@Alienbeef0421 Try using structural wings instead of the horizontal stabilizer part to build all-moving stabilators. And use rotators instead of hinges. Also try giving the wing a very slight neutral angle to get the proper counter-pitching lifting force.
Maneuverability is all about careful mass-balancing. Inch the center of lift as close as you can get it to the back of the center of mass while still retaining stability. You also want to try and line up the forward-and-back thrust line with the center of mass as best you can as well. Lower wing-loading also adds to the plane's maneuverability, and the positioning of the horizontal stabilizers is important as well, but not as important as mass balancing. A lot of people also use thrust-vectoring for added maneuverability, but that's a more advanced technique.
@Justakidwithadream My bad, buddy. My first plane was pretty awful too, I'll admit. Practice makes perfect. If you like, I could rewrite my review to sound less harsh.
I remember there being a glitch with cockpit scaling that messes with lock-on range.
I can't remember how to do it, and it might be patched, I'm not sure.
@Bluerobot11 Actually, top speed in level flight at optimal altitude, and maximum power and RPM for a lightly-loaded P-38L was listed as 414 mph. It was capable of slightly more if all the paint was stripped off, external drag points like pitots, lights, gun muzzles, etc were smoothed over, and it was running super light on fuel, but such a plane wasn't very useful for actual combat. And of course, external loads like bombs, fuel tanks, and rockets added to the drag, making the top speed much less than 414. Outside of level flight, the P-38 could safely exceed speeds of 500 mph in combat dives.
@BogdanX Thanks. I built this one kind of fast. If I have the time (and motivation), I'll definitely try prettying it up. Finding good reference images is difficult because there are SO many variants of the Navion. Add all the details you see, and you end up with a FrankenNavion. Also, the speed would probably be more realistic if I made the empty weight closer to the realistic value somehow, but I have little experience (and patience) with mass scaling. Do you know how to make negative-mass ballasts?
That's a thing that actually happens sometimes. Guy comes in too hot, snags the last cable, then ends up staring at the water until he's rescued (if he didn't bail). IMAGE
@ChiChiWerx When you see the strings for palette colors at the bottom of the file like "Material color="003FFF" r="0.3" m="0.5" s="0.83"", the values m= and s= affect the reflectiveness. Setting both of these values to "1" has the chrome effect. It's more visible the lighter the color is, like white.
@tuco It's pretty nice. Very smooth and responsive with no undesirable flight characteristics. My only complaints are the yaw input is backwards, and the main gear should be closer to the CoM for earlier liftoff. I like the custom colors of the exhaust, and the stylishness of the guns.
@Treadmill103 Yeah! the design is naturally very tight aerodynamically. All it needed was a little tweaking, and you have a super-agile supersonic jet.
I find asymmetric thrust a bit exaggerated. However, I was able to fly my P-38 on one engine within the recommended airspeed listed in the USAAF pilot training manual. With hard rudder, slight flap deployment, slight bank, and proper elevator trim, I was able to get it to fly pretty straight and even too. Landing, however was another problem. But I did manage to do it after several tries. As @ChiChiWerx said, it's actually closer to realistic than you might think.
This thing decelerates crazy fast when you shut off the engines. The handling feels very natural despite being a tad slow. Overall, I'd give it a 9.5/10. But I always round up, so you get a perfect 10. I love this one. You should change your name to FantasticPlanes.
@Hockeygoalie21 I'm leaving my plane collision-capable. IMO, midair crashes add to the fun of watching the stream. I won't complain if I get knocked out by an impressive-looking crash. The show is worth it.
@SHCow The landing gear IS pretty bug-like. The fuselage and wing arrangement too. In fact, the entire thing is very reminiscent of a bug. Purely accidental, I assure you.
@t8erh8er This is true. I've made several designs utilizing this. Detachers can supply enough force to kick something out of the missile bay before any forward momentum builds up.
@JoddyFubuki788 I deleted the guns on this version. Lowered the part-count by 10 by doing so. I could have left them, but I REALLY wanted the part count to read exactly 100.
