How much Pressure on the side stick on landing the F16?

saberrider · by **saberrider** » 23 Mar 2019, 09:54

The landings is done by making sure that the AOA is constant, but speed range varies depending weight. So different pressure on the stick. What pressure range is used (quite little, half, fully). Also, it is hard to do without trimming the jet at one G?When do you deploy the speed brakes? Before you deploy landing gear I guess?And you get a little nose down if you deploy speed brakes after landing gear is down already?

LinkF16SimDude · by **LinkF16SimDude** » 24 Mar 2019, 11:29

From what I remember from my Viper Sim days some 20-odd years ago....if you're landing symmetrically in calm to light crosswinds you got into the proper AoA range more with the engine power setting than stick pressure. The WAG we used for the A-model with a centerline bag was 133kts + 3 kts for each thousand pounds of fuel (137 for the Block 25/32 and 140-ish for the Block 42). That put you into the 11-deg AoA ballpark then you just tweaked the power and stick as needed to get the AoA dialed in. If you had wing bags and/or unused stores those numbers would be a little higher still.

Speed brakes were as needed regardless of gear position down to 1000 AGL, at which point I'd leave them in the middle position (48 deg.) ready for Override when the nose gear touches.

If I needed to trim something out I did it well before final configuration using the FLCS panel thumbwheels. The trim button on the stick always drove way too fast. Especially in pitch.

saberrider · by **saberrider** » 25 Mar 2019, 16:27

Thanks you. So if you are in landing gains and speed @140kias, then the F16 will by at 11*AOA by itself. Only little bit of touch is needed for landing. But in close proximity of runaway, ground effect don't spoil the AOA?Also if you have to deploy the boards the nose doesn't drop a little just like when you activate the Alt flap?

LinkF16SimDude · by **LinkF16SimDude** » 27 Mar 2019, 08:19

You're going to cut the power to idle between 20 and 40 feet AGL, which will cause you to add a little back stick to help arrest the sink rate (with a little help from the Ground Effect). So if you've got the 11* speed nailed for whatever weight you are, it should not take much back stick to get you to 13* (just keep the FPM centered in the HUD AoA staple).