F-15C Nosewheel steering

[LCO489]

Hi, using the F-5 where you need to press and hold NWS button to use, i remembered that the F-15 is with NWS always on, despite having a keybind for it. Then i tested it and pressing LAlt+Q or button bound to it only disables it while pressed when it should toggle between on and off or it should stay always off and use the button pressed to enable it (i dont know what is correct IRL to the F-15.

 

Currently the keybind is like this:

DCSWorld\Mods\aircraft\Flaming Cliffs\Input\f-15c\keyboard\default.lua

where is marked Off it should be On and then the function will be inverted with NWS being off at start and the keybind toggles it on and off.

Doing the same at DCSWorld\Mods\aircraft\Flaming Cliffs\Input\f-15c\joystick\default.lua fixes joy keybind too.

 

 

[GGTharos]

IRL and IIRC in the F-15 NWS is fully automated wrt landing/takeoff, N/A DCS.   There is button to allow tighter turning, and one that allows the wheel to be disconnected from steering, which is used mostly for moving the aircraft around with a tow bar etc.

[Go_dzilla]

I would be better to have LAlt+Q toogle NWS rather than having to hold it down for the take off period.

[draconus]

5 hours ago, Go_dzilla said:

I would be better to have LAlt+Q toogle NWS rather than having to hold it down for the take off period.

You don't hold NWS disconnect for the take off. You only use rudders to stay centered.

[Nealius]

LAlt+Q does indeed need to be held down to deactivate NWS in the Eagle. It does not function as a toggle, for some strange reason. 

[Rainmaker]

On 11/27/2021 at 7:42 AM, Nealius said:

LAlt+Q does indeed need to be held down to deactivate NWS in the Eagle. It does not function as a toggle, for some strange reason. 

It’s not strange, it’s correct. Two buttons in an eagle for NWS, the paddle and pinky switch. The paddle disables NWS only while held and the pinky switch enables steering to go from the 15-30* normal range to a 45* limit. There is no on/off toggle for NWS in the -15 like there is in a -16/-18, etc. 

On 10/16/2021 at 5:36 PM, GGTharos said:

IRL and IIRC in the F-15 NWS is fully automated wrt landing/takeoff, N/A DCS.   There is button to allow tighter turning, and one that allows the wheel to be disconnected from steering, which is used mostly for moving the aircraft around with a tow bar etc.

You wont be towing a jet around with hydro pressure enabled. It’s for use of the rudder pedals without engaging the nose wheel with movement of the rudders. It removes the centering pressure from the unit to allow the wheel to move past the normal steering limit, but it’s not normally going to be used for that. 

[Nealius]

7 hours ago, Rainmaker said:

It’s not strange, it’s correct.

Correct and strange are not mutually exclusive. I find it srange because it doesn't match the toggle behavior of the majority of aircraft designed and built around the same era.

[Rainmaker]

5 hours ago, Nealius said:

Correct and strange are not mutually exclusive. I find it srange because it doesn't match the toggle behavior of the majority of aircraft designed and built around the same era.

Yes, that is true. Whether that was a design request or just how McD built it on their own I have no idea.  From a practical sense, for ground ops though, it doesnt make a ton of sense to have it off in most cases when you think about it. So although its different, there is some validity to its design. 
 

As far as takeoff sensitivity, the system does have a dampener built in to slow movement to allow for refined control. How well DCS compares to a real jet, I dont have a whole lot of input in that area as I’ve never flown the real thing, only sat in the seat at 0 knots and 1 g. 

[Go_dzilla]

I'll take Rainmaker's word for it, for now, as I never even sat in a cockpit of an Eagle. In which case having to hold down the NWS button is actually more realistic. That's cool. I'll just rebind the button to a more convenient location/combination.

Thanks all.

[draconus]

10 minutes ago, Go_dzilla said:

I'll just rebind the button to a more convenient location/combination.

You mean the NWS Range binding, right?

[Nealius]

With NWS off (holding LAlt+Q) is the nosewheel supposed to violently castor and throw the nose around?

 

[Rainmaker]

9 hours ago, Nealius said:

With NWS off (holding LAlt+Q) is the nosewheel supposed to violently castor and throw the nose around?

 

Nose wheel shimmy is certainly a real thing. That’s why you now see a shimmy dampener imstalled on the real jets. Not procedural for you to hold the switch on takeoff so cant speak to expectations on the real jet. 

Edited December 13, 2021 by Rainmaker

[Nealius]

In the real jet, when would you turn the NWS off? In DCS I find the NWS hyper-sensitive on the takeoff and landing rolls even with a rudder curve of 20. 

[Rainmaker]

1 minute ago, Nealius said:

In the real jet, when would you turn the NWS off? In DCS I find the NWS hyper-sensitive on the takeoff and landing rolls even with a rudder curve of 20. 

When you want to kick rudders and not move the nose wheel. This more likely to happen in the parking spot, doing flight control warmups before doing a preflight BIT as an example. 
 

As is one of my previous posts above, the real jet has a hydraulic dampener in place to soften the inputs. To what degree DCS models that and how it compares in relation to the real thing I’m not sure as I dont have any personal experiences there to go off of.  But, it could be likely that the speed of the wheel is a bit higher than what the real jet has...but that’s speculation on my part so I’m not going to stand on a pedestal and claim that it’s inaccurate. 

[draconus]

5 hours ago, Nealius said:

In DCS I find the NWS hyper-sensitive on the takeoff and landing rolls even with a rudder curve of 20.

So? Either use flatter curve or learn to control it better.

[Nealius]

45 minutes ago, draconus said:

So? Either use flatter curve or learn to control it better.

More curve = less turn ability even with NWS high. "Controlling it better" is impossible since the thing veers off with 5mm of pedal movement. Guess that's all my fault the pedal translation from hardware to software is more sensitive than it should be. 

[draconus]

3 minutes ago, Nealius said:

More curve = less turn ability even with NWS high.

The range does not change - only the translation of the axis movement.