A2A Comanche Run up

[Stearmandriver 2,365]

That all works, but I just look at the bottom of the white arc which is Vso at max gross.  80mph looks to be a comfortable margin above it.  90 is too fast, even at max gross ;).

[jcomm 6,209]

Very true Bob! and the reason why I bought this Comanche for MFS, after having used pretty much all aircraft from A2A with fsx and the 777 also with P3Dv4 and P3Dv5.

My plan is to learn to operate the Comanche in a realistic way. I love the details, and the fact that we can actually perform the RL scans and "protocols" to get it to the air, across the air, and back down to Mother Earth's surface uneventfully ...

Since I have never flown a motorized aircraft IRL, this is the closest I can get to it. 

[sd_flyer 6,272]

8 hours ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

Unless it is a Hershey Bar Cherokee as they turn into house bricks with power off full flaps low and slow.

But as far as I know we do not have any early PA28s with the Hershey Bar wing in the game yet.

  

There is no difference. The only thing that matters is speed management . 

 

[Bobsk8 13,200]

8 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

That all works, but I just look at the bottom of the white arc which is Vso at max gross.  80mph looks to be a comfortable margin above it.  90 is too fast, even at max gross ;).

I tried the 80 mph approach speed versus tghe 90 mph , I had been using, and much better. I was thinking, that is pretty close to the approach speed I used to use in the C 172 and C 152 I flew IRL, 65 knots, flaps 30. 

[Ixoye 1,881]

Retract the flaps on the float and she will come down nicely.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Ixoye

[Stearmandriver 2,365]

1 hour ago, Ixoye said:

Retract the flaps on the float and she will come down nicely.

Well... "nicely" as in "effectively", but the resultant landing won't be very nice.  😁

[SolRayz 393]

So 75mph or slightly lower has certainly helped to smooth out my landings. One thing though, it seems the piper gets super twitchy with the elevator on the flare. I always thought at lower speeds, especially close to stall you lose elevator effectiveness, requiring more pull on the yoke. It's seems like it's the opposite for me. On flare I have to be very mindful to not over correct. It doesn't seem right.

[Stearmandriver 2,365]

1 hour ago, SolRayz said:

One thing though, it seems the piper gets super twitchy with the elevator on the flare. I always thought at lower speeds, especially close to stall you lose elevator effectiveness, requiring more pull on the yoke. It's seems like it's the opposite for me. On flare I have to be very mindful to not over correct. It doesn't seem right.

There are a couple things to consider here.  The first is that the maneuver to transition from approach to landing - what we commonly call the flare - actually has two parts in a light airplane: the level off, and then the flare.  The level off is just what it sounds like - just enough back pressure to level off just above the runway.  Then the flare is the act of progressively adding more back pressure as speed decays until the aircraft is just beginning to stall, at which time you let it settle onto the runway.

Many GA aircraft - and even jets - are really pitch sensitive going into the initial level off.  This is because you're trimmed for a stable approach speed - you're probably gliding by this point as you've reduced the power to idle once landing is assured - and you're easing the nose up to level off just as the plane is entering ground effect.  Ground effect "helps" you to level off so to speak, so too much back pressure and you'll balloon easily.  I feel like this is well represented in the Comanche.  

The flare though - this is where a sim aircraft can't really feel like an airplane unless you've got a good force feedback yoke (I'm guessing, I've never tried one.). Because as the flare progresses, you are needing more and more aft movement of the yoke, but airload is decreasing on the elevator so it doesn't actually take much force to do this (in most planes, there are exceptions.). In the sim though, our controls are just spring loaded, so as we have to apply more and more aft movement, we encounter progressively stiffer spring resistance.  The further into the spring stiffness we pull, the harder it becomes to make the fine adjustments needed, and the easier it becomes to over control.

Practically speaking, I think this is one reason your sim landings are better if you start from a slower approach speed: you're starting out trimmed for a slower speed, so as you get into the flare you don't have to pull as far into the spring resistance, which makes it easier to control the flare with the fine pressures you'd use in the real plane.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Stearmandriver

[Bobsk8 13,200]

Interesting failure I just had on approach to TJBQ. I lowered flaps to full, and the Comanche rolled off the approach to the right. I had to use a great deal of left aileron, to get back on the approach again. I looked out the window, and moved the ailerons, and movement looked normal. I managed to make a decent landing, looked around the outside of the aircraft after landing , and saw that I had asymmetrical flap deployment. The right flap was all the way down, and the left was about halfway down.  Had to repair the flaps. Funny, when I flew in real life, I always thought about this happening and what I would do, if it did happen.  

[Accolade 12]

Do you think we will soon find the Comanche for sale on the FS 2020 Market  ? 

[BigT65 7]

On 8/3/2023 at 9:43 PM, SolRayz said:

Yeah I've been doing 90mph approach speeds. I will have to try 80mph. I also have a tendency of coming in too high on approach which is not helping.

This sounds like me.

[SolRayz 393]

13 minutes ago, BigT65 said:

This sounds like me.

A big struggle I've always had in all flightsims is determining actual ground distance on the flare while simultaneously manipulating this practically worthless Saitek yoke that I have. Especially with realistic aircraft models like A2A. Despite all the yoke mods that I've done to this thing, precision leaves much to be desired. Might need to invest in something better. 

[Bobsk8 13,200]

2 minutes ago, SolRayz said:

A big struggle I've always had in all flightsims is determining actual ground distance on the flare while simultaneously manipulating this practically worthless Saitek yoke that I have. Especially with realistic aircraft models like A2A. Despite all the yoke mods that I've done to this thing, precision leaves much to be desired. Might need to invest in something better. 

I had too much trouble with yokes over the years, and about 5 years ago switched to a decent joystick ( Thrustmaster T 16000 with hall ICs)  Will never go back.