fsx:se FSX version of Simworks Phantom - observations and questions

[HighBypass 2,339]

Mods, I don't believe there's a section in the forums for SimWorks Studios products, but of course move this post if needs be.  I thought it may become a bit of a Q & A thread in light of the recent free download...

Having had a brief play around with this amazing payware freebie (thanks SimMarket!) of the early F-4 Phantom I have a couple of observations (and questions), not so much a review as such, about the product and the real plane itself.

Low speed flight - I love the way that they've modelled the vibrations, rattling and adverse yaw (forget using ailerons, but use rudder instead) before she stalls. I thought that the Phantom had automatic leading edge slat deployment for high AOA flight and low speed, but that is a feature of later real world Phantom variants I believe. (nice AOA indicator BTW). 

Smoky J-79s - too much smoke?? Lovely looking afterburner effects though!

Whilst you can mess around with the loadout manager for looks, I assume that stores jettison is only modelled with the TACPAC? I know that actual weapons deployment is TACPAC only. Likewise is ejection modelled in TACPAC? I pulled the handle when on the ground in a cold & dark jet and nothing happened: The safety pins must still have been installed! 

The product comes with lots of different squadron paint schemes, and I've downloaded further ones from SimWorks Studios, but are there any more schemes available? There's at least one camo pattern one in the AVSIM library, but were all these early Phantoms grey & white with colourful squadron markings? If so, then any later camo or overall schemes would be fictional, I suppose.

The manual on the SimWorks site appears to be incomplete and some parts say under construction... a pity as the product has been around for some time now. (Cockpit familiarisation would have been quite helpful.. You can have the jet cold & dark, in order to follow what I assume to be a realistic starting procedure, including a ground power cart; knowing what switches and functions SimWorks have modelled would help in starting up and shutting down the beast. I did find the RAT lever! 

I haven't yet checked the add-on tab within FSX:SE, but does this Phantom come with an aircraft carrier so I can use the virtual LSO etc. Is that what the CEX aircraft configurator is for which has appeared on my desktop?

Anyhow, that's all for now. By all means join in with your thoughts (and, yes, opinions!) if the mods decide that this thread is in the appropriate place and can stay around.

[Chock 17,769]

The aircraft configurator is so you can customise any aircraft you want to use with a SimWorks Studios Carrier. It allows you to tell the carrier what the dimensions and locations of various bits are on your aeroplane. You shouldn't need to do that with the SWS Phantom, nor indeed with quite a lot of other Navy aeroplane add-ons as many of them are already supplied with a preset in the configurator which the carrier system recognises. The two important really things it controls, is the position of the arrestor hook (so it will actually be in with a chance of catching the wires) and the catapult launch system used by the aircraft, because there are two different types of catapult launchers on carriers, launch bar, and bridle. The launch bar is the shuttle type thing you see in movies such as Top Gun and is the one most common these days, the older bridle system has hooks which attach to the fuselage and can be seen in use on older jets such as the A-4 Skyhawk. The bridle system is a lot more labour intensive and generally clumsier, requiring catcher mechanisms to stop the bridle rig from being flung overboard amongst other things, so it is rarely seen these days.

The Virtual Landing Signals Officer (VLSO) is a separate utility. It too will let you customise a lot of stuff, such as having a French LSO, or having one who is a bit more forgiving of sloppy approaches and landing ratings. It will let you configure your sim for things such as radio callouts, air to air refuelling patterns and such.

Although hardly anyone ever calls it so, in actual fact the F-4 is the Phantom II. That's because the Phantom name had already been used for a previous early McDonnell Douglas jet fighter (the FH Phantom) which was eventually developed into the more well known and more numerous F2H Banshee. Only 62 FH Phantoms were built, but almost 900 Banshees were constructed, so it is hardly surprising that the first Phantom remains a footnote in history when compared to the more well-known jet.

