OttoSH

There are two switches for the AFCS: Engange and Altitude hold. When you activate "Engage" the aircraft flies more or less like a fly by wire aircraft. It will hold its roll and pitch attitude and when you have less then 5° bank, it will roll the wings level and hold the heading. If you want it to hold altitude, activate the altitude hold switch. You have to activate it while your vertical speed is lower than 1000ft/min. It holds the altitude the aircraft had in exactly that moment when you activated it. So when you activate it while climbing, the aircraft will continue the climb, level off and descend back down. I find it most easy when i level the aircraft off first and then activate altitude hold. I hope that helps. Otto

Hi, landing the Phantom is not very ease. I myself, with lots of real world and simulator flying experience also had my problems in proper flying the phantom down to the runway. What i noticed is, that the phantom consumes very much energy when flying a turn. So to hold altitude and speed during base turn, you have to add power preemptively, before even noticing a drop in speed or altitude. When you end the turn and get the wings back level, die phantom has much less drag again and accelerates quickly, if you dont reduce your thrust again. Furthermore, it tends to change its trim very much in the low speed regime with small speed changes. Beware: At 230kt the flaps are blown up and the drag and trim changes .. I think i got it right after trying it 20 times ... Now i configure the aircraft on downwind before entering base turn with flaps&slats down and out, trimming for about 200 knots and then pulling through the base and final turn. On final i reduce the speed to "on speed" or a little bit faster and fly the phantom down to the runway. Keep in mind, the engines are oriented downwards, so when you change power, you also change the vertical speed to some extend. Reducing the power to idle before touchdown may result in a hard landing. maybe whe can tell a littel bit more after seeing a track Otto