Be the boss!

The AIRBOSS Concept

On a carrier, the AIRBOSS is guy who is really in charge - don't mess with him!

Recovery Cases

The AIRBOSS class supports all three commonly used recovery cases, i.e.

• CASE I during daytime and good weather (ceiling > 3000 ft, visibility > 5 NM),
• CASE II during daytime but poor visibility conditions (ceiling > 1000 ft, visibility > 5NM),
• CASE III when below Case II conditions and during nighttime (ceiling < 1000 ft, visibility < 5 NM).

That being said, this script allows you to use any of the three cases to be used at any time. Or, in other words, you need to specify when which case is safe and appropriate.

This is a lot of responsibility. You are the boss, but you need to make the right decisions or things will go terribly wrong!

Recovery windows can be set up via the AIRBOSS.AddRecoveryWindow function as explained below. With this it is possible to seamlessly (within reason!) switch recovery cases in the same mission.

CASE I

As mentioned before, Case I recovery is the standard procedure during daytime and good visibility conditions.

Holding Pattern

The graphic depicts a the standard holding pattern during a Case I recovery. Incoming aircraft enter the holding pattern, which is a counter clockwise turn with a diameter of 5 NM, at their assigned altitude. The holding altitude of the first stack is 2000 ft. The interval between stacks is 1000 ft.

Once a recovery window opens, the aircraft of the lowest stack commence their landing approach and the rest of the Marshal stack collapses, i.e. aircraft switch from their current stack to the next lower stack.

The flight that transitions form the holding pattern to the landing approach, it should leave the Marshal stack at the 3 position and make a left hand turn to the Initial position, which is 3 NM astern of the boat. Note that you need to be below 1300 feet to be registered in the initial zone. The altitude can be set via the function AIRBOSS.SetInitialMaxAlt(altitude) function. As described below, the initial zone can be smoked or flared via the AIRBOSS F10 Help radio menu.

Landing Pattern

Once the aircraft reaches the Initial, the landing pattern begins. The important steps of the pattern are shown in the image above. The AV-8B Harrier pattern is very similar, the only differences are as there is no angled deck there is no wake check. from the ninety you wil fly a straight approach offset 26 ft to port (left) of the tram line. The aim is to arrive abeam the landing spot in a stable hover at 120 ft with forward speed matched to the boat. From there the LSO will call "cleared to land". You then level cross to the tram line at the designated landing spot at land vertcally. When you stabalise over the landing spot LSO will call Stabalise to indicate you are centered at the correct spot.

CASE III

A Case III recovery is conducted during nighttime or when the visibility is below CASE II minima during the day. The holding position and the landing pattern are rather different from a Case I recovery as can be seen in the image above.

The first holding zone starts 21 NM astern the carrier at angels 6. The separation between the stacks is 1000 ft just like in Case I. However, the distance to the boat increases by 1 NM with each stack. The general form can be written as D=15+6+(N-1), where D is the distance to the boat in NM and N the number of the stack starting at N=1.

Once the aircraft of the lowest stack is allowed to commence to the landing pattern, it starts a descent at 4000 ft/min until it reaches the "Platform" at 5000 ft and ~19 NM DME. From there a shallower descent at 2000 ft/min should be performed. At an altitude of 1200 ft the aircraft should level out and "Dirty Up" (gear, flaps & hook down).

At 3 NM distance to the carrier, the aircraft should intercept the 3.5 degrees glideslope at the "Bullseye". From there the pilot should "follow the needles" of the ICLS.

CASE II

Case II is the common recovery procedure at daytime if visibility conditions are poor. It can be viewed as hybrid between Case I and III. The holding pattern is very similar to that of the Case III recovery with the difference the the radial is the inverse of the BRC instead of the FB. From the holding zone aircraft are follow the Case III path until they reach the Initial position 3 NM astern the boat. From there a standard Case I recovery procedure is in place.

Note that the image depicts the case, where the holding zone has an angle offset of 30 degrees with respect to the BRC. This is optional. Commonly used offset angels are 0 (no offset), +-15 or +-30 degrees. The AIRBOSS class supports all these scenarios which are used during Case II and III recoveries.

The F10 Radio Menu

The F10 radio menu can be used to post requests to Marshal but also provides information about the player and carrier status. Additionally, helper functions can be called.

By default, the script creates a submenu "Airboss" in the "F10 Other ..." menu and each #AIRBOSS carrier gets its own submenu. If you intend to have only one carrier, you can simplify the menu structure using the AIRBOSS.SetMenuSingleCarrier function, which will create all carrier specific menu entries directly in the "Airboss" submenu. (Needless to say, that if you enable this and define multiple carriers, the menu structure will get completely screwed up.)

Root Menu

The general structure

• F1 Help... (Help submenu, see below.)
• F2 Kneeboard... (Kneeboard submenu, see below. Carrier information, weather report, player status.)
• F3 Request Marshal
• F4 Request Commence
• F5 Request Refueling
• F6 Spinning
• F7 Emergency Landing
• F8 [Reset My Status]

Request Marshal

This radio command can be used to request a stack in the holding pattern from Marshal. Necessary conditions are that the flight is inside the Carrier Controlled Area (CCA) (see AIRBOSS.SetCarrierControlledArea).

