How to deal with TVV and HUD Ladder

Hello all!

Life was good and I was progressing ok, in my own mind. Then I hit two bumps in the roadmap which have knocked me somewhat and I need some advice/guidance.

Bump 1: I pull a turn of nearing 3G and the HUD ladder disappears the opposite way of the turn. Oh my! Am I climbing, diving or keeping a level turn??

Bump 2: Going through my first ILS tutorial the conditions are rain, wind, night. The HUD ladder is almost off the HUD to start with and pretty much any turn loses the ladder and I disorientate VERY quickly to the extent I almost can't even get to the first waypoint to find my instructor.

Now, I've read about a hundred posts on the fact that e.g. advanced movement, uncoordinated flight and crosswind will cause this as the ladder position is orientated to the TVV (I hope I am summarising correctly 'cos I kind of get that!).

My question is...how to deal with it? Is it just a case of learn how to use the backup instruments to keep track of orientation and situation/attitude? Just learn to live with the fact that the ladder will disappear; sometimes for considerable times?

Is this just the pain of learning to fly?? Or am I missing some simple mitigations...or maybe both?

Confused.

Sledge :pilotfly:

Well, the HUD isn’t a primary flight instrument in the A-10C, so your primary references should be the heads down instruments when flying IFR. They’re not the backup, they’re the primary.

Practice flying with your view looking down so you can’t even see the HUD, or anything outside the jet. Then once you get comfortable with that start doing some simple approaches etc, once you can do that, you can start adding occasional glances outside/at the HUD to look for visual references outside.

Bump 1: that big juicy ADI is what you are looking for. Also check the VVI to see if you climb or dive. Never rely on the HUD alone for obvious reasons.

Bump 2: why start hardcore? Set up a mission in perfect weather conditions so you can see where you are, how ILS behaves and what all your instruments are doing. Once you are fine with that, get one step further and add some rain maybe or dusk.

As previously said: fly head-down and reference the HUD only as a secondary flight aid. Once you get comfortable reading and cross checking primary instruments (ADI, HSI, airspeed, altimeter), it becomes much easier. Just don't throw crazy crosswinds to those IFR flights. Learn to fly IFR in calm weather, then add adverse weather gradually.

Totally on board with all the above, thank you.

Regarding the inclusion of 'bad' weather and blackout conditions for initial ILS training; I have to say I thought it was a bloody difficult place to start, like so much of the 'Basic' Flight Training Qualification DLC campaign. This one, in particular, doesn't feel very much like a basic piece of training or practice.

I fought my way through the latter previous stages - I think more by luck than by judgement, tbh - but 09 ILS Approach and Landing is beyond this n00b atm. I will step back and start on some daylight/fair winds scenarios.

Also, are there any good tutorials/documents out there for wind-affected navigation and cross-wind landings and take-offs?

Finally, drawing back to my original question, am I right to assume, then, that the 'disappearing ladder' is the feature rather than the showstopper it was appearing to be?

Cheers,

Sledge

 

Finally, drawing back to my original question, am I right to assume, then, that the 'disappearing ladder' is the feature rather than the showstopper it was appearing to be?

 

Cheers,

Sledge

As you said in your OP, the ladder is "attached' to the TVV, so if you have e.g. a very strong cross-wind or if you fly uncoordinated (basically whenevr you "crab") the ladder and TVV will be on either side of the HUD, which is perfectly normal and accurate behavior.

Some airplanes (but no the A-10) have an option to center the ladder no matter what.

E.g. on the F-18 you can cage the hud, and you will then have a ghost velocity vector (GVV) in place of where the TVV and ladder would be, while the TVV and ladder stay centered.

On the F-16 you can hit the C/O drift switch which does the same thing but without the TVV.

Hi Sledge,

If you are doing VFR flying (i.e. not in weather), then a primary technique is to find a visual reference in the cockpit that helps you know what 30, 45, or 60 degrees of bank is (i.e. put a bolt on the canopy on the horizon and provide a 2 G pull to maintain level flight at 60 degrees of bank). I would honestly recommend just practicing turning to get a better feel for a level turn in visual conditions. I personally haven't tried to figure out those references yet. Also a point of focus might be the nose of the A-10 and ensuring that it's on the horizon during the turn. This should get you close to a level turn and you can adjust based on your VVI. Just know that VVI is a trend instrument and will take a second or two before it starts to show a climb or descent.

If you are IFR, then the ADI and HSI are your primary means of navigation like the others have said. Assuming you are have the EGI button on nav panel engaged, you should be able to select whatever waypoint you want to fly to. From there it should display a marker on the HSI that you can put at the top of the HSI case. That is effectively the way to deal with the lateral nav. As far as the maintaining and/or climbs and descents. You're going to have to play around with it a little as I do not know of any Pitch and Power settings for the A-10. Really, it's just get a feel for what level flight is, trim off the pressures so that the aircraft (mostly) maintains altitude on it's own, and then you can use your throttle (in combination with your pitch) to have smooth descents and climbs. If you are max throttle, then you're only going to be able to climb with pitch. If you are not max throttle, you can use power increases and decreases to climb in a Flight Level Change (or speed on pitch) method (which is safer, but may not get you the VVI you want, especially in the climb). This is because when you trim an aircraft you are trimming to a speed. Any increase in speed means that the aircraft will climb and any decrease will give a corresponding descent. The benefit to climbing and descending in this fashion is that you will never stall the aircraft while changing altitudes. You just need to be careful on the descent as you can achieve some solid descent rates that make capturing your altitude difficult &/or "dangerous."

Hopefully this helps a bit.

Cheers,

Thump

Great contributions. Many thanks, both.

Was able to do a hud-off/mfcds-off smooth night landing last night so progress made thanks to the comments here. On with the practice! My plan is to start with weapons in February as long as I can get the basics and the bird up and down safely at all times by then!

Sledge

Great contributions. Many thanks, both.

 

Was able to do a hud-off/mfcds-off smooth night landing last night so progress made thanks to the comments here. On with the practice! My plan is to start with weapons in February as long as I can get the basics and the bird up and down safely at all times by then!

 

Sledge