[PROJECT HALTED] Any interest in a more realistic alternative to already existing F-16 guides/manuals?

[SpaceMonkey037]

20 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

This preview seems nice, tough I would add illustrations on where the clickable controls are located and mention the default shortcut keys for each control. 

 

About the content difficulty, to me it seems to be very similar to a NATOPs manual, not sure if it is begginer-appropiate.

Yeah, illustrations as to where stuff is located and keybinds will be added later on, should have mentioned. As for the difficulty, what made it non-beginner-appropriate? Complicated explanations, too much information, etc.?

Edited December 22, 2020 by SpaceMonkey037

[Rudel_chw]

38 minutes ago, SpaceMonkey037 said:

As for the difficulty, what made it non-beginner-appropriate? Complicated explanations, too much information, etc.?

 

 

Mostly, information that is not relevant for the game, for example:

 

"The canopy provides some bird strike protection"

 

The whole section "MANUAL CANOPY CONTROL HANDCRANK"

 

On the SEAT ADJ switch: "The up position raises the seat, while the down position lowers the seat." is kind of obvious.

 

While other parts could benefit of more details, for example "Seat ejection also automatically performs an escape zeroize operation by purging coded electric information associated with the following equipment:" .. here, mentioning that this "zeroize" is needed so that if the aircraft crashes on enemy territory, the aircraft software has been deleted and rendered useless to the enemy.

 

[SpaceMonkey037]

5 minutes ago, Rudel_chw said:

 

Mostly, information that is not relevant for the game, for example:

 

"The canopy provides some bird strike protection"

 

The whole section "MANUAL CANOPY CONTROL HANDCRANK"

 

On the SEAT ADJ switch: "The up position raises the seat, while the down position lowers the seat." is kind of obvious.

 

While other parts could benefit of more details, for example "Seat ejection also automatically performs an escape zeroize operation by purging coded electric information associated with the following equipment:" .. here, mentioning that this "zeroize" is needed so that if the aircraft crashes on enemy territory, the aircraft software has been deleted and rendered useless to the enemy.

 

I'll take that into consideration. I won't remove things like the handcrank, as these are things that shouldn't be left aside although completely meaningless in DCS. For this reason I will add a ranking system to each explanation that ranks the importance of the systems. This way the guide will be a lot more relatable to people who desire to know the basics or to people who want to know super advanced stuff. Thanks!

[HILOK]

definitely interested. thanks for your efforts so far! you seem to know what you're talking about, what exactly is your background, if you dont mind me asking?

[SpaceMonkey037]

5 minutes ago, HILOK said:

definitely interested. thanks for your efforts so far! you seem to know what you're talking about, what exactly is your background, if you dont mind me asking?

I am generally interested in RC flight and have created RC planes from the ground up, but other than that I have no connection to IRL aviation. I am simply a guy on the internet who is slightly too interested in the F-16 and aviation in general. I know how painful finding good system explanations are, and how terribly difficult it is to cross the bridge between the "quick and dirty" and the "Hardcore milsim" flying styles. Mindset is "I've done it the hard way, so you don't have to.". I am really interested in passing my knowledge on, and can't think of a better way to do this than to create a guide for everyone to enjoy free of charge. Right now of course the guide will only be including F-16 operational information, but a long term goal is to have the guide cover multiple aspects of aviation such as mission planning and basic air traffic navigation, flight operations (formations etc.), etc. etc. Although this is a REALLY long term goal, and I do not expect to be able to complete guides surrounding all these areas any time soon. Right now the first iteration of the F-16 Flight Guide will sent the benchmark for what the possible future guides might bring. I am very excited to see how this project progresses, and how it's received by the community once released!

[Charly_Owl]

Good luck with your guide!

 

I've read the T.O. 1F-16C-1 a few times already, and it seems to me that you're trying to make a similar document, but easier to read? I have the feeling you're trying to re-invent the wheel. Hopefully, some people will find it useful.

 

I've looked at your "realistic" landing and escape system guide drafts. I think your explanations focus too much on things that aren't useful to players and not enough about stuff that actually matters.

