Hi everyone,
Edit - just realised i might have posted this in the wrong area. if so and if this is an issue could an admin relocate this post please? Thanks
With the slow but steady influx of new players i thought it might be useful for them to explain what tab 7-1 is and what it can and cant do. Several times recently i have seen in chat 'where is the action?' or 'ive been flying around for 30 mins and not seen anyone - boring..' on a relatively full server so figure this might be useful.
So what is tab 7-1?
Its a non-historical capability that is designed to enable players to find each other in the great expanse of sky. Its especially useful when the numbers on the server are low (<10) or for new players who havent yet figured out the map, mission objectives or where players typically go to find action. Not all players use it - some find it an immersion killer - but i think most do at some stage. Its non historical but in my opinion is a good compromise between hard core real life and gaming. Others will probably disagree however.
So how does it work?
Pressing tab - 7 -1 will then show in your text box - assuming you have the necessary option selected - the distance and bearing of the nearest enemy single engined fighter that is flying above 500 m altitude and that is 30 km or less from you (i'm writing this from the blue perspective so am using km/metres - use your favourite conversion tool to convert for reds). But there are some caveats....
It does not show twin engined aircraft including the Bf-110 fighter (which several of us like to lurk around in..) so you will not detect these using tab 7-1.
It does not show aircraft of any type located less than 1-2 km from you. The closest distance it will display is 2 km and once the bad guy is less than 2 km (or whatever the code uses under the hood) it will not show it.
For low server numbers (20 i think) it will actually provide you with a bearing to fighter located up to 90 km away (from memory) but will only show the distance as 30 km - you need to then apply some map / mission knowledge to narrow down the actual range based on where players usually fly.
It will only show tgt bearings +/- 15 degrees in azimuth - in other word tgts bearings are displayed at 0, 30, 60, 90, 120 etc. When they transition from 14 degrees to 16 degrees in bearing from you the display will change from 0 to 30 degrees. So despite only showing +/- 15 degrees you can actually get a very good bearing estimate as they cross the 15 degree mark - ie when they change from 0 to 30 degrees you know they are pretty much 15 degrees in bearing from you. This is useful for accurate locating.
And as mentioned above the radar will not show any type of aircraft that is below 500m - this is important to remember and is often the cause of people complaining about the crazy radar being all over the place.
And its important to also realise tab 7-1 provides a bearing to the tgt and not (a) the heading you should fly to intercept or (b) the tgt's heading. More on this later.
And the range is slant range.
Here's some common observations to help explain what tab 7-1 can / cant do for you
Tab 7-1 tells you there is a fighter 240 30 km. How should you use this info to intercept?
If you fly 240 then there's a good chance you will end up in a tail chase and never really close the bad guy. So what you should do is look at the map and guestimate where this fighter is going. Once you have done that then you should fly either left or right of 240 depending on where you think its going to cut the corner. Sometimes i will fly 285 degrees in this case to cut the corner and when it changes from 240 to 210 i will then swing around to 240 and then 210 as i get closer. This takes practice and knowledge of the map/mission/usual hot spots.
Tab 7-1 tells you there is a fighter 240 30 km. But when you do tab 7-1 30 seconds later its now say 120 15 km - wtf no aircraft can do that this, is this radar bugged?
In this case what has happened is that when you were tracking the tgt at 240 30 it was the closest contact above 500m alt to you. By the time you do the next tab 7-1 another contact has popped up above the 500m floor and hence is now showing on radar. In some cases this might have been someone who has just taken off, or is someone who was flying low but has now climbed above 500m. Again knowing the map/mission/airfield locations will let you decide whether to now try and chase down this closer contact, run away from it, or continue onwards to your first contact estimating its flight path and waiting got it to become the closest tgt and thus is then displayed by tab 7-1 again.
You are tracking a tgt and you are flying at 5 km altitude and it is getting closer. Tab 7-1 is giving you the following; 270 13, 270 8, 270 5, 090 2, 090 5. Thats odd i didnt see it and now its east of me - is this radar bugged?
In this case what you have done is probably overflown/underflown the tgt (ie the change from 270 to 090 is suggestive of this) and from the min distance displayed as you transition from 270 to 090 you can get an estimate of altitude ie either ~ 2 km above or ~ 2 km below. Best to assume the worst case and look up very quickly just in case he's at 7 km and is now diving on you. Sometimes this might be due to a contact popping up under you but its usually a case of overflying/underflying the tgt.
Tab 7-1 is showing a tgt at 240 30 km and you close the tgt and the distance counts down nicely 30, 25, 20, 15, 14 and then it dissappears altogether - what happened?
Several things could have happened - the tgt dropped below 500 m or the tgt was shot down/despawned. Tab 7-1 will continue to show aircraft with dead pilots until such time as they fly below 500 m or are despawned / blow up etc.
And lastly - do not rely on tab 7-1 to check your 6. One of the issues that was discussed when the changes were made to tab 7-1 a few years ago was the issue of players using it to check 6 rather than actually looking for themselves (the earlier version of tab 7-1 didnt always provide you with the nearest contact but gave you the details of some other contact so it couldn't be used to check 6) and i know from personal experience there are still quite a few players who do not check their 6 visually and are possibly putting too much faith in tab 7-1 to protect them. So in my opinion dont rely on tab 7-1 to keep you from being bounced and either use you own eyes to check or get a gunner-equipped aircraft and let him do it for you.
There's probably a few other tips that players can share to help educate new players re Tab 7-1 - pls feel free to add them if you have them. Not all players use it and its possible to have lots of fun / combat without ever using it, once you know where the action is. But hopefully the above is useful to those players who want to understand how to use it and perhaps find the enemy more quickly than they have been in the past.
Ezzie
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Originally Posted by ATAG_Snapper
"Find out what you don't do well, and then DON'T DO IT!" - Alf
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