Leviathan1000

Greetings to all forum members. I just purchased the SF2 North Atlantic. Maybe the question I will place here has already been answered, please just redirect me to the right topic if yes, I just could not find it. I find it extremely hard to safely land on the carrier. Actually there are no visual aids to help. Many years back I used to play the Microprose Fleet Defender (and actually the reason I initially bought the SF2 Atlantic was the F14 and carrier operations) On Fleet Defender, the carier deck was lit, and the meetball was active! You could easily confirm if you would have been in the glideslope or not. Also, you would actively "call the ball" and there would have been instruction from the deck for the aircraft's attitude; even a "wave-off" signal! Let alone that you had to wait for your turn to go for landing. No such thing seems to exist in SF2. You just fly towards the deck tottally blind, and if you need to keep an eye on the trap, you actually go way too hard to the deck. Am I missing something here? The manual does not have any info on that. PS. After one more unsuccesfull attempt to land, I watched the AI controlled wingman landing.....the aircraft missed the trap and crashed into the sea! Yet, the "loss" was not registered in the debrief. Also, during the wingman landing attempt, another aircarft land virtually at the same time. I find the game (at least as far as it concern the landing) way too poor and unrealistic. Maybe I am actually dong something wrong. Please help if possible. Thanks

I do not like that much the rudder effect on the aircraft attitude. I seem to manage better with stick movement.... :-)

Yes, I meant the A-7. Actually I used the exact same approach you described for the F-14. The difference I found is that the A-7 seems to be quite more easy to stay in the glideslope compared to the F-14 which may loose altitude easier. Also, what I did do differently (for both aircafts) this time is that I approached the carrier at lower altitude overall. I used to approach at higher altitude thus maintaining a more agressive descent rate which was eventually translated at hard landing. Definitely! what I do is that I allign with the deck and then adjust altitude with rapid throttle bursts as needed. For slight lateral corrections, very verey slight movements of the stick otherwise you easily loose the allignment.

Managed 4 out of 5 perfect landings (3 with F-14 and one with A-8) following Boreshight's instructions! One of those was even a low visibility approach which I managed after coming arround from a bolter!The game is becoming more interest now!!!

Dear Boresight, thank you so much for the time you spend to write all those detailed info; I really appreciate it!!! thank you all for your input, guys! I did not expect such response, I admit! I will go through all your input in detail and hopefully I will manage. I will keep you posted!

Cheers Graig!

Thank you both for your answers! I am running the stock game, no mods whatsoever; I do not even know how to apply mods. I just found the forum and I will be doing some serious reading to install at least some more aircraft if possible (my favorite F4E for start). @TurkeyDriver; I do not follow any specific procedure actually....I line up with the carrier, lower gear and hook, flaps to "landing position", air speed at 140-150 Knots BUT I am trying to keep the deck in sight although. AoA approximately 10 deg if I can recall well. Still I am landing hard and indeed the nose smashes on the deck. A question for the ILS (I mean the leftside arrows and circle lights that indicate glideslope); the lower one indicates that I am too low and should climb or I am too high and I should descent? I have this light (lower red arrow) lit all the time during landing...is it really operational, that one at least?