A reminder - I'm still learning DCS, myself. This isn't a tutorial, but an explanation of how I approached learning AR and Carrier Recovery. This was the stuff I struggled to learn despite diving deep into tutorials and manuals - the tips that aren't always shared up front.
What I have found to help with the 3 degree glide slope (or whatever degree you want) is to place the touchdown area on your hud at the angle you want on the pitch ladder of the hud. When on speed adjust the throttle so that the touchdown area rises or falls to that position on the pitch ladder. F-16 makes it easy by having a line on the 2.5 angle. You have to imagine it on the Hornet but realising this helps you with “what height should I be at this moment” when on final.
The most common flaw is following the BRC all the way in. Remember the carrier landing area is angled, so aim to cross the ships wake, and then use the FPM and aim it at the “crotch” - the spot where the angled landing area just out from the rest of the ship. Try and get the lineup as early as possible. At the start of your approach, it’s going to look like you’ve gone too far right, but remember, the ship is moving, so it’ll all work out. You’ve got the AoA dialled in right, get the lineup sorted and you are golden. Lastly, REMEMBER the ball. The FLOLS you saw at the end let’s you know if you are trending too high, and you’ll use throttle rather than nose position to fix that. POWER for altitude, AoA for speed. Hope that helps. I mostly fly the f14 in DCS, but the basics are the same and have been since jet aviation was in the navy. The system works, as long as you follow it :)
I understand how Power for elevation works but how does Trim make you fly faster/slower? I never understood which is why I keep crashing before I even make it to the deck. I always fall in the ocean before I get to the carrier! :(
Slyder Ace when you have the nose position set “on speed”, consider what would happen if you moved your nose up or down. If you pushed the nose down, you’d speed up, but also your sink rate would increase - an understandably dangerous situation! You also end up with the tail going up, which raises the hook from the ideal position which guarantees a miss. Pulling the nose up too far is equally dangerous. This reduces your forward speed and starts causing you to climb, meaning you miss the deck - and if you do hit the deck, your hook might hit the wires, but then again, the angle will be so low, it’s equally possible the tail itself will as well! Once you find the sweet spot of the two (indicated by the E-Bracket and AoA indexer), you can make adjustments to the throttle, and you will notice that your FPM indicator will raise or lower itself. If you then adjust the nose to be on speed again, you will still impact the deck at the correct angle. But how do you make sure you are going to hit the wires? Enter the meatball! Using the Glideslope indicator (either the assistant 2d panel or the actual ball if you can see it), you will see a yellow light above or below the green line. If you can keep your AoA and throttle adjustments so that you are on speed and have that yellow light in line with the green ones, you will absolutely catch a 3 wire no problem. Of course, remember to *never* cut power as you cross the ramp. It’s tempting to settle and bounce your way into the wires, but if you miss, you have utterly no chance to put in enough power to get yourself in the air again before you trundle off the other end into the water. The carrier is massive - you aren’t going to break anything by going full power when you snag a wire. Once you are quite sure you have caught, cut throttles your idle, roll back, tuck in the wings and pull up the hook. Then get clear of the deck so others can also go through the same 20 seconds of terror you just survived :)
Allright, I'm just going to point out a few things: You are coming in high - you should remember the correct altitudes for each section of the pattern. Your final is too long. Groove length should be 15-18 seconds. When you practice, keep that in mind. A big part of case one is executing that turn properly (think about what happens to the guy behind you if you turn too late). Don't ignore the meatball, It's your tool. Perfect AOA doesn't matter when you are below or completely above the glideslope. Aim for roughly -750 feet per min on landing.
Your base recovery course is given to tell you the direction of the ship. Your runway is -9 degrees from this so if mom tells you 211, it’s really 202. Looking at your line on your SA page you seem slightly right every time and you above explains it.
Haha, I know you're still learning, so I'll cut you some slack. But, those were some ugggggllllyyyy landings. I'm enjoying following along with your learning experience. I've been flying in DCS for (6?) years and have countless hours in the Hornet. I still get rusty if I take some time off, but you're right that it is satisfying when it all clicks in your head. Muscle memory takes over and you just react to what's going on instead of trying to figure out how to make the jet do what you want it to do.
Dude just think of the landings I cut out of the video 😂. Fortunately most of the footage is older except the Supercarrier clip. It's all starting to click. Glad you're enjoying it! Thanks for watching.
