[amrcg]

Analysing the P-3 information at the DW site, one seems to realise that a few ordinary flight simulation details are missing, namely the control of the flaps and ailerons. Can someone confirm this?

Regards,
Antonio

[Zerogreat]

Please correct me if i am wrong, but arent ailerons those control surfaces which make the aircraft roll? Well i am sure that aircraft CAN do this in DW. Dont know about flaps though.

[amrcg]

Yes, you are right about ailerons.
The other way that a plane has to make a turn is to yaw left or right without changing roll. This is performed with the rudder located in the tail. Does DW consider both maneuvres?

Regarding flaps, these are used to change lift and drag, and are thus very important during take-off and landing.

I have also not seen any spoiler (break) controls.

Of course I understand that the focus of DW is not about flight simulation, but I just wanted to know which features were left behind. Anyway, rudder and flaps use to make part of even the most basic flight simulators.

Regards,
Antonio

[Beer]

If you intend to buy DW for a Flight Simulation I think you will be disappointed. DW is a more a Tactical Sim from the P-3's Player point of view. You can fly around with the joystick but the focus of the Sim is fighting the aircraft and positioning the airplane, which can be done by mouseclick Fly To Points, and mouse click/hotkeys for altitude and speed.

Sure ya can try and yank and bank the aircraft in the Sim on the joystick, but that is not how the aircraft is actually flown onstation, it is very structured and controlled (i.e Standard Rate turns), minumum altitudes etc.

If I am flying a Multicrew mission and have a live player pilot I would actually prefer he/she fly by mouse

For flying a P-3C out of NAS Brunswick or any other Airfield pick MSFS2004, for playing the P-3C tactically, DW is the ticket (and pretty much the only show to be in town).

Just my 2 cents

[MaHuJa]

I've seen the plane banked, so at most, the ail are just not animated.

It may be that gear and flaps go down together. As for brakes... ever flown with a joystick in Operation Flashpoint? Pulling the throttle back beyond a "zero point", it uses the spoiler instead of the engine.
(For reference, the OFP "zero point" is in the middle)

(It's really a thing of "how to adjust speed" rather than power output, in that game. At the "zero point" throttle setting, it will use engines if climbing, spoilers if diving. ("Zero point" was an expression I invented on the spot))

[MrMudd]

DW has only the basic heading and speed indications with windows

In DW their is no visual Ques other than the 3d model classification sytem.

TO make this really work for a pilot is to have things such as Smoke to mark the buoys with so that the pilot can manually roll into the buoys for his patterns and lighning up the attacks. Their is no tactical plotter/MFD/HUD in the pilot station so to speak to provide those steering ques.

Unfortunately you will spend all your time in the map plotter screen point and clicking steerpoints to the needed bearings to employ sensors/buoys/weapons.

For a TActical Aviator such as my self it is not an issue, becasue the way it is set up makes it more of a SENSO/EWO type of game and it is allot of fun doing a combined TACCO/PILOT role and having an Acoustics guy working the MAD/Sonar.

[XabbaRus]

As far as I am aware the P-3 doesn't have an HUD or MFD.

I am sure that we can launch smoke to mark a drop point.

[MaHuJa]

I know the helo at least has something of a hud, see the helo takeoff video.

And I believe an orion pilot sees nothing but water, water and more water... perhaps the occasional ship. His instruments tell him the rest. No need for smoke (would it be packed with the buoys, remote triggered? Or would it have to be placed like a bomb or mine, and the placement having to take place like the weapon drop itself anyway?)

[Beer]

Generally the Flight Station would use a PPI (Plane Position Indicator) scope, and a Flight Director System tied into "Marking" the buoys like an ADF (Automatic Direction Finding) while tracking a target. They would fly to the buoys (manually dailing in the RF channel of the Buoy), Mark on Top (the needle on the nose during approach to the buoy, then the needle swings aft as you pass over it). There is no need for smokes. In Game niether Smokes or the Marking the buoys is required and is not modeled. If there were no buoys or the TACCO is directing the flight station for navigation/weapon/buoys, the TACCO enters Fly To Points and the Flight Director System gives the pilots steering as well as visual location on the PPI; the Fly to points and PPI is modeled in game, needles and a FDS are not.

There is a view (in game) that has HUD type lines for those who insist on flying with the joystick, however IMHO if your using DW for a flight simulator your missing out on what it was really made to do, and that is pit players against each other in a Multiplatform Tactics Free for all.

[nattydread]

Beer:
You havent seen me fly yet! I'd fly that P3 like a champ with my trusty flight yoke and ruder pedals. Shoot I'd have exceptional control if DW used the new 6 level throttle quadrant from CH.
IN fact maintaining Altitude, Airspeed and rate of turn is the challenge that would make flying those things fun.
All the weapons and sonar officers would be scrambling to multi-crew with those pilots with good reputations for flying the needle.

[amrcg]

If I understood your postings well, the P-3 has to rely on smoke or otherwise to fly over the dropped buoys in order to mark their position. I thought that the sonobuoys were equipped with a GPS device and able to transmit their position back to the plane. In this way the P-3 could monitor their position continuously even if the buoys drifted as result of wind or currents.

Regards,
Antonio

[Beer]

No the P-3 UII and II.5 (the ones I flew in) used basically Radio Direction Finding to Mark the buoys. Yes current/wind was an issue, this required the Pilots to Mark the location of the buoys by overflying them and hitting a MOT (Mark on top) button, this would slew the buoy to it proper location in a Tactical Plot. There was also a SRS (Sonobuoy Reference System) that would use phase difference (kinda like the old Omega navigation) from the radio signals from the buoys and try to maintain the sonobuoys positions relative to the tactical plot.

The only times I used smokes inflight was to simulate targets for bombing practice, an ADS drop (Airborne Delivery System, we dropped parts to a surface ship and their helo picked them out of the water), and to mark bails of pot floating low in the water for recovery. \

The buoys used when I was in (1987-1994) did not have GPS...neither did the aircraft which relied on LTN 72 Inerial Navigation, Omega, and a Sextant. It was not til Desert Storm I where handhelds were issued, then slowly GPS was implimented to the Plane.

Tactical Plot Stab is not an issue with DW. :arg:

[TLAM Strike]

[Three14]

I think the computer will fly the needles most capably...just as autopilots work in real life (I don't know about autopilots on P-3s).

When a SAM comes streaming across the horizon, that's when you'll won't somebody with a good joystick. Won't much care about standard rate turns then...

[XabbaRus]

I thought that ASW planes still dropped smoke to mark the position to begin a run for dropping a torp or depth charge?