F-4 Sim Full Motion Ex-RAF now Civilian [Carrier Landings]

[twb3]

Spent some time working in the Flight Simulation labs at Boeing St. Louis. Computer visuals with high-resolution projectors in a dome are a considerable advance on model board and camera visuals! Visitors important enough to rate a tour would often be treated to a few approaches to the boat. Granted, it was usually set up with steady wind and flat calm sea (no deck movement), but quite a few non-fliers made successful "traps" with a bit of coaching.

[Fitter2]

The Lightning F1A sim at Coltishall was no motion, with the roller 'blind' scenery (mounted vertically) and camera tracking across it with rotation and bank movement. It only represented a small area around the airfield for approach and overshoot. Even without motion the realism was sufficient to cause fresh trainees to emerge sweating after a succession of emergencies were thrown, and often ended with 'banging out', or worse, crash before reaching for the handle. In either case the display and instruments froze .

It's also a stretch to call the F4 sim 'full motion'; that description only applies to 6 degree of freedom sim.s; very realistic once the software people were convinced by the aero-medics that motion cueing is faster than visual processing. Clever stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceleration_onset_cueing

[twb3]

Originally Posted by Fitter2

The Lightning F1A sim at Coltishall was no motion, with the roller 'blind' scenery (mounted vertically) and camera tracking across it with rotation and bank movement. It only represented a small area around the airfield for approach and overshoot. Even without motion the realism was sufficient to cause fresh trainees to emerge sweating after a succession of emergencies were thrown, and often ended with 'banging out', or worse, crash before reaching for the handle. In either case the display and instruments froze .

It's also a stretch to call the F4 sim 'full motion'; that description only applies to 6 degree of freedom sim.s; very realistic once the software people were convinced by the aero-medics that motion cueing is faster than visual processing. Clever stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceleration_onset_cueing

That wikipeida article is a pretty good summary. Another factor that separates actual training or research devices from PC-type simulations is control loading. It is critically important that the stick / yoke and rudder forces replicate the actual aircraft for all flight conditions.

Most aircrew I worked with didn't like flying the sims much, which is understandable, but their effectiveness as training devices is important. One of the more interesting projects I worked on was assisting the company test pilots in developing demonstration routines to support sales campaigns. The routine would be flown many, many times in the dome - not only for rehearsal, but the flight controls and systems engineers would insert malfunctions to ensure that no foreseeable malfunction would put the pilot in a box such that the pilot or aircraft would be lost.

[SpazSinbad]

'twb3' said above: "...Visitors important enough to rate a tour would often be treated to a few approaches to the boat. Granted, it was usually set up with steady wind and flat calm sea (no deck movement), but quite a few non-fliers made successful "traps" with a bit of coaching." In other words a landing ashore? Did they have the use of an optical landing system such as IFLOLS (for the lols)? :-) OR were they deck spotting?

Thanks for the info about 6 degrees of freedom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_freedom#
"The six degrees of freedom: forward/back, up/down, left/right, yaw, pitch, roll"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_de...le:6DOF_en.jpg
OR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_de.../File:6DOF.svg

[meleagertoo]

Originally Posted by olster

Sounds great fun. Fascinating to have a go without the fear factor!

The biggest fright of my career was in a sim (SeaKing) - another antedelluvian one (white screens, no visuals), when a colleague misread his altitude and flared for an eol at 1070ft (or whatever it was) - and then pulled pitch to check the r.o.d. before I could manage to splutter. Got the full half-crown, sixpence, dustbin lid. I knew he'd killed us!

[twb3]

[QUOTE=SpazSinbad;11474645]'twb3' said above: "...Visitors important enough to rate a tour would often be treated to a few approaches to the boat. Granted, it was usually set up with steady wind and flat calm sea (no deck movement), but quite a few non-fliers made successful "traps" with a bit of coaching." In other words a landing ashore? Did they have the use of an optical landing system such as IFLOLS (for the lols)? :-) OR were they deck spotting?

The setup for demos was usually daylight, viz unlimited, zero wind, sea state 0, ship's speed ~20 kts, ownship at maybe 3000 ft. 20 NM astern and lined up. The visual model of the ship included IFLOLS and dropped centerline lights. We would have them engage APC (autothrottle) to help with staying on speed and fly the ball (once it was visible) and centerline. Lowest difficulty level, but the carrier burble was included in the aerodynamics modeling.

[SpazSinbad]

Good to know 'twb3'. Thanks. Would there be any information about this sim available online please? TIA.

[LOMCEVAK]

to set the record straight, the pedal shaker was triggered at a certain angle of attack (14 degrees from memory) and not at an airspeed. the F-4K had an audio angle of attack system also as did the Buccaneer (same yones but opposite sense for too high and too low AoA, at one time i was qualified and current on both and the approaches cland based onlyould get interesting.

[SpazSinbad]

RANFAA F.A.W Mk 53 Sea Venoms had the Observer calling out the airspeed in one knot increments I'm told during a carrier approach (pilot viz not so good so a low tight circuit flown at 300-400 feet - even at night). The USAF have a range of colours for AoA Indexers however I believe these days they have become standardised? An Old F-16A/B example below. The USN aircraft AoA indications have been standard for most of the time since the beginning. GREEN = Slow; ORANGE = Optimum Angle of Attack; RED = Fast - Even the venerable S2E/G gained an AoA Indexer as seen in the second graphic below.

[SpazSinbad]

BAEsystems has 'bad gateway' notices whilst the old F-35C Warton Sim Carrier Landing VIDEO is no longer available. :-( However I may have a copy somewhere from yonks ago. Meanwhile a couple of links to the WARTon Sim which may or may not work.

https://www.baesystems.com/en/featur...tion-in-the-uk
US & UK join forces in recent F35 ship integration trials 24 March 2014
"...The simulator can also be switched to represent the F35C Carrier Variant & US Nimitz carrier deck, as was demonstrated in this trial.... http://www.baesystems.com/article/BA...egration-trial
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A simulator at BAE Systems, Warton, is hosting tests to design the deck of a Queen Elizabeth carrier. ‘desider’ Vol.44 Jan 2012 [F-35C time] https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...44_Jan2012.pdf
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Inside The Simulator Prepping F 35 Lightning II Pilots | Forces TV

You Tube

[SpazSinbad]

F-35C CVF Approach in the BAE Sim then F-35B SRVL on the same.

CVF F-35C Pilot Long HUD View BAE Simulator UK

You Tube

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SRVL F-35B Demo CVF Sim + extras

You Tube