[MISSING TRACK FILE] Carrier touch and go - Weird HUD and in-flight behaviour

[9echo]

Hi All,

 

Apologies if there is already a thread about this, please feel free to re-direct me there if it is.

 

I have just recently started learning Case I on Stennis, after having practiced patterns and landings on shore. Man alive, is this thing harder to fly than the Hawg or what!

 

Anyway; Yesterday I practiced landings on the carrier, to which I flew the pattern, followed procedures as per the practice mission, got trimmed and flew on-speed AoA and put the ****er on the boat. Happy chap! Decided to re-configure and hook up to the catapult; Stab trim to 16° (30k lbs TOW), Flaps Half ++, MIL power and off we go!

 

All good and well, I take a right turn, shallow turn to come in for an overhead pass to fly the pattern again, so as to land again. Holy shieeeet, establish myself on downwind and trying to get to on-speed AoA but my E bracket is nowhere to be seen?? The AoA indexer seems to work as normal, but my VVI is squeezed on the right side of the HUD, the E bracket is outside the upper boundary of the HUD and I’m flying blind. Relying on the AoA indexer only makes you feel like you’re on your heels on a football game, hard to anticipate the next throttle movement or trim adjustment needed. My question is: Where the heck did my E bracket and VVI go?? I cage the f*cker one the overhead pass, I uncage it once established on-speed AoA and works just fine. On my second lap around the boat however, I do the same thing, but makes no difference: The E bracket and VVI are gone nevertheless.

[Deano87]

Wow. That’s some really odd behaviour. Taking a screenshot and saving a track might have been a good idea.

[9echo]

Carrier touch and go - Weird HUD and in-flight behaviour

 

I’ll try to reproduce it tonight and save a track of it plus some screenshots, I of course forgot doing that yesterday. But if I read you correctly, I have not screwed up the trim or anything like that?

Edited July 7, 2019 by 9echo

[Harker]

Try resetting the FCS before takeoff and retract gear after takeoff and see if it helps. The FCS will hold the AOA trim with gear down. From some bolters I've done, I don't think it resets with WOW, the only way to reset the pitch trim being to raise the gear. So you might have added pitch trim before takeoff to the existing trim, even if the FCS says otherwise. Did it handle like a stupid amount of trim was applied or not?

Sounds like buggy behavior, but I don't know.

[Deano87]

Try resetting the FCS before takeoff and retract gear after takeoff and see if it helps. The FCS will hold the AOA trim with gear down. From some bolters I've done, I don't think it resets with WOW, the only way to reset the pitch trim being to raise the gear. So you might have added pitch trim before takeoff to the existing trim, even if the FCS says otherwise. Did it handle like a stupid amount of trim was applied or not?

Sounds like buggy behavior, but I don't know.

 

Did you read his post? It’s not about trim, it was about the VVI and E bracket being in weird places in the approach config.

[Harker]

Did you read his post? It’s not about trim, it was about the VVI and E bracket being in weird places in the approach config.

I did. I sounds to me like how it looks if you mess the pitch too much and the E bracket isn't in the middle.

The VVI thing is definitely a bug. I just suggested some steps he can take to investigate the problem further. Worst case scenario, they don't matter.

[9echo]

Thanks both for the inputs! I actually did some laps around the boat tonight to try and reproduce the issue, but was unable to. So I’m rather hesitant to call it out as a bug and more tempted to say it’s something I did wrong, although I do not see why the VVI would be stuck on the right edge of the HUD (I think I even saw it duplicated at some point). Most likely my inexperience and incorrect procedure rather than a bug. I’ll try again tomorrow with a couple of hours around the boat to see if I can reproduce this one again. Again, really appreciate the inputs and suggestions. This forum is awesome as always!

[9echo]

Hi again,

 

For some reason I can’t reproduce this issue. I will save down the track and upload if I happen to come across the issue again on one of my flights, but for the time being I have nothing for you I’m afraid.