Marshal will assign an individual stack for each player group depending on the current or next open recovery case window. If multiple players have registered as a section, the section lead will be assigned a stack and is responsible to guide his section to the assigned holding position.

Request Commence

This command can be used to request commencing from the marshal stack to the landing pattern. Necessary condition is that the player is in the lowest marshal stack and that the number of aircraft in the landing pattern is smaller than four (or the number set by the mission designer).

The image displays the standard Case I Marshal pattern recovery. Pilots are supposed to fly a clockwise circle and descent between the 3 and 1 positions.

Commence should be performed at around the 3 position. If the pilot is in the lowest Marshal stack, and flies through this area, he is automatically cleared for the landing pattern. In other words, there is no need for the "Request Commence" radio command. The zone can be marked via smoke or flared using the player's F10 radio menu.

A player can also request commencing if he is not registered in a marshal stack yet. If the pattern is free, Marshal will allow him to directly enter the landing pattern. However, this is only possible when the Airboss has a nice day - see AIRBOSS.SetAirbossNiceGuy.

Request Refueling

If a recovery tanker has been set up via the AIRBOSS.SetRecoveryTanker, the player can request refueling at any time. If currently in the marshal stack, the stack above will collapse. The player will be informed if the tanker is currently busy or going RTB to refuel itself at its home base. Once the re-fueling is complete, the player has to re-register to the marshal stack.

Spinning

If the pattern is full, players can go into the spinning pattern. This step is only allowed, if the player is in the pattern and his next step is initial, break entry, early/late break. At this point, the player should climb to 1200 ft a fly on the port side of the boat to go back to the initial again.

If a player is in the spin pattern, flights in the Marshal queue should hold their altitude and are not allowed into the pattern until the spinning aircraft proceeds.

Once the player reaches a point 100 meters behind the boat and at least 1 NM port, his step is set to "Initial" and he can resume the normal pattern approach.

If necessary, the player can call "Spinning" again when in the above mentioned steps.

Emergency Landing

Request an emergency landing, i.e. bypass all pattern steps and go directly to the final approach.

All section members are supposed to follow. Player (or section lead) is removed from all other queues and automatically added to the landing pattern queue.

If this command is called while the player is currently on the carrier, he will be put in the bolter pattern. So the next expected step after take of is the abeam position. This allows for quick landing training exercises without having to go through the whole pattern.

The mission designer can forbid this option my setting AIRBOSS.SetEmergencyLandings(false) in the script.

[Reset My Status]

This will reset the current player status. If player is currently in a marshal stack, he will be removed from the marshal queue and the stack above will collapse. The player needs to re-register later if desired. If player is currently in the landing pattern, he will be removed from the pattern queue.

Help Menu

This menu provides commands to help the player.

Mark Zones Submenu

These commands can be used to mark marshal or landing pattern zones.

• Smoke Pattern Zones Smoke is used to mark the landing pattern zone of the player depending on his recovery case. For Case I this is the initial zone. For Case II/III and three these are the Platform, Arc turn, Dirty Up, Bullseye/Initial zones as well as the approach corridor.
• Flare Pattern Zones Similar to smoke but uses flares to mark the pattern zones.
• Smoke Marshal Zone This smokes the surrounding area of the currently assigned Marshal zone of the player. Player has to be registered in Marshal queue.
• Flare Marshal Zone Similar to smoke but uses flares to mark the Marshal zone.

Note that the smoke lasts ~5 minutes but the zones are moving along with the carrier. So after some time, the smoke gives shows you a picture of the past.

Skill Level Submenu

The player can choose between three skill or difficulty levels.

• Flight Student: The player receives tips at certain stages of the pattern, e.g. if he is at the right altitude, speed, etc.
• Naval Aviator: Less tips are show. Player should be familiar with the procedures and its aircraft parameters.
• TOPGUN Graduate: Only very few information is provided to the player. This is for the pros.
• Hints On/Off: Toggle displaying hints.

My Status

This command provides information about the current player status. For example, his current step in the pattern.

Attitude Monitor

This command displays the current aircraft attitude of the player aircraft in short intervals as message on the screen. It provides information about current pitch, roll, yaw, orientation of the plane with respect to the carrier's orientation (Gamma) etc.

If you are in the groove, current lineup and glideslope errors are displayed and you get an on-the-fly LSO grade.

LSO Radio Check

LSO will transmit a short message on his radio frequency. See AIRBOSS.SetLSORadio. Note that in the A-4E you will not hear the message unless you are in the pattern.

Marshal Radio Check

Marshal will transmit a short message on his radio frequency. See AIRBOSS.SetMarshalRadio.

Subtitles On/Off

This command toggles the display of radio message subtitles if no radio relay unit is used. By default subtitles are on. Note that subtitles for radio messages which do not have a complete voice over are always displayed.

Trapsheet On/Off

Each player can activated or deactivate the recording of his flight data (AoA, glideslope, lineup, etc.) during his landing approaches. Note that this feature also has to be enabled by the mission designer.

Kneeboard Menu

The Kneeboard menu provides information about the carrier, weather and player results.

Results Submenu

Here you find your LSO grading results as well as scores of other players.

