Author Topic: Total noob with questions, be warned!  (Read 1874 times)

Offline ebfd11

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #15 on: March 15, 2009, 06:01:16 PM »
Actually dropping gear isn't strictly necessary to get a successful landing message. As long as you and on runway you are fine.
In some situations, particularly when having lost one gear due to battle damage, it's even highly advisable NOT to lower your gear at all.

Here is proof you dont need to have gear down to get successful landing,,,,now people know why I took LawnDart as a name in game...

PIGS ON THE WING 3RD WING

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Offline SKJohn

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #16 on: March 15, 2009, 06:21:07 PM »
Here is proof you dont need to have gear down to get successful landing,,,,now people know why I took LawnDart as a name in game...

(Image removed from quote.)

but your gear (what's left of it anyway), IS down!

Offline TexMurphy

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #17 on: March 16, 2009, 04:58:54 AM »
Welcome to AH!

My advice to you is to practice other stuff first and landings will come.

When you up do it to practice something else then landing. After you have practice what you want to do you will get to do  a landing.

What I suggest you practice is your ACMs. Air Combat Manouver (ACM) is the collective word for manouvers you use in combat. Basicly just a fancy word for all manouvers you can think of. But there are some that are inperticuallary important to master.

The four most important and basic are imho.

* Loop
* Immelman
* High YoYo
* Low YoYo

Practice these manouvers and practice chaining them together so that you do one after the other. Bascily just go out there and do your manouvers and learn to feel the plane how hard you can push it without stalling.

Do this and you will have no problem landing as you will have a greater feel for the plane.

Good luck and remember fun is more important then perfect.
Tex

Offline moot

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #18 on: March 16, 2009, 08:07:24 AM »
The P38 takes forever to slow down and the departure is pretty sharp.  You should try the A6M2 or D3A to learn landings and take-offs with.
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Offline RTHolmes

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #19 on: March 16, 2009, 08:16:39 AM »
Landing:
http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/combatlanding/combatlanding.htm

I'd recommend Hurricanes for practising this stuff - very stable and great view over the nose. Spits' ground handling can be a bit ... squirrely :)
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Offline humble

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #20 on: March 16, 2009, 10:31:36 AM »
Thanks for the map info, new what it was and how it functioned, just never thought to hit esc to bring it up while flying, duh! Still working on landing, my main problem seems to be trying to make minor adjustments to get lined up with the runway, I always end up in the grass. I don't think the stick is the total problem, more the operator, but I will definitely take a change into consideration if I decide to get serious about this. Thanks again!

To a large degree comfort level in landing is a reflection of overall comfort in low speed flying. Most planes are very stable at low speed if properly configured but very unstable if over handled or if stalled. For most planes the issues are controlling your rate of decent and torque. Rate of decent is quickly learned however torque can require rudder inputs. One nice training tip is doing low speed "fly by's". Drop down and fly the runway just of the ground at 120 mph or so and circle around at the same speed (you'll need just a bit of power on turns). Spend 15 minutes or so just making a few circuits like that and you'll be fine.

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Offline caldera

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #21 on: March 16, 2009, 02:03:52 PM »
but your gear (what's left of it anyway), IS down!


 :rofl

We don't call him Lawn-Tard for nothing.   
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Offline Steve

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #22 on: March 16, 2009, 03:20:04 PM »
A noob asking questions on the board is a GOOD thing!

FWIW, I rarely bother with landing gear. If the field is capped and facing a vulch, this will slow down your plane once it touches down much faster than if you had gear down. If you prefer to land with gear down and are having trouble steering the plane once you touch down, land the plane with as little airpseed as possible. It sounds so basic but it will really help you.
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Offline ImADot

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #23 on: March 16, 2009, 04:36:01 PM »
Any tips on landing? I have read the guide on the trainer site but so far no luck.

I'm no real expert, but here's my take on landing:

Throttle controls descent rate, elevator controls airspeed. 

Just for practice, come into the field around 1000-1500' (remember the altimeter shows above sea level, not above ground level).  If the field alt is 300' (shown on the map as 0.3k) if your altimeter shows 1300' you are 1000' above the field.  Try the Hurricane MkIIc if you want to practice with a taildragger.  Approach speed 150mph, combat trim off (if you had it on), cut throttle a bit, flaps down, gear down.  If your speed is over 160 you can't deploy flaps and your gear may rip off if lowered.

