Grumman F-14D Tomcat for FSX(A) v2.0 released

[Navy Chief]

I installed Dino's Tomcat into P3D. Beautiful!!!

NC

[airattackimages]

Just for kicks, I flew and recorded this little ACM training dogfight between an NSAWC Viper (Aerosoft) and VF-2 F-14 (Dino's Cat)

There was no sound, so I did add music. Hopefully it works in all countries.

http://youtu.be/sY7THl-69ac

Watch in 1080 and full screen.

[TuFun]

On behalf of Jiri Soukup (who did the VF-2 and VF-31 repaints) - and the rest of the team - I would like to thank you all for your appreciation.

Jiri, who can not register at SOH at the moment, would like to thank you for your appreciation and especially piperarchepilot for the great screenshots (a personal note - F-14B and D do not use afterburners on take off and cat launches)... by the way he will be doing a Jolly Rogers repaint (fictional - although I suggested to paint 1064604 which was painted in VF-103 colors after its retirement...

Thanks for that info... cool video of Tomcats!

[PRB]

The F-14 is a classic. I'll never forget what it felt like to stand next to one of those babies when she went to to full power (stage 5) on the cat. It was so loud it rattled your brain inside your skull and made me want to cringe and hug my chest. On Enterprise in the early 1980s, you could stand by the island when an F-14A went to "stage 5" on CAT 1. The heat was intense, from all the way back to the island. That's frikken awesome, anyway you slice it.

Thanks Dino. And nice video, 2-Fun!

[piperarcherpilot]

Dino/Rob,

I'm just thinking here....maybe this will work, maybe not.

Since the slow speed characteristics are good, and you probably dont want to mess with them, how about this idea to simulate slow speed depature from controlled flight.

A gauge that watches AOA and airspeed. If the airspeed drops below say, 115 kts, AND the angle of attack is over the critical angle of attack, the gauge will roll the plane 45 degrees or so and pitch it down to a pre determined angle (-10 degrees?) ?

Would that work? The reason the airspeed has to factor in, is that the F-14 was somewhat stable in higher speed accelerated stalls (over Critical AOA). But...haha...not so at low speed.

Just an idea! It would help teach fresh new Naval Aviators to respect this big Cat!

PS. I think the wings begin to sweep back too soon...shouldnt it be in the .50-.55 mach range? 380-400kts? I remember watching Tomcats acclerate all the way down the runway after takeoff, in full A/B, and start a climb with the wings full forward, so it had to be over 300 kts at least. I know what the NATOPS seems to suggest for speeds...but it just seems really odd to me.

[Hanimichal]

Passing Kuznetsov

[rcbarend]

Dino/Rob,

I'm just thinking here....maybe this will work, maybe not.

Since the slow speed characteristics are good, and you probably dont want to mess with them, how about this idea to simulate slow speed depature from controlled flight.

A gauge that watches AOA and airspeed. If the airspeed drops below say, 115 kts, AND the angle of attack is over the critical angle of attack, the gauge will roll the plane 45 degrees or so and pitch it down to a pre determined angle (-10 degrees?) ?

Would that work? The reason the airspeed has to factor in, is that the F-14 was somewhat stable in higher speed accelerated stalls (over Critical AOA). But...haha...not so at low speed.

Just an idea! It would help teach fresh new Naval Aviators to respect this big Cat!

PS. I think the wings begin to sweep back too soon...shouldnt it be in the .50-.55 mach range? 380-400kts? I remember watching Tomcats acclerate all the way down the runway after takeoff, in full A/B, and start a climb with the wings full forward, so it had to be over 300 kts at least. I know what the NATOPS seems to suggest for speeds...but it just seems really odd to me.

Well, this is not a VTOL development, which would make you first question possible; but I think an on/off control for such a function would be too abrupt ...

As to wingsweep: it start now at .40 Mach (== 275 Knots IAS at sea level).
If someone has better numbers (Mach-nr. when wingsweep starts, and Machnr. at which wings are fully swept back), I'll gladly implement them (5 min work).
But they have to be "spec" numbers ......

Let's see if Dino has any comment..

Best, Rob

[Dino Cattaneo]

Well,

as for the stall behaviour, I'll be very careful to change anything at the moment as I am quite happy in the "controlled flight" envelope. Rather than an external agent, I would rely on .air file changes - maybe some FDE guru can do the trick which is above my skill.

As far as I can tell, the wing sweep logic is quite accurate... then, again, although I have been working on F-14 simulation for years, I have not even seen one for real - and I am relying on the official NATOPs figures.
The figure 2-19 of my F-14 manual (in the docs folder, page 47) comes straight from the real flight manual - but I have not gone through the amendments and changes section and I am not sure there are corrections to that.

Rob, the only thing I have not checked is if the current wingsweep control curve (sweep vs. Mach) is just linear or has multiple slopes like the real one, but this should not make a big difference...

[rcbarend]

Well,

as for the stall behaviour, I'll be very careful to change anything at the moment as I am quite happy in the "controlled flight" envelope. Rather than an external agent, I would rely on .air file changes - maybe some FDE guru can do the trick which is above my skill.