 

• You mention "figure out the heading on the runway by any means"... yet you don't mention anything about active runways, traffic patterns, clearances. In the real world, pilots can't simply choose where they land or go in the opposite direction of the pattern as they choose.
• You mention "get in front of the runway, no matter the distance". Airspace isn't all about long straight in approaches. Pattern work and how to enter a pattern should be further explained.
• You mention "fly for 11 deg AoA" but don't specify how. Some players may try to trim it like a Hornet. More explanations are required to teach how the aircraft is set on a proper AoA.
• You mention "2 seconds from impact"... I think you mean "touchdown", unless you meant CFIT .  Also, your explanation on "pulling back the stick, idle the throttle now, or a few bits later if you are heavy" doesn't make sense. You don't mention any of the visual references used. The "2 second" reference is wrong.
• You mention "Smashy smashy style is self-explanatory as that will destroy stuff". I would just get rid of that sentence. It doesn't add anything to what you mean.
• Your remark about aquaplaning and "firmly placing the aircraft down" should be rephrased entirely and mention the main gear strut compression. 
• You mention "once you've touched down slightly (very slightly) lower the nose to avoid floating back up into the air". You don't touchdown "slightly"... you touchdown or you bounce. This tip kind of risks the new player pushing too hard on the stick and smashing his nose gear. Mentioning timestamps like "a split second later" is kind of meaningless in that regard. Give physical references the pilot can work with or proper timings.
• You mention at 100 kts to "keep full brakes", which sort of implies that the player should slam the brakes, risking locking the disks. Brakes should be tapped in short bursts, especially since you mention hot brakes afterward.
• You mention "hot brakes can destroy the hydraulics"... well it can damage the hydraulic lines, sure, but the more important aspect is the brakes themselves (and possibly burst tyres). 
• You should provide a reference as to how to perform these weight calculations based on loadout and fuel state. You forgot about the targeting pod, HTS (if installed), drop tanks and other ordnance types.
• You mention wearing out brake pads and how changing them is cheaper than changing the plane... component MTBF isn't modelled, so there's not much point in mentioning that. 
• Your explanation about the actual braking technique is incomplete: it assumes that braking is just a function of heat build up, yet you don't mention anything about brake disk lock-up.
• You don't mention anything about crosswind.
• You don't mention anything about go-arounds.

To be honest, if ultra-realism is what you're striving for, I think the real pilot manual does a much better job at explaining the VFR approach process. I don't think you're writing for newcomers either since you assume he knows way too much for a beginner. For the escape system procedure, I feel you are still overwhelming the reader with information that isn't useful. The fact that the pilot has to pull 40-50 pounds on the lever to eject isn't relevant to a sim.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Charly_Owl

[SpaceMonkey037]

10 minutes ago, Charly_Owl said:

Good luck with your guide!

 

I've read the T.O. 1F-16C-1 a few times already, and it seems to me that you're trying to make a similar document, but easier to read? I have the feeling you're trying to re-invent the wheel. Hopefully, some people will find it useful.

 

I've looked at your "realistic" landing and escape system guide drafts. I think your explanations focus too much on things that aren't useful to players and not enough about stuff that actually matters.

 

