Teaching myself to fly an F-16

[ZK-Brock]

This afty I downloaded Kirk olsson's F16 Viper aeroplane, with the intention of trying to teaching myself to fly it. So I tried it at NZAA. Here are the results, depicted pictorially .


I taxied from the gates at NZAA after a classic CTRL+E startup. I noticed that the aircraft wanted to roll outwards during turns on the ground, so you have to slow down for corners (since it was a fast taxiing aeroplane, I mistakenly treated it like a commercial jet on the ground). The 2dpanel wasn't working so I used the VC (which I had no idea how to use, I only recognised the attitude indicator


I've just left the ground, and I'm already going sideways! The roll in this is really sensitive, it took a while to get used to it.


I was surprised at how well it climbed - I had to put the nose riiiight up to stay under 250kts. Are you supposed to climb with full power in one of these things?


After doing a few turns (NOT maintaining altitude, I'm gonna have to work on that!), I came in for a landing on 05R. I found the speed easier to control with the speedbrakes. The developer recommends 200kt on long final, down to 160 or so on short final, and touching down at 145-155.


Coming in nicely.


After a bounce, I landed it not too rough to the left of the centreline.


Taxiing back. I've got to do this again!

I've got a new 2D panel that I'm gonna try soon, hopefully I'll be able to find out what some of the switches do!

[Ian Warren]

Great Screenies Monkey ! Kirk olsson's 16 brilliant , another goodie from him , F86

[Charl]

Brilliant aircraft, nice pics.
There are dozens of bits for the Viper - someone even did an air-air refueling addon for it! Think the last Danish package had all the best updates, it's on AVSIM.
Ian's right on the button with the F86, but Kirk also did a fantastic (though not as popular) Mirage.

Edit (and plug): There's also a nice Thunderbirds repaint of the Viper, see the movie

[AlisterC]

I've done quite a bit of fighter aircraft flying, and you are right, they climb fast! The F16 will do 50,000ft in one minute given the chance. Fighters / interceptors are designed to get to altitude as fast as possible. The idea being of course that if yo u are at the level, or higher than the aircraft you are intercepting, you have more of an advantage, than you are fighting "uphill" so to speak.
Unless you are in a state of war, or specifically training for it, you'd be unlikely to blast off with full afterburner. The thorn in the side of any fighter is fuel. You burn a great deal with the afterburner. So you might like to try departing with full 'military' power next time. That's basically full throttle, but before the afterburner kicks in.
Also, I wouldn't worry about the rules of the sky for airliners and civilian traffic if you are in a military aircraft, flying military flights. I would think they have their own rules

[Ian Warren]

Statistic .. 1992 , The Concorde fleet (prototype/BA/AirFrance) had done more supersonic flying hours than the entire world airforce fleets

[ZK-Brock]

Alistair, with this afterburner thing, are the afterburners engaged automatically when the throttle lever is advanced past a certain datum?

And Ian, that's pretty amazing

Oh and BTW charl, I think your link is a little wrong there, it links to the avsim homepage

[Charl]

Oh and BTW charl, I think your link is a little wrong there, it links to the avsim homepage

...and then you click on "Flightsim TV", scroll down a bit...Thunderbirds B)

[lowellyerex]

Great shots monkeybdg! Now I'm going to have to go looking for that F16 too!

Dave.

[Jimmy]

Hey thats the aircraft I isntalled not long ago, BRILLINIANT jet!!!!

Now go flying around the alps, down threw vallys and the like, it reacts to fast, don't know if its that realistic, but when you see a mountain in front of ya that thing has no truoble climbing a few dozen thousand does it

Post some screenies of the VC ae (while your doing the above mentioned mountain flying hehe), Its an awsome vc

[AlisterC]

Yip, that is the usual procedure I prefer the CORAL F15C Eagle for flying (from avsim) so I've not used this F16. But I would expect it to work the same. With the help of the outside view I put a small piece of tape marker on my throttle where the afterburner comes on, so I can safely advance it in the cockpit view and know I haven't gone into the afterburner stage.

[ardypilot]

Love Kirks F-16, such a great model to fly and really detailed, inside and outside too!

[Ian Warren]

Yip, that is the usual procedure I prefer the CORAL F15C Eagle for flying (from avsim) so I've not used this F16. But I would expect it to work the same. With the help of the outside view I put a small piece of tape marker on my throttle where the afterburner comes on, so I can safely advance it in the cockpit view and know I haven't gone into the afterburner stage.

Thanx Alister , Must check that Eagle out B)

[Naki]

Perhaps a candidate for a RNZAF scheme (what may of been - and should of been)?

[ZK-Brock]

Yeah, paint one in the Macchi colours and one in the A-4 Skyhawk colours.


Any takers?

[SUBS17]

Perhaps a candidate for a RNZAF scheme (what may of been - and should of been)?

Like this:

[SUBS17]

Heres some handy info if you ever want to learn how to fly an F-16
Ramp start trainer
http://www.lead-pursuit.com/downloads/c ... -10-01.zip

Cockpit trainer(shows you what or the buttons are called)
http://www.lead-pursuit.com/downloads/c ... r-v1.2.exe

F-16 checklists
http://www.lead-pursuit.com/downloads/c ... 20Vol2.zip

Ramp start guide:
http://www.lead-pursuit.com/downloads/c ... _start.pdf

[SUBS17]

To add to the above checklists for any fully modelled F-16 sim you also have the data block load/data link and oxygen mask flow checks etc. (Open Falcon features these)
You may need some of the above checklists for this:
http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/viewtopic ... 2761124b2d

I think they may be doing a similar project to the F/A-18 addon for FSX which has quite detailed avionics. You still won't be able to shoot anything though .

[Naki]

Hi Subs - that RNZAF Falcon is from Falcon4?

[SUBS17]

Yes it is I made it last year(F4AF), I might look into doing a FSX one sometime if I should get FSX and also a template.(and probably an upgrade to) You can get the skin from The Gamers tools. Another NZer Kea made a grey colour scheme F-16 for F4AF with NZ markings.

[hinch]

if you're after a more detailed time in a jet (more systems and buttons!) check these out - they're both SUPERB.

http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Sea ... &Go=Search
(there is a larger package with more models etc also on avsim)

http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Sea ... &Go=Search
pretty system heavy, but great.