F/A-18 C/D aircraft mod and textures (FSX/P3D)

[hd764jvgd843]

Pat, thanks for the valuable hint. I remember having already screwed around with R401, but did not really notice what it actually achieved. Your explanations concerning R404 in plain english helped a lot. One thing that remains a mystery to me is how they derive the R404 table's x-values representing specific AoAs.

For R401 I found a general function from an F-16, I use for experimentation. If you want to tweak it I have attached it below.

Concerning the USMC_VMFA-333 textures, I have already finished two of them and I am working on a third. It will become a small study transitioning from clean to dirty.

I also did finish the adjustments that assign each model version a specific .air file, so we can tweak R341 (elevator efficiency) for each model version according to its weight, to achieve a more conguent pitch behaviour throughout the entire pack of configurations. However, the degradation with the loss of weight due to consumed fuel will remain.

Before the weekend I hope being able to release an other upgrade.
Peter

[PhantomTweak]

I haven't the foggiest idea about the X values in R404. YET. But I'll finger it out. I believe it has to do with R404 not only being used for total drag, but also for Pitch Moment calculations, as explained in Section 6.3.2, ppgs 28-31 of Yves' PDF.  Mainly, the equation at the top of ppg. 30. From what I can see, you would do better to change R517 vice R341 for that, but i may well be wrong about that. There is gets a bit complex for me, but if you like I can try studying it and getting what I can figure out posted for you. May take me a bit, as it's a little complex in the math, but I did learn all this good stuff in AVI-C7 school, the Navy's version of a BSEE degree. Of course, that was in '82, and for Electronics, and i've slept since then   But hey, math is math.
This also feeds into your questions regarding the elevators vs. weight questions, especially the equation at the top of ppg. 30. You can clearly see how CG is involved in this equation. I'll do what I can, but it'll take me a few days, given my limited time for this fun stuff.

By the by thank you for that R401. I was looking at Dino's F-14 and T45, since an F-14 is an unreasonable facsimile of an F/A 18, I think. Aside from being one of my favorite aircraft of all time. First one I ever saw was taking off at MCAS Yuma at dusk as I was walking a post out on the flight line (Yeah, great thing for a Sgt to do, believe me. NOT!). After I saw it lift to about 20'AGL and accelerate all the way down the runway in full burner, then go vertical till it was out of sight, still with the blowers lit, really awestruck me, I can tell you that! It was an incredible display, with the sunset colors in the sky, but dark enough to see the blower cones clearly. Loud as heck too!
Of course, I also saw a F/A-18C or E, I'm not sure, but I know it has better than 1:1 thrust to weight, as it slowed down along the runway at about 200' AGL, AOA increasing, until it was sitting on the tail on pure thrust. Everyone on the flightline was awestruck. We thought we were going to see a bad crash, but itstead, it just went up! Fast. No one had ever seen that before. Apparently  he was tying to see how it would look at the Airshow in El Centro that year, but they decided it was too dangerous and deleted it from the program. Still neat to watch!!
But I digress. I apologize. I'll post on all this as soon as i can!

Pat☺

[hd764jvgd843]

Upgrade: 2.2.0

Changelog:
- minor texture improvements throughout the pack
- NH textures USMC_VMFA-333 added
- adjustments to assign each model version a specific .air file
- R401 changed
- R341 adjusted for each model version/loadout

Have fun,
Peter

[PhantomTweak]

Thanks Peter! Those VMFA-333 textures look great! I recall them on Phantoms, there at what we called Beautiful Beufort (pronounced bull-fart. When the wind was right, the smell off the tidal wetlands was pretty horrific. I really felt for the PI recruits!) by the Sea, but this is what they looked like just prior to my departure. I left pretty much during transition.
Thanks again! Great flights and fair winds to all...
I'll try out the new FDE's and see what I can break
Pat☺

[Corvette99]

Every time I see an update is getting close , I feel like a kid waiting for a new toy !
Keep up the great work guys !

[hd764jvgd843]

Hi Jimi,
I just tried playing around with the gun mode of the HUD and noticed that it does not seem to work anymore. I had a quick look and noticed that you have changed some things. I assume it has something to to with the gun and flares animations xml. Is there any way to trigger guns and flares separately? - key 'i' always triggers them both simultaneously. I got the combat HUD working again when I reinserted the original combat HUD .xml and .cab files. Before I try to mess with it I like to know your reasoning behind the changes, so I do not counteract your efforts.

Best regards, Peter

Edit: Another anomaly I have noticed is that I cannot disable the wing flex for the model C version Trainer. I have commented out the gauge from panel.cfg and even renamed/removed wingflex.xml, but the wings still flex under load. Have I missed something, is there any other thing I could try?

