How to Fly (Better)

Since most of those help files are from Avhistory, I assume the numbers are pretty accurate.

As a minimum for somebody wanting to fly in a more realistic way, I'd say knowing and sticking to approach speeds is a must. There is of course much more you can do, such as the rest of the stuff in this thread, but if all you want to do is get your toes wet, this is the best place to start.
 
How to Fly (Better) Entry #7 - Cockpit Flows, Checklists, an

Flows

Flows are a spatially-oriented method of accomplishing checklist items by memory. How you do it will vary from aircraft to aircraft, but the idea is to pass over all the cockpit controls in a methodical pattern, and moving them as required for the checklist or configuration change you are performing.

This works very naturally in aircraft with clickable cockpits, especially if you are using head tracking. In the Spitfire, for example, I like to start on the left side of the seat, up to the throttle quadrant, across the lower part of the instrument panel, and back around the right side of the seat. Lastly, I go back across the top of the panel from right to left.
It is not quite so natural without a clickable cockpit, but still possible. In this case, you just move your flow to your physical controller(s).

Checklists

Checklists are at least partly anachronistic for most of our WWII aircraft. At the time, aircraft were considered simple enough to operate that checklists were not needed. In fact, the B-17 was the first aircraft to have a checklist, which was developed following an early accident caused by a control lock being left in place during takeoff. I'm not sure how widely used they had become by the end of WWII, but today, everything has a checklist. I believe pilots of most WWII aircraft would have relied on flows, memorization, and simple acronyms. Examples of such acronyms can be found in the pilot's notes for the Spitfire Mk.II and Mk.V.

Whether you choose to use a checklist, an acronym you came up with or found in a manual, or simply rely on memory, you should mainly use it as a backup to your flow. Work through your flow, then use your checklist or acronym to confirm you did everything. What you don't want to do is read off an item, do that item, and move on to the next one. This is inefficient, and puts your focus on the checklist rather than flying. Do the whole flow, and then the whole checklist.

Scans

A similar concept to flows, scans help you keep track of how you aircraft is doing, and what it is doing. The horizon is the centerpiece of your scan. After every other gauge you check, you return to check the horizon before the next check. Remember that in visual conditions, you are using the real horizon - not the artificial horizon on the instrument panel. Save that for when you're in the clouds.
We will divide the gauges into flight instruments, and systems gauges. Generally speaking, the flight instruments should be getting the most regular attention. They typically consist of the standard "six-pack" - artificial horizon, altimeter, directional gyro (DG), airspeed indicator (ASI), vertical speed indicator (VSI), and turn coordinator (TC). The first three tell you how you are oriented relative to the earth. The second three tell you the rate at which that orientation is changing. In different phases of flight, different instruments will become more important than others. In addition to the horizon, the other always important indicator is the ball, or the top arrow of the British-style turn and slip indicator. The other instruments vary in importance depending on what you are doing. Note that not all WWII aircraft are equipped with the full six-pack.
The systems gauges give you information about how your aircraft is doing. Typically, these consist of various engine gauges, and then gauges for the various other supporting systems that keep your aircraft running. What gauges you may have varies greatly from aircraft to aircraft. They get less frequent attention than the flight instruments, but are still important to keep regular track of. Except as noted below, every few minutes is fine for a quick checkup on these gauges as well as after any change in engine power settings.

In flight, going back to our configurations, I highlighted the key parameters for each phase of flight. This should give you a clue as to which instruments and gauges are prioritized (in addition to the horizon and the ball, which are always key) in each phase of flight.

Takeoff

At takeoff, airspeed gets the most attention. You may have airspeeds you are looking to attain before rotation and flap retraction, you probably have a target airspeed for climb, and you are keenly aware of keeping well above your 1 G stall speed. After takeoff, usually you will fly on the same heading as the runway to took off from initially, so your DG also needs some attention.

Initial Climb / Combat Climb

In the initial climb, or when conducting a max performance combat climb, you will have an airspeed you are targeting to achieve the maximum sustained climb rate, so the airspeed indicator retains its importance. There is a heading you are going to be trying to hold to stay on course, so your DG also retains its importance. You also probably have a specific altitude you are climbing to, so keep the altimeter in your scan to keep track of your progress towards that altitude. Increase the frequency of your altimeter checks as you get within 1,000ft of your target altitude. Engine gauges are an important check early in the climb to ensure your engine is performing as expected. Since you will be at high power and low airspeed, engine temperatures will be high, and will need regular checks. Keep somewhat increased monitoring of all engine gauges, as changes in air temperature and density as you climb may require adjustments to engine power settings to maintain optimum power output.

