AAR - f***ed by your hotas?
Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 3:33 pm
after i took a small TE spin with ros the other night, i was thinking: can your "not so hightech"- hotas hardware be a factor when it comes to making tiny movements in speed and direction? therefore preventing you to get in the proper position to get a contact?
before i was flying with my x-65, i had a low budget stick with a small throttle lever on the side, the saiteck cyborg. back then, i had my hands full getting fuel, but managed it after some practice. once i got my x-65 force sensing stick it got a lot easier, but the ultimate improvement came when i remeber something i observed as a a little kid at an airshow watching two mirage f-1s flying formation display. so the answer is yes, it can be a factor. but had i known back then what i know now, i wouldve also been able to take fuel quite effortlessly.
so what is this groundbreaking observation?
when the two mirages flew very(!) close formation in turns, i noticed that the wingmans airbrake was constantly opening and closing in order to stay in proper position. i back then thought why the pilot does not simply move the stick back & fourth in order to achieve the same result.
to this day i do not know the exact reason for this way of flying, but transfering back to bms, this technique is great, heres why:
if you have a low tech stick or throttle, moving the parts sometimes feels a little flumsy due to their material and the resistance that works against your hand. non linear in game responses due to a small moving range of a hotas part with little moving resistance can be a lethal combination. the solution: bypass it.
what?
there are 3 buttons required for airbrake operations. first is "toggle AB", press once for full deployment, again for full retraction. here it ends for most people. but the secret lies beyond. there are two more keys, "open AB" and "close AB". these button do exactly that, opening and closing your AB slowly, as long as you hold the button down. releasing the button leaves the ab in the actual state. i bounded a 4-way rocker on my throttle with the three AB commands plus the UNCAGE button, rarely used and harmless if triggered accidently.
so instead of moving your throttle back and fourth tryig to make small adjustments, why not approach the tanker with your airbrake ~25% open and with a throttle setting that "kind of" keeps you around tanker speed. closing the brake moves you under and opening keeps you under. works perfectly fine for me, also when it comes to formation flying or landing the jet.
but only god may help you aar in a turn
before i was flying with my x-65, i had a low budget stick with a small throttle lever on the side, the saiteck cyborg. back then, i had my hands full getting fuel, but managed it after some practice. once i got my x-65 force sensing stick it got a lot easier, but the ultimate improvement came when i remeber something i observed as a a little kid at an airshow watching two mirage f-1s flying formation display. so the answer is yes, it can be a factor. but had i known back then what i know now, i wouldve also been able to take fuel quite effortlessly.
so what is this groundbreaking observation?
when the two mirages flew very(!) close formation in turns, i noticed that the wingmans airbrake was constantly opening and closing in order to stay in proper position. i back then thought why the pilot does not simply move the stick back & fourth in order to achieve the same result.
to this day i do not know the exact reason for this way of flying, but transfering back to bms, this technique is great, heres why:
if you have a low tech stick or throttle, moving the parts sometimes feels a little flumsy due to their material and the resistance that works against your hand. non linear in game responses due to a small moving range of a hotas part with little moving resistance can be a lethal combination. the solution: bypass it.
what?
there are 3 buttons required for airbrake operations. first is "toggle AB", press once for full deployment, again for full retraction. here it ends for most people. but the secret lies beyond. there are two more keys, "open AB" and "close AB". these button do exactly that, opening and closing your AB slowly, as long as you hold the button down. releasing the button leaves the ab in the actual state. i bounded a 4-way rocker on my throttle with the three AB commands plus the UNCAGE button, rarely used and harmless if triggered accidently.
so instead of moving your throttle back and fourth tryig to make small adjustments, why not approach the tanker with your airbrake ~25% open and with a throttle setting that "kind of" keeps you around tanker speed. closing the brake moves you under and opening keeps you under. works perfectly fine for me, also when it comes to formation flying or landing the jet.
but only god may help you aar in a turn
