A few years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Lemoore NAS to get some time in one of their F/A-18C dome sims. It was a great experience and provided a great perspective to flying the Hornet. One item that caught me though was just how fragile the gear doors can be when over-sped. Today, we added this as a new damage element to our Hornet.
As mentioned in this week’s newsletter, progress on the Hornet is moving along quickly with much of the work focused on the air-to-air radar modes, defensive systems, INS waypoint navigation, and flight dynamics / Flight Control Computer. Our next Hornet academic video will instruct on Hornet TACAN and ADF navigation.
I’ve been in one of the domes at Lemoore back in the mid 90s. All superlatives apply. One of the funny things that the tech did during my hour stint was to project big E over my shoulder. A bit discomforting to have a carrier flying in formation behind you.
Under the category of small details, we implemented differential engine modeling this week. Rather than each engine underlying modeling and IFEI indication for RPM, EGT, FF, and OIL PSI being the same, they are now modeled as separate, dynamic entities. While this may seem like a rather small thing, it has required quite a bit of work, but we feel it will provide a much more realistic modeling of the F-404 EPs. In the end, this was a must-do.
I’m not getting what it is exactly that was changed.
On the one hand it sounds nonsensical, I mean shouldn’t the engines be the same? On the other, it sounds like the old way was just to have one engine and then copy and paste it for 2x the thrust. Yet that isn’t plausible because we do get yaw from differential thrust.
Each engine has separate auxiliaries that are coming off it, with different oil, electrical, and fuel systems. This will provide some additional fun for cascading casualties and failures, especially since (if I remember right) ED is revamping damage models.
Plus, my understanding is, differential thrust can play a huge role in midair refueling and formation flying.
Currently in DCS the engines start up to the same stats each and everytime, and across both engines on aircraft with two engines. This change makes this more dynamic and realistic so that you will get varied results in stats for things like RPM, EGT, FF, and OIL PSI. You could end up with one engine performing slightly better than another.