AH vs "Real Life" flying

[discod]

A dream finally come true!  Me at the controlls of a real plane!!  11.5 hrs so far!!  Cooler than I ever imagined!

I was postponing lessons because of the costs... but when I saw the low-winged Diamond Katana and found out it wat a stick (not a yoke/steeringwheel) and that it had a bubble cockpit like a fighter I went in and signed up the next day!!  

I have to say WTG to HTC on the flight modeling!! I could not believe how "familiar" everything was even on my first flight.  In fact my instructor even asked me if I had a lot of flight time because I could control it so well.

After 3 hours I nailed a perfect landing with an 18knot 90-degree crosswind on my first try.  Even though I never have that in AH I think all the times I have had to "slide" my plane in on an angle to quickly slow down definately taught me the manuver.

The biggest difficulty I have had is that in AH I use my right-hand on the joystick but in the Katana I have to use my left hand on the stick.  The second difficulty is that I do not have rudder pedals for my computer so that took some getting used to.  The third thing is NO GUNS!!!  

I'm no expert on the dynamics of flight and the "technical" descriptions would be too confusing for someone with no flight training so I'll just give some examples of the flight characteristics in layman terms

Flight Modeling:
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REAL LIFE: I have a little trouble staying straight down the runway on takeoff due to the prop rotation and the air flowing down the left side of the plane and hitting the rudder.

ACES HIGH: Same

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REAL LIFE: About 50% of the time I bounce a little on landing...because I suck at it

ACES HIGH: Same

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REAL LIFE: Any quick movement of the stick or pedals followed by a release to center will cause the nose to bounce all over the place

ACES HIGH: Same

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REAL LIFE: A stall is easily induced at any speed by pulling back quick and hard on the stick.  Stall recovery is usually to return the stick to center or point the nose down to get your "lift" back and adjust throttle acording to the situation.

ACES HIGH: Same.  The only thing I haven't done in real life is a stall induced spin but the instructions are exactly what I do in AH when it happens....cut throttle, point the nose down and apply opposite rudder from the direction of the spin.

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REAL LIFE: Due to the low wing, its hard to see anything under you...including the ground on takeoffs and landing.  You just have to get a "feel" for it.

ACES HIGH: Same...for fighters

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REAL LIFE: A "Check Six" is useless since I can't even see it! he he he

ACES HIGH: Better six view in most planes.

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REAL LIFE:  WIND SHEAR!!!!!  Sudden wind gusts!!!  Constant strong winds!  All these things make flying much more difficult and can toss you all over the place.  You have to be concerned about how you make your turns according to the wind so it wont flip you inverted or make you loose your lift.  

ACES HIGH: Barely notice wind at all....it's pretty much not an issue....however if all those things were modeled into the game I can see that it would probably frustrate a lot of people....just imagine comming in to land 5 or 6 kills in your ME262 just to get smashed into the runway due to wind shear!
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REAL LIFE: G's!!!!! You can go weightless to feeling like 900 pounds just by adjusting the TRIM!!!

ACES HIGH: Holy crap if I did manuvers real life like I do in AH I think my head would explode or my neck would break!

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CONCLUSION:

There are lots more similarities but overall I can say anyone who complains about flight modeling has never flown a streamlined  low-wing plane or they want too much realism which would probably drive more customers away than it would attract

P.S.  Uh....if you like really suck in AH and are constantly crashing on landings, takeoffs, augers etc.....um....may I suggest.......stay on your computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 It's good for your health!

Now other more experienced real life pilots may shed more light on this subject and just tell me I'm an idiot....but I already knew that!  LOL

[Kweassa]

Did you know Kurt Tank designed that plane? Look at the wing spans!

 

 Anyhow, wtg discod! Must really be a thrilling experience!

[poopster]

Good for you !!

Ain't it a blast ??

[NOD2000]

well this is always a comforting thought just incase a planes pilots end up dead in a airliner then i can just pilot it in........well it should be like flying a fully loaded lanc or a b-17

[jbroey3]

oh.. yes... Aces High Aircraft (Spit 9/P51/n1k) yep.. they handle just like a Katana. Realism at its best.  

The Diamond katana has Differntial braking, I have yet to see any negligable effect of this in Aces.

Oh, and P-factor, torque, spiraling slipstream etc.... I have yet to see this as well.

Heres a thought for you to ponder. While you rev up that massively powerful katana engine what is it. 120hp? 90 even? You say it resembles Aces High aircraft?

Last time I checked WWII aircraft had Thousands of brake horse power.... and What you saying is that These "Warbirds" have the same output/feel as the katana? haha I laugh at you.

Oh and yes I have flown the DA20C1 before..  

[SFRT - Frenchy]

WTG Discoed, pls make sure you don't fly this Katana when it's too hot.

[Urchin]

Originally posted by Kweassa
Did you know Kurt Tank designed that plane? Look at the wing spans!

 

 Anyhow, wtg discod! Must really be a thrilling experience!

Nah, if Kurt Tank designed it the fuel and tempature gauges would be on the floor under the pilots seat, right where it is convenient to look for them at.

