Folding wings on F18 after carrier landing

[TheTrooper]

Hi. I wonder if anyone has any ideas. After landing on a carrier F-18 pilots fold the wings of the jet pretty quickly and get out of the way.

 

 

I seem to attempt to try fold the wings a few times before they actually do so. Is there something I'm missing? I end up having to get off the runway on the carrier, sit around and piss around with the leaver for a bit until they start to fold up.

Edited September 4, 2019 by TheTrooper

[Harker]

Are you pulling first (mouse wheel down) and then twisting? Is the level moving or not turning at all? Are you setting the flaps back to AUTO (shouldn't matter, but whatever)? I don't have any issues on my end.

[Nooch]

Flaps need to be up.

[Hog_No32]

Flaps need to be up.

 

Yeah, I think so too. Even though I didn‘t find a clear reference on that in the NATOPS, I think the flaps need to be up (i.e. AUTO) before the wings will fold. At least that appears to be how ED implemented it.

 

You actually can move the wing fold lever to the FOLD position with the flaps still extended. The wings will then fold as soon as you move the flaps lever to AUTO.

[TheTrooper]

Flaps need to be up.

 

 

Ah that makes sense. I will give it a go and see what happens.

[ravenzino]

Yeah, I think so too. Even though I didn‘t find a clear reference on that in the NATOPS, I think the flaps need to be up (i.e. AUTO) before the wings will fold. At least that appears to be how ED implemented it.

 

You actually can move the wing fold lever to the FOLD position with the flaps still extended. The wings will then fold as soon as you move the flaps lever to AUTO.

 

Nah, I did a lot of carrier landing, but I never bothered to retract the flaps. I just fold the wings, then the ailerons will be up automatically. It happens pretty quick. Wings started to fold up even before I cleared the landing zone...

 

My procedures after a successful trap:

1. throttle back to idle

2. wing folding lever: pull and rotate up (mouse wheel afterward, followed with two mouse clicks -- right clicks IIRC)

3. hook lever up

4. NWS to high

5. throttle up a bit and get the hell out of the LZ <--- at about this time (or in about 1-2 seconds), the wings start to fold up

Edited September 4, 2019 by ravenzino

[NeilWillis]

I think you may be expecting them to move immediately. Just be patient, they fold, but there is a slight delay. And no, you don't have to retract the flaps first.

[Tholozor]

My preferred method for a quick wing fold is to flip the flaps up right after raising the tail hook, set the wings to fold, and put the flaps back to full as I taxi off the box.

[Harker]

I also put flaps to AUTO as soon as I land, but I don't think they explicitly need to be, they'll just raise themselves during the folding. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't remember for sure. I raise them every time, so it might be that I just haven't seen this recently.

[Tholozor]

Correct, even with flaps in half or full, the wings will still fold after the ailerons retract, they just move slowly.

[TheTrooper]

I’ll have a go soon and put flaps up to see if that works. If not I’ll do a video and see what comes back from that.

[104th_Maverick]

The very first thing you should do when you trap is bring the flaps up sir, here is my trap sequence:

 

 

Trap,

Aircraft stops,

Select Flaps Up,

Aircraft rolls back under wire tension,

Aircraft stops,

Select Hook up,

Pop Wing Fold handle out of lock position but leave wings unfolded, <- :cheer3nc:

Select NWS High Engage,

Add a little power,

Move forward 1ft,

Turn right to clear the Landing Area,

Stop and fold wings once LA cleared.

 

I do all of this every time I trap, eventually with practice you can trap and clear the deck and have the wings folded all within less than 15 seconds.

Edited September 5, 2019 by [Maverick]

[Rudel_chw]

;4027715']The very first thing you should do when you trap is bring the flaps up sir, here is my trap sequence: ...

 

 

Thanks a lot for sharing your procedure .. I've enjoyed your YT tutorials a lot :)

Cheers.

[TheTrooper]

Hi everyone. Raising flaps did it!

 

As soon as landed and plane is stationary I raised hook, "raised flaps". I put the wings to fold straight after raising the flaps and worked straight away. Thanks for you help all.

[did]

NWS should go to high gain with folded wing, automaticaly. and the speed of folding is the same with or without flap down, it's an electric motor. On the real a/c at lease,

[ravenzino]

NWS should go to high gain with folded wing, automaticaly. and the speed of folding is the same with or without flap down, it's an electric motor. On the real a/c at lease,

 

Not sure if it is IRL, but NWS will not go to high automatically with folded wing in DCS... The rests are more or less aligned with my observation.

 

;4027715']The very first thing you should do when you trap is bring the flaps up sir, here is my trap sequence:

 

 

Trap,

Aircraft stops,

Select Flaps Up,

Aircraft rolls back under wire tension,

Aircraft stops,

Select Hook up,

Select NWS High Engage,

Add a little power,

Move forward 1ft,

Turn right to clear the Landing Area,

Stop and fold wings once LA cleared.

 

I do all of this every time I trap, eventually with practice you can trap and clear the deck and have the wings folded all within less than 15 seconds.

 

Because folding wings requires ailerons in up position, it makes sense that retracting flaps before wing folding might shorten the reaction time on the folding part, but eventually, the end-to-end time cost is the same (flaps up + wing folding vs wing folding straight away). On top of that, skipping the flaps and go straight for the wing folding is combining two actions into one, which itself might save you one second or two, or at least gives you one less thing to worry about...

 

Besides, if you keep wing folding as the last step of your procedure, you'll have to hold NWS button while you clear out of LA, unless you use a toggle switch to force NWS HI all the way, which might be less realistic... Either way, it doesn't feel optimized... not sure what the actual procedure is IRL though.

[104th_Maverick]

Besides, if you keep wing folding as the last step of your procedure, you'll have to hold NWS button while you clear out of LA, unless you use a toggle switch to force NWS HI all the way, which might be less realistic... Either way, it doesn't feel optimized... not sure what the actual procedure is IRL though.

 

Sorry guys I missed a step in my procedure, after I retract the hook I 'pop' out the Wing Fold handle without actually folding the wings, this way you can engage NWS High without having to hold it with the wings still unfolded. (edited my post to correct)

 

IRL, they fold the wings in the LA if they have no live Aim9s on the wingtips, if they are carrying live Aim9s wings remain unfolded until the LA is cleared and the red shirts unarm the weapons on the wingtips, this is normally done behind CAT 2.

[sideshow]

I do all of the same. And for a little added realism use the throttle pinky switch to kill the external lights.

[ravenzino]

;4028007'] ...... after I retract the hook I 'pop' out the Wing Fold handle without actually folding the wings, this way you can engage NWS High without having to hold it with the wings still unfolded. (edited my post to correct)

 

IRL, they fold the wings in the LA if they have no live Aim9s on the wingtips, if they are carrying live Aim9s wings remain unfolded until the LA is cleared and the red shirts unarm the weapons on the wingtips, this is normally done behind CAT 2.

 

Didn't know popping out wing folding handle without folding up wings can still unlock NWS HI. That makes perfect sense! As well as why keep wings unfolded when carrying live AIM9s. Thanks Maverick!

Edited September 5, 2019 by ravenzino