Flying this has been the most frustrating experience of my life, any tips?

Best advice I can give is: Moderation.... Baby steps... Crawl first, then walk, then run, then FLY!

Don't try to master a perfect pattern landing all at once.

Start out by launching, coming around and lining up for a landing by the seat of your pants... Leave the arresting hook up, and do a touch and go.

Second pass, concentrate on maintaining a constant airspeed.

Third pass, concentrate on airspeed and altitude.

When you get comfortable with your pattern and approach, drop the hook and catch the 3 wire.

But the important thing is to have fun. Just fly the Cat for the fun of it. After a while, the precision will just creep into your flying completely unnoticed.

Don't use the E bracket. Use the approach indexer.

Tough transition from flying the DCS Hornet for 1,000+ hours :)

Regarding expo curves on your pitch and roll axes mentioned previously... I highly recommend not putting much curve in. The reason is, you'll be more likely to break the plane in a high g maneuver. You really need the granular sensitivity around the middle of the stick throw, and you lose that in favor of better sensitivity around the center if you use a curve. Those curves also make getting accurate gun shots more difficult while pulling for the same reason... just my 2 cents, which is what it's worth.

Tough transition from flying the DCS Hornet for 1,000+ hours :)

 

Regarding expo curves on your pitch and roll axes mentioned previously... I highly recommend not putting much curve in. The reason is, you'll be more likely to break the plane in a high g maneuver. You really need the granular sensitivity around the middle of the stick throw, and you lose that in favor of better sensitivity around the center if you use a curve. Those curves also make getting accurate gun shots more difficult while pulling for the same reason... just my 2 cents, which is what it's worth.

The E Bracket wasn't accurate or smooth enough in the aircraft. If it is usable in the sim, it needs to be "detuned". I mean it would bounce all over the place in the real aircraft.

I understand the Hornet HUD cripple phenomenon, but as you slow to approach speed, pick up the AOA tape and indexer and fly that. Once you are trimmed on speed, the trim and very small stick pressures to counter pitch on final approach will take care of AOA for you. Read my landing tips above. The pitch response is still being tuned as well. Very complex, it's taking a lot of trial and error.

We'll trial and error until it is right.

That being said, once you learn the Tomcat, you'll be better in the Hornet.

+100

After a few hours in the F-14 yesterday, I went back to the Hornet for some airfield touch-and-goes, and I was almost getting bored with how comparatively undemanding it is.

To be honest, I was expecting the A/C to be much more brutal than it has turned out. That's what I get for listening to all the hype. In normal flight and even canyon flying it is extremely stable. Maybe even boring, other than the speed. Maybe I'll chalk it up to my experience in 6-Pack GA A/C. My learning curve has been in ACM and energy management. You will induce a ton of drag with too much pitch input and it will slow you down into the stall envelope in a heartbeat. In the F-18 you can still point the nose, even while in a deep stall. Not sure of that’s an immature FM issue with the Hornet or just the effects of relatively large control surfaces and FBW.

Carrier Ops is also less dramatic than the Hornet. If you are onspeed the rest just happens naturally. The first time I cratered trying to mess with the DLC controls, but second attempt was a 2 wire. The Hornet experience isn’t wasted. It thought me to trim onspeed and use throttles to control decent. Something I never understood or mastered in real life.

Last but not least AAR was a challenge, not because of the A/C but because of the added jet wash. Holy crap, those tanker wing tip vortices are ruthless. I figured out to approach low, and the rest was business as usual. Again it’s a super stable platform, so I was able to keep my position a lot better than in the Hornet.

Love everything about the Tomcat. The F-18,Harrier and even A-10C is a lot of work inside the cockpit. The Tomcat has you working outside. Of course the RIO helping with workload is fantastic.

Thanks Heatblur!

It isn't difficult to fly if you know how to fly... ;)

Use the ample buffet feedback in ACM and control inputs accordingly. All detailed in Handling Tips stickie above.

I’ve read that sticky many times, along with this board for a few months. Reading it and practicing it are, alas different things. I liken it to my experience with Kerbal Space Program. Even after 5 years of Mech Eng school and what felt like all the Newtonian, dynamics and kinematics equitations in existence, I didn’t “get” Orbital Mechanics until years later playing KSP and seeing it visually represented.

Besides, I’ve only done 3 ACM hops. I keep getting sucked into target fixation. So for sure just practice and learning to temper myself on the stick. More Iceman. Less Maverick. :P

For ACM: Disable roll SAS or you will be fighting the retard wallows with any amount of AoA on the jet.

Flying the hornet is just about the worst prep you could have for the 'cat. It has way more in common with ww2 planes, mig21, and the like.

Read the manual.

Heatblur included very well made training missions. Go to the training tab on the DCS main menu. They are not beneath you.

It isn't difficult to fly if you know how to fly... ;)

 

That's the big problem, if someone has never flown in real life they don't have the Kinesthetic memory to fill in some blanks you can't get from a sim. That little feeling of swaying when not coordinated, or how hard it actually is to pull Gs, or the way you sort of "feel" the plane doing what you want just by thinking it.

As opposed to fighting a desk mounted joysticks springs and stiction to try and make a mm of pressure displacement, and having to rely on visual clues for all flight information.

:pilotfly:

That's the big problem, if someone has never flown in real life they don't have the Kinesthetic memory to fill in some blanks you can't get from a sim. That little feeling of swaying when not coordinated, or how hard it actually is to pull Gs, or the way you sort of "feel" the plane doing what you want just by thinking it.

