Pocket Sized

Personally, I leave the trim at zero. I pull full back stick at 140 kt on takeoff with a clean airframe. Nose lifts just fine. I have to hold back pressure until I cut the burners at 300-400 knots, but I prefer that over trimming constantly after takeoff. That's just my way of doing it, it's by no means the "best" or most realistic method.

1.5.5 is outdated and had issues similar to this for many modules. 1.5.6 is the latest version.

Prop and maybe wind noise should be audible to some extent.

Can anybody confirm or deny if our Jug is going to have the dive flaps? I was talking to a WWII enthusiast and he swore on his life we wouldn't be getting them. My understanding is anything above block 28 had them.

Correction on the loop: entry speed should be 200 kmh at most. Above that, it becomes difficult to keep G loads under control on the initial pull. Minimum entry speed is about 100, but you REALLY have to milk the engines, and end up recovering at less than 10m AGL.

You've got my attention.

If only I knew what that is

Very strange. Do you recall if the EGT raised, or stayed near zero? If it did raise, then that indicates a hung start. If it didn't budge, then the engine didn't light off due time a lack of fuel or ignition.

I didn't realize the difference would be as much as 7.5%. I thought it would be like 3% at most. I guess the high octane fuel helps quite a bit?

http://www.avialogs.com/viewer/avialogs-documentviewer.php?id=1836

One problem, though. The SA-342M manual is classified. The 341 manual is publicly available but the SAS system is completely different between the two. Apparently, pilots who transitioned felt the 342 SAS is too restrictive and they're "fighting" it. If somebody actually has the SA-342M flight manual I definitely wouldn't mind a PM... :music_whistling:

Just gonna leave this here. [YouTube]CaHJLdc20Bc Joking aside, I really like the reduced dynamic pitch stability (I think that's what its called), makes it much more challenging to precisely control AoA when landing and maneuvering. Also, I recall there being some controversy surrounding the stabilization mode of the SAU. I wonder if that is going to be improved in the near future?

+1 to what gospadin said. It doesn't matter where the controls actually are, just move them as necessary to make the aircraft go where you want. (This helped me a ton when transitioning to real flying :D )

Oh, trust me, sometimes even I get nausea while performing low altitude stuff. Going over the top of a loop thinking you're wings level, only to find the horizon tilted 45 degrees when it comes into view is extremely disorienting, to say the least. Can't imagine doing this in VR.

Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but I just don't see why 72" manifold clearance is that big of a deal. If the change is simply adjusting the supercharger to give a bit more pressure along with higher octane fuel, you'll get more power, but you'll still run into pretty extreme issues with cooling. Even then, wouldn't the power increase be hardly noticeable anyway?

Sorry for the double post but I'd like to add 0.02 to the topic of rudder coordination in forward flight. There shouldn't be a speed above which you can take your feet off the pedals. The shape of the tail is opimized for a certain cruise speed. Above or below this cruise speed, the vertical stabilizer will either be producing insufficient or excess sideforce, requiring pedal input to keep coordinated. No matter what your speed is, changes in torque will cause a yawing moment. It's just like flying an airplane, you step on the ball, always! I don't know exactly how well it's implemented in the Sim right now, which is why I said "should." It's been a while since I've flown the Gazelle.

I initially fell into the same trap that many others do, when analyzing the FM. It really surprised me when I realized just how different light helicopters are from the big ones we have in DCS. First, most people compare the Gazelle to the Huey. This... is nonsense. They're both helicopters and the same physics apply to both, sure. However, the huey is many times heavier, has an extremely large rotor with tons of mass, and most importantly, it has a flybar! This results in very tame, dampened control response. The flybar is why the cyclic feels so "mushy" in the air. I'm sure that the rotor flapping has a notable effect on handling compared to the Gazelle, as well. Light helicopters are a completely different breed. Watch any video of a Robinson hovering and you'll see just how sensitive the controls are, it's absurd! Does the FM need to be improved? Yes. Is it completely wrong in every conceivable way, as I used to think? Not even close.

