Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: earl1937 on December 27, 2013, 10:21:08 PM
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:airplane: Attitude flying can best be described as knowing and understanding what attitude you want to place the aircraft in, to get your desired result, where are not it is a heading change, a maneuver to out smart your opponent. First thing you have to do is understand what each control does and the reaction that the aircraft has when using that control.
Lets talk about the B-17 in this game, which is probably the most popular bomber in the game.(http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/p684/earl1937/EarlKite_zps706f6df2.jpg) You have 12 controls which have some effect on the aircraft. Elevators: controlling the nose of the aircraft in relation to the horizon. Ailerons control the attitude of the aircraft in relation to wings level or banking for a turn. Rudder: controls the yaw of the down aileron during a turn and taxing a aircraft which has a tail wheel. During a turn, say to the left, the aileron on the right wing is down and the left aileron is up.The down aileron acts like a flap, creating drag on that side of the aircraft, so just a touch of left rudder at the same time you apply aileron to make your left turn will over come the drag created by the down aileron. Those are the 3 basic flight controls you will use on every flight.
Less now pick out an aircraft which is easy to fly and handle on the ground, such as a P-39,(http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/p684/earl1937/19893p39_zps037d6a46.jpg) which has a nose wheel and sits level on the ground. It is easy to taxi and keep straight on the runway during takeoffs and landings. It is a very stable aircraft in flight as it has a lot of dihedral in the wings. The more dihedral in the wing, the more it will try to stay straight and level during flight, hands off the controls.
There are only 3 instruments in which you can depend on, on the instrument panel, the airspeed indicator, the turn and bank, and the altimeter, to give you reliable information. The reason for that is they do not depend on electrical power to make them operate accurately. The turn and bank is operated on a vacuum system, but since we have no ice in this game, its not going to fail.
Its 11PM and I am tired, more on this later!
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:airplane: Attitude flying can best be described as knowing and understanding what attitude you want to place the aircraft in, to get your desired result, where are not it is a heading change, a maneuver to out smart your opponent. First thing you have to do is understand what each control does and the reaction that the aircraft has when using that control.
Lets talk about the B-17 in this game, which is probably the most popular bomber in the game.(http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/p684/earl1937/EarlKite_zps706f6df2.jpg) You have 12 controls which have some effect on the aircraft. Elevators: controlling the nose of the aircraft in relation to the horizon. Ailerons control the attitude of the aircraft in relation to wings level or banking for a turn. Rudder: controls the yaw of the down aileron during a turn and taxing a aircraft which has a tail wheel. During a turn, say to the left, the aileron on the right wing is down and the left aileron is up.The down aileron acts like a flap, creating drag on that side of the aircraft, so just a touch of left rudder at the same time you apply aileron to make your left turn will over come the drag created by the down aileron. Those are the 3 basic flight controls you will use on every flight.
Less now pick out an aircraft which is easy to fly and handle on the ground, such as a P-39,(http://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/p684/earl1937/19893p39_zps037d6a46.jpg) which has a nose wheel and sits level on the ground. It is easy to taxi and keep straight on the runway during takeoffs and landings. It is a very stable aircraft in flight as it has a lot of dihedral in the wings. The more dihedral in the wing, the more it will try to stay straight and level during flight, hands off the controls.
There are only 3 instruments in which you can depend on, on the instrument panel, the airspeed indicator, the turn and bank, and the altimeter, to give you reliable information. The reason for that is they do not depend on electrical power to make them operate accurately. The turn and bank is operated on a vacuum system, but since we have no ice in this game, its not going to fail.
Its 11PM and I am tired, more on this later!
:airplane: Cont'! One of the first "cockpit" tasks that you as a pilot, either VFR(visual flight rules), or IFR, (instrument flight rules), is to develop a "instrument scan", which will give you, at a glance, the current performance of the aircraft. I have always considered the airspeed, turn and bank and altimeter the three most important instruments as far as safe flight is concerned. Airspeed to know if enough airflow is over the wing to keep the aircraft in the air, turn and bank, to know if I am level or turning and altimeter to know if I am high enough for safe flight. All other instruments I consider "reference" instruments. The attitude indicator, (instrument with the little a/c super imposed over the horizon), only gives an indication of the attitude of the a/c in relation to the horizon, but tells me nothing about airspeed, altitude and direction of flight. The vertical speed indicator tells me almost nothing, except when stabilized in a climb or decent. This instrument has a good deal of "lag" in presenting you with useful information. The directional gyro only gives you good information about headings, if you set the DG prior to takeoff, and if you keep resetting it in flight, based on your magnetic compass. More on that later, as there are a number of things to consider to reset it in flight to a correct heading. You don't have to worry about that in this game, as it is presented correctly automatically, prior to takeoff and during flight.
Now the question becomes one of which is my priority as far as instrument scan is concerned! What you are trying to do at the time should dicate which instruments to scan. When decending for landing, airspeed, altimeter and DG should be of first consideration, with all other instruments as reference to support what you are trying to do. The turn and bank should be a strong and often supporter to visualize to what you are doing, as a 1/2 needle width from center, pretty soon your DG is not going to on the heading you want to maintain. To make a turn, while in level flight, the nose of your aircraft is going to lower unless you provide corrective measures upon entering the turn, but the first instrument to glance at to do it properly is the altimeter, which is the first instrument which will tell you if you are decending or climbing. The attitude gyro is not reliable because you can be decending and the little a/c can still be on the horizon. The VSI has lag and until you are already decending, its information is not accurate for maintain a level turn,(constant altitude). What angle of bank do I want to maintain in the turn, now you must do altimeter, then attitude gyo, which has bank angles imposed on the face of the instrument then back to airspeed, turn and bank to show constant rate of turn, altimeter to see if we are maintain altitude, then attitude gyro to see if we are holding a constant bank. To help you learn a good instrument scan, you should memorize the following steps.
Level altitude turn: Altimeter, attitude gyro for establishing bank angle, turn and bank to establishing a constant rate of turn and airspeed indicator.
Climb: Altimeter to see if you have started a climb, turn and bank to see if you are on constant heading, attitude gyro for some pitch up reference, airspeed indicator to see when you arrive at the desired climb speed.
Stright decent: Altimeter to show start of decending angle, turn and bank to show constant heading, airspeed to show desired constant airspeed during decent.
These are just some suggestions to help you establish a instrument scan, but usually a pilot will develop his or her own scan preferences and in real life, these could be life saving suggestions which will help you maintain control over the aircraft and what it is doing at a glance.
Now, ask your self these questions: what is the current attitude of the aircraft, what attitude do I want the aircraft in to perform a selected maneuver, and which of my instruments are the two life lines: the altimeter and the turn and bank. The altimeter will tell you if you are climbing or decendig and the turn and bank will tell you if you are straight and level.
There are not many clouds in this game, but if you will begin to use your instruments to place the aircraft in desired attitude, then when you do enter what few clouds are around, you will be more comfortable knowing you can keep the aircraft right side up until leaving the cloudy area of the game.
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Did you know AH's turn and back is calibrate for 2 min turns?
HiTech
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Did you know AH's turn and back is calibrate for 2 min turns?
Note: All planes should be but I have tested all the planes lately.
HiTech
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Did you know AH's turn and back is calibrate for 2 min turns?
HiTech
:airplane: I have noticed that a time or two, but thought it was a glitch or something. Are all the turn and banks a 2 min. I know the Lanc's have a 2 and 4 minute T&B.