landing the P38 in distress

[adler_1]

hello

every time i lower the undercarriage when returned to base with severe damage it nose dives right into the runway !! why ? how do i go about lowering the undercarriage in these cases to land normally ?

Edited September 26, 2020 by adler_1

[messsucher]

Less flaps and more speed? Different landing angle?

[DD_Arthur]

31 minutes ago, adler_1 said:

hello

every time i lower the undercarriage when returned to base with severe damage it nose dives right into the runway !! why ? how do i go about lowering the undercarriage in these cases to land normally ?

 

If you are returning to base with 'severe damage' perhaps it's safer to do a wheels up anding?

[TheWarsimmer]

P38 lands at a much different angle than others. Not nearly as much of a nose up attitude. 

[adler_1]

if i lower the undercarriage it goes straight down instantly  with no way of correcting or reversing and its instant death . What do you pilots do if you think that can happen when landing your damaged plane ? how do you correct or keep the nose up during the final approach at 500 yds height 100 miles speed ? i cannot believe in true life they belly landed every time they got badly hit . what is making the front end slump straight down immediately i release the undercarriage ?  

Edited September 26, 2020 by adler_1

[DD_Arthur]

13 minutes ago, adler_1 said:

 i cannot believe in true life they belly landed every time they got badly hit .

 

Why not?  The USAAF didn't exactly lack equipment.

[TheWarsimmer]

20 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

 

Why not?  The USAAF didn't exactly lack equipment.

The sim is very forgiving on belly landings as well. You have to really mess it up to kill yourself.

[messsucher]

34 minutes ago, adler_1 said:

if i lower the undercarriage it goes straight down instantly  with no way of correcting or reversing and its instant death . What do you pilots do if you think that can happen when landing your damaged plane ? how do you correct or keep the nose up during the final approach at 500 yds height 100 miles speed ? i cannot believe in true life they belly landed every time they got badly hit . what is making the front end slump straight down immediately i release the undercarriage ?  

 

It is called drag. But in this game it is probs streamlined physics.

 

The posters above me said also what to do. Belly landing is not bad, pilot lives were what mattered more. If you crash kill there goes both the plane and pilot, and less to salvage of the plane.

[DD_Fenrir]

This issue occurs when you receive damage to the horizontal stabiliser and/or elevator - the game automatically equates this with a loss of pitch authority and adds to this an element of random pitch input to mimic an unstable elevator (I assume this is meant to infer some control wire loss/slackness). The problem comes with any thing that adds drag below the CoG; in this damage state it seems to model some aerodynamic effect that drags the sloppy elevator down, to such an extent that manual counteraction is completely ineffective. Thus the lift at the tail increases and rotates the a/c into an unrecoverable bunt.

 

Is this authentic behaviour? I am skeptical. But I have no data to prove this would not happen.

 

The only thing you can do is as suggested - on any occasion you suffer damage to the horizontal tail surfaces and are experiencing some peculiar uncommanded pitch displacement, refrain from using flaps or gear and should landing be necessary, do so wheels and flaps UP.

Edited September 26, 2020 by DD_Fenrir

[adler_1]

DD Fenrir

 Yes the extensive damage was to the right boom , rudder and most probably to the huge stabilizer-elevator you mention since they are connected but i did not check that section carefully .So every time i have damage , belly land . hopefully the game will accept that as landed and not deduct points . The problem though is how do you decide wether to belly land or not , when you release the undercarriage you have no time to react and pull the undercarriage back up since there is only 150 meters height to touchdown and the nose takes a 90 dgr angle instantly .

[messsucher]

23 minutes ago, adler_1 said:

DD Fenrir

 Yes the extensive damage was to the right boom , rudder and most probably to the huge stabilizer-elevator you mention since they are connected but i did not check that section carefully .So every time i have damage , belly land . hopefully the game will accept that as landed and not deduct points . The problem though is how do you decide wether to belly land or not , when you release the undercarriage you have no time to react and pull the undercarriage back up since there is only 150 meters height to touchdown and the nose takes a 90 dgr angle instantly .

 

You get insight by experience.

 

In one IL-2 SEOW campaign I was ordered to do a parachute jump because even belly landing risk pilot killed. I was very sure I could do belly land, but well, was a good chief so I followed the orders ?

 

Edit: Did not get by the way the sweet Yak-9U next flight. Taught me a big lesson, I can tell! ?

Edited September 26, 2020 by messsucher
Afterword

[352ndOscar]

“...hopefully the game will accept that as landed and not deduct points.”

 

It should never be about the points.  Make every flight and decision as if your life depended on it.  You will be the better for it in the end.

[adler_1]

if you belly land every time because you think it might kill you if you drop the undercarriage because the rear end got hit badly that is not normal . you belly land you lose the aircraft  and that is not realistic . It could not have been that bad . I will try and raise the point with the developers here on the forum and see what is the reaction if any . 

[56RAF_Roblex]

In real life, if you were worried there might be a problem with the undercarriage or flaps etc then you would not wait until you are at stall speed 150m above the ground to test it ?

Reduce the speed to about 200 while you still have a few thousand feet to play with and lower the gear and flaps.  If you have a bad reaction but manage to catch it and regain stable flight then try gradually reducing speed to 150.   If you are still stable then you know that you can land even if it is a bit fast.  If the reaction on lowering the gear was very bad and lost you a lot of height then you might want to consider leaving the gear down for the rest of the flight home and making a straight in approach minimising your bank angles while getting lined up.

Edited September 27, 2020 by 56RAF_Roblex

[adler_1]

I have written to the developers and waiting for a reply . What you suggest above is standard procedure while approaching in distress . I have stated as soon as you release the undercarriage the plane nose dives 90 dgrs . There is absolutely no reason for this to happen since you did not add ballast in the front end of the cowling . I can imagine it swaying to one side and at angles due to damage in the rear and unresponsive to a certain degree but you compensate this easily and land . I do it all the time with the ME110 G2 .

[adler_1]

i am please to inform you all that the developers responded and have fixed the issue .