Virtual USAF

I didnt see a forum for Virtual airlines, but wanted to share this with the avsim community:

ACMI is a system used on the Nellis Ranges during Red Flag and other air exercises. ACMI stands for Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation. The ACMI system involves state of the art sensors on the aircraft that allow the ground controllers of the air war to 'see' a 3-D picture of the simulated air combat, including air-air engagements, air-ground strikes etc. in real time. The data can be recorded and played back in the pilot debriefing for training purposes. The data transmitted from the aircraft is picked up by a network of repeaters on the ground and transmitted back to Nellis AFB via microwave links and fiber optic broadband data cables. (For FSX, it’s an invisible gauge that creates a written log of the events taken place).

Currently we practice dogfights by performing maneuvers with our plane until we manage to put our opponent in a predefined position relative to our airplane axis (ie within HUD frame and under 0.4nm) If certain conditions are met such as acceleration (G's) and heading of the other plane (3-9 line) we call this a good kill. We never actually take in consideration that bullets need to travel to reach the target and therefore only catching a glimpse of your opponent is not really meaning that your bullets will reach it.... We have resolved the problem and now introduce a new realistic way of dog fighting in Vatsim or FSX multiplayer.

Virtual US Air Force has it’s own ACMI gauge and it’s the ONLY one like it throughout the flight simulator network and was built by vUSAF’s Chris Dub. Captian Sim has a reputable alternative called ‘Weapon’ However it lacks the dog fighting capabilities as well as SAM and AAA sites. The ACMI gauge is used over a large aircraft inventory. Once installed, be it on a B-1, B-2, A-10 or P-51 it will work and detect any AAA or SAM or even an enemy aircraft on your six.

Some key things the gauge logs are (to name a few):

- Checks to make sure you have your realism sliders in the correct position. All sliders to the far right (realistic), detect crashes and damage on.

- When the gun is fired, the gauge then checks for a plane in the 3deg cone (Kill zone) ahead of the plane up to 0.4nm away. If a target is found it will check to make sure that the target remains in the kill zone for one second.

- Users connected via a game spy session will be able to see each other impacts on the ground.

- Helps enforce any possible cheating and the Rules of Engagement.

- Fuel added quantity will be logged with the amount of fuel added.

- Take-off and landing time logged along with total time flown.

- Vertical speed at touchdown now detected.

So would you like to experience what the only military VA on Vatsim has? Come check out the Virtual USAF at www.vUSAF.org and experiance why no one comes close!

vMGen Chris Striker, vUSAF

vAETC Instructor Pilot / Asst. Public Affairs