• You mention "figure out the heading on the runway by any means"... yet you don't mention anything about active runways, traffic patterns, clearances. In the real world, pilots can't simply choose where they land or go in the opposite direction of the pattern as they choose.
• You mention "get in front of the runway, no matter the distance". Airspace isn't all about long straight in approaches. Pattern work and how to enter a pattern should be further explained.
• You mention "fly for 11 deg AoA" but don't specify how. Some players may try to trim it like a Hornet. More explanations are required to teach how the aircraft is set on a proper AoA.
• You mention "2 seconds from impact"... I think you mean "touchdown".  Also, your explanation on "pulling back the stick, idle the throttle now, or a few bits later if you are heavy" doesn't make sense. You don't mention any of the visual references used. The "2 second" reference is wrong.
• You mention "Smashy smashy style is self-explanatory as that will destroy stuff". I would just get rid of that sentence. It doesn't add anything to what you mean.
• Your remark about aquaplaning and "firmly placing the aircraft down" should be rephrased entirely and mention the main gear strut compression. 
• You mention "once you've touched down slightly (very slightly) lower the nose to avoid floating back up into the air". You don't touchdown "slightly"... you touchdown or you bounce. This tip kind of risks the new player pushing too hard on the stick and smashing his nose gear. Mentioning timestamps like "a split second later" is kind of meaningless in that regard. Give physical references the pilot can work with or proper timings.
• You mention at 100 kts to "keep full brakes", which sort of implies that the player should slam the brakes, risking locking the disks. Brakes should be tapped in short bursts, especially since you mention hot brakes afterward.
• You mention "hot brakes can destroy the hydraulics"... well it can damage the hydraulic lines, sure, but the more important aspect is the brakes themselves (and possibly burst tyres). 
• You should provide a reference as to how to perform these weight calculations based on loadout and fuel state. You forgot about the targeting pod, HTS (if installed), drop tanks and other ordnance types.
• You mention wearing out brake pads and how changing them is cheaper than changing the plane... component MTBF isn't modelled, so there's not much point in mentioning that. 
• Your explanation about the actual braking technique is incomplete: it assumes that braking is just a function of heat build up, yet you don't mention anything about brake disk lock-up.
• You don't mention anything about crosswind.
• You don't mention anything about go-arounds.

To be honest, I think the real pilot manual does a much better job at explaining the VFR approach process. For the escape system procedure, I feel you are still overwhelming the reader with information that isn't useful. The fact that the pilot has to pull 40-50 pounds on the lever to eject isn't relevant to a sim.

I agree, most of the points mentioned above are true. The landing example was a really unrefined product smacked together in a couple minutes simply to show how something could have been done. The example was meant to only surround landing, and not patterns as these require complete separate explanations. As for the ejection part I have gotten a really helpful comment already that made me implement a ranking system for how relevant to general flight different systems are in DCS.

[Charly_Owl]

I think there is much more value in basing your procedures on pilot flows. I think that would be much more interesting.

[HILOK]

1 hour ago, SpaceMonkey037 said:

I am generally interested in RC flight and have created RC planes from the ground up, but other than that I have no connection to IRL aviation. I am simply a guy on the internet who is slightly too interested in the F-16 and aviation in general. I know how painful finding good system explanations are, and how terribly difficult it is to cross the bridge between the "quick and dirty" and the "Hardcore milsim" flying styles. Mindset is "I've done it the hard way, so you don't have to.". I am really interested in passing my knowledge on, and can't think of a better way to do this than to create a guide for everyone to enjoy free of charge. Right now of course the guide will only be including F-16 operational information, but a long term goal is to have the guide cover multiple aspects of aviation such as mission planning and basic air traffic navigation, flight operations (formations etc.), etc. etc. Although this is a REALLY long term goal, and I do not expect to be able to complete guides surrounding all these areas any time soon. Right now the first iteration of the F-16 Flight Guide will sent the benchmark for what the possible future guides might bring. I am very excited to see how this project progresses, and how it's received by the community once released!

 

thanks for taking the time! you've taken on quite a challenge. i also think some good advice from SMEs might be helpful. some things simply can't be found in the books. that being said, i am always interested in a good flight manual, and am looking forward to your guide. 

[SpaceMonkey037]

I am sad to say this, but I need to realise that the project I have started has no end. This was originally meant as a guide that as supposed to be the easiest way for people to fly realistically, but this simply isn't currently possible. As said I am not creating some revolutionary product, rather I am just re-writing the real flight manual. The guide I tried to create serves no purpose, and the project will therefor be halted indefinitely or until I figure out some better way to write it. I was really exited for this project, and because of that I failed to see this earlier, although I knew that this would be an almost impossible task from the start. Don't be all sad though, as I will in compensation of the promises I made, release my F-16 Flight Checklist for normal procedures. It was the foundation for the "Flight Guide" and it's progress started early summer this year. I've probably put in over 300 hours of work into this checklist to make it a direct improvement over the checklist provided in the real flight manual. The checklist I've made contains all necessary checks and other additions to the original procedure that are necessary, but not touched upon in the actual flight manual. The checklist has re-arranged a lot of the steps to make them "flowy", while still being perfectly legal. I hope this will be a decent compensation. The support for the project was overwhelmingly positive and I apologise for the inconvenience and thank everyone for their support. Enjoy the checklist  in orange, white and black colours.