Cruise Climb

Here, everything is the same as the combat climb, except you are now targeting a rate of climb rather than an airspeed. As a result, your airspeed indicator drops out of primary importance and is replaced by your VSI. Note that the VSI has some inherent lag to it, so setting a known good pitch and holding it, then confirming that your VSI shows the desired climb rate is much preferable to "chasing the VSI."

Cruise

Having reached your target altitude, your focus now shifts to maintaining that altitude and holding your desired heading. You could do this by focusing on your altimeter and DG, but you will notice changes faster on your VSI and TC. Holding your heading and pitch by keeping your eyes outside is better still, which is why all other gauges remain subordinate to the horizon. After that, VSI and TC can help if you need to make adjustments. If you keep up with that, your altimeter and DG will take care of themselves and won't need inordinate focus. Don't forget about your fuel quantity gauge!

Descent

Descent is essentially the same as climb in terms of which instruments are prioritized. The consequences of neglecting engine gauges changes from possibly not maintaining full power in the climb, to possibly destroying your engine due to overboosting or overheating as you descend. Also, depending on your aircraft's limitations and how fast you are descending, you may need to keep an eye on your airspeed to ensure you don't exceed the never exceed airspeed.

Landing Pattern and Initial Approach

The landing pattern gets very busy for a pilot, because suddenly, everything is important! Airspeed, altitude, and heading control are all key to positioning yourself well for the final approach. Airspeed, altimeter, and DG all rise to the top here. Engine temperatures will also be changing so they will need a little extra monitoring. As all of this is going on, don't let the instruments suck your attention away from the horizon and keeping good awareness of your position relative to the runway.

Final Approach

If you have done a good job getting set up for it, the final approach should be a relatively lower workload compared to the previous section of the landing phase. You are lining up with the runway and your eyes should be focused there, with quick references to airspeed and VSI. Having a good landing approach power setting and pitch attitude will significantly reduce your need to look at instruments inside the cockpit, but shouldn't eliminate it entirely.

What about combat?

All of this is well and good for a nice peaceful sky, but what about in the thick of a dogfight? There, admittedly, your scan goes to pieces as your main concern is keeping the enemy in sight. If you look at your gauges at all, airspeed and engine temps are the most relevant. Airspeed, so you know when to break off a turn fight to regain energy, and engine temps because you are working your engine hard and sometimes get quite slow, which will cause temperatures to soar.
 
Thanks you all for the information. Really has made a difference ,not only CFS3 ,but in all my air combat sims. Many thanks ! Regards,Scott
 
Glad to hear that Scott! I'm particularly glad it's being helpful across a variety of sims. To me that says it's working as intended. Thanks for the feedback.
 
How to Fly (Better) Entry #8 - Takeoff and Landing

In this post we are going to cover the last main phases of flight we haven’t dealt with yet - takeoff and landing.


Airfield Awareness

Before you do anything else, it is very important to know your runway heading and elevation. In the real world, this information is published and you review it prior to flight. In CFS3 we don't have that information readily available, so when you start on the runway, you will need to make note of those two things. The altitudes and headings you fly in the airfield's traffic pattern are based on the runway.

In CFS3, these things are greatly simplified, and not subject to magnetic deviation, variation, turning errors, gyro precession, or temperature and barometric pressure variations. So your compass will read relative to true north, and your altimeter will read true altitude above mean sea level (MSL). Note that the altitudes I will give in this section are relative to the airport elevation - altitude above ground level (AGL). You will need to add the airport elevation to them to get the correct altimeter reading.


The Traffic Pattern

The next thing is to get a mental picture in your head of the traffic pattern at your airfield. Typically, this is a rectangular path to either the right or left of the runway, with the runway forming part of one of long sides of the rectangle.

