Post your Super Carrier LSO Grades

[Devil 505]

Well gents, it is finally time for me to step up my skills. I have always been able to make it back to the carrier ok and even make it look decent, but never payed any attention to the LSO grades. So now the time has come to REALLY challenge myself and get in the habit of landing the Tomcat by the book. I have a lot more experience in the DCS F-18, but I grew up around the Tomcat and felt I was doing her a disservice by not landing on the carrier appropriately. This WILL take some time to perfect. I always fly in VR (PIMAX 8K). I use Chucks DCS F-14 guide (Highly recommend any guide of his for DCS modules at mudspike) for correct case I, II, and III procedures. I will stick to case I for a while utilizing TACAN Nav and flying the meatball. Eventually when I feel this looks good and the grades are consistent, I will move onto utilizing the ICLS and working case II and III recoveries and more advanced landings. By now, I am pretty sure most of us can land on the carrier day/night and foul weather, but is it good and what do the grades look like.

 

I am going to start posting my videos and LSO scores on this forum. I highly encourage anyone to do the same on this thread going forward. There are very few videos on YouTube actually showing good LSO landings with the old girl. I am far from perfect or even good, but I hope through practice, patience, constructive feedback, and others posting to this thread, we can all become more proficient at landing the Tomcat on the carrier. I hope this challenges other DCS players to start working their LSO grades/landings.

 

The video below is my first one actually trying to line up all procedures correctly on a case 1. Clearly the first two passes were extremely embarrassing. After wondering why the hell I kept getting a bolter, I realized I never dropped my hook. I hyped myself up after reading through the procedures and said "I got this", nope. I also for the first time learned the absolute importance of the Tomcat DLC on landing. Never used it before today. I cannot stress enough, practice and utilize the DLC. I have a long way to go mastering it, but you can see the difference it made on my third approach. I will always post my LSO scores below. I hope others follow. This will help remember the acronyms for the LSO grades going forward and create muscle memory to prevent errors on future approaches.

 

I encourage all forms of constructive feedback. I have a thick skin and do not get offended easily. Please try to keep this forum on point with the subject. OBS is the recording software I use and if anyone is interested, I will post my computer specs. I have a new computer, but sadly, the optimization with DCS right now and VR is still lacking as we all know. In headset though, it looks and runs pretty good, but still looking forward to Vulkan and better VR performance in the future. Please advise if any of you are having streaming problems.

 

Here are the three LSO grades for my first video.

 

LSO: GRADE:B _SLOX_ _LOIM_ _TMRDIC_ _LOIC_

Bolter, Slow At the start, Low in the middle, To much rate of descent In close, Low In close

 

LSO: GRADE:B _DRX_ _LURX_ _FX_ (LURIM) (DLIC)

Bolter, Drifted right At the start, Lined up right At the start, Fast At the start, Lined up right In the middle (a little), Drifted Left In close (a little)

 

LSO: GRADE (OK):WIRE#3[bC]

Fair landing with reasonable deviations, 3 Wire, [no ball call made]

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by robert.clark251

[Devil 505]

Here is today's 3 traps so far. The first two sucked. I was trying to trim before the break instead of trying to hold 800 at 350 with the speed break deployed. It requires a lot of back pressure on the stick to hold between 750 and 800 before the break if you are to maintain 350kts. Note the wings are retracted to 68 degrees as prescribed in the approach. The second error I caught myself doing was not giving her enough throttle when coming out on the downwind for the first 2 passes. I would loose altitude quickly. I was also not trimming before starting my base approach and going into final. I find the trim on the Tomcat an acquired taste that takes a lot of practice. I look forward to learning better bolter procedures as I seem to master those quickly.

 

On the third pass, I did not turn in on the base approach so early, giving me time to adjust when rolling out on final. The trim was still not the best. I was really trying to keep the speed as close to the numbers as possible. I am not sure if this is something I did or a bug, but I noticed the AOA indicator was not lighting up or giving any indication at all. I am not sure if this is something I had turned off or if there was a problem. It may have something to do with the next issue and that is my AOA itself. I was roughly 5 to 6 degrees off and never at 15 as prescribed. This was a bit confusing because for the first time ever, I landed a perfect 3 wire according to the LSO. I am not sure if AOA is taken into factor when graded by the LSO.

 

Please comment and let me know what you think about the videos. I have started time stamping at the bottom so everyone can cut to the chase. No need for long drawn out videos. I will average 3 recoveries a video unless I am just crushing it and do a lot better. Seems after about two though practice runs, I start to improve, so we will see. Look forward to seeing others post their carrier landings.

