How difficult to take off and landing on carrier in WW2?

[ju8712124822]

Hi everyone
and I'm wait for F4U release

But when I play spitfire, I feel so difficult on landing and take off

So If F4U release

It will be very difficult to take off and landing on carrier ?

[razo+r]

Depends.

 

If you have a lot of practise, no.

 

If you are new, yes.

[Tinysnipe]

32 minutes ago, razo+r said:

Depends.

 

If you have a lot of practise, no.

 

If you are new, yes.

It really does depend, a few tips I can tell you from experience of flying prop planes irl that can relate to flying these WW2 fighters are:

Use lateral rudder input when turning left or right, from my experience with these planes though only really use it when you are making aggressive maneuvers, or when flying really slow.

When landing keep the spitfires side slip arrow in the middle, so if you stall the plane it will more or less fall straight down then wing over.

Lastly, know the planes stall speed, modern prop planes have a stall horn and a speedometer that can show you what speed you will stall at (configuration does change stall speed)

[Mogster]

Just reputation wise I’d imagine the F4U will be at the more difficult end of the scale,  only the Seafire seems worse…

[rkk01]

50 minutes ago, Mogster said:

Just reputation wise I’d imagine the F4U will be at the more difficult end of the scale,  only the Seafire seems worse…

From what I’ve read the Seafire was the reason that the FAA were ok with the Corsair whereas the US crews (or authorities) weren’t keen…

The long nose and fragile gear of the Seafire required a gradual curving approach which also suited the Corsair

[AG-51_Razor]

It's been my experience in DCS World, that most of the modules are fairly sensitive to high rates of descent upon touching down on the runway (or flight deck) and hopefully the Corsair module will reflect the Navy's requirement for carrier a/c to meet a much higher requirement for surviving a touch down at much higher rates of descents. Having said that, my advice to you is to begin learning to fly your approach around the airfield at about 250 feet, in the landing configuration (gear down and flaps full down and prop RPM at max) and at a speed just about 5 knots above the stall. Keep your pattern in tight - say not much wider than a quarter of a mile mile or so. You will find it necessary to keep the plane in trim at all times to help prevent a stall/spin while in the turn to final. You will see that your altitude during the trip around the pattern is controlled 100% by the throttle. The idea is to get yourself into a position behind the boat, (about 2-3 plane lengths) with wings level and not much more than about 50 feet above the flight deck. Long, straight in approaches will rarely ever work out well. If you can do this behind a carrier under way, with wind sufficient to give you about 30 kts over the deck, you should be in pretty good shape once the Corsair and Essex class carrier show up. One of the hardest aspects of this approach will be to judge the proper time to begin the turn from downwind to final. Keep in mind that there is a wind blowing you away from the boat and the boat is running away from you at whatever speed you have it set to. The Navy instructional diagrams of the 1940's indicate that you should consider being "abeam" (where you should begin the turn to final) once you are even with the island of the carrier. While in the turn, you should be able to keep a pretty good eye on the landing area and judge your altitude, closure rate and line up once you roll out wings level. This is very important since, once you do roll wings level, your view of the landing area will mostly disappear!

I recommend that you try all of this in a P-47 with the CVN-70 until the Corsair comes along   As Razo+r said, practice is the key. This is not and easy task to perform. I would say that, next to aerial refueling, landing one of these prop planes in DCS is about the next hardest thing to learn to do consistantly well. So don't get discouraged if it doesn't come to you easily. If it were easy, the Air Force pilots would be doing it!

[Captain Orso]

If you want the closest thing to an actual WWII carrier for practicing on, try the Tarawa. It is almost the same size as an Essex - the island might be a bit more toward the center, but it's just for practice, and of course there are no wires to catch and nothing to catch them with. Just use the brakes liberally when you land. If you nose over, too bad, just grab another plane.

I would practice with the Mustang. Without having flown the Corsair, but both the Mustang and Thunderbolt, I expect the Mustang to fly more like the Corsair does, than the Thunderbolt does. The TB is just too... stable to be a good representation of the Corsair, which should be at least as agile as the Mustang.

