How to work the F4S Radar

This is a guide for my video, for anyone who doesn't wanna watch it or just likes reading :). I am gonna quickly go over how to use the sparrows on the F4s, and things you should know about your recently purchased pixels. My credentials? I dont have a girlfriend, and have too many hours, and spend too much time

Radar

Modes
The F4s has multiple radar modes, SRC, SRC PVD HDN, and ACM. Now you're really only gonna use ACM and SRC. ACM, automatically locks an enemy when they're in your square, keep in mind it has a limited range of 10kms. Your radar can lock as far as you've set your scope, I recommend using 46kms. these are my keybinds
When you lock a enemy, you will get a box with lots of useful info, the circle is the enemy, the line is what direction he is going. The top # is how far he is, and the m/s is how fast he is compared to your velocity. You want to fire when he is coming towards you, so when that line is little.
Keep in mind your radar is CW, or constant wave. This means that even though you have lock on one guy, doesn't mean your radar only sees that. This is why sometimes when your radar locks chaff after you fired, your missile still hits sometimes. If you keep your nose/radar on the actually enemy, even if post lock launch it locks chaff, your missile can still hit because the radar is constantly lighting things up(unless its a french plane, some are pulse radars, they dont do this). Keep in mind, you can also kill friendlies like this, if you launch on a guy close in front, and a friendly is in between, there is a chance the missile will kill the friendly.

CW

Missiles

The F4s carries 4 aim 7f sparrows(fox1, Semi active homing radar, SAHR) and 4 aim9h sidewinders(fox 2, heatseekers). Sparrows have a very long range, up to 40kms, but fire in relation to where the enemy is going, if he is heading towards you, then he is heading towards your missile, meaning you can fire from longer range. If you are high alt launching, you can arc your nose up, and launch, by doing this the missile will arc, giving it more range, speed, and guidance time. Its called increasing its PK(potential kill). Sparrows are fast, great for ACM headons, and tracks well. Aim 9Hs are ok, decent range(2.5kms I think) but have mediocre g overload(meaning they dont turn as well as a r60), but are more flare resistant than russian missiles. You can also couple them with your helmet mounted sight, but keep in mind they arent gonna do crazy pulls, but it is still something up your sleeve.

sparrow stats

Defending

So defending missles can be hard for a lot of people. Things to keep in mind are
1.your speed
2. when you start defending
3.what missile your defending from
So radar missiles are hard to defend against, you can notch, drop chaff, and lower altitude and still get hit. Notching is putting your aircraft at a 90 degree perpendicular angle from the enemy radar.
example:
Fox 1s track by something called lead pursuit, meaning they calculate where you're going to be ahead of time, and try to get infront of you. You can use this against them, decreasing altitude, hugging the ground, notching then dipping down last minute, all increase the chances of survival. The fact they move so fast also means they have a harder time making last minute adjustments. You can also go cold,(meaning go the opposite direction of the enemy, but this is less effective in war thunder, puts you at a disadvantage, and can only be done at the very early stage of being fired on. Dodging front launched fox 1s is harder, since you have less time, but dropping chaff and spinning or getting out of his sight helps.

Dodging fox 2s is easier, you just cut afterburn and drop flares, but dont keep flying in a straight line. Yes thats it, ik, crazy, compared to radar dodging.

Playstyle

Honestly, climbing helps but you dont have to, using acm to do headons with sparrows is great, you cant really dogfight though. You're a bit of a bus, but you have a powerful radar and great loadouts. Just find what works for you :)

[Kirbz]

Def a good beginner tutorial in general, even for other planes (coming from a player with 1100 hours lmao)

[Rykkola]

123

[Cptn. Whiskers]

That's alright Wulf, definitely not for everyone. I'm not the end all be all for anything either. Even with this planes good load out, it's still a phantom, can be underpowered for people who want to get into the thick of it. And you're right the bigger maps and game sizes changed a lot, although in my person option the change helps the phantom. I appreciate your feedback none the less!

[KraggleWulf]

Nothing against your guide you did amazing job.

Since this change from Danger zone. I am not learning this shit and Im not doing all these keybinds.

If I had known this ahead of time I would have never bought a single jet.

I hate this. Money wasted. I hope you continue to teach others but I'm not doing this crap.

[Jūbei Yagyū]

Thank you after watching ur video I scored 2 back to back kills with the F4S

[Cptn. Whiskers]

ACM is better for close quarters head on, since HMD has a minimum range to lock. in other words, in HMD I believe it can only lock after 10kms, so anything in that min range cant be locked. Unless they changed it, either way, whatever works for you! and I'm not your boss, I'm a cashier

[flea eater]

nerd emoji

[Cosmonaut]

HMD is way better than ACM, boss.

[klyukvaf]

thx :D

[Cptn. Whiskers]

I fixed it