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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Dino Cattaneo's F-14D beta released

I should have clarified....I was agreeing with the Elevons pitch exaggeration. I understand the wing sweep is working in Auto mode. Dino, your a master of the one man band!! I'm sure you'll put out a great product. :)
 
Il'll check the the taileron travel - but you may be right - it is probably slightly exaggerated...


Then....thanks for the appreciation, but I had a great help from many talented developers! Rob Barendregt provided the custom .XML, Jivko "Neutrino" Rusev provided the oustanding HUD, Serge "Fsxnavypilot" Luzin has provided the sound package and Jiri Soukup is providing several repaints (which have not been shown publicly so far... I am really impressed by his VF-2 rendition), Ken Simmons from Castle Air Museum who provided the cockpit pictures... Not to mention several other contibutions, including Hanimichal's repaints - BTW I have finished reworking VF-213...and looks like this (not a great screenshot):


View attachment 81582
 
Just chiming in to add a bit more appreciation. I've been in love with this plane since I was a little boy. Thanks for all the work. I also love the T-45C.

JAMES
 
Dino, you say you want to manually control wing sweep with the flap control. Would it be an idea to use prop pitch control for that? It works very well in the GKS F-111 and with the trim switch on the HOTAS Warthog. And it is continuous instead of integer (not limited to a fixed number of sweep positions).
 
@Stickshaker

Control with of wing sweep with prop pitch has been considered during the initial design phase - but we (meaning I and Rob who took car of the wing sweep coding) decided not to pursue that and leave it to flap control, reason being that is it easier, in this way, to make so that the wing sweep has an actual impact on flight dynamics.
 
When the "official" release of Dino's big Cat comes out, do we need to uninstall the beta prior to installing the official release?
 
Stickshaker said:
That is a very good reason, Dino!
Click to expand...
Hallo Hans :)

To elaborate a bit on the F14D wingsweep:

In FSX, there's really no "perfect" way to implement this.
First off, the visual implementation of the entire wingmodel (incl. wingsweep, wingfold, flaps, DLC, Airbrakes) is very complex by itself, because it has a lot of inherent dependancies between all functions of the wings.

By itself, having a seperated wingsweep and flaps control isn't the problem; the problem is to find an FSX function that simulates the actual changes in drag/lift in flightdynamics for wingsweep and DLC changes.
The best (actually ONLY) way for that is using the FSX Flaps function, unless the whole FDE of FSX is re-written. But to implement that accurately for an F14, is the squared complexity of the F35B STOVL function ..:)

The main limitation of using the FSX Flaps function, is that FSX only allows for max. 10, discrete positions.
Now, controlling wingsweep visually via a contiguous axis like PropPitch is very doable, but then you would miss the impact of wingsweep on flightdynamics.
In fact, many years ago I made a simular implementation for the old IRIS FS9 F14, in which you could use the PropPitch axis as contiguous Wingsweep control; however, flightdynamics-wise, the full range of the axis was still mapped onto 6 Flaps positions (i.e. the Proppitch axis controlled the first 6 flaps positions) , to obtain the needed drag/lift effect.
So the wingsweep visually appeared contiguous. But in terms of FDE-effect it still was step-wise, and coupled to Flaps ....

Hope this explanation makes any sense :)

Anyway, as requested by quite some beta-users, I now also implemented a manual control for wingsweep/flaps/DLC, so one can select for personal preference.
Meaning that you can control it manually (but still sequentially though).

Cheers,

Rob Barendregt
 
Thanks for the explanation, Rob. All clear. And so many sweep positions are more than enough, at least for me since I will mostly use the automatic sweep.
 
Stickshaker said:
Thanks for the explanation, Rob. All clear. And so many sweep positions are more than enough, at least for me since I will mostly use the automatic sweep.
Click to expand...

Any everyone else should as well, I can see the BOMB setting getting some use, but mainly the only reason I would want manual would be for the carrier break, which is fine now I'll just fly it faster than normal, aka more "smack". Looking back on cruise and several photos, I only found a few in the oversweep position on the boat, I never saw VF-103 do it even when packed on the fantail.
 
As per Rob's comment, in the final build there will be a manual mode, too.
By default the wing sweep will be AUTO, but clicking on the wingsweep control (on the throttle) will toggle the automatic mode on and off.
BOMB mode will not be implemented...

By the way, in the final version, you will need to pay attention to the engine operatin during negative G's maneuvers... In Italy we say "uomo avvisato, mezzo salvato" meaning loosely "a warned man is almost saved"....

I wish I will have the time to write a (much needed) manual... but most likely I will not.
 
Dino Cattaneo said:
I wish I will have the time to write a (much needed) manual... but most likely I will not.
Click to expand...
Hi Dino,

If you don't have the time for a Manual yet, I suggest to at least copy the Comment text of my control gauge into a README text file.
That will answer a lot of questions to perceived "problems" :)

Cheers, Rob
 
I'll add some documentation to the package... but people will not read it anyway, so let's prepare to receive a flood of bug reports from people who will see their engines blowout while trying to buzz the Miramar tower in inverted flight... :)
 
Dino Cattaneo said:
I'll add some documentation to the package... but people will not read it anyway, so let's prepare to receive a flood of bug reports from people who will see their engines blowout while trying to buzz the Miramar tower in inverted flight... :)
Click to expand...
I guess you're right on the reading ...:)
 
Dino Cattaneo said:
As per Rob's comment, in the final build there will be a manual mode, too.
By default the wing sweep will be AUTO, but clicking on the wingsweep control (on the throttle) will toggle the automatic mode on and off.
BOMB mode will not be implemented...

By the way, in the final version, you will need to pay attention to the engine operatin during negative G's maneuvers... In Italy we say "uomo avvisato, mezzo salvato" meaning loosely "a warned man is almost saved"....

I wish I will have the time to write a (much needed) manual... but most likely I will not.
Click to expand...
Excellent Dino thank you! Manual sweep will make my day!
 
Wonderful creativity DaveQ. I always love to get paints that are fictional or Semi and show what could have been:salute:.
 
CG_1976 said:
Wonderful creativity DaveQ. I always love to get paints that are fictional or Semi and show what could have been:salute:.
Click to expand...

Thanks CG; perhaps I should do a Canadian one!!

And Dino - can't wait for the official release!

DaveQ
 
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