F-16 Flight Checklist BLACK.pdf F-16 Flight Checklist ORANGE.pdf F-16 Flight Checklist WHITE.pdf

[Fri13]

On 12/20/2020 at 11:41 PM, SpaceMonkey037 said:

Example? I can give you an example no problem! This is an example of how to land the F-16, so ONLY landing procedure (keep in mind that this is straight into it, the guide will most definitely contain more information about different things to make the procedure easier for people, and then have another version that quickly explains how to land so that it's easier to memorize the procedure. 1 for leaning, 1 for remembering. I will also keep the guide more formal than shown in this example :  
*****************************************************************************LANDING START***********************************************************

To figure out the correct approach we first need to input the runway coordinates as a steerpoint. Choose steerpoint 1-25 for this and select that steerpoint. Then figure out the heading on the runway by any means and input the heading into the HSI’s course (that blue line on the HSI). I’m not going to go over correct VFR approaches, but I would recommend to somehow get infront of the runway, no matter the distance.

At 12-15nm away from the runway lower the landing gear under 300 knots and extend the speedbrakes. Once lined up with the runway intercept a 3 degree glide slope. This can be achieved by using the dotted attitude line that appears in the HUD with gear down shows you 2.5 degrees nose down attitude. Line up the dotted line slightly above the runway threshold and place the flight path marker on the threshold. Doing this will result in a 3 degrees. Then simply fly for 11 degrees AOA. 11 degrees AOA is preferred of 13, as 13 degrees proved to give too little room for error when flaring (11 degrees is achieved by placing the flight path marker on the top of the AOA bracket) Fly the 11 degree glide slope until you’re at approximately 2 seconds from impact when following the 3 degree glide slope. Here you will pull back on the stick, idle the throttle now, or a few bits later if you are heavy. When touching down you’re not trying to smash the plane down, but also not try to just kiss the runway. Smashy smashy style is self-explanatory as that will destroy stuff, however landing too softly increases the chances of aquaplaning with wet runways. For this reason, ALWAYS try to firmly place the aircraft down, not too soft not too hard. Even if the runway is dry it is a good habit to land it firmly.

Once you’ve touched down slightly (very slightly) lower the nose to avoid floating back up into the air. Then a split second later pull back on the stick and aim for 13 degrees AOA. Do not exceed 15 degrees as you will tail strike above this. Keep the aerobraking for as long as possible. If your runway is long enough keep your nose up until it falls down by itself, once the nose wheel has touch the ground fully extend the speedbrakes by holding the speedbrake switch aft and give full back stick pressure to increase the drag of the horizontal tail. Keep in mind that there is no reason to lower the nose “manually” if you’re not going to brake immediately after the nose wheel as touched the runway. For shorter runways a shorter stop might be needed. Here you might need to lower the nose at 100 knots and apply brakes. For absolute maximum stopping “power” you will want to

aerobrake and apply full brakes while aerobraking. You will then lower the nose at 100 knots, keeping full brakes, full back stick pressure and full speedbrake once the nose wheel as touched the runway. Hot brakes is another consideration when landing. If heavy use of wheel brakes is necessary you risk getting hot brakes. Hot brakes can destroy the hydraulics in the wheel brakes and might lead to fires, so avoid this if possible. Unless you have a really light loadout (4k pounds and belove) you won’t get hot brakes no matter what you do. If you brake at anything under 80 knots you pretty much won't get hot brakes unless you have a heavy loadout. Anything under 7k pounds will be just fine. You can calculate your current weight by estimating each missile to 250 pounds and bombs to.. whatever bombs you have, and then of course adding on the amount of fuel left as it is calculated in pounds. Generally you want to avoid using brakes if you don't need to, as you will have to change out the brake pads more often, however changing brake pads is a lot cheaper than changing the plane. It's better to use them rather then not if you're unsure about the braking distance.

