Tutotorial: F/A-18C Instrument Approach into Khasab 010623

[Bones]

Here is a mini tutorial showcasing an non-precision instrument approach into Khasab. This is one of the things I love about DCS besides the combat. You can actually do real approaches and such.

So this is a non precision approach meaning it is not an ILS or ICLS approach. You don't have the benfit of a localizer which tells where you are in the approach laterally, or a glideslope indicator thich tells you where you are on the descent path. In fact a non precision approach might not even get you right to the runway, but may get you close enough to find the runway and make the correction in time to land on it. You may have to "circle to land" or "sidestep", or some othe manuever to make it onto the runway.

In this case, it took me right to the runway threshhold. Normally you have to have 1/4 SM visibility to make an instrument approach (hence why some airports close an cancel your flight!). This mission was actually a stock in flight refueling mission so it wasn't meant to be for landing and the weather they had set for it had Khasab fogged in to much less than 1/4 sm. So normally if you had at least that visibility, you'd be able to make the needed corrections on a non-precision approach to make the landing. In this case there was not, and so you're supposed to do a missed approach, but for the purposes of this tutorial, I made the landing anyway.

Have a look, I explain what I'm doing as well:



v6,
boNes

[Trichome]

Hey Bones not sure if its just me but I cant hear your voice

[Bones]

I checked before i posted and it's audible just fine. I'm not talking in the first part, I don't talk until after the middle (the first part is all set up)

But now that I scroll ahead, it seems as if the video doesn't play...I don't get it, it was fine before. I hope it's just a YouTube fluke cuz I already deleted the video.

V6,
boNes

[Bones]

OK, checked it again. For some reason if you scroll ahead or click on the timestamp, it goes ahead and hangs, loading....but after a minute or so it does play. It's really weird.

I start talking around 3:30 and do more and more as the video goes on.

v6,
boNes

[Bones]

Hey Trichome I checked again, it must have been a YouTube thing because it loads and plays properly now not like before. Again, I don't talk until quote a bit into it so maybe just wait longer or jump to the timestamps.

v6,
boNes

[Trichome]

Okay I hear it now. My fault. I saw lots of button being pressed but didnt hear any voice and assumed the voice was low.

[Bones]

Oh I will add also that the drift to the side of the runway was also due to once the end of runway lights went under my nose I no longer had a point of reference to keep straight. Again, would not happen in real life because in real life you simply wouldn't do the landing. But hey, I'm invulnerable in a sim! At least for tutorial purposes.

v6,
boNes

[Trichome]

That was pretty cool. Watched it al the way through. It was only after about 1500 you drifted to about 195. NICE save when you touched down.

I really need to put more effort into this type of landing. Usually Ill cheat and peek at the F10 map and I know about 3nm out I need to be at 1200ft... really sloppy on my part.

Thanks for making the video

[Bones]

Thanks, no problem, I thought ppl might be interested. There are some other factors that occurred to me in this video. I believe I tried calling the airport that I was inbound, but the usual radio bug was playing into this. SO with no response, that means they also didn't turn on the runway lights. I think that would have helped immensely if they did. I think. Maybe with the fog that would have made it worse too, I dunno. But, I should've just cut the power when I passed the end of runway lights instead of maintaining proper power setting to keep the AOA donut on. That way I would have touched down even before I started drifting, which I should have corrected for when I saw the horizon line in the HUD tilting. There's a whole lot going on in an instrument approach, there's enough going on in a regular VFR approach as it is. But I am convinced that for larger say commercial aircraft, that's why they have a pilot and co-pilot. One person flies while the other helps guide him in and "coaches" him.

I'll look for more places I can do instrument approaches and make vids of those as well. I'm sure you can just feel that pucker factor as I descend into the soup, huh? I sure did! Also, the "save"--beside anti skid being on, don't jam the brakes, but use slight pressure or pump them. In this case since I landed right, I applied slight pressure to the left brake, not to both, and not using the rudders to steer, to turn my nose back toward centerline. Then compensated back with right brake. Back and forth until I have her under control and centered, then I apply full brakes from both and aerobrake with the flight surfaces. Again, not jamming on the brakes even then. You wouldn't do that in your car to stop, neither should you in the aircraft.

v6,
boNes