The side including the runway is called the upwind leg, and is comprised of the final approach, runway, and climb-out portions of the pattern. After takeoff, consider climbing to and leveling off at 1,000ft AGL before turning onto the next leg of the pattern. This will give you more time to get set up and stabilized. With more practice you can fly shorter upwind legs. After the upwind leg, there is a 90 degree turn to get onto the crosswind leg. After this comes the downwind leg, which should be flown at traffic pattern altitude. For our purposes we will use 1,000ft AGL. You are now flying in the opposite direction as you took off, with a good view of the runway. Flying a pattern at 1,000ft AGL, the runway should be about 1 mile away off your wing. It is hard to eyeball distances in CFS3, but consider the distance between the runway and the airfield boundary, and double it, and that will get you reasonably close. If you are flying a higher pattern, this distance will need to be increased. If you are flying lower, you will need to fly closer to the runway. As you pass by the point on the runway you intend to touch down at, you begin your descent, which continues steadily until touchdown. When your touchdown point is about 45 degrees behind you, it is time to turn onto the base leg. In our pattern you are trying to manage your descent rate such that when you complete your next turn to align with the runway, you are at about 500ft AGL. Completing this turn, you are now on final approach, continuing your steady descent to the runway.

Basic Landing Pattern.jpg

That is the overview of what we are going to try to fly in this next flight. You can fly that pattern repeatedly until you get the hang of it. Remember your configurations and be prompt in changing between them. As before, I’m going to use the Spitfire Mk.VA for the example. Feel free to use a different aircraft if you like. If the aircraft you choose has a much higher landing speed, or is a bomber than needs to make wide turns, you may need to increase the altitude of and size of your pattern, but everything else will still apply. Now for the details.


Takeoff

Takeoff in most aircraft is reasonably straightforward, but when it comes our WWII fighter aircraft with loads of excess horsepower, it can become a bit of a balancing act. The Bf 109, for example, is infamous for punishing careless pilots, but all of them need to be treated with respect. The biggest thing you are dealing with is engine torque. Your engine is producing a lot of power, and your airspeed is low enough that your control surfaces are struggling to be able to counteract it. Initially you will see this as a tendency for the aircraft to veer off the runway to one side or the other. As you gain speed, you may also feel a tendency for the aircraft to roll to the same side. The direction is dependent on which way the propeller turns. On the Spitfire, the tendency will be for it to veer left. Some multi-engine aircraft, such as the P-38, have propellers rotating in opposite directions, which cancels the effect out very nicely. The trick is to slowly increase engine power in proportion to your acceleration. As you pick up speed, your controls will become more and more effective, allowing them to counteract more torque, which allows you to gradually increase power. On early war fighters and most larger aircraft, you can use full power for takeoff. Late war aircraft engines can produce a ridiculous amount of power at takeoff, and this, in combination with the small, light airframe of a fighter, meant that on many of them only a partial power takeoff was authorized. Our Spitfire Mk.VA is fine for a full power takeoff. A Mk.XIV is definitely not.

In the Spitfire, and most aircraft, it is helpful to set the trim for takeoff. In the Spitfire, the elevator trim indicator should show one division nose down trim, and rudder trim should be fully to the right. Release the brakes before starting to increase throttle for takeoff. Gently and gradually ease the throttle forward and use your rudder to keep the aircraft rolling straight down the runway. Elevator should be neutral, and use the rudder as needed. Use your left or right brake if needed to keep it straight, but take that as a sign that you added too much power to soon, and wait until you have accelerated more before adding more power to allow your rudder effectiveness to catch up. A quick scan of your engine gauges early in the takeoff roll is a good practice to help you catch any faults or if you forgot to set your engine controls correctly. As you pick up speed, the tail will lift (assuming you are flying a tail wheel aircraft) and shortly thereafter the aircraft will gently leave the ground. If you have trimmed the elevator correctly, there should be little to no need to pull the aircraft off the ground. Once you are fully clear of the runway and gaining altitude and airspeed, you can retract the undercarriage. Don’t slap the gear lever up immediately after liftoff. A gentle bounce before the aircraft is completely ready to fly is not uncommon, and if your undercarriage is being retracted, you could easily end up skidding down the runway on your belly. Your C.O will be thrilled.

