Really struggling with throttle control in Case 1

Make the roll out gentle, and anticipate by reducing throttle before the nose rises.

Something no one mentioned is the fuel bug. Lots of advice but there is a fundamental bug with fuel getting doubled on a carrier that will make your lives miserable.

Something no one mentioned is the fuel bug. Lots of advice but there is a fundamental bug with fuel getting doubled on a carrier that will make your lives miserable.

Still, we have to deal with it the same way. Actually, it's easier to transition to PA and stabilize heavier bird then the real light one, for me at least... the way PA mode works now.

But yea, good point. I've seen number of threads on weight related issues.

From what some people are saying, I think I was making life harder for myself by trying straight up to fly it without any pitch input on the stick. Sounds like this is more advanced technique? Is it OK for now to let the AoA vary slightly so I can use stick input as well as throttles to help maintain my glide path?

I did the same. I just tried to land it like every other plane. It doesn't work.

I'm still learning, but I found best way is get to 250 speed (and dropping). Gear down full flaps.

Close air brake at some point.

At this point you'll need to nose up on trim a lot. Do that till you get into e bracket. You may have dropped way too much if you didn't adjust quick enough.

Once into e bracket leave stick alone , except if you need to turn. Just use throttle constantly to keep on speed/pointed at deck.

Once you grasp that, the tutorial videos make more sense and have better advice then me.

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Ps. Airfield landing is the same. But easier. Try there first.

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Close air brake at some point.

The air brake self closes with gear and flaps down. This is one thing that really frustrates me. It switches to a "spring loaded" behaviour where it doesn't stay out unless you hold down the extend button. Both Tomcat and Su-33 do the whole carrier landing with the airbrake out and it really speeds up deceleration response, lets you keep the engines spooled higher. I'm sure there's a good reason the Hornet doesn't land with the board out but I wish it did.

It is tricky to get used to. As has been said you have to stay ahead of it. If you wait until the engines respond, it's too late.

 

If it will make you feel any better. I believe Mover (real Hornet pilot) said the engines feel sluggish compared to the real ones.

 

Also, there is an auto throttle that will hold AOA but isn't working yet.

A buddy of mine was a hornet driver and he said the spool up is too slow compared to the real jet.

The air brake self closes with gear and flaps down. This is one thing that really frustrates me. It switches to a "spring loaded" behaviour where it doesn't stay out unless you hold down the extend button. Both Tomcat and Su-33 do the whole carrier landing with the airbrake out and it really speeds up deceleration response, lets you keep the engines spooled higher. I'm sure there's a good reason the Hornet doesn't land with the board out but I wish it did.

Hornet in the landing configuration is a huge airbrake without the boards:D and the power settings required are fairly high. So far the only time I needed boards in the Hornet on final was when goofing off and doing all kinds of unrealistic approaches and ended up swooping down toward the runway at high speed.

Now, as the previous poster noted, I wouldn't even look at the carrier until I was able to plant the Hornet on the runway within parameters every time, straight in or from the break.

Once at the boat, (boat moving at least 25 kts into wind... set it to 5kts) I would extend my upwind leg to at least a mile or 2 before breaking. That gives plenty of time to stabilize after the break before hitting 180 and starting inbound turn. The 180 point is coming up quick, the boat is moving and you have tailwind on downwind leg.

A buddy of mine was a hornet driver and he said the spool up is too slow compared to the real jet.

If I remember correctly one of our "local" Hornet drivers hinted to it once or twice, specifically when throttles are pushed to approach range.

Throttle response seems very poor in the DCS Hornet. I haven't flown the real one but the jets I have flown, all civilian, had better throttle response.

Challenges with bugs

VC,

Yes, it takes practice and some good advice here from others.

