The Edward Menu
These notes describe the Edward Menu, the overlay control panel of EDWARD, a DCS World simulator modification for the De Havilland Mosquito F.B. Mk. VI. They are complementary to the Installation Notes for fitting EDWARD in the first place, and stand on their own for the menu itself; is described in fuller detail by the separate Dead Reckoning Survey Notes, which are themselves complementary to this publication. They are prepared for the guidance of the player only, and create no obligation beyond the simulator itself. A demonstration of the menu, copied directly from its own source, is given at the foot of these notes.
Notes to users
1. Complementary publications
This publication is complementary to the Installation Notes, and assumes EDWARD has already been installed and found to be working correctly. The Dead Reckoning Survey Notes are complementary to this publication, and describe in fuller detail than is given here.
2. Nature of this publication
This publication describes EDWARD, a DCS World simulator modification for the Mosquito F.B. Mk. VI, and not the aeroplane itself; nothing in it creates any obligation beyond the simulator. Throughout, words in capital letters indicate the actual wording shown upon a menu wedge, and “the player” denotes the person at the controls.
3. Binding force
The limitations stated below are mandatory. The remainder is mainly advisory, but instructions containing the words “is to be” and “are to be” are also mandatory.
Check list
The Edward Menu — the “e” key opens and closes it —
Status ................ Settings ............. Fuel
Radio .................. Navigation ............ Hold My Aircraft
Weapons and Bombing .... Earlier Calls
Settings — Automations —
Master ................. Fuel Management ....... Arming Management
Pitot Heat .............. Radiator Management .... Bombbay Automation
Nav Updates
The Edward Menu
4. The Edward Menu
The menu is a radial dial superimposed upon the cockpit, opened and closed with the “e” key while flying; it is available only during flight in the Mosquito F.B. Mk. VI, and not in the Mission Editor or the main menu. It is fitted with eight root wedges, described below at 4.1–4.8. Stepping back — by right-click, or by a wedge marked where one is fitted — rebuilds the parent ring afresh from current data, exactly as drilling into a wedge that opens a further ring does. A ring is never drawn of fewer than three wedges: where a list has only one or two listings, its ring is filled out with a wedge, and where that is still short; where it has none, with a wedge saying so, and . A ring listing waypoints or map points redraws itself in place when a fresher list arrives while it is open, so that a route still being loaded — on first taking a slot, or after changing one — appears without the ring having to be reopened. Where a ring calls for a number — under , or and under — digits are to be clicked to build it, and the centre hub clicked to confirm. Confirming an action ordinarily closes the menu outright; certain wedges, given to a quick action that may reasonably be followed by another of the same kind, instead return the dial to the ring it was opened from, so that a further click may be made at once without the menu having to be reopened.
Wedge wording is stamped in placard capitals, a decimal point being drawn as a middle dot, as in a frequency of .
A list too long for one ring is paged: route waypoints eight to a ring, split three ways or further where there are more than eight, each split kept as even as it may be made so that no ring is left holding one or two waypoints only; and radio preset letters eight to a ring, one ring to a range, the letters I and O being passed over so that they are not mistaken for the figures 1 and 0. A digit ring is composed of – and , a decimal point being added where a frequency or a run-in figure calls for one.
The centre hub reads by default; where the ring itself has some current reading of its own to give — 's nav picture, 's reading, ' survey count, 's frequency, and 's AMPG — that reading is shown in the hub instead of upon a wedge. Such a reading is kept current while its ring stands open: a waypoint selection, a drift reading or a tuning completed a moment after the ring was entered appears in place, as does a change in a ring's own wedges, such as the target and IP first selected on the mission starting. The AMPG is the exception, being worked out afresh only when its wedge is tapped; below 120 m.p.h. indicated it reads , the figure having no meaning on the ground or in the circuit.
Note.— In the markings given at 4.1–4.8 below, wording set in capitals is the wedge's own; wording set thus stands for a figure or a name filled in by EDWARD as the wedge is drawn.
4.1 Status
Two groups are given, both read-only: Weather (Wind, Temp, QNH) and Aircraft (Ammo, Damage). Each reading is given immediately upon the wedge being clicked, and the ring remains open afterward, so that several readings may be taken in succession.
