AUTOMATIC AERODYNAMIC LOAD

[alexis99]

This is a feature that automates your flaps.

The F/A-18 has it, and you mostly notice its effect when you come in to land on the carrier, and as your speed decreases, suddenly your flight-path pipper shoots up the screen, and your nose punches up.

I was rather concerned about how fierce this effect is - I cannot imagine the flaps operate that quickly in the real plane?

Anyway, I went into the Data file and found that the ControlRate is what determines the speed of flaps operation. The current setting was 2.0, so after a little experimentation, I found that if you lower the figure to around 0.5, it's a lot smoother transition.

The entry looks like this, and you fix it for all Flaps

[LeftFlap]
SystemType=HIGHLIFT_DEVICE
CLiftdc=0.215
CDdc=0.0123
Cmdc=0.01
DeltaStallAlpha=-2.83
AreaRatio=1.000
DeploymentMethod=AUTOMATIC_AERODYNAMIC_LOAD
Setting[1].Angle=10.0
Setting[1].DeployValue=144.0
Setting[1].RetractValue=154.3
Setting[2].Angle=45.0
Setting[2].DeployValue=128
Setting[2].RetractValue=128
MaxDeflection=45.0
MinDeflection=0.0
ControlRate=2.0  .........................................................CHANGE TO 0.5
AnimationID=6
ModelNodeName=LeftFrontFlap

I did the same for the F-35C, which had very similar entries, although I have no idea if the real F-35C has this feature

Surprisingly these entries are also in the F-117.  I Used to think the sudden pitch-up was the "Wobblin Goblin" effect, but it's actually auto-flaps kicking in.

I was going to adjust these, but I read that the split full-span trailing-edge-flaps in the real F-117 do not act as flaps in landing, which is why the landing speed is often quite high at around 180 Kts.

So to make things more realistic, I took out all four of the auto-aerodynamic-load entries completely. Now I land the F-117 at as low as 160Kts with an AOA of near enough to the specified 9.5, without flaps. It feels really good.

Anyone has further knowledge about this stuff, or where to find it, please let me know.