Fun times in the Shark Tank tonight.

Hovering was the topic du jour, although fighting between the Trimmer, autopilot, and pilot kept getting in the way. That and technical issues - I cannot believe all the things that went wrong for me tonight! Anyways, hope those that joined had a good time and/or learned a thing or two. Here's the homework list:

1) Read up on the Trimmer and the autopilot. Shameless self-plug here, but I really think these guides help explain what's going on in more-or-less simplified terms. Intuitively understanding how the Trimmer works is critical before you can use the autopilot to maximize effectiveness in the Shark. Fly with Flight Director off (as suggested in the above articles).

2) Practice low (>5m <30m) and slow (<20kph) flight. Flying up and down a runway centerline is a great exercise. It's important to keep it slow and controlled - maintain heading ±10°, altitude ±5m, and airspeed ±5kph, all without the autopilot (i.e., Flight Director ON). If it starts getting easy, make things interesting by flying sideways. Constantly use the Trimmer. With the Flight Director ON you won't experience any of those seemingly wild control input changes (read the articles above to see why!).

3) Practice hovers. Compared to trying to balance a bowling ball on a broomstick, this basic skill is a bit harder than slow flight, although the Ka-50 is a delightfully stable platform compared to some other helos (<cough> Huey <cough>). Pick a ground reference point (runway numbers, a bush, etc.) and keep position over it - mind that heading and altitude!. Focus on keeping your corrections smooth and consistent, the accuracy will follow. Trim, trim, trim. Some folks find slightly zooming out (numpad /) helps them maintain position in a hover.

4) Practice transitions. Start from a hover over the runway numbers at 10-30m altitude, dip the nose down a little bit (nothing drastic, say, 10°), accelerate up to a decent speed (say, 150 kph). Work that collective to maintain a constant altitude and use the cyclic and rudder pedals to keep a constant heading AND stay over the centerline. Come to a slow stop over the runway numbers at the far end by pitching the nose up (and dropping collective to maintain altitude). Slowing down too early and creeping forwards to the numbers is way better than coming in too fast and crashing because you jerked the nose up too high. Once over the far numbers, turn 180° and repeat. Also, trim.

If you can do these exercises with the Flight Director ON, you'll have demonstrated a very solid understanding of Ka-50 dynamics. Make using the trimmer a habit and transitioning to the autopilot will be that much easier.

Next Tues we can practice 4) together. This exercise really taxes all your basic helo skills and proper use of the Trimmer comes in very handy here. Master this and you're more than ready for the more complex features of the autopilot.

Also, I can't push the idea of a checklist enough. Here's one I made up that includes a bit more than just the start up procedure. Learning to cold start the Shark manually will help you memorize where key systems are in the Shark.

You planning on doing any autopilot-assisted attacks using the DL ingress mode? I always wanted to get that working so I could focus on the shooting only. I ended up grabbing the controls away from the AP and juggling both jobs myself most times.

Sorry. I could not meet up, was too late (or early) in the morning for me. Maybe next time.

The workshops are pretty open, Frederf - we run whatever folks want to run. I could run a DL ingress with you sometime, though. Hop on!

I'll be pretty busy the next week or so. I don't expect to be online until next Tues evening again.

Bogus,

Yeah, the time difference sucks. I'm on Left Coast time and I've got two squawky kids, so getting to the PC before 8pm PDT/MST is pretty rare. Weekends are the same, unfortunately. I do have tentative permission from The Wife to lock myself into the game room for a few hours during the SimHQ Fly In May 2-4.

thanks for the session and all your patience and preparation, Einstein!

that was quite a workout for this nugget, and I will definitely practice your training exercises!


thanks again

max

Einstein is a great teacher. Even though I'm not new to the Ka-50 nor a veteran, he explained 'ship settings' so now I know 'why' the Ka-50 behaves the way it does in flight (with FD on or off); it all made sense.

I think the highlight of Einstein's night was when Max & I started to 'dance' (facing each other while constantly circling).

I can't wait if we start these workshops with the Huey/Mi-8.

I'll see you next week and thanks for your time.

Crow

i hope we are doing this again Tuesday night...

been practicing Einstein's Pilot Pilates

I'm still planning on being there tomorrow, 4/15, 8pm MST/PDT. Topic will depend on who shows up.

Hopefully I've chased all the gremlins out of my PC - all that nonsense last week was a joke.

Hey that is tonight! If I ever get out of the office and not fall asleep at the wheel on the drive home I think I will be able to make it!

Good fun tonight. Thanks for teaching how to use the targeting computer and the wingman pass off.

Update: Thanks alot Einstein for going over the details of the Ka-50 datalink system. With this it should make my AI wingmen more useful other than to take bullets for me.

Using DL ingress points in combination with targets gives a high degree of control over at least the direction of AI motion.

You can thank me for that, as he spent a lot of time learning to use small words and speaking slowly to me when we were flying together in the early days of the Ka-50.

The guy's a master at not only understanding complex systems but boiling them down to "now press the button on the top left of the box to the top left of the cockpit as the next step to send me the target."

:sheepish grin:

To see a real master in instruction, check out the instructional movies at this page here. This page was my original inspiration for getting into the combat flight sim bidness.