Great vid. I am just starting out flying the hornet in DCS. I find it to be easier for the hook to catch if I land the fa18 “flat” or even a little negative angle of attack
There's nothing wrong with doing that to catch a wire for the first few times, but it's important to not build bad habits. Just remember, 8 degrees AOA, and try to fly the ball! Once you get some practice in, you'll be catching 3 wires left and right ;)
In Naval Aviation a shortcut to knowledge is known as “gouge” or “cog”. As in an ounce of gouge is worth a pound of study. Or, do you have the cog on the HARM? On instruments remember one peek is worth a thousand scans. When conducting AR, from the observation position, remember to check your nose is cold and switches safe...
For the people that have the x56 i took one of the lighter springs and kept cutting it down until i felt i was able to get perfect fine tune movements and it will still recenter itself if you let go its about getting the right amount of spring tension
you need to check where you aim your meatball on carrier landings, you should aim just to the end of the "runway" and right. so that the left edge of the ball touches the top right corner of the runway until maybe 2-4 seconds until you touch the deck you start aiming to the center of the runway
Here's the inside sneak tip: Align the center of the E Bracket with the actual Ball (assuming it's already in line with the flightpath marker). Once you learn the actual pattern, it's gonna be raining 3's! Happy trapping!
Let me help you guys on Air refuel rules: 1- Find the tanker with your tacan or SA page 2- Line up with the tanker just slightly to the left of the tanker 3- Make radio contact to initiate fuel transfer 4- Use gentile controls input to try to connect to the basket 5- Retry item 4 6- Retry item 4 7- Retry item 4 ........ 122211133- Retry item 4.... 2233221234- Discharge every round of your gun in that @##$&&## tanker!!!!!!!!! Carl E x3 😂😂😂😂 Nice video!!
YOU DEFS NEED TO USE THE STICK TO LAND. Trim is a vital part but for gods sake manipulate that thing between your legs, just do it super smoothly and with small movements
Nice video! I've been meaning to spend some time just working on my landings. The break just kills me every time. I roll out of the first break and I'm high and chasing the AoA indexer on the HUD. Before too long, I'm just floating up to 1000ft when I should be at around 600ft for the final break to the boat.
@@ControlledPairsGaming It's definitely tough to just sit down and do something you're bad at, when it's so much easier to just fly off and blow up a bunch of trucks with the TGP!
the crosswind leg after the break is a level turn - this is something i didn't know and the cause of my struggle. so start at around 800' - break - finish at ~800' at the end of your 180. then start your slow descent to around 600 to the baseleg. the baseleg is where you should have more finesse since that's also a slow descent (while turning) to about 400-450' by the time you're in the groove. hope that helps.
You absolutely do need to use your stick when landing. Trim is a vital part of landing but it isn't a good enough on its own if theres any sort of turbulence or misalignment trim will not counter it fast enough. Over the boat on BRC at 800 ft when your 1nm ahead pull 1% of your speed in G while backtrimming a bunch so as that when you roll out on downwind your at 600ft and on speed aoa gear down flaps down. Continue downwind at 1.2nm - 1.5nm abeam the deck and when you see the rounded edge of the back of the boat turn in at about 27- 30 degrees bank adding slight power for loss of lift while maintaining about a 1 degree below level. Coming around the last 90 should be around 430 ft or slightly less(?) on glideslope with about an 18 second in groove time. By this point you should have yourself perfectly trimmed out for a 3 degree descent with the VVI and E bracket placed in the knuckle of the boat (just forward and right of the landing area near cat2) The boat is moving right and away so using the knuckle as an aim point until in very close will make sure you hit the wires. And lastly again. Absolutely use your stick to maintain a good flightpath. Trim is great but its not a primary fligth control
another thing that doesn't get mentioned with regards to AAR is ergonomics (a problem that i have). having your HOTAS on the desk versus on a mount or fixed on your chair is huge. it's far harder to do AAR with your HOTAS on the desk than it being inline with your forearm/hand. this hugely affects your accuracy, fatigue and ability to do small inputs on the joystick. not that it's undoable, just harder. HTH
It IS SO HARD!!! I've been flying the Hornet for 2 weeks now and I have only ever successfully landed on a carrier ONCE! :( It was pure luck! I always fail my fine-tuning of the power to keep my elevation for my AoA.