[PhantomTweak]

Happy 4th of July to all!!
Peter, are you using hte Master Arm and Guns mode switches on the main panel, or the HUD's Switch Panel? It's the HUD's switch panel that does the real controlling of it all. I am pretty sure all the MA switch on the main panel is only used for disabling/enabling the FCS now.
At least it worked for me...?
Pat☺

[hd764jvgd843]

Must have been blind. Didn't see the most obvious thing, already integrated into main panel. Thanks, Pat!

[PhantomTweak]

Glad I could help

Must have been blind.

And don't feel bad, I AM 1/2 blind. Lost my left one when I ran into a horse on my motorcycle at 60 MPH, back in '92. For the life of me, I STILL can't figure out how a horse got on my motorcycle! Sorry, standing joke. I don't recall the actual impact, but we figure it reared at the last second, and rode the fairing up (Old CHIPS type police bike, I loved that bike!!!) and scraped me off the back. I still have the the helmet I was wearing around here someplace, with a nice bright yellow stripe down one side where my head ricocheted off the pavement as I bounced down the highway for a bit. Knocked the retina loose, and it collapsed down into the bottom of hte eye. The doctors over at Scrip's in LA tried to put it back with an experimental procedure, but it failed, so now...nothing. Hurt like a mother though, I'll tell you that! I've been told I was dead on the table for about 5 or 6 minutes too...

Absurd headline in the Yuma paper the next day (really and for true!): Horse dies in motorcycle accident. Totally asinine, but that Yuma!

I hated that place with a blind passion for nearly 30 years, from the day I first saw it till I managed to escape it. /shudder/

Pat☺

[jimi08]

Hey Peter,

Got some paint requests for the NH when you get the time.  Test Pilot School & Might Shrikes please.  Thanks.

[hd764jvgd843]

Hello Jimi,

I will put these textures on the top of my list, because they should be fairly simple to realize compared to the other ones I like to do later:

- Test Pilot School
- Mighty Shrikes, VFA-94

- VX-31, China Lake

- VFC-12_14 (white/grey)
- VFC-13_06 (blue/grey)
- VFC-13_12 (brown/grey)
(all three schemes with the diagonal grey triangle along the wings)

Recently, when I disabled my Accu-Feel addon I noticed that the VC sounds could need some improvement. I put that on my to do list, too and will try to add some dynamic turbine and wind sounds, but it will probably take some time to figure out how to manipulate these in the right directions. I also noticed what when you put the engines into idle during a flyby from a tower perspective the sound completely dies, I will try to fix that also.

Concerning the AoA limits/limiters, after having talked with Sludge, I came to the conclusion that I will try to reintroduce some code in the Pitch_Auto_Trim.xml I did earlier this year trying to mimic some basic boundaries for the jet.

So, these are the current plans for the near future. Everything else I've put back and will save for the rainy winter days.

Peter

[PhantomTweak]

Hello all! Hope y'all (no, I'm not Southern, I just think it's a good way to express the plural of "you") are having a great holiday weekend!

Peter, I'm looking forward to the updates, eagerly as always

Jimi, a question, if I may on Pitch Auto-Trim: I have found that with the aurotrim active (no autopilot etc etc), when I am hand-flying the plane at altitude, say above 30K' MSL, the nose oscillated up and down at a steady rate with 0 stick input. I watched the display on the Data Page (Shft+8)  and saw that the pitch auto trim system was doing it, with about a +/- 0.1 constant trim variation, and a +/- 0.01 Trim Rate reading. I took a look at the Pitch_auto_trim.XML file, and saw it specified the 0.01 trim center setting, thus
(L:FCS_PITCH_CENTER, enum) 1 ==
(A:AIRSPEED TRUE,knots) 50 > and
(A:ELEVATOR TRIM POSITION, percent) -0.01 < and
        if{ 0 (>K:AXIS_ELEV_TRIM_SET) } els{  } .
If I were to change that to, say, 0.001 would it reduce the obviousness of the oscillations? Or would this affect it adversely in other ways?
It does the same thing at low altitude also (500'MSL), but the nose oscillation in pitch isn't noticable at low altitudes.
I took screen caps of the Data Display up at low and High altitudes, 0° AOA, and will post them if you want (my description may be leaving something important out you want to see).
No rush, I plan on playing with this a little bit to see what happens, I just thought I might get input from the guy that wrote the gauge in the first place

One more, if I may here: why is it the Lights.xml file has

<Gauge Name="F/A-18A LEX Vapor">

<Comment>
  "F/A-18 Medium G LEXVapor - Triggers/Stops - +4.5 G, +210 KIAS, -20K' baro."
 </Comment>

