Lex Talionis

.... and the thread goes wild. (Over true vrs mag) More context: Controlling agencies give vectors in magnetic, V ways/J routs are magnetic, VOR/TACAN radials are magnetic (station declination, another nuance in context), ATIS winds are given in magnetic (METARS, TAFS etc, are true, done for other nuanced reasons), airfield runways are in magnetic. Athough chart lat longs are true (not sure how they could be anything but), the heading values on charts are magnetic. Approach plates are magnetic to include RNAV and VNAV (per part 97.3 something) and if courses are true on a plate it is accompanied by a "t" to indicate the nuanced difrences. Aviation (as of today, with the chance it may very well change in the GPS future) still operates in a predominantly "magnetic " world. Im sure someone can wikipedia up more exceptions somewhere but that doesn't change the normative, and i am sure each exception has its own nuance context. The point of my response was to give context to the realities of the flying environment, how that has shaped navigational equipment, and how a game can give false perceptions on what that environment is. Thus, why the 18 hud defaults to magnetic. :)

This is a case where context is important. Keeping in context with how navigation and aviation evolved: It wasn't untill the implementation of GPS that the oldest and most practical means of orienting to a map was by magnetic compas. (Celestial for you really old guys). All navigation grew from magnetic orientation thus all navigation instrumentation reflects this. Even with GPS, If systems were to fail in the aircraft, navigation will ultimately degrade to magnetic. This is also why all IFR certified aircraft must still have that archaic wet compass installed somewhere in the cockpit. When all one knows is a game with an F10 map that gives instant and absolute situational awareness, it is easy to wonder why that should not be what the aircraft is designed to associate its navigation instrumentation with. Its just not how it is in real life. Vary rarely if at all is true used in an aircraft.

(Shrug) who knows.. It never bothered me with the HMD.

I would like to think they did their homework and realized that the 12 was the prolific mask used in the hay day of the legacy hornet. The CE masks were not in existence for the navy/marine corps during the late 80s, 90s and early 2000s ... ..... it was probably simply that it was the picture that came up when they searched "pilot mask". Or as seen in movies. Maybe someone told them "modern " does not equal "better" , who knows. Guess we could ask Wags.

Its not like you deal with this stuff on a daily basis .... ya don't know what ya don't know untill its explained :)

:)

This premise is not quite absolute. Direction bias is more a function of if the wheel has any rotation at all when it starts to skid. There is very little bias as to what direction once the wheels are no longer rotating. (all things equal i.e. tire pressure, side wall % etc) Wheels are imparting more friction while they are rolling and keeping positive directional traction, then when they slide and lose directional traction. Once a wheel is no longer rotating and is sliding, it has minimal bias to slid in the direction of rotation and more in the direction of inertia. If the inertia is great enough, probably as is the case when a 40,000lb chunck of aluminum (10x the weight of a car) is pushing two relatively tiny tires ( half the size of car tires), with two larger main gear tires creating a bias to go straight and activly fight what little turning tendinacy those smaller tires may have, it becomes very plasable if not probable. If a wheel had a propensity to slid in the direction of rotation even when locked, there would be no need for anti lock systems. The hi gain angles achieved in the hornet make locking up the front tire at full deflections relitively easy at anything other than taxi speeds. Deano gives a good explanation why the aircraft behaves the way it does given geometrical locations of the friction points once skidding. Once you stop the "slide" directional traction is regained and the wheel rolls again. Context is infinantly important in these engineering thought experiments. All that said, the game does slide a bit easy. But once sliding, it does what would be expected. EDIT : just realized the primary concern was just that it rolls again after stopping. Sorry for all the excessive preamble to that explanation.