Your problem is probably that you are to high. Wen you are at kiss off you should be ab 800 feet and not higher until touch down+never use the stick to control your altitude just use the throttle. Another thing: never use Wheel brakes when landing and when you are about to touch down turn on the afterburner. It took me about 5 Hours of trying to get a perfect pattern/landing and I'm not even 15 so if I can do it you can to
I'm fully confident in my knowledge of all required procedures. You're right practice makes perfect. I find that I tend to climb a tad in my downwind leg as I chase the AoA indexer in to place, something that I've since resolved. I thought I spoke pretty in depth in the video on how to control pitch without stick manipulation. Thanks for reminding me again. Thanks for watching and good on you for pursuing such a complex sim at not even 15.
@@ControlledPairsGaming thx. A last tipp from me: don't chase the aoa indexer do it like that: 250 Gear 200 Flaps half 170 flaps full during that time no power input 140-130 start putting in trimm for the aoa and do em smal so that you don't climb and at TACAN 1.7 start the base turn👍🤗
You don't need a stick extension to tank. Just need to getgud lad, lol. It'll come with time and experience
Always one, I suppose.
@@ControlledPairsGaming lol i use the thrustmaster warthog without and extension and tanking is defs hard but it'll come with finer muscle memory
Crypt I also use the Warthog with no extension Dead zone 4 Curve 15
@@Crypt_AU it's okay i use the ch productions cessna yoke you'll get better at one point
@@koc988 lad I'm the best pilot flying DCS. I'm saying it comes with practice. Which i have had almost a decade in dcs
A reminder - I'm still learning DCS, myself. This isn't a tutorial, but an explanation of how I approached learning AR and Carrier Recovery. This was the stuff I struggled to learn despite diving deep into tutorials and manuals - the tips that aren't always shared up front.
What I have found to help with the 3 degree glide slope (or whatever degree you want) is to place the touchdown area on your hud at the angle you want on the pitch ladder of the hud. When on speed adjust the throttle so that the touchdown area rises or falls to that position on the pitch ladder. F-16 makes it easy by having a line on the 2.5 angle. You have to imagine it on the Hornet but realising this helps you with “what height should I be at this moment” when on final.
Excellent advice. Thank you. Going to take a few runs at it now!
Great tip I heard for lining up with the deck is to put the wake of the boat under your armpit. Totally works! 😃
The most common flaw is following the BRC all the way in. Remember the carrier landing area is angled, so aim to cross the ships wake, and then use the FPM and aim it at the “crotch” - the spot where the angled landing area just out from the rest of the ship.
Try and get the lineup as early as possible. At the start of your approach, it’s going to look like you’ve gone too far right, but remember, the ship is moving, so it’ll all work out. You’ve got the AoA dialled in right, get the lineup sorted and you are golden.
Lastly, REMEMBER the ball. The FLOLS you saw at the end let’s you know if you are trending too high, and you’ll use throttle rather than nose position to fix that.
POWER for altitude,
AoA for speed.
Hope that helps. I mostly fly the f14 in DCS, but the basics are the same and have been since jet aviation was in the navy. The system works, as long as you follow it :)
Excellent advice. Thank you!
I understand how Power for elevation works but how does Trim make you fly faster/slower? I never understood which is why I keep crashing before I even make it to the deck. I always fall in the ocean before I get to the carrier! :(
Slyder Ace when you have the nose position set “on speed”, consider what would happen if you moved your nose up or down. If you pushed the nose down, you’d speed up, but also your sink rate would increase - an understandably dangerous situation!
You also end up with the tail going up, which raises the hook from the ideal position which guarantees a miss.
Pulling the nose up too far is equally dangerous. This reduces your forward speed and starts causing you to climb, meaning you miss the deck - and if you do hit the deck, your hook might hit the wires, but then again, the angle will be so low, it’s equally possible the tail itself will as well!
Once you find the sweet spot of the two (indicated by the E-Bracket and AoA indexer), you can make adjustments to the throttle, and you will notice that your FPM indicator will raise or lower itself. If you then adjust the nose to be on speed again, you will still impact the deck at the correct angle. But how do you make sure you are going to hit the wires?
Enter the meatball!
Using the Glideslope indicator (either the assistant 2d panel or the actual ball if you can see it), you will see a yellow light above or below the green line. If you can keep your AoA and throttle adjustments so that you are on speed and have that yellow light in line with the green ones, you will absolutely catch a 3 wire no problem.
Of course, remember to *never* cut power as you cross the ramp. It’s tempting to settle and bounce your way into the wires, but if you miss, you have utterly no chance to put in enough power to get yourself in the air again before you trundle off the other end into the water.
