F14D, Mach round the Mach Loop

[mSparks 2,086]

Well, my, that was considerably more challenging than I expected.

Anyone for a race?

[coastaldriver 919]

Nice Video - Love a burn around the Mach Loop just sheer unadulterated fun! That Video really shows of XP nicely too. I have had three goes at it XP, got to remember to turn of real weather, each time the weather has been appalling, low cloud rain and no vis (excuses excuses), Need something a bit less speedy than the F14 like a Hawk or A4. Really shows of the airflow dynamics etc of XPlane beautifully. Well done. 

Here goes another wasted day simming (LOL)

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by coastaldriver

[coastaldriver 919]

For those interested here are three sort of maps of the Mach Loop. You start out at RAF Valley. Two ways to hit in the North Entrance or the South Entrance. There was a dedicated sim site for just the Mach Loop at one stage. Anyway got all the charts and maps etc and plans for it. Just need to convert them over to XPlane now! 

A general view of the Mach Loop

The South Entrance Route

The North Entrance Route

[mSparks 2,086]

40 minutes ago, coastaldriver said:

just sheer unadulterated fun!

I'm flying it in VR, the adrenaline rush is insane, I think the only way you could top it is actually flying it for real. And Im still something of an adrenaline junky.

40 minutes ago, coastaldriver said:

I have had three goes at it XP

It took me three goes to complete it today. 

The first time I slammed it into the wall coming in to the exit.

The second time I was so high when I came into final approach I forget to check the flaps were down properly, came in to fast and completely messed up the landing.

"third times a charm", but I still did a bit of a heli left pedal on touch down and nearly threw it off the runway, but decided to keep that in as a nice demo of XPs particles.

40 minutes ago, coastaldriver said:

Need something a bit less speedy than the F14

Just so many ways to wreck it, I settled on trying to hold around 700kts, that way there is some headroom on the straights if you overspeed. transonic is bumpy as H now. still keep forgetting to breath when the ridges come up...

40 minutes ago, coastaldriver said:

Really shows of the airflow dynamics etc of XPlane beautifully. Well done. 

Thank you, got a bit nervous when I finally decided to post it, especially since XP replay has a few obvious rough edges left. But I'll redo it when they are fixed with an embedded VR view.

Ive been really enjoying just watching the replays.

40 minutes ago, coastaldriver said:

the F14

I also filed a bug with fix for the F14 particles, engine smoke drag seems set wrong.

40 minutes ago, coastaldriver said:

Here goes another wasted day simming (LOL)

🥰

My inspiration was

getting recommended to me when I was looking for Typhoon videos end of last year. Taken that long, spent a good chunk of time between then and now writing off airframes into the welsh mountains.

Apparently there is another run in the US called star wars valley or something. want to try that soon.

Also waiting impatiently/praying for d3max to update their typhoon for XP12, really ❤️ that bird.

 

[blingthinger 649]

I'm new to VR this past Hohoho. Perspiration is a real problem that you don't appreciate when watching the youtubes. Especially in this scenario: burning worms at 50ft.

[coastaldriver 919]

Yep doing the Mach Loop is where high quality simulation all comes together. Scenery is so good compare to the old cut n paste textures of FSX/P3D hard to stop sightseeing as you go along! Need a decent Hawk or A4 (yet to appear for XP12). Yep the turn radius going to kill you at 700 knots or the G;s. 

Its been over 20 years since I did that low level stuff for real and the sim still makes you sweat and whoop both! We had a similar route here in Oz called the Cox's River run, You pick up the Cox;s river east of a town called Lithgow drop into the valleys and follow it all the way down to Warragamba dam just west of Sydney you go past the famous 3 Sisters at Katoomba slightly to the south and in what is called Megalong Valley, Learnt about that one from the real old timers they used to use the route to get from the west to Sydney when the cloud was on the deck over the Blue Mountains and going IFR meant you could not get back down again. REally tight and the whole run is about 80nm all up! 

Edited February 24, 2023 by coastaldriver

[jcomm 5,919]

Great video mSparks !!!