[rkk01]

Or try actual WW2 carriers

Illustrious and Ark Royal are available as mods, as well as the post war versions of the British Light Fleet Carrier - as HMAS Melbourne

USN Enterprise is also available as a mod, but I’ve not tried that one yet

[Andrew8604]

I think there are two primary methods to making arrested landings on carriers:  A cut-throttle method for straight-deck carriers and full-throttle method for angled-deck carriers.  (Correct me if I'm wrong).

Straight-deck:  You fly over the end of the carrier flight deck in a fairly level flight path at an optimal speed and cut the throttle to mush on to the landing area of the deck at an optimal attitude to catch a wire.  There's no going around once you cut the throttle--you're committed to the landing.  If you don't catch a wire with the arresting hook, barricade cables will be raised to catch whatever part of the aircraft they can and stop it, probably causing aircraft damage.  The landing aircraft must be stopped because there are parked aircraft forward on the deck.  If the landing aircraft gets through the barricades, it will be disastrous.  Multiple aircraft will be damaged, crewmen injured/killed and possibly a serious fire.  If the LSO doesn't see you in the right position/condition for landing, no cut signal will be given, and you will get waved off before landing.  In the wave-off, you will add power and climb back to the landing pattern to try again.  Depending on the aircraft, adding power can be a problem.  The F4U Corsair, F6F Hellcat and AD Skyraiders, in particular, had big props and powerful engines and could torque-roll the aircraft and pilot into the sea alongside the carrier, which would often be fatal for the pilot.

Angled-deck:   You fly a glidepath to the landing area of the deck with eyes on a visual landing aid at the edge of the carrier deck, with an LSO on radio giving corrective guidance and controlling the wave-off indication of the visual landing aid lights.  Your aircraft flies the glidepath to the deck and hits it hard, at which point you apply full power for a go-around, whether the hook catches a wire or not.  Once a wire is caught and you're being slowed, you pull the power back to idle.  If no wire is caught, you're at full power as you fly off the end of the angled landing deck, back into the air to climb back to the pattern to try again.  There are no parked aircraft allowed in the angled landing area during landing operations.

The straight-deck system worked well enough for relatively slow propeller-driven aircraft that might approach at 90 knots airspeed to a carrier moving 20 knots into a 10-knot wind, giving 30 knots wind-over-deck and 60 knots of relative speed onto the deck and the arresting gear.  If waved off, piston engines gave immediate power; jet engines were slower to accelerate.  Straight-wing navy jets could approach slow enough.  But with swept-wing jets, the approach speeds became too great to be done safely.  That's why the angled-deck method was devised.  Another problem with aircraft like the F4U Corsair was the big engine blocking the pilot's view of the flight deck during landing.  This was eventually remedied with a raised cockpit (at the cost of some top speed) and the pilot flying to the deck in a turn.

For the takeoffs, primarily you'll just fly off the deck from a free-rolling start, no catapult, provided there's enough free-run space on the deck for the current wind-over-deck speed.  If not, then a steel bridle cable is attached to the launch hook on an aircraft and to the catapult shuttle built into the deck.  Catapults in WWII were hydraulic powered, not steam.

Hope that helps answer your question.  Yeah, it's going to be difficult.  But with practice and knowledge of the correct technique, it should become pretty reliable.

 

[SharpeXB]

3 hours ago, Andrew8604 said:

A cut-throttle method for straight-deck carriers and full-throttle method for angled-deck carriers.  (Correct me if I'm wrong).

I don’t think angled-deck carriers existed in WWII. AFAIK the first one was the USS Antietam in 1952

[Bowie]

Best practice for Carrier Landings: Dead-stick Field Carrier Landings.

On the Up-wind leg, buzz the runway off to the Right, 1,000 ft./250 IAS/2700 RPM, and check that it is clear.

End of the runway, Chop the throttle and bank hard left, looking for the ramp at the other end.

Ease the bank, open the canopy, and begin a slow decent to 500 ft. as you slow on the Down-wind leg.

At 170 IAS and about 3/4 field, lower the gear and trim up the nose, and drop a notch of flaps.

Abeam of the ramp, 500 ft., passing through 150 IAS, another notch of flaps and break for a descending spiral to the ramp, adding flaps as needed, to full.

Finish the turn at the ramp, flare to three-point attitude, and level the wings.

Then drive the tail-wheel in as you stall, just before touchdown.

 

Every landing like that?

A Carrier Landing is no sweat.

 

Bowie