As far as the name is concerned, originally, the Phantom 2 had a number of names considered, among them: the Spectre, the Mithras and believe it or not, the Satan. It has some other unofficial names too of course; famously, when the Phantom first showed up in the US Air Force inventory, one of the first USAF Majors to fly it commented: 'When I first saw the Phantom, I thought it was so ugly, I wondered if it had been delivered upside down'. That impression has led to it gaining a few nicknames, including the Double Ugly, which is perhaps a little unfair, as it has a kind of Brutish charm. It's also sometimes known as Old Smokey, because of the very noticeable exhaust plume from the J79 engines. That was addressed a little bit on later variants (F-4S onwards) with the use of the J79-10A version of the engine which, whilst still quite smokey, is nowhere near as bad as earlier versions. It's not as bad from the British Rolls Royce Spey powered versions, but all Phantoms are pretty smokey compared to more modern fighters. The US Navy used to call it the Rhino, but nowadays that name has passed on to one of its Hornet variants to help differentiate between Hornets and Superhornets since they use both models.

With regard to lift assistance at low speeds, one of the interesting features the F4 has to help with that, is blown flaps, where hot air is bled from the engine and piped over the control surfaces to improve lift at low speeds. Several other carrier-based aircraft have had that too, including the A-5 Vigilante, F-8 Crusader and the Blackburn Buccaneer and it can also be found on some land-based combat aircraft including the F-104 Starfighter, the MiG-21 and the MiG-23.

 

[HighBypass 2,339]

11 hours ago, Chock said:

The aircraft configurator is so you can customise any aircraft you want to use with a SimWorks Studios Carrier. It allows you to tell the carrier what the dimensions and locations of various bits are on your aeroplane...

Thanks, Al! I did manage to find a video where they used it to setup a freeware S-3 Viking's hook. There is also a video regarding starting the jet up from "ready to start", but not one from cold and dark. However, half the battle's won. 

11 hours ago, Chock said:

The Virtual Landing Signals Officer (VLSO) is a separate utility. It too will let you customise a lot of stuff, such as having a French LSO, or having one who is a bit more forgiving of sloppy approaches and landing ratings.

Interesting.. I may need to find a Rafale to use  and definitely will want a more forgiving LSO, assuming I get all this to work. Not that it shouldn't but I've not tried as yet!

11 hours ago, Chock said:

Although hardly anyone ever calls it so, in actual fact the F-4 is the Phantom II.

Begging your pardon, sir! Hehe. I knew that, but like many others I've been lazy. As you know, the F-35 is called the Lightning II presumably due to the P-38. Besides, our Lightning (the one built by English Electric) could technically be the second Lightning although it wasn't in the US inventory. Unlike the beautiful P-38, the F-35 is as ugly as it gets, and what I like to call it is definitely "lots of words not allowed" on AVSIM, nor near children or people of a sensitive disposition! Which leads me on to the next bit..

11 hours ago, Chock said:

one of the first USAF Majors to fly it commented: 'When I first saw the Phantom, I thought it was so ugly, I wondered if it had been delivered upside down'.

Goodness knows what he would have thought about the F-35's looks.. 

Regarding the Spectre name, SimWorks provide the F-110 Spectre in the package - the Navy F-4B lent to the USAF for evaluation and the Air Force initially wanted to follow their numbering convention. Not all Century Series numbers made it to production, but 110 was next on the list as it were.

Cheers again for the input, Al! 

[HighBypass 2,339]

So... I'VE FOUND THE CARRIER!!  but uncovered a couple of issues with it. I'm definitely missing something here!

I can taxi the Phantom to the cat and press SHIFT-u to extend the nose oleo just fine. When I then press SHIFT-i to attach the bridle, the wheels sink into the deck by about a foot and the bridle isn't displayed. The Phantom is restrained and the jet blast deflectors are raised.

How do I launch? I go to full burner and wait. I press SHIFT-spacebar still nothing. I did press the trigger on my joystick and she launched then. Is there a variable amount of time before the cat guy decides the timing is right for a launch?

