IRIS PRO Series F-14A & F-14B Tomcat

[IanP]

I did two traps and a single shot last night - no missed approaches or bolters.

Unfortunately, after the second trap, I couldn't get the launch bar to work for love nor money, it just sat there and bobbed up and down wherever I tried to position the nosewheel around the cat box so I had to shut down and end the flight on the carrier. I also noticed that the nosewheel vanishes through the deck on launches, so the launch bar position isn't quite right. I'll have a play with that later when I get chance.

Ian P.

[Smudge]

Ian,

The launchbar issue is a pain, but one we can't do much about...

To get technical for a minute, the F-14 has TWO sets of nosegear, one is visible when the launchbar is raised and compresses based on forward momentum (ie, works as normal)

The other set is visible only when the launchbar is toggle on, that item compresses based on the launchbar animation, and works in conjunction with an animated pivot point on the airframe, so when you activate the launchbar, the standard nosegear disappears, the new one appears and compresses whilst the aircraft rotates and appears to 'kneel' as Tomcats do.

The downside to this, is that the 'kneeling nosegear' has no standard compression, so as such, when significant forward momentum is applied (ie lots of thrust from a cat launch) the nosegear will appear to sink into the deck.

It's something we thought long and hard about, and we figured that the fun of 'kneeling the cat' was needed more than the minor issue of a sinking nosewheel. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

[modelr]

David, check your PM, please.

[IanP]

It may also be resolvable by twiddling with the settings, though, David - I had a similar problem setting up a non-Accel carrier aircraft to work with launch assist and got around it by putting in something less than obvious in the launch_assist section of aircraft.cfg - I'll have a play.

That doesn't explain, however, why the launch bar worked once, then refused to connect after that. Any ideas?

Ian P.

[Smudge]

No idea I'm afraid Ian. I had something similar at one point during testing...bascially every time I tried Shift+I to use takeoff assist, the damn plane bounced everywhere.

However when I restarted my FS< all was fine...there one minute gone the next and never returned.

[modelr]

David

HEEEELLLLPPPPP!!! I got my download key, but I can't download!! The counter shows I've downloaded SIX times, but I don't have a single one!! It goes to 50% and stalls. I did recieve ONE exe, but it was EMPTY, 0 bytes! Clicking on it said it was invalid non WIN32 file. HELP!! :redf::redf::redf::isadizzy:

[Smudge]

OOO, sounds like a dropped download. I've e-mailed you a direct download link just in case...

[noddy]

Attachment 68576Attachment 68577

Attachment 68578

[tigisfat]

This is a likely candidate for my next order. Can anyone confirm that it has good and accurate sounds? Does it work on the acceleration carriers?

[Smudge]

Yay, Yay, and thrice yay...

It's been developed with carrier ops in mind.. There's a vid of me trapping at night on the product page too, just to prove it can be done.

[IanP]

It's a nice one to trap, as well. I managed it twice having not practiced for a long time, with no bolters and no missed approaches. I'm impressed so far. Now just need to convert the Black Aces livery to work on it when I get around to doing so.

Ian P.

[Marwal]

How can the virtual Cockpit be reactivated for FSX?

[modelr]

OOO, sounds like a dropped download. I've e-mailed you a direct download link just in case...

Thanks, David. Got it downloaded and flying. :ernae::ernae:

(That's why I'm late replying.) This bird is FUN! But you GOTTA read the manual! :isadizzy: Now if I could just get my TrackIR4 to work in FSX as well as it does in FS9.

[modelr]

I was flying the VX-4 Clean bird, and the eyepoint was outside and looking backwards in the VC!! :isadizzy:

I checked the cfg, and it had been changed! Luckily, the correct eyepoint had just been remarked out (//)
so I just put it back, and everything great.

After a couple tries, I found this bird is very responsive in the landing pattern, and can be greased in after just a few attempts. Glide path indications on the hud are great.

Gotta go fly some more. :ernae:

[Smudge]

OOoo,

Thanks Don, don't know how I missed that one. Will build a hotfix for it.

