landing on carrier in FSDT -- FA18_C/D -- VFA-192.

First landing attempts on carrier Nimitz, in FSDT -- FA18_C/D -- VFA-192.

(Actually two attempts, I combined the images into one series. The first one I was a little high and fast so went around. No AB for that of course! )

I hope the pics are not to dark.

Main men on deck:

WOW!!! Great pic's

Dan

I am taking the liberty to post a few of your pics with 'Color Correction' and a tiny 'resize' (which does a 'auto' Sharpen of pic) using IrFanView. PM me and I will email you a 'how-to' for the next time you post. Or, just to improve the digital pics you take. Cheers.

Chuck B

Thanks guys. That means a lot to me!

Glad you enjoyed them.

I can use some pointers. For example, some of these I reduced in quality because they were over 500kb. I used Caesium for that. There must be a better way to reduce filesize. I'll have a look a IrFanView.

Il88pp

Sorry, but I never did videos. I just press 'V' every so often. Switching views while on approach to squeeze off a shot, and then quickly back in the seat to check pitch and speed are still ok. Then after landing I park and have a look at how the pics turned out.

I would like to see my landings actually, but I'm afraid it will eat into the frames to much.

I just noticed I made a small error. This is not the VFA-192 paint, but VFA-27.

Sorry, but I never did videos. I just press 'V' every so often. Switching views while on approach to squeeze off a shot, and then quickly back in the seat to check pitch and speed are still ok. Then after landing I park and have a look at how the pics turned out.

I would like to see my landings actually, but I'm afraid it will eat into the frames to much.

 

I just noticed I made a small error. This is not the VFA-192 paint, but VFA-27.

Don't worry. Your shots are great!! It's hard to imagine you doing all that while still learning to land on a carrier. Think how good they'll get after you "settle in."

Believe me, RW in the 60's the carriers seemed really small in a huge ocean when trying to find them to deliver mail and such!

GREAT pictures, and Chuck's "corrections" make them even better! Nice job on the traps, too!

It's hard to imagine you doing all that while still learning to land on a carrier.

It aint easy, believe me! But practice, practice, practice! And for me, a TON of FCLPs. Some days, I do well, others...MORE practice!

I think one of the things I LOVE about that plane is that the Velocity Vector on the HUD actually shows where you're gonna hit. I just work the throttle to keep it in the right place, and that's where the plane goes.

Mr. il88pp, fantastic job, but if I may offer one little teensey bit of assistance: In picture 7, if you look on the right side of the hUD, you have the trim set to 10.1°. The correct setting for the F/A-18C and D is 8.1°. I think you will find things a lot easier if you get in the habit of setting it there when hitting the carrier (or a runway on land) as soon as put the gear down. Once you hit 250KIAS, drop the gear, full flaps, and slowly, as you slow down, bring the trim up to 8.1° on the HUD. It only shows for 5 seconds, if the pitch and the trim are matched. It will also make the E speed display (just left of the VV) show properly to match the AOA indicator. I always do, then fly the throttle to keep the VV pointed where I want to go. Of course, if you use auto throttle, use pitch to make the plane go where you want. Autothrottle will try to match the pitch to what you have inputted with the pitch trim, though, so again, the secret number, according to the NATOPS, is 8.1°.

Of course, I'm not saying all this what you HAVE to do, it's just the way Jimi designed it to all work together to make you look Sierra Hotel :p

EDIT: OH! I wanted to mention, AICarriers.NET usually uses the Nimitz, and it is 111.00 for the TACAN/ILS systems. By default, the steering arrow is set to NAV1, and since there isn't a NAV2, just punch 11100 ENTER into the UFC on the ILS selection. You can turn the ILS needles on and off with the proper button in the HUD Control Panel (SHFT+2). When first learning the carrier, I've found it's easiest to have them showing, and once you get really good, turn them off, and just use the steering arrow and the IFOLS to make yourself look good :D Or, have them on until you hit the 1 mile mark on the TACAN DME (right side of the HUD, under the pitch setting indication), then turn them off and use the IFOLS. Hope this helps out a little :D

Have fun!

Pat☺

Thanks Rupert and Pat,

I need to clear something up. I did quite a few carrier landings in fsx before. But always in the default fa-18. First the default carriers (Hawai mostly), then using AICarriers and the Nimitz in different variations.

It's "just" the FSDT-FA18 C/D that is new here.

Thanks for the tip on trim. I just did two more carrier landings and now I see your post I chacked the pics and saw this time I had trim around 6.7.

I've had some difficulties with trim and pitch. It's weird, sometimes it flies great, but at slower speeds the nose just drops no matter what trim I put in. It's almost as if there is some boundary throttle setting, and going slightly belw or above has a huge effect on pitch. And after the nose drops it's really hard to hold the nose up again. Only way is to pull up and add a lot of power it seems.

