Victory205

I’m with you. Put in a little study work, then go do it. Some of the landings I see are getting pretty good. Nice to see. No, time to play right now, I up to my arse in real life™ stuff right now. Might be retiring soon, giving me even more time to sim and harass all of you and finish up my guides.

Looks pretty doggone good. A little long in the groove, which gave you a low start. If you start your approach turn a few seconds earlier, abeam the LSO platform, you'll be just right. You turned aft of the stern. If you can see the potato locker you're too late. Guys are starting to get pretty good flying the Tomcat. Shows a lot of dedicated work.

Oh well, in that case, why not just land it upside down? If you are going to aerobrake, then try flying about ten knots above on speed, carry a little power into the flare, and touch down gently. You will likely need additional aft stick immediately on touchdown to hold the nose up. The aircraft has tons of low speed nose authority. Some of the issue may be that DCS's ground "friction" is a bit too high, but there isn't much that can be done about that. Last thing to work on is tuning up your sense of humor. It needs a lot of work. Who's going to post a good- upside down landing on centerline in the touchdown zone first?

FWIW, it is more effective to put the nose on the deck and program the stick full aft without lifting. The stabs are very effective in aerodynamic braking, and you can actually steer the aircraft with differential stick. It works in the sim as it did in the aircraft. Aerobraking like you see in other aircraft models was prohibited by SOP as it was too easy to damage the burner cans on arresting gear cables, etc. I never wanted to emulate an Iranian pilot...

I could fill volumes with what some “experts” don’t understand about the real world... Every engine stall required a detailed write up both in the aircraft logbook and in separate stall report, you know, because PW was under extreme scrutiny to ensure that their engines and modifications were performing properly. Said write ups were widely disseminated, to the aforementioned PW, Grumman, NATC, NAVAIR, Fighterwings on both coasts, AIMD on both coasts and on every ship, every CAG, every squadron, etc. Every day, every officer in every squadron had to read an initial a daily message board that contained exactly this sort of data. There were times that we received procedures to handle issues that had just been identified and checklists quickly enacted to resolve a new problem. As an Operations Officer, I once had to read a procedure to rectify a stuck throttle to a crew that we got in the night before it happened to one of our crews at Red Flag. Each squadron’s NATOPS Officer would brief every deficiency that came through the message system. Every squadron and wing Safety Officer would coordinate briefings on whatever issues were manifesting across the spectrum, including stalls and the exact reported conditions of the stall. Additionally, I served as an Aircraft Division Officer, one of my duties was responsibility for the Powerplants shop and the men who maintained our engines. We actually changed and trimmed engines on the ship’s engine run facilities. AIMD and each squadron maintenance department got additional maintenance reports on every system. If a freaking engine stalled anywhere on the planet, I knew about it and how it occurred. In my next squadron, I ended up in QA, where all of the above was amplified. If an engine burped, then aircraft would be taken out of service until we figured out why, followed by fuel control checks and a trim run. Four years in that squadron and we never had a stall. Hopefully you'll understand that there is far more to the Navy fighter business than just flying aircraft and talking smack. We maintained our own aircraft, and were engaged in constant competition to solve problems and make the aircraft better and safer. Professionals live or die by data, not anecdotes.

Quickie overview- The TF30's reputation for compressor stalls are overblown. I had one stall and I induced it. I had one engine failure, but it wasn't catastrophic. Very simple to handle. Conversely, the B had some AB burn throughs that killed people, including a RIO I flew with for two cruises. There were some changes to the engine in terms of bleed air relief during certain flight regimes to mitigate compressor stalls. This did reduce thrust slightly, but it also solved the compressor stall issues early jets had. Basically, have the throttles at mil or max ab, don't move them while at high AOA (heavy buffet) and go enjoy the hop. Get it out of your head that the motors are going to be stalling every ten seconds during ACM.

Almost all of those mil power shots were during CQ, with the aircraft less than fully fueled, with little or no ordnance. Essentially, it's gross weight, wind and temp conditions.

"Rapid, Unplanned, Disassembly."

BTDT...

Good point! However, the VDI was pink, and the cow patties were rainbow colored and shaped like unicorns...

I didn't watch the others, but the Tomcat pattern is pretty damned good. Minor nits is that you could enter the break a bit faster, say 350-400KIAS and use a little more G, like around 4, wings to auto at 280, Gear at 250, flaps at 200. All of that will slow down the process as those event triggers will happen more slowly. You did a nice, level break, might have dumped the nose a little too aggressively to get down to 600 feet, continuing upwind a bit will give you more time to do that at a more controlled pace. I thought that the approach turn and groove AOA control was excellent, and you controlled the rate of descent during from the 180 to the 90 very well. You have it down, it's just a matter of tweaking the power to control the rate of descent. One of the best approaches I've seen in terms of AOA control Well done.

