*** Posted by Rapier ***
Hi Faulken,

If you would like to know when the AIM-120 goes autonomous it's easy enough to know when firing one from the F-16. Apparently it's supposed to look spectacular from the cockpit of a real aircraft. Anyway I'll explain to you how it works.

When you fire the AIM-120 at a target you will notice a countdown marker that will appear directly underneath the DLZ bracket (DLZ = "Dynamic Launch Zone", the range between Rmax & Rmin). You can test this in the F4 training mission if you like which deals with specifically firing the AIM-120. The countdown marker time is displayed on the HUD in 2 different ways depending on if the missle is autonomous or not.

When the letter "A" is displayed on the countdown underneath the DLZ bracket and marker, it is counting down the seconds it will take for the missle to go autonomous. After the "A" time counts down to zero, the missle will be autonomous without help from the F-16, leaving you to engage a second target or break away. When the "A" time does get to zero, a new type of countdown will appear also using seconds. The new countdown starts with a "T" replacing the "A". When the "T" appears it means that the missle is now ACTIVE and PURSUING the target. The time that is displayed now next to the "T" is the time to missle impact or time to "Target". It is important to note that when the "T" is displayed in the "HUD", you can break lock on the target and engage another. So "A" means countdown time before the missle goes autonomous, and "T" means how long it will take the missle to impact the Target, at this time the missle is autonomous.

The HUD symbology will look something like this:

Rmax1_____ _ ______ Rmax2
¦ ¦
¦ ¦
¦ ¦
¦ ¦
¦_¦ ______ Rmin1
[_] ______ Rmin2

--->A18 <---- 18 seconds to go autonomous.
¦
¦
----T12 <---- 12 seconds to impact point. "T" will replace time "A" when the missle is autonomous.

If you shoot another AIM-120 missle you will notice another set of timing numbers will appear in the HUD. The bottom readout shows the missle currently in flight while the top readout will show the next missle which is about to be fired, if you need to engage another target. Your "HUD" will never show information about two AIM-120 missles in flight because it would be difficult for the pilto to distinguish which missle is tracking which target.

I hope this helps you Faulken, I thought you had to know the sim inside out to be a beta-tester? Ahh well maybe they are pestering you about this. Good Luck anyway and practice those "Slammer" skill's.

Kind Regards

Rapier