bluepilot76

Fish, Yes thats the impression I got watching your landing, I was sort of thinking, as you came nicely over the threshold, well whats he going to do now? I think as a carrier landing it was spot on. When I tried the same method I had the same thing. Following the philosophy of using throttle for glideslope is all very well, but it falls down at the flare. Pilots piling on the throttles just before touchdown are usually correcting a mistake, of course the flare is normally some combination of pitch and reduction in throttle. Perhaps you can land with much more alpha in the A10 though. I havent got a good internet connection at work so cant check YT for the typical A10 touchdown attitude. Anyway, good post from Effte too, I do think the discussion is useful for people struggling with landing though, breaking down what is going down to a few variables, not all of which need be adjusted at the same time.

Now that we have accurate QFEs to use, it is useful to know that you can work out the QNH yourself from that, as long as you know the altitude of the airport. Useful Rule of thumb: 1mb is 30 feet. Divide airport altitude (in feet) by 30 feet. Add resultant number of millibars onto the QFE that you are given. Then you have QNH. If you are doing Instrument approaches you would want to add a safety margin onto the DA because it is a rule of thumb, not 100% accurate. For Example airport 600ft amsl. QFE reported as 990mb. 600 divided by 30 equals 20. Therefore air pressure is 20mb lower than at sea level. QFE provided is 990mb, therefore QNH is 1010mb.

Yes its easy> rule of thumb> 1mb=30 feet. if you know the altitude of your airfield, divide it by 30 and add the resulting number of millibars onto your QFE value.

If anyone wants to use QNH instead of QFE it is easy enough to convert it yourself. 1mb (hPA) equals 30feet (rule of thumb), so if ATC gives you QFE 1002 at an airfield with 500ft amsl, all you need to do is divide 500 by 30, approx 17. so ADD 17 mb onto 1002, hey presto QNH 1019. Not having the sim to hand, can anyone confirm that the airfield altitude is given on the DIVERT page?

Yes QFE calls appear to be fixed now, checked it last night in first campaign/first mission. Thanks ED!

Congratulations, keep at it and they get easier and easier. I expect you will be doing ILS approaches in snowstorms in no time. Have fun!

QNH is altitude above sea level, and would mean that for example your altimeter would read 700feet on a runway that is 700feet above sea level. This is what is most commonly used around the world. AFAIK every civilian Instrument approach is calibrated for QNH. so the Decision Altitude (typically 200feet above runway threshold) for a runway at 700feet amsl would be on the plate as 900feet. I think this is what quincidence is referring to. HOWEVER, this is not civilian operations. Certainly the RAF use QFE for altimeter within the UK. In this case your HEIGHT is given above runway elevation, so you would set your altimeter to 0 on the runway, you would transition to QNH (altitudes) or standard pressure setting 1013mb / 29.92in for flight levels when away from the vicinity of your departure or arrival airfield. However Im not sure what the RAF would do when they arrive somewhere with a high runway elevation, as they wouldnt be able to unwind enough millibars off the altimeters to reach 0feet. I think all the runways in this sim are relatively low though. For the other problem, I think its related. There is something to do with the weapons system where it checks your height on takeoff and this information is somehow used for the bomb aiming process. I expect its explained in the manual, but have seen it mentioned on here a couple of times, thats something I cant help you with yet.

Did you tell him to RTB?

That happened to me once in 1107, I decided it was because my AI wingman had no idea that I was landing, and were continuing to formate on me. As they got below altitude limits without gear and flap they started paniking and S turning around me in order to fly slow enough. Solved ever since by commanding them to RTB.

