Cowboy1968
December 27th, 2009, 13:59
Today i finally installed a plane into CFS2, that has been out for awhile, but wasn't a priority to try. It was the F5U Flying Pancake. This thing has one of the most interesting flight profiles i have ever seen.
The landing on a carrier is tricky because you don't have flaps or an air brake. In essence the whole bird becomes your bake and flap. The key to landing this thing is to bring your airspeed down to around 150 knots and then gradually come to an angle of 20 degrees up pitch on the nose. You will have to judge your distance to he carrier very closely and don't be afraid to use throttle, you want to maintain around 130 knots. as the bird crosses the end of the deck cut the throttle and let her drop into the wires.
These same attributes that slow the plane for landing will also work against you and for you in some cases in combat. This bird can do a turning fight, but its best use in fighter vs. fighter is as a zoom and boom energy fighter. IF you do turn in a knife fight don't let yourself get into the landing attitude of the profile. She become one big air brake. YOU TALK ABOUT DRAG. But again the whole plane is your lifting surface so you have a very stall of around 80 mph.
You just have to learn what you can do in this thing and what you can't. Everything you have learned about a fixed wing prop fighter goes out the window, but man this thing can turn on a dime if you need her too.
But I do see why the Flying Pancake wasn't pushed or put into combat. She is a radical design that takes a radical approach to aerobatics, but she is capable of radical maneuver as well. She was just to much of a departure from the conventional for the US Navy to really take this thing into combat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_XF5U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfpTDOAfj7Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2yzoMt6etc
The landing on a carrier is tricky because you don't have flaps or an air brake. In essence the whole bird becomes your bake and flap. The key to landing this thing is to bring your airspeed down to around 150 knots and then gradually come to an angle of 20 degrees up pitch on the nose. You will have to judge your distance to he carrier very closely and don't be afraid to use throttle, you want to maintain around 130 knots. as the bird crosses the end of the deck cut the throttle and let her drop into the wires.
These same attributes that slow the plane for landing will also work against you and for you in some cases in combat. This bird can do a turning fight, but its best use in fighter vs. fighter is as a zoom and boom energy fighter. IF you do turn in a knife fight don't let yourself get into the landing attitude of the profile. She become one big air brake. YOU TALK ABOUT DRAG. But again the whole plane is your lifting surface so you have a very stall of around 80 mph.
You just have to learn what you can do in this thing and what you can't. Everything you have learned about a fixed wing prop fighter goes out the window, but man this thing can turn on a dime if you need her too.
But I do see why the Flying Pancake wasn't pushed or put into combat. She is a radical design that takes a radical approach to aerobatics, but she is capable of radical maneuver as well. She was just to much of a departure from the conventional for the US Navy to really take this thing into combat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_XF5U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfpTDOAfj7Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2yzoMt6etc