• There seems to be an up tick in Political commentary in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site we know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religiours commentary out of the fourms.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politicion will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment amoung members. It is a poison to the community. We apprciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Released!! F9F Cougar by Rob Richardson

For those interested in tech mods to the aircraft.cfg file, my old notes show this


Fuel system: this was fully automatic with the exception of selecting drop tank transfer to the main cell. Their were two fuselage bladders interconnected, but so what. These were the quantities for the -8, as could be changed in your cfg file:
Center1 = -0.0, 0.0, -1.50, 830.5, 16.5
LeftMain = -4.1, -7.9, -0.8, 107.5, 0.5
RightMain = -4.1, 7.9, -0.8, 107.5, 0.5

J-48-P8 engine with 7250 lb thrust

NATOPS data for weights:
Empty Weight (including a 210 lb pilot with flight gear): 12400 lb typical
Max Field Takeoff: 25,000 lb
max Catapult Launch: 24,500 lbs
Max Field Landing: 17,000 lbs
Max Arrestment; 16,000 lbs

High OAT takeoff info - SEA LEVEL (flaps DOWN): takeoff INADVISABLE
OAT (F) TOW Limit (lb) Vr / Climbout (KIAS) Ground Run - Zero Wind (ft)
100 22,000 135 7150
90 23,400 139 7500
60 25,000 145 6700

Airspeed limits: Gear/Flaps/ Canopy open - 220 KIAS
Speed Brakes - 0.95 IMN
No max KIAS or max IMN - limited by airframe drag. However, an extensive g vs speed envelope had to be complied with ("V-n Diagram").With drops or ordnance, I assume at that time it was 450 KIAS / 0.90 IMN, but need to dig further.
I recall gear and flaps being revised to 250 KIAS, but not sure.


I reported to NAS Kingsville for advanced jet training in August of 1965, got my wings in November. God, South Texas can get hot!
I never flew with the canopy open. When Martin-Baker developed the 100 knot seat with automatic seat-man separation, this was no longer done.

I never flew the single or two-seater with external tanks or ordnance except with 25 lb "turd bombs" used for practice. Our single seaters had the two inboard nose cannons removed to reduce weight and maintenance costs.

We typically climbed at 300 KIAS to 0.72 IMN to about FL300 for cruise at 0.72 best range. I will get some better data later. As I recall, we started to comply with what I believe were fairly new rules about 250 KIAS below 10,000 MSL when not in a military practice area.

Remember, this was a centrifugal flow engine with a chubby profile; high thrust to weight and aerodynamic elegance were lacking.

By the time I was flying the Cougar, Navy jets had the AoA system and we used it like religion. It consisted of both a round gauge/ needle and the indexer chevron lite "V donut inverted V", all colored yellow. Today I believe they are red for slow, yellow donut and green fast chevron. They were mounted on the upper left, the gauge under the glare shield, the indexer lights on the glare shield. This is pretty standard on any jet as far as I know.

I never saw a Navy tactical airplane with ILS - we used PAR radar, and in my opinion is better than ILS if the controller is good, which they always seemed to be. We only had TACAN, which is UHF bearing and DME, coupled together and channelized. We used UHF comms, and had UHF ADF, not LF ADF. I believe P-3s had ILS, and the transports did. First ILS I ever used in a Navy plane was when I did the acceptance tests on the C-12B KingAir 200. I had a lot of civilian flight experience as well, so I got that bonus assignment at Pax River. What a good deal.

The Cougar had no autopilot -this was typical in those days. The Navy was worried about pilots in a single-seater dozing off and running low on fuel, and tactical jets in the air for more than a couple of hours was unusual.
 
Last edited:
I reported to NAS Kingsville for advanced jet training in August of 1965, got my wings in November. God, South Texas can get hot!

Mike, please keep it coming! Love to hear more about your training, the local course rules or any other details you can offer.
 