But, I haven't done enough flying in it to really describe it well enough. There is a lot going on at these speeds.

I flew heavy irons almost exclusively last year, so it's a big transition back to fighter planes.

Just wanted to mention, I seem to have more control over trim if I engage then disengage the autopilot once before taking off.

I also found the 'Arm' button to switch trim off. And I fly with flaps to manual.

I never knew the trim was in the HUD. I told you in the other thread (in the fsx forum) that I found the manual. It's now printed out and awaiting reading.:p

I have no idea what a velocity vector is. velocity=speed, vector indicates direction, but then I'm stuck....

I do see -VV- (almost a W) in the HUD, but that's it. I'll see there's something in the manual about that too. EDIT:--Saw your explanation in the other thread. That'll tie me over for now.:) Thanks.

Thanks for the hints, I'll aim for 8.1 next time and see if the pitch/handeling improves.

il88pp

Whatever you do, DON'T turn the FCS off! That's what the ARM switch does. Just leave it on. The manual trim is available at all times in the v15.6, even with the FCS on, unlike every other version, where the FCS disables manual trim. Engaging the autopilot also disables the FCS. By turning it ON then Off again, you are just resetting all the FCS settings to their default starting points, and they continue from there.

Make sure that when you take off, you have the pitch trim set with the little button in the middle of the Rudder Trim knob, just aft of the Throttle Quadrant, on the left side panel, and 1/2 flaps. It makes take-offs automatic, and will raise the nose to 10.1° for a carrier launch, 12° for a normal runway take-off. Remember, during a catapult shot off the boat, hands off the stick (ok you can be TOUCHING it in the sim) until the plane is actually flying. Generally, on a cat shot, you only need 100% throttle, not AB, and 1/2 flaps. Easy way to set it in a land based, runway takeoff is to hit full throttle, which will light the burners, then hit SHFT+F4 to drop down to 100%, or MIL power. On the Boat, once you are locked into the cat, just use the F3 key until the engine is at 99% on the Engine page of the display in the cockpit. If you just go straight to full Afterburner, you will come out of hte Holdback bar and move out of the catapult. I always fly with the Keyboard throttle, the F1 through F4 keys.

I've had some difficulties with trim and pitch. It's weird, sometimes it flies great, but at slower speeds the nose just drops no matter what trim I put in. It's almost as if there is some boundary throttle setting, and going slightly below or above has a huge effect on pitch. And after the nose drops it's really hard to hold the nose up again. Only way is to pull up and add a lot of power it seems.

A trick a lot of new F/A-18 pilots are taught is to go up to 10,000' or 12,000' MSL and then slow down, drop the gear and flaps, practice setting your pitch trim and then keeping the Velocity Vector centered on the horizon line with the throttle. I abbreviate Velocity Vector as VV a lot, but I see that's confusing, and I apologize. Do NOT confuse VV (for Velocity Vector) with the W on the HUD, which is called a Waterline. It is an arbitrary, fixed point on the HUD, used as a reference when the Velocity Vector isn't visible. Like right after touchdown on the boat, for example, if you need to make a Go-Around, or Bolter, as soon as you touch, you go full throttle, then, when you fly off the end of the deck, you set the W (waterline) on 10° with the stick until you get your Velocity Vector settled down. I strongly suggest backing off the throttles a lot at that point or you will be very fast very soon.

The Velocity Vector on the HUD is the little circle that is there all the time. It represents you (your plane) and that's why it has the three lines sticking out of it. One for the rudder, and two for the wings. It shows where the Air Data Computer on the plane thinks the plane is going, or it's "Flight Path". It's a good way to tell, at a glance, where you may be headed. Way below the Horizon line, you are sinking, way above, you are rising. Rapidly :D

When you slow to "on speed", with the gear and flaps down, the Velocity Vector is what you watch. It will tell you where you are going to hit the boat (or not). The other symbology I hope I explained adequately in the other post :D If not, let me know, and I'll try my best. I am a lousy teacher though.

Again, I hope all this rambling helps out a little bit...

Again, ANY questions you may have I will try my best to answer them, or give you a link that will help (I know, MORE reading ;D ). Me, in my off time, I read through the FA-18's NATOPS manual, which is the NAVY's version of "The F/A-18 for dummies". ANYthing done in the Navy is done according to the NATOPS, or you get in trouble! :D ANY plane, ALL carrier ops, ATC, you name it, they all have a NATOPS manuals. AND the F/A-18A/B/C/D one is available on-line as a PDF. I will link it for you if you like. Or, send me a PM with you Email and I can send you a copy, if you prefer. I have NATOPS manuals for a lot of things...

