Pilot squadleaders - Flightcontrollers

[[twl]Lan]

Hey all,

I'm officially dubbing a new term. Flightcontrollers = Squadleaders on the ground.

This has been done to some extent but I believe it's worth writing up and sharing around. Now, what do you get?

1 SL with lazing SOFLAM.
1 SM in a AA vehicle/MANPAD/Fixed AA.
4 pilots in various aerial vehicles.

The SL coordinates requests and sets move/attack/pickup markers, also attempts to keep tab on threats from opposing team and sets no-go-zones for the fliers. He can targetlaze.

The single SM with AA capabilities creates a safe zone to draw enemy fighters/choppers into ambush or (this may happen) when the fliers meet someone better at dogfighting. He can also go spec ops if it is warranted but safety of aerial forces is VITAL.

The pilots fly their crafts, reading the public team chatter, viewing the map but also they get clear instructions from the SL who is NOT in the middle of fast action most of the time.

Your input is welcome, specially you guys that already do this

Cheers,
Lan

[Aranykai]

I think its a great idea. Alot of times there is too much confusion for a pilot with the only means to communicate with others being team chat. This would also alleviate some of the stress from the commander imho.

[Alex6714]

Well it is basically the perfect setup, if only people would fufil some of those roles.

Although it depends on the situation, in an attack helicopter having the gunner as SL with the ability to place markers can be very useful. And unless you have an awesome guy who wants to spot on the ground without dying all the time I think it is the way to go.

However about the AA. The AA vehicles I think are best left for tank squads, something most people forget and just leave base with just 2 tanks. What you need are 2 tanks and the AAV as cover. Maybe the squad member could be limited to a manpad or spec ops like you say. Medic isn´t bad otherwise, as it is another pair of eyes that can revive the man with the soflam.

[=]H[=TangFiend]

Wow someone else gets it! Seeing people perform this role is so rare but can be a gamebreaker. Why people ususally do not do this is because it does not yield the uber score. Even maps with the Heli carrier being the on deck coordinator can give your team a huge advantage. Most people make aircraft squads because they want to fly the said asset. I find if I muscle into a squad and request to be squadleader and let them fly people usually have no problem.

I will use Jabal al Burge as an example of the what the Flightcontrol officer duties can entail. This one is on our server a lot I do it once in awhile.

1. Protect the birds. Sometimes just keeping the pilots on the decks until they are needed is huge. Pilots want to fly as much as they can, reminding them to keep their discipline can go a long way.

Guide them around AA/Groundfire and dangerous areas with your move markers

2. Be the XO of the team, if there is a commander. You are probably watching the map as much as he is. Watch the team chat and know what is going on on the ground. You are in charge of coordinating all the transportation for the ground squads. Know where squads want to go before you even send a bird. Fine tune the landing zones with your markers to get your bird there the safest way.

3. You can do the entire "bob the builder" duties, You and one guy in your squad with a shovel can handle all the construction details for the team. Often the most recent shot down pilot is good for this job. Ride along with your choppers to a building zone do your crate drops and stay behind to cover your shovel guy to do your buildout. Get a dustoff when you are all down back to carrier.

4. Handle the specops guys. Invite them to your squad and coordinate their missions. Drop of special forces guy with a crate near highway bridge. He can destroy the entire bridge after a few minutes. He can remain there or adjust position to be a forward observer.

5. Engies and minefields, same as specops. Drop him off with a crate give him some time. He can lock out whole areas of the MEC side of the map.

6. Supply drops to AT guys and ground troops. A single box goes a long way for a squad's survival rate.

7. Inform other squads when assets are up, ie when APC's respawn on the wetdeck.


Those are just a few of the things I could think of for now.
Trust me with all this you won't just be sitting around on the carrier deck bored. It's a handful and can go a long way for your team's coordination level.

[cyberzomby]

yea i was thinking lately why nobody uses the squadleader as a flight controller. Especially when theres a commander in play its real easy to coordinate all the flights I guess!

