the optical recognition.
Yeah, exactly that. Though I wonder how well that screen/Skhval could see in lower light - in other words if they implemented a full/proper contrast locking system how well that would work and dust and if you'd be able to see anything then even after playing with contrast.
thank you
You're welcome
you: this video
me: oh wow, what does this button do!
I may be wrong, but for a "new" HDG I press the trimmer button, which has the same effect as what you show there. czcams.com/video/V5Q8bVwtZx0/video.html
It's a similar effect. Retrimming will set bank and trim as well (assuming those channels are on). And if you're doing that adjustment while holding trim - then for that duration of holding it hover mode's not doing it's thing anymore. Retrimming does work better if there's a significant wind that you should have bank and pitch compensate for. You could even yaw over and tap hover mode on-off for a similar effect of just setting heading.
Hey volk.. awesome video! I am having a lot of trouble finding targets indie terrain like trees for example. Esp manpads. Is there any way of setting a waypoint from f10 map and using those coordinates to snap the schkval to target?
We might just have had this conversation on Hoggit, but in case that was someone else - things in trees are hard. Manpads with their tiny size, more so. If you suspect one's in there, ideally from something like an ABRIS threat circle or other intel, then recommend you stay 7km away, thoroughly scan the area. If you don't spot it, or think you haven't spotted everything, relocate up high/low/different angle and try again. And then don't fly near those trees anyway in case he had a buddy.
As for the coordinates, check out my Target Point video - allow capture of coords without being in laser range and then uncaging to it.
@@volkvoort we did sir, thank you. I didnt expect the man himself to reply direct. Much appreciated.
Was this a 2 year old Apache tease? He was tracking one as a moving target
Kek. IIRC those were AI 64A models, just said to race around left-right. And they could somehow take a Vikhr to the face and be chill about it.
what is the uncage shkval key??
Default is the "O" key. Suggest binding it to your HOTAS if you have spare binds - it's used often.
What is the reason when shkval can't get on target, only on the line of sight but few km off. It happens when wingman send you targets with datalink, you can see the target on map flashing and resetting target system-selecting target- pressing ingress -uncage ,shkval uncages but it is way off ,you have slew it up a lot to see target?
The target sharing never has perfect accuracy. It seems to work better if the target was save & sent from the same-similar angle that you're at. So if you save targets and recall it'll usually be perfect, but if you saved and relocated, or received targets from wingmen at other locations, it will usually be a bit off. I *think* there's also some factors related to varied altitudes/locations related to this, possibly a bug, unsure - need to do some more testing. But yeah, either way, those sent targets are usually best as a indication of where a target is nearby rather than a dead-on lock.
@@volkvoort Thanks! I hope it's a bug, it sucks when it's few km off but its ok if it's just little bit off.
I have a question about Helmet Slew-Locking: Why is this useful function not mentioned in DCS manual? Is it a bug or a real function? I’m afraid that if it is just a bug it may be canceled in one day.
I'm also hoping it's not a bug. That said, BigNewy's seen this and didn't jump on that. No it's definitely not in the manual and I haven't seen this posted anywhere else. But, I would imagine that for locking to work with the helmet there should be some sort of buffer allowing for movement of the head while pressing lock, so it makes sense as well that same buffer would allow moving it slowly across the target to lock it.
Seriously do u think everyth can be writed in the manual ...this function exist in the real ka50 due to the lack of gunner, russian engineer hav worked on it
Lots of interesting info, but it is hard to understand your pronunciation at times. Even the auto sub titles are struggling hard to "translate" correctly😉. Talking slower might help us all. Thanks and keep up the good work👍
ka50 gun is toooo overpowred by ED (russia)
Maybe check out my vid on attack helo 30mm cannons. From the information & IRL footage I found, it doesn't seem far off.
It seems to be roughly as effective as the A-10's GAU-8 in-game, which honestly makes no sense to me
Your videos on the Ka-50 are a gold mine of information, but you speak waaay too fast!
I have to constantly stop and rewind the video to absorb everything 😅
Hehe. Depending on the situation my natural speaking speed can be a bit faster. But that said, these early 2 videos especially I tried to save the viewer's time, so edited away any pauses or gaps I could ruthlessly. You should see the later videos spread out the pacing more.
Bro we can tell your first language is not English, so calm down ,dont need to talk too fast. Clarity is more important when speaking a language otherwise video seems good