Instant Action - Nevada - Landing (Is that a challenge mission?)

[Hamilton]

Dear friends,

I bought the Spitfire today and thanks to the kindness of members here who answered my questions plus what I read (here) on the forum, I was feeling good with my learning curve, I did the training lessons and some other other Instant missions (everything was fine,  UNTIL  that " Instant Action - Nevada - Landing" 

What the heck is that?  That´s really a Challenge Mission... 

The main problem is that runway is too narrow and you kind of loose reference close the touchdown besides that a narrower-than-usual runway can create an illusion that the aircraft is higher than it actually is.

So, if you have the Nevada map is worth a try. 

[flyco]

A straight-in landing is a bit of a rush.  However, the runway is not that narrow and at least it is nice and long.   As for staying in the runway, as you round out, pick a cloud formation or terrain on the nose and use that for direction.  All you then need to do is be aware of the edges of the runway on left and right.  You might want to zoom back and get a wider picture during the last 200 ft or so.

[Ala13_ManOWar]

Hehe, yeah, that happens IRL either. Narrow (or wide given the case) runways different than the one you usually operate from deceive you to think you're higher or lower than you think you actually are hence late (or non at all) roll out happens, then bounces and what not occur. Or the other way around, a wide runway tricks you to roll out too high so you stall the aircraft thinking you're just fine to discover you flared some 10 or 20 feet above the runway so your smooth gentle perfect flare results in a bad crash .

There's no solution to that but to look outside the cockpit… IRL it's at the same time harder since you're just squeezed in the cockpit and you don't want to stop watching the instrument panel (ill habit) but easier since you kind of see by the corner of the eye so you learn to watch carefully to those hints. In the simulator, well, it's somewhat easier to look for the clues once you learn to find them and you're usually used to watch for screen clues since there's no feeling, but it's harder until you unlearn the old habit of not taking care of that kind of detail. You can watch outside the cockpit but you probably have to move your head either with trackIr, VR or the view system you use, and look for those clues you have to learn. Ground textures do help in recognising you are actually higher, or specially lower than you think you are at the roll out time so you don't flare late, or don't flare at all, as it's happening to you there.

It's no extra difficult mission, but in the new maps of DCS, though Nevada was the first in which I noticed that kind of effect (as it happens IRL which amazes me of DCS ), specially in narrow runways it happens and you have to learn to watch for your clues in order to roll out in time. Nevada has several of those extra narrow though long runways, but there're more where it happens, the newer the map the more it happens since they have more realistic runway sizes and geometry.

[LeCuvier]

On 2/5/2022 at 12:14 AM, Hamilton said:

...So, if you have the Nevada map is worth a try. 

I fly the Spit rarely and I like a challenge...
First time I tried it was almost dark and I could hardly find the runway. Fortunately there was some parked aircraft or vehicle and I had labels on so I could locate the runway. I managed to land, but ended up on the grass.
In the following runs there was reasonable daylight and that helped. I crashed more often than was good for my ego. I lack practice with the brake steering of course and that doesn't help. The advice from @flyco is nice, but I could not find anything like clouds that would serve as reference. I generally land taildraggers with a relatively steep descent at 10m/ (2000FPM) vertical speed and pull up to 5 m/s (1000 FPM) when I'm rather close to the threshold, so I lose visibility of the runway rather late in the game. But this runway is so narrow that it doesn't help. I have to agree with @Hamilton: this mission is very challenging and the runway is very narrow.
In fact, a lot of the Instant Action missions are very challenging and could be discouraging for newbies.

The other finding for me is the changes of daylight conditions. My first run was at dawn with little visibiliy, and then there was more and more daylight. That means mission start time changes.
What causes this variation? I looked at the mission's "Time and Weather" tab, and I found a slider with -1 and +1 at the endpoints I haven't noticed before. The User Guide does not not show it, so it's apparently something new. I wonder if that's what controls the start time variation?

 

PS: I created copies of this mission replacing the Spit with FW-190A and Bf-109K4. Both were easier to land because I have visibility of the runwayright and left of the aircrafft before and after touchdown.

 

Edited March 14, 2022 by LeCuvier