Heading drift after carrier landing

[bkthunder]

Using the Case 1 instant action with the F-14A, after one carrier landing and take-off again, the system picked up a 10 degree heading drift. 

With the carrier BRC at 034, I had to fly 025 to be on the same heading. This seems a bit too much. 

 

I checked to see if I over-g at any point, but max g I pulled was 6.

[Donut]

1 hour ago, bkthunder said:

Using the Case 1 instant action with the F-14A, after one carrier landing and take-off again, the system picked up a 10 degree heading drift. 

With the carrier BRC at 034, I had to fly 025 to be on the same heading. This seems a bit too much. 

 

I checked to see if I over-g at any point, but max g I pulled was 6.

I noticed the same thing a while back.  This explains it...

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/203901-resolved-tomcat-heading-drift/

[bkthunder]

Thanks! 

So how did F-14 pilots account for that? Would be nice to hear from @Victory205 about hints and procedures they used 

[IronMike]

6 minutes ago, bkthunder said:

Thanks! 

So how did F-14 pilots account for that? Would be nice to hear from @Victory205 about hints and procedures they used 

 

Don't forget that a CASE1 is a visual approach, not an instrument approach. This means: you look outside the cockpit for visual references and for the runway/boat. You also orientate yourself visually. The headings are there to help you. So as long as you fly your pattern correctly, it matters little what your compass reads. To take it as an aid, in this case you just add or substract 10°, and that's it.

[sLYFa]

Flying the correct heading on downwind is absolutely critical if you are far back in the queue (i.e. have to break late). Thats why you crosscheck the boats heading with reported BRC as you fly over the boat in the stack. 

If you are doing touch and goes (or full stop landings and goes), put the AHRS in DG mode before you land, this will make it insensible to magnetic distortions on the boat, but heading may still drift over time. 

[bkthunder]

1 hour ago, sLYFa said:

Flying the correct heading on downwind is absolutely critical if you are far back in the queue (i.e. have to break late). Thats why you crosscheck the boats heading with reported BRC as you fly over the boat in the stack. 

If you are doing touch and goes (or full stop landings and goes), put the AHRS in DG mode before you land, this will make it insensible to magnetic distortions on the boat, but heading may still drift over time. 

 

Yep, this seems to do it  Still curious how it was done IRL though

[sLYFa]

Well during takeoff its not much of an issue since the INS will still indicate the correct direction towards your waypoints and Tacan radials are also unaffacted by this (they are in DCS though). The AHRS will eventually sync to the correct magnetic heading and keep it until you trap, where it would probably sync to some wrong heading but thats not an issue since you already landed. 

[IronMike]

2 hours ago, sLYFa said:

Flying the correct heading on downwind is absolutely critical if you are far back in the queue (i.e. have to break late). Thats why you crosscheck the boats heading with reported BRC as you fly over the boat in the stack. 

If you are doing touch and goes (or full stop landings and goes), put the AHRS in DG mode before you land, this will make it insensible to magnetic distortions on the boat, but heading may still drift over time. 

 

If far back in the queue you would also look for the traffic ahead of you. Yes, it is crucial, but magnetic deviation doesnt make it impossible. IRL what they would do is that lead would break first and the RIO would tell the rest of the flight the range to the carrier abeam, then the rest of the flight would look where lead is and adjust their turn to either left or right, lead would go around and then come in again to break last, each one taking the visual queue for distance from the boat from the previous one. You see the carrier, you see the traffic. Given though that watching for traffic, spotting it and special awareness (where am I in relation to the carrier?) is much better irl I guess than in the sim. On top of that, in the sim you rarely break late in the queue, very few guys get to be #4 in a 4ship in DCS.

It's good to know both.

Edited June 20, 2021 by IronMike