Weather Radar & High Altitude Maneuvering
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Hello,
1. According to the F16 manual, we can use the GM Mode of the radar to navigate around storms. Does anyone know how this works on the real jet and how to do it in BMS?
“The GM mode of the radar can be used as an aid in navigation between or around storm cells.” T.O. GR1F16CJ1
2. Can you do loops and rolls at the F16’s maximum altitude (50,000 ft… if I’m not mistaking)? On a commercial airliner, if you bank over 40 degrees at maximum altitude you will fall behind the power curve and stall. Obviously the F16 is a different animal but I’m sure the thin air has some negative effect.
I appreciate the feedback!
Thank you
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Well, find a storm in BMS and try to maneuver around it visually first…. XD
Weather in BMS is not localised, the same weather applies everywhere in the sim. So you cannot in BMS navigate around storms, because if you are in a storm in BMS, so is the entire theater.
In the real jet, I dont know how you would do it. I would assume turning the gain up and maybe something for adjusting the antenna elevation?
For the high altitude maneuvering, it depends on your power and your weight/drag. A heavily loaded jet at full military throttle cannot even get to 50 thousand feet. A clean jet in full AB can go a lot higher, doing barrel rolls on the way up and down again.
The F-16 is FBW and has an alpha limiter. The higher up you go, the faster you need to go to get the same lift, due to the thinner air. For BMS, this is the difference between the KCAS and KTAS HUD settings. The F-16 will not stall if you make high altitude level turns with high angle of bank, but the FLCS will lower the nose for you and prevent you from staying level.
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A clean jet in full AB can go a lot higher, doing barrel rolls on the way up and down again.
Not really. Look up service ceiling. A service ceiling is when the (clean) aircraft is almost completely out of climb/maneuver potential, but has such a margin as to allow normal flight. An F-16 is likely not going to be going over the top at its service ceiling of 50,000ft. But try it in BMS, this sim is easily accurate enough to predict the real aircraft’s capabilities at altitude.
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I posted screesnhots in the screenshots forum just the other day at FL740…
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Also, look up ‘zoom climb’ whilst I look up this ‘service ceiling’ which I have surely never heard of…
XD
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Not really. Look up service ceiling. A service ceiling is when the (clean) aircraft is almost completely out of climb/maneuver potential, but has such a margin as to allow normal flight. An F-16 is likely not going to be going over the top at its service ceiling of 50,000ft. But try it in BMS, this sim is easily accurate enough to predict the real aircraft’s capabilities at altitude.
The charts in the -1 show 1G level flight (clean/max AB) with 500fpm climb potential remaining at over 60,000ft (M1.8 ) - the only limit there is a preasure suit is needed really
Thread with info here also:
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Does anyone know how this works on the real jet
weather radar
Peanuthead:
I’ll try to simplify this for you
There are many different types of weather radar out there so I’ll stick with what is most commonly used in modern jets.
What you’ll need:
-A flash light
-a joystick or any solid object about the same size.
-a table
-any wall in a room.Flash light = aircraft radar. Most commonly in the nose of an aircraft.
Joystick/Object = Thunderstorm. Actually it’s the water droplets in the thunderstorm or rain cloud
Wall = radar screen.
Table = Ground1. Place your joystick/object on a table about 1 foot from the wall.
2. Turn your flash light on and shine the beam of light so that the joystick/object is between the wall and the flash light so you can see the shadow of the joystick/object on the wall.The image of the joystick/object shadow on the wall would be the moisture in the thunderstorm and this is what you would see on the planes weather radar screen.
You can stop here if that satisfies your answer. The rest is just a little extra info
The beam of light (simulated radar beams) can not penetrate the solid object. The solid object in this case would be the heavy water droplets in the thunderstorm cloud. With a weather radar the radar beams would reflect back off the heavy water droplets to the radar receiver and create the image of the joystick/object (thunderstorm) on the screen. The rest of the light on the wall would be the rest of the radar beams going straight out into space with nothing to reflect off of to create an image on the radar screen
To take it one step further: Tip the beam of the flash light up until you can only see the top of the joystick/objects shadow. This would simulate the weather radar looking at the top of the storm. If you move the beam of the flash light too high so you can’t see the joystick/objects shadow anymore on the wall, that would be considered tilting your radar to high.
Now tilt the beam of the flash light down at the base of the Joystick/object so the light is now hitting the table also. This would simulate the radar looking down at the base of the storm. Throw a few small items on the table next to the joystick/object so they also cast shadows on the wall, they would be considered ground return in radar terms. An example would be large buildings.
This is a very basic way to teach the general concept of how a radar works. I can’t take credit for it :)) Of course there is way more to it, but that is the general idea. I hope this helped you out and I didn’t confuse the issue at all
Creature
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The batteries in my torch are flat , will a candle work ?
I tried going inverting at ceiling height, and got hot wax in my right ear. now I have to trim to the left when flying.
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The batteries in my torch are flat , will a candle work ?
I tried going inverting at ceiling height, and got hot wax in my right ear. now I have to trim to the left when flying.
That all depends on how much you like hot wax
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Hello,
“The GM mode of the radar can be used as an aid in navigation between or around storm cells.” T.O. GR1F16CJ1
Creature is correct in his discription (albeit sarcastically so). A more accurate answer to your question is that, yes the Ground Mapping mode of the -16 is able to pick up the density of the water in storm cells. The question I have is how to direct the radar to look up at the clouds since it is generally programmed to look down at the ground. The AF’s H-60 Pave Hawk has a color weather radar that is able to detect any ground objects such as mountains, hills and even sea vesels if they are large enough. But the pilot’s are able to tile the radar up or down. Of coursee tilting the radar bean up or down is possible in the A/A mode, but you may have to ask a avionics mechanic or Viper pilot if that is how storm cells are identified.
As for flying in the upper stratusphere, why would you want to?? It’s not like you’re flying the X-15!
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1.8.7.2.4 Snowplow (SP) Submode. A SP option is available by depressing the OSB adjacent to SP. Snowplow sighting is
used where targets and other steerpoints are impractical. When selected, SP directs the line of sight straight ahead in azimuth.
The GM cursor will be positioned ahead of the F-16 ground track at a distance equal to half the current range scale; i.e., the
cursor will be positioned in the center of the MFD. The cursor remains at this range while the GM video moves or snowplows
across the MFD. After a point is designated to ground-stabilize the cursor, the cursor can be moved to a target or aimpoint. If SP
is selected during FZ submode, the cursor will be positioned half the distance ahead of the freeze point, which essentially
ground-stabilizes the cursor. SP is deselected by depressing the SP OSB (Figure 1-127) or by changing the selected steerpoint.
Exiting SP mode will zero all slews made while in SP.
1.8.7.2.4.1 SP can be used to detect thunderheads, squalls, rain showers, or any air mass with heavy moisture content. To
separate weather returns from ground clutter, position the radar antenna above the horizon with the antenna elevation control.
1.8.7.2.4.2 In the predesignate state of SP with the elevation control in the detent, the scan is centered on the steerpoint
elevation. Since the cursor remains at a constant distance in front of the aircraft, the elevation will not change with aircraft
position. The tilt can be raised to level or higher to detect weather.Just use the antenna elevation control.
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Wow, I didn’t know antenna elevation is controllable in Ground Modes!