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Released!! F9F Cougar by Rob Richardson

falcon409 said:
Thanks Josh but it was acting up regardless of whether I was already trimmed to a set altitude and activated it or if I preset the altitude and had it climb to that setting. Brian gave me a setting to check in the cfg file, and after making the adjustment he recommended, it has functioned perfectly ever since.
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HMMMM, <steeples fingers> I wonder if that will work on the Blackbird as well?
 
Cees Donker said:
Can I disable the green hud projection on the aiming glass? How do I do that?

:wavey:

Cees
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A lot of people probably like the HUD for Carrier ops, but aircraft of this vintage usually only had two analogue modes. One was a settable "MIL depression" based on bomb/rocket trajectory tables and estimated wind. The image was fixed once set with the MIL drum on the side of the gun sight.

The other was an air to air mode, which in combination with a settable "wing span / range" lever at the base of the gun sight, used a rate gyro to move the "pipper" image onto the target. When the wingspan of the target filled the span ring and the pipper was ON the target, the rate gyro had computed that the airplane had the lead angle for the 20mm shells to hit it at that range. Still pretty much Kentucky windage!

At the time, air ranging radar was coming into use, along with crude analogue fire control computers. The Cougar did not have such.
 
It is a "fixed" refueling probe. Both single and two-seaters were fitted with them, though not all of them, and not necessarily during production. Air refueling was in its infancy as the Cougar came into being, and the tankers were initially AJ "Savage"s. The development of the 300 gal Sargent Fletcher "buddy store" that could be carried by the A-4 and other tactical jets was a huge step forward.

As the Cougar gracefully aged and transitioned to the Reserves, Training Command and utility use, many probes were removed to reduce maintenance requirements.

The tip of the probe in all Navy planes was common - the same fixture, even though some probes are/were fixed like the A-4, A-6, A-3 etc, and some articulated, foldable retracting type, the tip is the same so that it mates with a common refueling hose receptacle in the "basket".

here is the tip on the stowable probe of a "Harrier" - they are the same on all USN/USMC airplanes:

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The very tip has a hole for fuel to enter. The hole is opened (by a valve assembly)when the collar at the base of the tip is pushed back against spring pressure by the female ring of the refueling hose basket. When a plane pulls out of the basket, the collar springs forward, closing the hole via valve action.

The circular assembly behind the collar serves to act as a locking device - once the probe is firmly seated in the basket, that assembly allows some airplane motion relative to the tanker without falling out of the basket. The locking is fairly solid, but too much tension, such as purposely backing out after refueling, will cause separation. There is almost always a little fuel spray when disengaging as the collar does not close the hole in the tip instantaneously.

I have to surmise today's F/A-18s have not change a bit - the initial ones were the same for sure. I know the Navy has a newer buddy store these days but I imagine that the basics have not changed.

Hope this is of some help to Rob.
 

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The porpoising may be related to the the increment of elevator trim in the .air file. Reducing this value might cure the problem.

A long time ago in a flight sim far away "Old Salt" and I worked on a straight winged F9F which did have some tendency to experience pitch instability at high speed and mach.

I'll look at my installation in Pee Three Dee Vee Four and see if I experience this phenomenon.
 
Yipee!

IFlySWA said:
I spy with my little eye...a screenie of a two-seat Cougar over at Rob's website. :jump:

Brian
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I just saw that too! Yipee! Rob's Cougar is my new "go-to" jet, the only one I've touched since it was released. Thanks, Mr. Richardson!

Can someone answer a few questions about the Cougar for me? My AOA gauge has a constant OFF flag, and I can't find how to power it. Anyone know the trick? Also I noticed that my G-meter indicates "0" most of the time, even when sitting stationary on the ground. Shouldn't it indicate "1," or do I have something screwed up?

Thanks again to Mr. Richardson for some awesome creations!
 