For easy reference - the takeoff configuration:

Mixture: Auto-Normal (lever fully back)
Propeller: Max (3,000) RPM (lever fully forward)
Throttle: Max (+12.5 lbs boost at sea level)
Flaps: Up
Elevator Trim: 1 Division Nose Down on the elevator trim indicator
Rudder Trim: Fully starboard
Radiator Shutter: Fully Open
Undercarriage: Up (shortly after liftoff)
Pitch: Bottom of gunsight glass level with the horizon
Airspeed: Rapidly accelerating to at least 140 mph
Rate of Climb: Less than 1,000 feet per minute
Radiator Temperature: Less than 135 C


Initial Climb

Once airborne and with the wheels retracting, the next priority is to get stabilized in your climb. Adjust trim as needed, and if you are flying an aircraft which uses flaps on takeoff, once you have accelerated to a safe speed in your climb, you can retract them. Keep in mind that in a WWII fighter it isn't going to take long at all to reach 1,000ft. Consider reducing climb power significantly early on to give yourself more time. With the Spitfire, a climb-out speed of 120 m.p.h. is appropriate since you are only climbing to 1,000ft and you are immediately transitioning to a landing pattern configuration at 140 m.p.h. For climb power in this situation, you might throttle back to only +2 lbs of boost. This still gives you a nice climb rate at 120 m.p.h. but isn't overpowered and gives you adequate time before you have to level off to make sure everything is in order. You will notice that +2 lbs of boost at 120 m.p.h. is not enough to keep your engine speed at 3,000 r.p.m. even with the propeller lever fully forward. This is fine, and since you will be at lower speeds and power settings for the whole exercise other than your takeoff run, you can just leave the lever fully forward the whole time. Some aircraft, including later versions of the SJ Spitfire Mk.V series may still need to pull the propeller lever back to keep r.p.m. reasonable. 3,000 r.p.m. isn't reasonable most of the time, much less in the landing pattern.

A reduced-power climb configuration for the Spitfire Mk.VA:

Mixture: Auto-Normal (lever fully back)
Propeller: ~2,350 RPM (lever fully forward)
Throttle: +2 lbs
Flaps: Up
Elevator Trim: ~2 1/2 Divisions Nose Up
Rudder Trim: Fully starboard
Radiator Shutter: Fully Open
Undercarriage: Up
Pitch: Lower front corner of windscreen quarter windows level with the horizon
Airspeed: 120 mph
Expected Rate of Climb: ~1,100 feet per minute
Expected Radiator Temperature: ~80 C

During the climb, it is still important to keep track of your landing pattern and fly it. At first, you may not want to make your first turn onto the crosswind leg until you level off at 1,000ft. This will give you a longer downwind leg and thus more time to get yourself configured and stable. With more practice, you can make your first turn well below 1,000ft and continue your climb in the crosswind leg.


Downwind Leg

The downwind leg is what sets you up for a good stable approach. It is simple math that if you are consistently carrying out you descent at a consistent airspeed and engine power setting from a specific point in space relative to the runway, that you will have consistent landing approaches. To that end, we want to fly our downwind leg such that we arrive at a speed of 140 m.p.h. at a point 1,000ft above the ground, 1 mile from the runway centerline, even with the point on the runway where we intend to touch down.

Landing pattern configuration to be used on the downwind leg:

Mixture: Auto-Normal (lever fully back)
Propeller: ~2,100 RPM
Throttle: -3 lbs (-2lbs for 30 degree bank turn)
Flaps: Up
Elevator Trim:~1 1/2 Divisions Nose Up
Rudder Trim: As required
Radiator Shutter: Fully Open
Undercarriage: Up
Pitch: Bottom of gunsight glass level with the horizon
Airspeed: 140 mph
Rate of Climb: 0 feet per minute
Expected Radiator Temperature: ~75 C


Descent

We are going to cover two ways to fly the remainder of the pattern. First, the standard way, and then in a way that is more appropriate for the Spitfire and similar aircraft. After you try the standard way, you will understand why.

When we arrive at the above described position, smoothly, but promptly, reduce power to -6 lbs, and extend the undercarriage. Maintain pitch to keep an airspeed of 95 m.p.h. and about a 1,000ft per minute descent. All of this is according to the standard configuration discussed in a previous post. Since we are at 1,000ft and descending at 1,000 feet per minute, touchdown will occur in about one minute. Some people find that thought helpful to gauge their progress. Feel free to take it or leave it. Looking over your shoulder at the runway, when you see your touchdown point about 45 degrees behind you, make your turn onto the base leg. As you turn, make sure you are looking forward and maintaining a steady pitch attitude. You may need to add 1 lb of boost during the turn in order to maintain the desired airspeed and descent rate. Remember to take it back out once you are wings level on the base leg.