 

LSO Grades

 

GRADE:WO _LULIM_ (LURIC) WO(AFU)IC _LRTL_

Wave off, Lined up left In middle, Lined up right In close (a little), Wave off (All fouled up) In close, Landed right To land

 

GRADE:WO WO(AFU)IC

Wave off, Wave off (All fouled up) In close

 

GRADE:_OK_: _FX_ 3 WIRE

Perfect pass, Fast At start, 3 wire

 

[Reflected]

No point in posting LSO grades, until the LSO is not compatible with the Tomcat. He calls "you're slow" when you're on speed. ALWAYS.

[Nealius]

Best to stick with the Tomcat's kneeboard grading for now.

[Top Jockey]

Nice to see.

 

By the way, how does one get the FLOLS "virtual" cue which appears on screen around time 5:27 ?

 

Thank you.

[Devil 505]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

 

Top Jockey, the FLOLS is include with the Super Carrier module. To my knowledge, I do not thing there is a way to turn it off right now. I thought I remember people asking for that option, but to be honest, I like using it.

 

Before anyone points it out, I just noticed I was deploying the speed break way to soon. Needs to be deployed at the break, not before. Should have known this, not sure why I thought it was before. A bit embarrassing.

[Devil 505]

Nealius, I took your advice and incorporated the kneeboard into the videos. I am still testing the LSO behavior with the Tomcat. I have not received a consistent "your slow" every time I land. But then again, my AOA is not on point every time.

 

In todays video, I decided to do the quick mission for a shore landing at Batumi on my second landing. Looks great in VR! Only got one good decent case 1 in today. I was not going to post the other three because I was being distracted by my wife while trying to focus on landing. Hanging curtains was apparently a bigger calling than my LSO grades. I also incorporated the ACL today as you will see. It helps tremendously when turning in on final and ensuring you are at the right glide slope. I will continue to practice without it utilizing the AOA indicator and meatball, but it sure improves your success ratio. Feels like cheating though.

 

LSO Grade

 

GRADE: OK: _LOIC_ 4WIRE

Reasonable deviations with good corrections, Low In close, 4WIRE

 

 

[bonesvf103]

Your AOA indexer is working---it just has lousy visibility. There is discussion back and forth ranging from how there's no point to fix it right now just so ED will change something that will mess it up again, to well, IRL you might have the sun on it and you can't see it or you just have to deal with it but until they have a keybind for "shield sunglare with hand over instrument" you're screwed. It used to be that you could see it pretty well, but now it's practically useless which is too bad because it's an important instrument.

 

I also find that the IFLOLS never seems to match what the ship's IFLOLS indicates...nor the ILS needles--and the LSO calls contradict these things too...but OK so someone said the LSO isn't compatible with the Tomcat yet, so OK, that explains that.

 

v6,

boNes

[Reflected]

@robert.clark251 you were way, waaaay to fast there. Check the E-bracket on your HUD. That also proves that the LSO is not calibrated for the Tomcat. It looks like it expects you to go as fast as the Hornet. When you are on speed according to your indexer, you'll get the slow calls 100%.

 

@bonesvf103 , yeah, I also found they do not match. Pretty confusing..

[bonesvf103]

Also, the e-bracket, both in real life and in the sim, is also useless. It is ratchety and not very functional. The VV on the other hand, IRL is very accurate in the sim while IRL it is not.

 

Funny how that works, eh?

 

v6,

boNes

[Top Jockey]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

 

Top Jockey, the FLOLS is include with the Super Carrier module. To my knowledge, I do not thing there is a way to turn it off right now. I thought I remember people asking for that option, but to be honest, I like using it.

 

Before anyone points it out, I just noticed I was deploying the speed break way to soon. Needs to be deployed at the break, not before. Should have known this, not sure why I thought it was before. A bit embarrassing.

 

Thank you!

[Devil 505]

In the first video, I took off from Creech and practiced working on my AOA approaches for the carrier. The last two I did simulated case 1 recoveries. They were not the best by far, but they did help in the second video for my case 1. This was the first time I actually was able to maintain AOA fairly well in the Tomcat. Far from perfect, but I think I will keep working AOA practice at Creech and then transition to the carrier. It has helped learning the sweet spot between increasing/decreasing throttle, using trim, and really trying to let the DLC work its magic on final.

 

On the case 1 in this video, I cut to soon and failed to use the DLC. Had I maintained speed and used the DLC, I think I could have hit the 3 wire without an issue. VR is the shit! I forgot to look at the damn knee board to see my grade. I am still going to post LSO grades until I am thoroughly convinced it is way off. After watching my video, it would seem the grades are not to far off from my flying.

