Pieterras

@Wags @NineLine Hey both, I hope you are all well and many thanks to you both and the development team for todays implementation of ACLS and Link4 to the F/A-18C Hornet. Even the new implementation of the ATC Approach mode is a great addition and works satisfactory. Whilst the aircraft does a great job in allowing and flying with ACLS would it be possible to find other triggers for the ACLS, CMD A/S ROD and ALT then the supercarriers communication menu. When flying online using realistic carrier ops with human controllers, it currently will not allow for the ACLS to be used. Also when performing case III training launching directly into the pattern, ACLS will only become an option when you would have to walk through the entire communication menu first, which would assume you would come from the stack. This currently limits it realistic use quite drastically. On top of that, afaik the CMD A/S in the stack is 250Kts IAS or rougly 300gs for easy calculations. Maybe Matt can have a word with GB about the options... Regards,

@fagulha please don’t your comments were really good. But I see many “good ideas” that are far from realistic. There are 100rds of ways to make a landing work. But there is only 1 way to use correct techniques

God these comments honestly hurt my eyes especially @TimRobertsen You should know better Line-up is determined visually... Aiming for the crotch is a thing, but technically also improper as it is not used passed the IM "in the middle" position.. ICLS is not part of the line-up scan and definitely NOT used to determine line-up.. ICLS is used irl, but only to visualise position in relation to the glidepath in the later stages of the approach turn.. in the groove ICLS is not part of the scan.. Swift gave the answer... VISUALLY scan BALL, LINE-UP, AOA... if you are still drifting away with this scan you are NOT flying the jet, but you let it fly you... As simple as that. @TimRobertsen What you say works... but isn't a correct technique equally the boat should never be that slow;) AGAIN >>>> 1.1/1.2/1.3 nm is all BULLSHIT.. WHATEVER ABEAM DISTANCE PUTS YOU IN THE GROOVE WITH 27-30 DEGREES AOB is the CORRECT abeam distance.. If your light it is less, if your heavy it will be more... If your abeam distance doesn't work, DO NOT CHANGE YOUR AOB... CHANGE YOUR ABEAM DISTANCE I cant believe how this is still even a discussion, but hopefully some of you have learned something new today

We aren’t talking Wright flyers but ac that land all within 20kts if IAS, anyway no point of arguing. Glad finally someone answered his question

Well done you

Oh my god,,, I should detach myself from this conversation. This will only add to the confusion and has nothing to do with the question. Having flown for a living many years, I have rarely noticed much difference in crab angle caused by approach speed and have flown cessnas, fast birds and airliners.. all the roughly same irrelevant of your speed. Equally there is hardly crosswind on the boat. You are making corrections to compensate for the drift of the centreline not really to correct for crosswind. Equally we should talk apparent winds as we are talking moving object. Equally the boat speed is irrelevant as they keep a constant WOD. To me none of what you wrote makes much sense in relation to carrier ops. Or it does but it is hardly noticeable.

Thank god ! someone gets it

It won’t be cheating as @Stearmandriver said.. IRL the WOD is always aimed to be optimal so you don’t have to be told or go and ask. + You know from the weather brief what conditions will be on launch and recovery. You never correct in the turn towards the 90. As I showed in my video. The only thing that might be required is that during strong and heavy winds 30kts+ you might have to start turning before the 180. But the technique will be the same. Then at the 90 be 500ft. If you are then low on the ball your Long in the groove if your high on the call your too close. make corrections from the 90 and aim for a good start. Use ICLS to your advantage but only for your glidepath not for the lineup. you can’t ignore the wind. Carrier speed is irrelevant in all this stuff it is WOD that will determine your start position.

Have you read anything I have written to you ?? Yes real life carriers ALWAYS have a WOD of around 25-30Kts... Unless the natural wind is more then 27kts then it might be a little more.. You dont have to know the carrier speed the SUPER CARRIER PLATCAM LEFT ALT + F9 gives you exactly the WOD.. the carrier speed is irrelevant... Anyway I know what you're asking,, your question has been answered 4 times by 4 different people, still your question doesn't make sense... Your problem is that you use the same technique for different conditions.. and once you are in the groove you're not correcting any longer making you drift left of centerline every single time... Equally, you seem to hawk the deck in your photos instead of flying Ball. line-up, AOA all the time... Watch my video and it explains exactly what to do ... its as simple as that (in DCS at least)

FB is the definitive answer. The only thing I don’t understand is why you care so much for the entire initial question. If I see a sever with a WOD less then optimal I.e 11kts I won’t even bother

Simple answer You can’t, That is the exact reason that the WOD is ideally 25/30 knots. Equally you can’t keep the wind out of the equation as you fly in relation to air, not towards the ground or the ship… But if you want an answer to what you ask “how to achieve a consistent 15-18sec groove length” in 0 wind conditions whilst not knowing the carrier speed. The answer is you can’t. In that case you will have to know the carrier speed to make your corrections from the 180 position to make this consistent groove length. you will just have to look at the platcam look at the speeds there and make corrections to achieve it then. I have no trackfile available but my video should give you many answers and hopefully make you a better ball flying

