I'm usually at the correct AoA, speed isn't really an issue. Lining up is. I'm usually skewed, so I come down at an angle, and so a few hundred yards down the runway, I'm at risk of coming off, so I get back over with brake. Sometimes rudder, but not usually. And when I'm landing, I cannot use rudder to get to center line, it just screws everything up, and I end up crabbing down. So, I just aim for some part of the runway, and then keep it on once the wheels touch the concrete.
It might be frivilous, and the wife might kill me, but I tracked down a Thrustmaster Cougar HOTAS set, and it came in today. So now to spend the next few months rehabbing it and customizing the base and electronics.
My tendency is to try and line up on the runway vector really early, like a commercial airline pilot often does, but the combat landing technique may be the better way to approach it, where you fly over the runway, and then make a turn in which you come out on vector, on speed, and on altitude (like you are supposed to do on a carrier landing). Because if you get used to that, landing becomes really routine.
This is what I do, as it was the technique Wags taught on the F-16 (video I watched before getting the plane), and I didn't know there were training missions until much later. But I'm not flying nice and precise vectors. I'm using the Mk1 Eyeball. Which causes me to come in at odd angles. I've started extending out the downwind, and doing the base leg turn farther out, giving me more time to correct. But that's also just a guesstimation, based on wingtip distance from start of runway. Then nose down turn around 8-10 degrees. Try to line the 2.5 degree line on the runway, and then bring up power to get flight marker at the top of the AoA bracket.
Ya, I think the real pilots only use those instrument cues, though. Which is why they are good and we are not.
So, I have a fully dark, clouds to the ground Batumi landing that I practice ILS, and that is rough. I'm very good at making fireballs. I was in my office one night, pitch black, playing it, and about jumped out of my seat when I suddenly exploded.
I found some Warhog hotas in stock on a website in Germany with free shipping to the US. But needed to work myself up to pay $600 for a game peripheral. The next morning, all 5 were sold. I swear people are scalping this stuff.
also, I am tempted to go with virpil. I dont fly the A10 so I don't care about the replica throttle of the warthog.
I don't care about the warthog either, but it seems like the best quality combo out there. And it's going to take a me a while to CAD out and build what I want to do with the cougar. I'm just going to stick with the 16k I guess. It works, and since the Cougar will eventually get fixed up, it isn't a true need. Although I'd be interested to see how much better the warthog is to everything else. But curiosity is not worth $600. Today.
Well before spending silly money, take a peak at virpil's throttles and vkb's sticks. At some point Thrustmaster will start rolling out product again, i would think, and then you can get the warthog for retail which is like 450.
I like the cougar, because I like the throttle on the F16. But I need to convert the cougar stick to a hall effect sensor, which means I need to either buy gimbals or cad some out. And since I have a printer, it makes sense for me just to adapt what I can find, rather than purchase them. And for the throttle, I want to I add in the lifts for the detents. F-16 lifts and pushes to idle, then lifts and pushes to go to afterburner. And anyway, this is the peripheral I plan on purchasing... https://bergisons.simpit.info/motion-integrated-g-seat
Wow, imagine sitting in a 2000 dollar chair with a 500 dollar HOTAS and another 500 dollars in peripherals all connected to your 2000 dollar computer... and realizing you forgot to raise your gear. That's the dream.
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/2021-04-09/ 2.7 is coming, with clouds... and new propellers?
