Anyone have any good tips/tricks, etc?
Here is Matt Wagner’s videos … both good:
And Jabbers’s Case I video:
I really appreciate the effort that went into these videos. Anyone have any additional links?
IFLOLS, I know I didn’t capitalize the last letter, but it’s 4:30 in the morning here.
Improved Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System. Colloquially: the Meatball. When you land on the carrier it’s the big array of lights that hang off the left side of the ship. There is a fixed set of green lights that represent the optimal glide slope for the optimal landing. A centrally mounted amber light (the ball), traverses up and down a track. It’s position relatively to the green lights indicates the pilot’s current position above or below glide slope. A low ball is corrected with power, a high ball is corrected by easing off the power. If you’re too low, the ball will become red. if you are too high or too low, you’ll get a wave off signal.
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Oh thanks! Let me guess- you shouldn’t look directly into those bulbs, if you’re standing there closeby, right?
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My EYES!
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The question is. What is the angle of the landing deck to relation of travel?
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Nine degrees for most Nimitz-class.
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So say you have the E bracket fixed with 8.1 at 4 degrees slope (which creates a whole different problem because different classes of carrier have different glideslopes, but let’s ignore this for a second). What if you come in at something ridiculous like 90 knots? You’ve got the FPM planted in the happy zone, but your AOA is like twenty.
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Other than qcing it as I am trimming for fine corrections I completely disregard the e bracket, trim to the donut, then fine tune it using the e bracket. Then the e bracket is completely disregarded. If it’s trimmed once your throttle is stabilized it will settle at what you trimmed it to. Now I’m using throttle and qcing the velocity vector in relation to the horizon for the rest of the approach until I can see the meatball, then it’s meatball vs throttle till touchdown.
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I would love to use the ball but it is just too small. 
I’d like to optionally have it like back in the days in “Aces of the Pacific” which showed the LSO in a popup screen.
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zoom in on the ball as soon as it is visible in your final turn, my crosscheck as I’m lining up with the carrier until touchdown is alignment of the velocity vector with the landing area and the ball. That is my world until I either hit the deck or go around.
Again to reiterate what Ive said above, its all about getting trimmed and hitting the numbers so that when you get to the last mile and are lined up, you don’t have to think about anything else, you are at the right altitude to see the ball, you are on speed and all you have to think about is power and alignment.
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I wasn’t clear apparently. Or I just don’t understand how any of this is supposed to work. I fully expect AND HOPE that the FPM would disappear below the HUD if I were flying at such a high AOA. The E-bracket should be fixed to a constant angle-to-earth (typically 3 degrees in the civvy world). Otherwise it just an indexer for the FPM to fit inside if things are roughly ok.
True, I hadn’t thought of different glidepaths so, yes, I do see how it would need to change specifically to each carrier or runway. But that’s a onetime movement on the HUD that is set when the desired runway is dialed in. Otherwise my dumb civilian a** thinks it should be fixed (or nearly so) as a constant and the variable should be the FPM.
The F-16 HUD has a similar display when the gear is lowered. That one behaves in a way I would expect it to behave. No it isn’t entirely “fixed”. If the gear is lowered and the nose of the jet pointed straight down there would be no way to display 3 degrees to earth on the HUD because 3 degrees to earth would be near the top of the canopy. But in more realistic approach scenarios the appearance of movement is very subtle. This all might serve to prove that I am simply not smart enough to be in the Navy.
Anywayzzzz…I’ll figure it out or turn it off. And continue to enjoy the jet
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Btw where are y’all putting the TVV when on final?
I tend to have better results putting it on the island most of the time (otherwise I tend to drift too far left) but I don’t know what is the orthodox thing to do.
VR is a struggle. But for me (see my post above about my suitability for the Navy) for me the right way just doesn’t work. The wrong way does every time. Why? Because any deck movement in swells is minimal in DCS, so much of the challenge of landing on a real carrier is missing. It is the pitching deck that makes the meatball so essential in their world. In ours, you can fly very imprecisely so long as you establish a plausible angle to the boat at a speed which results in an acceptable AOA. Otherwise just do what works in the Su33: Keep the last 3rd of the deck at a fixed spot on the canopy. This technique is not precise enough to catch the 3 wire but you will always snag one of the four.
I believe the E bracket is an on-speed indication, very similar to the AOA indexer. The bracket sinks when you’re slow and rises when you’re fast.
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I did this a LOT with the VRS superbug. I learned to walk the velocity vector from the front right of the boat when I’m just settling in the groove down and left as the approach continues until it’s just in front of the wires right before touchdown.
Then you’d have two tools telling you the same thing.
Yes, but it allows you to couple the FPM with your AOA.
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Experimenting with this myself, but as I understand it, the E bracket in conjunction with the VVI is nothing more than an AOA indicator. The 3 degree flightpath is indicated by the VVI’s placement on the pitchladder.
Could be wrong about this, but using Klarsnows method, I don’t need to touch the stick on the approach, and only use throttle to move the VVI and E-bracket up or down.
Bugger, too slow 