Baz000 Posted October 31, 2021 Posted October 31, 2021 (edited) Are you having problems landing the F-14? Obviously nothing can take the place of time spent practicing flying the plane at the correct onspeed AOA and landing parameters. If you're not used to how a Navy plane lands using AOA and corrections in power using the throttles then it can seem daunting to learn. If you then add things like opening speed brakes and adding DLC to the mix making timely and needed corrections get even more challenging and frustrating. So, something I would like to impart some advice on is this... START SLOW and walk towards your virtual gold wings no, I don't mean literally start slow as in with your landing approach... I mean start trying to land the thing getting a feel for how it is with as few variables as possible when you first start out learning. Like, just have your gear and flaps down. just do a long boring straight in approach to a nice lengthy runway, start from like 10 miles away and get configured with your gear down and flaps down. gear down at 250 and flaps fully down at 220. okay? Next, I want you to work on getting the plane slowed down to the onspeed AOA of 15 cockpit units (yellow circle on AOA indexer) do this by reducing power on the throttles in combination with adding nose up trim on your stick While you do slow the plane down to onspeed, I want you to manage your decent rate... First, just try keeping the plane in level flight you are going to need to do this by moving the throttles as the plane slows to onspeed. Practice getting to and holding onspeed AOA without much deviation. Use coordinated turns with your rudder, give it a little boot to keep her out of a slip or skid and remember to step on the ball on the turn/slip indicator. Get it rock solid on that yellow circle the whole way down and you know you have mastered that one aspect! But don't forget your rate of decent... Try to go for no less than 500 feet per minute but no more than 1,000 feet per minute starting off. If you botch your approach and you look like you are too high or low, you will need to correct by changing your decent rate. Anyways, get the basics of that straight in 10 mile long boring approach only with the gear and flaps deployed... You can do a go-around, just move the throttles to MIL power and pull a little back on the stick and go around again for another practice run Get mastery of doing that, and then you can start adding more pieces to the puzzle to challenge you and so you learn how each of these variables on the Tomcat effect it in flight. Like, once you get good at that now add in the speed brakes deployed... Notice now you need more engine power to hold her where you want... Get good at that and then add in DLC and try fooling around with that. Hey, when you got all that down like you are a maestro at those Tomcat controls... Now start adding in things like the "overhead break" traffic pattern and fun stuff like trying to trap a 3-wire at the boat! But take it easy, try to break down all these elements like it is a puzzle... And each new thing you learn is like 1 more step towards completing the Tomcat puzzle. I'll be the first to admit i'm no Tomcat master, I hope these words of wisdom may help somebody who maybe is struggling with landing the Tomcat in particular. I made a video of me landing at Nellis in a A and B model, I do a pass gear and flaps only and then another with DLC and speedbrakes to a full stop landing. I have my controls indicator up, so you can see what inputs I'm giving... How am I making my power corrections, and trimming the nose up etc. I think I have some room for improvement myself, but I'm not too terrible at it... I try to juggle between keeping at onspeed AOA and staying on my glide slope I want of between 500-1,000 feet per minute. I didn't record sounds, I just wanted you guys to see the visual approach without distraction. I hope this helps some of you who are struggling, the whole Heatblur team did an amazing job on this plane and the fact that we have former F-14 pilots who are on here and engage quite regularly in posts shows that these guy truly do care about providing a quality product that sets a new benchmark in DCS and paying homage to an iconic plane that touched so many people all over the world. Edited October 31, 2021 by Baz000 4
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