Initial landing approach configuration:

Mixture: Auto-Normal (lever fully back)
Propeller: ~1,600 RPM (lever fully forward in case of go-around)
Throttle: -6 lbs (-5lbs for 30 degree bank turn)
Flaps: Up
Elevator Trim:Fully Up
Rudder Trim: As required
Radiator Shutter: Fully Open
Undercarriage: Down
Pitch: Bottom of gunsight glass level with the horizon
Airspeed: 95 mph
Rate of Descent: 1,000 feet per minute
Expected Radiator Temperature: ~77 C

Continue your descent through the base leg and keep an eye on the runway to judge when to make your final turn to line up on the runway centerline. Ideally, you are about one mile out from your touchdown point at about 500 feet AGL. At this point, I lower my flaps, and increase power to -4 lbs boost to compensate for the added drag. I'm continuing my 1,000 fpm descent rate, but have now slowed to 85 m.p.h. The final approach is conducted with rigid airspeed and glide slope discipline, with reference to your vertical speed indicator to monitor descent rate. Glide slope is the physical angle of descent you fly down final approach to your touchdown spot. Assuming you start your final approach about one mile out at 500ft AGL, your glide slope will be about right. The easiest way to monitor that is by looking at the runway, and noting the spot that stays motionless in your windshield. Points on the runway that appear to move higher in the windshield as you approach, you will land short of. Those that appear to move lower, you will land beyond. So find your intended touchdown spot on the runway, and be as precise as you can about it. Aim small, miss small - if you are just trying to land somewhere on the runway, you have a decent chance of over or undershooting. If you can pick out a dark spot or a tire skid mark in the part of the runway you intend to touch down at, your accuracy will be better. If your intended spot appears to move up in your windshield, the correct response is to add a little more power. If you remember from the very early sections, this will reduce your rate of descent, meanwhile, you maintain your approach airspeed of 85 m.p.h. by using your elevator. When your touchdown spot is motionless in your windshield, reduce power back to the former setting to reestablish the desired descent rate. If you find your touchdown spot is moving lower in the windshield, you reduce power slightly to make the correction. In all cases, use elevator to maintain airspeed strictly. Your primary focus the entire time should be on your pitch attitude and your touchdown point, with quick glances inside at airspeed and descent rate. Small corrections are much better than big ones. If you see a need to correct your glide slope, try a small power adjustment and wait to see if it was enough, and continue with further small adjustments if needed.

Final landing approach configuration:

Mixture: Auto-Normal (lever fully back)
Propeller: ~1,700 RPM (lever fully forward in case of go-around)
Throttle: -4 lbs (-3lbs for 30 degree bank turn)
Flaps: Down
Elevator Trim:Fully Up
Rudder Trim: Fully Starboard
Radiator Shutter: Fully Open
Undercarriage: Down
Pitch: Top of gunsight frame slightly above horizon
Airspeed: 85 mph
Rate of Descent: 1,000 feet per minute
Expected Radiator Temperature: ~115 C

Now, as soon as you try this in the Spitfire, you will notice it doesn't work very well. That low approach speed results in a fairly high nose attitude, and that big V-12 up front is blocking your view of most of the runway. You find yourself looking to the left and right of the nose to see what point next to the runway isn't moving up or down. This is not ideal, and so Spitfire pilots, as well as those of many similar aircraft, took to flying curved final approaches. When passing the touchdown point on the downwind leg, instead of starting a descent and continuing to fly a rectangular landing pattern, initiate a continuous descending 180 degree turn. This will keep the runway in view until just before touchdown, allowing you to better judge your glide slope. As you first try it, a more elongated 180 degree turn and a somewhat longer period flying wings level in final might be easier. With experience you can cut it closer. Spitfire pilots were known to compete to see just how close before touchdown they could complete their turn to line up with the runway. You will probably need to adjust your approach power settings up by about 1 lb of boost to keep the desired descent rate and airspeed. Your touchdown point may be a bit harder to judge since it will be moving horizontally the entire time, but at least you can see it! It should not move vertically throughout the turn, and the correction principles remain the same. Now for aerodynamic reasons that we really haven’t gotten into properly, your margin above the critical angle of attack for a stall is a lot less in this continuous turn to the runway. So pay careful attention to your rudder coordination, airspeed, and how hard you are pulling back on the stick, or you could easily stall and spin,

I want to point out the consequences and hazards of not maintaining good discipline with your airspeed, descent rate, and glide slope. If you have been having trouble landing, chances are your problem falls into one of these four categories.