[cptste el_74]

Sounds great to me... but on public servers? Really.. what are the chances of things going that smoothly or even working at all?

[=]H[=TangFiend]

I forgot Vehicle recovery. Good squad system for grabbing abandoned vehicles on the map and returning them to squads or APCs to the carrier.




Depends 1. How good of a squadleader you are.

2. The skill of your pilots and willingness to follow orders.

Your biggest challenge is to keep them on the deck until you give them a mission. Delegating missions without negelecting any one pilot.

[Psyrus]

Sounds great to me... but on public servers? Really.. what are the chances of things going that smoothly or even working at all?

Works great for us with teamspeak, you don't even have to be in the same squad. We had a guy jump in commander who relayed my attack markers for the planes, although considering the large lock range for the bombs I'd easily have been able to do it without it. My 4 man squad on south village (kashan) were able to stave off 2 infantry attacks (using trucks & vods) & 3 tanks, plus take out the bunker there, all with aircraft support within 30 sec .

I'm a FAC (Forward Air Controller) on any plane based level [because I'm a GP SL these days];
BigD Gaming Community - View Profile: Psyrus ( got myself an award )

I used to be a big flyboy but as I matured I found myself seeing less and less reasonable 'direction' (aka SLs) on the field and took a crack at it. Quite liked it and haven't turned back since... although once in a while I'll jump in a LB or a cobra and relive my glory days. Anyway, I was big on the planes but couldn't find anyone on the ground to do reasonable designation so made it my mission to become the one person in game who lases and communicates properly . Of course there are others but never when I was flying, so I've given up the wings but on the plus side I now get to see the awesome results of the plane's handiwork.

http://www.vimeo.com/1652840[/vimeo]

[cptste el_74]

Well, I find it impossible to use teamspeak in-game. Especially if there's a commander....

You have the commander talking to you, you have your squad talking to you and you can hear everyone on team-speak talking to you. It works if you start a squad with only people on teamspeak in it and MAYBE there's no commander... but I can't differentiate between 3 voices let alone 10!

Anyway, I've found that when I do laser targets and communicate the grid references to the pilots they are never in the area that's needed anyway. It's just the way it goes on public servers. And believe me... I've been playing this game too much! I would say, at a rough guess, that out of every 100 lasers I place, a target has been hit by an aircraft/heli about 10/15 times...

Anyway......

[PFunk]

I think there's a reason that in the real military you identify yourself by call sign everytime you send a transmission.

Although I tend to do alright identifying voices as long as the person isn't mumbling and they are transmitting loud enough.

[Darkpowder]

I think there's a reason that in the real military you identify yourself by call sign everytime you send a transmission.

Although I tend to do alright identifying voices as long as the person isn't mumbling and they are transmitting loud enough.

It all depends on the situation, VOIP in BF2/PR don't forget is also used for those "shouted" contacts to squadmates that would be not "transmitted" via radio up or down the chain of command. As VOIP is not just a "radio" Sometimes a lot more detail is needed in VOIP as you don't have the handsignals to indicate direction or movement. Hence the need for brief consistent comms (see my voip guide).

I FAC quite a bit, but you have to be ready for a flexible role. I don't believe there is a place for a class, rather it has to be done by a variety of classes at different times.

It is a percentage of long range recon, close target recon, comms specialist and at times in a commander or 2IC role. For this reasons many kits can work well in the role at different times; hence a sniper can pass for a FAC in certain places, as can SF, or a simple officer kit, with the advantages of equipment, marker smoke and SOFLAM.

Equally a tank crew might need their officer in the squad to be an engineer, and simple binoculars with decent infiltration might helpfully tell a tank crew what is over the hill rather than having them run into a prepared armour position.
Such a kit can act as FAC doubling up as tank support and even .50 gunner if necessary.

In my experience callsigns and detailed identification is only really needed when TS is used in concert with VOIP.