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What exactly (and where) is the spider detent?


Snappy

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Hi everyone,

 

can somebody kindly explain to me what exactly is meant with the expression „spider detent“ and where that detent is located(picture of it would be even better).

I get that it is related to the wing sweep controls, it was also briefly mentioned by the F-14 crew on the Tomcat episode of the Fighter pilot podcast but I couldn‘t understand the explanation.

It‘s also mentioned once or twice in the manual, but only briefly referred to, not in a description unless I overlooked it.

 

 

So if someone could explain it to me again, that would be nice.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Snappy

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It is a gear, located down in the throttle quadrant and the emergency wingsweep handle nests into it when the handle is down. It is driven by the CADC and it represents the commanded position of the wings. When the handle is pulled up and disengaged from the spider detent, you are now operating a cable system, via the handle, that overrides the detent and the commanded position of the wings. The handle will not go all the way down and the plastic cover will not close completely. Line the handle up with the detent (manually command the wings to the CADC-commanded position), and the handle can be completely lowered back into the detent.


Edited by Spiceman
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Former USN Avionics Tech

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Spiceman,

 

thank you very much for your super-quick reply! So am I understanding you correctly , after the emergency wing sweep handle has been pulled out and used to move the wings directly/manually via the cable system and you want to return to normal wing sweep mode , you have to move the yellow handle along its fairing arc until you find the spider detent and can push it back down into it, so that the servo system can re-engage?

 

 

So the actual spider detent itself isn‘t visible from inside the cockpit, looking at the throttle quadrant- it‘s in the mechanism below it?

 

 

Kind regards,

 

 

 

 

Snappy


Edited by Snappy
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When the handle is pulled up and disengaged from the spider detent,

Does the CADC still move the spider detent with the handle is pulled? Because in DCS, when you pull the handle from bomb mode and then stow it back at the most forward position, the handle will move back to bomb mode until you go into AUTO, even if you had AUTO selected prior to stowing the handle.

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Yes... the CADC will move the spider detent with the handle pulled. In order to stow the handle, you can either move the handle (and the wings) to match the spider detent (as shown by the captains bars on the WS indicator) or vice versa.... move the spider detent via the WS hat switch to match the handle. One of the things that HB didn’t quite model correctly is the driving of the spider detent with the handle up. The proper way to get the wings out is to put the wings to Auto first, before moving the handle. The captains bars will drive to 20, then you pull the handle up and move it to 20 and drop it in the detent. You can probably find video of guys spreading their wings on the cat and you’ll see the wings wiggling as they try to get the handle to drop down in the detent.

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Former USN Avionics Tech

VF-41 86-90, 93-95

VF-101 90-93

 

Heatblur Tomcat SME

 

I9-9900K | Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra | 32GB DDR4 3200 | Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe | RTX 2070 Super | TM Throttle | VPC Warbird Base TM F-18 Stick

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  • 2 years later...

Since we're on the subject, what's the correct procedure for putting the wings into over sweep?  It sometimes almost seems random with respect to what I have to do with the emergency handle.  Sometimes I can just move it straight back, but sometimes I have to pop it up, then push it down again before it will move back.  Then I have to pop it back up again, and they (eventually) sweep back after a seemingly random number of seconds.

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One thing that does not work for me according to the manual is that I cannot stow the handle in oversweep, and therefore cannot close the plastic cover. I am in VR. Neither right or left click with the VR controllers stows it. Obviously not a make or brake it detail but I wonder if others have the same issue

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40 minutes ago, Dentedend10 said:

Obviously not a make or brake it detail but I wonder if others have the same issue

Long standing bug.

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Am 15.5.2022 um 01:15 schrieb WarthogOsl:

Since we're on the subject, what's the correct procedure for putting the wings into over sweep?  It sometimes almost seems random with respect to what I have to do with the emergency handle.  Sometimes I can just move it straight back, but sometimes I have to pop it up, then push it down again before it will move back.  Then I have to pop it back up again, and they (eventually) sweep back after a seemingly random number of seconds.

You have to pull the handle. Move it back as possible. Wait a few seconds till the oversweep label lights up. After that u can move it completely to oversweep

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23 hours ago, Schlomo1933 said:

You have to pull the handle. Move it back as possible. Wait a few seconds till the oversweep label lights up. After that u can move it completely to oversweep

To further clarify (one of you SMEs please correct me if I'm wrong!), when you pull that handle up, you are deflating the air bag used to stabilize the wing. So you have to wait a few seconds for it to deflate, which is when that light comes on. Then you can oversweep the wings. 

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On 5/22/2022 at 6:39 AM, Schlomo1933 said:

You have to pull the handle. Move it back as possible. Wait a few seconds till the oversweep label lights up. After that u can move it completely to oversweep

So, what I've been doing recently is manually sweeping the wings all the way back (via the throttle switch).  Once they are back to 68 degrees, I slide the emerg. handle all the way back (nothing seems to be preventing it from going to the rear stop at that point).  Then I pop the handle upwards, and eventually it goes into over sweep.  Not sure if that's how it's supposed to be done, but it works.

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You don't have to guess or make your own procedures - NATOPS covers it.

In post-landing procedure you first click bomb mode, ensure both wings and the handle goes to 55, then raise the handle (you always raise the handle when you move it manually!) and move it to 68, wait for HZ TAIL AUTH light to go out, OVER flag lights up, only then move the handle all the way back and... stow, then put the cover down.

Yeah, those last two are not currently possible in our Tomcat, because we can't stow the handle when it's in oversweep position. @IronMike do you have it on your tracker?

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vor 7 Stunden schrieb WarthogOsl:

So, what I've been doing recently is manually sweeping the wings all the way back (via the throttle switch).  Once they are back to 68 degrees, I slide the emerg. handle all the way back (nothing seems to be preventing it from going to the rear stop at that point).  Then I pop the handle upwards, and eventually it goes into over sweep.  Not sure if that's how it's supposed to be done, but it works.

this is wrong , look at draconus post : he describes the correct way .

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