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Carrier Landings

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Intrepid:
Microbrewst; Thats quite the lesson  8),Thanks
I have been able to land ,just not very pretty
now I can work on perfecting it , to look a little
more professional  ;)
Randy

Scoutdriver:
I agree with the others. Mircro, that is a great guide you posted.

deltaleader:
Ok. I have been going at this like mad...this section doesnt seem to add up for me:

"At about 3 miles reduce power slightly and slowly pitch up to maintain altitude while watching the indexer. As you get an "orange donut", hold your pitch and increase power to maintain altitude. This is where the throttle hand will start to get it's work-out and is also the point where power will control altitude/glideslope and pitch will control speed/aoa. As you do this, note the speed that gets you that "orange donut" (for this discussion we'll say that its 126kts) and trim the airplane. Remember, once an airplane is trimmed for a certain speed, it will maintain that speed as long configuration is not changed. So, if you are trimmed for 126kts and add power you will simply climb at 126kts, and if you reduce power you will decend at 126kts. Keep making power adjustments to hold altitude (for this discussion we'll say that the throttle is moving between 50-55% of its range to hold altitude)."

IF I maintain the orange donut at 126kts...my descent rate is well over 900 ft/m.  50-55% throttle puts me at roughly 170 kts.  Has anyone got this work based on this guide? I am just perplexed with this F18 trying to land on the carrier.  I have been able to land so many other planes with out problem not sure why this one just doesnt even work for me. ???

micro:
Those numbers I stated are merely examples. As I said before, the speed which gets you a donut will vary with weight. It may be 130kts, it may be 119kts, it may be anything. Your task is to find out what it is and hold it. As far as your decent rate, you are under-powered. If you have a donut, you can do anything you want with your vertical speed. All it takes is power.

Next time you are in FS try this example. Get configured for an approach (gear, flaps, hook). Get a donut in the virtual cockpit in the same way that you always do. Now, go to military power and pitch up to hold that donut. What will happen is that you will climb like crazy. Then, pull the power to idle and pitch down to hold the donut. You will fall out of the sky. The point is: use that power.

Also, the throttle positions I stated were just for the sake of discussion. What I was trying to show you was that IF you were using 50-55% of throttle range to hold altitude that you will need to reduce power to hold a 3 degree glideslope.

As far as why this plane is so tough to fly, it's because it is the most realistic simulation of carrier ops that I have ever seen outside of military training facilities.

So to clarify: there are no set numbers for the approach. Getting aboard a ship is truly an art and will be different every time.

crim3:

--- Quote from: deltaleader on January 13, 2008, 01:23:47 am ---IF I maintain the orange donut at 126kts...my descent rate is well over 900 ft/m.  50-55% throttle puts me at roughly 170 kts.  Has anyone got this work based on this guide? I am just perplexed with this F18 trying to land on the carrier.  I have been able to land so many other planes with out problem not sure why this one just doesnt even work for me. ???

--- End quote ---
If your plane is well trimmed when you are flying at around 126kts, at 170kts you should be doing a lot of forward stick, hence the raise in speed. You don't let speed reduce again.
When you add throttle to a plane, the first thing that happen is, of course, a rise in speed. This increment will rise the nose. The nose up will make you go up (or down at less vertical speed if you were in a descent) and will reduce speed. Less speed will make the nose go down, then speed rises and the cycle begins again. After some oscillations you should end up at the same speed you had before touching the throttle setting, but with a different rate of climb. The inverse happens when you reduce power.

When you change your altitude through power adjustment (which is how it's done in any "boring" regular flight) the stick or yoke input is needed only to reduce or even eliminate those oscillations. If you keep the nose at the angle you now it will be more or less once the speed has stabilized again the nose dance can be avoided.

Forget the carrier and make a free fly. Stabilize the plane at certain altitude, speed and throttle setting (autopilot can do that for you, once you are in level flight, if you turn it off the plane is perfectly trimmed). Then do little throttle corrections and see what happens. On the other hand if you don't change throttle but change nose pitch (easiest way to do that is to change pitch trim instead of using the stick), you'll end up with a level flight at different speed.

With a powerful plane like the f-18, in the final approach, you have to do insanely little modifications in the throttle and anticipate a lot to keep it in the path. That's why it's so difficult. I find particularly difficult the amount of anticipation needed. You can't wait till the plane needs a correction, then it's too late. You have to do the correction earlier so it won't need any. :-/

Sorry if you already knew all this, I don't know you so I don't know your flying skills/knowledges. But it could be useful to others anyway. The first time a read about this so many years ago it changed the way of flying completely. It's again human intuition, so it's difficult to find it out by oneself.

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