• Greenie Board lists average scores of all players obtained during landing approaches.
• My LSO Grades lists all grades the player has received for his approaches in this mission.
• Last Debrief shows the detailed debriefing of the player's last approach.

Carrier Info

Information about the current carrier status is displayed. This includes current BRC, FB, LSO and Marshal frequencies, list of next recovery windows.

Weather Report

Displays information about the current weather at the carrier such as QFE, wind and temperature.

For missions using static weather, more information such as cloud base, thickness, precipitation, visibility distance, fog and dust are displayed. If your mission uses dynamic weather, you can disable this output via the AIRBOSS.SetStaticWeather(false) function.

Set Section

With this command, you can define a section of human flights. The player who issues the command becomes the section lead and all other human players within a radius of 100 meters become members of the section.

The responsibilities of the section leader are:

• To request Marshal. The section members are not allowed to do this and have to follow the lead to his assigned stack.
• To lead the right way to the pattern if the flight is allowed to commence.
• The lead is also the only one who can request commence if the flight wants to bypass the Marshal stack.

Each time the command is issued by the lead, the complete section is set up from scratch. Members which are not inside the 100 m radius any more are removed and/or new members which are now in range are added.

If a section member issues this command, it is removed from the section of his lead. All flights which are not yet in another section will become members.

The default maximum size of a section is two human players. This can be adjusted by the AIRBOSS.SetMaxSectionSize(size) function. The maximum allowed size is four.

Marshal Queue

Lists all flights currently in the Marshal queue including their assigned stack, recovery case and Charlie time estimate. By default, the number of available Case I stacks is three, i.e. at angels 2, 3 and 4. Usually, the recovery thanker orbits at angels 6. The number of available stacks can be set by the AIRBOSS.SetMaxMarshalStack function.

The default number of human players per stack is two. This can be set via the AIRBOSS.SetMaxFlightsPerStack function but has to be between one and four.

Due to technical reasons, each AI group always gets its own stack. DCS does not allow to control the AI in a manner that more than one group per stack would make sense unfortunately.

Pattern Queue

Lists all flights currently in the landing pattern queue showing the time since they entered the pattern. By default, a maximum of four flights is allowed to enter the pattern. This can be set via the AIRBOSS.SetMaxLandingPattern function.

Waiting Queue

Lists all flights currently waiting for a free Case I Marshal stack. Note, stacks are limited only for Case I recovery ops but not for Case II or III. If the carrier is switches recovery ops form Case I to Case II or III, all waiting flights will be assigned a stack.

Landing Signal Officer (LSO)

The LSO will first contact you on his radio channel when you are at the the abeam position (Case I) with the phrase "Paddles, contact.". Once you are in the groove the LSO will ask you to "Call the ball." and then acknowledge your ball call by "Roger Ball."

During the groove the LSO will give you advice if you deviate from the correct landing path. These advices will be given when you are

• too low or too high with respect to the glideslope,
• too fast or too slow with respect to the optimal AoA,
• too far left or too far right with respect to the lineup of the (angled) runway.

LSO Grading

LSO grading starts when the player enters the groove. The flight path and aircraft attitude is evaluated at certain steps (distances measured from rundown):

• X At the Start (0.75 NM = 1390 m).
• IM In the Middle (0.5 NM = 926 m), middle one third of the glideslope.
• IC In Close (0.25 NM = 463 m), last one third of the glideslope.
• AR At the Ramp (0.027 NM = 50 m).
• IW In the Wires (at the landing position).

Grading at each step includes the above calls, i.e.

• Lined Up Left or Right: LUL, LUR
• Too High or too LOw: H, LO
• Too Fast or too SLOw: F, SLO
• OverShoot: OS, only referenced during X
• Fly through glideslope down or up: \ , /, advisory only
• Drift Left or Right:DL, DR, advisory only
• Angled Approach: Angled approach (wings level and LUL): AA, advisory only

Each grading, x, is subdivided by

• (x): parenthesis, indicating "a little" for a minor deviation and
• _x_: underline, indicating "a lot" for major deviations.

The position at the landing event is analyzed and the corresponding trapped wire calculated. If no wire was caught, the LSO will give the bolter call.

If a player is significantly off from the ideal parameters from IC to AR, the LSO will wave the player off. Thresholds for wave off are

• Line up error > 3.0 degrees left or right and/or
• Glideslope error < -1.2 degrees or > 1.8 degrees and/or
• AOA depending on aircraft type and only applied if skill level is "TOPGUN graduate".

Line up and glideslope error thresholds were tested extensively using VFA-113 Stingers LSO Mod, if the aircraft is outside the red box. In the picture above, blue numbers denote the line up thresholds while the blacks refer to the glideslope.

A wave off is called, when the aircraft is outside the red rectangle. The measurement stops already ~50 m before the rundown, since the error in the calculation increases the closer the aircraft gets to the origin/reference point.

The optimal glideslope is assumed to be 3.5 degrees leading to a touch down point between the second and third wire. The height of the carrier deck and the exact wire locations are taken into account in the calculations.

Pattern Waveoff

The player's aircraft position is evaluated at certain critical locations in the landing pattern. If the player is far off from the ideal approach, the LSO will issue a pattern wave off. Currently, this is only implemented for Case I recoveries and the Case I part in the Case II recovery, i.e.

