Lex Talionis

Real life you can not trap with NVGs on your helmet. It takes aprox 30 mins for your eyes to adjust back to low light conditions, so pilots typicaly remove them 30 mins prior to landing. This means flying approaches un aided. Blue water with no where else to go, ya land the aircraft in whatever conditions the boat is in. What's more, the lens is not NVG "friendly " and blooms, among other problems. As far as the difficulty in flying the approach in turbulence, all that can be done is to speculate. I will say, the emphasis on what wire is caught in the DCS comunity tends to suggest the quality of the preceding basic air work can be lacking as long as the 3 wire is caught. Coupled with the admitted difficulty on the approach enforcers the assumption that basic air work skills are lacking. In real life what wire is caught does not play into landing grades at all, grades are based on the quality of the pass alone. For what it is worth, practice holding +/- 100 feet from desired altitudes, +/-10 deg desired headings and +/-10kts from desired airspeed to hone BAW. When 3/4 to on the ball accept no error at all as best you can. Hope this helps :) Edit: ... my apologies if that sounded overly critical, trying to be objective with something subjective. I have no delusions of grandeur, i am simply very aware that "pilots" tend to blame everything else first, excluding themselves, when figuring out what is wrong with their flying ... ;)

The only natops number that does not work well in the game is the abeam distance. Becase on-speed in the game is aprox 10 knots slower than RL, your approach turn circle is smaller inducing an under shooting condition (all other things equal, on-speed, 600 agl, recip heading, 30*AOB, etc). I use the minimum NATOPS abeam distance (1.2) for this reason. All other NATOPS number work given the boat is also set up correctly with 25-30 kts WOD and you are in fact turning at the abeam (not early or late) ... I have vids on how to make the approach turn and manage the energy state of the aircraft to arriveat a good start. This is a multi faceted concept that is hard to explain accurately through txt. If you achieve the NATOPS numbers, math and geometry works. The more you deviate from those numbers, the more variables you are inducing for which very few understand exactly what the ramifications will be. Finding a constant AOB off the abeam that geometrically sets you up to a good start is key for isolating your virt component of lift such that your power requirements and overall energy state is as stable as possible. Greatly and constantly varying your AOB will make arriving at the start with a stable energy state problematic. Despite popular beliefe, it is not the wire caught that matters, it is the quality of the pass you are graded on in RL. Any questions find us on discord. Hope this helps:)

Yes, dump the fuel in the tank, not the tank itself. :)

... always take off with full fuel. Dump if you don't need it.

The simple answer is, yes. Down the angle is best, but understand, if it is a no wind day and the boat has to "make" all the wind, pilots will at some point inevitably learn to deal with the max x wind component a 10* 25-30kts head wind will creat.. So, x wind component or no, it should be transparent to the pilot as it is all mitigated by "that pilot sh!t". For the game, i just make the boat move 27kts and suck up the x wind. Hope this helps.

He is simply trying to articulate that he understands there are those that implement a level of realism not necessarily needed for this game. For which what he is discussing would then apply. Otherwise, it's a game and you can do what you like. All is good, dont read into it. :)

.... you would unsat a NATOPS check doing anything like this. It is not simply a way to accomplish the same thing, it is literally against what is known as "procedures ". But as GB explained, if your not worried about "realism ", one can obviously do what they wish in the game and disregard his point on what is procedurally correct.

Lpod never on a cheek. I mis "spoke". Explained on response #29

Understand, intentionally configuring in an overspeed condition is considered taboo.

My mistake for generically responding with "Lpod", i should have responded with just "pod" (it has turned into something like calling all soft drinks "coke" in my world) ... marine hornets during the majority of my time in the fleet only had the AT. And it was only used on the cheek. Bonus context : the Harrier was the first marine asset to receive the lpod. Marine hornet deltas were the only hornet to get a pod at first. FAC-A was a job closely tied to the implementation of the pod on the hornet for which only two seat hornets would have. It was a WSO qual under the banner of share load tasking (the pilot is still the only individual that ever delivers any ordinance however). Whats more the hornet serving as the FAC-A could not be the delivering aircraft as well for checks and balances. Things have changed over the years. Find us on discord to correctly understand how pods were integrated into marine aviation ...

... i am just guessing also, assuming the game is acurate and isolating the pilot as a variable first. The game can still be outa wack. I am developing some hardware and dont have the means to properly test the ground effect yet. Find us on discord, there are many others that can work on this with you.

.... if you have a vid it would help. Understand this is in the realm of "technique " and "that pilot sh!t".. You shouldn't be "trying to grab a wire " , nor should you need to really be "holding the stick steady " . Fly the ball all the way to touchdown, if ya catch a wire ya catch it, if ya dont ya don't. Either way, the arrestment should be a surprise, as it is the byproduct of a good pass and that pass is your focus, not trying to catch a wire. It is analogous to the trigger pull on a gun, the firing of the round will be a surprise and hitting the target is a byproduct of trigger pull technique. Trying to catch a wire is tantamount to yanking on the trigger at the last minute of a shot. Whats more and contrary to popular beliefe, LSOs grade the pass, what wire you catch is not factored in at all. (In the context of a non auto throttles pass) What i mean when i say "should not be holding the stick steady " is, you shouldn't have to "fly the ball with the nose " or rigidity hold the stickin a position. The aircraft should be seeking on speed by way of how trim works and that will keep the stick where it needs to be by nature of that. If the aircraft requires pitch inputs by the pilot you either do not have it trimmed properly or you are not flying the ball with power alone. Only thing you should need to hold steady is AOB. When i illustrate this to individuals for the first time i point out that if you keep AOB under control with your knees and fly the ball properly with the throttle, ya dont need to even hold the stick. Disclaimer: this demonstration is only 100% do-able in a very controlled environment like say, a Simulator, a game, or on a day with zero gusts, perfect seas and natural wind right down the angle. You may find YouTube real life vids with seeming contradicting information. Try Isolating those variables and reevaluate. All that said, ground effect in fuselage loaded aircraft is very hard to perceive. Only time i ever realized it was when i made a flaired landing to save a seeker on a pod that would not lock and even then it was barely noticeable. Otherwise i had to intentionally look for it. (This is quite anicdotal) On a carrier the aircraft easly punches through any ground effect that may happen. The burble, however, is another story. Hope this helps :)

