Stability and Control characteristics of the Early Mark Spitfires

[Crumpp]

Crumpp. I do not understand actually what you want? I understand the Spit control and stability tests. I do not understand how to realize these characteristics in the game, where the players have completely different controller (stick length, stick dimensions, turning points of the aileron and elevator)? If the old, unique stick characteristics want to apply to the most common joy forms, the "historically correction" compromised in any case. Not to mention that you can change all handling characteristics with the joy softwares.

Therefore, I vote against it. Not against of historical authenticity, but the applicability in the game.

Tom,

It is not just stick settings.

1. The aircraft moves to trim speeds but overshoots. That means it is always in motion and must be controlled.

Can it be controlled? Yes of course.

Is it easy to accurately aim while doing that? Not at all.

So while a player might mitigate the sensitive elevator and heavy ailerons, they would still have to constantly control the aircraft motion. This is especially noticeable in accelerated flight or turn.

A reworking of the stick settings would eliminate this and allow the stability and control features of each aircraft to be more accurately modeled. Just go the a dead zone to 100% curve. That way, somebody could flatten out response around the dead zone but the slope of the curve increases as we get closer to full deflection. One could "pick their poison" so to speak but could not eliminate modeled behaviors.

The developers can also model the airframe limits. Currently, you cannot bend or break the airframe and the accelerated stall is non-existent.

The aircraft's reaction to gun recoil could also be modeled. As an unstable platform, the arm is shorter which means less resistance to motion.

The penalties on turn performance for riding the buffet or pulling into it. Completely independent of stick settings.

The idea is to get player in the mindset of a WWII pilot flying the modeled type of aircraft. That is IL2 Cliffs of Dover main strength IMHO and why I got the game.

We have all seen the RAE concerns about pilot's not pushing the aircraft to the limits because of their fear of the flying qualities. That is fear is justified by the measured results of the NACA. Yes, the airplane had great stall characteristics too. The caveat being what is emphasized in the Operating Notes, correct and immediate application of the controls. The right control movements at the right time. If the pilot did not immediately make the correct inputs, the aircraft would spin after flicking out of the turn on a reciprocal course.

If he made the correct inputs, the aircraft recovered and even maintained a relatively high degree of aileron control just above stall. The NACA mentions that because it is unusual. Touching the ailerons on a stalled wing in general is not a good idea. Cessna drivers do it all the time, though, LOL. In most aircraft the rudder is the only effective control immediately post stall.

It does leave the aircraft with its tail toward the enemy and the choice of continuing with a slight altitude loss in slow flight or diving for more airspeed.

So the penalties for the buffet and the accelerated stall characteristics can also easily be modeled.

To mitigate the fact players could dial out the most important characteristic that made an early mark Spitfire unique, the sensitive elevator and heavy ailerons. Since players are going to cheat, developers can too. I did this in Warbirds and it worked great when I did the Bf-109 and Spitfire models.
If an accelerated stall is reached, the aircraft spins. This keeps players in the mindset to stay off the stall point.

So it eliminates a nice feature of the Spitfires stall characteristic but realistically, Spitfire pilots did not seek the stall except as rare method to escape an unwanted combat. If the players are going to cheat, let the developers do so as well.