As for the actual braking technique, think like this: No matter the braking power you will always have the same amount of heat build up, meaning that it is better to brake hard over a short amount of time rather than braking softly over a long time. Same goes for taxing. With hot brakes i mean red glowing hot brakes. The only way to actually confirm that you have them is if a flight member can spot the brakes.

 

As for when you want to stop I would say slightly before the runway end, roughly 1/8 of the way down the runway or 1000 feet. Use a minimum runway length of 8000 feet. It is possible to land at shorter runways, but 8000 is a good “minimum” for most weights.
*****************************************************************************LANDING END**************************************************************

 

Very nice example.

I liked the approach style that reminds the old school manuals that go the procedure as explaining it to someone with a scene that how to do so and why.

 

 

 

[Bog9y]

It's nice to see you put the SEC and EPU check right after the start instead of what everyone else does, which is switching on the avionics.   

[HILOK]

hey spacemonkey, dont be discouraged. you already got a checklist : ) why dont you take it in small steps and expand it from here?

[Wildwind]

On 12/22/2020 at 6:08 PM, SpaceMonkey037 said:

I am sad to say this, but I need to realise that the project I have started has no end. This was originally meant as a guide that as supposed to be the easiest way for people to fly realistically, but this simply isn't currently possible. As said I am not creating some revolutionary product, rather I am just re-writing the real flight manual. The guide I tried to create serves no purpose, and the project will therefor be halted indefinitely or until I figure out some better way to write it. I was really exited for this project, and because of that I failed to see this earlier, although I knew that this would be an almost impossible task from the start. Don't be all sad though, as I will in compensation of the promises I made, release my F-16 Flight Checklist for normal procedures. It was the foundation for the "Flight Guide" and it's progress started early summer this year. I've probably put in over 300 hours of work into this checklist to make it a direct improvement over the checklist provided in the real flight manual. The checklist I've made contains all necessary checks and other additions to the original procedure that are necessary, but not touched upon in the actual flight manual. The checklist has re-arranged a lot of the steps to make them "flowy", while still being perfectly legal. I hope this will be a decent compensation. The support for the project was overwhelmingly positive and I apologise for the inconvenience and thank everyone for their support. Enjoy the checklist  in orange, white and black colours.

F-16 Flight Checklist BLACK.pdf 97.18 kB · 17 downloads F-16 Flight Checklist ORANGE.pdf 97.21 kB · 12 downloads F-16 Flight Checklist WHITE.pdf 97.17 kB · 12 downloads

Just wanted to say thank you for what you did do, and I hope that you find a way to accomplish what you wanted to accomplish here.

[SpaceMonkey037]

On 12/23/2020 at 8:37 PM, HILOK said:

hey spacemonkey, dont be discouraged. you already got a checklist : ) why dont you take it in small steps and expand it from here?

Thing is, if you want a full explanation of the checklist you will end up with a copy of the flight manual. Word by word pretty much. So... It's not going to happen really, at least not with my current approach. Who knows, maybe I'll try to conquer this task another time

[Rudel_chw]

5 hours ago, SpaceMonkey037 said:

Thing is, if you want a full explanation of the checklist you will end up with a copy of the flight manual. Word by word pretty much. So... It's not going to happen really, at least not with my current approach. Who knows, maybe I'll try to conquer this task another time

maybe you could attempt a middle-of-the road approach, I tried it when I was learning the viper, it looked like this (in spanish, sorry I have not had time to translate it), I used large font to be able to fit it on the kneeboard:

 

https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ai6cuX3YQI26hdklc5JRb9Met2HMIQ

Edited December 25, 2020 by Rudel_chw