Also the Virtual LSO program appears to detect the simulator just fine, but the red dot against the SWS Phantom indicates that it isn't supported. There's no entry for the carrier and I've got zero carrier qualifications (understandable seeing as this is my first outing!). 

I have yet to successfully land on the Coral Sea; I do get appropriate radio callouts including add power and waveoff  so that side of things appears to work correctly..

Any thoughts please? Hopefully the sensible ones before the silly ones! 

[HighBypass 2,339]

I managed to trap on the Coral Sea last night!  Even though I'd been given a waveoff.. my sim.. no one died.. 

I've emailed SWS support, but not sure if I'll get a meaningful reply because.. FSX:SE.

I'm assuming there's some kind of automatic trim as trim up and trim down don't appear to work, yet by nudging the stick I can usually get the plane to stay level. Something to do with the way the stability augmentation system is modelled?

I wish SWS had a proper manual - no pages under construction...

[HighBypass 2,339]

Having tried another flight earlier today it seems that I would indeed require TACPAC for the jettison buttons to work. The payload manager only lets you remove stores when parked on the ground and not in flight. I mean within FSX:SE I would not be bothered over having an animation of the stores falling away (you would not see then from the cockpit anyway, unless you looped around ), as long as they disappeared from the plane before I land thus removing their dead weight.

The gunsight reticle doesn't work either (TACPAC required again I presume?)

The trim does actually appear to work, but I have to use a lot more of it than I'm used to with other aircraft at times rather than just a tap on the configured joystick button. I still wonder if the S A S has anything to do with this?

EDIT is anyone else flying this bird in FSX:SE rather than P3D? 

Edited April 23, 2020 by HighBypass

[HighBypass 2,339]

The gunsight reticle does work...  if you spin the mil setting dial for long enough.. Stupid me thought that it would appear with the mil dial set at zero as it is when you first metaphorically strap the jet on. Eventually you see the reticle appear from the top of the combiner glass and yes, switching position from the stock VC to the lowered seat view changes the position of the reticle.. I only found this out thanks to a comment on the Steam discussion for the product. (Not having a go at anyone here! Just saying where I found a clue to my incompetence!)

In addition I've downloaded the extra textures from SWS: Oh My!   I now have a huge amount of phabulous repaints including camo ones. Some represent the colours of F-4C, D and J variants even though the SWS is B/N. Oh well, small mercies, because the schemes really seem to be top quality.

[HighBypass 2,339]

I've got a reply from SimWorks Studios supportregarding the sinking wheels and the invisible bridle: 

Quote

Hello Mark,

Regarding the wheel sinking, it is a bug with our carrier tech and we will patch it soon. As for the bridle, we may reintroduce it to the model, but as the legacy Phantom has reached the end of its support life, it is not a top priority at the moment.

Best regards,

Alex Vletsas

 

[HighBypass 2,339]

So... I was wondering if any FSX user can confirm that stores can be jettisoned without Tacpack? Am I missing a setting sequence of weapons switches? Or just missing a brain cell.. or two? 

[Nurmblitz 59]

Very strange approach with the manuals which are available only online. 

[HighBypass 2,339]

True Nurmblitz. The fact that SWS have done that and still have parts under construction doesn't help me much I'm sorry to say, that's why I was asking if anyone flies this bird in FSX without Tacpack?

[HighBypass 2,339]

Also how do I navigate with the Phantom? It's TACAN only isn't it? The radios won't tune to poor man's radio VHF.. 

[MaDDogz 242]

Try this Mark : 

https://509tigers.org/confidential/docs/global/01_TACAN_EN.pdf

Edited May 6, 2020 by MaDDogz

[MaDDogz 242]

21 hours ago, HighBypass said:

Also how do I navigate with the Phantom? It's TACAN only isn't it? The radios won't tune to poor man's radio VHF.. 

 

[HighBypass 2,339]

Outstanding, Luke!  That makes a lot more sense, sir! Thank you.