As far as I can tell, the wing sweep logic is quite accurate... then, again, although I have been working on F-14 simulation for years, I have not even seen one for real - and I am relying on the official NATOPs figures.
The figure 2-19 of my F-14 manual (in the docs folder, page 47) comes straight from the real flight manual - but I have not gone through the amendments and changes section and I am not sure there are corrections to that.

Rob, the only thing I have not checked is if the current wingsweep control curve (sweep vs. Mach) is just linear or has multiple slopes like the real one, but this should not make a big difference...

Hi Dino,

At present it's just lineair.
- Position.6 : less then Mach 0.40
- Position.5 : above Mach 0.40
- Position.4 : above Mach 0.48
- Position.3 : above Mach 0.56
- Position.2 : above Mach 0.64
- Position.1 : above Mach 0.72
- Position.0 : above Mach 0.80

If it should be non-lineair, these number are easily changed

Best, Rob

[airattackimages]

I think the wing sweep is good. Also I would agree with Dino, the flight model is great right now, Id hate to lose that in favor of a dramatic stall sequence, myself.

[cortomalteseit]

one of the last (and best) video of the Tomcat:

[evvatc]

I believe the wing sweep schedule is a little off also. The Mach-sweep programmer should move the wings from 20° to 25° as speed builds to M0.7, 50° at M0.8 and then pivots them all the way 68° as Mach number increases to M0.9. As the angle goes through 62° the spoilers are cut out and roll control is effected solely by the tailerons. Overall I think Dino and everyone involved has done a great job and I want thank you all for your time and effort.

[skyhawka4m]

this is a freeware plane right? I for one want to say thank you to dino for all your work on this jet. I know in one of your posts you made it clear that there would be some issues with this jet, and frankly....being a fair weather flyer.....I haven't noticed one yet. The quality you have "given" us here has surpassed even that of payware that was the only offering till now. I'm sure as time goes by you will continue to upgrade as you do with the T-45 and all will be good in the world. But please!!!! Don't ruin a good thing by trying to make it too difficult to fly.

[Ian Warren]

one of the last (and best) video of the Tomcat:

Now have post this over at NZFF .. COOL Video Very appropriate
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[piperarcherpilot]

Attachment 82991

Evvact is exactly right for the "over 20,000 ft" side. Check out the NATOPS chart here - I've added some grid lines for clarity. We'll assume we're talking about the 14,000 feet and below side. I think the problem is that the sweep isnt linear, as Dino and Rob discussed above.

So, realizing we only have 7 "flap" stations work wingsweep with...

Altering the Mach, assuming 6 equal steps between 20 and 68 deg:

- Position.6 (20 deg): less than Mach 0.55
- Position.5 (28 deg): above Mach 0.55
- Position.4 (36 deg): above Mach 0.70
- Position.3 (44 deg): above Mach 0.77
- Position.2 (52 deg): above Mach 0.82
- Position.1 (60 deg): above Mach 0.90
- Position.0 (68 deg): above Mach 0.95

Altering the Sweep (most accurate, not sure if this is possible):

- Position.6 (20 deg): less then Mach 0.45
- Position.5 (24 deg): above Mach 0.45
- Position.4 (27 deg): above Mach 0.60
- Position.3 (35 deg): above Mach 0.70
- Position.2 (47 deg): above Mach 0.80
- Position.1 (60 deg): above Mach 0.90
- Position.0 (68 deg): above Mach 0.95

[Wingmate]

Keeping in line with the discussion about wing sweep, is there any way I can map the switch for toggling between auto and manual wing sweep?

On another topic the landing light does not light the ground.

And in yet another different area, I'm slowly getting some paints done

[airattackimages]

Can't wait for that paint!

[flewpastu]

Anybody up for trying the sundowners paint that was done for dinos 2004 tomcat, I've tried but the paint files are too difficult. That would be a nice one .

Bill

[airattackimages]

Yes! Definitely Miss Molly. And the line bird too

[airattackimages]

VF-2 Tomcats climbing out from NAS Fallon on an NSAWC training hop.




Attachment 83212

[MDIvey]

Thanks for this great model Dino. Only just got round to trying it out.

Matt

[airattackimages]

WIP... Adding two more modex numbers to VF-2

Attachment 83276

[skyhawka4m]

Is there anyway to get rid of the glass reflection of the pilots and interior of the plane which can be seen from the outside esecially when canopy is open?

[airattackimages]

If that's directed at me Skyhawk I'm not sure. I'm a newbie painter.

Did some more work, changing pilot and enlisted crew names for each jet. Here is NE107 for an example. Not actual accurate VF-2 names, this pilot is a former VF-31 and Blue Angel pilot.

Also changed the mission markings up, since each aircraft had different mission markings, obviously.

Attachment 83290

[Victory103]

Gents keep up the good work, this Tomcat fan is super happy, just wish I had more time to fly everyone's recent repaints. Need to see the pilot's texture, but anyway to customize the helmets?