jimb@faatcrl.UUCP (Jim Burwell) (10/29/89)
After having played Falcon for a while now (actually, Falconmission), I think I've come across a serious bug in their flight simulation code. It is very repeatable... Try this: Accelerate to about 550 - 575 KTS. Make sure you are cruising at about this speed (it probably wont happen if you have stage five afterburners going). Now pull back on the stick very slowly, until your stick indicator is sitting just slightly above (about on top) of your flight path indicator. The nose will rise slowly in about a 1-2 G pullup, for a very wide arc. Once you hit vertical (+90 deg.), the plane will roll left slightly, and stall! You will then enter an uncontrollable spin and crash. Note, that this is at to Colonel level, which I always fly, because the other modes fly very unrealistically. Also, I always fly in mouse 2 mode, becuase joystick-jerk control doesn't give you the degree of control that an analog control gives you (you can't just leave the stick in a position other than centered in joystick mode.. Can't slow roll, etc). Anyway, when the stall happens, the hud still reads about 400 - 450 KTS! If this is Indicated Airspeed, (which it's supposed to be), a stall just can't happen! The f-16 stalls at about 100 KTS indicated (maybe lower). Indicated airspeed means that that airspeed is still flowing over the wings. And if 400 KTS of airspeed is still flowing over the wings, they can't be stalled! The only way you can stall a wing at speeds like that is by yanking too many instantaneous Gs, increasing the angle of attack to the point that relative wind is not flowing smoothly over the wing producing lift, but is slamming against the chord of the wing, interrupting airflow, and killing lift. This is called a high speed stall. But this is not what happened, because in my situation, the plane is not pulling many gs, or pitching very quickly, so airflow should still be flowing smoothly over the wing. Plus, high speed stalls usually only happen in a very high speed dive, with a very high-g pullout (because gravity is assisting the change of direction of the relative wind). It happened to a lot of dive bombers in WWII and other wars. Has this situation happened to any other Falcon addicts out there in net land ? Am I misinterpreting the situation ? Perhaps Spectrum Holobyte made a mistake, and the hud is actually reading True Airspeed (TAS) instead of IAS.. That would change everything :-). This "bug" is VERY annoying, and needs to be fixed! Perhaps some letters should be written to Spectrum Holobyte... Keep yer head out, and watch yer 6 :-) Jim -- +------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+ | James S. Burwell | | | | "UseNet...A text network | | UUCP: | in a binary world" - Me | | ...!{ames!netsys|rutgers}!faatcrl | | | !jimb | "How do you say | | . | 'multitasking' in | | Internet: . | MS-DOSish? Network | | // jimb@faatcrl.UUCP . ** | File Server!" - Me | | // . **** | | | \\ // GEnie: Airwarior: . .** | <reserved for future> | | \X/ JIMBURWELL Techrat . | <expansion.... > | +------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+
jimb@faatcrl.UUCP (Jim Burwell) (10/29/89)
After having played Falcon for a while now (actually, Falconmission), I think I've come across a serious bug in their flight simulation code. It is very repeatable... Try this: Accelerate to about 550 - 575 KTS. Make sure you are cruising at about this speed (it probably wont happen if you have stage five afterburners going). Now pull back on the stick very slowly, until your stick indicator is sitting just slightly above (about on top) of your flight path indicator. The nose will rise slowly in about a 1-2 G pullup, for a very wide arc. Once you hit vertical (+90 deg.), the plane will roll left slightly, and stall! You will then enter an uncontrollable spin and crash. Note, that this is at to Colonel level, which I always fly, because the other modes fly very unrealistically. Also, I always fly in mouse 2 mode, becuase joystick-jerk control doesn't give you the degree of control that an analog control gives you (you can't just leave the stick in a position other than centered in joystick mode.. Can't slow roll, etc). Anyway, when the stall happens, the hud still reads about 400 - 450 KTS! If this is Indicated Airspeed, (which it's supposed to be), a stall just can't happen! The f-16 stalls at about 100 KTS indicated (maybe lower). Indicated airspeed means that that airspeed is still flowing over the wings. And if 400 KTS of airspeed is still flowing over the wings, they can't be stalled! The only way you can stall a wing at speeds like that is by yanking too many instantaneous Gs, increasing the angle of attack to the point that relative wind is not flowing smoothly over the wing producing lift, but is slamming against the chord of the wing, interrupting airflow, and killing lift. This is called a high speed stall. But this is not what happened, because in my situation, the plane is not pulling many gs, or pitching very quickly, so airflow should still be flowing smoothly over the wing. Plus, high speed stalls usually only happen in a very high speed dive, with a very high-g pullout (because gravity is assisting the change of direction of the relative wind). It happened to a lot of dive bombers in WWII and other wars. Has this situation happened to any other Falcon addicts out there in net land ? Am I misinterpreting the situation ? Perhaps Spectrum Holobyte made a mistake, and the hud is actually reading True Airspeed (TAS) instead of IAS.. That would change everything :-). This "bug" is VERY annoying, and needs to be fixed! Perhaps some letters should be written to Spectrum Holobyte... Keep yer head out, and watch yer 6 :-) Jim -- +------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+ | James S. Burwell | | | | "UseNet...A text network | | UUCP: | in a binary world" - Me | | ...!{ames!netsys|rutgers}!faatcrl | | | !jimb | "How do you say | | . | 'multitasking' in | | Internet: . | MS-DOSish? Network | | // jimb@faatcrl.UUCP . ** | File Server!" - Me | | // . **** | | | \\ // GEnie: Airwarior: . .** | <reserved for future> | | \X/ JIMBURWELL Techrat . | <expansion.... > | +------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+
gmb@iclswe.UUCP (Grahame Budd) (11/01/89)
The problem i've hit is as follows. Take off with a CAT 3 load, Mk84 bombs for example. Release all the CAT 3 hardware. The simulation still gives a fatal spin stall if you invert. I don't know if this is the correct response but from the specs of the launch rails it doesn't look right. BTW I agree with you about the COLONEL level being easier to fly. The responses are a lot more natural; there is however a bit of bother with the SAMs.