Hornet Carrier Landing.

[Lady Zycilla]

Seems with the new FCS and FM its easier to hold AoA when on approach compared to before, though speed seems to the only thing im struggling with, either to slow or fast...
Can someone offer advice on a good AoA Approach speed, and or using the auto throttle control to hold speed?

[Perfect Info]

I can't claim in any way to be "good" at carrier landings. But I think you're on the wrong track when it comes to "speed" because you suggest autothrottle.

In a proper descent for landing (whether carrier or a conventional landing), angle of attack controls speed, and throttle controls descent rate.

If the controller is calling "slow" or "fast" then your angle-of-attack is wrong. If they are calling "high" or "low" then your power needs adjustment to put you back in the glide slope.

The landing auto throttle "helps" because it adjusts your power to put the velocity vector on the AoA bracket. So instead of playing with power settings, you adjust pitch to wiggle the AoA bracket onto target and trust that the auto throttle will change your descent rate to land the velocity vector where you want it.

But if you're struggling with the relationship between pitch/speed and thrust/descent rate, then the auto throttle is just going to make that even more confusing. Since the autothrottle is doing it backwards (most commonly you're moving pitch to force the auto throttle to change descent rate, while ignoring the immediate impact it has on speed because "the ATC is handling speed, right?").

[Lady Zycilla]

Gotcha and Ive slowly been improving with the landings as well, I tried just now and managed to trap and catch a 3 wire with a rather smooth touch down at 180knts, unsure if thats to fast or not but my descent rate was enough to put me down in the right spot to snag a wire

[spike2071]

Originally posted by Birdsong2024:

Gotcha and Ive slowly been improving with the landings as well, I tried just now and managed to trap and catch a 3 wire with a rather smooth touch down at 180knts, unsure if thats to fast or not but my descent rate was enough to put me down in the right spot to snag a wire

You shouldn't be checking your airspeed at all during a final approach when landing. The Angle of Attack (AoA) is all that matters for determining the correct speed. The reason no one is giving you the correct landing speed is because it changes with how heavy the plane is and how "dirty" it is (munitions on the wing). Increased weight and drag (munitions on the wing) requires a higher speed to maintain the correct glide path and angle. Similarly, landing with a clean Hornet and 2,000 lbs of fuel will require less airspeed. Maintaining the proper AoA will automatically give you the correct airspeed no matter the drag and weight.

All that said, congrats on the successful landing! You definitely seem to be getting the feel of it, which is just as important (probably more) as flying it by the book.

[Fulcrum Swifter]

Theory is pretty simple and straightforward. Before the last turn you have to be ideally 1.2 (may go up to 1.5) nm from the ship (NOTE! Not the tacan distance, but the perpendicular vector from BRC to your heading). After you reach the mothership stern after 1-3 seconds initiate a 30-35 degree bank angle (it all depends on the distance from the ship). E.g. when you are 1.2nm away holding 30 degrees bank angle steadily will lead you to the perfect landing course. However, it is okay to look at the ship when you have passed half of the turn (90 degrees) and make small adjustments.

Remember that when you turn your vertical lift force decreases so you have to add up to the throttle to keep a normal descent rate. Vice versa, when you are about to complete the final turn, you have to decrease throttle to compensate increased vertical lift (otherwise you will “jump” like a balloon and overshoot). And if you decrease throttle too much you will undershoot and crash. Sooooo… it is all about practice. It is easy to understand and really hard to master. For example, it took me 15 hours to make a first successful Case 1 recovery landing. And took me another 15 hours to keep doing it consistently (although, not perfect, like not always 3rd wire and some minor mistakes during approach)

Finally, I can recommend a very well made training mission which helped me a lot. Here it is: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/189005-banklers-case-1-recovery-trainer/

[Troll Norris]

After the lastest update the F/A-18C is possible to hold much higher AoA than before. This makes the aircraft more stable at approach. The best AoA is when you see the "O" mark on the AoA indexer.

Bit old but still true vids. I suggest to start with the first one
https://youtu.be/4t-GGqEj1IY
https://youtu.be/lm-M3VUy-_I
https://youtu.be/cW5R32Q6xC8