Pat☺

All the 'modified' pic size ranged from 44 kb to 64 kb. No reduction in quality was used. Color correction involved mostly GAMA increase plus a little contrast and color added for balance. Then the resize (ie: from 765 to 800) produces a sharper pic (automatically). IrFanView is top notch, FREE, and you can inport codecs (add on) to cover even playing of videos in case you tire of Win Media Player.

Chuck B

I have that IRFAN thing around someplace. I have to give it a closer look!

Pat☺

I installed irfaniew, but I could not find how to reduce filesize.

Editing colurs was very intuitive. Sharpening wa nice. But to be honest, editing colours is not my thing. I don't think I have the eye for that. Plus it doesn't look natural anymore.

;) I also don't have the patience. I may look into it more later, but I'd rather fly.

Thanks though for pointing me to IrFanView. It's a nice piece of kit.

il88pp.

I just wanted to add, PhantomTweak said using aicarriers.net the frequency for the Nimitz is 111.00.

I use aicarriers.exe instead. I use the Nimitz as well (Ike's I think, don't have .zip filename handy.).

I set 111.00 but that did nothing. I had used ILS on it a long time ago as well, looked it up, and found using freqency 112.00 did work (and still does).

Thanks none the less though Pat, I had never noticed the frequency works as nav2 as well! :) Very usefull.

il88pp

The frequency for a carrier's ILS/TACAN depends on the ship being used. There are a number available, starting at 111.00, then 112.00, then 113.00...see a pattern here? I mostly use the Nimitzv2 and THAT is 111.00, so it's what I tell people to try first. Failing that, one can try the others till the right one shows.

Just a heads up, AICarriers.NET utilizes a lot less computer processor resources than AICarriers.exe, if you care. Let's the processor devote more time to doing what you want it to do :D

Something else, just so you know. NO moving carriers, or ANY scenery object, for that matter, can have an ILS per se. The ILS feature you see for a moving carrier, or even a still, unmoving boat, but placed by AICarrirs, boat is done IN the HUD software, which is actually made by Mr. Jivko Rusev. For information, please DL and read the "ReadMe.TXT" in the zip file HUDs.zip in the library here or on Avsim.

A partial quote from it though:

When in cockpit tune to the relevant ILS frequency or TACAN channels as follows:

 

111.00 (47X) - CVN68 Nimitz (Acceleration)

112.00 (57X) - CVN68 Nimitz (Javier's)

114.00 (87X) - CVN65 Enterprise

112.10 (58X) - CV63 Kitty Hawk

113.10 (78X) - R09 Ark Royal

Hope this helps :D

Pat☺

Thanks much for the info on the frequencies.

One issue. Big one. I tried to find HUDs.zip in our Library and on Avsim. Neither site had it.

I then Googled it and found it on Google Drive.

But... !

When I downloaded the package (three folders and the readme.txt) The download was blocked by Smart Screen Filter.

(-"This file has been reported as unsafe download" Without an option to download anyway.)

That may also be why it can't be found in our libraries anymore.

Pat, I assume you have the file (folders) on your PC still. Be carefull.

I do have them, I have installed the newer versions (from that zip file) into the latest F-14 andT-45C, both by Dino Cattaneo, and it was incorporated into the v12.3 (all the v.XX since), as well as Peter's NH, CS, and FSX versions. All with the author's permission, naturally. I believe Mr. Rusev was also instrumental in designing the original HUD for the initial FSX Acceleration F/A-18. He updated and upgraded it for the newer carriers available. You don't need to DL or install it, as it's the one in the FSXBA F/A-18 v15.6, as well as most of the other versions on the FSDT forums. Orion did some modification on it for this latest version to make even MORE realistic, according to the real plane's NATOPS, but nothing really major.

I just checked, and apparently, Mr. Cattaneo is now incorporating it in his planes too.

If you wanted to DL it, you might find something by punching the Author's name...?

No problems at all. Reported, anyway.

I mainly wanted to show the Freq's associated with the different carriers, although it's nice to have it in the other two planes, both of which are excellent by the by, although I seem to have some trouble with the F-14's fuel consumption. *I* think it's too high, but I need to do more research, IF, on the off chance I should ever get tired of the FSXBA v15.6 :D Not in the near future, anyway!

Have fun!

Pat☺

Ah, then it looks like it was just that one file on googledrive that was bad.

Searching for: Rusev hud

I found them on the Strikingsoftware forum:

http://www.strikingsoftware.com/forum/index.php?topic=1350.0

(and also separate ones in the various flightsim libraries).

Thank you for clearing all that up!