Interesting thread. Aircraft with hi gain such as the 18, it is very possible that it can be engaged with too much momentum, at too high a relitive angle, such that the contact patch of the tires loose grip and slides. Once sliding occors, the tire is no longer a "tire" and is simply a surface that is sliding on another surface with no bias to direction. When at the boat, sliding on various surfaces with varying dagrees of worn out anti skid, it is very common to to slide in just about any direction. Once sliding occurs, it was anyones guess where you would go. After a rain at the field the same would be encountered. On a dry day, the full deflection of the front wheel at hi gain would be enough that it would act more like a brake than a wheel. Hi gain for a navy aircraft is designed to maneuver at slow speeds to stay on a confined flight deck. Often differential braking may be required to get the jet moving out of the LA if you caught the 4 wire to avoid conflict with the bow cats for whatever reason. This is also why turning off the anti skid was part of your "feet wet" checks going to the boat as the anti skid would be in a perpetual state of "anti" such that you would get effectively no brakes. Context is everything. Hope this helps:)

Sure thing. I just never thought this would be of interest. The CE masks were redesigned to be a bit more modular and easier to maintain. The old ones, once the rubber tore or plastic cracked, the mask was useless. From a pilots perspective: The CE masks sealed just around the lips with a very defined sealing edge. It would be as if you stuck your lips inside the mouth of a coke bottle. The old masks were smooth inside and your entire chin would sit in a rubber cradle. The relevance of this is: ... have you ever tried to talk with your mouth making duck lips inside a coke bottle? Because the older masks had such a large sealing surface area, it was much more forgiving when you moved your jaw for any reason. I still use the old design to this day. It was up to the pilot which we wanted to use as long as they could source the parts for maintenance. Meet me on discord and i can show you some pictures. Hope this was interesting :)

The "combat edge" masks suck. Lol

The phrase "your signal is Charlie " simply means, you are cleared to recover on the boat. Where it comes from is a much more interesting story.... During WW2 aircraft would circle overhead the ship waiting to recover similar to how we stack today Often to keep radio silance, the pilots would not transmit while circling and would be instructed to simply wait untill they could see the ship turn into the wind before approaching the initial. When the ship turned, the wake would carve a "C" in the ocean. It was easier to see the "Charlie" in the ocean at altitude then the actual ship. EDIT: ah, my Buddy Speedbrake beat me to it. His explanation is the more technical answer. :)

Entertaining thread. Any aircraft , even one with out wings, will "fly" if you get it fast enough. Wing surface area is not the issue. The ailerons and flaps are inop with the wings folded. Even if they were, they would articulate into each other and bind given the ailerons are positioned directly above the flaps when folded. Whats more, they are not just "flaps", they can move as much as an aileron. If the trailing edge surface try and move with the wings folded and bind, it will probably be asometric and induce an uncontrollable roll. Most flaps (control surfaces) fail in this mode when binding occors. The odds of having both opposing control surfaces break at perfectly symmetrical angles, with those odds better make a trip to vegas. (One of the primary issues i have with the f-14 and F-18 damage models, there should be more uncontrolled rolls when over Ged, but i digress) Folding the wings was a relitively delicate process because of the tight tolorances between surfaces. If you rotated the handle before the beer cans were up, bind. If ya moved the stick before the wings were fully folded, bind, if you looked at the flap lever with a smirk on your face at any point during the process, bind. I can only imagine what would happen under flight load. All roll/pitch control/ stability would be from the stabs. The aircraft is barely stable under aprox 200 knots on the stabs alone. It would be tantamount to operating in what is known as "MECH". If you tried to take off in mech it would uncontrollably pitch up, stall, porpoise, and make a hole in the ground. And if you were lucky enough to get airborne, ya need to transit back down to below 200 to land. We practice this EP in the sim so we would not make the mistake and try to take the aircraft airborne if the emergency presented past line speed. Fun thought experiment, not realistic at all. EDIT: lots said the same things i did. Sorry for the redundancy.

...because the KC-135 boom adapted drogue (AF to NV adapter) is not a good solution for navy/marine corps aircraft. Only time i have ever seen a 135 drogue get beat up (or more importantly the right AOA probe, OAT probe, FOD the #2 eng, etc) was when the boom operator "thought" they were "helping" the pilot by moving the boom around during a plug instead of doing exactly nothing. The Ouija board effect doesn't work well during AR. ;) aren't anecdotal stories fun.(in jest)

Navy/Marine Corps philosophy during AR is that the pilot flys the probe in the basket while the tanker flys a steady platform. Air force pholosophy during AR is that the boom operator flys boom to the plane while the pilot flys a steady platform. With that, we don't use auto throttles given it is the pilots job to do some of that pilot sh!t to plug. Nor do i think it would be considered "safe" to do so. - hope it helps :)

All this shearing is typically a catastrophic mechanical failure of the part. Under normal operation everything stays together and is shutoff through deliberate means. I only brought up the concept of shear shafts to give context for scenarios where windmiling rpm may be different. In short: shutting down the engine either through the throttle cut off , or any other deliberate means (pilot induced) will result in the same appreciable total rotating mass dragging on the eng thus should be the same windmiling RPM. Only through some catastrophic failure of a part (in this case the AMAD) will enough parasitic rotating mass be cut from the eng allowing it to spin faster during windmiling. The AMAD for all intent and purposes is permanently bolted to, and rotates with, the rotating assembly of the engine and is unalterable by the pilot.