Bruins> Are you getting anywhere with your landing? One thing that occurs to me is if you are flying with dynamic weather and a bit of wind, that did have strong turbulence that can cause effects like you describe. Im not sure if this has been toned down in 1108. Practice with nil weather and see how you get on. Fish, and all you other alpha guys/gals, I tried it with trim to speed and using the throttle for touchdown position, of course that works as well. Some points though, the throttles take longer to respond than a pitch input, so fine adjustment of the glideslope is not as straightforward. Takes a bit of practice to get the anticipation correct. Not impossible, but not easy for the beginners. Anyway I think this is the method the navy guys use where it is essential to have the right amount of energy (ie not too much) to allow the wire to stop you. Fish, in your 2nd landing you do still have quite a hard touchdown, the navy guys apparently had a saying..."Flare to land/squat to p*ss"..Not sure if they still say that now the ladies are flying onto carriers as well. Anyway the F18 etc have very sturdy undercarriage so that a flare is not required, but any footage I have seen of A10 landing it is flared nicely for a gentle touchdown. Anybody know what the optimum touchdown pitch is, to avoid tailstrikes? Using the Alpha method should provide the optimum approach speed for short field landing. You can forget the airspeed then as the AoA will tell you what you need to know (margin above stall), which should be useful in the A10 as the pitot tube seems to come off anytime there is a bit of battledamage. For beginners or those having trouble, I still say the easiest way to learn landing would be fly the TVV onto the start of the runway whilst maintaining a reasoneable approach speed. I usually fly the approach at 140-160, and bleed off on short final to 120-130, round about this time I usually get the green donut. Other advantages of this method; you are not "hawging" the approach for 5 minutes whilst all the F15 guys run out of gas...

Hi Fish, There is something quite interesting in what you posted : "ignore the touchdown, I was descending too quickly so had to flare too much" I have been told many times a simple truth; a good landing is the end result from a good approach. I watched your track, thanks for posting. The fact you were descending too much is because for the majority of the approach you were overshooting - getting relatively high. The perspective of the runway changes throughout your approach. It is easy to see why because the TVV (the crash point you can also think of it) is nearly always hovering beyond the runway. I have attached my track of the same mission. I flew this approach primarily using the TVV to point at the runway threshold. Then all I had to do was operate the throttle to maintain an appropriate speed. its incredibly simple, and is exactly how I would fly an ILS. Only there instead of pointing the TVV at the threshold you are chasing the glideslope needle with pitch, its effectively the same thing. Anyway I hope you will agree that its relatively stable, and once established on the glideslope I really had very little to do. I think I stopped trimming a few seconds before crossing the threshold, as I started the flare. I have enjoyed many of your videos by the way, and you have taught me several things about the aircraft systems. Thanks! bluepilot76_Landing.trk

I would have thought there is no chance the REAL crosswind limit is less than 25knots, however DCS A10C has (or hopefully had) some crazy turbulence on very light winds with dynamic weather. I have had the plane pushed sideways across the apron in gusts a lot less than that (according to the tower anyway) Its probably just the Health and Safety fairies in the tower, or its bring your kid to work day. I would just ignore them and go flying. Hopefully someone with much more knowledge on the subject will be along shortly to help you with the answer. Usually theres plenty of folks about, I expect everyone is too busy flying at the moment though. new patch just out etc.

Hi, since your new and noone else talking to you I will talk to you, TBH I dont know what you mean though. 15K? is that 15knots of wind? Definately got the right frequency and all that? 15knots in Dynamic is like a total hurricane for some reason, or it was in 1107. I havent had a chance to see if the weather got fixed in 1108. Hope so.

Guess what, its not a simple subject. There are thousands of posts on forums like this where people, all of which can land aeroplanes, argue about how its done. The way I understand it at the moment PPL flying, most schools these days teach elevator for speed, throttle for rate of descent. Basically this is simple and safe for the small stuff with propellors. Its not what you are then taught for bigger stuff though, then its elevator for rate of descent (ie following the glideslope on the ILS, or moving the TVV onto the start of the runway) and throttle for speed. Two things you need are speed and pitch. Personally I fly the TVV onto the start of the runway with pitch. I hope to be trimmed out for the majority of the approach, I control the speed with throttle. I stop trimming on short final. Looking forward to being flamed!

As far as I am concerned you can not fly through the trees. I have never tried, but I know in my heart of hearts that if I clip a tree Im going down. Its like those people that believe they can levitate. Or run through a wall. They believe they can so they can. Well I believe I cant so I cant. If I was on multiplayer and someone started that kind of cr*p I would be out of there. Just like when IL2 went all space invaders online- it was all over for me then. Sad day. (ROF trees are good though. You can definately hit those...)

