DCS World Air to Air Refueling Guide For All Aircraft!

Hey guys! This video is intended to be a broad overview and guide to air to air refueling for all of the different types of aircraft in DCS World. While all aircraft in DCS fly very differently and have different techniques to successfully A2A Refuel they all have common threads and principles that we go over in this video.

In my opinion there are two important rules for air to air refueling:

1- Relax: Tense muscles are slow and imprecise, while relaxed muscles are fast, responsive and precise and air to air refueling is all about precision.

2- Be Patient: Take your time and be patient with yourself and your aircraft, the more you try to rush or force the air to air refueling event the worse it will go, and the worse off your fuel situation will become.

I highly recommend practicing Air to Air Refueling in multiplayer with a friend so that way you guys can chat, sing songs or shoot the shit to stay relaxed, if you are practicing by yourself listen to some music to help keep you loose.

I hope this video helps you guys out with the most difficult skill to master in DCS World and if you liked the video definitely give it a Like!

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[Spudknocker]

Hey guys! I hope this video helps you guys out with Air to Air Refueling in any aircraft that you choose, if you guys want more specificity about refueling particular aircraft let me know in the comments here and we will see what we can do!

[acouch]

SOOOO many "That's what she said" opportunities in this video!

Video was awesome and just what people need for AAR. Thanks Spud!

[hultll]

Thank you for this video. I started my addiction to DCS about 1.5 years ago. I tried AAR a couple of times, wasn´t even close. Saw this video on release but just as you mention i lacked the experience of how the aircraft behaved. After a while it just became something to hard to try and again as you mention, it suppose to be fun. Yesterday I gave it a try again and was better than normal, still ended in rage quit and frustration tho. After curing my hangryness i watched this video again and really got the message this time. Today i tried again. I identified 3 things I was doing wrong. 1. Trying to match speed via HUD to tanker 2. Chaseing the basket rather than trying to fly formation and 3. Allowing my self to get stressed out.
Today, thanks to you´re video I got it right! from 50% to full, 2 re-connections and I was smileying the whole time. "transfer complete" and I almost jumped out of my seat! :D Thank you again, for my best moment in DCS so far! :D

[MrGoodnplenty]

You are very knowledgeable and so accurate and i commend you for this video. You sound like a simulator instructor.
I was a KC-135 boom operator for 6 years and KC-10 boom operator and instructor boom operator for 14 years. What are you saying about the whole A/R scenario is so accurate. We talked to the receiver aircraft for two reasons. 1) to relax the pilot and 2) pass any information if required. If you have any questions or comments from the boom operator side of the tanker, i can help you. ....
During boom refueling, the receiver should stop forward movement two to three feet from the extended boom (contact position and let the boom operator extend the boom to effect the contact.
A-10's, B-1's, and E-4's (747) were the ones we had to be careful the most because their receptacles are in front and they will try to fly on to the boom.

[fastfiddler]

I'm an experienced airline pilot. I can fly a single engine ILS to landing perfect and dead on without breaking a sweat. I frequently even get called a showoff in recurrent training. But this? I feel my chest tense up and my blood pressure go sky high, and I have yet to be able to do it.

[quantomic]

10:18 "Pull your probe right out of the drogue or the boom operator will simply refuse to stick his boom into your receptacle. Now let's start stroking the throttle."
I know exactly what you did there.

[kadose]

Thank you Spudknocker!
After watching all the available videos on YouTube, getting a new stick and some pretty intense practice, I’ve finally managed to connect to the tanker in the F-16C (KC-135) and the F/A-18C (S-3B) this weekend.
As you probably already know it has been a long and frustrating journey so I’m understandably ecstatic.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to post videos on YouTube. I watched them all and they are full of invaluable advice and wisdom, pure gold.
What I learned (and used) to be able to perform air to air refuelling:
1-Patience.
2-Relax-don’t death grip the stick.
3-Small premptive corrections- if you try to correct movement you’re already too late and you find yourself in PIO.
4-Learn to stabilise in the horizontal plane and vertical plane separately. With time you will be able to do both.
5-Eyes on the pod, not on the basket.
6-As you get closer to the tanker and after you connect, watch and move with the tanker, your reliance on the HUD will diminish.
7-Listen to the engines-much easier in the F-16 than the F-18 but the sound of the engines is a good surrogate marker for what they’re doing.
8-If PIO starts, throttle back, give yourself some space and try again.
9-Practice formation flying with the tanker with the explicit aim of just formation flying and progressively try to get closer and closer.
10-Practice
11-Practice
12-Practice