• Break Entry
• Early Break
• Late Break
• Abeam
• Ninety
• Wake
• Groove

At these points it is also checked if a player comes too close to another aircraft ahead of him in the pattern.

Grading Points

Currently grades are given by as follows

• 5.0 Points _OK_: "Okay underline", given only for a perfect pass, i.e. when no deviations at all were observed by the LSO. The unicorn!
• 4.0 Points OK: "Okay pass" when only minor () deviations happened.
• 3.0 Points (OK): "Fair pass", when only "normal" deviations were detected.
• 2.0 Points --: "No grade", for larger deviations.

Furthermore, we have the cases:

• 2.5 Points B: "Bolter", when the player landed but did not catch a wire.
• 2.0 Points WOP: "Pattern Wave-Off", when pilot was far away from where he should be in the pattern.
• 2.0 Points OWO: "Own Wave-Off**, when pilot flies past the deck without touching it.
• 1.0 Points WO: "Technique Wave-Off": Player got waved off in the final parts of the groove.
• 1.0 Points LIG: "Long In the Groove", when pilot extents the downwind leg too far and screws up the timing for the following aircraft.
• 0.0 Points CUT: "Cut pass", when player was waved off but landed anyway. In addition if a V/STOL lands without having been Cleared to Land.

Foul Deck Waveoff

A foul deck waveoff is called by the LSO if an aircraft is detected within the landing area when an approaching aircraft is at position IM-IC during Case I/II operations, or with an aircraft approaching the 3/4 NM during Case III operations.

The approaching aircraft will be notified via LSO radio comms and is supposed to overfly the landing area to enter the Bolter pattern. This pass is not graded.

Scripting

Writing a basic script is easy and can be done in two lines.

local airbossStennis=AIRBOSS:New("USS Stennis", "Stennis")
airbossStennis:Start()

The first line creates and AIRBOSS object via the AIRBOSS.New(carriername, alias) constructor. The first parameter carriername is name of the carrier unit as defined in the mission editor. The second parameter alias is optional. This name will, e.g., be used for the F10 radio menu entry. If not given, the alias is identical to the carriername of the first parameter.

This simple script initializes a lot of parameters with default values:

• TACAN channel is set to 74X, see AIRBOSS.SetTACAN,
• ICSL channel is set to 1, see AIRBOSS.SetICLS,
• LSO radio is set to 264 MHz FM, see AIRBOSS.SetLSORadio,
• Marshal radio is set to 305 MHz FM, see AIRBOSS.SetMarshalRadio,
• Default recovery case is set to 1, see AIRBOSS.SetRecoveryCase,
• Carrier Controlled Area (CCA) is set to 50 NM, see AIRBOSS.SetCarrierControlledArea,
• Default player skill "Flight Student" (easy), see AIRBOSS.SetDefaultPlayerSkill,
• Once the carrier reaches its final waypoint, it will restart its route, see AIRBOSS.SetPatrolAdInfinitum.

The second line starts the AIRBOSS class. If you set options this should happen after the AIRBOSS.New and before AIRBOSS.Start command.

However, good mission planning involves also planning when aircraft are supposed to be launched or recovered. The definition of case specific recovery ops within the same mission is described in the next section.

Recovery Windows

Recovery of aircraft is only allowed during defined time slots. You can define these slots via the AIRBOSS.AddRecoveryWindow(start, stop, case, holdingoffset) function. The parameters are:

• start: The start time as a string. For example "8:00" for a window opening at 8 am. Or "13:30+1" for half past one on the next day. Default (nil) is ASAP.
• stop: Time when the window closes as a string. Same format as start. Default is 90 minutes after start time.
• case: The recovery case during that window (1, 2 or 3). Default 1.
• holdingoffset: Holding offset angle in degrees. Only for Case II or III recoveries. Default 0 deg. Common +-15 deg or +-30 deg.

If recovery is closed, AI flights will be send to marshal stacks and orbit there until the next window opens. Players can request marshal via the F10 menu and will also be given a marshal stack. Currently, human players can request commence via the F10 radio regardless of whether a window is open or not and will be allowed to enter the pattern (if not already full). This will probably change in the future.

At the moment there is no automatic recovery case set depending on weather or daytime. So it is the AIRBOSS (i.e. you as mission designer) who needs to make that decision. It is probably a good idea to synchronize the timing with the waypoints of the carrier. For example, setting up the waypoints such that the carrier already has turning into the wind, when a recovery window opens.

The code for setting up multiple recovery windows could look like this

local airbossStennis=AIRBOSS:New("USS Stennis", "Stennis")
airbossStennis:AddRecoveryWindow("8:30", "9:30", 1)
airbossStennis:AddRecoveryWindow("12:00", "13:15", 2, 15)
airbossStennis:AddRecoveryWindow("23:30", "00:30+1", 3, -30)
airbossStennis:Start()

This will open a Case I recovery window from 8:30 to 9:30. Then a Case II recovery from 12:00 to 13:15, where the holing offset is +15 degrees wrt BRC. Finally, a Case III window opens 23:30 on the day the mission starts and closes 0:30 on the following day. The holding offset is -30 degrees wrt FB.

