General Category > Unofficial F/A-18 Acceleration Pack board
Flight Model Comparisons
SUBS17:
--- Quote from: capthaltli on December 31, 2011, 03:19:59 pm ---Regarding the trim, one feature I noticed in the super hornet sim, is when you adjust trim with your thumb on the stick, the trim value appeared on the HUD briefly. This was a helpful feature when in the pattern and getting the proper trim value set.
Mike, can you ask your son if the trim value shows up on the Charlie Hornet's HUD?
To the HUD developers on this forum, I think adding this feature to the HUD would be helpful in the pattern, instead of having to look for the trim setting on the checklist page, and since we don't have "seat of the pants" feel or stick force feedback in FSX or sim flying.
The trim value appeared on the HUD only when you changed it, displayed for about 2 seconds above the tacan distance in the lower right.
-CAPT
--- End quote ---
I'm now going to have to check that on the VRS SH hud. ;D
MikeB54:
--- Quote from: jimi08 on December 31, 2011, 11:54:28 am ---Hey Mike,
As Sludge mentioned, I have been working on a somewhat elaborate Pitch Auto Trim system. It first trims to 1.0 G and then to 0 pitch rate. It only does this once the the simulator has sensed that the pilot is not providing any pitch input (i.e. flight stick has been released). Once pitch input has been sensed from the pilot, the trim zeros out and allows the pilot to control the Hornet as normal, and then goes back to re-trimming the aircraft once controls are released again. I designed the autotrim system to only work when the landing gear is retracted, allowing the pilot to have full control of the trim for takeoff and landing operations.
Like the SLUDGE, my variant is a work in progress.
If you have the time, it would be great if you can check it out and give me some honest feedback (and anyone else for that matter).
Here's the link if you are interested.
http://www.fsxblueangels.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=4584
--- End quote ---
I downloaded and flew it this morning. My first impression was that I liked it. The autotrim worked well. Point the nose where you want it and it stays there. Speaking of the autotrim, to be more realistic it should activate when the flaps are set to auto rather than gear up.
Started with a field departure from Miramar using the Pitot Heat switch to set the takeoff trim. Hands off the nosewheel lifted off at about 140 kts. That might be a tad early but it depends on A/C weight so since there were no stores it is probably about right. Chris didn't seem concerend about it.
I flew out to a carrier, did the break at 800' and 350 kts. BTW, the break turn uses what Chris called the 1% rule. I think we have talked about that before. The G you pull in the turn is 1% of your airspeed, i.e. at 350 kts you should be pulling a 3.5G turn. Once the hook, gear and flaps were down I dialed in a little nose up trim. Long story short, first pass was an OK 3 in vLSO.
There is still the need for some aft stick in a turn. According to Chris, it really isn't needed on the real jet when in a carrier pattern. At least not as much as you need in FSX. When the jet is trimmed it holds "on speed" and you use power to compensate for the loss of lift in the turn.
On a catapult launch I used the pitot heat switch with the launch bar down to set the takeoff trim. On launch, the waterline goes up to about 8 degrees and stays there until changed by control input. It should be closer to 10. Also, since the cat is overpowered in FSX, I usually use 85% N2 on the cat. To see if that made a difference i also did a launch using MIL power. No change in the waterline symbol behavior.
To sum it up, the only thing that Chris didn't like was the amount of forward and aft stick needed to fly it. That's probably a limitation of FSX that we just have to live with.
Mike
MikeB54:
--- Quote from: capthaltli on December 31, 2011, 03:19:59 pm ---Regarding the trim, one feature I noticed in the super hornet sim, is when you adjust trim with your thumb on the stick, the trim value appeared on the HUD briefly. This was a helpful feature when in the pattern and getting the proper trim value set.
Mike, can you ask your son if the trim value shows up on the Charlie Hornet's HUD?
To the HUD developers on this forum, I think adding this feature to the HUD would be helpful in the pattern, instead of having to look for the trim setting on the checklist page, and since we don't have "seat of the pants" feel or stick force feedback in FSX or sim flying.
The trim value appeared on the HUD only when you changed it, displayed for about 2 seconds above the tacan distance in the lower right.
-CAPT
--- End quote ---
According to Chris, that feature was just added in a recent software release but it isn't trim that it is displaying. It is the AoA the the jet is trimmed for.
Mike
jimi08:
--- Quote from: MikeB54 on December 31, 2011, 07:58:40 pm ---I downloaded and flew it this morning. My first impression was that I liked it. The autotrim worked well. Point the nose where you want it and it stays there. Speaking of the autotrim, to be more realistic it should activate when the flaps are set to auto rather than gear up.
Started with a field departure from Miramar using the Pitot Heat switch to set the takeoff trim. Hands off the nosewheel lifted off at about 140 kts. That might be a tad early but it depends on A/C weight so since there were no stores it is probably about right. Chris didn't seem concerend about it.
I flew out to a carrier, did the break at 800' and 350 kts. BTW, the break turn uses what Chris called the 1% rule. I think we have talked about that before. The G you pull in the turn is 1% of your airspeed, i.e. at 350 kts you should be pulling a 3.5G turn. Once the hook, gear and flaps were down I dialed in a little nose up trim. Long story short, first pass was an OK 3 in vLSO.
There is still the need for some aft stick in a turn. According to Chris, it really isn't needed on the real jet when in a carrier pattern. At least not as much as you need in FSX. When the jet is trimmed it holds "on speed" and you use power to compensate for the loss of lift in the turn.
On a catapult launch I used the pitot heat switch with the launch bar down to set the takeoff trim. On launch, the waterline goes up to about 8 degrees and stays there until changed by control input. It should be closer to 10. Also, since the cat is overpowered in FSX, I usually use 85% N2 on the cat. To see if that made a difference i also did a launch using MIL power. No change in the waterline symbol behavior.
To sum it up, the only thing that Chris didn't like was the amount of forward and aft stick needed to fly it. That's probably a limitation of FSX that we just have to live with.
Mike
--- End quote ---
Big thanks to you Mike (and your son) for the feedback. Some of the things you mentioned are easily fixable and others not so much. The amount of forward/aft stick required is something that can be easily adjusted. Same things with the waterline to 10 degrees. As for getting the jet to trim based on AOA is doable. I'm guessing that's why your son made the comments earlier about being surprised about seeing the Velocity Vector moving, but not the nose with power adjustments while on approach. I'll give it another go when I have some time. The Flaps operating in Auto only when the switch setting is in Auto is the only thing, I don't know how to do yet. That involves detaching the flap switch position from the actual flaps position. Right now, as soon as the actual flaps move, the switch moves which means that if i set the flaps switch to auto (up) as soon as the actual flaps go to move based on flight conditions, the the switch will move also and will no longer be in auto mode, and thus it will break the coding logic. So I'm still working on that one.
Thanks again Mike/Chris! Very good feedback/information here!
GOONIE:
--- Quote from: MikeB54 on December 31, 2011, 08:00:38 pm ---
According to Chris, that feature was just added in a recent software release but it isn't trim that it is displaying. It is the AoA the the jet is trimmed for.
Mike
--- End quote ---
Great, sounds like we need a software update for the FSX Hornet's HUD ;)
Jivko, does this sound like something that can be added/displayed on the HUD you created?
-CAPT
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