Anyone willing to help me with Landing/Angle of Attack

[Flamin_Squirrel]

I thought MIL was for the Tomcat? We use the burner for launch on the Hornet?

 

MIL or MAX for Hornet launch, depending on weight. For a bolter, only MIL is needed, so that's what you advance to on touchdown in case you miss the wires.

[bunraku]

Starting to improve.

The last 4 tries i always lose the first half of the flight, but always keep the donut for the second half.

I'll keep at it.:)

 

[Brun]

Definitely much better.

 

You still need to be adjusting the throttle sooner though. You're essentially oscillating above and below the glideslope because you don't add power soon enough when the descent rate increases and vice versa.

 

When you're high, start to add power *as soon as* the velocity vector starts to drop. That means you should be able to 'catch' it before it falls way below the glideslope again. Conversely, when you're low, as soon as the velocity vector starts to climb again, reduce throttle.

[bunraku]

I messaged him earlier, but no reply yet.

[CBStu]

Bunraku in your video you get to an acceptable AOA at about 1'25". At that point your VV is within the E bracket, just a little on the low end. A tiny bit more trim up would get it centered in the E. At that point never touch trim again. As long as your airspeed is reasonably close, say 120 to 145, you will stay centered in the E. At a point later in the video (I forget the time) you trim up some more and your VV goes above the E. I think you were trying to get the plane to fly higher relative to the green boxes. You should have increased throttle and left trim alone. I also notice that your throttle movement is too coarse resulting in speed changes that are too large. A certain speed is not the goal here but I use it as a reference to see how I am doing. Generally you will see a full flaps, good AOA speed of 130 to 135. What throttle are you using? You need one w/ a long travel so you can easily make tiny adjustments. When I started this I had a throttle lever on my stick. The tip of the lever moved maybe 1.5 inches. I glued an extension to it to get the tip to move maybe 2 inches. I finally bought a TM Warthog throttle which has been unbelievably good for carrier traps. The tip of the levers move about 5 inches. As you may know there is a real lag between you moving the throttle and seeing a resulting change. Adding power is the most laggy and reducing throttle is a bit better. So the trick is anticipating what the plane will need a few seconds from now. Say you want to aim the plane at the white lines at the beginning of the landing strip. Put the VV there, but then it starts dropping. So you add throttle. The VV moves upward toward the lines, but don't wait til it gets there to reduce throttle. You need to reduce throttle a bit before it gets where you want it or it will go on past. This stuff is hard to do. I am far from great at it but I can see improvement. It will take many, many hours. I don't mean dozens of hours, more like 100s of hours but dang it sure is fun. Keep at it and, like someone said in another thread, when you get frustrated, go blow something up or shoot down some planes and come back to landings another time.

[bunraku]

Just managed a bit flying since last post.

Still struggling. It's a game of 2 halves. The first half is when the engines go back to idle and landing gear and flaps down.

The second half is when eventually I manage to get On Speed.

The second half i am getting better at.

However the first half is my issue. When my throttles go to idle, gear and flaps down i struggle with the nose lifting so high. In this video I'm having to push the stick forward quite hard before the engines drop enough power for the nose to drop. And then the nose then drops quite severely and I then have to throttle and pitch up.

 

What's the best method to stop or at least manage these nose swings?

 

Thanks

 

Video attached.

 

 

Thanks

[Brun]

You need to apply forward stick *much* sooner. You appear to know the nose will rise, but don't do anything about it until the velocity vector has climbed to almost 5 deg on the pitch ladder.

 

You'll definitely need some forward pressure to maintain level flight when setting flaps to full, but it's not all that much if done correctly.

 

Edit: Here's a video. Gear down at 270kt, flaps full at 250...

 

 

Sorry it's a bit wonky, that's cos I recorded the track in VR before capturing a replay.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Brun

[CBStu]

My fix for that is I don't drop flaps until 180-190. I keep seeing people writing to use the stick to control nose rise. If it works for them fine. I don't have that problem. Drop flaps at 180 and it feels like it did when you dropped the gear at 250. The plane just slows down.

[Notso]

Firstly thank you for all replies.

I have watched that video already. I understand what he does, but i just can't do it like him yet. :)

 

 

Lex i may join you and thanks

 

Quick question. On a straight in approach what distance and height should i be from the runway when i start to lower gear and put flaps to full and start the Onspeed approach.

 

Thanks

 

Typically, on a straight in - you want to be configured NLT the Final approach fix or roughly about 5 miles from the runway.