At the top, yet it has nothing to with LEX vapor? It's IS called in the Panel.cfg file, thus:

gauge41=FX!Lights,

I am confused, which is a normal state for me
Thanks in advance for an answer you may give
Pat☺

[jimi08]

Pat,

The oscillations are due to the "Bang-Bang" technique that I used on the system.  I've tried my best to minimize the oscillations, but they are always there.  Due to the increased maneuverability at altitude, they are probably more noticeable there and at higher speeds, there the control surfaces are more effective.  My recommendation would be to play around with the trim effectiveness.  This can be done in either the Aircraft CFG or in the .Air File.

The code that you referenced refers to the "trim centering" that occurs once you pull or push on the stick.  That function zeros out the trim, so you get a consistent, unbiased pull, without residual trim every time you place G on the jet.  With the new techniques that ORION and I are working with, this should be fixed on the new version.

Speaking of New Version, ORION and I have been making some outstanding progress on it this week.  We were able to accomplish the following:

-Pitch Rate & G Command "Blending" for the FCS.  This means that at higher speeds, the FCS resorts to a G commanded system where pilot input results in a consistent G regardless of speed at 390 KTAS and above.  Between 390 and 230 KTAS, the system combines G and Pitch Rate inputs to give a blended solution.  Below 230 KTAS and below, pilot input results in a consistent Pitch Rate.

-Roll Axis PI Controller.  We now have a PI controller that controls roll rate as well and works to assure max rate is below 240 deg/sec, regardless of speed

-Pitch Rate & AOA Command Blending.  Pitch Rate and AOA inputs are not blended based on percentage of max flaps deployed while in Powered Approach (PA) mode.  At 45 degrees Trailing Edge Flaps, pilot input are 100% AOA commanded.

-Reduced AOA Command Region.  Before we had max rate for AOA mode set to a max of 55 deg/sec while in PA mode.  Thanks to the help of SLUDGE, we've reduced this to a max of 12 deg/sec in PA mode.  Results are much better and less sensitive.

-Manual Trim On Command for G and AOA Modes.  Manual trim is now implemented in the FCS.  In Up and Away (UA) mode, the pilot trim input adjusts the baseline G that the system trims for one the stick is released.  Normally this is set to 1 G.  Pitch authority across whole axis is adjusted based on new trim inputs.  In PA mode, manual trim input changes the baseline AOA that the system will trim to upon neutral stick (pilot can now dial in the AOA that he wished the FCS to maintain).  Again the authority across the whole axis is adjusted based on new trim input.

-Autopilot Re-Integration.  Default autopilot functionality has been re-integrated into the system.

-Input Disconnection.  All manual stick control inputs are nulled once hydraulic pressure falls below 1200 PSI and if the APU is off.

Still working on the tweaking of the PI Controllers and a few other things.  All-in-all, definitely a push in the right direction!

[PhantomTweak]

Jimi, you never cease to amaze. That was the solution. I made a few minor trim system setting in the air file and the aircraft.cfg, and the problem went away. I am still working on returning the settings to as close as they were to where I started to balance what has to be done to loose the oscillations and how the system worked originally, as you had the xml's set for what it WAS.
Thank you so much for you input!
Speaking of XML's, have you had a chance (I know you're busy as heck, no hurry at all!) at the lights.xml I mentioned in my last post? It just makes me wonder. I can't find a version without the mislabeling (at least I think it is) up at the top of the file, as I posted. Even the two Sludge and Hanimod versions have it.
Just wondering, is all, no real impact either way.
Last, but certainly not least, I am eagerly looking forward to you next update. I am beginning to think you guys are working tword a system as close to how the real plane's FCS actually functions as is possible! Never give up! You all rock...
Not that Peter is any slouch, by the way. He still leaves me in the dust!
By the by, you all have a new fan. Check the General forum for a post by a username of Snowman.
Pat☺

[PhantomTweak]

One last question for you, if I may, Jimi (or anyone else, for that matter):
I was looking for a way to turn on a smoke of some sort for low level aerobatics training (of me). Do I need to put a Blue Angels panel on a plane to do this? Also, what is the difference between smoke.xml in the current version (Peter's NH v2.2.0 that is) and F18_Show_Smoke.xml in the Sludge Hornet? Are they just different ways to do the same thing?
Also, How does one trigger the smoke? I read throught the XML, but I can't figure it out for the life of me. It seems to me one needs  a cockpit switch or key combination to do it. The "I" key triggers the cannon and Flares, so that's not it...
Any help will be greatly appreciated as always
Pat☺