It would be great to see some screenshots of this work-of-art from some of those brilliant screenshot takers:engel016:
 
Thank you Mister Rob for this gift!!! Very well done! The only question mark I have is about the VOR/ILS indicator (top right hand of the cockpit) : the adjusting knob should move the compass card in order to
set any radial/QDM/QDR but the compass card actually is a gyrodirectional indicating the aircraft heading so it is very hard to understand its indications. I haven't figured out how it works, for sureit's not a
conventional VOR indicator. :very_drunk:

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • 2018-2-1_22-42-28-350.jpg
    2018-2-1_22-42-28-350.jpg
    78.8 KB · Views: 19
  • 2018-2-1_22-40-45-19.jpg
    2018-2-1_22-40-45-19.jpg
    36.1 KB · Views: 17
  • 2018-2-1_22-44-50-901.jpg
    2018-2-1_22-44-50-901.jpg
    73.8 KB · Views: 17
Thank you Mister Rob for this gift!!! Very well done! The only question mark I have is about the VOR/ILS indicator (top right hand of the cockpit) : the adjusting knob should move the compass card in order to
set any radial/QDM/QDR but the compass card actually is a gyrodirectional indicating the aircraft heading so it is very hard to understand its indications. I haven't figured out how it works, for sureit's not a
conventional VOR indicator. :very_drunk:QUOTE]

The gauge is an old Microsoft ILS (FS9 I think), works OK for me, its the only cab gauge in the cockpit so you could put whatever you like in.
If you need help doing that just let me know.

RobR
 
The Cougar had no autopilot -this was typical in those days. The Navy was worried about pilots in a single-seater dozing off and running low on fuel, and tactical jets in the air for more than a couple of hours was unusual.

What about stick-between-knees?
 
Got a few in mind. Gathering data now. As good as this, wish we had a two seater. The USMC used a few in combat during Vietnam as Fast FACs.
 
Note the manual is 1955, and some procedures do not account for later mods to the Cougar, especially the Martin Baker 100 knot auto separation seat and the angle of attack system. However, the systems description and overall content is very valuable.

Not all Cougars were equipped the same way. Some were specialized as F9F-8Bs which could carry a "special weapon" as they are euphemistically referred to. These "Bakers" had the LABS (Loft Angle Bombing System) which included various switches and controls along with an indicator that looks a lot like an ILS indicator, but actually was programmed so if the pilot followed the needles he would follow a prescribed pullup and heading profile, the bomb would auto-release at the right point, and the pilot would be headed back away from the detonation at high speed and low altitude. Good luck - these were always referred to as "idiot loops". Later, the A-4, A-6 and A-7 would carry on the tradition, but with much better equipment.
 
Thank you Mister Rob for this gift!!! Very well done! The only question mark I have is about the VOR/ILS indicator (top right hand of the cockpit) : the adjusting knob should move the compass card in order to
set any radial/QDM/QDR but the compass card actually is a gyrodirectional indicating the aircraft heading so it is very hard to understand its indications. I haven't figured out how it works, for sureit's not a
conventional VOR indicator. :very_drunk:QUOTE]

The gauge is an old Microsoft ILS (FS9 I think), works OK for me, its the only cab gauge in the cockpit so you could put whatever you like in.
If you need help doing that just let me know.

RobR

OK thank you :triumphant:
 
Does anyone else have an autopilot that is unable to hold altitude? I am flying in P3D_V4.1 and I suspect that this could be V4 related, however I thought I would check. Once I have a set altitude and turn on the "Alt" switch to hold, it starts a porpoise varying from 2000fpm climb to a 2000fpm descent and continues that radical swing up and down until I release the hold switch. It tracks GPS very well as well as set heading, but altitude hold is a no joy! Right now I simply trim to straight and level and it does very well with that.
 
Hi Ed,

I found at low altitudes and at high (top) speeds it does the phugoid dance. At higher altitudes - smooth as silk. Tested at 5K, 25k & 35k feet.
Some other things I have found that need confirming -
The airspeed indicator, in certain speed ranges, can be off as much as 30 knots.
The Mach indicator seems way off.
Just calibration issues I suspect.


She's a beauty! Watch out you young men - she's a Cougar!
 
Doesn't the Midway carriers come with instructions for adjusting hook hinge point and length to address the visible contact of the cable to hook? Check the pdf docs. I think it's in there.

What Duckie says is correct. Don't mess with the hook attributes in the aircraft.cfg. The animation is adjusted for new airplanes using the SWS tool. You need to read the instructions.
 
Hi Ed,

I found at low altitudes and at high (top) speeds it does the phugoid dance. At higher altitudes - smooth as silk. Tested at 5K, 25k & 35k feet.
Some other things I have found that need confirming -
The airspeed indicator, in certain speed ranges, can be off as much as 30 knots.
The Mach indicator seems way off.
Just calibration issues I suspect.


She's a beauty! Watch out you young men - she's a Cougar!
Thanks Roman. . .I was in the low altitude area. Other things related to flying this in P3D_V4.1, the radios aren't compatible and I haven't found any "suitable subs" as yet (for the VC). Also, aside from the airspeed and altitude, is that all that I should see in the HUD?
 
Back
Top