Can anyone here give me a clue? This one always tips over on landing, no matter how close to stall speed I land. I trap aircraft like the RFN Crusader and the Etendart without any problem, this A-4 is frustrating.
Cees
Cees
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Landing Dino's Skyhawk T-4 on a Carrier
- Thread starter Cees Donker
- Start date
Duckie
SOH-CM-2024
Cees, it may have to do with the tail hook length or location. Beyond that I'm no help. Maybe someone else has some good numbers for it. Also check the cable force adjustment. The ones of mine I just checked are in the 0.6 to 1.4 range.
Steve
Mike71
SOH-CM-2025
Do you mean up on a wingtip??
Real A-4s / TA-4s were always susceptible to this with any right or left drift or off center at touchdown; often caused a strut to over-compress and jam. Flight Deck crew would run up, grab the upper wing tip to pull it down and unjam the over compressed strut. Normally worked!
That's it exactly! I received some other numbers for the tailhook that I'm gonna try.
Cees
Sbob
SOH-CM-2025
Cees, I don't FSX but this problem sounds very familiar in the older sims. 
The Skyhawk (if accurately modeled) has an unstable landing gear footprint.
Imagine that you're looking down at the plane and you can see the three tires.
It looks like a triangle.
In this case, the triangle will look like its tall at the top and the base will be narrow.
The Skyhawk also has a relatively high COG which doesn't help.
Imagine sitting on a three legged stool with the same triangle at its base.
To fix it, or at least make it land-able, you'll need to edit the [contact points] section of the aircraft.cfg file.
Check first that the two main gear legs have the same length (Z axis). In some cases they won't.
Next, try making that base of the triangle wider (Y axis). You don't need to add a lot, try adding a half of a foot to each main gear. One will be positive, the other will be negative.
You can test these changes at a normal airport. Just taxi around like you've had a few too many to drink.
Be aggressive, make sharp turns, jam on the brakes in the middle of a turn, do all the stuff you normally wouldn't do.
You could also make the triangle a little more stable by adding a second nose wheel. Offset the original nose wheel to the right by about a half of a foot. Add the new wheel and offset it the same amount in a negative direction so the new nose wheels act like bogies.
Another thing to check is the damping and damping ratio for the gear. If they are set too high the shock absorbers will act like catapults.
If you don't have a lot of experience with these edits, copy the [contact points] section and paste it in this thread and I'll show you what I mean.
The Skyhawk (if accurately modeled) has an unstable landing gear footprint.
Imagine that you're looking down at the plane and you can see the three tires.
It looks like a triangle.
In this case, the triangle will look like its tall at the top and the base will be narrow.
The Skyhawk also has a relatively high COG which doesn't help.
Imagine sitting on a three legged stool with the same triangle at its base.
To fix it, or at least make it land-able, you'll need to edit the [contact points] section of the aircraft.cfg file.
Check first that the two main gear legs have the same length (Z axis). In some cases they won't.
Next, try making that base of the triangle wider (Y axis). You don't need to add a lot, try adding a half of a foot to each main gear. One will be positive, the other will be negative.
You can test these changes at a normal airport. Just taxi around like you've had a few too many to drink.
Be aggressive, make sharp turns, jam on the brakes in the middle of a turn, do all the stuff you normally wouldn't do.
You could also make the triangle a little more stable by adding a second nose wheel. Offset the original nose wheel to the right by about a half of a foot. Add the new wheel and offset it the same amount in a negative direction so the new nose wheels act like bogies.
Another thing to check is the damping and damping ratio for the gear. If they are set too high the shock absorbers will act like catapults.
If you don't have a lot of experience with these edits, copy the [contact points] section and paste it in this thread and I'll show you what I mean.
Good advice Sbob!
I appreciate it very much!
Still testing and improving my skills!
Cees
I appreciate it very much!
Still testing and improving my skills!
Cees
Josh Patterson
SOH-CM-2023
Virtavia's Skyhawk was also susceptible to tipping over. (I remember the Virtavia A3D and F-11 Tiger also gave me issues.) Maybe it's just the nature of the beast? SWS's Midway Battlegroup addon did something with their carriers that virtually eliminated tipsy aircraft when trapping, even the Skyhawk. (Unfortunately it interfered with planes like my Wilco and SSW Harriers hovering ability. Apparently FSUIPC likes one or the other but not both, so I uninstalled MBG.)