Note that incoming flights will be assigned a holding pattern for the next opening window case if no window is open at the moment. So in the above example, all flights incoming after 13:15 will be assigned to a Case III marshal stack. Therefore, you should make sure that no flights are incoming long before the next window opens or adjust the recovery planning accordingly.

The following example shows how you set up a recovery window for the next week:

for i=0,7 do
   airbossStennis:AddRecoveryWindow(string.format("08:05:00+%d", i), string.format("08:50:00+%d", i))
end

Turning into the Wind

For each recovery window, you can define if the carrier should automatically turn into the wind. This is done by passing one or two additional arguments to the AIRBOSS.AddRecoveryWindow function:

airbossStennis:AddRecoveryWindow("8:30", "9:30", 1, nil, true, 20)

Setting the fifth parameter to true enables the automatic turning into the wind. The sixth parameter (here 20) specifies the speed in knots the carrier will go so that to total wind above the deck corresponds to this wind speed. For example, if the is blowing with 5 knots, the carrier will go 15 knots so that the total velocity adds up to the specified 20 knots for the pilot.

The carrier will steam into the wind for as long as the recovery window is open. The distance up to which possible collisions are detected can be set by the AIRBOSS.SetCollisionDistance function.

However, the AIRBOSS scans the type of the surface up to 5 NM in the direction of movement of the carrier. If he detects anything but deep water, he will stop the current course and head back to the point where he initially turned into the wind.

The same holds true after the recovery window closes. The carrier will head back to the place where he left its assigned route and resume the path to the next waypoint defined in the mission editor.

Note that the carrier will only head into the wind, if the wind direction is different by more than 5° from the current heading of the carrier (the angled runway, if any, fis taken into account here).

Persistence of Player Results

LSO grades of players can be saved to disk and later reloaded when a new mission is started.

Prerequisites

Important By default, DCS does not allow for writing data to files. Therefore, one first has to comment out the line "sanitizeModule('io')" and "sanitizeModule('lfs')", i.e.

do
  sanitizeModule('os')
  --sanitizeModule('io')    -- required for saving files
  --sanitizeModule('lfs')   -- optional for setting the default path to your "Saved Games\DCS" folder
  require = nil
  loadlib = nil
end

in the file "MissionScripting.lua", which is located in the subdirectory "Scripts" of your DCS installation root directory.

WARNING Desanitizing the "io" and "lfs" modules makes your machine or server vulnerable to attacks from the outside! Use this at your own risk.

Save Results

Saving asset data to file is achieved by the AIRBOSS.Save(path, filename) function.

The parameter path specifies the path on the file system where the player grades are saved. If you do not specify a path, the file is saved your the DCS installation root directory if the lfs module is not desanizied or your "Saved Games\DCS" folder in case you did desanitize the lfs module.

The parameter filename is optional and defines the name of the saved file. By default this is automatically created from the AIRBOSS carrier name/alias, i.e. "Airboss-USS Stennis_LSOgrades.csv", if the alias is "USS Stennis".

In the easiest case, you desanitize the io and lfs modules and just add the line

airbossStennis:Save()

If you want to specify an explicit path you can do this by

airbossStennis:Save("D:\\My Airboss Data\\")

This will save all player grades to in "D:\My Airboss Data\Airboss-USS Stennis_LSOgrades.csv".

Automatic Saving

The player grades can be saved automatically after each graded player pass via the AIRBOSS.SetAutoSave(path, filename) function. Again the parameters path and filename are optional. In the simplest case, you desanitize the lfs module and just add

airbossStennis:SetAutoSave()

Note that the the stats are saved after the final grade has been given, i.e. the player has landed on the carrier. After intermediate results such as bolters or waveoffs the stats are not automatically saved.

In case you want to specify an explicit path, you can write

airbossStennis:SetAutoSave("D:\\My Airboss Data\\")

Results Output

The results file is stored as comma separated file. The columns are

• Name: The player name.
• Pass: A running number counting the passes of the player
• Points Final: The final points (i.e. when the player has landed). This is the average over all previous bolters or waveoffs, if any.
• Points Pass: The points of each pass including bolters and waveoffs.
• Grade: LSO grade.
• Details: Detailed analysis of deviations within the groove.
• Wire: Trapped wire, if any.
• Tgroove: Time in the groove in seconds (not applicable during Case III).
• Case: The recovery case operations in progress during the pass.
• Wind: Wind on deck in knots during approach.
• Modex: Tail number of the player.
• Airframe: Aircraft type used in the recovery.
• Carrier Type: Type name of the carrier.
• Carrier Name: Name/alias of the carrier.
• Theatre: DCS map.
• Mission Time: Mission time at the end of the approach.
• Mission Date: Mission date in yyyy/mm/dd format.
• OS Date: Real life date from os.date(). Needs os to be desanitized.

Load Results

Loading player grades from file is achieved by the AIRBOSS.Load(path, filename) function. The parameter path specifies the path on the file system where the data is loaded from. If you do not specify a path, the file is loaded from your the DCS installation root directory or, if lfs was desanitized from you "Saved Games\DCS" directory. The parameter filename is optional and defines the name of the file to load. By default this is automatically generated from the AIBOSS carrier name/alias, for example "Airboss-USS Stennis_LSOgrades.csv".

