F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0

This file is intended to familiarize you with the F-117A and its weapons systems. It is not a complete tutorial (that's why they have a manual), but it may help with common problems you may face.

Take a look at the cockpit: there are two multifunction displays, some warning lights, a few numeric displays, and one guage. The left-hand MFD currently shows a map of the theater.

Aircraft appear as red dots, SAM sites and missile boats as black dots, and there are lines connecting your waypoints to show your assigned flight path. Think of this as not only your navigation system, but your AWACS link display as well.

Press F3. Now you are looking at your radar screen. The following keys control your radar:

F2 - Toggle targeting mode (NAV, AIR, or GROUND)

F3 - Toggle map/nav on left MFD

Z - Decrease radar range

X - Increase radar range

B - Aquire target (cycles through available targets; keep pressing it until the target you want shows up the right-hand MFD)

The right-hand MFD shows a much greater variety of information.

F5 - Show ordnance remaining

F6 - Activate forward-looking infrared (target display on right hand MFD will give a green thermal picture of the target

F7 - Waypoint display

F8 - Waypoint display in edit mode (lets you change your waypoints)

F10 - Display mission orders

/ - Acvivate target camera

N - Camera ahead

M - Camera left

, - Camera right

. - Camera rear

[ - Zoom camera view

] - Unzoom camera view

The realistic version of the cockpit is much harder to use, because everything looks smaller (because you're looking through a realistic view; the easy view is zoomed in, sort of like walking around with binoculars on). Also, some of the very nice information on the easy cockpit is gone. This includes, but is not limited to:

Digital Airspeed and Altitude: Now you have to look at those funny-looking scales on your HUD to figure out your airspeed and altitude, though you can change this by pressing V.

AWACS Transmissions: Remember when those messages kept appearing on your HUD, like "MIG-29 TAKING OFF FROM OLENEGORSK", and "SAM RADAR AT BANDAR KOMENYI DETECTED"? An intelligence system like this would be a fighter pilot's dream, but unfortunately it hasn't been invented yet, and the realistic HUD reflects that sad truth.

Weapons: The target boxes are alot smaller, but other than that, not much changes here.

Camera: There is no longer a flashing crosshair on your HUD to tell you when to snap the photo. Use the underbelly camera view to locate your target, and take the picture when the target appears.

Nav System: Your waypoints no longer change automatically. Use PG UP and PG DOWN to select the waypoint.

Velocity Vector: Your flight path marker has now become your nose position indicator and gunsight, and does not move. This makes landings really really HARD. You have to judge your glideslope status by eye, and use the glideslope indicator on the left side of the HUD. If the downward pointing arrow at the top lights up, you're too high, so reduce power and/or lower your flaps. If the upward pointing arrow at the bottom lights up, you are too low, so you should push the throttle up a little bit and climb a few feet. If the green circle lights up, you are on the glideslope (in carrierese, "on the ball") and you are good to go. This means you will have a successfull landing which will not result in your crashing the plane and getting killed.

The blue and red bar underneath of the left hand MFD is your ECM gear. The more red you see, the bigger your radar cross-section, and the more likely you are to be detected. The bars that show up occasionally are enemy radar pulses in the area; the longer the bars, the more powerful the radar. If one of the bars touches the red section of the display, you will a beep and the EMV (Electro Magnetic Visibility) warning light will come on. Take one of the following steps immediately to reduce your radar cross-section:

Reduce your throttle; 60 to 80 percent should be good. Be careful not to stall!

If you are in a steep turn, ease it a little, or level out com- pletely

If your bay doors are open, shut them (press 8). You will know the doors are open if the BAY light is flashing

If your radar jammer is on, turn it off (press 4). You will know the jammer is on if the green RAD light is on

If none of these things work, then when you hear the second or third beep, press 5 to deploy a decoy. With luck, the enemy radar will track the decoy in- stead of you. Without luck, the enemy won't buy it, and the TRAK light will start to flash. Now you're in big, BIG, trouble.

This brings us to the subject of missile evasion

This brings us to the subject of missile evasion.

If the red RA light on the left side of the cockpit begins to flash, take these steps.

Press 4 to activate your radar jammer. The green RAD light will come on. The missile will show as a yellow blip on your radar screen. If it passes you or the RA light goes out, turn off your jammer to reduce your RCS (radar cross-section), and try to dis- appear again. If it doesn't go out, execute a 90-degree break turn (forget your RCS, you've already been spotted), and press 2 to release chaff.

The procedure is pretty much the same for heat seekers, only the red IR light will flash, and you need to press 3 to activate your IR jammer. (Yep, you've got an IR jammer! This plane rocks! It also doesn't affect your RCS, heh heh heh.) Press 1 to release a flare if that doesn't work. Unlike the radar jammer, you can't turn off the IR jammer: it has to cool off in it's own time.

If you followed the above procedures (and they worked), you are alive, but you probably have an RCS the size of Minnesota. Now is the time to make like a ninja and vanish without trace, Grasshopper! Follow the instructions above for reducing your RCS. If all that stuff doesn't work, and you get hit by a missile, logic dictates that your aircraft will be damaged.