I have the Virtavia Skyhawk and I can put that one on a carrier almost effortles. The Indiafoxctechno version is compared with the Virtavia version a real challenge. Still is after a lot of tries, but gives great satisfaction when you succeed.
FSX rules if you're into naval flying and trapping. I still enjoy this sim a lot!
Cees
FSX rules if you're into naval flying and trapping. I still enjoy this sim a lot!
Cees
Josh Patterson
SOH-CM-2023
My friend has MSFS and although the graphics are outstanding the planes just seem to fly like they came out of Ace Combat. I still love FSX! (I forgot where it came from but I fly off of the Bon Homme Richard quite a bit!) I'll have to break out the Virtavia Skyhawk and try it again. Maybe I'm suffering from the Mandela Effect.
tailhook_length= 4.285
cable_force_adjust= 4.0
tailhook_position = -28.0, 0.0, -2.25
This may seem an improvement, but I managed to trap it only once on the Nimitz. It has the tendency to miss the wire as if the hook isn't long enough.
Cees
cable_force_adjust= 4.0
tailhook_position = -28.0, 0.0, -2.25
This may seem an improvement, but I managed to trap it only once on the Nimitz. It has the tendency to miss the wire as if the hook isn't long enough.
Cees
Cees, this comment came up today in my "memories" post on Facebook. From June 2, 2013... I believe I was flying the Razbam A-4E:
"I just got off Microsoft Flight Simulator X after wasting over an hour trying to land aboard USS Oriskany in a A-4E Skyhawk. Twitchy little jet, I couldn't catch a wire to save my a**. I could barely get the damn plane down to the deck. I'm not posting any screen shots, you wouldn't want to see my performance. Guess I gotta do less Facebook and more flight sim!"
My carrier landing skills are still not world-class (real-life LSO's would laugh at me) but I can get aboard with other jets so maybe it's time to give the A-4 another try with Dino's plane.
"I just got off Microsoft Flight Simulator X after wasting over an hour trying to land aboard USS Oriskany in a A-4E Skyhawk. Twitchy little jet, I couldn't catch a wire to save my a**. I could barely get the damn plane down to the deck. I'm not posting any screen shots, you wouldn't want to see my performance. Guess I gotta do less Facebook and more flight sim!"
My carrier landing skills are still not world-class (real-life LSO's would laugh at me) but I can get aboard with other jets so maybe it's time to give the A-4 another try with Dino's plane.
Cees, this comment came up today in my "memories" post on Facebook. From June 2, 2013... I believe I was flying the Razbam A-4E:
"I just got off Microsoft Flight Simulator X after wasting over an hour trying to land aboard USS Oriskany in a A-4E Skyhawk. Twitchy little jet, I couldn't catch a wire to save my a**. I could barely get the damn plane down to the deck. I'm not posting any screen shots, you wouldn't want to see my performance. Guess I gotta do less Facebook and more flight sim!"
My carrier landing skills are still not world-class (real-life LSO's would laugh at me) but I can get aboard with other jets so maybe it's time to give the A-4 another try with Dino's plane.
Please give it a go Jerry, and let us know how it goes! Dino's Skyhawk are gorgeous but difficult to trap.
Cees
I downloaded Dino's A-4 and TA-4 packages from SimMarket (the price was right - free) so I will give the Scooters a try tomorrow when I'm not so tired. If I'm going to scare myself at "the back end of the boat" I want to be at least wide awake and perky.
Gonna be a big change from Paul Clawson's TBD-1 doing 85 knots at the ramp.
Mike71
SOH-CM-2025
Maybe a dumb question, but are you making approaches with your speed brakes OUT? - helps with power (glideslope) control --I downloaded Dino's A-4 and TA-4 packages from SimMarket (the price was right - free) so I will give the Scooters a try tomorrow when I'm not so tired. If I'm going to scare myself at "the back end of the boat" I want to be at least wide awake and perky.
Gonna be a big change from Paul Clawson's TBD-1 doing 85 knots at the ramp.
I approach with full flaps, not with the speedbrakes, maybe inintially to reduce speed, but not on final.
Cees
Cees
johndetrick
Charter Member
I approach with full flaps, not with the speedbrakes, maybe inintially to reduce speed, but not on final.
Cees
Speedbrakes out for carrier landing according to the NATOPS.
Having a great time with this one!
Cees