@Taz there is more to it then above really. First of all as you probably know the carrier aims for a WOD (wind over deck) of 25/30ish knots. So with 10 knots of real wind the carrier will have to make the extra 15 knots to create the WOD with 5 kts of real wind the carrier will sail around 20 ish knots to create WOD So what If the wind normal wind is already 30-35kts? Obviously the carrier won’t sail backwards, and it also cant stay stationary as it requires at least 3kts to allow the rudder to be active for steering. Obviously the more wind the carrier will have to make, the bigger your drift correction in the groove will be, equally the bigger your angle will be between the planes longitudinal axis and the centreline. However, never significant enough to cause large deviations as normally the crosswind shouldn’t be more then 5ish knots maximum. If the WOD is more then optimum chances are you will have to start your approach turn before reaching the 180, landing with flaps half or a combination of both. Also likely the basic angle will be set to 4 degrees. (Not possible in DCS). Landing with a WOD of 11kts is just not realistic and none of your numbers would work, it happens In DCS but never irl. The WOD is always roughly the same and when it’s more then expected you would know as the weather report during the brief will make you aware of the conditions at the end of your cycle. So the scenario you talk about: if you start the turn at position x you will end up further behind the boat when it goes 22kts then when it only goes 11kts is correct. Yes then you will be further off extended centreline the quicker the boat goes if you use exactly the same technique without correcting. However this very unrealistic, as you alway aim for this 15-18s groove length. At the end of the day you have to be a pilot and make it work. If you have 5kts tailwind in the approach turn or 5kts headwind in the approach turn it will both put you in complete different places if you don’t do anything about it. Equally wind from the left will help you stay on centreline whilst starboard wind will make the effect even worse. finally don’t just aim for the crotch of the ship. If you keep it there, then eventually you land pointing towards it. The more wind the boat has to make, the more right you have to correct. With 25kts natural wind the correction will be less. Correct to stay on centerline. Yes often the crotch is sufficient, but understand the correction required. And and at some stage, ease off the correction as you get closer to the deck. Hope that helps a bit

@hein22asked the question as a bit of a long shot, however they couldn’t go into specifics on the subject as you could imagine

@hein22 Sorry been flying the last few days, so only just saw this... In all honesty I don't know the answer to your questions, as I haven't ever flown the F18, but have some good friends that did:) So I will forward the question to them for you, and hopefully get you an answer;) Cheer

Irl. It was and is used for Case I II and III,,, it is however not a Case III or ACLS, specific function.. also not every pilot was allowed to use it, as a certain level of experience was required for it to be used... Having spoken to a few of them today and yesterday. The system was and is still working very well, and guidance on how the system is to be used is written in NATOPS.

Thanks both, Very much appreciated!

@BIGNEWY @Wags He both... Would you be able to reiterate where the correct as is comes from? I know Matt has been in contact with a real life hornet pilot to work on the correct implementation of the system. However the thrust reduction on ATC engagement has not been confirmed by any real life hornet pilot, equally would cause a very undesirable state of energy for the aircraft. It would counteract its workload reduction capability, by temporarily causing a severely unwanted energy state. During manual operation of the throttles, pneumatic throttle boost actuators powered by environmental control system (ECS) air reduce the force required to move the throttles. During automatic throttle control (ATC) operation, the pneumatic boost actuators are disengaged. For this to happen the ECS air to the torque boosters is shut off, the throttles are initially backdriven by the build in servo's. A backdrive is a component used in reverse to obtain its input from its output. I therefore kindly ask whether it would be possible not to just close this toppic by saying "correct as is" however please contact the sources used. (And knowing the source myself, He will be very keen to confirm correct or incorrect implementation of the system). Equally I could deliver multiple sources that would love to do the same. Regards,

Based on flying myself, and being very aware of the dangers involved with unwanted thrust reductions And confirmation of about 3/4 current and ex hornet drivers. I rarely moan agains ED’s implementations however this time they are off. backdriven and closing are 2 very different things. The backdriving is to 0 out thrust imbalance and should hardly be noticeable when being ON-speed in level flight.

It doesn’t work fine, as your throttles shouldn’t close when engaging ATC. They should zero out, meaning getting rid of, different thrust imbalance, making sure each engine gives the same output. It doesn’t mean to go idle. Thanks, for confirming

@Wags The new implemented Feature ATC Approach mode is not working appropriately. When in Unaccelerated AND Level flight in landing configuration the Throttles close as soon as ATC is engaged... No need to provide a track file as every bit of common sense can see that that isn't correct.. if (ATC == 1) { cut throttle() } ED code Equally the throttles should make more slower gradual movements instead of excessive unless you're doing something extreme.. Cheers

It still doesn’t work correctly though. When you pitch trim in css it won’t go back to 1 g logic when css is disabled unless yuu select flaps, which makes the whole css pretty useless

Currently modelled is the Reciprocal of the FB… To make you’re life easy, NEVER use the word BRC again when you talk about Case III. It only causes confusion and BRC has not relation to Case III. It is only set on takeoff for SA purposes by some as far as zo am aware.

In short, no. @Spoolis right in what cv-natops sais however in real life it is not the norm. offsetting the marshal radial from the reciprocal of the FB allows CATCC to vector if needed and provides them more flexibility in managing the spacing between aircraft. Equally airspace/terrain/weather might not allow the marshal radial to be exactly 180degrees of the FB. all described in the manual below.

@Spoolyou seem quite good in stating natops however irl there is no such thing as a 6 minute pattern. This would only work if you arrive at the commence point 6/12 or 18 minute before with a boat that doesn’t move. @Rmnsvn forget about the t45 document if you want to fly the hornet or the f14 around the boat. The patterns are wrong, techniques inaccurate and so on. All details about the case III can be found in the manual below. Read more about the real life procedures in my manual if you wish.

Left alt+F9 and take it from the platcam.