All Damage Model questions answered at once

[Puck]

When I came to work this morning our resident (ex) fighter pilot pulled into the space next to me.  I told him he'd be proud of me; I landed an FM2 with no ailerons last night.

First question: How did you do that? (Rudder and elivator  

Second question: How did you loose JUST the ailerons?

He was more impressed with being able to loose both ailerons without critical damage to anything else than my heroic efforts to land the beast.

Oh, well.  Some people have no sense of adventure.  That must be why they join the Air Force  

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Puck


Second question: How did you loose JUST the ailerons?

You should have said "Spray and pray, thats where the bullets landed..."

[Nifty]

Well, remember, AH is an all or nothing damage model.   If every single bullet hole was graphically represented on your airframe, your plane would probably have been riddled with holes.  However, only your ailerons sustained enough damage to pass their "breaking" threshold.  The aileron "falling off" is really just a graphical representation of your aileron becoming so damaged (either the surface itself, or the linkage system for it) that it loses all authority as a control surface.  If we had a gradual damage model system, more than likely your ailerons would have probably have lost over 80% (or whatever AH considers as "breaking") of their authority while other control surfaces, if hit, would have lost a much lower % of their authority.

At least that's how I've always understood the AH damage model.