[piperarcherpilot]

Due to Holiday travel, I dont have my joystick or throttle quadrant, but I've been playing with my recent purchase anyway

One question; Why can I not reduce power once I'm in afterburner? For instance, if I push "F3," the throttles slowly increase power to just before afterburner, and they 'jump' into AB. Pushing "F2" has no effect. I have to bring the engines to idle "F1" and then increase power again...

Liking it so far...even though I cant 'feel' the plane with my flight stick until i get back home. Just confused about this throttle issue.

Ideas? I have the newest version of FSUIPC... 4.20 I think?

[Smudge]

SP2 standalone and SP2/Acceleration codes the afterburner differently, and as such we've completely removed the afterburner controller in V1.1 which is currently on our store and has been given to our vendors.

Long and the short of it is, we don't know why the afterburner effect being linked to the throttle causes problems, so we can't really address it. As it is, the afterburner has been removed from the systems file, and requires manual use of Shift+F4 to use the burner dynamic.

This will also eliminate the nasty thing of not being able to throttle back out of afterburner.

[piperarcherpilot]

Thanks for the reply, David. BTW, I have Acceleration/SP2. Thats sounds strange that it is coded differently...I wonder why other planes work okay like the default F18 and Aerosoft's F16. One of those things, I guess...

If I log in to the IRIS store and re-download the F14, will I get v1.1 or do I need a patch?

[Smudge]

I don't know about the Aerosoft F-18, however the Acceleration Hornet uses three new entries in the aircraft.cfg file to provide stepped afterburner thrust.

Those items are specific to Acceleration, and are NOT part of the SP2 standalone product. As such, we incorporated a gauge which would turn on the standard FS Afterburner if the throttle was greater than 90%.

Unfortunately due to the way the FS afterburner works, this caused more problems than solutions in SP1/SP2, so we decided to just remove it completely for the time being. At least as far as being controlled by the throttle is concerned.

Anyway, to get 1.1, it does require a full download of the original aircraft, so log back into the store and redownload the aircraft package. I'll gladly renew the download links if anyone has run out.

However, if you all find that you're happy with it as is (in acceleration) then don't worry about updating.

[modelr]

David

Don't know if my copy you provided the 27th is the updated model or not, but my download link on my account page is still no good. Tried it again, just now, (7:41 am Central mountain time, USA, 1:41pm GMT) and it took almost two minutes to get an exe download, which was empty, 0 bytes.

[modelr]

Question to the panel gurus. I was getting ready to install the A2A lites, using the full set cfg that I have for the FS9 version, and I noticed that the panel gauge is at position
" [Vcockpit01]
gauge56=shockwave_lights!SW Lights_gear, 1,1,1,1 //shockwave light "

which is also used by the
"gauge03=F-14_Systems!SYSTEM_Onboard, 1,1,1,1"
(renumbering the gauge properly NOT the question, I know that part.)

My question, should I move the shockwave gauge, or is it ok there, since this is an "invisible" location, I believe.

[Smudge]

Don,

Use the details I gave you the other day to redownload 1.1 from there.

Don't worry about the shockwave lights though, 1.1 contains the light entry for a landing light if your shockwave lights are installed..

[modelr]

:ernae:

Edit: Thanks David, downloading now. Luckily I haven't discarded that email link, yet.

BTW, the cfg I have covers ALL the lites on the FS-9 F-14. I don't know if it will work on the FSX bird yet. I thought since the paints do, the lights should be in the same locations. Am I wrong?? I can paste the cfg if someone wants it.

[piperarcherpilot]

David, strange thing...I downloaded and installed v1.1 and all seems to be fixed but in a different way than you described. I have CTRL + SHFT + F4 linked to the AB toggle, but after the update it does not work. The engine seems to go into AB automatically and it comes back out of AB with just throttle movements. I thought maybe it was just the visual effect, but Fuel Flow reflects that it is indeed going into Afterburner. Strange...all seems to be fixed and it works flawlessly without the need of a key command for afterburner. Dont know how it works or why, but it does. Thank you.

[Smudge]

I've got to reissue a small hotfix anyway, so I'll look into that and apply it if necesssary.