Note that the AIRBOSS FSM must not be started in order to load the data. In other words, loading should happen after the AIRBOSS.New command is specified in the code but before the AIRBOSS.Start command is given.

The easiest was to load player results is

airbossStennis:New("USS Stennis")
airbossStennis:Load()
airbossStennis:SetAutoSave()
-- Additional specification of parameters such as recovery windows etc, if required.
airbossStennis:Start()

This sequence loads all available player grades from the default file and automatically saved them when a player received a (final) grade. Again, if lfs was desanitized, the files are save to and loaded from the "Saved Games\DCS" directory. If lfs was not desanitized, the DCS root installation folder is the default path.

Trap Sheet

Important aircraft attitude parameters during the Groove can be saved to file for later analysis. This also requires the io and optionally lfs modules to be desanitized.

In the script you have to add the AIRBOSS.SetTrapSheet(path) function to activate this feature.

Data the is written to a file in csv format and contains the following information:

• Time: time in seconds since start.
• Rho: distance from rundown to player aircraft in NM.
• X : distance parallel to the carrier in meters.
• Z : distance perpendicular to the carrier in meters.
• Alt: altitude of player aircraft in feet.
• AoA: angle of attack in degrees.
• GSE: glideslope error in degrees.
• LUE: lineup error in degrees.
• Vtot: total velocity of player aircraft in knots.
• Vy: vertical (descent) velocity in ft/min.
• Gamma: angle between vector of aircraft nose and vector point in the direction of the carrier runway in degrees.
• Pitch: pitch angle of player aircraft in degrees.
• Roll: roll angle of player aircraft in degrees.
• Yaw: yaw angle of player aircraft in degrees.
• Step: Step in the groove.
• Grade: Current LSO grade.
• Points: Current points for the pass.
• Details: Detailed grading analysis.

Lineup Error

The graph displays the lineup error (LUE) as a function of the distance to the carrier.

The pilot approaches the carrier from the port side, LUE>0°, at a distance of ~1 NM. At the beginning of the groove (X), he significantly overshoots to the starboard side (LUE<5°). In the middle (IM), he performs good corrections and smoothly reduces the lineup error. Finally, at a distance of ~0.3 NM (IC) he has corrected his lineup with the runway to a reasonable level, |LUE|<0.5°.

Glideslope Error

The graph displays the glideslope error (GSE) as a function of the distance to the carrier.

In this case the pilot already enters the groove (X) below the optimal glideslope. He is not able to correct his height in the IM part and stays significantly too low. In close, he performs a harsh correction to gain altitude and ends up even slightly too high (GSE>0.5°). At his point further corrections are necessary.

Angle of Attack

The graph displays the angle of attack (AoA) as a function of the distance to the carrier.

The pilot starts off being on speed after the ball call. Then he get way to fast troughout the most part of the groove. He manages to correct this somewhat short before touchdown.

Sound Files

An important aspect of the AIRBOSS is that it uses voice overs for greater immersion. The necessary sound files can be obtained from the MOOSE Discord in the #ops-airboss channel. Check out the pinned messages.

However, including sound files into a new mission is tedious as these usually need to be included into the mission miz file via (unused) triggers.

The default location inside the miz file is "l10n/DEFAULT/". But simply opening the miz file with e.g. 7-zip and copying the files into that folder does not work. The next time the mission is saved, files not included via trigger are automatically removed by DCS.

However, if you create a new folder inside the miz file, which contains the sounds, it will not be deleted and can be used. The location of the sound files can be specified via the AIRBOSS.SetSoundfilesFolder(folderpath) function. The parameter folderpath defines the location of the sound files folder within the mission miz file.

For example as

airbossStennis:SetSoundfilesFolder("Airboss Soundfiles/")

Carrier Specific Voice Overs

It is possible to use different sound files for different carriers. If you have set up two (or more) AIRBOSS objects at different carriers - say Stennis and Tarawa - each carrier would use the files in the specified directory, e.g.

airbossStennis:SetSoundfilesFolder("Airboss Soundfiles Stennis/")
airbossTarawa:SetSoundfilesFolder("Airboss Soundfiles Tarawa/")

Sound Packs

The AIRBOSS currently has two different "sound packs" for LSO and three different "sound Packs" for Marshal radios. These contain voice overs by different actors. These can be set by AIRBOSS.SetVoiceOversLSOByRaynor() and AIRBOSS.SetVoiceOversMarshalByRaynor(). These are the default settings. The other sound files can be set by AIRBOSS.SetVoiceOversLSOByFF(), AIRBOSS.SetVoiceOversMarshalByGabriella() and AIRBOSS.SetVoiceOversMarshalByFF(). Also combinations can be used, e.g.

airbossStennis:SetVoiceOversLSOByFF()
airbossStennis:SetVoiceOversMarshalByRaynor()

In this example LSO voice overs by FF and Marshal voice overs by Raynor are used.

Note that this only initializes the correct parameters parameters of sound files, i.e. the duration. The correct files have to be in the directory set by the AIRBOSS.SetSoundfilesFolder(folder) function.

