(Payware) Just Flight English Electric Lightning F.6 on sale now

WhiskeyEcho said:
He hasn't flown one so how can he.
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Very true, I haven't flown one, and can't possibly tell you how the real one flys. But, the Lightning is a swept wing jet and should, at a minimum, have certain swept wing jet qualities. As I said before, the model does fly well and pleasantly enough, it just won't bite you in the butt like a swept wing jet will. Fighters are typically known to bite you in the butt even harder.
 
Some flight qualities are discussed on Wikipedia, especially in relation to speed and climb, but also about nice handling characteristics (but of course this is all relative and from what source this comes from is hard to say). There are also some descriptions related to very high altitude interceptions of U2s on exercise. The only authoritive source I can identify is from a book Called "Lightning from the cockpit" by Peter Caygill http://www.amazon.com/Lightning-From-The-Cockpit-Aviation/dp/1844150828 which includes 16 personal accounts of what it's like fly.
 
Has anyone experienced a CTD after adjusting the radar display within the VC, using the VC radar selector?

If I adjust the radar via the 2D pop-up, I have no issues. Thus, it is not a big problem (for me anyway), but worth mentioning. I will raise it with Just Flight...

One of my colleagues is a former Lightning pilot (in fact, I'm sure he was the last exchange pilot to fly the airplane and had the "honour" of being the last pilot to eject out of one).

I'm not sure whether he is a Flight Simmer or if he would come on here to give a bit of a brief, but I'll ask him next time I see him.

Mark
 
jetstreamsky said:
Article at the Lightning Association website

http://www.lightning.org.uk/dec04sotm.html


and this one on Lightning compared to F-15 is interesting
http://www.lightning.org.uk/jul03sotm.html


USAF exchange Pilot experience
http://www.lightning.org.uk/julaug05sotm.html
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"All in all, the Lightning was safe, fast and easy to fly"

These are nice anecdotal articles, Jetstreamsky, thanks. I enjoyed reading them. However, pilot reports of how it was easy to fly don't really excuse an airfoil from behaving in it's inherent manner. The Lightning may well be a rock solid platform when well inside the envelope, but it still has an airfoil that's going to behave a certain way when G-loaded, and/or experiencing a separation of airflow. For instance, a swept wing plane when stalled has airflow separation that starts at the wingtips, and travels inward to the wing root as the stall progresses. Unlike straight wing planes, which have the separation of airflow starting at the wing root, and separation travels outward to the wing tips as the stall progresses. Swept wing jets lose aileron effectiveness from the begining of the stall and are basicly useless before the stall is full on, where the straight wing planes keep aileron effectiveness until the stall has progressed to full. Most straight wing planes keep some aspect of aileron effectiveness while in the fully stalled condition, whereas there is none with the swept wing.

The JustFlight Lightning retains a hefty amount of aileron authority when stalling. If you do a clean stall and enter it smoothly, with the power at Idle, applying more and more back pressure on the stick to maintain altitude as you slow, you will eventually get to almost zero airspeed. There is virtually no buffet, and just a slight left and right wing drop, which you can counter with aileron control...and the aileron control is quite effective, which it shouldn't be. The result is that you are level and travelling straight flat down like an elevator. That's not how swept wing jets stall. This model stalls in a way that makes a straight wing Piper look like a man eater.
 
Hi Bone, I completely agree, I'm not sure the FSX model behaves in any realistic way, in fact I think from my own modelling attempts I remember the basic flight modelling revolves around a straight wing, which covers the majority of aircraft out there, severely swept or delta wings are at best approximated. Thinking about other aircraft with large sweeps they tend to have tailerons when not deltas (Tornado, Tomcat, F111, Mig-23, Mirage G) and deltas use flaperons, so the Lightning is fairly unique with ailerons at the end of the pseudo delta wings (the only other vehicle I can think of is the fictional Thunderbird One which has exactly the same plan form :icon_lol:).
 
Bernt Stolle has managed to get FDE jet characteristics pretty close to the bulls eye, but he puts alot of time into it. Probably more than what your average FDE maker would do. But then, he's a B-767 Captain for an International airline. Guys like that don't cut corners, lol.
 
jetstreamsky said:
Article at the Lightning Association website

http://www.lightning.org.uk/dec04sotm.html


and this one on Lightning compared to F-15 is interesting
http://www.lightning.org.uk/jul03sotm.html


USAF exchange Pilot experience
http://www.lightning.org.uk/julaug05sotm.html
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Great reads, though a bit suspect on actual comparisons of the Eagle to the Lightning article. I would think 30 years would have a significant difference on the outcome in performance and certainly avionics, as is pointed out. But great finds. I saved the link for future reading, thanks for the find.
 
strykerpsg said:
Great reads, though a bit suspect on actual comparisons of the Eagle to the Lightning article. I would think 30 years would have a significant difference on the outcome in performance and certainly avionics, as is pointed out. But great finds. I saved the link for future reading, thanks for the find.
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Having seen both aircraft perform on several occasions, I have no doubt about the flight capabilities of the Lightning, an aircraft not easily bested in performance terms which is why it had such a long career even for an early jet type. It's climb and speed performance are legendary, but that's the entire point of it, an interceptor launched from the relatively small island of Great Britain to reach approaching nucleur bombers as far out as possible as soon as possible once the threat is determined. The Eagle has a different role, it has to turn with the best of them, track and shoot multiple targets and deny enemy flight over the battle space, it does this with performance capabilities tied with avionics many generations beyond the Lightning which was stymied by lack of development money, as it was always going to be replaced by missiles. I've seen this beast climb into a blue azure sky so fast and so high it could no longer be seen. I've seen Eagles, Typhoons, Mirages all put on impressive climbs, but the Lightning is the one that really impressed.
 
Well I tell ya guys, I'm having fun with this payware. It's the fastest jet to max altitude I've seen in FSX.
 
Yeah, it's a cool plane IRL, and a really nice model. It doesn't really matter if the low/high speed stall characteristics are sketchy. It's all fun.
 
jetstreamsky said:
This is a great story too, one scary ride http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/lightning/survivor.php?id=30
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I've read that story before, here perhaps, but certainly a great story nonetheless.

Anyway, really torn between this purchase and the DCS P-51........had to allot monies for oldest son's graduation. One down, one more to go next year, then will have ultimate man cave and toys.

Thanks again for finding and sharing some hostory greats like you found and I can never thank the developers of all these fantastic models too.
 
Just started this repaint. Lots of minor things to tweak and add the shine.

wip-1361.jpg
 
Yes - the manual is worth a glance through to find the tanks switch (cant recal where) and external power switch (on right consol near the security switch to get the chocks etc)
 
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