Vertical Pitch Stability
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Hello,
Why do we have to hold the stick forward when going straight up? My joystick is calibrated and everything is fine until I reach 40 degrees or so. After 40 degrees I find myself pushing forward on the stick to maintain pitch attitude. Is this a bug or is this is how the real F16 behaves? I understand how the F16 always seeks 1G flight which is why you push the stick while “inverted”. However, pushing the stick going straight up does not make sense to me.
I appreciate your insights!
Thank you
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Completely normal with the “1G seeking behavior”.
Lets say you are climbing at a 30° angle. 4 forces on the jet :
- drag and thrust : dont care, its along the longitudinal axi or the aircraft (give or take).
- lift : without input, at 1G, applied at a 90° angle from the longitudinal axis, upward.
- weight : 1G, applied at 90° + 30° = 120° from the longitudinal axis. This translates into : 1G * cos (120°) along the longitudinal axis of the AC, and 1G * sin(120°) = 0.86 G perpendicularly, downward.
So + 1G upward, - 0.86 G downward, result is 0.14G upward. So the AC wants to pitch up slightly.
FYI you get the same result and pitch up when the AC is in a 30° dive as well.
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As Cruz said. And with enough sky and enough energy, virtually, starting from a 30° pitch up attitude, your F-16 would perform and entire 1G loop until back on an approximate straight level flight. (This is exagerated of course
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Hello,
Why do we have to hold the stick forward when going straight up? My joystick is calibrated and everything is fine until I reach 40 degrees or so. After 40 degrees I find myself pushing forward on the stick to maintain pitch attitude. Is this a bug or is this is how the real F16 behaves? I understand how the F16 always seeks 1G flight which is why you push the stick while “inverted”. However, pushing the stick going straight up does not make sense to me.
I appreciate your insights!
Thank you
@Red Dog, any chance of including a Section VI in your next publication of the dash one?
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Hello,
Why do we have to hold the stick forward when going straight up? My joystick is calibrated and everything is fine until I reach 40 degrees or so. After 40 degrees I find myself pushing forward on the stick to maintain pitch attitude. Is this a bug or is this is how the real F16 behaves? I understand how the F16 always seeks 1G flight which is why you push the stick while “inverted”. However, pushing the stick going straight up does not make sense to me.
I appreciate your insights!
Thank you
Why worry if you’re flying a combat related mission? The only time I pull high pitch angles then is to evade someone/thing that is trying to knock me out of the sky. When climbing out or descending during these missions I’m either following the speed caret or trying to get the best fuel economy I can.
Anyway, I tried to reconstruct Peanuthead’s concerns, and he’s right. When climbing with a high pitch attitude, the pitch does indeed increase even as the airspeed is decreasing. Strange.
On the other hand, I did not see pitch angle increases or decreases during equally steep descents. I don’t have to touch my control stick until I need to avoid colliding with the ground.
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… When climbing with a high pitch attitude, the pitch does indeed increase even as the airspeed is decreasing. Strange.
Not strange.
Explanations has been given above.
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See, with a well written section VI people would think this perfectly normal…
Provided all the new guys would read it.
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TobiasA, you make a fair point. Maybe it wouldn’t change anything…
But at least it would make “RTFM” a valid response to this question XD
Its not really fair to say that at this point… although now that I think about, doesnt this topic get touched on in one of Mav’s flight model articles on the FLCS? Mebbe “RTFA” is a valid response?
Suggestion for 4.33 - make the first ‘training’ TE be an AHC/HARTS practice sortie. That way, a large number of pilots will have experienced this part of the flight regime first hand.
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TobiasA, you make a fair point. Maybe it wouldn’t change anything…
But at least it would make “RTFM” a valid response to this question XD
Guys maybe “RTFM” should never be considered a valid response to these sorts of questions as it depends on how much gets taken in when a newbie first reads it. Depends if you have a photographic memory or not.
FYI I don’t so I have to refresh my memory on those portions of the manual that I don’t use all the time. Just part of the learning curve. -
No, I think not. If you didnt take it in when you read it, then clearly you need to reread it anyway. The fact you already read it is irrelevant in that case.