I imagine the RPM will be somewhat "up there," on account of the massive flaps producing lots of drag and the fact that the 14 has a less than fantastic TWR in dry thrust.

A bit of an update: I've kept at it, my maneuvers are getting smoother and more aggressive. One of these days I'm going to come up with a "solo display" with pre-planned maneuvers, maybe put on my own little airshow :P Most notably, I figured out how to do a front flip. First, however, I should probably explain how to do a simple loop. The entry can be made at any altitude, right down to ground level. Recommended speed is about 200-250kmh. Pull up, using collective and cyclic in unison, to maintain about 2.5G. The purpose of this is to gain as much vertical speed as possible, so continue easing more collective until your nose reaches 70° or so. Then, pull back fully on the cyclic and drop collective when you reach 90°. Use pedal inputs to keep her straight while you go over the top. When you are pointing straight at the ground, start adding collective and adjust cyclic to pull out of the resulting dive. This is the hardest part of the maneuver, you must be very careful to stay below 3G while also avoiding the ground. Precise rotor and engine management* are absolutely critical, if the engines throttle down during recovery, you're gonna have a hell of a time. To do a front flip, just do a loop, but the entry is made going backwards! It's incredibly difficult to judge the recovery and I often VRS a bit. You can also do the regular loop entry and push forward as you go over the top, but this can cause the main rotor to strike the tail. *this is a topic I'm gonna have to cover in a video. Basically, once you get a feel for indirectly managing the engines and keeping track of the kinetic energy in the rotors, you can do some pretty impressive things. With timed cyclic inputs, it's possible to slam from nearly zero to full collective with little change in rotor RPM. Such rapid changes in thrust are very useful for tight maneuvering. "Indirect engine management" is simply flying in a manner that keeps the engines at a relatively constant power setting (usually near 100%) to simplify torque compensation, among other things. My next video will either be a live commentary tutorial or an attempt at a "solo display."

Rolling in response to sideslip (induced by rudder in this case) is called lateral stability. Every aircraft exhibits this behavior to some degree, it's something I've been reading up on lately. I really feel like the rudder should use the "old" force implementation where it scaled your inputs down at high speed. It's far too sensitive with the "clipping" behavior in my opinion. Try adding a bit of curve to your rudder axis and practice keeping the airplane coordinated at various speeds and orientations, you only need a tiny bit unless you're at very low speed. It takes a lot of practice, but eventually you can keep the plane coordinated using only outside visual references and "feeling" how the aircraft is responding in roll.

The Yaw SAS doesn't appear to be functioning properly. It's not keeping the plane coordinated as it should.

Shock cooling isn't caused directly by rapid temperature changes. It's caused by temperature GRADIENTS. If you chop the throttle and dive in a 172, the outer casing of the air cooled engine will cool down and contract while the inner portions cool down slower and stay expanded. This creates huge internal stresses that "stretch" the outer casing, forming cracks. Same thing happens to the turbine blades in a jet engine if you shut it down without letting it cool at idle for a bit. I have a sneaking suspicion that shock cooling is extremely unlikely in a water cooled engine due to the largely uniform temerature within the engine. Don't quote me on that, though.

Some general info/tips for takeoff: The tail rotor produces a significant amount of thrust when the pedals are centered (enough to hover with a lightly loaded aircraft), this lightens control forces during normal hover and cruise operations. It does, however, push you around during ground ops and autorotation so a bootfull of rudder is often needed to compensate. The only defense against this dynamic rollover behavior is muscle memory. I seriously have no idea where I push the stick prior to liftoff, its second nature at this point. Spooling the rotors should be the last step in your startup aside from enabling pitch/roll autopilot. Be ready to start "flying" as soon as the rotors begin accelerating from idle speed. I'd also recommend leaving the parking brake on until liftoff/taxi.

Are you by chance using an X55? I had the same issue with mine, 3 or 4 fast movements and the friction mechanism would loosen up considerably. You don't have to "slam" the throttle, just move it at or above the rate at which the engine spools.

I've experienced similar difficulties landing the Mirage. I don't have any specific conditions under which it happened though.