AH Airspeed Indicator

[nrshida]

How is the Airspeed Indicator modelled in AH? Is the pitot tube thingy functionally represented by a velocity vector matching the vector sticking out the front of the nose?

[LTCClark]

no it is a computer thingy that measures your indicated and true airspeed.

indicated is always off of the pitot tube, true is indicated by ground distance traveled , which increases with altitude.

so indicated is what you need to pay attention to when it comes to stalls and behaviours of aircraft.

true airspeed is how much ground you are going to cover before you are going to die by the hand of some picktard.

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[nrshida]

no it is a computer thingy that measures your indicated and true airspeed.

indicated is always off of the pitot tube, true is indicated by ground distance traveled , which increases with altitude.

so indicated is what you need to pay attention to when it comes to stalls and behaviours of aircraft.

true airspeed is how much ground you are going to cover before you are going to die by the hand of some picktard.

It's interesting that you say that, because my question was partly prompted by some weirness observed between the 'true' and 'indicated' especially when flying sideways and backwards. The 'true' seems to increase much faster when recovering. So I was wondering how they were modelled and how trustworthey they were to indicate a recovery.

[LTCClark]

give me a film to watch

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[hitech]

If you are flying perfectly sideways at 100 mph the indicated air speed will be zero.

HiTech

[Mongoose]

If you are flying perfectly sideways at 100 mph the indicated air speed will be zero.

HiTech

OK.  But would the true air speed also be zero?  I would think it would since true air speed is calculated from indicated air speed.  Or does the game show true air speed independent of indicated air speed. 

Just curious.

[TequilaChaser]

Aces High shows both:

IAS (Indicated Air Speed) = Long White Needle pivoting from center of Speedometer out

TAS (True Air Speed) = Short Red Needle that pivots from outer ring edge in

http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/88-first-timers/learning-to-fly/1051-cockpit-gauges

Cockpit Gauges

Speedometer
•There are several different speedometers in the game, depending on aircraft country of origin, although they all operate the same way
•All speeds in mph
•Speedometer shows two different markings
•White needle is Indicated Air Speed (IAS) which is affected by pressure differences between altitudes.
•Red Mark indicates True Air Speed (TAS), adjusted for changes in altitude. EDIT: Temperature, humidity, Atmospheric conditions all affect TAS


Going off of what hitech posted, still doesn't tell the OP if the "pitot tube" on the different planes in game, are "Functionally Represented" or if the "pitot tube" is just modeled for "Visual Attributes"

I am not certain, but think that hitech has used the formulas ( read as coading, lol ) to calculate IAS and TAS for each individual plane, and that each individual planes pitot tube is there only for cosmetic reasons...... the reason I believe it to be this way is because when you are flying a plane and your wing is shot off, your indicated airspeed is still showing, it might be speeding up, it might be slowing down, but it doesn't "zero out" once the wing where the pitot tube is mounted is shot/blown off....(regardless if it's the right wing or left wing, but it is the wing that has the pitot tube mounted to it!)

as for  hitech's post of:

If you are flying perfectly sideways at 100 mph the indicated air speed will be zero.

HiTech

In real life, yes most definitely.... Is Aces High III modeled the same way, as well?  Your post has me thinking I need to go watch some films


Hope this helps

TC

[nrshida]

If you are flying perfectly sideways at 100 mph the indicated air speed will be zero.

Ah perfect thank you. And at 45 degrees angle off nose then something like the cosine of 45 0.707 of the actual airflow, say?

[nrshida]

Dot product, inverse of cosine and then measure the magnitude? And if the angle is not acute after the arc cos then air speed indicated zero?

[nrshida]

OK.  But would the true air speed also be zero?  I would think it would since true air speed is calculated from indicated air speed.  Or does the game show true air speed independent of indicated air speed. 

Exactly. I noticed the true air speed needle sprang back up much faster when returning to 'normal' flight. Faster than the difference in normal acceleration.

[2bighorn]

It's interesting that you say that, because my question was partly prompted by some weirness observed between the 'true' and 'indicated' especially when flying sideways and backwards. The 'true' seems to increase much faster when recovering. So I was wondering how they were modelled and how trustworthey they were to indicate a recovery.

In AH, both IAS and TAS are  trustworthy. That said, for 'stall recovery' you should be concerned with IAS only. That applies to all V speeds references too.

In AH TAS measures speed of AC through surrounding air mass, so your plane could be falling down (after tail down stall for example) and accelerate to 300mph TAS, yet IAS would remain close to 0mph until you would manage to get the nose down.

[nrshida]

All hail Bighorn, thane of the stall fighters, and that little gravelly patch next to the garden shed!

I was wondering if the difference in speed (of the needles) in returing to correct readings between the TAS & IAS was saying something profound about what you had done during the 'post-stall phase'. Bit esoteric I expect. Sorry 

P.S. Never thought to look in the film viewer, that records a speed but I never knew which one?

[Dawger]

In AH, both IAS and TAS are  trustworthy. That said, for 'stall recovery' you should be concerned with IAS only. That applies to all V speeds references too.

In AH TAS measures speed of AC through surrounding air mass, so your plane could be falling down (after tail down stall for example) and accelerate to 300mph TAS, yet IAS would remain close to 0mph until you would manage to get the nose down.

True air speed is derived from indicated airspeed so if your IAS is zero, your TAS is zero.

Your velocity may be 300 mph when falling but it isn't, strictly speaking, your TAS.

Indicated airspeed is what the gauge reads, calibrated airspeed is IAS corrected for instrument error, Equivalent airspeed is CAS corrected for compressibility of air and True airspeed is either CAS or EAS corrected for air density (CAS in slow planes and EAS in fast, high flying planes)

The game may or may not be correct in this respect.

[2bighorn]

I was wondering if the difference in speed (of the needles) in returing to correct readings between the TAS & IAS was saying something profound about what you had done during the 'post-stall phase'. Bit esoteric I expect. Sorry 

Hey nrshida, long time no see. Anyways, no, never bothered with speed indicators unless landing and taking off, diving, or high altitude flying when difference between IAS and TAS is at it's most.

Your velocity may be 300 mph when falling but it isn't, strictly speaking, your TAS.

Strictly speaking, TAS is the actual speed of the aircraft through the air mass. TAS may not be what gauges show as TAS and in some circumstances it may be way off.

Indicated airspeed is what the gauge reads, calibrated airspeed is IAS corrected for instrument error, Equivalent airspeed is CAS corrected for compressibility of air and True airspeed is either CAS or EAS corrected for air density (CAS in slow planes and EAS in fast, high flying planes)

Yes, and these days flight computers can use additional data from myriad of sensors and sources like altimeters, accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS,  radars, etc, to more accurately calculate TAS under most circumstances.

The game may or may not be correct in this respect.

As long as end result is correct, does it really matter how it was calculated?

[Owlblink]

It's "good enough"