 

As opposed to fighting a desk mounted joysticks springs and stiction to try and make a mm of pressure displacement, and having to rely on visual clues for all flight information.

 

:pilotfly:

Even if you have flown in real life, it can be tough to get it right in a sim. I'm a decent enough helicopter pilot IRL (for a tiltrotor guy), but I cannot and will not fly helicopters in a PC sim. Tactile feedback and "seat of the pants" is just so much a crucial part of VFR flying that we just won't have until brain-computer interface VR becomes a thing.

I’ve read that sticky many times, along with this board for a few months. Reading it and practicing it are, alas different things. I liken it to my experience with Kerbal Space Program. Even after 5 years of Mech Eng school and what felt like all the Newtonian, dynamics and kinematics equitations in existence, I didn’t “get” Orbital Mechanics until years later playing KSP and seeing it visually represented.

 

Besides, I’ve only done 3 ACM hops. I keep getting sucked into target fixation. So for sure just practice and learning to temper myself on the stick. More Iceman. Less Maverick. :P

Best explanation of this phenomenon that I've seen...

Even if you have flown in real life, it can be tough to get it right in a sim. I'm a decent enough helicopter pilot IRL (for a tiltrotor guy), but I cannot and will not fly helicopters in a PC sim. Tactile feedback and "seat of the pants" is just so much a crucial part of VFR flying that we just won't have until brain-computer interface VR becomes a thing.

Truth...

PP-ASEL here.

Agree, in many ways, it is more difficult in the sim.

I was referencing the poster who essential said that the F14 was easier than he thought.

One thing I noticed immediately is that the HUD symbology is very misleading if you look at it from the perspective of modern HUDs with their dynamic flight path markers. At first I was treating the bore sight line as an FPM and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't maintain level flight. It was then that I realized that putting that dot at 0 pitch angle almost never actually results in level flight. Instead you need to get comfortable looking at the vertical velocity ladder on the left and constantly trimming to zero it out.

Great point with the vertical velocity vector.

Great point with the vertical velocity vector.

Don't try to fly using the HUD. Keep telling you FBW HUD cripples, but the F14A/B HUD is not designed as a primary flight instrument. It lags, jitters and will lead you down an error ridden path.

Learn the pitch attitudes and power for your desired configuration and flight path.

And I agree Sims can’t fully prepare you for Real Life and Vice Versa. There are fundamental differences on each side. No real forces or peripheral vision in Sim. But the experience will change your expectations for the other side. My commentary about having flown 6-Pack GA A/C is in regards to the lack of digital information displays in the Tomcat. I learned on circa 60/70’s Cessna and Pipers, which are a far cry from the G1000 generation planes and pilots today. Like Victory said somewhere else, it’s Analog watches VS Digital. Although nothing is quite like the C172B I flew for a while where your vacuum pump is a venturi tube, so NO instruments till you are pretty much in the air.

All of which is in regard to a lot of disillusioned posts I’m reading about lack of MFDs and Complex HUDs impacting their Airmanship. In that regard the F-15, 18, Harrier and A-10C would not have prepared you for accurately flying the Tomcat, and may have disproportionately skewed your expectations, although coincidentally, non of it diminishes the ability of the airframe.

My only disillusionment with the F-14 is the Pilot Cockpit feels much smaller in VR than I imagined. :joystick:

Don't try to fly using the HUD. Keep telling you FBW HUD cripples, but the F14A/B HUD is not designed as a primary flight instrument. It lags, jitters and will lead you down an error ridden path.

 

Learn the pitch attitudes and power for your desired configuration and flight path.

Having to break myself of all those bad habits the Hornet module taught me. :)

I was doing the same thing. Also notice how when you climb the pitch ladder bars move slowly compared to modern huds? I thought it was my PC lagging in VR with this module but I think it's normal.

Heatblur simulated the fps with the hud That's what it was like back then so that's how we get it :)

Early on people were asking will they make it the same etc.

Listening to the wealth of knowledge on hear from real pilots they didn't rely to heavily on the hud for the same reason. It wasn't fast enough.

Heatblur simulated the fps with the hud That's what it was like back then so that's how we get it :)

Honestly that level of attention to detail really sets HB apart...

Heatblur simulated the fps with the hud That's what it was like back then so that's how we get it :)

 

 

 

Early on people were asking will they make it the same etc.

 

 

 

Listening to the wealth of knowledge on hear from real pilots they didn't rely to heavily on the hud for the same reason. It wasn't fast enough.

My only disillusionment with the F-14 is the Pilot Cockpit feels much smaller in VR than I imagined. :joystick:

I had this thought when I first went VR in the Hornet, it reminded my of sitting in a glider.

Luckily someone told me about the Force IPD option which actually just scales the world around you. I can’t advise on a correct number but have a play with it until you get that “this feels right” moment.

I had this thought when I first went VR in the Hornet, it reminded my of sitting in a glider.

Luckily someone told me about the Force IPD option which actually just scales the world around you. I can’t advise on a correct number but have a play with it until you get that “this feels right” moment.

What this guy said. Change IPD it's in the VR settings. I let mine set as default and it works great but it really is a setting you need to set with your own eyes etc. If you wear glasses you need to account for that too.

Thanks! I'll give it a try. I've messed with my vive's physical IDP. Didn't know there was a DCS software one too.

To clarify though, I just meant comparatively speaking to the F-18/Harrier pit. Even the RIO feels like it has tones of room. The pilot position feels akin to the toes in a lady's high heels, wearing a shoe two sizes too small.

In all honestly I've just been enjoying flying it, so I'll fiddle with settings/eye position sometime this weekend. :D