How To Use Your Own Voice Overs

If you have a set of AIRBOSS sound files recorded or got it from elsewhere it is possible to use those instead of the default ones. I recommend to use exactly the same file names as the original sound files have.

However, the timing is critical! As sometimes sounds are played directly after one another, e.g. by saying the modex but also on other occations, the airboss script has a radio queue implemented (actually two - one for the LSO and one for the Marshal/Airboss radio). By this it is automatically taken care that played messages are not overlapping and played over each other. The disadvantage is, that the script needs to know the exact duration of each voice over. For the default sounds this is hard coded in the source code. For your own files, you need to give that bit of information to the script via the AIRBOSS.SetVoiceOver(radiocall, duration, subtitle, subduration, filename, suffix) function. Only the first two parameters radiocall and duration are usually important to adjust here.

For example, if you want to change the LSO "Call the Ball" and "Roger Ball" calls:

airbossStennis:SetVoiceOver(airbossStennis.LSOCall.CALLTHEBALL, 0.6)
airbossStennis:SetVoiceOver(airbossStennis.LSOCall.ROGERBALL, 0.7)

Again, changing the file name, subtitle, subtitle duration is not required if you name the file exactly like the original one, which is this case would be "LSO-RogerBall.ogg".

The Radio Dilemma

DCS offers two (actually three) ways to send radio messages. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages and it is important to understand the differences.

Transmission via Command

In principle, the best way to transmit messages is via the TransmitMessage command. This method has the advantage that subtitles can be used and these subtitles are only displayed to the players who dialed in the same radio frequency as used for the transmission. However, this method unfortunately only works if the sending unit is an aircraft. Therefore, it is not usable by the AIRBOSS per se as the transmission comes from a naval unit (i.e. the carrier).

As a workaround, you can put an aircraft, e.g. a Helicopter on the deck of the carrier or another ship of the strike group. The aircraft should be set to uncontrolled and maybe even to immortal. With the AIRBOSS.SetRadioUnitName(unitname) function you can use this unit as "radio repeater" for both Marshal and LSO radio channels. However, this might lead to interruptions in the transmission if both channels transmit simultaniously. Therefore, it is better to assign a unit for each radio via the AIRBOSS.SetRadioRelayLSO(unitname) and AIRBOSS.SetRadioRelayMarshal(unitname) functions.

Of course you can also use any other aircraft in the vicinity of the carrier, e.g. a rescue helo or a recovery tanker. It is just important that this unit is and stays close the the boat as the distance from the sender to the receiver is modeled in DCS. So messages from too far away might not reach the players.

Note that not all radio messages the airboss sends have voice overs. Therefore, if you use a radio relay unit, users should not disable the subtitles in the DCS game menu.

Transmission via Trigger

Another way to broadcast messages is via the radio transmission trigger. This method can be used for all units (land, air, naval). However, messages cannot be subtitled. Therefore, subtitles are displayed to the players via normal textout messages. The disadvantage is that is is impossible to know which players have the right radio frequencies dialed in. Therefore, subtitles of the Marshal radio calls are displayed to all players inside the CCA. Subtitles on the LSO radio frequency are displayed to all players in the pattern.

Sound to User

The third way to play sounds to the user via the outsound trigger. These sounds are not coming from a radio station and therefore can be heard by players independent of their actual radio frequency setting. The AIRBOSS class uses this method to play sounds to players which are of a more "private" nature - for example when a player has left his assigned altitude in the Marshal stack. Often this is the modex of the player in combination with a textout messaged displayed on screen.

If you want to use this method for all radio messages you can enable it via the AIRBOSS.SetUserSoundRadio() function. This is the analogue of activating easy comms in DCS.

Note that this method is used for all players who are in the A-4E community mod as this mod does not have the ability to use radios due to current DCS restrictions. Therefore, A-4E drivers will hear all radio transmissions from the Marshal/Airboss and all LSO messages as soon as their commence the pattern.

AI Handling

The #AIRBOSS class allows to handle incoming AI units and integrate them into the marshal and landing pattern.

By default, incoming carrier capable aircraft which are detecting inside the Carrier Controlled Area (CCA) and approach the carrier by more than 5 NM are automatically guided to the holding zone. Each AI group gets its own marshal stack in the holding pattern. Once a recovery window opens, the AI group of the lowest stack is transitioning to the landing pattern and the Marshal stack collapses.

If no AI handling is desired, this can be turned off via the AIRBOSS.SetHandleAIOFF function.

In case only specifc AI groups shall be excluded, it can be done by adding the groups to a set, e.g.

-- AI groups explicitly excluded from handling by the Airboss
local CarrierExcludeSet=SET_GROUP:New():FilterPrefixes("E-2D Wizard Group"):FilterStart()
AirbossStennis:SetExcludeAI(CarrierExcludeSet)

Similarly, to the AIRBOSS.SetExcludeAI function, AI groups can be explicitly included via the AIRBOSS.SetSquadronAI function. If this is used, only the included groups are handled by the AIRBOSS.

Keep the Deck Clean

Once the AI groups have landed on the carrier, they can be despawned automatically after they shut down their engines. This is achieved by the AIRBOSS.SetDespawnOnEngineShutdown() function.