The autopilot is prioritizing assuming a neutral rate of climb which it does by banking away from any elevator-neutral nose-up drift. If you give it enough time, it eventually trims the elevator correctly enough to level the wings.
Looks pretty good. It's a little small, and the shape isn't perfect, but the detailing is nice.
Handling could be better. Turn rate is kinda lacking, and low-speed maneuvering has an issue with rolling input inversion. Pretty good plane overall though.
You have to improve the stability of the longitudinal axis.
Dihedrals are key here. They help keep the lift force parallel to the direction of gravity more constant through the roll up to a certain point.
Another thing to do is engineer your plane so that the AI can handle flying it inverted. One trick to test this is removing the cockpit, flipping the entire plane on its back, then replacing the cockpit on the plane's belly, and adjusting all the control surfaces. If the AI can handle flying it, you did good.
@azkampf It would be nice. It's a tough effect to replicate though. Even a lot of the flight simulators I used have flat motion blur. But it's up to the devs to implement things like that. Try suggesting it on the User Voice site.
@azkampf Yeah. Past a certain RPM, the model for the propeller blades becomes invisible and is replaced by a flat sprite that simulates the blur of a quickly-spinning prop.
@Treadmill103 Thanks!
Likely a mass distribution issue. Check to make sure the center of lift is behind the center of mass using the CoM, CoL, CoT view (spacebar).
@Alienbeef0421 Try using structural wings instead of the horizontal stabilizer part to build all-moving stabilators. And use rotators instead of hinges. Also try giving the wing a very slight neutral angle to get the proper counter-pitching lifting force.
@Justakidwithadream I'm Eastern Standard Time. About 12:30 AM. I'm actually going to bed right now.
Not 100% accurate, but fairly close. Good work.
Maneuverability is all about careful mass-balancing. Inch the center of lift as close as you can get it to the back of the center of mass while still retaining stability. You also want to try and line up the forward-and-back thrust line with the center of mass as best you can as well. Lower wing-loading also adds to the plane's maneuverability, and the positioning of the horizontal stabilizers is important as well, but not as important as mass balancing. A lot of people also use thrust-vectoring for added maneuverability, but that's a more advanced technique.
@Justakidwithadream My bad, buddy. My first plane was pretty awful too, I'll admit. Practice makes perfect. If you like, I could rewrite my review to sound less harsh.
I remember there being a glitch with cockpit scaling that messes with lock-on range.
I can't remember how to do it, and it might be patched, I'm not sure.
Ah, the often-forgotten Gray Ghost. Nice build!
Your first few builds are pretty great. Excellent work, new user! Work on the paintjobs though.
@Bluerobot11 Actually, top speed in level flight at optimal altitude, and maximum power and RPM for a lightly-loaded P-38L was listed as 414 mph. It was capable of slightly more if all the paint was stripped off, external drag points like pitots, lights, gun muzzles, etc were smoothed over, and it was running super light on fuel, but such a plane wasn't very useful for actual combat. And of course, external loads like bombs, fuel tanks, and rockets added to the drag, making the top speed much less than 414. Outside of level flight, the P-38 could safely exceed speeds of 500 mph in combat dives.
+1@Tully2001 YEAH it was.
Sorry about that. I'm pretty strict with my judgement. Especially when it comes to replica accuracy. Don't think of it as an attack on you.
@MrSilverWolf I love Embraer's regional airliners. This one here looks fantastic!
@Unreliablewaffle365 I'm not great at canopies or cockpits. But I could always give it a shot.
LOL
@MAHADI Thanks.
@ChiChiWerx @MAHADI @Unreliablewaffle365 Thanks!
@BogdanX Thanks. I built this one kind of fast. If I have the time (and motivation), I'll definitely try prettying it up. Finding good reference images is difficult because there are SO many variants of the Navion. Add all the details you see, and you end up with a FrankenNavion. Also, the speed would probably be more realistic if I made the empty weight closer to the realistic value somehow, but I have little experience (and patience) with mass scaling. Do you know how to make negative-mass ballasts?
@Treadmill103 Thanks.
@IStoleYourMeme Truth.
That's a thing that actually happens sometimes. Guy comes in too hot, snags the last cable, then ends up staring at the water until he's rescued (if he didn't bail).
