A possible error in takeoff training mission.

[Art-J]

Might be a bit too late for missions revision before 2.5 release, but the issue is worth noting anyway.

 

OK, so in the takeoff training mission for the Spit, "flight instructor" Smudge tells us to "trim the elevator 1 division nose down" before takeoff. That's fine with me, but I can't avoid the feeling, that whoever programmed the scripts for this mission misinterpreted the operation of the trim indicator, probably thinking that arrow being in the middle of the scale indicates neutral trimmer, as it was in other flight simulators featuring Spitfire. Thus, the yellow square doesn't disappear and the further instructions do not show up until we crank the arrow to one notch below level position.

 

The problem is though, flight manual clearly states (and beahviour of the plane in the air confirms) that two notches up from level correspond to neutral trimmer. Thus, if someone follows the tutorial mission literally, by putting the arrow one notch down from level he will actually get an airplane trimmed three notches nose heavy!

 

Needless to say, that might cause problems during the actual liftoff, because per instruction one should "push the stick forward once airborne to keep the plane in level flight and avoid altitude pitching". Well, If the person does that with the three-notches-nose-heavy airplane, he will nosedive into the ground immediately. With such a silly trim setting, pulling the stick is needed to keep the plane from pitching down.

 

The instruction would be more fitting if the plane was trimmed correctly, i.e. - one notch above the level on the indicator, which actually corresponds to one notch of nose heavy setting.

 

Not a big deal for DCS veterans amongst us, with our own methods of taming the Spit, but if we want more new players coming in and successfully learning this module, I'd say the tutorial mission should be fixed to teach them how to take off the airplane rather than how to crash it :D.

 

Cheers.