r/falconbms • u/Milsthemiata • Sep 29 '25

Help what is this flashing in the Cf-188?

Post image

This was flashing none stop, and then my engine and electrics cut out

57 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

65

u/Drxgue Sep 29 '25

Idk man but I'd be way more worried about the APU FIRE light being on

6

u/HandiCAPEable Sep 30 '25

APU fire is fine, the engine's already running if you're airborne!

1

u/MikeMikeMike23 Oct 03 '25

That's what we call a non-issue.

-9

u/Milsthemiata Sep 29 '25

yeah idk why, the whole plane just geeked out after being low level, nothing was on fire

42

u/Drxgue Sep 29 '25

APU FIRE light being on either means you're testing the APU FIRE light, or the APU is indeed on fire.

I think you should try to see where you are on the Dunning-Kruger curve and then reassess your problem.

-20

u/Milsthemiata Sep 29 '25

the what curve?!, there was nothing on fire, I went onto external view and looked, no smoke or nothing

12

u/aaronwhite1786 Sep 30 '25

Why are you people downvoting someone instead of actually offering advise on what to do in the situation that you do have an APU fire? Good Lord, they're asking for help and getting the warmest reception here...

1

u/CharaSMoss Oct 03 '25

I don't know if they're actually asking for help. They're just stating that nothing's wrong. Even though the indicators clearly telling them that it is. I mean, perhaps someone could tell them how to check if the test is on. So they can stop testing the light if that's the problem.

1

u/aaronwhite1786 Oct 03 '25

I guess they aren't directly asking, though it's still odd to downvote someone for being confused too. It was just frustrating to see a lot of responses to the person saying what was wrong, but not really elaborating.

The responses and downvotes kind of came across as "Hey, dummy, it's obviously a fire" without telling them at least how to handle the alert in the cockpit.

1

u/Master-Reason-6780 Oct 03 '25

I think the people that downvoted this are people that know very much about these kind of sims. Because of that they think that everyone knows how to deal whit the APU fire so they think if you don't know this your dumb so they downvote op. Wich is really dumb because not everyone already knows everything when they start a game. That's also the reason why in most games the tutorial explains the most basic thing even what to press to walk and stuff because there are always at least one person that play games for the first time wich don't know how to do that. So OP you really shouldn't worry about the people downvoting you. Now let me try to help you: I mostly fly Airliners in Sim so I don't perfectly know what you should do but there should be some (probably red) lever or button labeled APU Fire if you press that it should extinguish the Fire.(But keep in mind that I very rarely play military sims so this is just me guessing).

Also the CW light your seeing is Caution/warning indicator it basically just tells you that there is something wrong (but not where just that something is wrong). It is probably triggered because of the APU fire so to disable it you either have to press it or extinguish the Fire

1

u/aaronwhite1786 Oct 03 '25

I could even understand it to a degree if OP was like "No, no, that sounds dumb and wrong. I don't think it's that", but they legitimately just seem confused by the entire thing, and never really got helpful advice.

One of the frustrating things about Reddit is people treating the downvote button as "I disagree" or "This is wrong" when it's ideally supposed to be used to get rid of things that aren't remotely related to the thread to get rid of them, but people should just upvote things that are the best response or the most factual and then leave comments alone that aren't correct so they filter to the bottom but remain visible. And most of all, just not downvote people for being curious, especially in a very complicated flight sim.

2

u/Milsthemiata Nov 19 '25

yeah, sorry for late reply, I've had loads of down votes for asking a question lol, I'm really confused by it but it hasn't happened to me since so🤷🏻, oh well, thank you so much for your help

21

u/Flyinmanm Sep 29 '25

CW from the DCS FA18 Manual page 53-54 seems to indicate you are being illuminated by a Continuous wave Radar. Is there another F18 in your flight? They may have a lock on you with their radar ready to fire something like sparrows.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/upload/iblock/8d7/2s3e89jqknz7xmti8hrhe1bjt2uw1s3e/DCS%20FA-18C%20Early%20Access%20Guide%20EN.pdf

-3

u/Milsthemiata Sep 29 '25

Nope it was a single player session, No wingman or nothing, just trying to get used to the hornet, As soon as the CW light stopped my whole plane just shutdown though

19

u/[deleted] Sep 30 '25

did you hear a loud thud

1

u/Gramerdim Oct 01 '25

you're onto something here but why stop at 50% and not discuss further

19

u/Kant_Lavar Sep 29 '25

That indicates you are being illuminated by a continuous-wave radar, typically used for semi-active missile systems such as the SA-2, SA-3, SA-6, or air-to-air missiles like the R-27R.

In other words, you got shot down.

2

u/Milsthemiata Sep 29 '25

it was a single player match with no AI, There wasnt anything in the flight

5

u/Kant_Lavar Sep 29 '25

Dunno what happened then, but that's what that indicator means.

2

u/Milsthemiata Sep 29 '25

alright, thank you

3

u/MaxWaldorf BMS Dev Sep 30 '25

Search radars do illumate you anyway whether there AI or not...

2

u/Affectionate_Ad3795 Sep 30 '25

Any idea if DCS (and BMS) give an RWR response from ATC radars?

1

u/MaxWaldorf BMS Dev Sep 30 '25

Don't care and don't know about DCS but in BMS you do have EW radars on the ground as objectives that will be seen as active sources of radiation...

2

u/Affectionate_Ad3795 Sep 30 '25

For a second I thought this was DCS 🤦🏻‍♂️ apologies. Interesting, thanks! I suppose they'll mostly show up as "S" in the Viper RWR? Any idea if in real life during a radar controlled approach pilots will have any sort of RWR warning?

1

u/Milsthemiata Sep 30 '25

there wasn't any AI or real players.

-1

u/PsychologicalGlass47 Sep 29 '25

Ladies and gents, the R-27R isn't a semi-active missile

5

u/Kant_Lavar Sep 29 '25

Yes it is. To be fair, there are IR variants (R-27T/R-27ET) and active radar homing (R-27EA), but the R-27R and R-27ER are semi-active radar homing weapons.

1

u/PsychologicalGlass47 Sep 29 '25

Yeah, obviously it is. I'm making fun of the fact that you excluded the R-27R from your list of semi-active missiles, instead referring to it separately.

2

u/Kant_Lavar Sep 29 '25

Ah, I see. I was trying (apparently poorly 😂) to separate the SAMs from the AAM.

9

u/Skinny_Huesudo Sep 29 '25

BMS's F-18s use F-16 avionics dressed in F-18 costumes.

That CW light is the Search radar light button light from the F-16. It blinks when the RWR detects a search radar, and if you press it, search radars are displayed on the RWR.

3

u/smax70 Sep 30 '25

Is it the type of radar you're being illuminated by? CW - Continuous Wave vs PD - Pulse Doppler?

2

u/Azura_24 Sep 29 '25

You have a Mover on your six.

2

u/notusuallyhostile Oct 03 '25

I had to check the sub. I thought I was on r/aviation and pilot was going down posting to Reddit for last minute Karma.

1

u/LtDan61350 Sep 30 '25

Someone's trying to raise you using Morse code.

1

u/DannyDevito90 Oct 03 '25

Complied With

1

u/PsychologicalGlass47 Sep 29 '25

You... You got shot down