I have spoken in great depth on this, please read my many other posts basically stating what you have. That said, if you break it down: trim changes the angle at witch the horizontal stab hits the relitive wind, that in turn creates a moment about the aerodynamic center such that it forces the angle the wing hits the relitive wind (or AOA) this balancing act between the horizontal stab and wing reaches "equilibrium " at an airspeed. The *best* way to think of trim is that your "trimming to chang equilibrium between the wing and horizontal stab" If the aircraft has sufficient power such that equilibrium happens with sufficient lift generated, the aircraft will fly lvl, if to little it will seek equilibrium in a dive , to much and it will climb. It is literaly technically correct. Whats more, the resulting AS where the equilibrium is achieved is the byproduct of the AOA the aircraft seeks. We are both "technically" correct. The confusion probably stems from the fact that AOA is a relitively niche tool where AS is useful in more GA contexts. So AS is typically all the trim conversation needs to cover. The affects of trim is an aerodynamic constant, it works mechanically the same in any aircraft with a dedicated lifting wing that produces a pitching momentum (typically negative), and a stabilizer required to mitigate that pitching momentum. Aerodynamically the same in wings with close to zero net pitching moments (flying wings, etc) Come chat with us on discord, we talk about all this crazy stuff daily. :)

You are correct. Trim does not force an attitude, it controls AOA.

As a principal, im just no much of a fan for making things easier to accommodate and/ or foster lack of ability. The entire point of these twitch games is to develop a skill set i thought. "Easy modes" kind of defeat this. It is interesting to see where people demand "realism " and then choose not to. But i am old, games have changed, etc etc ..

..... there was never any "dispersion" designed in to the gun. It was simply the MOA accuracy due to manufacture defect tolerances. Find the MOA of the gun and you will have the "dispersion" you are looking for.

.... ah, got it. ...it was a bit of a surprise to see that as it is out of the norm. Good to hear its not intended to change the fundamentals of the aircraft. Thanks bud.

"Auto trim" .... really? Goodness, why would they do that? Thought "that pilot sh!t" was the entire point of the game .... (Sigh)

Yes, or a composite of some sort. .... don't want the stick to be heavy under Gs at that location where the grip is.

That is a bit backward. The aircraft seaks to keep aerodynamic equilibrium between the horizontal stab and the wing about the aerodynamic center. Trim changes the angle of the horizontal stab, which in turn forces the wing to hit the relitive wind, that is then defined as AOA X. That aerodynamic equilibrium happens at any power setting, the aircraft will seek that equilibrium. AOA is relitive to the wind as it hits the wings, has nothing to do with pitch to the horizon. Thrust does not change the trim. If you have enough power to maintain lvl flight , the wing is flying at whatever AOA it is trimmed for and it just so happensit is creatingenough lift to remain lvl. When you pull power you need to increases AOA to obtain the same amount of vertical lift required to reamin lvl. OR, if you do not want to remain level, let go of the stick and the nose will drop decreasing the AOA back to what it is trimmed for. The inverse holds true. It can be quite confusing, even some instructor's have a hard time understanding why it works even though they understand how to use it as the front seat stick actuator meet puppet. Glad to hear it, great to have ya :)

Yup :)

It's an older hornet. We called it "the fish bowl " This was pre color ddi when microfiche was used as the map data.

To clarify.. Trim (talking about pitch as thats the finicky one), for those aircraft that have it *active*, operates on the same aerodynamic principles resulting in the same effects regardless the aircraft. From a Cessna 152 to a T-45, to the F-18 when configured, trim is the same. The aircraft will fly whatever AOA you trim for. In aircraft that do not have AOA indexers, that AOA results in an aerodynamic equilibrium with a subsequent airspeed. So you can also say you trim for an airspeed. Power control's VSI. To little power and the aircraft will not have the energy to maintain the AOA/airspeed it is trimmed for so you will descend lookingfor the energy to maintain that AOA/AS. To much power and the inverse is true, just right and it will maintain level. The aircraft will seek what it is trimmed for, power will dictate if it will find that AOA/airspeed in a climb, descent, or level. Trim can be thought of as a means to set where aerodynamic equilibrium occurs between the wing and horizontal stab. Mis conceptions include, trimming for an attitude, trimming for an altitude, trimming to climb/descent , etc Trim for an AOA /airspeed, thats all. - hope this helps.

Doing just fine. Takes considerably more than this to offend me, if at all. Dont read into anything. ;) ;) ;) Cheers

I have said this many times myself . You can not learn to fly an actual aircraft portrayed in this game and would surely kill youself thinking you could, just as i would never expect to be good at a game simply because i operate in the real world the game is trying to portray. This is the argument from authority i was speaking to earlier. I have a fealing this is going to turn into an "us versus the pilots" bickering match. You will notice i never made an argument for who to get help from, only if getting help to learn a game was worth a fee.