The F14A had the altitude references, but RIO’s coming out of Training Command were so used to figuring it out in their heads that many didn’t reference it too much. Early on in RAG training, the RIO sim instructors would bash the FNG’s about not using the altitude read outs, but the salty RAG instructors put and end to that once they got to the airplane. The AWG-9 displayed altitudes used the same displayed data to compute the altitudes, so it was stupid for a human to waste brain cells doing it. Either way, even in the early 1980’s, the readouts were there.

Dumb Article. There were more than five prohibited maneuvers/limitations which is what he references, and the AIM9 limitation was to prevent rocket motor exhaust impingement from damaging the flaps. The slats didn’t obstruct the seeker head FOV. RIO’s... ;)

That's how it works in the real aircraft. The "library" of available symbols was fixed and hardwired into the display, so those symbols had to have different meanings depending upon whether the radar was locked, or what mode the system was in. It could be confusing at times. If you are having difficultly using the AA gun mode, then fill your windscreen with the bogey and pull the trigger.

At high alpha, moderate to heavy buffet, roll with rudder with lateral stick neutral. The technique that I described is adding a little lateral stick opposite to the direction of rudder and roll to accelerate the roll rate. The F14, like most conventional swept winged jets (A4, F4, A7, etc), exhibits adverse yaw and sideslip at high alpha, which causes roll opposite lateral stick. Therefore, students learned very early in the TA-4J to roll at moderate to high alpha with rudder. The F14 would roll opposite lateral stick at very small stick displacements. So much so, that I'd put my elbows on the canopy rails and use both hands to keep the stick centered, rolling using rudders only. That's what you should do in DCS. It is difficult due to the limitations of a desktop sim to enhance roll with opposite stick. It isn't a Heatblur issue, it is the inherent lack of physical feedback and wanting controller fidelity. I used to get a kick out of my Gen Av buds who claimed that jets were flown with the pilot's feet on the floor.

We turned it off. Okie was an aberration, and was taking a risk that required different control inputs. He was also senior, and didn’t exactly advertise what he was doing. Same with the discussion on using full flaps. The torque tubes would consistently break, and it was quite easy to see if your opponent was using full flaps. The only place that would typically made sense was a flat scissors in a 1v1. Was it worth the risk to come back to the ship with split or a flap lockout in the North Atlantic with no diverts and a pitching deck? Do that a couple of times and you’re going to be questioned and even grounded for a while. Breaking jets didn’t not enhance mission readiness and was a big deal for obvious reasons. One of the pilots most of you worship constantly over stressed during demos, was counseled and was and still is hated by the maintenance troops, operations officers and his peers for his selfishness. Taking a jet out of service for a week because of ego isn’t respected at all. I cross controlled to get a better roll rate at high alpha. Some guys didn’t. I had long experience and understood the nuance and was smooth and judicious with the controls. I thoroughly understood from the aircraft response when to neutralize the lateral stick. The Tomcat was wonderful with buffet feedback cues. It did not jeopardize the flap/slat system nor was it dangerous with Roll SAS off. One of my squadron mates got an F14A into a flat spin and had to eject in the early 1990’s. The RIO’s seat didn’t leave the aircraft, and for whatever reason, he didn’t try a manual bailout. He rode the aircraft to his death, on the radio the whole way down. The pilot was our NATOPS officer, was very conservative and conscientious, but to this day, my pilot bud is haunted because he feels like he left the Roll SAS on and departed as a result. I see him a few times per year, we work for the same company. He is not the happy go lucky man that he once was. Do what you want in DCS, there is no price. I turn it off. It doesn’t make a difference in typical engagements.

Why yes, it's called the Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI) to the port side (that would be left to you land lubbers) of the Air Speed Indicator (ASI). ;)

Flat scissors is the only place you'd do that, and it is the last place you want to be in the real world. Known 1v1 is a bit different. You better kill your opponent, because you aren't going to run away from anyone.

What a guy. https://tucson.com/news/local/top-gun-pilot-forgot-landing-gear/article_0e5210b2-8814-50fa-b8ba-03beaa5ab3ba.html

Those can be set as a reference independently using the GIGANTIC knob. Turn for Knots, Push and Turn for Mach.

You might enjoy this podcast about the founding of NFWS https://jockopodcast.com/2020/05/20/230-push-the-envelope-and-test-yourself-the-founding-of-top-gun-with-dan-pederson/

You just push the little button... ;)

Sorry, I was out of the beach playing topless volleyball and missed my date...

Thanks, I think I’ve got it sorted. I had to shut down the setup app, remove and re-plug in the joystick USB cable, and wait quite a while for the stick to show up in the available controllers list so the firmware could update. Then every subsequent step, axis calibration and saving, required the setup software to be shut down and restarted for the stick to register in the controllers list so it could be selected. Keep doing that, and eventually you’ll end up with a profile uploading into the device that recognized the buttons. Hope this helps anyone who may come across this issue. Be very patient with the setup software, it shows not responding for up to a minute before it does it’s thing on my rig.

They get really, really long... ;)