The questions are all good. :) Most rotating "things" in aviation that rely on engines to be driven have drives that are designed to shear off as to not hinder the engine if those "things" were to seize. The AMAD is no different other than its relative larger size. It has a relitively large drive shaft, like those found in a rear wheel drive truck, that runs from the AMAD to the front of the eng, and is also designed to shear in half if the AMAD were to seize for any reason. This shearing of the drive shaft is the only way for the AMAD to be isolated from the eng. Each of the individual accessories that are bolted to the AMAD, hyd pump, gen, etc, have shear shafts between themselves and the AMAD for the same reason.

Pate You probably won't see a differences in a wind milling eng unless the entire AMAD was removed from the rotating mass vie the shearing of the AMAD drive rod. Otherwise it doesn't really matter if various services on the AMAD are "turned off" or not. If the AMAD as a unit is still spinning with the eng, it is still dragging the eng in an appreciable way. The AMAD is a relitively large, heavy, chuck of rotating mass. Windmiling RPM will change with AS also, but not by much.

Million dollar question, does the eng seize (0 rpm) with loss of oil? .... or is the damage model such that it just flames out and windmills as well.

It only shuts off the fuel. You can still rotate the eng via the x-bleed and thus rotate the AMAD with all of its services for EP redundancy considerations. Hyd pump is mechanical and can only be bypassed or "shear pinned ", it will only free up the AMAD if it shears however. Gen also has a sheer pin but unloads when the field is not excited. Regardless, the AMAD as a unit is what contributes to the majority of the drag on the eng and you probably won't see an appreciable increase with a wind milling N2 unless the AMAD drive shaft shears removing the entire AMAD. NATOPS Nerd lvl 11 achieved :)

Weather starved from throttle cut off or from the emergency shut off, the eng will flame out the same and should windmill at the same RPM. It is not as if more fuel in the lines extends the flame out process. The eng will simply run longer, then flame out the same as any other reason it is starved of fuel. :)

.... Just know how to read approach plates and know what to do where per FAR 91. That said, if the field you are to land at has an approach, flying those will cover anything practical for the game. As far as carrier IFR procedures at the field, it's just not done. We simply fly approaches as found on approach plates like the rest of commercial and general aviation. Have to play nice in the sandbox with everyone else. :)

"DUD" Means the bomb does not have enough time after release to arm before it hits the ground. It will not explode on impact. Can be caused by fuzing delays improperly set, releasing the bomb to low, releasing with improper dive angle, improper fuz delay with the wrong fin/drag options, etc. Not sure if the game models all this correctly however. The phrase "it's a dud" The bomb is a "dud". It will not go boom. :)

TO checks for the hornet included checking the FCS page to ensuring all control surfaces where at the deg intended. I.e. : "(All previous stuff)........... Surfaces are , 12, 30, 30 ,30 and 12(16,etc) stabs up, seat armed, takeoff checks complete " Something like that. Point being, check the surface before you take the jet flying. Switch position was not "trusted" 100%. Hope this helps :)

Flaps are down for TO in that vid. The LEF track with the TEF relitively. The LEF track up after the launch because he brings the TEF up. Any take off/landing without flaps is extremely "non standard". I find it hard to believe that pilot is flaps auto for that TO at the boat. The pilot would have an amazing litany of crap to answer for if anything whent wrong when he was OFP.

Context: ... at your home airfield, where these checklist are typically designed to be executed, all start-ups thus most ground checklists are executed with ground crew. If the av air door were pooped to ensure its operation, the ground crew would be waiting to immediately close it. You have encountered another game-ism where context is lost making this real world procedure incompatible.