posted 05-06- 05:57 PM               

The link to the betas is on the bottom of the page.

posted 05-06- 06:46 PM               

Question: Will old skins still work?

Neermind, they do! I Thought you might of updated the mapping or texturing aswell, but its good to see you didnt.

posted 05-06- 08:27 PM               

I'll take a look into that. I didn't have any missions with the Wildcat starting on a carrier deck and forgot to check that. Can you send the mission you're using to:

fscentral@americanisp.net

Can you also tell me what the takeoff procedure you're using is?

posted 05-07- 07:19 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jerry:
I can't take off at all, even from a land runway. I can get her off the ground just fine but can not maintain airspeed even in a shallow climb. No problems with in-air starts.

---

That's weird, on my system the AI climbs to 10,000 ft within acceptable time limits. What angle are you trying to climb at? This was not a good climbing bird. The average between sea level and 10,000ft is 2,200 fpm. You have to find the ideal AOT and speed which I think is around 155-165 mph. This is the speed and angle at which you can maintain a steady climb rate. On the Wildcat it's only between 8 and 12 degrees from the testing I did.

I admit I did mess up. I forgot that 85% throttle is equivalent in HP to max nonwep/takeoff HP. The first 2 betas were calibrated for climb rate at 85% throttle. This of course gave more takeoff power and emergency climb rate

Sorry guys, I should have the fix out by Friday.

As for the gunsight. The default texture is from the real gunsight pack Yardstick put out. It is part of the betas for PP6.1, but was not part of PP6. Installing this pack will solve this problem and give you MUCH nicer gunsights.

posted 05-07- 09:48 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jerry:
I don't know about the AI but [b]I can not maintain air speed after lift off even trying to fly level! I removed your new .sm and she takes-off just fine.[/B]

---

Now before reading on, keep in mind that I did admit I messed up on the FM I sent with this beta version.

Here is the problem with carrier launches guys.

Argon you should never be able to get a Wildcat in the air in your mission. The wind speed is way too low (2 mph). Carrier ops require turning into the wind and running at a flank bell. For WWII CV's this is 27-32 knots or 32-38mph. Usually there was a 5-10 mph headwind minimum. So figure the average wind speed over the deck is close to 40 mph. This gives the extra wind needed to provide the lift for the plane to get in the air. Ever watch early WWII clips where the plane DROPS off the end of the flight deck before barely clawing it's way into the air? This is what a takeoff should be like, and herein lies the problems:

1) Carriers don't move in SDOE
2) the environment wind speed allows NO room for error when taking off. Tip the wings slightly and you'll stall. Instead of flying into a headwind with a true speed of 10 mph, its more like 40 mph, which is considered unsafe for carrier launches, and was only done in emergencies.
3)Stall speed from one source with full flaps and gear down is 70-75mph. This is why such a good headwind is needed.
4) to overcome this for the Wildcat requires an aircraft that is WAY overpowered.

The only way I can see to get around this is to have a "hidden" version of the RATO system the Sea Hurricane uses.

So this requires community input. Until I can get a system put on the Wildcat to give the extra speed running into the wind causes, does the community want a Wildcat that can outclimb a Zero, or one with more realistic properties that can't take off from a carrier.

Also bear in mind that planes like the Hellcat and Corsair were MUCH more powerful than the Wildcat and therefore easier to get off a flight deck.