IMAGE
@ChiChiWerx When you see the strings for palette colors at the bottom of the file like "Material color="003FFF" r="0.3" m="0.5" s="0.83"", the values m= and s= affect the reflectiveness. Setting both of these values to "1" has the chrome effect. It's more visible the lighter the color is, like white.
@tuco It's pretty nice. Very smooth and responsive with no undesirable flight characteristics. My only complaints are the yaw input is backwards, and the main gear should be closer to the CoM for earlier liftoff. I like the custom colors of the exhaust, and the stylishness of the guns.
@tuco Thanks!
@Treadmill103 Yeah! the design is naturally very tight aerodynamically. All it needed was a little tweaking, and you have a super-agile supersonic jet.
You missed the 6 degree dihedral of the main wings. Spitfire wings aren't level like yours.
I find asymmetric thrust a bit exaggerated. However, I was able to fly my P-38 on one engine within the recommended airspeed listed in the USAAF pilot training manual. With hard rudder, slight flap deployment, slight bank, and proper elevator trim, I was able to get it to fly pretty straight and even too. Landing, however was another problem. But I did manage to do it after several tries. As @ChiChiWerx said, it's actually closer to realistic than you might think.
This thing decelerates crazy fast when you shut off the engines. The handling feels very natural despite being a tad slow. Overall, I'd give it a 9.5/10. But I always round up, so you get a perfect 10. I love this one. You should change your name to FantasticPlanes.
Oh, yes! This is quite good indeed.
@MediocrePlanes I'll look forward to seeing it.
@Hockeygoalie21 I'm leaving my plane collision-capable. IMO, midair crashes add to the fun of watching the stream. I won't complain if I get knocked out by an impressive-looking crash. The show is worth it.
@Treadmill103 @AudioDud3 @Unreliablewaffle365 Thanks!
@MediciAviation243 I'd love to help you, but I'm going to bed, and I'll be very busy the next few days. Plus, I'm not great at cockpits either.
@SHCow The landing gear IS pretty bug-like. The fuselage and wing arrangement too. In fact, the entire thing is very reminiscent of a bug. Purely accidental, I assure you.
Wow. And to think I'm on page 4.
@t8erh8er This is true. I've made several designs utilizing this. Detachers can supply enough force to kick something out of the missile bay before any forward momentum builds up.
+1@ChiChiWerx I suppose I could have.
@JoddyFubuki788 I deleted the guns on this version. Lowered the part-count by 10 by doing so. I could have left them, but I REALLY wanted the part count to read exactly 100.
Best luck to you.
The autopilot is prioritizing assuming a neutral rate of climb which it does by banking away from any elevator-neutral nose-up drift. If you give it enough time, it eventually trims the elevator correctly enough to level the wings.
Very nice.
@MechWARRIOR57 There are some unlucky people who can't. Gotta look out for the little man.
@Treadmill103 Thank
Looks pretty good. It's a little small, and the shape isn't perfect, but the detailing is nice.
Handling could be better. Turn rate is kinda lacking, and low-speed maneuvering has an issue with rolling input inversion. Pretty good plane overall though.
You have to improve the stability of the longitudinal axis.
Dihedrals are key here. They help keep the lift force parallel to the direction of gravity more constant through the roll up to a certain point.
Another thing to do is engineer your plane so that the AI can handle flying it inverted. One trick to test this is removing the cockpit, flipping the entire plane on its back, then replacing the cockpit on the plane's belly, and adjusting all the control surfaces. If the AI can handle flying it, you did good.
@Survival Ha ha ha
Quick! Say her name without looking it up!
Shikieiki Yamaxanadu.
@azkampf It would be nice. It's a tough effect to replicate though. Even a lot of the flight simulators I used have flat motion blur. But it's up to the devs to implement things like that. Try suggesting it on the User Voice site.
I'm hanging upside down from my ankles yelling across the cold dungeon to a half-deaf interpreter who is writing my post for me.
@azkampf Yeah. Past a certain RPM, the model for the propeller blades becomes invisible and is replaced by a flat sprite that simulates the blur of a quickly-spinning prop.