Some good traps

Just wanted to share a couple of my best traps to date with the Tomcat and Super Carrier.

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saw them on the tube....nice work on that shb:thumbup:

Awesome flying.

Seeing these is further driving home the fact that if I'm ever going to get consistently good at carrier landings in either the Tomcat or Hornet, I probably need to bite and get a VR headset. Just being able to look around freely has got to help a TON with the visual cues.

I have to say, I cannot--at all--fly the Tomcat unless it's in VR. I also can't fly it without my 20cm stick extension. I need that 1:1 tracking, wide field of view, and the precise stick control.

I have to say, I cannot--at all--fly the Tomcat unless it's in VR. I also can't fly it without my 20cm stick extension. I need that 1:1 tracking, wide field of view, and the precise stick control.

I guess there is a reason why most fighters have a centermouted stick with extension and only having one eye disqualifies you from flying...

Imagine if RL cat pilots had to use a mouse and keyboard...

:joystick:

Great vids. Loved the SHB. I'm always tend to be oo high. Always get on the boat but never that smooth even when I get a _OK_ or OK. Gonna watch these quite a bit.

I have to say, I cannot--at all--fly the Tomcat unless it's in VR. I also can't fly it without my 20cm stick extension. I need that 1:1 tracking, wide field of view, and the precise stick control.

The only thing that keeps me from getting one is not being able to see my keyboard. I'm a decent stick so long as I don't need to fly ground reference maneuvers.

Which VR set do you use?

I have the Odyssey Plus. My only complaint with it is comfort.

As for the kneeboard, I use a VR Scratchpad plugin that gives you an on-demand notepad in the game, and a kneeboard builder for other stuff like approach plates.

Looks pretty doggone good. A little long in the groove, which gave you a low start. If you start your approach turn a few seconds earlier, abeam the LSO platform, you'll be just right. You turned aft of the stern. If you can see the potato locker you're too late.

Guys are starting to get pretty good flying the Tomcat. Shows a lot of dedicated work.

Looks pretty doggone good. A little long in the groove, which gave you a low start. If you start your approach turn a few seconds earlier, abeam the LSO platform, you'll be just right. You turned aft of the stern. If you can see the potato locker you're too late.

 

Guys are starting to get pretty good flying the Tomcat. Shows a lot of dedicated work.

Thanks! The groove time is always the hardest for me in the Tomcat. I can't seem to discern the LSO platform from the rest of the ship in my VR lenses.

my turns are garbage, i tend to balloon through the turn or drop like a brick lol

IMO flying the turn properly and getting yourself a good start is harder than flying the ball.

IMO flying the turn properly and getting yourself a good start is harder than flying the ball.

much harder for me. i tried a few midnight shit weather case 3s from 50 miles out and nailed 3 wires every time! i find case 1 harder lol

IMO flying the turn properly and getting yourself a good start is harder than flying the ball.

I also used to find the turns, especially the level turn @800 feet, to be maybe the hardest part, until I started to use the velocity vector.

In the level turn, in the Hornet I keep it on the 0° line of the pitch ladder and in the Tomcat I keep it on the horizon because the position of the pitch ladder is too erratic. Then in the second turn I try and keep it between the -3° and the -4° lines in the Hornet [edit: I meant that I try to keep it at about that glideslope; the pitchladder is graduated to 5 degrees like in the Tomcat], while in the Tomcat I don’t use the HUD anymore and I (ab)use the DLC.

As others wrote, I also find the pointers in the dials of the Tomcat to be easier to use than the digits in the Hornet.

For me personally, the velocity vector is the easiest of the instruments in this context.

IMO flying the turn properly and getting yourself a good start is harder than flying the ball.

Definitely. Even with a light payload and 4000~5000lbs of fuel I need in excess of 95% rpm during the first few degrees of the turn, and even then my AoA gets really slow for a little while until it settles. Then just before rolling out of the turn I have to reduce power by a large margin to prevent ballooning before settling into the groove and jockeying the throttles.

Looks pretty doggone good. A little long in the groove, which gave you a low start. If you start your approach turn a few seconds earlier, abeam the LSO platform, you'll be just right. You turned aft of the stern. If you can see the potato locker you're too late.

 

Guys are starting to get pretty good flying the Tomcat. Shows a lot of dedicated work.

Does F-14 use BRC during CASE I takeoff or landing?as you know because of carrie rmagnetic field,heading can deviate up to 20 or 30 degrees.So,how to perform clearing turn and CASE I landing if don't use BRC.

thanks.

This is the only one so far. The Tomcat IMO is a pain in my ass I love it Love it's looks, loved it since I was a child, but I don't like how it flies. The F-18 is an easier plane to fly and land. Enjoy the video

Jeez that was a painful few seconds of staring at the fantail.

But fairs fair, you got it on the deck. Now its time to go read how to do it safely :smilewink:

Jeez that was a painful few seconds of staring at the fantail.

 

 

But fairs fair, you got it on the deck. Now its time to go read how to do it safely :smilewink:

As you wish. Safely and "By the book." Enjoy.

Guys are starting to get pretty good flying the Tomcat. Shows a lot of dedicated work.

It does, but the Tomcat - along with the MiG-21 in my opinion - is the most rewarding module in DCS at the moment: the sense of satisfaction you have when you notice you start to be able to fly it properly, and can get out of hairy moments, is pretty unparalleled. :thumbup:

The tomcat is growing on me. BTW 20 plus years ago when "Hornet " was out, they never had you circle the carrier. They just had you come straight in. How long has the US Navy been circling the carrier on landings?

Oh and here's another trap for you.

The general circle pattern was in use since at least the F-8 Crusader that I've read the NATOPS for, I would suspect all jets since at least the angled deck and optical landing system were introduced, that would be 1955 onward to the best of my knowledge and could have been earlier.

The idea is to make the landing safe and repeatable both for the pilot and for people observing on the LSO platform, large deviations are easier to spot the tighter the tolerances are.

For the pilot it effectively isolates the workflow into a series of gates that sets up the aircraft a particular way so that you can focus more on the next stage, for example the tailhook is put down very early because it indicates your intentions and affects your handling very little, so once its set and out of the way we can forget about it.

Getting onto (roughly) the 800ft / 350kts part of the approach starts to get you trimmed up for the landing while keeping you above anyone launching off the bow cats (unusual AFAIK as its preferable to do one evolution at a time).

Turning onto your reciprocal gets the gear and flaps and any other configuration changes locked in, now we can more or less forget about taking our hand off the throttle and stick.

Getting trimmed out means we can start ignoring the pitch axis and focus in on the power and getting a good rate of descent locked in.

Turning out behind the boat off a good approach passing through all the gates puts you in great shape to see the ball, make minor adjustments and mostly be using your throttle to control that final rate of descent. The approach has also ensured good clearance above the fantail so that there's no staring at the potato locker at the stern.

All of that is just for the pilots own benefit, not mentioning the increased safety for everyone else and the speed (time not knots) that this allows aircraft to recover, if it wasn't the best way to do it the Navy wouldn't have kept it up this long. (Probably ;) )

I'm pretty sure straight-in has only ever been for emergencies. Even in WW2 there was at least some kind of base/groove turn, not straight in.