The carrier is massive - you aren’t going to break anything by going full power when you snag a wire. Once you are quite sure you have caught, cut throttles your idle, roll back, tuck in the wings and pull up the hook. Then get clear of the deck so others can also go through the same 20 seconds of terror you just survived :)
Those moments flying with a friend are the reason I fly. Good to see your progress. Keep it going !
Thanks, will do!
LMAO at the Hornet with the clipped wing on takeoff, and the one bounced off the carrier. Great video!
Allright, I'm just going to point out a few things:
You are coming in high - you should remember the correct altitudes for each section of the pattern.
Your final is too long. Groove length should be 15-18 seconds. When you practice, keep that in mind. A big part of case one is executing that turn properly (think about what happens to the guy behind you if you turn too late).
Don't ignore the meatball, It's your tool. Perfect AOA doesn't matter when you are below or completely above the glideslope.
Aim for roughly -750 feet per min on landing.
Lol. Tracking 100% of that. Just need more practice.
Your base recovery course is given to tell you the direction of the ship. Your runway is -9 degrees from this so if mom tells you 211, it’s really 202. Looking at your line on your SA page you seem slightly right every time and you above explains it.
Haha, I know you're still learning, so I'll cut you some slack. But, those were some ugggggllllyyyy landings. I'm enjoying following along with your learning experience.
I've been flying in DCS for (6?) years and have countless hours in the Hornet. I still get rusty if I take some time off, but you're right that it is satisfying when it all clicks in your head. Muscle memory takes over and you just react to what's going on instead of trying to figure out how to make the jet do what you want it to do.
Dude just think of the landings I cut out of the video 😂. Fortunately most of the footage is older except the Supercarrier clip. It's all starting to click. Glad you're enjoying it! Thanks for watching.
Great vid. I am just starting out flying the hornet in DCS. I find it to be easier for the hook to catch if I land the fa18 “flat” or even a little negative angle of attack
There's nothing wrong with doing that to catch a wire for the first few times, but it's important to not build bad habits. Just remember, 8 degrees AOA, and try to fly the ball! Once you get some practice in, you'll be catching 3 wires left and right ;)
In Naval Aviation a shortcut to knowledge is known as “gouge” or “cog”. As in an ounce of gouge is worth a pound of study. Or, do you have the cog on the HARM? On instruments remember one peek is worth a thousand scans. When conducting AR, from the observation position, remember to check your nose is cold and switches safe...
excellent info!
You can use the glide path indicater too to see if you are on path.
For the people that have the x56 i took one of the lighter springs and kept cutting it down until i felt i was able to get perfect fine tune movements and it will still recenter itself if you let go its about getting the right amount of spring tension
I've seen this mod recommend before. On my FCS throttle I did the Nyogel 767a application to reduce stiction in throttle control.
you need to check where you aim your meatball on carrier landings, you should aim just to the end of the "runway" and right. so that the left edge of the ball touches the top right corner of the runway until maybe 2-4 seconds until you touch the deck you start aiming to the center of the runway
Great feedback, thanks!
Here's the inside sneak tip: Align the center of the E Bracket with the actual Ball (assuming it's already in line with the flightpath marker). Once you learn the actual pattern, it's gonna be raining 3's! Happy trapping!
Appreciate it!
Let me help you guys on Air refuel rules:
1- Find the tanker with your tacan or SA page
2- Line up with the tanker just slightly to the left of the tanker
3- Make radio contact to initiate fuel transfer
4- Use gentile controls input to try to connect to the basket
5- Retry item 4
6- Retry item 4
7- Retry item 4 ........
122211133- Retry item 4....
2233221234- Discharge every round of your gun in that @##$&&## tanker!!!!!!!!!
Carl E x3
😂😂😂😂
Nice video!!
I may have elected not to include my "switching to guns" clips 😂
YOU DEFS NEED TO USE THE STICK TO LAND. Trim is a vital part but for gods sake manipulate that thing between your legs, just do it super smoothly and with small movements
I missed this video when it was released, howwwwwwwww :D Awesome video buddy!
Thanks Tom!
Nice video! I've been meaning to spend some time just working on my landings. The break just kills me every time. I roll out of the first break and I'm high and chasing the AoA indexer on the HUD. Before too long, I'm just floating up to 1000ft when I should be at around 600ft for the final break to the boat.
I have the same problem.... And plenty of others hahaha. Thanks for watching!
