When in clouds I tend to rely on the artificial horizon to remain level.
However, as can be seen in the video I always tend to loose my bearings when I look away.
What can I do to get the artificial horizon back to straight and level?
3 Likes
Close landing indeed. I also really love the A-20.
In situations like that is advisable to keep an eye on your whole six-pack of instruments rather than purely the ADI. What is the vertical velocity? What is the altitude and is it changing in correspendence with what the VVI is saying? Is the heading changing (rapidly)? Could that mean we’re in a very steep bank?
Also for a medium sized bomber like that it might be better to ditch-land the thing with the gear up and land on the belly and engine nacelles, especially if both props are dead anyway. If the gear collapses or the thing starts bouncing there’s a chance things will end in a fireball. with a belly landing the crew that sits high in the plane should have a good chance of survival, maybe thats something you can test in your crashes n fails series 
3 Likes
I’ll add that the bank & slip indicator would be very useful here. It would only read clean straight and level if you are, or perhaps upside down…
Not sure with IL2 but in DCS the artificial horizons are very unreliable in terms of accuracy - before you’d been shot up.
1 Like
I’m not a real world pilot, however, I don’t think that am going out on a limb when say, real pilots will probably mention keeping a “scan” going - the scan being a regular look at our “six pack” on some specific order. The idea is to not get fixated on one gauge to the detriment of the others.
4 Likes
Always. Trust. Your. Instruments.
Scan. Check and cross reference. Scan again
4 Likes
Examples of when this doesn’t happen can be seen in the Discovery Channel series Mayday!
4 Likes
To train this sort of flying (which can be a lot of fun btw) I recommend firing up DCSW and use either the L-39 or the C-101 with the IFR hood.
Plan the flight ahead and then try to fly it as well as you can. Save the replay (and/or use TacView) to see how much you screwed up (and you probably will the first few times).
2 Likes
Thanks for help everyone.
I think maybe you are correct a wheels up landing was in order.
The A-20 Is built like a tank, smashing both main landing wheels of like that was pretty impressive 
One of the wheels bounced up over 20ft
I guess what is in order is to practice more! Scanning more then 1 instrument!
6 Likes
@il2crashesnfails. Selective radial scan and radial scan. Lots on the net about this but there are several real world pilots on Mudspike who can do this. Feel free to ask if you cant follow it. It is daunting without lots of practice and is a skill that fades quickly
1 Like