Hornet drivers.... get ready to be crushed!!!

[Below Average]

If you're a Hornet driver... get ready for some pain.

 

The Hornet was designed to take as much workload as possible off of the pilot. Here is a list of five things I know I will miss from the hornet.

 

1) Auto triming in up auto and powered approach mode (Flaps up vs down). Around the boat, once 8.1 AOA is set, it is not your problem anymore. In every other carrier aircraft, your trim thumb moves a lot, and nose influence while useful at times is highly discouraged. From the 180 thru the 90 to the wings level transition you will be trimming in the Tomcat.

 

2) HUD. Yes, the Tomcat has a hud but it is not the same. The amount of information on the Hornet hud is money for all phases of flight. You're going to spend more time heads down and less time looking at the HUD. You're a HUD cripple and you probably don't even know it.

 

3) Rudders and stability.. Get into a One circle or flats fight and your feet will need to do alot of work now. You will constantly be modulating stick pressure to manage alpha to manage rate/radius and controllability. Get ready to listen to rumble and buffet as that will be more telling than anything else. Even normal turns will occasionally use some help with the rudders. The Hornet is amazing at slow flight, however in the Tomcat get ready to learn what term strick and rudder means.

 

4) Navigation and SA. That soon to be released SA page with mids is going to completely replace the HSI page in the Hornet. You will have your sequence, plan line, tacan and wpt pointers and mids tracks all on one screen. Your SA is going to be huge. If there is an E2/E3 and/or F2F pushing tracks you can go silent on your radar and still have a huge amount of SA. Get ready to manage all of that separately in the Tomcat.

 

5) Cockpit ergonomics. Between the simple layout and automation of the systems, the generous screen real-estate, the Hornet cockpit is an easy place to work in. Yes, the menus in the DDIs (which are actually quite simple for now) can get complex but the data is somewhat centralized and Hotas makes time critical things even easier. The Tomcat is old school which means cockpit management and scan are required skills.

 

The Tomcat is a two-seater for a reason and if Jester works and offers some AI help it will be manageable. Back in when the navy selected Tomcats out of advanced, the slot went to the top guy (NSS) or more importantly the student with the best boat grades.

 

Anyways.... I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT!!! BRING IT!!!

[Victory205]

1) Nope. You should be trimmed hands off downwind. Done.

 

2) HUDs are great for weapons delivery, but they aren’t optimum to fly off of, especially in weather. You just don’t know it. Fly the ball, not the FPM.

 

3) You’ll need rudder inputs based on AOA. Plenty of feedback from buffet. Easy to learn, rewarding to master. You fly a Tomcat, you just point a Hornet. Not much of a challenge in the latter.

 

4) Jester is your friend. SA is available in a similar manner, before the Hornet even hit the Navy Fleet. Your radar, if you are good, is better for lots of the A/A mission. If you are good.

 

5) You’re just sitting there in your office chair.

 

Cockpit is clean, well laid out. Jester has the real challenge. Hornet is busy and cluttered. Your workload will go down.

 

Tomcats always went to the best looking pilots who had earned their Golden Wings.

[javelina1]

.....

Tomcats always went to the best looking pilots who had earned their Golden Wings.

Man, I've got this nailed then! Woot! :thumbup: ;)

[Below Average]

1) Nope. You should be trimmed hands off downwind. Done.

 

2) HUDs are great for weapons delivery, but they aren’t optimum to fly off of, especially in weather. You just don’t know it. Fly the ball, not the FPM.

 

3) You’ll need rudder inputs based on AOA. Plenty of feedback from buffet. Easy to learn, rewarding to master. You fly a Tomcat, you just point a Hornet. Not much of a challenge in the latter.

 

4) Jester is your friend. SA is available in a similar manner, before the Hornet even hit the Navy Fleet. Your radar, if you are good, is better for lots of the A/A mission. If you are good.

 

5) You’re just sitting there in your office chair.

 

Cockpit is clean, well laid out. Jester has the real challenge. Hornet is busy and cluttered. Your workload will go down.

 

Tomcats always went to the best looking pilots who had earned their Golden Wings.

 

1) In theory your correct. However in my experience, outside the hornet there was always some trimming to be done.

 

2) Hud is the primary (Hornet). Without it, it’s an emergency at the boat resulting in a straight in.

 

3) I agree.

 

4) MIDs plus head mounted cueing system... Not sure that can be beat by the Tomcat.