If you need to bleed speed, you can perform left and right S-turns (cut back on throttle and bank left, pull back on stick, fly 45-60 degrees left of airbase - bank right, pull stick back fly 45-60 degrees right of airbase - repeat as necessary) until your speed is around 170.  Get lined up with airbase again and continue to slow until 160 where you can drop flaps.  Once flaps are down you should be slowing fast, drop gear at 150 and throttle up a bit to make up for the drag.

Once you're stabilized, small throttle changes to keep your sink rate between 500-1000 feet per minute and pull back on stick and/or use elevator trim for neutral stick to adjust airspeed (which should be steadily decreasing).  Ideally, when you are over the runway threshold, you should be 50' or so and airspeed around 70-90 mph, the stall buzzer should start sounding and your sink rate should be 10-100 feet per minute.

Chop throttle to idle and let it settle onto the runway.  Since your stick is probably pulled back at least halfway, your tailwheel will already be locked once your tail settles onto the ground and steering should be minimal with the rudder.  Apply brakes and you're down safe.

After you've done it a few times it'll be second nature and you can start practicing combat landings and other hard-manouvering techniques to come in hot and land quickly.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2009, 04:38:14 PM by ImADot »
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Offline dkff49

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #24 on: March 16, 2009, 04:44:50 PM »
ImADot  seems to have it pretty close as far as I can tell. The only thing I would add to that my experince has been to not land with engine at idlebut to leave just a hair of throttle until wheels touch. For some reason this seems to help you remain more stable until your gear touches. You can then throttle back to idle and apply brakes to bring your aircraft to a stop.

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Offline Steve

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #25 on: March 16, 2009, 04:51:22 PM »



If you need to bleed speed, you can perform left and right S-turns

Sticking the rudder into the slip stream works even better. Full rudder with cross controls for a nice slip on approach will really slow you down.  :aok
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Offline ImADot

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #26 on: March 16, 2009, 06:32:46 PM »
Yup, was thinking about the fact that I didn't include the rudder-skid as I was driving home from work.   :)

Some planes, especially the ones with huge rudders, can drop speed so fast in a skid that you can practically drop like a rock in no time.
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Offline mmurek

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #27 on: March 16, 2009, 07:14:42 PM »
Just got home from work and finished reading all the post since last night, great advice from everyone you guys are awesome! I think the best advice for me right now was to just take some time working on ACMs and getting more used to the plane. I have only been at this a couple days, but of course expect to be an expert by now. If it was easy what would be the fun. Thanks again guys, off to do some loops and yoyo"s and stuff!

Offline ImADot

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #28 on: March 16, 2009, 11:32:08 PM »
If you've already started your free 2 weeks online, go to the training arena.  Always lots of guys ready to help (and some really great Training Corps members too).

If you are still flying offline, keep asking questions and practicing; I flew offline for about a month while all the time reading and practicing.  Once I started my 2-week trial I knew I was hooked.  Of course, you don't have to wait a month...you'll actually learn more faster in the online training arena.

Be prepared for your house to get dusty and start to crumble down around you while you can't do anything else but fly against a world full of real people once you go online.   :D
« Last Edit: March 16, 2009, 11:44:26 PM by ImADot »
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Offline TexMurphy

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Re: Total noob with questions, be warned!
« Reply #29 on: March 17, 2009, 04:32:21 AM »
One thing I can recommend when it comes to practicing ACMs is to get a "plane model" that you can play with irl. I write  "plane model" because anything will do. I use my cellphone.

What I do with it is that I fly manouvers in the air infront of me. I visualize the manouvers and the positions I obtain through out the manouvers and what other manouvers I can do "within" the initial manouver.

For example I take my phone and I start doing a High YoYo at the top of the YoYo I notice that Im actually a quarter of a "lap" into a roll. So from there instead of finishing the YoYo I explore what other options I have. For example I can roll another quarter of a lap into a inverted position and do a split-s from there.

High YoYo+Split S isnt maybe that usefull of a manouver but its an example thats quite easy to visualize.

"Flying" through the manouvers and finding how you can chain them together is very good because it lets you try stuff when your actually not in the air. Then once you get in the game you can try out your ideas.

But as first step its just great way to visualize the instructions you read when you read them on the internet.

Tex