SimonColt Posted December 27, 2014 Posted December 27, 2014 Hello again, So I have owned the MiG21 for a few days now, Im fairly competent at flying it, I can do pretty much anything I want, except landing. I just cannot get a good approach to the runway which results in me slamming the rear of my plane too hard and burying the gear in the runway or completely breaking it off. So I have looked around the forum and found xxJohnxx's landing tutorial which features the autopilot system, it basically flies the plane to the runway for you, and all you really gotta do is touch down yourself. However after I copied the mission he used, where he starts over the water, west of Batumi airport(I think thats the most southern AF), and then tried to use the autopilot to take care of the approach for me, it simply refused to work. Im pretty sure I have the all of the switches in the right position(RSNB channel 16, switch to the left of that in Up position, switch next to nose wheel lock in down position). The gauge which shows how close to the optimal landing approach I am ends up showing a red T and red K a the top left/right corners and blocking the autopilot from engaging. This happens right away, or shortly after I engage the autopilot(it drifts off to the left or right, disengages then the red T and K show up). Could someone point out why that is? Also any other useful tips for landing in general are welcome, so far I have never landed the plane successfully, which makes me sad :(
Buzzles Posted December 27, 2014 Posted December 27, 2014 Useful general tips: Don't drop the throttle to idle for landing. Mig21 has a blown flaps system which requires ~65% throttle (LDG tag on throttle in English pit) and landing flaps deployed in order to work. Make sure you don't come in overweight. 700L is really the max you can carry, especially if you've got weapons still. Fancy trying Star Citizen? Click here!
lmp Posted December 27, 2014 Posted December 27, 2014 Two most common errors I've noticed people commiting (and commited myself): - Being overweight. A little bit overweight is fine, full tanks and combat load not so much. I try to have no more than 1000l of fuel left when I'm landing. Less if I have anything significant under the wings. - Pulling thrust to idle in the flare. If you do that, the SPS system will turn off and immediately you'll get a few extra m/s of descent rate. Only pull throttle to idle when you're firmly on the ground. Keep these two things in mind and follow the procedure from the manual and you should be fine. EDIT: Ah, ninja'd ;).
SimonColt Posted December 27, 2014 Author Posted December 27, 2014 The throttle problem is definitely an error I've made, will retry the landing with these two tips. Thank you very much guys ^^. Will edit the mission and remove all weapons as well as pull the fuel quantity to something low, just to make sure Im not overweight. Buzzles mentioned 700L, can someone try to translate the max landing weight into Kg/lbs/whatever? thanks.
lmp Posted December 27, 2014 Posted December 27, 2014 Read the chapter "Operational limitations" in the manual, particularly pages 33 and 34 dealing with the landing limitations. Maximum landing weights are listed there as well as payload/fuel combinations that'll keep you within them.
Art-J Posted December 28, 2014 Posted December 28, 2014 T and K are warning flags for pitch and roll autopilot channel failure - If they're there, that means You've messed something up :D. Your description is not good enough though, so as always, posting a track for us might come in handy. i7 9700K @ stock speed, single GTX1070, 32 gigs of RAM, TH Warthog, MFG Crosswind, Win10.
SimonColt Posted December 28, 2014 Author Posted December 28, 2014 (edited) T and K are warning flags for pitch and roll autopilot channel failure - If they're there, that means You've messed something up :D. Your description is not good enough though, so as always, posting a track for us might come in handy. Next time I attempt this will get a recording too. Thanks for your input. Update: Got it working. The reason why the T and K popped up seemed to be that I was completely off the landing approach path, as soon as I get reasonably close to it, the T/K signs go off and Im able to start centering the yellow lines and then engaging the autopilot. So far the only issue I've encountered is the fact that since Im not flying the plane, getting trimming right for when I turn the autopilot off and try to touch down is difficult, but I will work that out with a bit of practice. Thanks for your help guys. Update 2: Ok, so I can get the approach right, but touch down is still an issue. Heres is the vid: What am I doing wrong? Seems like Im going too slow(speed on touchdown about 280km/h) and too steep. Adding the video player here doesnt seem to work, so just have the link instead. God dammit, I can land P51, Mi8, Sabre but not this. :/ Edited December 28, 2014 by SimonColt
lmp Posted December 28, 2014 Posted December 28, 2014 Approach wasn't bad. A tad too slow. Don't be afraid to add a bit more thrust too. As you crossed the threshold you were descenting at 2 - 3 m/s. Fine and dandy at this point. But then, instead of flaring, you pushed the stick forward (why? to get better visibility?) and you hit the runway at 5 m/s. That's way too fast. Try instead to flare just before touchdown and bring the vertical velocity to almost nothing. So: - Aim for 340 - 360km/h on short final. - That'll require about 85% of RPM, that's more than what I've seen in your vid. - Cross the runway threshold at 320 - 340km/h. - After this point pay less attention to speed and focus on slowing down your descent rate to 1 m/s juuust before touchdown. That last part requires some practice, it's easy to level out too high or start slowing down too late. But you'll get the hang of it. If you can land a helicopter (which as we all know, flies on witchcraft and secretly wants to kill you ;) ) you can fly the MiG.
Art-J Posted December 28, 2014 Posted December 28, 2014 My oh my, You literally flew the MiG into the ground, just raped the runway with that plane, HARD :D. I never new one could punch the landing gear into the airframe so deep, thanks for the vid ;). As Imp pointed out, the approach was OK'ish, quite a bit on the slow side, but nothing You can't recover from. Down to the treshold You were doing fine. The good thing is, If You have experience with P-51, doing three-point landings with limited runway visibility, You can apply it here, because flaring the MiG is somewhat similar - I mean You can't see sh..t before the touchdown, but don't worry, You will get used to it fast. i7 9700K @ stock speed, single GTX1070, 32 gigs of RAM, TH Warthog, MFG Crosswind, Win10.
SimonColt Posted December 28, 2014 Author Posted December 28, 2014 Managed to land it finally :D Thanks guys.
hellrequiem Posted December 28, 2014 Posted December 28, 2014 Check out this vid: I learn how to land with this tutorial is exellent!!
Dave317 Posted December 28, 2014 Posted December 28, 2014 Did you turn the landing autopilot off before you touched down? I've tried the auto landing a few times now and it seems you have to disconnect it for the final 50 metres or so and land manually.
SimonColt Posted December 28, 2014 Author Posted December 28, 2014 Did you turn the landing autopilot off before you touched down? I've tried the auto landing a few times now and it seems you have to disconnect it for the final 50 metres or so and land manually. Yes, I forgot to mention but in the video I've posted, when you can hear the brake sound, I actually wanted to hit the autopilot disengage bind which I've bound to a button next to wheel brake, so shortly after that sound is when I turned it off.
Recommended Posts