F-18 Flight Dynamics?

[Railrunner130]

Is it me/ my set up or did M$ do a bad job with the flight dynamics on the F-18? This thing is all over the place....

[flewpastu]

Agreed railrunner, at 1st I thought it was my setup. But whatever I do it is just to sensitive almost hard to control. Anyone have any suggestions ?

Bill

[cheezyflier]

one thing that made a HUGE difference for me, was disabling those stupid auto flaps. if i could remember what i changed in the cfg to do this i would tell you, but i don't remember. i bet someone here could tell you, or possibly google.

[piperarcherpilot]

Ya know, like everything else, its all subjective...my next door neighbor currently flys the F-18D and I let him fly the hornet in FSX (with realism about 75% with my Saitek Aviator stick) and he thought it was the coolest thing in the world. He said it flew much like the real deal, and thought the cockpit was awesome - but did note the velocity vector didnt work right....

[PRB]

Agree on the velocity vector! I wish FS designers would make velocity vectors (or “flight path marker”, if you’re an A-7E guy… :d) work properly! They are one of the most useful bits on a HUD!

[fliger747]

The beta of the F18 was really bad! I bitched at MS about this and it is a little better. It is a augmented system and should have a little better stability. I can be flown well with a light touch!

Cheers: T.

[tigisfat]

I've got a little bit of time in hornets, and I can vouch for the flight dynamics. They're not perfect, but they are the best anyone's done yet in MSFS for a fighter. IRIS isn't even close.

[Panther_99FS]

I've got a little bit of time in hornets, and I can vouch for the flight dynamics. They're not perfect, but they are the best anyone's done yet in MSFS for a fighter. IRIS isn't even close.

The CaptainSim X-Pack F/A-18 is debatedly better...

[IanP]

I've not bothered checking personally, but according to one review (which the author did practically no background research for whatsoever unfortunately) the CS D model uses the Accel pack's A model .air file anyway. There may be changes between the aircraft.cfgs, but seeing as CS made the Accel 'A', it's not entirely surprising if the aerodynamics are next to identical.

Ian P.

[Panther_99FS]

Nevermind.....;)

CS is my preference of default....

[Dangerous Beans]

The .air files do look to be the same although there creation date/time is 2 hours apart exactly to the second.

The only differences in the .cfg is the contact points for the wheels and the static_pitch and static_cg_height, everything else is the same.

CS F/A-18 D
[contact_points]
;Gear
point.0=1, -18.00, 0.00, -6.55, 3600, 0, 1.0350, 75.0, 0.20, 4.20, 0.610, 3.0, 3.0, 0, 0.0, 0.0
point.1=1, -35.50, -6.00, -7.60, 3600, 1, 1.2349, 0.0, 1.95, 1.00, 0.500, 3.9, 3.9, 2, 0.0, 0.0
point.2=1, -35.50, 6.00, -7.60, 3600, 2, 1.2349, 0.0, 1.95, 1.00, 0.500, 3.7, 3.7, 3, 0.0, 0.0

static_pitch = 0.00
static_cg_height = 7.0

Default F/A-18 A
[contact_points]
;Gear
point.0=1, -18.00, 0.00, -6.60, 1600, 0, 0.6349, 75.0, 0.2000, 3.5, 0.6100, 3.0, 3.0, 0, 0.0, 0.0
point.1=1, -35.50, -4.90, -7.40, 1600, 1, 0.6349, 0.0, 0.4000, 2.5, 0.5456, 3.9, 3.9, 2, 0.0, 0.0
point.2=1, -35.50, 4.90, -7.40, 1600, 2, 0.6349, 0.0, 0.4000, 2.5, 0.5456, 3.7, 3.7, 3, 0.0, 0.0

static_pitch = -2.98
static_cg_height = 6.9

Of course the CS Hornet has all those lovely load-outs to play with but I've always been disappointed that I cant fly the back seat.

[Panther_99FS]

Good point about the contact points & overall comparison...:mixedsmi:

[CodyValkyrie]

It is my understanding that CS built the F/A-18 for Acceleration. Whether they just provided the model or actually provided the .air file, etc, however is unknown.

If I remember correctly, one of the big wigs at Microsoft/ACES told me that all the models in the Acceleration pack were modeled by 3rd party companies.

[Daube]

Agree on the velocity vector! I wish FS designers would make velocity vectors (or “flight path marker”, if you’re an A-7E guy… :d) work properly! They are one of the most useful bits on a HUD!

It seems that the Mitsubishi F-2 freeware for FS9 (but works with minor adjustements on FSX) has a HUD with a real Velocity Vector. That's the only freeware I've seen so far with a real VV.

[dswo]

This is old, but if you've only just installed Acceleration, there's a tutorial on how to use the Hornet's avionics (including autopilot) here: http://tinyurl.com/6jlwaa. It's written by the contracter who did the actual gauges for Microsoft.

[jmig]

The beta of the F18 was really bad! I bitched at MS about this and it is a little better. It is a augmented system and should have a little better stability. I can be flown well with a light touch!

Cheers: T.

Can something like a stab aug system be modeled in FSX?

[CodyValkyrie]

Can something like a stab aug system be modeled in FSX?

I believe so. Vertical Reality Simulations I believe has a system like that in place.