I had the weirdest dream last night and something akin to a four-seat F9F (wide fuselage, two separate canopies next to each other) played a minor role. No more kebap for dinner and coconut chocolate before bed. :dizzy:
 
Was able to give this a quick flight, with a few circuits and then a hop out to a 50's era straight deck Coral Sea for a few launches and traps aboard.

Looks great, Rob's design skills are getting sharper with each release, and this one really pays attention to detail to a high degree, especially in the VC. On-throttle response feels good, with the slow spool-up of the J48 modeled well.

My only question relates to off-throttle deceleration - it feels like when throttles are closed, speed decay happens very slowly. Bearing in mind this was my first FSX flight in 6 months, I'm clearly a bit rusty.

I love this bird, and with what appears to be the advent of the 8T, I'm sure that version will make some folks very happy. Certainly, I'm thankful to Rob for any variant of the 8 he'll do, so thanks so much for an iconic 50s era bird.

Cheers,

dl
 
As to correct AOA, just curious if there was data available for clean and various other configurations. Years ago I did a 737-200 FDE, for which aircraft I did have considerable Captain time. However the most useful data was the Boeing unreliable airspeed chart which gave attitude and thrust parameters to achieve to achieve the correct target airspeed through much of the flight envelope. Right there in the Boeing Quick Reference Handbook for each aircraft.

Certainly not being critical or even suggesting error but curious as to if you were able to unearth such data, Always interested in new such sources.

Cheers: Tom
 
Bjoern said:
I had the weirdest dream last night and something akin to a four-seat F9F (wide fuselage, two separate canopies next to each other) played a minor role. No more kebap for dinner and coconut chocolate before bed. :dizzy:
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When you said "side by side Panther" the first thing I thought of was the Skyknight, but then I read double bubble canopies and thoughts rested on the XB-42 and XB-43. Those would be nice to have in the sim!
 
gastonj said:
Ok! Thank's for the reply.

JMC
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My AoA doesn't seem to move past a couple of units from "0".

AoA gauges were a standard unit as they came into being, with a range of 0 to 30 "units", not degrees (they still are in "units"). There was a settable index mark to set the proper approach AoA for different types of planes, since their optimum approach AoA would be different. However, these index marks were set in the gauge at installation, not by the pilot. The gauge was usually rotated in its mounting hole so that this optimum AoA index was at the 3'o'clock position relative to the panel. This made it easy or the pilot to cross reference it and the IAS (and later, with the indexer as well, above the gauge).

The use of units makes a common AoA gauge practical - also, the use of units provided a magnified AoA scale in comparison to actual angle of attack in the "powered approach" regime, where you are flying on the back side of the power curve, about 10% above stall speed being typical.

Back side power curve approaches are standard - there is virtually no margin of airspeed to decrease rate of descent - you have to control glideslope with throttle, AoA with pitch, other wise you will fall out of the sky. The slow spool up of the J-48, couple with its high drag profile made low rpm, decelerating approaches very dangerous.
 
Mike71 said:
Back side power curve approaches are standard - there is virtually no margin of airspeed to decrease rate of descent - you have to control glideslope with throttle, AoA with pitch, other wise you will fall out of the sky. The slow spool up of the J-48, couple with its high drag profile made low rpm, decelerating approaches very dangerous.
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Couple this with landing at night on a carrier gives me the willies just thinking about it. *shudder*

Brian
 
Slow spool up is the reason high drag approaches were used as the engine remained in a higher PRM range where it was more if not adequately responsive. When modern jet engines have a higher flight and approach idle speed built in. It might surprise you that an approach could be flown most precisely in the 747 by subtile throttle movement rather than elevator or trim movement. The essence is that the correct attitude is set and maintained and it begins to become more apparent that thrust controls the path. Some aircraft will have a little or a lot trim/attitude change with thrust variation. Single engine more or less centerline thrust aircraft ease some of these considerations.
 
High RPM approaches were also helped by using speed brakes to cause more drag. The Cougar was one of the few jets not to use "boards" on a carrier approach. You would get a "gig" from the LSO if they had to call you for "speed brakes!" in the groove.
 
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