F14 doesn't get 'raise nose strut' before launch

Hi

I jumped into (slummed ;) ) an F18 and noticed that I got a raise / retract launch bar animation, however in my usual aircraft (F14) I don't get that.

Is this accurate, or is the F14 somehow not getting the raise nose strut animation / state?

I did try raising my nose after I was locked onto the shuttle, and then the deck crew didn't know what to do and I couldn't progress to launch until I compressed the strut again.

Any advice on whether it's:

a) a bug

b) WIP - it will come, but just take off with a compressed nose strut for now

c) some problem between ED's Super Carrier and HB's F14 - and if so, who is going to fix it?

Thanks

The Tomcat doesn’t do that as the strut is to remain compressed until the end of the cat shot

The Tomcat doesn’t do that as the strut is to remain compressed until the end of the cat shot

Thank you for clearing that up! :thumbup:

Yeah, if you look at the strut itself, the launch bar is mechanically connected to the nosewheel strut - you can't raise the strut without the launch bar coming up, and if it's being held down by the catapult shuttle, I'm going to guess raising the nose strut will break something...

Plus I'm not sure that the raise launch bar command should even be present for the Hornet (not sure if the Hornet's launch bar raises by itself after a catapult shoot). I'll leave it to people who actually know what they're talking about (unlike me).

Theres been a few references to this, hornet is differnt to tomcat. Its cool the sim is picking up on this now. the Pre release videos of SC in the tomcat were advising to raise bar. I really hope ED will polish the heck out of this module. watching those little dudes run around to launch me is the best experience in the last 15 years in flight sims.

Theres been a few references to this, hornet is differnt to tomcat. Its cool the sim is picking up on this now. the Pre release videos of SC in the tomcat were advising to raise bar. I really hope ED will polish the heck out of this module. watching those little dudes run around to launch me is the best experience in the last 15 years in flight sims.

Couldn’t agree more. In spite of its current bugs/shortcomings the SC even in its present state is far and away better than anything I ever imagined would exist in a consumer level carrier ops simulation. I try to remind myself of that whenever I get frustrated with things not working or being technically correct.

Since it appears that they are differentiating the sequence/crew animations somewhat depending on the type of aircraft, would be nice if they (eventually) also ditched the launch bar lower animation for the Tomcat in favor of a more correct “kneel” animation. (Arms straight out at 1 and 3 OC, palms facing, then clamp together - like an alligator closing it’s jaws).

May simply fall into the trivia/minutiae category, but when stopped just short of the catapult lead-in rail the taxi director would give Tomcats the kneel signal which subsequently unlocked the launch bar once the pilot compressed the nose strut. The Catapult PO then manually lowered the launch bar. I believe the pilot could also raise/lower the launch bar from within the cockpit (nws deflection a certain amount or use of the guarded abort switch) if needed, but don’t believe it was very common to have to do so short of a suspended launch.

I guess with all of the features promised as “in development” still for the SC, developing additional animations may not fall high on ED’s priority list, but eventually would love to see both the kneel animation and a “Tension” animation (for all aircraft) from the taxi director before being handed off to the shooter.