CD Action 14 A & 15 A/cdactioncoverdisc/flight/hints.fu

Text File | 1995-08-04 | 7KB | 128 lines

Flying the Lessons

Smooth corrections to your stick!  Don't jerk the stick.  You'll lose
both airspeed and control that way.

Experiment!  Nothing bad can happen, and no one minds if you score
badly a few times.  The experiments you perform may well teach you a
trick or two, and will undoubtedly give you a better understanding of
what it means, both intellectually and intuitively, to fly an
airplane.

If you find yourself wanting to try something that the instructor
doesn't want to, go back to free flying and give it a go.


Lesson Hints.....

In spite of his good intentions, our instructor sometimes forgets a
few important tips.  Here's a few hints for flying the lessons (and
scoring well!):



Level Flight:
        If you can keep the arrow icons off the screen, you are doing
well.  However, you may want to do better than just qualify.  Even if
the icons aren't there, you can still do better....  Keep an eye on
the vertical speed indicator or altimeter to track your altitude changes,
and try to keep that altitude rock solid.  Keep the VSI as close to level
as you can - it's good training for the level game.


Level Game:
        We all have different strategies on this one.  I like to first
get my heading, then find out what kind of throttle setting I need to
stay level at my target airspeed.  After I have a good idea about
where I want the throttle, I start hunting the correct altitude (if
you feel lazy, remember the TAB and shift-TAB keys!).


Inverted Flight:
        This one is just like level, only upside down.  Use your
altitude gauges, except this time when you lose altitude compensate
with forward stick!
        The instructor won't grade you on your rolls, so don't worry
about making them perfect.  He will, however, keep track of your final
heading and altitude, so when you roll to level you may need to watch
where you are going.  If you keep getting points deducted for heading
or altitude, you might try a few two point rolls and then come back to
inverted when you feel a bit more comfortable with the roll to level.


Two Point Roll:
        There are a lot of things to try on this one, so I suggest
that you feel free to experiment.  You can pull back a little just
before you start the roll, which will cut down on your altitude loss.
When going from inverted to level, push forward a bit.  Either way,
get that nose above the horizon.
        A little bit of rudder in the same direction as your roll will
smooth out the motion, but remember that you also need to use top
rudder to keep altitude as you go through the knife edge position!
"Top rudder" means rudder in the direction of the sky, so when your
right wing is sticking up, use the right rudder.
        This means that you'll start your rudder in the same direction
as the stick (smooth the roll), but almost immediately switch to
opposite rudder (top rudder- keep altitude).  Luckily, when you roll
from inverted back to level, top rudder is already in the same
direction as your roll, so you don't need to deal with the pedals
quite so much.
        You will find that faster rolls are easier since you just
don't have time to lose much altitude, but it's more difficult to stop
the roll at the right orientation and, I find, a little less rewarding
than a well-done slower roll.  I'd suggest trying to do a few slow
ones after you get the hang of it just so that you can see what kind
of rudder inputs you need.  Your faster rolls will definitely improve
as a result.  Experiment with the rudders.  Maybe a touch of opposite
rudder at the end of a roll will help out the exit back to level
flight....
        Don't skip the inverted point in the middle of the roll!
Major points deducted for that one.


Loop:
        This is a tough one, and a tough one to advise.  I cannot
emphasize the smooth stick motion enough.  If you just jerk the stick
back as quickly as you can, the plane's nose will jerk upwards,
but you'll still be flying straight forward.  The air will pound into
the flat part of the wings and all of your airspeed will vanish.
That's what an "accelerated stall" is all about.  Instead, make it a
smooth pull.  It can still be pretty fast.
        How much should you pull?  How much airspeed should you get?
Watch the demo and see what the instructor does.  Sometimes, as an
experienced pilot, he is a bit reckless, but you'll see that you can
go a little faster than you'd expect and pull a little harder.  Feel
free to learn the limits of the Decathlon - breaking up isn't hard to
do, but neither is repairing the plane.  Feel free to overspeed the
Decathlon, at least a little bit (how about 180?).
        Generally, the instructor will let you pick how big you want
your loop.  He'll try to get you to pull harder if the loop is way too
big, but he'll let you learn just what kinds of loop you can and
cannot get away with the hard way- you might just stall out of a few
loops before reaching the top!  That's okay.  Recover from your stall
and try again, pulling harder this time.
        When the instructor says to float over the top, he means it.
You may have to push the stick forward to keep your loop round!  Try a
few loops without floating and just pull back the whole way, and check
your wireframe in the 3-Way View cockpit.  You'll see the pinch at the
top.  If you are trying to float it and follow the arrows, you
may end up with an "e" shape in your wireframe (exiting the loop
with a pretty low altitude).  This usually indicates that you didn't
have quite enough speed at the top, and stalled during the float.  The
loop curves the right way all around except for that second quarter,
which is a bit sharp.  Get some more speed, and harder initial
pull, or really take to the forward stick on the float.
        If you have gyro effects turned on during the loop lesson,
don't forget a bit of left rudder to counter it (amd if you ever try a
loop in the Sukhoi in free flight, remember that its engine rotates
the other direction!  Use right rudder for those loops...).
        If the forward/back arrows start to jump back and forth, you
are most likely over-correcting.  The loop is a precision maneuver,
and getting a nice circle in the sky requires a fair amount of
accuracy.  Move the stick a little bit more cautiously at these points.
        The 3D arrow will tend to point way up at the end of the loop.
Follow it- although you are facing forward and level, your momentum is
still carrying you downward.  With a quick nose up at the end, you'll
level your plane much more quickly and in full aerobatics style.