Another great post Capt Ball! Thanks for sharing such good advice again! I also struggled most with the whole HOTAS thing, basically trying to get Mavs off. In the end I drew my own diagram of the hat switch functions and just looked at it, trying to find the logic behind the patterns, slowly it started to make sense and then in the aircraft it all suddenly came to me. Having said that I do still sometimes tie myself in knots, about to RIFLE and suddenly my TGP is pointing to outer space or something. Good job there is not real ground troops relying on me!

Does it have a hat switch? I only have one hat switch on my stick, but i use it for all the HOTAS functions by mapping a modifier. On the base of my stick I have 12 buttons. So one is the modifier for Slew, one for TMS, one for DMS, etc. Without a modifier my hat switch is Trim. It works fine, as long as you remember which modifier is which.

JEFX, it looks like this one got away from you. To stay on topic, I will agree that the ME should match the units in the cockpit. I am British. I use MPH for driving. KMH for running. M/S at work. KTS for flying (Except in one C172 that has MPH ASI). I measure altitude in feet by setting millibars on the scale. I measure temmperature in Celsius. I measure my weight in Stones and my aircrafts wieght in KG. I buy fuel by the litre but use pounds in the calculations. I will not try and argue that this is the correct way to be. In the real world, aviation in particular, Units are very much a fact of life. There is not and will not be a unifying system that we all abide to. Are Boeing going to adopt Tupolevs instruments? and vice versa? Never! Are people killed because pilots forget the difference between kg of fuel and pounds of fuel? Yes! What does it all Mean? I dont know, but I like things the way they are. The more variability in culture in the world the better. Should we all be able to choose what instruments we use? ONLY IF YOU WANT TO FLY IN ARCADE MODE. Otherwise, KEEP IT REAL! PS I hate russian style artificial horizons. Wouldnt change it in KA 50 though. It just wouldnt be right! PPS What I really dont get though, is why does most of the world drive on the wrong side of the road??? (JOKE!)

I think even if you were pulled out of the grass, you would probably have to have the plane checked over in case you had strained the undercarriage or something. You would probably have to go and see your CO as well! Some of the taxiways are quite narrow so it is tricky sometimes. Its best to keep your head up and watch where your going, even if there are a hundred things to do in the cockpit before you arrive at the runway. I have learnt that lesson for the last time now!

Seems like the only possible choice is to treat yourself to a lovely new TIR5 with Proclip thing. Just imagine 6 DOF and perfect tracking anywhere in the cockpit! It must be your birthday sometime in the next year!

I flew an Air-Air refuelling mission, when I was finished at altitude I dived back down to the Batumi circuit, levelled off, and with the throttles at idle waited for the speed to come back so I could extend the gear and flaps. The speed didnt seem to be coming down, suddenly I realised I was on the edge of the stall. My pitot must have been blocked! I flipped on the switch and normal service resumed shortly afterwards. Good Simulation!

I think the scenery is generally very good, but I do find the hills a little bit blocky in areas, as if the terrain mesh has got very few points. For example parking on the ramp at Batumi, and looking towards the hills, a lot of those are very angular and sharp edged. I also noticed a marshalling yard or office carpark or something like that fairly close to Sukhumi, at the foot of the hills: part of it is on the flat, and part is on a really steep slope. It looks a bit rubbish from low level. When everything else looks so good, I think this low terrrain mesh resolution lets it down a little, especially for low level flying in the hills. I suppose that is the price of smooth framerates.

Also, I find it is easier if you are a bit heavier, so load her up with plenty of bombs. Makes everything a bit less twitchy.

Hi Rossi, You said maybe you can stick the reflectors onto a cap, have you not still got the little framework thing? I thought you had just lost the reflectors and still had the frame. I am pretty sure you will need that as all the algorithmns are presumeably based on clever spatial geometric calculation stuff. In which case I expect yu will have to buy a new frame. Then again if TIR2 is not 6DOF etc maybe you will be ok! Hope so!