[simpits-tech] Landing Phantoms

[Justin Messenger]

John,
I've noticed the Air Force landings on some of my F-4
videos. They seem to just plop down. (Plop, a great
technical term, hahaha!) I've found the F-4 difficult
to land in FS. If I haven't praticed in a while I'm
simply happy to hit the end of the runway. The hard
part is on final. Of course I know the modeling of the
FS Phantoms are far from perfect. One thing about a
large projected view is that the runway doesn't seem
so _small_. It's easier to make fine corrections so I
can touchdown where I'm supposed to. 

As far as keeping the picture goes, I've noticed on my
rides in our squadron's C-172 the pilots can keep
altitude while looking for targets out side. When I've
had the controls I seem to be looking at the altimeter
most of the time. My last flight with the controls the
pilot was showing me how to use the horizon to keep a
sense of whether I was going up or down. It helped a
lot. That is something I dont seem to have to worry
about much on a desktop.

I have a book with a picture of an F-4 in Vietnam that
made a hard landing and shoved the mains through the
wings. That had to hurt someone's back.
What is your email address? I'd like to talk to you
more about F-4's. 
Justin
www.phantom.highspeedzone.com


----------------------------------------------
Justin, You are correct in the large view vs. small
view.  I left that =
part out.  We didn't flare much in the F-4.  We just
pointed it at the =
runway and flew the AOA till just before touchdown, a
slight flare to =
cut descent and you were down.  The F-4 started out as
a Navy plane.  =
The landing gear are massive.  In fact it is the
strongest plane I have =
ever known.  Had a buddy who blew a tire, ran off the
runway and plowed =
1/4 of earth.  He walked away without a scratch.

But, back to landing.  You do use your peripheral
vision in landing.  A =
pilot learns a picture.  He then flies that picture
down to landing.  =
This is much harder in a sim when looking only out of
the front.  A CFI =
once told me that students who learned to fly sims,
often have trouble =
landing a real aircraft because of the different
landing pictures =
between the sim and real life.


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