EmJay22

Turns out the control I mean is shown on page 12 of Chuck's Guide as the "Instrument Panel LIght Dimmer Knob", which is over to the left one row, then up. And since I am asking dumb questions, I don't get what the purpose of the "Hook Bypass Airfield/Carrier" is when it's the lever on the right side that lowers or raises the arresting hook. I can't see any difference changing that switch compared to just using the lever on the right side.

That 200 for the flaps works really well along with the idle till about 150. Really helps reduce the nose up effect. I've also been playing around with kicking the rudder a bit if the nose is dropping to quickly in a turn. Thank you.

I don't know how many hrs one should search thru the DCS F-18 Early Access Guide or the Chuck's guide but I can't find this. When you start a mission either at night or right before sunrise, there is a faint green back light on the UFC panels. There are some times when I start a late afternoon mission and if I managed not to die, I leave the plane on the runway and come back... sometimes after it is dark. I can see lots of controls for HUD brightness, AOA brightness, etc.. etc .. but nothing that makes those green background lights come on, most likely due to being blind. Thanks in advance

I keep wrecking rear landing gears with pattern landings. Probably because I suck.. but also am still fighting the "new and improved" AOA. It seems the recommendation to lower grear and set flaps to full at 250 kts often results in the nose going up too much... probably because I am trimming to much to attain on speed AOA. This results in a roller coaster ride and usually broken landing gear. I think maybe in the "old" FM Hornet more trim was needed and now it seems less. I have stopped focusing on the pitch degrees and now am only looking a the donut. If the arrow is red, I give it a bit of nose up time and if green, I nudge it down. all the while trying to keep the E bracket next to the velocity vector with the throttle. Maybe lower gear below 250 kts, then only half flaps initially and then full when it seems more stable.

Oh... very cool. I will give that a try.

Oh cool. That is a great to "copy" the coordinates. I don't see how to "paste" or "enter" them.

What is this tricksie devilry? I can't make it work or find any info.

A couple more observations regarding the "new" Hornet.. Brakes... it has been already noted that they are stronger and it takes more care when landing and stopping. During take off, you can hold the brakes and run up the throttle to almost full Mil power, though I have not done detailed testing. Stalls -- With the old hornet, there have been times when I got stuck... usually inverted.. in level "flight" because I was messing around while seeing how much I could screw it up... And then no matter what I did to power or controls, I would just slowly fall down and crash.. Yes, I know this is not recommended!! This doesn't seem to happen now and eventually the nose will point itself to the ground and the plane then builds up speed.

I think I meant 700 feet per minute. Not sure where I read that. Maybe I dreamed it

It does seem, that when running the "Ctrl Enter" "cheat" that shows where your controls are at, there is a less trimming needed. But I am still playing with it. ... flying around with gear and flaps down until I run out of gas since I am scared to land!

And I am also now wondering what the "trick" is to not destroying the rear landing gear. I am assuming it's ensuring that your rate of decent doesn't exceed 700 fps? For carrier landings having that weight below 33,000 lbs. What about airfields? I am also having a heck of time after lowering gear and flaps (below 250 kts, of course) and then trimming how to avoid the "roller coaster effect"? The nose wants to immediately rise (after a bit of a wait, actually... when I assume the plane is trying to decide just how to kill me). Once it goes up, no amount of pushing forward on the stick will bring it down. Have to resort to speed brake as the throttle is at idle. I guess focusing completely on that vertical velocity and stroking the throttles constantly?

I am curious... what is this "paddle cheat?" In my own controls setup, I only see disabling NWS and AutoPilot listed.

Well, that 'splains it!! LOL I guess I forgot to mail in that postcard when I bought this module over a year ago so they would send me my copy of the F/A-18C NATOPS manual.

While watching this video linked above I noticed the Red Controls Indicator in the lower left showing the amount of pitch trim that is being applied. I also noticed that if your speed increases very much over 250 with gear down, that tic mark goes away and the pitch trim seems to reset. And then it becomes necessary to reset pitch Trim to get to On Speed AOA. Of course landing gear are not supposed to be lowered above 250 so this makes sense. Or is this not correct? Thanks

Thanks for that info. Fortunately, my system is able to handle the time acceleration. But those other options for views are good to know.

I found this tidbit in the Mission Editor manual (p42) Game data/time and acceleration rate of window. This field displays the current in-game (mission) time and its acceleration factor. In-game time is displayed as day / hours: minutes: seconds. The acceleration factor is indicated by the letter A. Example: А1.00 indicates normal time flow [LShift+Z] So you can check the F10 map to see what the acceleration rate is. The manual needs updating as the map will now show a red (X#) to the left of the time in the upper right corner. # indicates the time acceleration factor. And while I am sure most consider using the data/time acceleration rate change to a cheat, it is nice way to explore a large map quickly.

Saw this posted on X by @NavalInstititute Thanks for moving this to the correct part of this forum. I'm a moron Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No... the TACAN stn # is not always the same as the hull number for a carrier. Harry S. Truman certainly isn't "75". Nice.

Thanks. I knew I shouldn't have asked here! Point taken.

Even though I started the Hornet module almost a year ago, I am still terrible at carrier landings. But I just discovered this amazing training mission and am finding I am even worse than I thought. Maybe this is not the right place to ask these ultra-noob questions. It seems my main problem is maintaining a constant altitude when desired. Is it normal to need to use pitch trim when setting up and entering the break to get to that desired 350 kts and 800 feet? I have recently re calibrated my Winwing throttles and stick which seems to help but staying at the desired altitude when making over adjustments to land seems to be elusive for me. Should flaps be normally at 1/2 or "auto"? And IF I do need to bolter and go around again to start over, does raising gear and flaps reset the trim?

I did download and try out Bankler's trainer. It's amazing and I am still working my way thru the 30 pages of that thread. For now I am going to stick with my modified green gate mission as it is helping me to get a better "feel" for the pattern and trying to not fly so erratically with over corrections.

"Yes! I made this mission with the intent to make it easier and more fun to practice your skills around the boat" I don't HAVE any skills!! LMAO besides feeding the fish...

Why No, since I have never heard of that. I will search now. Thanks

oh.. and those controls also work just normally, when flying a mission. No need to take a nap if you set autopilot to fly a decent distance.

I see it now. Hard to search when you aren't even sure what to search for. I was focusing on "playback" Many thanks to both of you.