Flying the Tomcat in VR, during moonless night

[Chuck_Henry]

Interesting. V-22 pipeline? That's the only one I can think of where you'd go to the HT's for intermediate. (I'm a former P-3 guy)

 

Yep. We only did Basic Instruments in the TH-57, essentially just to improve our basic airwork before jumping into Formation flights. But we do the full T-44 syllabus, so any pointers for Review Stage would be quite welcome :pilotfly:

[jmarso]

Heh. I got winged in 1992 so I'm a bit stale on the current goings-on in the training command.

 

I will say this, though: the T-44 syllabus is the finest instrument training program anywhere in the world, bar none. You will NEVER be a better instrument pilot than you are the day you pin on those wings.

 

I remember doing those no-heading NDB approaches (don't even know if they still train that stuff in these days of RNAV, GPS, and so on), asking the IP for a heading check about every ten seconds, trying to distract him so he'd keep his gorram fingers off that 'god box' in the armrest, looking for the next thing to fail on me.

 

Good luck and congrats, by the way! Sounds like you've just about got it in the bag.

 

Remember, your best day in the training command is like an average day in the fleet. ;)

Edited June 30, 2019 by jmarso

[Chuck_Henry]

I remember doing those no-heading NDB approaches (don't even know if they still train that stuff in these days of RNAV, GPS, and so on), asking the IP for a heading check about every ten seconds, trying to distract him so he'd keep his gorram fingers off that 'god box' in the armrest, looking for the next thing to fail on me.

 

Most NDBs are decommissioned for good, so we do NDB approaches only in the sim. Not too bad when you just think about it as a needle-only approach.

 

Partial panel in the aircraft is still a thing, though, even though most IPs agree that the odds of being that navigationally degraded in real life are astronomically low. Then again, so are the odds of really losing a PT6 engine (fuel starvation or inadvertent fuel cutoff aside), but we still train for that.

[Los]

One of the challenges would be guys just getting into flight sims without even the benefit of having worked on steam gauge instruments on prior sims or aircraft now trying to do advanced activities like CAT 3 on fighter jets. If it wast difficult then the sim itself would be suspect.

 

It might help to get the hands on basic instrument flying down on one of the trainers (I recommend C-101) if you have the cash or just continual practice with lots of swims in the F14. But one of the key skills to instrument rating is a good instrument scan. With instrument training we went many hours without looking outside the cockpit. So you are going to have to acquire that skill.

 

Los

[jmarso]

Most NDBs are decommissioned for good, so we do NDB approaches only in the sim. Not too bad when you just think about it as a needle-only approach.

 

Partial panel in the aircraft is still a thing, though, even though most IPs agree that the odds of being that navigationally degraded in real life are astronomically low. Then again, so are the odds of really losing a PT6 engine (fuel starvation or inadvertent fuel cutoff aside), but we still train for that.

 

I only knew one guy who ever had to fly partial panel for real (in IMC). He was another P-3 guy in my squadron back in the day, but it happened to him flying a light twin on his own time. He said the training saved his ass.

 

Most airplanes are so redundant now that if you toss a PFD screen or gyro on one side, the other still works fine, and there's also a tertiary 'peanut gyro' as a last ditch backup. Still, you just never know. Partial panel is great training for scan, too. Ironically, instructors often find that someone struggling with instruments then does passably well flying partial panel is- you guessed it- not looking at the attitude gyro enough when it works!

[Los]

I flew partial panel a few weeks ago (No AI).

 

Los

[IronMike]

You can actually fly with NVGs on (at least non VR), if you dimm all your lights, including HUD and VDI brightness down to almost nil. The thing is you still have to lean into them, to read them clearly (might be an issue in VR), and ofc it helps to establish a workflow in screening your instruments. Check, VVS, Alt, speed, heading tape, frequently repeating and confirming, etc. It is a good practice for IFR. You can see in the vid below how I do it, mind you, I do not have VR though and cannot say how smudgy the gauges would look, even if zoomed in. But you have to zoom in also in non VR. Also, the vid was recorded months before release, so it ain't listed and represents a prerelease version, I hope it still helps, though, it goes from take off, AAR to CASE 3 (but pls dont take it as a representation of anything except how to fly with NVGs):

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by IronMike

[WindyTX]

In VR unlike real life you still can't see around the NVGs to read your instruments so it's a right Royal Pain. This has been reported repeatedly over the years asking for the fov to be reduced so we can see around them to no avail. Not a Heatblur problem tho, luckily in game you can put the NVGs on a hotas button as a workaround, way quicker than pushing them up IRL.

 

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

[IronMike]

In VR unlike real life you still can't see around the NVGs to read your instruments so it's a right Royal Pain. This has been reported repeatedly over the years asking for the fov to be reduced so we can see around them to no avail. Not a Heatblur problem tho, luckily in game you can put the NVGs on a hotas button as a workaround, way quicker than pushing them up IRL.

 

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

Yes, this is rather unfortunate, in non VR you can tilt you view up and still see below them.

[Los]

BTW the average life expectancy of a non-instrument trained pilot that flies into full IMC conditions was less than three minutes. One absolutely can not rely on visual or physical sensations while flying in clouds. This is why current FAA standards for even private pilot license require at least 3 hours of instrument experience. BTW if you do get disoriented in flight at night turn on your autopilot (like barihold) until you get you shit together.

 

So its not that there is something wrong with you if you have difficulty flying at night without looking at instruments, that's just how it is. Flying on instruments is not just some optional thing that you guess you'll have to do because its hard to fly your simulator at night. BTW flying on instruments mean they are your sole visual reference, not that you look at them every once in a while you stare outside.

 

Do his simple experiment. Create a simple mission with the plane of your choice at night with 100% overcast say ceiling is 3000'. It should be pitch black. (Add snow to make it even more fun) Then just do a normal take off. See how long after take off it takes you to get into a crash if you are not focusing on your instruments.

 

Any monkey can fly around in an F18 in normal visual conditions. That's hardly an accomplishment. One should be getting to the point where they can fly on instruments comfortably. It will actually make your normal flying more precise and reliable.

 

Los