- — , ,
- — ,
4.2 Settings
Distance, Headings, Speed, and Altitude are each a simple choice among the units offered — Nautical Miles or Kilometers; Magnetic or True; Knots, M.P.H., or K.P.H.; Feet or Metres. Automations lists every action EDWARD is able to take of his own accord: a master switch for all of them, and one switch each for Fuel Management, Arming Management, Pitot Heat, Radiator Management, Bombbay Automation, and Nav Updates (see Check List). Bombbay Automation governs whether EDWARD works the bomb doors himself during a run, separate from Arming Management, which gates the run controller as a whole. Nav Updates governs whether EDWARD calls out navigation information at all; it is already turned on the moment a waypoint or map point is selected under Navigation, so this switch chiefly serves to turn it off again. Messages chooses where EDWARD's messages appear: in his own message box at the lower left of the screen (the default, and the one that also shows in VR), or in DCS's own message window, which keeps them in the game's message history. The choice is kept between flights. In multiplayer, a player who joins someone else's game always gets the message box. Move Message Box closes the menu and shows the box with a bar along its top: drag it by that bar to wherever suits, then click Done. The new place is kept between flights. Reset Message Box puts it back at the lower left. Choosing a unit, the Messages choice, or any automation switch, is to be understood as resetting the menu to its root and leaving it open, Bombbay Automation excepted, which re-shows the Automations ring itself instead.
- — ,
- — ,
- — , ,
- — ,
- /
- , each wedge a sentence giving the state it
stands in:
- /
- /
- /
- /
- /
- /
- /
4.3 Fuel
Time Left gives the remaining flight time and gallons for All, Outer, or Mains, the overall burn rate being used regardless of which tank the engines are actually drawing from. That burn rate is taken, as a navigator took it, from the Pilot's Notes consumption table for the boost and mixture the engines are set to, and the fuel gauges are watched against it over the longer run: should the fuel go more than about fifteen per cent faster or slower than the book over ten minutes or more, EDWARD says so. A.M.P.G. gives the air miles per gallon at once, upon a single click: true airspeed over that same book burn rate. Both rings remain open after a reading, as at 4.1 above. Fuel to Point gives the gallons and time required to reach the Waypoint, Homebase, or Map Point selected, calculated the moment the ring is opened and re-checked upon a further click. Being worked from the present speed and fuel burn, it is only given in flight: below 120 mph, on the ground or in the take-off run, each wedge reads "when airborne" instead. Homebase is EDWARD's own determination of the flight's starting airfield, found by a fourfold test — the nearest field to a cold or hot start; failing that, the first or last waypoint if authored as a ground point; failing that, the nearest friendly field there is.
Note.— The distances governing this test have not been confirmed in flight; the airfield found is usually, but not certainly, correct.
- — , , , each giving its reading upon the wedge once clicked
- — the result is shown in the hub, with the speed and the mixture and boost it was worked from; each click works it out afresh
- —
- — –, five to a ring, each with its name where it has one (), with
- , reading where the field is yet to be determined
- — one wedge for each marker held: , , , ,
4.4 Radio
The T-1154 transmitter and the R-1155 receiver are each governed independently, each having a power switch, a Manually Tune digit ring (para. 4), and a Predefined Frequencies list covering all twenty-four channels laid down in the Mission Editor for that radio, each shown with its preset letter and frequency. The R-1155 may be tuned to any frequency typed; the T-1154 is to be set only to one of its fixed presets, and a frequency typed upon it is snapped to the nearest of these.
Manual Radio Tuning is fitted as a fourth wedge and hands the sets over to the player entirely: the menu closes, the player is moved to the navigator's seat, and the camera is brought upon the radio panel, the player working the sets by hand and returning to the pilot's seat in their own way.
- /
- — ,
- — the same pair of wedges
- Predefined Frequencies is laid out in three ranges, each of eight channels: , , ; each channel carries its preset letter and frequency, as
4.5 Navigation
By Waypoints and By Map Points list the route and the map markers presently held, each refreshed automatically upon being opened and redrawn should the fresh list arrive a moment later. Selecting one begins navigation to it and turns on navigation callouts if they were not already on, then resets the menu to its root and leaves it open. While the ring itself is open, its centre hub shows the target's tag and steering heading, and, for a route waypoint, the speed required; a map point carries no planned leg time, so its speed is left out.
Drift Recorder is a single wedge, Check Drift. Clicking it closes the menu outright, and the check proceeds in the background:—
(a) on the first check in an aircraft the navigator mantles the recorder, which takes about thirty seconds, and thereafter leaves it mounted; each check then takes a measuring window of fifteen to twenty-five seconds, varying from one check to the next, with a “Steady” callout given at intervals. A check interrupted during the mantle leaves the recorder unmounted, and the next check mantles afresh; a new aircraft or a reloaded mission likewise requires a fresh mantle;
(b) Drift, Groundspeed, and Estimated Wind are then reported in turn, a few seconds apart, each by toast;
(c) should any other action be taken elsewhere in the menu while the check is running, it is interrupted early and no reading is given for that attempt; drilling into a submenu or stepping back does not interrupt it.
The last completed reading is shown in the centre hub upon re-entering the ring, though it is not to be understood as live while the ring sits open.
By D.R. Landmarks is fitted here as a fourth wedge and is described fully in the Dead Reckoning Survey Notes. Its wedge and hub both follow the survey as it goes forward, from the order to create the points, through the survey itself, to the count of points saved and shown upon the map.
