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Been back to practice landing on the boat in the soup. I'm getting there....!



v6,
boNes

well done... how much more difficult is the F14 vs the F18? I was looking for a lot of info thats normally on the HUD in the F18 and didn't see it here.

this is my first....

That was a scary landing!

You may recall I had one too at night at 1:31:21



I think it is equally difficult in the Tomcat as in the Hornet for trade off reasons. You have more info in your HUD, but to me as a Tomcatter, too much info is overload and distracting. The Tomcat handles much better at slow speeds thanks to the variable wings but the Hornet is easy to trim and hold what position you want thanks to the FLCS. The Tomcat engines are better, I feel, if you need that power to bolter or waveoff faster, but at the same time they can get away from you if you're not careful. So like I was saying, about equally difficult for trade-off reasons.

I'll try doing some in the Bug too just to see again what it's like.

v6,
boNes

The difference between the Tomcat and the Hornet is touch. The Tomcat requires a stable, smooth, and gentle hand because of the lack FLCS. The 14 will provide you all the info that the Hornet does, but not in the HUD. Learning to glance and feel where the plane is comes with time, I guess. I wouldn’t know since I’ve yet to master it. Very time I take Roll SAS and Autopilot off I can’t fly in a straight line. I’m all over the place.

Part of the reason it is hard to fly a straight line is because every time the wings change position, the lift changes. So it's a constant job of trimming the aircraft. If you let your attention drift away it is easy to find youself 3000 ft higher than where you last were haha.

v6,
boNes

Grifter wrote: ↑

10 Feb 2022, 07:20

The difference between the Tomcat and the Hornet is touch.

...also the Tomcat is much more sexy!

v6,
boNes

...also the Tomcat is much more sexy!

FACT.

I do find that even keeping the turkey, that is, not rolling on its axis is difficult without the autopilot on. I fly most of the mission with autopilot on and when I have to go into combat, shutting off Roll SAS and Autopilot, it's really difficult to keep it from rolling. But, that's part of its charm for sure.

Decided to do a quick night landing hop. Got no grade due to incorrect communications, apparently. Somewhat sloppy line up but landed it.




BONUS: Finally got Imgur working to host my screenshots and my sig!

Nice going Grifter! Send me that mission when you get a chance, I'd like to try a Bug night landing.

Here is a rainy day in Normandy:



v6,
boNes

Sure. It's on its way.

Grifter wrote: ↑

11 Feb 2022, 14:51

Sure. It's on its way.

Thanks! I did it in both the Tomcat and the Bug:





I will say that the Hornet felt alot more stable in control coming in, except in the turns. Also there was so much crap on the HUD that it was blocking my view of the boat. I actually turned off the RWR in the HUD to clear it up a bit. I think I prefer the Tomcat HUD in this case because it is so much less cluttered. I mean, i don't need the altitude and speed readouts if Ive got needles and an AOA indexer. I feel like the throttle response is about the same but the Tomcat has more oomph of course--which is a blessing and a curse. In either case you gotta really make sure you don't flinch and overdo the throttle when too low or high, or they'll get away from you and screw up your approach.

v6,
boNes

I turn my HUD brightness way down and turn off most the things not needed to try and get rid of that clutter. I also noticed how tough it is on a night mission so I also turn all my room lights off.

If STEAM ever has a 50% off on the F14 Module I'll be picking it up. Seems to never be more than 30% off. Love seeing these CASE 3 traps....

Having the lights off in the room always helps, but sometimes not possible. I keep the room fairly dark anyway, a long kept tradition of huddling in the corner with my beloved PC like Golem and his ring! My precioussssssssssssss.......sorry.

Anyway, I set all displays and HUD to night. I shut of the EW HUD so as to declutter. None of that stuff is necessary 95% of the time. As a matter of fact, I never fly combat with it on unless I'm using HARMs in snowplow, which I don't really do anymore now that we have TOO mode. Instead, I bring my EW up on my left DDI, in place of the stores page. Easily referenced with a glance.

When landing in the F/A-18, I use mainly the AoA indexer and needles, of course, but I also find it helpful to be able to see airspeed and altitude. It's really easy to get behind the jet in the F/A-18 because the engines are slow to respond, and let's be honest, not all that powerful. Yeah, yeah 1 to 1 thrust ratio,sure, but really the engines aren't all that responsive and they don't catapult the jet into the stratosphere like the F-14's do. So, knowing exactly where I am in space prevents me running into the round down because I didn't power up in time. You can get be too low or too high quite easily simply because the engines take an extra second to respond. That said, the F-18 is super stable and you can turn it in place if needs be to adjust your line up, thanks to its high AoA abilities.

Sidenote----Eventually, I'm going to buy the VKB TECS throttle so that I can take advantage of the override button and suspend the FLCS for high, tight turn rate, like the F-14's bat maneuver. The F-18 can already pirouette, but with this override you can do things in the jet the computer simply won't let you do. However, be warned that, like the F-18, you now have full control over the control surfaces and you can easily snap wings off.

Grifter.

I think you, in a dogfight with me, have already snapped the wings off the Tomcat without override Grifter?

Hammer wrote: ↑

13 Feb 2022, 12:13

I think you, in a dogfight with me, have already snapped the wings off the Tomcat without override Grifter?

Never happened, you didn't see it, you can't prove anything!

(Says the RIO who saw it happen from the back seat...)

v6,
boNes

Yup. I’m so used to flying with the FLCS training wheels that I didn’t think twice about yanking on the stick. I think it’s definitely the toughest part about transitioning between the two. It’s really easy to forget and just break the plane. Obviously, practice helps, but pressing the override switch is also a healthy reminder that you purposefully cutting the computer out of the decision making.