[MRPLUTO]

There was a pilot in WarBirds called Retnuh, whose real name is Adam Hunter.  He's a police officer in Sydney, and I had the pleasure of meeting him while he was in Washington, DC.  Some flight sim mag did a story on him, because, having only WarBird's flying experience, "Retnuh" hopped in the cockpit of some little plane with an instructor and began doing manuvers and even some aerobatics right away.

"Retnuh" is a great shot as well as a great pilot.  I know he had a 50+ kill streak in WB flying a P-51D.

******
jbroey3:  discod never said Aces High aircraft handle "just like a Katana" or that a Katana's flight characterisctics "resemble Aces High aircraft", only that the AH flight model has enough of the forces acting on aircraft simulated realistically enough to be of use in training someone for a real flight.

Sounds reasonable to me.

******

MRPLUTO  VMF-323  ~Death Rattlers~  MAG-33

[Beegerite]

WTG old wingie!!!  Nothing like fulfilling a life-long dream.  Glad you're enjoying yourself.  

There are a lot of similarities between any of these sims and real life flying specially when it's a light trainer but don't be fooled, the differences and additional complexities are much greater than the similarities.  Take it from a guy who's walked away from two light aircraft accidents solely cause I let the airplane get ahead of me.  First time was a Cessna 150 where I got sloppy on a crosswind landing and dug a landing strut into a snow bank.  Do you know what the world record is for evacuation of a Cessna 150 when it's nose is buried in a snowbank?  .000001 seconds and I hold it.  The second time was when I was a fresh commercial pilot and CFI and was taking a family up for their very first airplane ride during an airport open house.  A fast moving front came in and changed the wind direction 180 degrees.  While making an approach to landing I got fat-dumb-happy, moronic and stupid and while landing downwind I floated, floated, floated and floated some more until I ran out of runway, crossed a road and started harvesting corn.  I've always wondered if that family ever went back up in an airplane again.  Learn from the Beeg's mistakes!

Good luck
Beeg

[jbroey3]

And yes.. I second frenchy.. do not fly when its too hot..

The glue that holds the composits together will fail.

[Vulcan]

Every AH pile-its dream... the blonde-busty-air-hostess comes out of the cockpit "both the pilots have passed out from food poisoning - are there any pile-its on board?"

Originally posted by NOD2000
well this is always a comforting thought just incase a planes pilots end up dead in a airliner then i can just pilot it in........well it should be like flying a fully loaded lanc or a b-17

[Citabria]

you will get good at actual engine out landings in those katana's

[Thrawn]

Originally posted by discod
After 3 hours I nailed a perfect landing with an 18knot 90-degree crosswind on my first try.  

The Katana has a maximum demonstrated crosswind component of 15kts.  Is your instructor trying to kill you?

[LLv34 Jarsci]

Heh , like someone mentioned, Katana has not so much power on its engine so that you would have to stomp your foot on the floor on takeoff.. try 300 HP Kingair.. thats more like it.. light airframe and nicely power, you have to give rudder much much more than in Cessna 150 or similar planes. Even 172 with 180 HP engine is better experiencing the need of rudder..

Also stalls are much milder in those training planes than in warplanes.. but still Cessna 150 can make nice spins Dunno in RL but I think that stall departures in WW2 planes were much more violent..

But G-forces are the same .. And it feels quite nice to pull 4 G sustainend in 90 degrees spiral dive tried it in glider some years back .After 30 mins of pulling and looping and doing whatever to reduce my altitude ( I had flown 3.5 h already and I wanted to get down, but weather was almost too good , initial alt was 2800 m , I started feeling quite tired. It seems that even pulling long times even 1.5 G is tiring.. Eyelids started sweating !

Max G I pulled was bout 4.5 - 5 when recovering from spin. The plane I flew had a tendency to drop nose violently after spinning ended, causing rapid acceleration and fast pull-up.

Iīm gonna visint Aircombat USA someday and have first hand experience about Combat flying and then I donīt have to speculate any more.. theres only one but.. money!

[discod]

Originally posted by Thrawn


The Katana has a maximum demonstrated crosswind component of 15kts.  Is your instructor trying to kill you?

Believe me it wasn't planned that way, we we on final with a 12kt wind but it just kept getting stronger, however it was real smooth wind so I was able to bring it in with no problem.....other than the fact that I was looking out my side window!  The scariest part was taxiing after landing.  

******

Originally posted by Citabria
you will get good at actual engine out landings in those katana's

What are you kidding? That would never happen!....well except to my instructor while he was on a 1st date with a girl!!  

*****

jbroey3 and Frenchy do not fly when its too hot.. "The glue that holds the composits together will fail. "

Yeah crazy huh?  Did you know that it actually has a guage that measures the airframe temp?  It has to get really hot though...like 115+ degrees or something.

*****

oh and jbroey3...about the comparisions....MrPluto got it right, just saying that there are enough similarities to make me say HTC did a good job.

*****

Beeger!!!  You flying again yet?     Stupid wind changes!!!  I guess that one advantage of adding realistic winds in AH is that we would all get a lot more practice in those hairy suituations....you know the one where the blonde-busty-air-hostess comes out of the cockpit "both the pilots have passed out from food poisoning - are there any pile-its on board?"  he he he

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