Descent rate too low: This scenario is known as dragging it in. Too low of a descent rate means too shallow of a glide slope angle. This means you may be barely clearing (or colliding with) obstacles like trees and buildings on your approach path. It is also very easy in this scenario to lose track of your airspeed since you are busy dodging trees, and get too slow, leading to a stall at far too low of an altitude to recover.

Descent rate too high: here, you are simply hurtling earthward too fast to make a controlled landing. If you are holding your correct airspeed or are too slow, you will not have the elevator authority or forward momentum necessary to dissipate all that downward momentum before you smash into the runway, causing significant or catastrophic damage to your aircraft. If your airspeed is too fast, you will probably over-control the aircraft, which will put you in a very unstable place, mere feet above the runway. You might get it settled out and a nice touch down in time to stop before the end of the runway - or you might not. It's a much better decision to go around and try again.

Airspeed too low: At too low of an airspeed, you are seriously eroding your margin above stall, which is not where you want to be when you are close to the ground. A stall at this height will kill you. The other hazard even if you don't stall, is inducing too high of a descent rate. In flight this can give the sensation of the floor dropping out from under you, and in the sim you can get this sensation visually. Your first response in this situation is to put the nose down to gain speed (remember that is faster than increasing engine power) and increasing power to try to stop descending so fast. It will probably feel wrong to push your nose down aggressively so close to the ground, but it is the only chance you have. Trouble is, you might be too low and not have enough room to work with before you slam into the ground, which is what makes getting too slow on approach so dangerous.

Airspeed too high: in this scenario you are simply carrying too much energy into your landing to actually touch down, and if you try to force it to work, you are going to break something. If you try to hold a proper glide slope, your descent rate will be too high. If you try to hold a proper descent rate, your glide slope will be too shallow. When it comes to trying to land gently on the runway, you are going to float and float and float before your wheels touch and you may end up in the weeds off the far end. If you actually do get wheels rolling on the runway at high speed, it is very easy to lose control while trying to hold it onto the ground because the plane is still trying to fly.

Small deviations from these parameters are not cause for panic. They are cause for prompt and measured correction. Remember: pitch for airspeed, power for descent rate and glide slope.


Touchdown

Alright, we are now moments from returning to earth in some fashion or other, and we would really like to be able to use the plane again afterward. So how do we make that happen? If everything has gone according to plan, we are at 85 m.p.h. and have a 1,000 fpm descent rate. Both are a little too much for when the wheels actually hit the ground, so we need to dissipate that excess energy. When it comes right down to it, this is a matter of feel and timing that only comes with repeated experience. I will try to lay out the general idea though.

Typically somewhere between 100 and 50 feet above the runway (judged by eyeballing - this is the wrong time to look at your altimeter) you are going to gradually transition from your final approach attitude to a three-point landing attitude. This is of course assuming you are in a tail wheel aircraft. If you are in a tricycle gear aircraft, you still want to land with your nose high, so the main wheels will touch first, followed by the nose wheel. Three-point landings in a tricycle gear aircraft are to be avoided. As you are pulling back on the stick to bring the nose up, you are gradually reducing the throttle back to idle as the aircraft descends the last few feet to the runway. If you have been holding a good airspeed, you will have just the right amount of elevator authority where the aircraft will still respond nicely, but you would have to be pretty aggressive to over-control it. Ideally, you reach a three-point landing attitude at the same time that your throttle hits the idle stop, a few inches above the runway. Then you simply hold it off the runway as long as you can without gaining any altitude. As your airspeed slows, it will require you to pull farther and farther back on the stick to keep it in the air. Before long, your speed will bleed off and the aircraft will gently settle onto the runway. If you're good, and having a good day, you might not even feel it hit. If you are not having so great a day, you might have mistimed things somewhat, so let's talk about what to do if that happens.