@@ControlledPairsGaming It's definitely tough to just sit down and do something you're bad at, when it's so much easier to just fly off and blow up a bunch of trucks with the TGP!
the crosswind leg after the break is a level turn - this is something i didn't know and the cause of my struggle. so start at around 800' - break - finish at ~800' at the end of your 180. then start your slow descent to around 600 to the baseleg. the baseleg is where you should have more finesse since that's also a slow descent (while turning) to about 400-450' by the time you're in the groove. hope that helps.
You absolutely do need to use your stick when landing. Trim is a vital part of landing but it isn't a good enough on its own if theres any sort of turbulence or misalignment trim will not counter it fast enough.
Over the boat on BRC at 800 ft when your 1nm ahead pull 1% of your speed in G while backtrimming a bunch so as that when you roll out on downwind your at 600ft and on speed aoa gear down flaps down. Continue downwind at 1.2nm - 1.5nm abeam the deck and when you see the rounded edge of the back of the boat turn in at about 27- 30 degrees bank adding slight power for loss of lift while maintaining about a 1 degree below level. Coming around the last 90 should be around 430 ft or slightly less(?) on glideslope with about an 18 second in groove time. By this point you should have yourself perfectly trimmed out for a 3 degree descent with the VVI and E bracket placed in the knuckle of the boat (just forward and right of the landing area near cat2) The boat is moving right and away so using the knuckle as an aim point until in very close will make sure you hit the wires.
And lastly again. Absolutely use your stick to maintain a good flightpath. Trim is great but its not a primary fligth control
Woah that's crazy
Enjoying the videos. I highly suggest you trying out il-2 sturmovik great battles. I'd like to see someone learn the old ww2 planes too
It has been done! haha. Catching up on old comments and saw this one. Perfect.
Using ATC can make your refuelling more easy after basket is taken.
"The Hornet is made for crashing..." I mean, it was made by Boeing after all.
I'll see myself out now :D
another thing that doesn't get mentioned with regards to AAR is ergonomics (a problem that i have). having your HOTAS on the desk versus on a mount or fixed on your chair is huge. it's far harder to do AAR with your HOTAS on the desk than it being inline with your forearm/hand. this hugely affects your accuracy, fatigue and ability to do small inputs on the joystick. not that it's undoable, just harder. HTH
btw your sink rates are high on the landings :)
Thars a great point! And I wish it was just my sink rate that needed improvement 😂
landing in a hornet is similar to a bush landing, fly in on the backside of the powercurve
Jo, this quality and 6k subs? U earned a sub bro
Appreciate you, man
Well done mate, good effort! :-)
Thank you! "Effort" the operative term hahaha.
Thanks for the video! A question. How do you get the hub to show up on your helmet view. This would help me alot.
I hope that I can play with you in an operation one day :)
You're welcome to join the Discord. Always people hanging out and looking for groups.
not gonna lie that looks hard lol
It's rough, man, for real.
It IS SO HARD!!! I've been flying the Hornet for 2 weeks now and I have only ever successfully landed on a carrier ONCE! :( It was pure luck! I always fail my fine-tuning of the power to keep my elevation for my AoA.
In real life as soon as they touch down they do full after burner so they can immediately go around if they don’t catch the wires with the hook
Your problem is probably that you are to high. Wen you are at kiss off you should be ab 800 feet and not higher until touch down+never use the stick to control your altitude just use the throttle. Another thing: never use Wheel brakes when landing and when you are about to touch down turn on the afterburner. It took me about 5 Hours of trying to get a perfect pattern/landing and I'm not even 15 so if I can do it you can to
I'm fully confident in my knowledge of all required procedures. You're right practice makes perfect. I find that I tend to climb a tad in my downwind leg as I chase the AoA indexer in to place, something that I've since resolved.
I thought I spoke pretty in depth in the video on how to control pitch without stick manipulation. Thanks for reminding me again.
Thanks for watching and good on you for pursuing such a complex sim at not even 15.
@@ControlledPairsGaming thx. A last tipp from me: don't chase the aoa indexer do it like that: 250 Gear 200 Flaps half 170 flaps full during that time no power input 140-130 start putting in trimm for the aoa and do em smal so that you don't climb and at TACAN 1.7 start the base turn👍🤗
Appreciate the unsolicited advice.
I meant Hud
i think your suffer on experience
Correct. That's what this whole series is about - how I, a new player, am learning to play, and useful stuff that may help others get started.