New Updates to Dino Cattaneo's F-35 and F-14D

[stovall]

There are updates to the F-35 with the Latest version: 2.41 and the F-14D with Latest version: 2.29. Can be found on Dino's site HERE (http://indiafoxtecho.blogspot.com/).

[YoYo]

There are updates to the F-35 with the Latest version: 2.41 and the F-14D with Latest version: 2.29. Can be found on Dino's site HERE (http://indiafoxtecho.blogspot.com/).

Very good bews before the weekend!!! :applause:

And TY Dino!!!

[dhazelgrove]

There are updates to the F-35 with the Latest version: 2.41 and the F-14D with Latest version: 2.29. Can be found on Dino's site HERE (http://indiafoxtecho.blogspot.com/).

Thanks for letting us know.

Dave

[Dino Cattaneo]

You are welcome guys.
An update to the T-45C is in the works too... basically I am trying to clean my desk from the unfinished updates/changes to make room for the S-3 Viking...

[Wings of Gold]

Hi Dino,

Wonderful news about future work on the S-3! Is it possible to know what files have changed on the new updates - I've just finished my modifications to the previous F-14D revision.

Best regards, Bill

[Dino Cattaneo]

Basically, only the files in the "Tactical" subfolder of the panel folder have changed... this is where the Tacpack related code resides.
Actually I have only changed the in-flight refuel part.

[seawing]

Hi Dino,

flying the latest version of the F-14 over the last two days, I noticed up to 30° heading difference between the HSI and BDHI (RMI)!
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/30.04.14/jbeqgensmah4.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-23040851/2014-4-29_21-47-55-248-copy.jpg.html)
I also noticed that one of the HYD pressure indicator is off the scale, but I don't know whether the gauge is actually working or not?
http://www7.pic-upload.de/thumb/30.04.14/o83wdgfvyx.jpg (http://www.pic-upload.de/view-23040858/2014-4-29_20-54-42-935-copy.jpg.html)
Concerning A/A refuel, do I need to activate something in the cockpit to receive fuel? I was holding for several minutes in trail position of the VRS F-18 tanker (activated through TP), but did not take any fuel ... ?

Cheers,

Seawing

[Dino Cattaneo]

Well,

As for the misalignment between the MFD and BDHI, I cannot tell for sure the reason why (I am travelling for businness and I can't rembember by heart). Most likely they get information from different channels (one of the two may be subject to precession...). In general, in all of my projects, trust the digital instruments instead of the analog ones...

HDY press gauge is not working. Actually it is a static picture of a real Tomcat sitting in a museum. Congrats on being the first that reported if after all these months ;-)

As long as the fuel probe is extended, which I am sure you did, there should be nothing preventing you from receiving fuel. Please note that version 2.28 had a bug which caused the refuel flow rate to be dependant on how empty the fuel tanks were (the more they were empty the faster the fuel flow...). This should be solved in version 2.29, but it will take minutes to refuel the aicraft.
Then, there may be another bug I have not spotted.

In addition to that, I have an user who reports that Phoenix missiles do not work anymore... which is kind of strange given I have never touched the relevant code... but this may well be.

I will verify all these issues as soon as possible.

Please note that, unless very big issues arise, I am trying to steer away from further FSX modifications... just because I will not have time to develop the S-3.
Bug reports are still much welcome, as, as you can clearly see from this post and other the product is not only far from being perfect or complete, but also the quality level is not as good as it may appear.
Thanks for your understanding and your appreciation!

[seawing]

Hi Dino!

First of all, thank you for your answers!
Actually, I just realized the difference between the BDHI and the MFD when I was tracking the tanker by his TACAN and realized I was flying wrong headings compared with the BDHI bearing.
I had the feeling that the AIM-54C did not actually hit anything - although it is always hard to tell in FSX over that long distance. I will try to verify before going back for two weeks of RW flying.
Another thing I realized yesterday was, that the spoilers, after auto-deployment on touchdown on the carrier, did not retract. From the vNATOPS manual I see that they should only deploy with both engines idle and weight on wheels. So, as soon as I push the throttle back forward, they should retract again - but they don't. I actually have to lift the aircraft in slew mode and let it fall again for them to reset. Only other option is to switch the system off. Any idea?

Dino, I - and certainly all others around here - really appreciate your work on all of your projects and I have the deepest understanding that you want to clear your desk, so don't worry about the minor issues - maybe a comprehensive fix at some later stage could get rid of all that is reported. I am, as you know, very eager to get my hands on the S-3, so take your time and feel free to work on that ;-)
You say the product is far from complete or perfect and not of the quality you would like to see - and as a scale modeler I do absolutely understand your point, you would never again build a model the way you just did, because there are so many more and better ways, you just discovered. But I want to say that your airplanes are really top shelf in the FSX world and all users are certainly greatfull of what ever level you achieved.