Transitioned too early: if you find yourself with throttle at idle and in that nice three-point landing attitude, but instead if inches above the runway, you find yourself hanging several feet or more above the surface, you have either started your transition too early or completed it too quickly. The airplane is soon going to stop flying, but instead of settling gently onto the runway from a few inches up, you are going to be hitting pretty hard; possibly hard enough to collapse your landing gear or cause other damage. The solution is to add a little power, hold altitude so you can accelerate slightly, then once again allow yourself to descend while transitioning back to a landing attitude and bringing the throttle back to idle. If the end of the runway is rushing up to meet you, or it just doesn't feel right, just perform a go-around and try the landing again.

Transitioned too late: transitioning too late or too slowly will be evidenced by a firmer than intended landing, probably accompanied by a bounce back into the air. If it's a small bounce, you can probably just ride it by out keeping the stick back and the throttle at idle. If it's a bigger bounce and you find yourself hanging several feet in the air, you are now in a position similar to where you would be if you transitioned too early, and you can take the same actions to try to re-transition. If it's a terrible bounce, just go around.

I hope you can see how the different building blocks we have talked about throughout this series come together to give us a good outcome here. Starting the descent from a known point relative to the runway and using standard configurations to achieve a specific descent rate and airspeed will put us on a good glide slope to the runway. As we descend, we are using pitch and power appropriately to make small corrections as needed. This puts us into solid position arrest our descent, and lightly touch down on the runway in a stable, controlled, predictable, and repeatable maneuver. It will still require practice to get right, but setting yourself up well for success with a good, stable approach makes it so much easier and safer.


Rollout

Congratulations, you're on the ground now, but don't relax - you aren't done yet! Any good pilot will tell you that you aren't done flying until the aircraft is shut down and the wheel chocks are in place. Up until that point you can still get yourself into to trouble. In few places is that more true than sitting in the cockpit of a WWII fighter. Right now, priority number one is to not go off the side of the runway, and priority two is to get stopped before running off the end of it. If they aren't already, make sure the throttle is at idle and the control stick is pulled fully back. With the Spitfire, it is important to retract the landing flaps quickly to prevent engine overheating. This also reduces the lift your wing is producing. This puts more weight on your wheels, which improves braking action. Now gradually start applying brakes. As you slow down, you can increase brake pressure. If you brake too hard at too high of an airspeed, you can easily put the aircraft on its nose. Throughout this process you are actively keeping the aircraft going straight down the runway by using your rudders. At times it may feel like you are dancing on the rudder pedals as you make lots of corrections back and forth. The rudder can be a handful all the way until you are stopped.

Remember that if at any point in your final approach, landing, or rollout, things are not coming together as they should be, you make a mistake, or it just doesn't feel right, abandon the landing attempt and go around. As long as there is fuel in your tanks and sufficient runway ahead of you, you can always go-around. Pilots can get themselves into a lot of trouble trying to salvage an approach or landing that is going poorly. Sacrifice your pride and save the airplane, not the landing.

A quick tip (and shameless plug) when landing the SJ Spitfires is to listen to the sounds, particularly with the canopy open. I have tried to be very careful as I designed the wind and engine sounds (including handling wind sounds with entirely new code) to have them respond to the environment realistically. Once you get a few good approaches and landings under your belt, you will start to recognize what sounds right. If something isn't right with what you are doing, the wind and engine will in fact sound different. The wind will whistle through the cockpit a certain way, the engine will have a certain pitch to it if your power settings and airspeed are right, and if all is still going well when you finally pull the throttle to idle, you will be rewarded with that satisfying Merlin crackle you hear when a real Spitfire touches down. These are the kinds of cues pilots use in real life when they have become familiar with their aircraft to develop that extra sense of what is going on with their aircraft, and I have tried my best to bring that to CFS3.


