Hover - sea vs land

[=Mac=]

Landing and taking off vertically over land is do-able and, once practised, easy.

 

Approaching the Tarawa, hovering over the sea is near impossible. The only way I can get onto the Boat is with STOL.

 

Leaving the Boat by VTOL, I had over 5K fuel, full water and off, no weapons or tanks, and managed to get off the deck and fly sideways over the sea only to slowly sink with landing water ON until I went swimming (FULL power.) I can hover over land with a full 7k fuel and full water.

 

Crashing (slowly) in water fails to explode. Ejection then causes the explosion.

 

Aerobatics Online, Caucasus. (Have not tried Single Player.)

[Mr_sukebe]

It's just practice. I can now bring my Harrier in and onto the deck very reliably and I certainly don't claim to be a great pilot.

 

Not really sure why you've opened this as a bug. If it were a bug, would be affecting more pilots.

[Esac_mirmidon]

Well, over the deck you have ground effect.

 

When you move sideways over the sea you are outside ground effect, thats why you are sinking.

 

You need a little more power to hover outside ground effect.

[ESAc_matador]

Also, visual references are completely different... you get much better picture of what you are doing in land.

[=Mac=]

It's just practice. I can now bring my Harrier in and onto the deck very reliably and I certainly don't claim to be a great pilot.

 

Not really sure why you've opened this as a bug. If it were a bug, would be affecting more pilots.

 

It might be my copy of the Harrier. I can hover, land and takeoff very easy on land with a full load of fuel and water but not using water at all. However, when over water, light fuel, full power and water is extremely bad and cannot support hover flight. This is why I could land only in STOL. I'll try later tonight and maybe make a video if I can show that it's not my noob flying skills. :)

[Guest]

Action and reaction :)

 

Basic principle of physics. Ground effect is a different thing that affects low wing planes.

[Nealius]

Isn't ground effect going to be much different with a vertical descent in the Harrier? Over land the wings would not be producing any lift at all since it has no forward motion, unlike a traditional landing, and it has no rotors generating lift either....

 

When landing vertically on a carrier, how much lift is a 20-40kts headwind going to give, and is that going to cause noticeable ground effect?

[Esac_mirmidon]

From British Aerospace study:

 

Ground proximity creates an upward jet ("fountain sheet") and a radial spreading jet along the ground surface ("ground sheet").

These secondary flows can generate an induced downforce which can seriously affect net lift.

This lift loss can be offset by the use of CADs (Cushion Augmentation Devices) and LIDs (Lift Improvement Devices)

 

So yes, if you are inside ground effect hovering with a Harrier there are upward flows.

 

http://www.cham.co.uk/phoenics/d_polis/d_applic/d_aero/harrier.htm

[ESAc_matador]

By the NATOPS, you should not hover in ground effect... it is dangerous for the aircraft and crew. Once over the landing point, do a semi gentle descent... don't worry if it is little hard, this is not a helicopter and the wheels do resist. Keep your wheel breaks on in the touchdown, and then reduce RPM and nozzles aft.

[=Mac=]

I tried it all again over the carrier, slow descent and over the water, slow descent. In single player, I had no problem like I did in multi player. I will try again in multi player to see if maybe it was just a quirk in the flights.