Andrew8604

I noticed an issue where the ground crew wouldn't do anything if the canopy was closed...which it is closed after repair, for some reason. If one of your stabilators was missing, I'd say your repair time was going to be days...if not needing to return the aircraft to a major repair depot. ;) Actually, for the F-5, if a stabilator was missing, I doubt the aircraft could be controlled, in reality. I think it would nose in, or pitch up into a flat spin or something. BTW, I recall a video of a Blue Angels A-4F losing one side of its horizontal stabilizer in a mid-air collision. It nosed over into an inverted flat spin. Although that may have been partly due to CG issue after the pilot ejected. The plane hit the ground in an inverted, level flat spin.

Oh, another thing: turn on the pitch and yaw damper switches. That helps smooth things out. Also, adjust your joystick response in the sim settings. I believe most real fighter joysticks are much stiffer and more resistant to movement than your typical computer gaming joysticks. But some real jet pilots might be able to weigh in on that.

With the F-5E-3, you have the option of selecting flaps to AUTO, in which (central air data computer, I guess) will position the flaps optimally for your AOA and airspeed; or manually set them to UP, FIXED (an intermediate position), or FULL. And if the landing gear is down, I think the flaps are automatically set to FULL when AUTO is selected. I think manual mode, UP position is the default setting. If you choose AUTO, then you get what the plane thinks they should be. If you get into PIO (pilot induced oscillations - porpoising), the AUTO flaps may go a little nuts trying to set flaps for whatever you are trying to do, because your PIO has the AOA bouncing up and down. As mentioned by randomTOTEN, make sure your fuel is balanced. There's a switch to have the fuel system balance it for you, but you have to start it early in the flight. BTW, left and right fuel tanks are really front and rear internal fuselage tanks. So an imbalance affects CG and longitudinal stability. The F-5 wings are too thin, I guess, for internal wing tanks. So, setting flaps to manual - UP, I think you can take off and land with flaps UP, if you wish...might need a long runway, though. I like to set them manually, myself. But don't forget to raise them to UP (or AUTO) after takeoff. :) Also, don't forget to raise the gear after takeoff...and close the speed brakes before takeoff! I have taken off a few times with the speed brakes out. Checklists are a real good thing. Hope that helps. (or read the manual and study the flaps switches on the throttle and next to the throttle)

I would prefer something other that just "cold" start. Maybe cold start would mean the aircraft is just released from maintenance and those switches are off (as it currently is the case). Maybe there should be a "warm" start configuration, where the aircraft has simply been "turned around" from a previous mission and some of those switches are still on as expected. That way it would give more options, more flexibility to us all.

Does the F-5E weapons manual say anything about Zuni's? I thought that Zuni rockets were only used by the US Navy. Zuni's are 5" rockets. I think they use the same rocket motor as some of the Sidewinder missiles? The pods carried 4 Zuni's. Now, if Belsimtek would make an A-4C or A-4E Skyhawk (hint, hint), we could put Zuni pods on them. :) I'm all for that. Nice simple A-4E, like the F-5E. The A-7B, A-6A and F-4B were much more complex (they could carry Zuni's)...but much more systems to simulate.