Lighting System

The F-14 Tomcat lighting system consists of the internal and the external lights.

Internal Lighting

The internal lights are the red instrument panel and console lights, red and white floodlights, and a movable utility light at both crew stations.

• Red instrument panel and console lights: Normally used during nighttime, they back-light all instruments and controls, allowing their use while impacting night vision minimally.

• Floodlights: Allow for additional lighting of the cockpit panels, but care should be taken to avoid affecting night vision.

• Utility lights: Movable and can be used to illuminate a specific spot and as a map or reading light.

  Controls for the internal lights are on the Master Light Control Panel in the pilot cockpit and Interior Light Control Panel in the RIO cockpit, each controlling their own cockpit lighting.

  Note: The utility light function is not modeled in DCS, but the flashlight function, default keybind Left Alt + L, which moves with the cursor, can be used, providing a similar function.

External Lighting

The external lights are the position lights, the anticollision lights, the formation lights, the taxi light, the approach lights, and the refueling probe light.

• Position lights: Located on the left wing tip (red), right wing tip (green), top aft of the left vertical stabilizer (white), and upper and lower lights on the wing gloves on each side (red on the left glove and green on the right). The glove lights are additional lights supplementing the wing tip lights. When the wings are swept forward of 25°, the wing tip lights are active, and when aft of 25°, the glove lights are active instead. With the gear down, wings forward of 25°, and the position lights in steady mode, both the glove and wingtip position lights are lit. When the anticollision lights are on, the position lights can only operate in the steady mode; otherwise, they can be set to flash.

• Anticollision lights: Located on the chin pod or TCS pod, top front of the left vertical stabilizer, and top aft of the right vertical stabilizer. The anticollision lights are all red flashing lights. The chin pod-mounted lower light only operates while the nosegear wheel door is closed.

• Formation lights: Dim green lights used for formation flight, which can be dimmed gradually. They are located on the aircraft nose (behind the radome), the wing tips, on the fuselage aft of the wings, and on the top edge of the vertical stabilizers. All are duplicated on both sides of the aircraft.

• Taxi light: A fixed headlight located on the nosewheel strut. It’s automatically turned off with gear retraction if set to on.

• Approach lights: Located on the nosewheel strut and replicate the AoA indexer for the LSOs during carrier traps.

• Refueling probe light: Used to illuminate the refueling probe and is automatically enabled with probe extension.

  All external light controls are located on the Master Light Control Panel, except for the exterior lights switch on the left throttle (see Throttle), which disables or enables all external lights apart from the approach lights.