Whew, not just me then 
Haven’t done any traps (in anything) for a while. Been busy. But, after much practice with the whole “On Speed” thing I’m pretty steady there. That last bit is, well, shaky. I can stick the probe (AR) in in my sleep but those last few moments on final…ick. I can get aboard first pass 9/10 times but it’s rarely “OK”. Lineup is a bug-a-boo.
The LSO stopped sending me Christmas cards ages ago
Just finished m1. What can I say… Just brilliant. Makes you feel like a big boy.
It’s frustrating for sure. It looks like they permanently enabled the burble, when it was linked to the Wake Turbulence setting before. On-speed is dead easy, it’s the groove turn and right before the ramp when everything goes bad.
At 1.2nm abeam the groove turn should be 30 degrees AOB, but that consistently results in an undershoot for me. So I bring it in to 1.1nm, and 30AOB consistently results in an overshoot. It seems to be worse the more natural wind there is in the mission. There’s no wiggle room.
Get lined up, on the ball, looking good, then either a sudden high ball and a wave off, or a low ball and a trap that’s a cut pass with WO notation despite the LSO never calling wave-off and the IFLOLS never flashing wave-off. And/or a 3PTS notation thanks to that AoA-on-landing bug that doesn’t seem to go away (I wasn’t even 3PTS though, the mains still touched down first?)
As for the LSO, I stopped doing the comms and using him a long time ago. The grading has always been broken, at least for the Tomcat. And the little radio calls he makes are simply stating the bloody obvious. “Your high”? Thanks Sherlock, I would have never figured that out.
I find him to be of no help with getting good landings. No anticipation of trends or my power state. Where I am I can see for myselfe.
I giggle too much and mock too little.
One trick an LSO taught me that sounds like it may help you goes back to that angular ball width thing that we were talking about.
Since the width of the ball itself is quite large at the start, even if you roll out centered, you may still be over or underpowered, which won’t be immediately apparent. You can also be on the high part of a centered ball or the low part and you will see the exact same indication. At first.
So, if you are lucky (or good) enough to roll out centered on the ball, you should start “narrowing down” where you are on it by making very small positive power corrections. You’re goal is to make a centered ball “crest” above the datums.
This way you are defining exactly where you are on the ball early and, by making some effort to move the ball, you are getting a better feeling for your energy state.
As to LSOs. A good LSO is part air traffic controller, part coach, part psychologist. They know what you are going to do before you do it. By the time AI is competent enough to be a good LSO, we will already be in a lot of trouble! 
I vote for @Victork2 for MUDSTRIKEFITRON LSO
Yep. Thats me down to the last detail
With more than 2 aircraft in pattern i am
YES! I used to teach this on the 737-900. There is something odd about that variant whereby the effort to arrest the sinkrate on landing varies randomly more than I’ve experienced in other airliners. I discovered that if I, at around 100’, move the elevator forward and aft a few times ever so slightly, I can teach my brain what to expect on the flare a few seconds later. Yes, they may notice this in the back, but the alternative is a firm, sometimes extremely firm, touchdown. We say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But sometimes you have to make variables in order to truly know your current state. Anyway, cool to see this intuition confirmed by a pro in a different context.
Hehe. Well, being a confirmed member of the “Twelve Trap Club” I’m not sure how much of a Pro I am, but the guy who told me about it was a Tomcat dude, so…
That’s interesting about the -900. I wonder what was behind that. The highest I ever flew was the -700 and that seemed to land OK.
…just a little rough from the right seat!
My thoughts posted there (under: Flight Sim Stuff) - I’m going to keep squeaking about the AI & “World” in general until they put some grease on that wheel :).
Haven’t you noticed? The first batch of the big AI changes announced in December has been rolled out last month. This has broken many of the campaigns in DCS, obviously, because mission designs depend on the way AI behaves.
May 28, 2022
December GFM announcement: new flight model for AI to create realistic flying characteristics, deviations and corrections instead of “perfect” flight
https://forum.dcs.world/topic/254461-official-news-2021/?do=findComment&comment=4838653
Yes, I noticed, and acknowledged such (on YT). BVR/BFM is a start. And good news for sure. The AI wingmen are still next to useless.
During a test run I did notice the “Kiss Off” worked for -2 at the boat. It’s never worked well so I usually gave him the “RTB” command. This time, though I was pretty nice to him (eaaaasssy turns and such inbound and in the stack), he did what I expected. It’s those things, and there are many, that IMO needed to be there years ago.
When I can look at something on the ground, say “hit that”, and he jumps on it like a dog on a bone, I’ll say we’re almost there (I’ve covered this elsewhere) - call it “BFM against a ground target?”
And tell me when he’s JOKER or BINGO would be nice (I’ve scripted this but something this simple should be built in, again of course IMO).
PS: the JOKER/BINGO thing would likely have to wait for a ‘universal’ data cartridge thing - so you can specify what these values are before you kick off. I do it via a F10 menu item but it clutters up that space as in: F10 | F10:Other | F1: Clue Bag | F2: “Fuel State Check”. I use VoiceAttack/VAICOMM so I just say, “Action, Fuel State Check”. But you get the idea. Oh, and two other menu items to increase/reduce the values.
PS2: A [good] side effect of the JOKER/BINGO thing I did: when he’s on the tanker, coming home, you can query him/them and, when you think it’s enough, make the “REJOIN” call. He unplugs and does so. Saves you having to wait for him to take on 10K pounds (fill up) when you only need a sip.
Here is my best attempt of the last few days on making a decent trap. 5 ft/s turbulence and no DLC usage. Like I mentioned above I cannot reproduce this consistently so this is rather lucky and not representative. I think it is still a nice recovery though
Ok that was really nice to watch. One question (absolutely not a criticism)
I go on the power as soon as the nose crosses the fantail, you seemed to spool up after you began to slow down from the wire. Would this be the reason i seem to lose the wire more frequently? Im not sure i am doing it right now i saw that.
I think you should fly the ball right until touchdown, which means controlling power to keep the ball centered. Only upon touchdown I go full power.