Here's how the warning lights work:

MW - Missile Warning system is out. You'll have to watch carefully for enemy missiles, since you won't get an aural waring or a radar/IR light. You can still continue your mission

BD - Your bay doors are stuck. If they're closed, you can't bomb, so might as well return to base. If they're open, you will have a huge RCS for the rest of the mission, and youexpect more miss- iles to come your way. Reducing your throttle and pitching up will help a little. Continue the mission unless the doors are closed

FC - Your flight control system is messed up. The plane will jump and wiggle all the home unless you stay above about 2500 feet. This is particularly annoying when you're trying to land

AV - Avionics. Your navigation system is down so you'll have to use the map to estimate your waypoint bearings by eye. This shouldn't be too much of a problem if you know how to use a compass. If you don't, you are lost. Just fly around looking for a friendly airbase until you find one or run out of fuel

ENG - Your engine power is reduced. Unless it drops below idle, stay with the plane. But if you can't stay in the air, press SHIFT-F10 to eject

FIRE - Your engine is on fire. In a real aircraft, you would find that ejection handle and get the hell out of there. But in this game, fire in the engine doesn't seem to have any effect

JAM - Your jammers are out. Oh well. Chaff and flares and good reflexes will have to do

FUEL - It's hard to get much scarier than this one. If you are losing fuel, divert to the nearest friendly airbase immediately, or bail out

Now, about that radar that tracked you. Those fellas on the ground know too much, and you'll have to take them out.

Now we get into the good stuff: weapons! (twisted laugh, twisted laugh). These keys control your weapons:

Backspace or Joystick trigger - Fires your gun, but only on the easy version of the plane

Space Bar - Select primary weapon

Enter or Joystick thumb button - Pickles (releases) the selected weapon. Make sure your bay doors are open

Here's how you use your weapons:

First you need to aquire the target. Press F2 to select the target- ing mode (GND or AIR), press F3 to activate the radar, and / (slash) to activate your target camera. If the target is not ahead of you, follow the instructions for camera movement outlined above. Keep pressing B until you have the target in the camera display on the right-hand MFD.

A white or green box will appear around the target. If the box is brown or isn't there, select a different weapon. Open your bay doors and follow the instructions listed below depending on the weapon you are using.

Fire when ready

The GBU-10 Paveway is a 2000-pound laser-guided bomb used on bridges and other hardened targets. It's a big sucker, so keep plenty of altitude on hand when you let it go; take it from me, getting hammered by your own bombs is not fun.

Begin your bombing run at about 25 km from the target: drop to 1600 feet and go to full throttle

When the bottom of the target box reaches the glare shield, open your bay doors

As the target passes underneath the plane, the LOCK light on the glareshield will start to flash. When it stays on steady, pickle the bomb and immediately pitch up 20 degrees until it hits

Coming off target, execute a hard turn toward your next waypoint and return to your pre-run altitude. Return the throttle to its previous setting. Close the bay doors

These instructions are for Paveway LGBs and CBU-72 fuel-air bombs. For MK-20 Rockeye IIs, you can drop lower for a more accurate shot

Instructions are basically the same for all missiles, but range, accuracy, and effectiveness will vary depending on the weapon. Generally, just wait until the LOCK light comes on, then open your bay and fire.

MAVERICK - Use Mavericks on small, pinpoint targets like missiles and and vehicles. Range: 32 km. Accuracy: you will see an oval around the target. Wait until it turns red, then fire. Works wonders on small missile boats.

PENGUIN - Norwegian-built anti-ship missile. Same as Maverick, but use it on bigger ships (destroyers, frigates, etc.)

HARPOON - A big, nasty anti-ship cruise missle. Save these for big ships like tankers and submarines. Range: 60 km. Accuracy: fire as soon as you have a lock. The missile will look like it is moving away from the target at first, but give it a chance, it will hit.

HARM - The AGM-88A HARM is a high-speed antiradiation missile. A nice thing to have if those pesky enemy radars catch you over their terr- itory. Range: about 15 km. Accuracy: fire when locked.

For recon missions, your aircraft will be equipped with a 135mm infrared- capable camera. Select it just like your weapons. At 20 km out from the tar- get, drop to 500 feet and reduce the throtte to 60%. When the target box is half-way between the gun crosshairs and the glareshield, open the bay. A cross hair will appear at the bottom of the HUD. When it begins to flash, press ENTER to snap the shutter. If the recon is successful, "TARGET PHOTOGRAHED" will appear on the HUD. If the message does not appear, try again. Close the bay doors.

Here's the procedure for takeoff:

Advance the throttle to 100%

Lift off at about 200 knots, but not less than that or you'll stall

Retract your gear (press 6) and pitch up until about half an inch of ground is visible above the glareshield

Level off at 2000 feet (or whatever altitude you want). Note that the plane is a little shaky at less than about 480 feet. They don't call this thing the "Wobblin' Goblin" for nothing!

MiGMan thanks Miles McCorsion for this guide.