 

5) Fact, but I talking about cockpit simplicity. It’s laidout nicely from my experience.

 

If Jester works like a real RIO, then yea it may be easy. This remains to be determined.

Edited February 10, 2019 by Below Average

[punk]

Tomcats always went to the best looking pilots who had earned their Golden Wings.

 

Hmm, I thought Tomcats always went to the pilots with the best looking pron star mustachios who had earned their Golden Wings???

 

Salute,

[BlackLion213]

2) Hud is the primary. Without it, it’s an emergency at the boat resulting in a straight in.

 

Uh...what?

 

The HUD is definitely not a primary flight instrument on the F-14A or B (it is on the D).

 

In fact, NATOPS states that the AOA bracket on the HUD is not as reliable as the cockpit tape. Otherwise, the only HUD indicator that Tomcat pilots used during approache was the heading tape. Why would losing that necessitate a straight in?

 

-Nick

[Below Average]

Uh...what?

 

The HUD is definitely not a primary flight instrument on the F-14A or B (it is on the D).

 

In fact, NATOPS states that the AOA bracket on the HUD is not as reliable as the cockpit tape. Otherwise, the only HUD indicator that Tomcat pilots used during approache was the heading tape. Why would losing that necessitate a straight in?

 

-Nick

 

To clarify.

 

The hud in the Hornet is the primary flight instrument and without it at the boat is a straight in.

[BlackLion213]

To clarify.

 

The hud in the Hornet is the primary flight instrument and without it at the boat is a straight in.

 

That makes sense. The F-14A and B’s HUD is really just for weapons delivery.

 

-Nick

[Chuck_Henry]

This is why, even though it's not a true naval aircraft, I still fly in the F-5E very often. Trim and a good instrument scan are paramount. Only real difference is the F-5 can get really squirrelly in the landing configuration due to its high wing-loading and the F-14 has all the lift in the world. Nevertheless, I think it's the best Tomcat trainer available in DCS for the time being.

[Steve Davies]

1) In theory your correct. However in my experience, outside the hornet there was always some trimming to be done.

 

Pretty sure he flew Tomcats, so it might be that it was also true in practise?

[Eldur]

2) HUDs are great for weapons delivery, but they aren’t optimum to fly off of, especially in weather. You just don’t know it. Fly the ball, not the FPM.

 

The big resonalbe problem is that when you fly the ball, ie have your set of eyes focussed on it, you won't see anymore if you're drifting off left or right. This is even more of a problem in DCS probably than it is IRL. Which basically means you actually have to cross-check, not just the ball, but also the deck, constantly. And you're actually keeping track of where you're going at there even if you don't do it consciously. A FPM just helps seeing that point quicker

 

One thing I noticed in the Hornet: I had some good approaches, rarely ever boltered. Until they added the ICLS and I used it, I started to buck it up completely almost every time. Still not able to do good traps with it, I'm just better off leaving that fancy stuff off altogether.

[turkeydriver]

1)

 

4) MIDs plus head mounted cueing system... Not sure that can be beat by the Tomcat.

 

 

Go ask every Rhino driver with less than 1000 hours in the jet why VFC-13, and 111 destroy them in F-5s initially.…..its not about the hardware, its about how you use it.

[Victory205]

The big resonalbe problem is that when you fly the ball, ie have your set of eyes focussed on it, you won't see anymore if you're drifting off left or right. This is even more of a problem in DCS probably than it is IRL. Which basically means you actually have to cross-check, not just the ball, but also the deck, constantly. And you're actually keeping track of where you're going at there even if you don't do it consciously. A FPM just helps seeing that point quicker

 

....

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

You can have the FPM on the crotch with lineup and GS both AFU, with the LSO's waving you off. It is a secondary aid, and you need to scan centerline and glideslope (meatball), whether you have a HUD or not. You can land right in the touchdown zone with drift and go over the side, or hit the pack with the FPM sitting pretty because of misalignment with the centerline.

 

Early in the groove it is "Meatball, Lineup, AOA". The AOA is trimmed out to remove it as a variable. In the middle to approaching the Ramp it is "Meatball, Lineup". In close to over the deck, it is "Meatball", counting on the LSO for last second lineup calls if you aren't stable.

 

I recommend turning the HUD off, or at least pulling the RED filter so you can see the deck and bal, so you can learn to land properly.