New on F-14 Part 2 : aircraft behavior during landing

[Black Viking]

Question 1: Why is it necessary to begin the landing pattern entry with the wings set to 68°, when we switch back to auto mode right afterward?

 

Question 2: I believe I’m following the instructions by reducing speed down to 250 to lower the landing gear, then to 225 to deploy the flaps, and then deploying the spoilers. From time to time, when setting the AoA to 15° with trim, the aircraft pitches up massively around 150 knots. I can barely recover an acceptable attitude with the spoilers… in any case, maintaining altitude at 600 ft becomes impossible. What should I do? The Chuck’s Guide says not to use the stick to control pitch…
 

Thank you for your help

[speed-of-heat]

Q1 because it looks cool!

Q2 are you using DLC?

[Ivandrov]

1 hour ago, Black Viking said:

Question 1: Why is it necessary to begin the landing pattern entry with the wings set to 68°, when we switch back to auto mode right afterward?

 

Question 2: I believe I’m following the instructions by reducing speed down to 250 to lower the landing gear, then to 225 to deploy the flaps, and then deploying the spoilers. From time to time, when setting the AoA to 15° with trim, the aircraft pitches up massively around 150 knots. I can barely recover an acceptable attitude with the spoilers… in any case, maintaining altitude at 600 ft becomes impossible. What should I do? The Chuck’s Guide says not to use the stick to control pitch…
 

Thank you for your help

Question 1: There's probably an actual answer for it, but in my experience it stops the aircraft from wanting to pitch up on you as you increase speed faster than the wing sweep schedule can keep up with. It's one less thing to have to fight the pitch up with trim as you are doing the pattern.

 

Question 2: Would have to see a track to know what exactly you are talking about. Not sure why Chuck's is saying not to use the stick for pitch adjustment. You absolutely should be using the stick for pitch adjustment during the landing while you adjust the trim. (Trim adjusts the center point of the stick, so trim nose up or down can be thought of as slower stick movement for pitch.)

Edited Friday at 09:03 PM by Ivandrov

[Black Viking]

1 hour ago, speed-of-heat said:

Q1 because it looks cool!

Q2 are you using DLC?

Yes, I use the DLC. But it is not sufficient to counter the pitch. At which speed do you start the DLC?

[speed-of-heat]

Use the stick to hold yourself on the horizon, don’t use the stick once you are on speed, on speed is not an air speed , it’s an AoA. Use dlc in the final to control rate of decent, which will allow you to control it without, using the stick for pitch.

[Black Viking]

11 hours ago, speed-of-heat said:

Use the stick to hold yourself on the horizon, don’t use the stick once you are on speed, on speed is not an air speed , it’s an AoA. Use dlc in the final to control rate of decent, which will allow you to control it without, using the stick for pitch.

Thank you.

A last question : is there a specific section in the forum to address issues about TrackIR?

[speed-of-heat]

Input Devices - ED Forums

[RustBelt]

On 11/14/2025 at 2:46 PM, Black Viking said:

Question 1: Why is it necessary to begin the landing pattern entry with the wings set to 68°, when we switch back to auto mode right afterward?

 

Question 2: I believe I’m following the instructions by reducing speed down to 250 to lower the landing gear, then to 225 to deploy the flaps, and then deploying the spoilers. From time to time, when setting the AoA to 15° with trim, the aircraft pitches up massively around 150 knots. I can barely recover an acceptable attitude with the spoilers… in any case, maintaining altitude at 600 ft becomes impossible. What should I do? The Chuck’s Guide says not to use the stick to control pitch…
 

Thank you for your help

1: It has higher induced drag as a "delta" so you can scrub off speed faster. 350KTS to 150KTS in 180 degrees inside of a mile is a tight turn. It reduces the G's you pull for the same amount of slow down for the first half. 

 

2: You have too much nose up trim, or you're still way too fast. Both are timing. if you're properly level and configured to land at the start of the downwind you should be at or very near 150KIS. If you're fast, you're going to nose up hard as you roll the wings level. You want to catch 15units and about 150 from slightly "below" on the energy hill if possible. Only at the round down do they say not to use lateral stick, because by then you should be fully trimmed out for On Speed. Earlier it says don't use the E bracket or HUD Pitch SCALE to get On Speed. Use the Indexer. 

Quote

In practice, forget using the pitch on the HUD, or the E Bracket.

Both are not very accurate in the Tomcat and update too slowly to be of use.

Use the AoA Indexer instead.

Secondarily, verify you don't have some double binding driving the trim up when you put the DLC out.