Jet HUDs and YOU!

Having only recently learned this myself, and having found it help a lot in some situations, I wanted to post this up and share with everyone. I know not all of us enjoy flying much, and even those that do may not feel very good at it, so to help keep you in the air a little longer I'm gonna post some tips in here along with these HUD explanations. While both the Heli and the Jet have a Russian and an American version, the HUD is the same no matter which side your on, so I'll only be posting one image of each vehicle. Please note that the Jet picture was taken during start-up, when the entire HUD lights up and all possible “elements” flash briefly before settling.

First we're going to go over the Jet HUD. Now while most (hopefully all) of us here already know where the crosshair is, I'm also writing this for any future pilots we accept into the clan, so bear with me and feel free to skip the stuff you already know. The crosshair is in the very center of the HUD, and looks like a little cross in the middle of the screen, hence it's name. This is where your Jet is pointing. When you land a hit with any weapon, an X will flash around this crosshair. This X is called the “Hit Marker”. It's really just a feedback to let you know that you did some damage with your weapon. In the picture you can see a large circle with lines coming out of it. This is an early version of the AA (Air to Air) missile reticule. Now this is just a smooth/dottedline circle. This only appears during a flight if you have AA missiles equipped and switch to them.

Now while your piloting, you may notice a sort of “bubble” floating around your HUD. This looks like a circle with three lines coming out of it, on both sides and one out of the top. (See picture.) This is called the “Flight Path Marker” (FPM). This tells you where the Jet is actually flying. Now some of you may be asking, “But Sigilos, isn't that what the Crosshair is for?” No, the Crosshair only points toward where the front of the Aircraft is pointing. The FPM shows what effect physics is having on your aircraft. For example, if you pull up, you'll see the FPM drift toward the bottom of the HUD. This is due to the momentum of the aircraft. The FPM is really just important when your flying close to things, like other Aircraft, obstacles, of the ground. Keep in mind that if you hold the brake to slow down, and you start seeing the FPM drift toward the ground, it means your going too slow and are starting to fall out of the sky. This is called a stall, and you should hit the gas and afterburners while keeping the nose angled up in order to stay in the air.

Next we're going to move outward, and look at the “Pitch Ladder”. Most people who jump into an Aircraft can identify this piece of the HUD right away, and it easily takes up the most space on the HUD. The PL stay generally horizontal to the ground, so it is possible to actually bank so hard that your PL will go off-screen. As soon as you start coming out of the bank, you'll see them return however. The PL is used see what angle your Aircraft is compared to the Horizon. This only visible on the HUD in fighter Aircraft currently, but actually has it's own instrument in just about any aircraft. The PL is sometimes called an “Artificial Horizon”, and used by pilots so that no matter what they may actually see out of their cockpits, they can always tell if they are pointed at the ground or not. (Handy for landing, or keeping your aircraft in the air on a foggy day.)

Now lets look at the top of the HUD, starting in the middle. In the picture this is labeled as the “Heading Indicator (Degrees)”. This is really just an electronic compass, and is typically only used in navigation of an aircraft over large distances.

Next, look to the right and below the Heading Indicator, and you'll see a small box with numbers in it. In the picture below, these numbers are 143.10. This box is displaying the barometric altitude. It's very important to know the difference between barometric and actual altitude, so I'm going to take a moment to explain the difference here. Barometric altitude is the distance in meters away from sea level that an aircraft is, and is measured by a Barometer, an instrument that measures air pressure. The Jet only has a Barometric Altitude measure, however the Heli has an instrument that tells actual height from the ground that will be explained in the Heli post.

On the other side of the top section we have a very important part of the HUD, and something that can actually help in a dog-fight. In the picture below, this box has the numbers 176 in it, and is located at the left top. This box displays the current “Airspeed” of the Jet. More on how this can be important while flying and fighting will be explained in the Tips section of this post, but make sure you know where this is on the HUD. It really can make a huge difference.

