CF104

Have any of the suggestions helped with your question? Want to make sure it's making sense. Cheers, John

Proper technique is to be trimmed for level on-speed AOA flight during the downwind. The OP should practice power manipulation from this starting point to see what it does in this stable trimmed condition. Once the OP is comfortable with this, then the transition to entering on-speed AOA from a non level attitude will be much easier. Cheers, John

Sounds like you need some instruction on aircraft dynamics during approach. When you are trimmed On-Speed (correct AOA) for approach in level flight, the following governs your success. 1. power controls rate of climb and descent 2. Pitch controls speed. 3. Use DLC (Direct Lift Control) to fine tune your touchdown point in-close. When properly flown, an approach uses power to control the rate of climb/descent. The aircraft will maintain the On-Speed AOA throughout as long as the power applications are smooth and you're NOT applying pitch inputs on the stick. Don't touch the trim at this point. If you are high, reduce power. If you are low, increase power. Also remember that if you need to increase or reduce power, do it in small amounts and be prepared to reverse the power inputs to prevent overshooting the desired result. The use of DLC will help in making pinpoint landings. It doesn't take long to get used to it and allows you to change your rate of climb/descent momentarily without changing the power settings. Set up a flight and just do some slow flying to work through these techniques. Assign DLC to buttons on your control stick or throttle, or just use the keyboard (much harder). Start by trying to fly level, trimmed On-Speed (correct AOA) for approach(AOA indexer O lit up) and DLC on. Turning on DLC will give you a mild pitch down that will require nose up trim. Now that you're stable, start reducing power in small amounts to increase rate-of-descent. Now apply some power to reduce the rate-of-descent. Once mastered you can pinpoint the rate-of-descent you desire and keep it steady there. Use DLC in small amounts to fine-tune your approach in-close. DLC switch forward increases descent and DLC switch aft decreases descent. I highly recommend you start out by reading Chuck's Guide on the Tomcat as it provides a lot of insight into flying and operating the jet. https://chucksguides.com/aircraft/dcs/f-14b Regards, John

Hello, I have been making observations on the landing gear retraction/extension times as compared to the only reference I have that gives the actual transit time. This reference is NAVAIR 01-F14A-1, 1 JUNE 1972, Page 1-173 under NORMAL OPERATIONS. In this chapter it states that the "The normal transition time for operation of the landing gear is 9 seconds.". This reference in NAVAIR 01-F14AAA-1 (15 MAY 1995) and NAVAIR 01-F14AAP-1 (1 AUG 2001) has been removed and replaced with the following CAUTION: "Unless attempting fast-cycle troubleshooting for gear that indicates unsafe nosegear down, transition light illuminated, wait for gear to completely transition (15 seconds with normal hydraulic pressure) before recycling the landing gear handle. When fast-cycling the gear handle, the pilot must immediately return gear handle to down position to avoid damaging the main landing gear doors and inducing a possible combined hydraulic or brake system failure.". The sim actual timed retraction/extension as taken from the cockpit indications are 16 seconds in both the A and B. The external modelling is 19-20 seconds for extension and 16 seconds for retraction. I get the impression that the CAUTION statement has been mistaken as the actual transit time. Looking at several videos of Tomcat departures, the gear is definitely retracted within the 9 seconds as stated in the first reference. In my aircraft maintenance experience, I see this caution as derived from operational experience and does not reflect the actual transition time. I feel that the 6 second buffer from the "The normal transition time for operation of the landing gear is 9 seconds." to the 15 second CAUTION statement, is there to prevent the aircrew from recycling the gear too soon. This isn't a show stopper except that the gear is very easy to overspeed on departures with the 16 second retraction time as currently modelled. Regards, John

Another video showing the wing reactions while folded with the engine running. They do bounce around quite a bit with the engine running while folded. The effect on the carrier with the engine off is unrealistic but maybe Magnitude 3 LLC can make it that the wings shake and bounce only with the engine running. Cheers, John

Here's a good in-cockpit video of a F4U in flight. Although it is a non original cockpit restoration, it shows the proper MP gauge operation. You can see the MP gauge (below HSI) is rock solid with no fluctuations. Cheers, John

That's a very broad group of assumptions you've made. In my 43 years of aircraft maintenance, I've worked on many WWII and post war era aircraft and the lack of quality you speak of is very incorrect. Some of the best engineering and workmanship came out of the war effort and that's a fact. Instruments, in particular, are very precision. My Father-in-law is a watch maker and has repaired dozens of warbird instruments over the years and I can tell you from first hand experience that the quality is way better than you surmise. The way the F4U RPM and MP gauges are operating now is not right. The constant vibrating needle is incorrect and setting a manifold pressure of 44.5" is impossible when the needle is bouncing between 41 and 48 like an oscillating saw. IRL these 2 instruments are critical for proper power management and engine life and operate rather smoothly as posted in the videos here. Magnitude 3 LLC needs to correct this behavior in a future update to bring it closer to the expected realism. Maybe it's the same programmer who decided to make the folded wings shake while parked on the carrier and the antenna post to whip around like a sword in flight. Both equally unrealistic and immersion breaking. Cheers, John

You'll have a lot more flexibility in tuning the brake axis if you make it a slider (click Slider box) instead of what you're doing there. Cheers, John

If you reread the OP's post, it was a 2 part comment. First about the fuel cutoff time and the second about the inertial coast down. Both of which I covered in my reply. Not a deal breaker as you say. Cheers, John

Slowly stopping the engine at fuel cutoff just isn't a thing with pressure carburetors. When I worked on aircraft with pressure carbs, the cutoff of fuel was definitely under 2 seconds. When going to cutoff, the engine will momentarily lean out causing a quick audibly perceptible rise in RPM and this doesn't take very long. Once the fuel is no longer being supplied by the pressure carb, the engine should coast to a full stop in about 5-7 seconds. I haven't tested the shutdown timing myself but I will on my next flight. Here is a video from the cockpit showing the cutoff procedure. Probably not a -1D but it's a R-2800 nevertheless. Regards, John

I don't think I asked for a snide comment but thank you for the insight and sorry I'm not using it to your expectations. I did say that I was just getting into using the Lightning II and JDAMs and that I'm having the same elevation issue. When I want to get into the tactical use of JDAMs, I'm sure you'll be the first person I ask. Regards, John

This explains why I'm having problems setting up Mark Points with the Lightning II. I'm just getting into using the Lightning II to set up TOO for JDAMS and every mark point is pointing in the right direction but well below the intended Mark Point after selecting WPDSG. Hope they sort it soon. Cheers, John

Same here. I just bought this module and would expect better key bindings by now. Cheers, John

I built a new powerful gaming PC in April and was surprised to see micro stutters all of the time with the occasional huge framerate drop. I ended up disabling the windows Power service even though it was set to high performance. As soon as I permanently disabled this service I've had nothing but butter smooth framerates. Might be worth a try. Cheers, John

Thanks, This is exactly the point I'm making. Looking for your wingman and checking wing position is all part of SA. The fact that HB has set them in a position for social media selfies makes them totally useless in an operational sense. Cheers, John