Carrier Fun: Vertical Take Off And Landing

[Azimech]

As we know with 4.10 we can now adjust the wind to our liking.

So I decided to have some fun.

I went to FMB, chose a map with water, placed the IJN Akagi on a heading north, flank speed (57 kph).
Next I set the wind to blow from the north at max (15 m/s).
Then I set my home base on the carrier,
saved the mission in my dogfight server folder,
started the dogfight multiplayer server,
chose the Ki-27 with empty loadout and 10% fuel,
started engine, set at 18% power and full flaps,
released the chocks.

Voila, best with external view, you now can hang above your carrier, using throttle and pitch

[AndyJWest]

An interesting idea. There were one or two mod aircraft (ahem, I didn't say that?) that would do this in 4.09, but 4.10 gives much more precise control of conditions.

Setting up for a crosswind landing is fun too, though you shouldn't overdo it - a little trigonometry will show why landing at 100 mph with a 40 mph crosswind is rather awkward. Hitting the runway at a 20° + angle sideways tends to remove the undercarriage more often than not, even if you actually reach the threshhold, rather than drifting off sideways.

[rakinroll]

hehe seems funny

[WTE_Galway]

If the Storch were flyable it would be going backwards at 20 kmh relative to the deck with those settings.

[Romanator21]

There is a way to edit the mission conf file to have carriers moving at any speed you want. But that's cool that you did it the "real" way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9joZtkrE4EI

[ATAG_Doc]

Impressive.

[Azimech]

It seems IJN Shokaku, Zuikaku and generic and USS Saratoga, Lexington and generic have the highest top speed: 63 kph.

[rakinroll]

Originally Posted by Romanator21

There is a way to edit the mission conf file to have carriers moving at any speed you want. But that's cool that you did it the "real" way

LOL Great!

[JG53Frankyboy]

Originally Posted by Azimech

It seems IJN Shokaku, Zuikaku and generic and USS Saratoga, Lexington and generic have the highest top speed: 63 kph.

open the .mis file

Chiefs]
1_Chief Ships.Tramp 2 0 2 1.0
2_Chief Ships.IJNAkagiCV 2 1800 0 1.0
[1_Chief_Road]
36909.24 11771.89 120.00 0 2 2.5722224712371826
42975.10 12234.54 120.00
[2_Chief_Road]
3856.19 39449.38 120.00 0 2 15.433334350585938
23323.70 37459.09 120.00

this 2.57..... and 15.43..... are the ships speeds , keep in mind that it is m/s.
edit the speed in the file to any speed you want....just dont save this mission again in the FMB (will reset to default).
espacially usefull for the smaler and slower CVE

[Blackdog_kt]

It's great that we can now have wind, as it plays such a big role in real life. Even on land bases and civilian airports aircraft always take off and land into the wind.

As for carriers, in order to assist with the short distance takeoff it was pretty much standard procedure to turn the carriers into the wind and go to a high speed setting whenever they wanted to launch or recover aircraft.

I guess most of this must be pre-scripted in IL2 by the mission builder, but maybe when mission triggers come up in a future patch it could be done automatically. For example, when aircraft are within a few km radius from the carrier and they ask for landing clearance, that would trigger the carrier to turn into the wind and go to full speed

As a side note, for slower aircraft it's even more important to face into the wind. Having a strong tailwind when you have little forward speed means that the air travels faster from the back of the plane to the front than the other way around. This essentially means a negative airspeed (speed relative to the air) which has the effect of not only reduced lift but also reversed controls in the low airspeed range (until the aircraft's speed overcomes the tailwind speed value).

It's no problem to be doing even a mere 100 knots IAS and have a strong tailwind (it's actually desirable, since your actual ground speed is higher that way), but it's a totally different thing when you are on your takeoff run because the power you need to achieve 50-70 knots IAS to rotate suddenly translates to 30-50 knots IAS when having a 20 knot tailwind.

The pilot might get confused because the ground speed is actually higher ("things are moving faster than usual around me, time to rotate") and if he doesn't check the instruments or he runs out of runway space he could be in a very difficult spot.

If i'm not mistaken the well publicized video of the DeHavilland Canada Beaver floatplane that crashed in lake Hood was due to a similar occurrence. Luckily, the passengers of that aircraft got away with minor injuries and some bruises and the cameraman survived, so i think it wouldn't be distasteful to link it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVwlodvWh7w

Check the windsock (it's visible at around 40 seconds into the video, just as the aircraft rotates) and the direction he's taking off in and it's pretty obvious that he didn't only neglect to make sure he had enough space to take off, he's also taking off with a crosswind.

Mind you, that is one of the most reliable short take-off and landing aircraft (or bush planes if you prefer) ever made, to the point where people today will pay close to half a million dollars for one made in the 50s, reengining them with turboprops or higher powered radials and so on, so it's not like it can't get off the ground in that same space under the proper circumstances.

Of course, we don't know how loaded the planes in each video are, but contrast with this one with a mere 5kt headwind (according to the pilot's/uploader's youtube comment (i love the sound of the wasp junior engine on this one by the way)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An7AE...eature=related

and this one with a strong headwind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Axas...eature=related

In any case, if TD can add so many little yet important details to round out IL2's old game engine and keep it at a high standard after all these years, i really can't wait to see what will be possible with SoW/CoD.