Thanks for the summary of guidance. It worked until the tanker turned.
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Only advise I can give is to focus on your sight picture, everything else is simply practice.
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Much of the difficulty turning relative to straight and level, well, I want to write “in your head”. But that’s not fair. There is a tension that comes with the knowledge that the turn is happening. As others have said, practice will eliminate that. The other problem is the roll-rate used by the tanker. In this respect the S-3 is easier because there is less positioning change during the roll.
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Retrimming can take a bit of the mental load off but as the other’s have mentioned, it’s mostly practice.
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Well said. Ignore that fact that it’s turning and just keep your sight picture and soon it won’t matter whether the tankers doing rolls or not.
I don’t ever trim in the Hornet, since it’s a FBW that trims for G except in landing configuration when it’s seeking AOA, so when it’s trimmed in level flight it’s just applying a constant stick force to seek 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 G and so forth.
That said, in a conventional aircraft like the F-14, certainly trim is your friend.
This. Using throttle as an example, find a ‘neutral’ point, then add a bit, then take a little out (below your neutral point) then return to neutral. You can step the airplane forward and backward this way, and precisely control your closure rate. Your neutral point doesn’t have to be very precise at first, but as you make power inputs (a little on, a little more off, then back on to return to ‘center’) you’ll adjust where that point rests.
And finally, not to attribute ‘software’ problems to hardware, but upgrading from a Warthog or MSFFB2 to the Virpil stick base really made a huge difference for me personally.
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But in a turn you are doing more than 1 G, unlike in level flight. So wouldn’t it make sense to trim for the turn in the Hornet too?
That is the one measurable difference between level flight and a turn: the acceleration, or G-force
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You’re not wrong, but the issue for me is in level flight I’m at 1 G. In a level turn the G will depend on bank angle, but will be more than 1 G, correct. Once the turn is over I want the trim to go back to 1 G, but how do I get it back there without having to tweak it?
For me it’s a lot easier to never trim the Hornet (outside of landing config/trim for AOA), and apply some pressure in the turns as required.
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I’ve never flown the Hornet, so I am probably talking out of my theoretical ass, but in other aircraft (including the Mirage 2000 which has a similar G-force-based FCS), I have found trimming while tanking in a turn an absolute necessity. Once you trim the G out, it becomes the same as level flight. Having to pull the stick a little messes with my brain.
Trim back again when the tanker goes level again.
YMMV
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That’s a hard no for me. I don’t trim pitch in FBW aircraft that automatically try to hold 1G like the Hornet or Viper, it’ll mess up your aircraft behaviour, making it much harder to keep a steady formation.
I do trim other aircraft but only once before making contact. I prefer to hold a slight back pressure on the stick but YMMV. However, like with FBW aircraft I will not touch trim again once I am happy with it.
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This! Focus on the tanker. If you’re doing it right, you’ll be in the turn before you realize you’re in a turn.