Taxi

Now that you are safely stopped on the runway, it's time to taxi to dispersal. I don't have a whole lot to say other than to keep it slow. Admittedly, this is harder in CFS3 since we don't have tiny objects like grass up close to the aircraft to help gauge speed. You really don't want to be going over 10 m.p.h. when taxiing these kinds of aircraft, and that is going to feel painfully slow. The Spitfire's narrow track undercarriage can really bite you if you make even a small change in direction while taxiing too fast. The other thing to note is that once again, you can't see anything that's ahead of you because of your long nose. To compensate, tail wheel pilots taxi in a zig-zag pattern so they can look around their nose. And of course this is going to end in disaster if you are trying to go too quickly. If you do find yourself in a situation where your tail is trying to get in front of your nose, the best thing to do is just bring the throttle to idle, apply the brakes smoothly, and get stopped. Then slowly roll forward until your tail wheel is realigned with the aircraft (the Spitfire's tail wheel is neither steerable nor lockable) and then get yourself back on track. Tight pivoting turns can be accomplished from a standstill by giving a quick burst of power to just start rolling and then full rudder and full brake in the direction you want to turn.


This concludes the initial series of posts. Whether there will be another and what it will cover is up to all of you and what you would be interested in seeing. I hope this one has been helpful, hopefully not too frustrating, and ultimately rewarding you with a more satisfying flying experience.

I'd love to hear from you if there are things that these posts have helped you do better, as well as if there are things that didn't make sense or you couldn't get to work right. Also if you want more, let me know what topics would interest you!

Happy flying!
 
Many thanks. Receiving much information. Learning how to fly and fight in Falcon BMS. Falcon BMS is simply the dang hardest sim i've ever experienced. 40 hours in the manuals, and only a quarter done ! Much to learn in that sim ! The RSM in CFS3 makes things much more immersive and for that, i'm thankful. Much info here in this series of instructions. A huge thank you is well deserved ! THANK YOU ,Sir ! Regards,Scott
 
Thank you for all the info. Most helpful. Hones my skill greatly. Learned a lot fro SF2 and Falcon BMS on modern tactics which still correlate to WW II and Korea. Even WW I skill and tactics are still relevant today. Thanks for all the time and effort to help us be better combat pilots ,(virtual). Take care Dan. You are a thoughtful person. Regards, Scott
 
Just a follow on to the above, I found a great video of a real world Spitfire pilot giving commentary over helmet cam footage of one of his landings. Always great to see the real thing, and get an explanation of exactly what is going on to boot.

 
I note he went across mid runway before the down wind leg, which is what I thought one did; how does this gel with your traffic pattern diagram?
 
A mid-field pattern entry is very normal and more efficient. What I drew out was the basic idea of what the traffic pattern is, and it's how you would fly it if you were doing repeated takeoffs and landings, known as flying patterns in the US, or circuits in the UK. But there are a lot of other ways it is acceptable to modify it to suit your operational needs. At the primitive runways I fly to these days, I will often enter on the upwind to observe the condition of the strip and check for ruts and washouts. Sometimes it merits a second lower pass to get a closer look or run livestock off. In more normal cases at established airports where efficiency is a higher priority and the condition of the runway is a known quantity, you might even opt to only fly the base and final legs, depending on the direction you're coming from. But when you're just getting started, a full pattern the way I drew it out gives you what you need most - time!

And note this is all for visual flying and typically smaller aircraft. An instrument approach (except for some of the old VOR and NBD approaches, will almost always line you up with the runway miles out and you fly straight in.
 
You sound like you actually are in Africa, I thought you were in Colorado? My small aircraft flights were always with my son back when he flew, and that's partly why I was aware of cross runway approaches, although with ILS (even on CFS3),and of course modern jets they do seem to fly straight in from a distance as you said, even if they did come from downwind initially. BTW was this ever in the Project knowledge sticky, if not I may make a pdf of all and put it there?
 
I've moved around quite a bit over the years. Yep, I currently live in Africa; the photo in the other thread was from one of my flights here. Didn't realize your son flew as well. Feel free to make a pdf of it if you like, just make sure it includes the disclaimers that this is for a flight sim and not to be used in lieu of real-world flight instruction for flying actual aircraft.
 
gecko said:
I've moved around quite a bit over the years. Yep, I currently live in Africa; the photo in the other thread was from one of my flights here. Didn't realize your son flew as well. Feel free to make a pdf of it if you like, just make sure it includes the disclaimers that this is for a flight sim and not to be used in lieu of real-world flight instruction for flying actual aircraft.
Click to expand...
Going there but will take years to prepare for it. Busia, Kenya.
 
I'm currently living in Nairobi. Busia, interesting! I've not been there on the ground, but have seen it from the air. You'll find Lake Victoria to be quite impressive!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top