- — –, five to a ring, each with its name where it has one (), with
- — , , , ,
- — , which reads while one is in hand, and alongside it
- — → → or → , with . The hub carries both numbers, because they are different things: n points is the list, n on map (or ) is what is drawn. Clear empties the map and leaves the list alone, and says when there is nothing to remove. A theatre that has been surveyed once also carries , which surveys it again from the cockpit; it asks first — the wedge reads for fifteen seconds, and the second click starts the survey. Nothing on disk is touched until you Save. Create and Save are offered only in a survey mission — exactly one unit, a Mosquito. In any other mission Edward places the DR points along your planned route by itself a few seconds after you take the slot, and the wedge reads (or when none are placed), which puts them back on the map as picked. Once used, the same wedge reads and picks again for your route as it is now; turns it back into View
4.6 Hold My Aircraft
Hold turns EDWARD's holding of a fixed heading and altitude on or off. Set Course and Set Altitude are digit rings, worked as at 4.4 above. Set Course accepts 0° to 359° only; Set Altitude accepts 0 to 60,000 (feet or metres, according to the unit chosen); a value outside these is not accepted. The course is the one to steer: the nose is held upon it, and no allowance is made for wind. To make good a track, the course given by EDWARD's steer calls or the centre hub is to be set.
- /
- — digit ring, the heading reference in force being carried upon the wedge
- — digit ring, the altitude unit in force being carried upon the wedge
4.7 Weapons and Bombing
TGT and IP are each chosen from a route Waypoint or a Map Point. Where the mission carries a waypoint named TGT or IP, EDWARD chooses it of his own accord as soon as the mission's route is known to him — once only in a mission, and only where none has already been chosen by hand, which always overrides it. He chooses them without announcement; the pair and the planned time on target stand upon this page's centre hub. A Map Point must always be placed and chosen by hand. Both lists of waypoints are matched by name alone, so the mission's waypoints must be named for them; a DCS Bombing task is not read, the target being the TGT waypoint itself and its altitude the height to which it is set. In choosing of his own accord he takes the route in order of authority: a waypoint named exactly TGT or IP; failing that, one whose name merely begins with those letters. The point at which the aircraft begins its flight is not offered upon this page at all, being neither a target nor a point of run-in.
Upon this page the centre hub shows the run at a glance: the IP and the target by number, as , with the planned time on target beneath where the route supplies one. The TGT and IP wedges give the waypoint by number alone where its name merely repeats TGT or IP; a name saying more than that is kept, and the lists from which a point is chosen always give the name in full.
Arm Weapons governs the physical setup: Select Bombs toggles each of the four bomb stations, and Select Fuzes toggles Nose and Tail fuzing, both reading the actual cockpit switches, so that a switch worked by hand in the cockpit is shown here too. A final wedge shows the state of the run and doubles as the means of starting or stopping it. Upon a run being stopped, the mission's own TGT and IP are restored a few seconds later rather than the page being left empty; the run itself does not begin afresh until the aircraft has left the IP and come upon it again. Choosing a TGT or IP lands upon the Weapons and Bombing root; toggling a station or fuze lands upon Select Bombs or Select Fuzes itself, so that the freshly altered marking is seen at once.
From the IP EDWARD gives the course to the target, and steers by it as on any leg. In the last minute before the target he gives the time only — one minute, thirty seconds, ten seconds — and no further steering, the final run being made by eye.
Run In Altitude and Run In Speed are fitted under the map-point branches, a map point carrying no authored run-in figures of its own; each is a digit ring, and once a figure is given the wedge carries it thereafter. Where the route or the map holds nothing matching the name sought, the ring offers the whole of it instead, as All Waypoints or All Map Points.
Note.— Jettison is fitted but does not yet operate anything, and is not to be relied upon; clicking it explains only that those controls have not been live-tested.
- — , ; failing a match, or
- — , , upon the same plan
- Under either map-point branch, and , reading and once given
- —
- — ( / , and so to ) and ( / , / )
- The state of the run, upon the root wedge: → → → →
4.8 Earlier Calls
A single wedge, opening no further ring. Clicking it closes the menu and shows, in EDWARD's message box, the last ten messages of the present flight, each preceded by the time upon the mission clock at which it was given, the latest at the foot. The list stands for thirty seconds, or until the wedge is clicked a second time; a message arriving meanwhile is added to it, and messages carry on as usual once it closes. It serves to recover a call missed or half read at a busy moment, as in a turn or upon the bomb run. Looking back in this way does not interrupt a drift check in progress. The list is begun afresh with each flight, and holds only the messages shown in EDWARD's box: where Settings — Messages has them sent to DCS's own window, the list says so instead, the game's own message history then serving the purpose.
Demonstration Menu
5. Demonstration Menu
The figure below is copied directly from EDWARD's own source, and may be worked through by the player as if seated at the controls.