The next piece of the HUD is the “Weapon State”. Veteran pilots will likely not use this much, as they tend to listen for the reload sound to tell them the weapon is ready to fire again, and most pilots won't bother using this to tell them what weapon they have on simply because either the reticule changes, as in the case of using AA missiles, or the camera view will change, as in the case of Guided Missiles.

Now lets look just below the Weapon State indication. The picture identifies this half-circle of lines as the “Bank Angle/Wing Tilt” indicator. The small arrow below this half-circle represents the bottom of the aircraft, and the lines are exactly as the picture labels them. They show you how far your aircraft is tilted or “banked” in one direction or the other. In a hard bank this instrument becomes almost useless, and is over all much more useful in the Heli.

This next bit is pretty useless in BF3, so feel free to ignore this section. I only added it to be complete. If you really want to know what this part of the HUD does however, please, read on.

Now next to all this is a stack of three sets of numbers and letters. Start at the top of this stack. In the picture, this is just the number 2. This top number is the “Angle of Attack”. In BF3 this doesn't matter, but when flying an actual plane the Angle of Attack is a measure of wing angle to the oncoming air. The “angle” that the wing is “attacking” the air.

Just below the AoA indication is a set of four numbers with an M to the left of them. This is the Mach indicator, and tells the pilot what Mach the aircraft is performing. This is useful in real Jets because things like Airspeed Indicators are meant for lower speeds (Sub-sonic). In BF3, Jets had to be limited to subsonic speeds due to map size, so even with afterburners and a full throttle, this number will never go above about 0.3.

Below the Mach indication is another set of four numbers, but this time with a G next to them. This is the G-Force indication, and displays how many Gs your exerting on the airframe. This is not true G-Force on the pilot, as anything above 12 Gs or so can cause even experienced fighter pilots to black out. This is mostly used so that pilots do not pull so much stress on the wings that they damage the aircraft. This is not too useful in BF3, since the aircraft is incapable of pulling the kind of speed and G-Force needed to actually damage the aircraft. Doing a High G maneuver is what causes you to hear the aircraft “shake” in the game though, and some pilots call it turbulence. (Look up the definition of turbulence, and you'll see why most don't.)

Congratulations, you now know all the instruments in the BF3 Jets!

Read on for some of my tips on flying and fighting.



Tip 1: When firing your main gun at a moving target, make sure to lead it. How much to lead a target has to be judged on the fly, since it depends on your speed, the target's speed, and how far away from the target your going. Shoot at where a target is going to be when the bullet reaches it. Generally, just aim in front of the target, and adjust from there. The more you use your guns, the better you'll get at this, and soon you'll be taking down other aircraft like a pro.

Tip 2: When your trying to make a hard bank, don't just slam on the brakes and never let go. The tightest turn a Jet can make is a High-G turn. Remember the Airspeed indicator I showed you? Keep that around 280, using your brake to get down to that speed and your throttle to keep it from dropping more then 10 points below that, and you'll make a tight, fast turn. Most pilots use a “brake and 'burn” method, where they brake hard and then hit the afterburners when they're pointing the direction they want. This is about as quick as a High-G turn, but causes the aircraft to fly in a straight line after making the turn. Think about it this way. If you wanted to make a tight circle over one spot, try using a High-G turn. If you use a “brake and 'burn”, you'll make more of an oval shape, instead of a circle.

Tip 3: Some pilots will get behind a target, gun or missile it until it's disabled, and then break off and look for a new target. DON'T DO THIS. While not all targets will use the Extinguisher gadget, some do. All it takes to knock you out of the sky is that one pilot who has Extinguishers on, and comes back to get revenge after you already turned away. Either gun the target until it explodes, or keep your eye on it until it does.

Tip 4: Don't get greedy. Everyone is guilty of this at some point or another. You start doing really well, your team is dominating the airspace, and you start strafing the ground and/or the enemy landing pad, and go too low too slow. All of the sudden, your face meets Mr. Lightpost, and your out of the sky like a newbie. Play it safer, and live to get that target on the next pass.

Part 2, Heli HUDs will be coming soon.

Nice, alot of useful stuff there.

*thumbs up*