Seawing

[seawing]

Hi Dino,

just to add this, I did some ACM today and fired AIM-54Cs at targets in visual range. No missle scored a hit and I observed one climbing through 185.000 ft! The AIM-7 and the AIM-9 worked fine and all scored hits. You may want to look into this issue ...
Concerning refuel, does it make a difference whether I use exit+2, the key command "I" or the switch in the VC? I used exit+2 so far and in the 12 minutes I stood in trail of the tanker, I took on maybe 1%. I am pretty sure I was in the right receiving position. When I compare it with my experience refueling with the VRS F-18 it looked quite ok. So, maybe it is the way I bring out the probe?

Seawing

[Dino Cattaneo]

I have tested the AIM-54 and found there is no issue at all but the missile is not reporting its LOCK and SHOOT cues. Will look into my code, but there is a chance it is a Tacpack bug (as I remember it worked fine, there are no changes on my side and in the meantime the Tacpack has been updated)... will have a deeper look. Anyway, the missile behavior seems OK.
The AIM-54 is not very agile, and definitely not indicated in visual range and will miss most of the times. The way it reaches its exceptional range is through an extremely lofted trajectory - so seeing it pointing to the stars is OK.

I will look into the other issues when I'll have the time.

[YoYo]

Hi Dino, I raported this issue 2 versions before of F-14D, only AGM-54 hits a target from...12-10 nm. Before it no tracking target and missile looses a target. Maybe it was happen after this avionic upgrade? No lock a target to 50, 40, 30 ect nm.

[Dino Cattaneo]

Yes, I know Yoyo - I was reporting the issue for other users in this post.

I have gone through the code yesterday night, and everything seems OK. But there is definitely a problem, specifically the AIM-54 seeker does not report it is locking to the target.
I do not have the time to go into technical details, but basically the interaction between the aicraft and the Tacpack happens through variables in the XML code. Lock and Shoot cues, for example, are activated in the aicraft upon activation of certain Tacpack variables. So the issue can be at Tacpack or F-14D level (and then in the F-14 there are specific parts of the package which deal with the Tacpack functions)

The AIM-54 has a known bug in Tacpack so that the Rmax and Rne it reports are way shorter than the ones in real life (as they report a non-lofted trajectory)... I have already notified VRS about this months ago - but apart from this the missile worked.

Now the A/A missile management code I have in place is kind of generic - it is basically the same for the different missiles, and reads the different values from the Tacpack.
This has not been changed and it is not affected by the avionics upgrade (which is purely an MFD thing... does not interact with the Tacpack at all). I suspect this may be related to the latest Tacpack update.

I have reported the situation, including Tacpack logs, to Vertical Reality Simulation.

[Dino Cattaneo]

As usual, support from VRS was excellent and blazing fast... and it allowed me to identify the issue: for some reason the latest releases of the code were missing a line which was present previously, as result the AIM-54 seeker before launch could not (in many instances) lock to the target. Hit was possible only in visual boresight mode (but given the poor maneuverability of the Phoenix you need a very lucky shot!).

I will fix this asap.

[Dino Cattaneo]

Here is a further update for the Tomcat which hopefully restores the full functionality of the AIM-54 (albeit Rmax and Rne are still incorrectly reported...but this is Tacpack issue and I cannot do anything about it). I took the chance to fix some other minor defects too.
Non-Tacpack users can gracefully skip the update as it (almost) have no effect for them.

VERSION 2.30
May 2nd, 2014
- Fixed bug in the Tacpack code which prevented AIM-54C missile seeker to achieve a lock on L&S target
- Fixed minor bug in the Multi-status indicator (station 8B did not report the Ready/Selected status for AIM-54 missiles)
- Clean up of Tacpack code
- Added HYD PRESS animated needle in Virtual Cockpit
- Added AIM-54 in STA1B and 8B in Virtual Cockpit
- Fixed in-flight refuel ration while using Tacpack


http://indiafoxtecho.blogspot.it/2014/05/f-14d-tomcat-updated-to-version-230.html

[YoYo]

Very good news!Thank You Dino for Your Hard Work!

[YoYo]

Btw. for Tomcat lovers.
The new version is out:
http://indiafoxtecho.blogspot.com/

[seawing]

Yes, Dino, thank you very much indeed for the very quick response to the issue! Keep it up!

Seawing

[Dino Cattaneo]

You are welcome - by the way, switching the ANTI SKID / SPOILER BK switch "down" should enable the retraction of the spoilers on the deck.

[seawing]

Hi Dino,

just wanted to give a short feedback. The AIM-54 now works fine and also the A/A refueling works nice. I figure, since I used the "Open/close exit 2" command at first, the TACPAC refueling was never activated. When I use the TACPAC refuel probe function instead, the Tomcat receives fuel as described.

Best regards and many thanks,

Seawing