Jump to content

CBStu

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    994

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by CBStu

  1. CBStu
    I certainly don't claim to be a trapping master but...I get AoA set in the downwind leg and don't touch trim again. Doing the final 180 turn, you need to increase speed or the loss of lift caused by the bank angle will drop you too far. I primarily use throttle to control altitude but will also roll out 5-10deg of bank for a few seconds to help maintain high enough altitude. It has been several years but I have watched live over the shoulder trap videos in real FA-18s quite a bit. One thing I noticed is that throttle is being moved almost constantly. To me it is a dance. Throttle is moving, stick is moving through the entire 180. Note also, that as wings go level, you need to pull back on the throttle or you will quickly be high. I start pull back at the same instant I move the stick. IE, if your bank has been about 30deg, pull on the throttle as you get to 25deg. If you wait until 5 or 0deg, you will go high. I love Banklers and use Shift+R to reboot for another flight as soon as I see the score. It seems to be a perishable skill. If I have been doing a lot of land based missions I notice it takes me maybe 5 tries to do a halfway decent trap.
  2. CBStu
    I just adjusted the curves. I flew the 'Free flight' and went to F2 view and placed myself following the plane. I watched the jet exhaust. It is very obvious when AB kicks in. I kept moving the curve and trying again until the AB kick in matched the AB detent in the throttle.
  3. CBStu
    If you have used the Auto Pilot during the flight make sure you have turned it off.
  4. CBStu
    TKhaos, that is an excellent suggestion. One change I made was to reverse those two commands. Made sense to me that the upper button of the 2 -Shift-is for fast forward and the lower -Ctrl- is for standard speed. Also, not sure if all keyboards have this, but my LShift key has an upward pointing arrow on it so, in my mind, it is kind of natural to be the fast forward button. BTW I use fast forward a lot. Some missions it may take me 3-4-5 tries to succeed. Some you need to fly 75-100 miles before doing much. FF is a godsend to get you to the action.
  5. CBStu
    I use the VKB Space Combat stick. I set it up to kind of replicate an FA-18 since that is what I fly the most. But it works for other aircraft too. BTW, no VKB software.
  6. CBStu
    I usually don't bother to set trim vs weight. Every once in a while on the carrier I get a popup that says trim needs to be adjusted. I just keep adding trim until the popup goes away.
  7. CBStu
    I understand it is nice to have all the backround visuals perfect but.........jeez, take off and you won't see them anymore.
  8. CBStu
    Say that the DCS FCS is at fault. OK. People have been bitching about it forever. OK. So keep bitching about it, and keep trying to compensate for it when you drop full flaps at 250, and keep on bitching. Or wait to 180 to drop flaps and problem is solved. Jeez, easy decision for me. Oh and BTW, it is only a problem doing a straight in approach. Never even feel it in the break.
  9. CBStu
    I don't see ballooning as problem at all. On a straight in approach wait until 180-190 to drop flaps. Go half if you want and full soon after. On a boat approach you crank the plane over to 30+deg bank and when the flaps drop you don't even feel them. Also realize that when fully configured on speed you will be flying at 130 to 140k depending on weight. So as flaps come down at 180 or so speed will drop further. When it gets to about 150 start bringing throttle. This whole thing is a balancing act getting lots of stuff right that is going on dang quickly. Be sure your trim button is easily accessible by your thumb because you use it a LOT. Also L Shift + R is your friend. If your approach gets screwed up just do that for a restart of the flight.
  10. CBStu
    I have not had luck w/ similar. I used to pause a mission for dinner or something, but coming back 30-40 minutes later and it would not restart. Maybe your hybernating your PC is the difference. I will try that next time.
  11. CBStu
    Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing that rudder trim knob. I have never used it though. I do my roll trim on the 4 way button on the stick.
  12. CBStu
    I use roll trim pretty regularly. Some weapon loads are not symetrical so the plane tends to roll. I trim so it days level. Don't worry about keeping track of the amount of trim. Say you drop one bomb and now the plane rolls right. Trim left so it stays level. Now you drop another bomb, the plane is symetrical weight wise again so your previous left trim has it rolling left. Trim right to level. Landing is a whole other thing re trim. My recommendation is find a flight where you can do landing practice to an airfield. Start at 10 miles out at maybe 3000ft. Pull throttle to idle. As speed drops below 250 drop landing gear. Now you get new symbols in the HUD so pay attention to the E bracket. Trim to the E. As speed keeps dropping to 190 go to full flaps. Now things will change a bunch so re-trim to the E. As speed gets down to 145 or so bring up some throttle. You will end up at about 135 (depending on plane weight) and use the throttle to control disent and left or right stick to control lineup to the runway. There are a lot of youtube videos to show how this is done. I often have a video on the web that I can pause and switch back to dcs which I had paused to try to do what the video just showed me. Pause and switch, pause and switch between tutorial and DCS. Also, when you mess up, L SHIFT-R starts your flight over so do 5 or 10 landings in a row.
  13. CBStu
    I just finished Bold Cheetah. OK, I tied on a few missions but...Anyway, this is a really enjoyable mission. I like all the communications from the guy/lady in the sky. Ads what i think is an extra bit of realism. Thanks a bunch Sedlo.
  14. CBStu
    Another option if you have extra on your stick is set the throttle slew nub for some functions and set your extra stick control for other slew functions. This way you can choose which of the basics slew speeds works best for which function.
  15. CBStu
    You look at the stick when you are trimming the aircraft?
  16. CBStu