Humpty-Dumpty has as problemzzzzzz 🤪

Now Zulfi, ya Miggy piloteee.... try the same through the streets of Mumbai if ya tha man!

And Zulfi, take care !!! Ph... is... !!!

[Humpty 751]

1 hour ago, cagarini said:

Great video mSparks !!!

Humpty-Dumpty has as problemzzzzzz 🤪

Now Zulfi, ya Miggy piloteee.... try the same through the streets of Mumbai if ya tha man!

And Zulfi, take care !!! Ph... is... !!!

I do that everyday. 

That machloop is kidz stuff for me and for my mig21.

Now i want to go home and fly the mig21 😁

Edited February 24, 2023 by Humpty

[Bjoern 1,157]

16 hours ago, mSparks said:

My inspiration was

...

I love that video, if admittedly more for the dead matter-of-fact narration than the flying.

 

14 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

Need a decent Hawk or A4 (yet to appear for XP12).

JustFlight for the Hawk, although it's a waiting game for the XP12 update.

In the meantime, the "Military Aircraft XP12" category at the Org should have a few toys for passing the time with. Like, for example, an Avro Vulcan. Try taking that one around the corners!

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Bjoern

[coastaldriver 919]

Bjoern Yep found a nicely done Vampire for XP12  - it will do the job ok! The English Electric Lightning is pretty good too - not really suitable for Mach loops bit like the Mirage really good at going super fast, straight up and fast. Yes big waiting game for Just Flight, 

[mac44 15]

nice - are the vortices and wing tip FX's default or using an add-on?(assuming its the default f14?)

[mSparks 2,086]

2 hours ago, mac44 said:

nice - are the vortices and wing tip FX's default or using an add-on?(assuming its the default f14?)

default, but the particles do have a fix I sent into laminar on the 24th of feb via the bug reporter for the black engine smoke which has a bad drag value set (0.1 instead of 1), which makes the engine smoke behave superfunky during a turn at low thrust.

scenery is lvl18 ortho, visible roads blackened by tweaking xroads.

navigation via a plugin Ive been making for it that displays flightplan waypoints on the hud and also handles missile targeting

planning to drop that on simmarket for ~€5 as my first foray into payware sometime in the next couple of weeks when I get round to building it for macos and windows. (Im gonna be grumpy if macos opengl is to screwy to support it)

 

[UrgentSiesta 923]

Sparks, 

You can lower your lap times if you'd map the honkin' big speed brake to your joystick so you can cut the corners tighter 🙂

I can highly recommend topping off your Mach Loop runs by recovering to Valley with a 350kt overhead break:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMDuXrtHWno&ab_channel=104th_Maverick

(the procedure is almost identical for airfields as it is for CV recoveries).

Here's a diagram:

http://www.topedge.com/panels/aircraft/sites/mats/f14-detail-landingpattern.htm

(note that it starts with wings MANUALLY swept fully back - because it looks cooler (not a joke) trim is your friend!)

Tomcat is considerably more challenging to bring aboard than Hornet, so it's especially satisfying 🙂

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by UrgentSiesta
added info

[mSparks 2,086]

10 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

trim is your friend!

yeah, I need to bind some buttons up for trim.

10 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

(the procedure is almost identical for airfields as it is for CV recoveries).

Ideally I'd have landed on the carrier, but I need to work out how to use the TACAN and I'm also not quite that confident yet, done a few ok full visual landings

trying to do that on 110% adrenaline wasn't worth wrecking another reply, it was hard enough getting round the loop with wrecking it into some wall or exceeding the limitations and

^^ You can see the faulty engine smoke in that one, fix is to change the smoke drag from 0.1 to 1.0, they also generally fixed the particles in replay between then and now.

[mSparks 2,086]

5 hours ago, mSparks said:

^^ You can see the faulty engine smoke in that one, fix is to change the smoke drag from 0.1 to 1.0, they also generally fixed the particles in replay between then and now.

XPD-13902