I’d also like to add that I do it have a VR headset and I was able to tank using a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro which is a very basic stick that I bought as an interim measure until I could get something like a Warthog or Virpil, but it surprised me and actually did the trick, so it is possible to connect to a tanker with a £40 stick, not easy but not impossible.

[FreedomTrooper]

One of the things I found that helped me out and learn how to Aerial refuel was practicing formation flights. I went to the aerobatics server all the time and just flew with random people, eventually I got proficient enough where I was able to do aerial refueling with a pretty good success rate. Still one of the hardest things to do in DCS World, I find it easier to land an F-14 on a banking carriers lol

[johntack]

7:57
My wife was nearby and only heard this part 🙄

[alaric]

Awesome video Spud. Was exactly what I was looking for to help me and my mates in AAR.

[leonardofdmf]

Really helpful tutorial. Covered every single aspect of aerial refueling.

[RTSchramm]

Unless, I missed it, you forgot to mention that when you set the Tanker's TACAN frequency, you also need to enable A-A mode. You also didn't mention how to use the lights on the button of the tanker to line up your plane as this is important for planes that do not have extended refueling probes. Another tip is once you are hooked to the refueling boom, you need to pick a location on the tanker that is on a reference point of the frame of the canopy or HUD, and then keep the two reference points together like you do with the needles when doing an instrument landing. This technique will keep you in perfectly formation with the tanker. Nice tips though.

[charlesc]

It also helps if you fly with someone and watch them refuel. I was 0% until I went up with a couple squad mates, flew along, watched them then I moved in. Wala success! Seeing how they moved in then paused to match speed and then ease up, was what I was missing.

[davidabarak]

Navy Viking pilots got pretty good at tanking. During night recoveries, when everyone is burning fuel in marshal, we had either a KA-6 or A-7 with a buddy store attached (this was before Vikings could perform tanking missions). The Viking had long endurance (fuel-wise, not butt-wise or bladder-wise) and could land heavier than most of the other aircraft (it may be the only thing heavier was the A-3D), and so we were one of the last aircraft back on deck. Because of this, we were usually the recovery "sponge, " taking on excess fuel from otherwise overweight aircraft. Nothing builds good tanking skills like tanking at night in the marshal stack.

[ShreddingFinn]

I was in an oscillation for about 30 minutes last night right up until I ran out of fuel. Good tips, trying this again now!

[ziljanvega]

Another great guide packed with sage advice. Wish I had this video when I started first trying AAR.

I picked up a few of the bad habits you mentioned, but I also learned a few of the good (the hard way). Not sure if it's a realistic solution IRL, but sometimes I put my F16 into CAT III because the reduced input ratio of stick movement to control surface response damps out PIOs.

[cuttheloop]

"...causing you to blow right past the tanker..."

A-10 driver

"pffft...as if!" xD

[HomerJay]

AAR is for me the most difficult Task in this game, i have to learn it Patient and stop shooting down the tanker after 10 Minutes of missed baskets :D Thank you anyway Spud, another great video. Greeetings from Germany, stay safe :)

[flyingpadre]

Thank you so much, after 1500h i finally manage to put my thing into hers (i used focus too much on the basket) ! Well... i took like 3s of fuel but now i regained motivation to practice !

[hammellation]

My five cents (as someone who is comfortable doing AAR) is practice, practice, practice. The main learnings for me were to ensure firstly that I was perfectly trimmed, not to fixate on a single point and lastly to ensure all movements are tiny and almost constant. But it really just goes down, for me a least, to remain calm and keep practicing.