Refueling

AI groups in the marshal pattern can be send to refuel at the recovery tanker or if none is defined to the nearest divert airfield. This can be enabled by the AIRBOSS.SetRefuelAI(lowfuelthreshold). The parameter lowfuelthreshold is the threshold of fuel in percent. If the fuel drops below this value, the group will go for refueling. If refueling is performed at the recovery tanker, the group will return to the marshal stack when done. The aircraft will not return from the divert airfield however.

Note that this feature is not enabled by default as there might be bugs in DCS that prevent a smooth refueling of the AI. Enable at your own risk.

Respawning - DCS Landing Bug

AI groups that enter the CCA are usually guided to Marshal stack. However, due to DCS limitations they might not obey the landing task if they have another airfield as departure and/or destination in their mission task. Therefore, AI groups can be respawned when detected in the CCA. This should clear all other airfields and allow the aircraft to land on the carrier. This is achieved by the AIRBOSS.SetRespawnAI() function.

Known Issues

Dealing with the DCS AI is a big challenge and there is only so much one can do. Please bear this in mind!

Pattern Updates

The holding position of the AI is updated regularly when the carrier has changed its position by more then 2.5 NM or changed its course significantly. The patterns are realized by orbit or racetrack patterns of the DCS scripting API. However, when the position is updated or the marshal stack collapses, it comes to disruptions of the regular orbit because a new waypoint with a new orbit task needs to be created.

Recovery Cases

The AI performs a very realistic Case I recovery. Therefore, we already have a good Case I and II recovery simulation since the final part of Case II is a Case I recovery. However, I don't think the AI can do a proper Case III recovery. If you give the AI the landing command, it is out of our hands and will always go for a Case I in the final pattern part. Maybe this will improve in future DCS version but right now, there is not much we can do about it.

Finite State Machine (FSM)

The AIRBOSS class has a Finite State Machine (FSM) implementation for the carrier. This allows mission designers to hook into certain events and helps simulate complex behaviour easier.

FSM events are:

• AIRBOSS.Start: Starts the AIRBOSS FSM.
• AIRBOSS.Stop: Stops the AIRBOSS FSM.
• AIRBOSS.Idle: Carrier is set to idle and not recovering.
• AIRBOSS.RecoveryStart: Starts the recovery ops.
• AIRBOSS.RecoveryStop: Stops the recovery ops.
• AIRBOSS.RecoveryPause: Pauses the recovery ops.
• AIRBOSS.RecoveryUnpause: Unpauses the recovery ops.
• AIRBOSS.RecoveryCase: Sets/switches the recovery case.
• AIRBOSS.PassingWaypoint: Carrier passes a waypoint defined in the mission editor.

These events can be used in the user script. When the event is triggered, it is automatically a function OnAfterEventname called. For example

--- Carrier just passed waypoint *n*.
function AirbossStennis:OnAfterPassingWaypoint(From, Event, To, n)
 -- Launch green flare.
 self.carrier:FlareGreen()
end

In this example, we only launch a green flare every time the carrier passes a waypoint defined in the mission editor. But, of course, you can also use it to add new recovery windows each time a carrier passes a waypoint. Therefore, you can create an "infinite" number of windows easily.

Examples

In this section a few simple examples are given to illustrate the scripting part.

Simple Case

-- Create AIRBOSS object.
local AirbossStennis=AIRBOSS:New("USS Stennis")

-- Add recovery windows:
-- Case I from 9 to 10 am. Carrier will turn into the wind 5 min before window opens and go at a speed so that wind over the deck is 25 knots.
local window1=AirbossStennis:AddRecoveryWindow("9:00",  "10:00", 1, nil, true, 25)
-- Case II with +15 degrees holding offset from 15:00 for 60 min.
local window2=AirbossStennis:AddRecoveryWindow("15:00", "16:00", 2, 15)
-- Case III with +30 degrees holding offset from 21:00 to 23:30.
local window3=AirbossStennis:AddRecoveryWindow("21:00", "23:30", 3, 30)

-- Load all saved player grades from your "Saved Games\DCS" folder (if lfs was desanitized).
AirbossStennis:Load()

-- Automatically save player results to your "Saved Games\DCS" folder each time a player get a final grade from the LSO.
AirbossStennis:SetAutoSave()

-- Start airboss class.
AirbossStennis:Start()

Debugging

In case you have problems, it is always a good idea to have a look at your DCS log file. You find it in your "Saved Games" folder, so for example in

C:\Users\<yourname>\Saved Games\DCS\Logs\dcs.log

All output concerning the #AIRBOSS class should have the string "AIRBOSS" in the corresponding line. Searching for lines that contain the string "error" or "nil" can also give you a hint what's wrong.

The verbosity of the output can be increased by adding the following lines to your script:

BASE:TraceOnOff(true)
BASE:TraceLevel(1)
BASE:TraceClass("AIRBOSS")

To get even more output you can increase the trace level to 2 or even 3, c.f. Core.Base#BASE for more details.

Debug Mode

You have the option to enable the debug mode for this class via the AIRBOSS.SetDebugModeON function. If enabled, status and debug text messages will be displayed on the screen. Also informative marks on the F10 map are created.