How F-35s Deployed To A Narrow Highway In California 14 Mar 2024
[USMC F-35Bs in EABO RVLs & STOs on US HiWay (get your kicks on route 66)]
https://www.twz.com/sea/how-f-35s-de...-in-california
"...In the new system in the software load of the jet, we've updated the software with some of these pilot relief modes that help you land in confined sites and execute slow landings. It made it substantially easier to do this in a controllable manner.”
“We have two that we are able to use. One is called Delta Flight Path [DFP] and the other is Auto Top Rudder [ATR]. So with Delta Flight Path, essentially you program into the performance state of the jet, the glide slope that you want to shoot. For the Rolling Vertical Landings [RVL] we did, we were doing a four-degree glide slope to land and that's a four-degree flight path all the way to touchdown at 75 knots ground speed. So I've programmed that in and then when you initiate Delta flight path, what will happen is the jet will automatically set a four-degree descend to land flight path, so that all you need to do a apply slight stick pressure to modulate up and down to be higher or lower to adjust your aim point but it sets the flight path for you.”
Capt. Mayberry decided not to use DFP on this landing since he often does a lot of flight path corrections on his own and every pilot has different ways they like to do RVLs. The newer way to do them is Auto Top Rudder (ATR). ATR continuously updates the jet’s flight control corrections for crosswind so that all you need to do is put your flight path marker (or a velocity vector in other aircraft) on your intended point of landing, and as you fly down it kicks the rudder and other flight controls back and forth to just keep you flying in that direction.
Mayberry explained “You don't have to do any manual crabbing [his words not mine
] of the aircraft one direction or the other. ATR updates that continuously as you come down to land which is a new update as of this software build. That allowed me to touchdown. I think they measured 18 inches right of centerline and then I was almost immediately on the brakes. We stopped at 1140 feet and it was very controllable all the way from the initial approach all the way to touchdown and then stopping on the centerline.”...