    I discovered something re; radio comms in mission 7 (I think). I was going from 20 to 4 as instructed but fumble fingered it, went past 4 low, then went past 4 again going to maybe 7. Finally calmed down and got to 4. OK take off and something isn't happening re; coms so I carefully go to 20 and carefully down to 4. And then I hear the next expected radio call. So, if you are like me, slow down just a bit on scrolling to change channels and things will work better.
  17. CBStu
    Don't forget that you need to have the small diamond in the top right corner of the screen where you have the flir. I usually run flir on the right screen so I SCS-R to put the diamond on the right screen. Then I click menu, then click flir, then click the vvsv (I think there is one more letter in there that I don't remember) button twice. That usually gets me to a curser type that I can slew. If not, flicking the SCS to the right will cycle through the various cursers until I get one that moves. I zoom w/ my mouse hitting various buttons to the left of the screen. I need to try the antennae elevation button next time.
  18. CBStu
    I typed, "admittedly I am not doing my traps correctly re; communications" I was trying to say that I have not yet figured out all the correct communication procedure. I usually get the popup after touchdown 'No proper communication'. For me Banklers is a learning tool. It is nice to get the comments during the standard double 180deg turns trap procedure and the score after touchdown. It is also nice to be able to hit 'L Shift R' and keep flying traps for practice.
  19. CBStu
    EmJat22, admittedly I am not doing my traps correctly re; communications but, as far as I experience him, the LSO is mostly wrong. I pay him zero attention. Also I have no idea how guys trap w/o the ICLS cross. Neither the on ship 'meatball' lights nor the cartoon addon meatball give any left/right lineup info. In a pattern trap one comes out of the final 180 turn close enough to see the wake and the deck but in a straight in approach I am supposed to just eyeball it?? I fly a lot of SP user file download missions and campaigns. What I see is some variance in .2 to .3 mile out sinking. I feel like I have this one nailed and suddenly need a ton of throttle or I slam the fantail. Maybe these old missions use the old carrier, maybe there is something else I am not aware of computer programming wise that causes this variation. IDK. I have slowed throttle response in the middle 2/3 of travel which was recommended as help for AA refueling. I think I am going to take half of that slowing out so when I sink behind the carrier, I can get back on the gas more quickly. I will ad that this stuff takes a lot of practice. Have you downloaded Banklers carrier landing mission? He starts you out 10 miles back at about 1500ft and 350. You can do either a straight-in from there or a standard pattern trap. The pattern trap gives you grades along the way and after landing. Nice thing is once on the deck or wherever, just hit Shift R to start over again. I notice that if I don't fly Bankler's for a while my first 2 traps are terrible because my memory needs a reboot.
  20. CBStu
    At my beginning 5 yrs ago I saw very little point in landing on land beyond getting practice getting to on speed/on aoa. On land the runway is stationary and it is not at an 8-9deg angle to the wind. I did see a LOT of advantage to doing a straight in approach to the carrier from 10 miles out at about 3000ft. I always use ICLS and the E-bracket. I ignore the aoa light completely, as for me anyway, the E-bracket is much easier to use and to fine tune. I try to be fully flaps and gear down and on aoa at 10 miles or 8 at worst. BTW, I dislike the term 'on-speed' as to me it has nothing to do w/ landing the plane. From the time I am on aoa I aim the VV (another term I don't like- I prefer 'Flight Path Indicator' = FPI or 'Fight Path Marker' = FPM) at the base of the tall island on the boat. This keeps me going to the right so I am following the boat as it is moving to my right. As I get down under 1 mile out I start moving the FPI slightly to the left to now line it up w/ the notch. If you move the FPI to the center of the landing area before about .3 mile out you will end up left of center line and have to be crossing the centerline left to right to touchdown on the center. Some of this diagonal seems to be OK but much of it gets the plane flopping left to right on the landing gear. BTW, I never look at any controls indicator or aoa number. As long as I am centered in the E which is right in the hud, I don't care about either of those. BTW2 in that 'real pilot' video he was high and way left and managed to do a huge correction to hit a wire. Notice his FPI was dropping like a rock through the E in the last 3-4 seconds before he hit the deck.
  21. CBStu
    A lot of missions on the page w/ the 'Start' button there is a 'Mission Planner' button center low. This brings up a map w/ a lot of flight plans marked and waypoints indicated. Usually enemy ground emplacements are drawn in red. The map is very zoomable so you can zoom and see individual buildings and you can get lat lon by placing the curser and reading #s in the top left. I think this would be similar to maps available in a pre mission briefing. Also many missions have maps available on the kneeboard which I think would be analogous to either a real kneeboard or the maps in the case..
  22. CBStu
    I have no idea but will be watching this thread. I mostly fly SP user files missions and behavior right at that same point seems to vary widely. I haven't bothered to try to figure is I am trapping on a super carrier or not but something is different.
  23. CBStu
    Not all the time but often enough to be annoying. Anyone else having this?
  24. CBStu
    I just completed Mission 3 and WON. I had chosen the most recent prior attempt to fly this time. I closed it via the 'End Mission' button and all went well. Thanks again.
  25. CBStu
    Thanks Sedlo, I will definitely be flying it again. After my post I was thinking about this. After I fly a mission several times I have a line added to the 'choose you mission' list for each time I failed. I 'think' I had chosen the first line (the original line) for Mission 3. Maybe I should chose the line for my most recent failure of Mission 3. I will let you know.
×
×
  • Create New...