 

I would really like you guys who are saying it is broken to post some videos of your case 1's so I could see a perfect approach with the LSO making bad calls. I am not at this level yet and think it would be beneficial for everyone to see, including the devs. Nealius or Reflected, would you guys be willing to post a few of your Case 1's? OBS is free and easy to install/use if you do not have it already. Sounds like you gents are pretty locked on with the Tomcat.

 

LSO Grade

 

GRADE:---:_SLOX_ _LOIC_ 1WIRE

No-grade. Below average but safe pass, Slow At start, Low In close, 1WIRE

 

 

[Jackjack171]

Also, the e-bracket, both in real life and in the sim, is also useless. It is ratchety and not very functional. The VV on the other hand, IRL is very accurate in the sim while IRL it is not.

 

Funny how that works, eh?

 

v6,

boNes

 

I find it (E-Bracket) quite surprisingly useful. I practice my approaches with it. The AOA indexer being too dim, I use it on land and at the boat. I'm guilty of ignoring the VV as I find it sloshes in space almost. Line up the needles and I'm good until In-close and shift to the ball. So for me, Line up, AOA, ball. It is finicky though. Also took me a buttload of practice approaches too. Lol

[Jackjack171]

In the first video, I took off from Creech and practiced working on my AOA approaches for the carrier. The last two I did simulated case 1 recoveries. They were not the best by far, but they did help in the second video for my case 1. This was the first time I actually was able to maintain AOA fairly well in the Tomcat. Far from perfect, but I think I will keep working AOA practice at Creech and then transition to the carrier. It has helped learning the sweet spot between increasing/decreasing throttle, using trim, and really trying to let the DLC work its magic on final.

 

On the case 1 in this video, I cut to soon and failed to use the DLC. Had I maintained speed and used the DLC, I think I could have hit the 3 wire without an issue. VR is the shit! I forgot to look at the damn knee board to see my grade. I am still going to post LSO grades until I am thoroughly convinced it is way off. After watching my video, it would seem the grades are not to far off from my flying.

 

I would really like you guys who are saying it is broken to post some videos of your case 1's so I could see a perfect approach with the LSO making bad calls. I am not at this level yet and think it would be beneficial for everyone to see, including the devs. Nealius or Reflected, would you guys be willing to post a few of your Case 1's? OBS is free and easy to install/use if you do not have it already. Sounds like you gents are pretty locked on with the Tomcat.

 

LSO Grade

 

GRADE:---:_SLOX_ _LOIC_ 1WIRE

No-grade. Below average but safe pass, Slow At start, Low In close, 1WIRE

 

 

 

You can find Nealius on You Tube as CLUTCH https://www.youtube.com/user/Nealiuss.

 

I thought your last pass was pretty decent, even though a one wire! You're getting it. You've got the basics down. It just takes time and the LSO/ball mechanics need some work as well so it's not all on you. I practice at Nellis and Creech as well. I wish we had a land based IFLOLS at Nellis or anywhere for that matter. Keep at it bro!

[Devil 505]

Really appreciate the encouragement Jackjack. Todays traps were not the prettiest. I will however say I have found yet another tool that works really well on improving your launches, patterns, and approaches. TacView. I finally bought it last night and I am kicking my own ass for not buying it long before now. Between TacView, the nee board HB provides, and the LSO grades I have a pretty good toolbox going on here.

 

Did some dog fighting in the F-86 this morning and the feedback/self debrief I got off of TacView will forever change how I fight in DCS/air combat. I am looking forward to reviewing all my flights now with this software. I literally spent over an hour analyzing where I made mistakes and watching the opposing Migs performance. For those interested, the dog fight was single player and TacView works phenomenal for it.

 

In this video below, I did 2 passes at the carrier. My TacView debrief is at the end. Time stamps are provided in the video to click on to skip ahead. I have created this mission specifically for getting a feel for distance on downwind, bas, final, and 3/4 approach. The two destroyers on either side of the carrier are placed at 1.4mi, the destroyer furthest back is 1 mile off the stern of the carrier, and the one in between is 3/4 off the stern. I know this is not a normal fleet configuration, but it works good for learning and remembering distances in relations to the carrier. As always, I encourage people to post on here. Looking forward to the A model coming on the 19th! You can guarantee I will be testing her out.

 

LSO Grade

 

GRADE:C:LULX 3PTSIW WIRE# 4

GRADE Cut. Unsafe. Gross deviations inside wave off window, Line up left At start, Landed 3 point In wires, 4 wire

 

GRADE:C:WX_DRIM_ _LOIM_(LURIM) _TMRDIC_ _LOIC_ _LOAR_ WIRE# 1

GRADE Cut. Unsafe. Gross deviations inside wave off window, Wings At start, Drifted right In middle, Low In middle, Line up right In middle a little, Too much rate of decent In middle, Low In center, Low At the ramp, 1 Wire