An ex-horent pilot gave me similar advice to what Guppy gave. Get out over open water and get in PA Mode, Dirty, Trap weight, 800ft and learn the plane just flying a straight heading. Practice holding 0 VVI (holding 800ft), then practice ±100 VVI and back to 0, then ±200 VVI the back to 0..etc...over and over. Going 800ft to 750ft the back to 800ft, 800ft to 700ft then back to 800 etc etc. Till you feel like you are in control, not the plane controlling you. Doing all of this with power only. No control stick. :joystick:

Then do the same thing once you have a good grasp but, in a 27°-30° bank.

Then practice rolling in to that bank and rolling out of that bank to anticipate the changes in lift while maintaining a certain VVI / altitude.

One thing you can do during this exercise while first learning is, set fuel to unlimited, set the weight at trap weight so you remove the variable of weight changing during your exercise from fuel consumption while first getting the hornet mastered.

Another thing is, with your throttle, make sure you are not inadvertently going into after burner.

What I do is, I set a mission to start on runway at Batumi( close to sea level). Zero wind, 21°C. Start the mission, get in the cockpit then activate active pause, Now you can adjust the curves of your throttle as if the plane is chained down and get 100% Mil thrust without AB just where your detent is. Look at fuel flow, nozzle position, and huge flames out the back :megalol: Now you can slam off to full mil on command without inadvertently going into AB.

Challenges

If all of that was not enough to master, :thumbup: you have some challenges that are out of our hands which are some bugs.

Something no one mentioned is the fuel bug. Lots of advice but there is a fundamental bug with fuel getting doubled on a carrier that will make your lives miserable.

Pikey is correct with the weight bug https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=247311

The Dimensions of the Stennis model are incorrect https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=230109

In Powered Approach Mode, the F/A-18C has a flight modeling bug. Should be neutral static roll stability. Current bug is the Hornet has negative static roll stability. :doh:

Neutral Static Stability:

Tendency to remain at new position. If an airplane is put into a turn and the pilot lets go of the controls and the aircraft remains in that turn but neither rolls out or gets steeper

Negative Static Stability:

Tendency to continue away from original position. If an aircraft is rolled to a high bank angle, letting go of the controls results in the aircraft continuing to roll further.

Happy Simming,

Monnie

That might be the case with roll CAS. A Hornet pilot would certainly notice but... for me the roll stability poses no issue with carrier approaches. Pitch CAS does or... did. As with anything else in DCS we adapt and learn to deal with incorrect or buggy behavior.

I use stick correction all the time, I do short patterns. The trick is anticipating throttle/power lag, both up and down.

One of your 5 eyes you use in you final turn needs to be on your speed, in particular the Rate the speed change, i.c. how fast the numbers change.

Since you know where about's your on-speed will end up with when halfway down the groove, you slow down and rev up - quite a way - in advance of what your HUD paints.

It's easy once you get the hang of this.

Honestly, I do feel that throttle response seems a bit slow. Something to look into.

Honestly, I do feel that throttle response seems a bit slow. Something to look into.

Actual F-18 pilots don't seem to complain about the throttle control in DCS F-18.

Actual F-18 pilots don't seem to complain about the throttle control in DCS F-18.

They don't complain because they're so good. It was mentioned it's not right.

Oh god yeah, at least I'm better than the ATC, that just takes the jet for a bucking bronco ride followed by a swim :D

 

Thank you very much for the feedback, I will practice constant throttle movement like that because indeed I have not been doing it. I should probably do it in the Cat too but that seems more forgiving to ham-handed piloting (or at least has other tools to mitigate poor throttle management).

 

I don't have split throttles, but I do have my friction very low so hopefully I can practice and get used to this "always moving" technique. :)

 

Something someone mentioned I realised is one reason I feel very little feedback. "Throttle controls pitch", yes, because trim holds AoA. In the Cat, power changes require stick input to maintain AoA, so I get a feedback loop that helps my throttle management.

The BIG difference between the F14 and the F18 in "dirty" configuration is that the Tomcat doesn't have the FBW system "switching your control responses" when you go full flaps :smilewink: