±Recent Visitors

Recent Visitors to Com-Central!

±User Info-big


Welcome Anonymous

Nickname
Password

Membership:
Latest: HighestAce
New Today: 0
New Yesterday: 0
Overall: 6648

People Online:
Members: 0
Visitors: 351
Total: 351
Who Is Where:
 Visitors:
01: Home
02: Home
03: Home
04: Home
05: Home
06: Photo Gallery
07: Your Account
08: Home
09: Home
10: Home
11: Home
12: Community Forums
13: Home
14: Community Forums
15: Home
16: Home
17: Home
18: Home
19: Home
20: Home
21: Downloads
22: Community Forums
23: Home
24: Home
25: Community Forums
26: Home
27: Home
28: Home
29: Home
30: Home
31: Home
32: Home
33: Home
34: Home
35: Home
36: Photo Gallery
37: Downloads
38: Home
39: Home
40: Home
41: Community Forums
42: Home
43: Home
44: Home
45: Photo Gallery
46: Home
47: Home
48: Member Screenshots
49: Home
50: Home
51: Home
52: Home
53: Home
54: Home
55: Home
56: Home
57: Home
58: Community Forums
59: Community Forums
60: Home
61: Community Forums
62: Home
63: Home
64: Home
65: Member Screenshots
66: Home
67: Home
68: Home
69: Home
70: Home
71: Community Forums
72: Home
73: Photo Gallery
74: Home
75: Home
76: Community Forums
77: Home
78: Home
79: Home
80: Home
81: Member Screenshots
82: Community Forums
83: Home
84: Home
85: Photo Gallery
86: Community Forums
87: Home
88: Home
89: Downloads
90: Community Forums
91: Home
92: Home
93: Home
94: Home
95: Community Forums
96: Home
97: Community Forums
98: Community Forums
99: Home
100: Your Account
101: Home
102: Community Forums
103: Community Forums
104: Home
105: Home
106: Home
107: Downloads
108: Home
109: Home
110: Home
111: Home
112: Home
113: Home
114: Home
115: Home
116: Home
117: Home
118: Community Forums
119: Home
120: Home
121: Home
122: Home
123: Home
124: Home
125: Home
126: Home
127: Home
128: Home
129: Home
130: Home
131: Home
132: Home
133: Home
134: Home
135: Home
136: Community Forums
137: Home
138: Home
139: Community Forums
140: Community Forums
141: Member Screenshots
142: Community Forums
143: Home
144: Home
145: Home
146: Home
147: Home
148: Home
149: Home
150: Home
151: Photo Gallery
152: Home
153: Home
154: Home
155: Home
156: Home
157: Home
158: Home
159: Community Forums
160: Community Forums
161: Home
162: Home
163: Home
164: Downloads
165: Home
166: Home
167: Home
168: Home
169: Home
170: Home
171: Member Screenshots
172: Community Forums
173: Home
174: Home
175: Home
176: Home
177: Downloads
178: Photo Gallery
179: Home
180: Community Forums
181: Community Forums
182: Community Forums
183: News Archive
184: Home
185: Home
186: Home
187: Home
188: Home
189: Photo Gallery
190: Home
191: Home
192: Home
193: Home
194: Home
195: Home
196: Home
197: Home
198: Home
199: Home
200: Home
201: Home
202: Home
203: Home
204: Home
205: Home
206: Home
207: Home
208: Home
209: Home
210: Home
211: Home
212: Community Forums
213: Home
214: Home
215: Home
216: Home
217: Home
218: Home
219: Home
220: Home
221: Home
222: Home
223: Home
224: Home
225: Home
226: Community Forums
227: Home
228: Community Forums
229: Home
230: Home
231: Home
232: Home
233: Home
234: Home
235: Home
236: Home
237: Home
238: Home
239: Home
240: Photo Gallery
241: Home
242: Home
243: Home
244: Photo Gallery
245: Home
246: Home
247: Community Forums
248: Home
249: Home
250: Home
251: Home
252: Home
253: Downloads
254: Home
255: Home
256: Downloads
257: Home
258: Home
259: Photo Gallery
260: Home
261: News Archive
262: Home
263: Home
264: Home
265: Home
266: Home
267: Home
268: Home
269: Home
270: News
271: Photo Gallery
272: Home
273: Community Forums
274: Home
275: Home
276: Home
277: Home
278: Home
279: Photo Gallery
280: Home
281: Home
282: Home
283: Member Screenshots
284: Home
285: Home
286: Community Forums
287: Home
288: Member Screenshots
289: Home
290: Home
291: Home
292: Home
293: Home
294: Photo Gallery
295: Home
296: Home
297: Home
298: Home
299: Community Forums
300: Home
301: Home
302: Home
303: Home
304: Home
305: Home
306: Home
307: Home
308: Photo Gallery
309: Home
310: Photo Gallery
311: Home
312: Home
313: Community Forums
314: Home
315: Home
316: Home
317: Community Forums
318: Home
319: Photo Gallery
320: Home
321: Community Forums
322: Home
323: Home
324: Home
325: Home
326: Home
327: Home
328: Home
329: Photo Gallery
330: Home
331: Home
332: Home
333: Community Forums
334: Home
335: Home
336: Home
337: Home
338: Home
339: Home
340: Home
341: Home
342: Home
343: Home
344: Home
345: Photo Gallery
346: Community Forums
347: Home
348: Photo Gallery
349: Home
350: Home
351: Home

Staff Online:

No staff members are online!
T-38 autopilot tricks & tips :: Archived
Discussions about the FS2004 game.
Post new topic    Revive this topic    Printer Friendly Page     Forum Index ›  FSXFS2004 :: Archives

Topic Archived View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
JG300-Stoopy
Power User

Offline Offline
Joined: Jan 05, 2005
Posts: 5840
Location: Group W bench
PostPosted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 11:09 am
Post subject: T-38 autopilot tricks & tips

Had another great group flight in the T-38 last night (S!~ and thanks to Hoppa, EXOS and Lurps!) with a full-speed afterburner run all the way to the destination (WOOHOOOO!!), and thought it might be a good idea to share observations about that neat, but finicky, vacuum-tube-driven 60's-era autpilot.....since it's always a subject of pain & pleasure in these flights!

You'd think it's pretty basic stuff, but each of the 3 basic features has some kinda fun little quirk! After turning the A/P on - either by the "Z" key or the funky 50's kitchen-gadget dial switch at the bottom of the panel - ya got the following.....

Altitude Hold (middle button):
Wayyy different from the standard A/P. The only thing this gizmo controls is rate of climb, and that's it. It can go up, down, or keep you where you are - well, more or less. And this is all that a real jet pilot back in the day needed, right?

Now for the funky twist : When you turn it on using the "ACQUIRE" switch, it's tiny little brain looks at your current altitude, not vertical speed....and sees, for instance, the altitude of 8,500 ft...and it says, "Hey that looks like a good number for me to climb at, too!"....and correspondingly, sets your CLIMB RATE to that exact figure....and UUUUPPP goes the nose, trying to climb at 8,500 fpm (which it'll do)! Gets to be real fun when you hit the button at much higher flight levels.....it's a mad dash for the little knob at that point, cranking the climb rate down to something realistic!

Somewhere behind the panel, my guess is there's a blue wire from the A/P connected to a yellow wire on the altimeter. But the plane flies and as long as no electrical fires break out, crew chief says it's no problem!

So the trick here is......if the plan is to climb out from departure at 4,000fpm, get the A/P master switch turned on early and be sure to hit that ACQUIRE switch right as you are passing through FL040 (4,000 feet)....Bingo, you've beaten the thing at it's own game, becuase it now reads pretty close to what you wanted, and just a little fine-tuning on the knob is the only thing ya need to fuss about.

Ohhh...but......yeah, you could try to set it at 2,000 feet for a shallower climb.....might work, might not. I've had cases where it just wouldn't turn on at all below about 2,000 feet. Could be a safety feature, but...wasn't Ralph Nader too busy going after GM back then to get involved with Northrup?


Heading (bottom button):
Or, "Course Acquire" as the label by the button says, and that's the truth to it. Like the altitude hold, this part of the A/P grabs a reading from one instrument and locks it in. UNlike the Alt. Hold, it uses the right intrument, and not the G-meter or the fuel gauges! So, it's easy.....fly the plane and get on the desired heading you want, and hit the switch. At that point, you can use the heading bug on the HSI to drive the airplane around, but c'mon....that's not how the 6-million dollar man Steve Austin would fly the thing, is it? And besides, when this part of the A/P is turned on, guess what? The heading bug moves at 5 or 10-degree increments! Turn this off, and then the heading bug can be fine-tuned at 1-degree increments. Why, is anyones guess. Stop asking questions. So what I do for minor corrections is just turn the heading off, bank a little, get on adjusted course, hit the switch again, done.

Again, it's a strange quirk. Maybe the vacuum tubes are gettin' old. I got a matched pair of Groove Tube 6L6's for my old Fender amp that I'm not using, might try swapping 'em in to my personal T-38 and see if it improves things...

Hey what about GPS heading? So glad you asked....there's no NAV/GPS switch in the thing of course (that'd require the crew chief to drill a hole in his precious panel, which he refuses to do apparently) ......so, slaving the A/P course to the GPS plan doesn't seem to be in the cards for us.

But, lest we forget, this plane has more in common with 60's automotive technology than late-model aircraft tech, and as such, we can just hotwire the dang thing! All you need to do is find the wires under the dash, so......Hehe....load any other plane, like the Cessna or whatever, flip the GPS/NAV switch in that cockpit to "GPS", then get back in the T-38 (preferably, before takeoff!) and you're all set. Hit "Z" and she banks right over and tracks the GPS flight plan.....smart little bugger eh?


Speed Hold (Top button)
After the above, what can possibly be bizarre about this?!?! Ohhh...nothing.....other than it thinks it's the MOST IMPORTANT BUTTON ON THE DANG PLANE!

It's an auto-throttle that can't decide if it's part of the autopilot or not. You can't turn it on unless the autpilot master switch is on....that part makes sense. But what'll get ya....especially turning onto quick final...is that it stays on when you turn off the A/P.....and, just to make the last few moments of your flight even more interesting, it can't be switched from ON to OFF unless the A/P is ON (yes, read that part twice). This is because it wants to be more important than the lowly A/P switch.

I'm hoping I'm not the only one that's switched off the A/P, set up an approach to the active runway, and then deployed spoilers to start slowing down only to hear....the friggin' engines spooling up! D'oh, dang that speed hold....hurry!...hit 'view' key 3 times to get to the 2D cockpit, turn the AP on....oh dang there goes the frikkin' Altitude Acquire suddenly deciding I want to ascend at 8500fpm, stop it willya!....hit "Z" key by reflex, A/P is off, nose stops rising ...NOW try to turn off speed hold...can't, becuase A/P is off, dummy! Turn on A/P, turn off Speed Hold, turn off A/P, go back to VC, and then...arrrgghh go around because I missed the threshold......and, oh cripes the spoilers were still deployed that whole time, even with the plane climbing, numbnuts!!!, and now that the throttles are finally pulled all the way back, with full spoiler, and nose high, gonna stall OHHH GREEEATTTT....

Shoulda just left autothrottle on and set it down at 200, slammed the brakes and flat-spotted the tires all the way down the runway....

So......it's the most important button on the plane becuase if ya turn it ON LAST, and turn it OFF FIRST, it's happy. The world revolves around the mighty Speed Hold switch!


So, man, maybe this'll help someone besides me......I love this plane more and more every time I fly it. Turning it into a full-on bush plane these days even (hey there aren't gonna be noise statutes at Com-C Wilderness HQ are there?!?!). The A/P on this thing has got that psychedelic 60's flavor for sure, man! Maybe some Grateful Dead or Hendrix next time out to set up a copasetic frame o'mind......

_________________
"Once your reputation is ruined, you can live quite freely."


Last edited by JG300-Stoopy on Mon Feb 28, 2005 2:53 pm; edited 6 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Visit poster's website Photo Gallery
Uhu_Fledermaus
Aircraft Demolition Expert

Offline Offline
Joined: Nov 28, 2004
Posts: 4369
Location: Blaricum, The Netherlands ~GMT+1
PostPosted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:05 pm
Post subject: Re: T-38 autopilot tricks & tips

Cool

Great tutorial Stoopy !!

mush appreciated !! Laughing


fled
Twisted Evil
Back to top
View user's profile ICQ Number MSN Messenger Photo Gallery
JG300-Lurps
Power User

Offline Offline
Joined: Jan 11, 2005
Posts: 167
Location: In back of the sty .... sighting in my Luger ....
PostPosted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 7:56 pm
Post subject: Re: T-38 autopilot tricks & tips


I'll be the first to admit that the T38 a/p is very basic .....
BUT ..... Man ain't she purdy and she flies like a well
oiled female college co-ed ..... Mr. Green


Back to top
View user's profile Photo Gallery
JG300-Stoopy
Power User

Offline Offline
Joined: Jan 05, 2005
Posts: 5840
Location: Group W bench
PostPosted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:09 pm
Post subject: Re: T-38 autopilot tricks & tips

Oh, DEFINITELY!!!!!

The whole point of the above wasn't to diss her....not in the least! Just sharing the finer points & info in a (hopefully) humourous way!

Had fun flying her tonite with ya too, buddy, and Dep. Dale.....runnin' up the coast on full burner huggin' the deck...splittin' off to make our approaches from 2 merging directions.....landing within a few seconds of each other......HOT DANG TAMALE it don't get much better than that!!!


_________________
"Once your reputation is ruined, you can live quite freely."
Back to top
View user's profile Visit poster's website Photo Gallery
berlopez
Power User

Offline Offline
Joined: Dec 28, 2006
Posts: 263
Location: Copenhagen.DK
PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:06 pm
Post subject: Re: T-38 autopilot tricks & tips

Smile Thanks for the tip for the T38, Very nice plane Laughing

I'd llike to ask if the afterburner effects are visible on the model?
At full throttle there are no flames???

_________________
Began simming with Fs2002 have developed my sim and computer skills with these.Dell Vostro 220,Penduim Dual Core E6300 2.8; 2.79 Ghz;3.00GB, Nvidia GeForce 7600GS; High Definition Audio. Windows 7 Pro. My old computer fried.
Back to top
View user's profile Send e-mail
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic    Revive this topic    Printer Friendly Page    Forum Index ›  FSXFS2004 :: Archives
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 6 Hours

Archive Revive
Username:
This is an archived topic - your reply will not be appended here.
Instead, a new topic will be generated in the active forum.
The new topic will provide a reference link to this archived topic.