Pinkus

Lately I have been messing (I do not dare to say I am a modder, just a messer!) the stats of some of my a/c-models as to produce some very sketchy different version of 'em. Namely I was looking for an F-14D and an F-104 ASA (the latter inspired by the beautiful ajunaidr's F-104S). Both of this have slightly different masses (hence inertia) and significantly more performant engines w.r.t. the originals. My mods happened to exasperate an interesting, and surprising (at least to me), effect. Here it is: as speed increases during take-off, and the rudder gets effective, its use becomes tricky, as it would produce an overhelming amount of roll. This result is (correctly?) particularly evident in the F-104 due, I guess, to its "extremal" inertial-moments (just look at it: what's Your guess of its inertia w.r.t. roll? now look at its stats and confront 'em vs another-a/c's ones). This can be observed in flight also, but while rolling it is peculiarly astonishing as a correction toward a direction may well result just in the opposite of what expected. Here is my opinion on the "mechanics" of this behaviour: actually the roll is suppressed by the wheels touching the ground, but this produces a downward force on the wheel on the internal side of the expected turn. As a consequence the "spring" of the corresponding landing-gear yields to this force and the aft of the aircraft moves slightly downward and to the inside of the expected turn. Now, if you are A/B-ing an overpowered engine, the surprising result will be that your a/c will accellerate just to the OPPOSITE direction w.r.t. the expected one (as Your a/c's aft is now directed INSIDE of that just-expected-and-never-seen turn!). If one does not keep this in mind he/she will find him/her-self rolling in the grass quite soon! On the runway one applies rudder to correct his/her alignment with the runway itself, but if the response of the a/c inverts, and if one does not realize what's happening and naively keeps trying to correct applying rudder to the same direction... well, did I mention my close-up view of the base of the control tower? The first point to manage this (just in case You end up in such a situation) is to be really light on the pedals and "wait&feel" the reaction of the aircraft: small corrections allow the pilot to notice when the behaviour "inverts" and act accordingly, that is, inverting the pilot's corrections (keep 'em small anyway!). Hint: "light" means "small corrections", means "early corrections": if You wait, You'll need larger ones... a good way to loose control... And the second point is: lift off as soon as you can --- do NOT be light in pulling the stick as soon as You have enough speed (and with those new engine You'll have it quite soon!) When modding a/c, if this effect becomes too large (e.g. as a consequence of new, more performing, engines) go editing the *data.ini and slightly increase the figure of the SpringFactors in the Landing Gears section. Note: typically it's the aft couple to be relevant to this problem. It seems to work with me. PS: Put a couple of GE F110 on an F-14 (72950 N dry, 121870 N wet, a 1/3 increment!) and it'll fly wonderfully! The same for an F-104 with the Fiat J-79-GE-19 (52800 N dry, 79620 N wet). Note that the latter engine was already present in the F-104S (ajunaidr missed this point). I am a good way in producing a plausible ASA (engine, radar, and Aspide missile/AIM-9L loadouts), but I have no ability on 3D models and skins (well, not even in flight models... I am building on ajunaidr's work! Just modding/messing some stats, as I said), so if anyone is interested in giving an hand... I think that an F-104 ASA/ASAM would be interesting as (not to mention the fact that I am Italian...) those were the most advanced versions of the Starfighter ever produced... of course they were--- the AMI (Italian Air Force) needed them to defend Italy when Turky and Taiwan had put their own F-104's in museums... (the last F-104 was retired from service in 2004!) Could You imagine a flight of Starfighters chasing MiG-29's? How would You feel in that cockpit while the AWACS directs You to intercept incoming Fulcrums? A fictious scenario? Not so much! First: back in the 1989, that was THE scenario (or worse than that... a Su-27?!) And second: during Allied Force a couple of MiG-29's dared to direct toward Italy and a flight of Starfighters was scrambled to intercept. Then someone had a thought about it and the mission was reassigned to (if I'm not wrong) a couple of F-16 (Danish or Dutch) which blew the intruders up! But what if the NATO fighters were not there?