Yeah thanks for the link to those missions, they're really helpful.
Still can't do that land on the "carrier" on grass mission properly - that seems harder than an actual carrier landing.
Take offs from carriers are actually really easy once you remember to a) pull the stick back a bit when your tail lifts otherwise the nose digs in b) steer with the rudder to avoid dropping off the side, and c) when you leave the carrier deck stay level, raise the landing gear ASAP and put flaps to combat, otherwise you get what I always get with Toque/Gyro effects on - a barrel roll off the end of the carrier deck into the drink!
I tried it last night with the F4U and it's just as easy in that as it is in the SBD.
Really wish there was a setting in QMB to take off from a Carrier though.
Also just now, I made an almost perfect landing on the Lexington in the SFTF #11 practice mission. I've been doing carrier landings the last couple of days but if I do manage to land I usually either end up towards the front of the carrier having come in too hot or I dig the nose in, presumably because I'm going to slow to pull the nose up enough to flare, and whilst I would survive the latter I'd still call it a crash because the plane is wrecked.
Either that or I end up doing what I did last night which is come in way too hot (even at 100mph!) and/or way too low (50ft low (deck level) and about 50-100ft behind the deck) and have to throttle up and try to climb and circle again. I had to go around 3 times on 1 practice run last night, and I still ended up ditching in the sea!!
Biggest problem besides getting the speed vs altitude drop right (I quite often find I drop too low too soon) is visibility of the deck of the carrier, as you get really close it's guesswork as to where the deck is - last night I did a practice run and I thought I was on the deck but I was actually left of it and I ended up drifting down beside the ship and into the water.
I think I may have to find out which keys set the seat height so that I can raise it - if I can find a suitable pair of keys on my keyboard that aren't in use.
It also doesn't help that my Thrustmaster T Flight HOTAS X has a bit of a deadzone that I can't dial out (despite trying everything I've read on the web about it) - it's mostly a problem on the left/right axis, not so much the up/down axis. Think I need to save up for a better stick, a Saitek X45 or X52 or something.
Anyhow here's that perfect landing I mentioned -