OT: interesting article by and F/A-18 pilot

[leafer]

A Navy test pilot on an Air Force exchange tour

 

He got a chance to fly an F-16 and he compared the two. Pretty interesting and ED might find the information useful.

 

Cheers

[Dmut]

thanks leafer, that's interesting.

[Hellcat61]

Great article. Thanks for posting.

[Conuk]

great article...... if i hear that bloody jamster & frog again im gonna %£"!" grrr!

[S77th-konkussion]

In its original design, the Viper's control stick didn't move at all; it just measured pressure from the pilot's hand. However, after initial F-16 flight tests, a ¼ inch of stick movement was incorporated to give a small dead band and a nominal breakout force to give better "feel" of a neutral stick because otherwise it was entirely too sensitive. The control harmony is quite good (the pressures required for pitch and roll mix well), but without the capability to physically position the stick, it's easy to contaminate roll inputs with unwanted pitch inputs, and vice versa.

 

 

 

A 1/2" of stop to stop stick input... wow.. that has GOT to be awkward.

[Dmut]

1/2" - it's deadzone, plane doesn't react to movement in that zone. But when you reach the end of deadzone and apply pressure on stick in some direction, then plane react accoding to volume of pressure. there are strain gage transducers (tensometric sensors) in the base of stick.

[169th_Crusty]

1/2" - it's deadzone, plane doesn't react to movement in that zone. But when you reach the end of deadzone and apply pressure on stick in some direction, then plane react accoding to volume of pressure. there are strain gage transducers (tensometric sensors) in the base of stick.

 

Almost like my worn out Cougar :)... except, no strain gage past that point.:(

[S77th-konkussion]

ahh ok I see that now. There's an F16 cockpit in the tiny museum here- but they have the stick welded in place or something. Can't move it at all. Several of the panels are obviously not original either- but neat nonetheless.

[Cobra360]

Unless its made to be a YF-16 cockpit. The stick did not move at all in the YF-16, and a bit of ''play'' was introduced so thats how the stick stops are so small. And when the pilot opens the inflight refuling door the FCS automatically limits how far the stick will even more so you will have less than a quarter inch stick movements.

 

It's like the flight controls of the former Su-37.

[Dmut]

there was few experimental russian planes with tensometric HOTAS (with tensometric stick and TQS!), but they never gets to production, since pilots don't like that type of controls.

[Pilotasso]

there was few experimental russian planes with tensometric HOTAS (with tensometric stick and TQS!), but they never gets to production, since pilots don't like that type of controls.

 

 

Russians are in love for dials and million button cockpits... ;)

[Dmut]

Russians are in love for dials and million button cockpits... ;)

No really :D

It's a question of cost to perfomance ratio.

New Migs for India and some new Su's have 2-3 color MFDs in the pit.

[leafer]

I think it even less than 1/2"; something like 1/4" deadzone. I like the bit when the Viper instructor predicts that the Hornet driver would over rotate and dip the right wing on first takeoff in the F-16; neat little detail. But I still like the center stick better because of its cool factor.

 

Just in case some of you missed it, scroll to the top and click on the 'flight journal' link and you'll see many more articles. Or click here and scroll to the bottom.

 

Btw, anyone has good photos of F/A-18 cockpit?

 

And check this out if you love cats:

Cheetah cam. :D