Upcoming Hornet FCS & Flight Model Update Transparency

[wilbur81]

Hey, Team.

 

A humble request/wish:

 

Having looked at the (attached) mini update from Wags today, it looks really really great! However, I have one concern regarding the upcoming flight model, drag, FCS changes coming. Namely, after having gotten used to (read "fallen in love with") the current FM and how the jet performs, I and I'm sure others will be experiencing some real or placebo'd changes that will leave us all wondering:

 

- 'why is the jet slower?'

- 'what happened to our turn performance?'

- 'how could the already draggy Hornet get more draggy?'

- 'is the jet's low speed handling degraded?'

- etc. etc.

 

These end up being fashioned into long, drawn out threads of discussion and speculation that may be entirely based upon mis-perceptions and placebo effect. Heck, the new FM may actually perform better, but all we will know as the user is that "the FM, Drag, FCS have been updated."

 

So, my request/wish would be that the FM developers could put out a simple, bullet point statement about how the new FM will perform compared to the current one we have... and (bonus points) the rationale behind the changes (i.e. new data became available, SME's didn't approve of the old one, etc.)

 

This way, whether people are pleased or pissed about how "their" Hornet is now performing after years of something "else," at least they will be able to avoid the Elephant-in-the-Room question: "What exactly has changed?"

 

Again, this is PURELY wishlist/humble request... if we get nothing more than "FM changed," I'll just trust that it was a change for the better (meaning: closer to the real-world performance of a Hornet Block 20).

 

Thanks for your consideration. 

Edited February 18 by wilbur81

[med-taha]

+1 please ED... 

Edited February 18 by med-taha

[Xamik75]

One of the issues to be corrected is the ballooning effect when moving the flap switch from AUTO to HALF/FULL. According to real F-18 pilots, that does not happen in the real jet (I believe the FCS counters it).

[Skysurfer]

They have enough SME's and knowledgeable people on the Hornet team to get this right. There are several issues apart from the flaps pitch moment.

[wilbur81]

22 hours ago, Skysurfer said:

They have enough SME's and knowledgeable people on the Hornet team to get this right. There are several issues apart from the flaps pitch moment.

This kind of illustrates the point of my original post above: I think it would serve the community (though we're certainly in no way entitled) to have the Hornet developers speak to what those "several issues" are and what they've actually tweaked in order to dispel needless speculation.