There’s not a lot of lift or control authority to work with at what feels like a reasonable approach speed, so what I’m doing is setting flaps to full, applying full up elevator, and using the throttle to control both descent rate and airspeed.
What I’m finding is that I can’t seem to find a way to get airspeed and descent rate to be in the sweet spot simultaneously. A good airspeed still leaves the descent rate high enough to give me the Black Screen of Death with the sad music and the “you damaged your landing gear” message, while a good descent rate leaves me running out of runway really quick. I have yet to log a successful landing.
@UranicNote09
The DC design F-15 has an AoA indicator and in such aircraft you are primarily using AoA for the approach.
I don’t know if the AoA indicator is correctly calibrated in the DC F-15, but the real F-15 flies a normal approach at 21 units AoA (10° AoA), which means a pitch attitude of +7° on a 3° glideslope.
On the real and the DC F-15 there’s a marker at 21 units for the approach.
Using full up elevator is a very bad idea. Not only will the pitch attitude too high and hence the speed too low, you have no up elevator left for the essential flare!
What’s your weight? If you try to land with a heavy F-15, the approach speed will be very high and the rate of descent as well.
With a ‘normal’ weight of ~30000lbs the approach speed on the real one is only 130kts with flaps.
At 50000lbs Vapp increases to 174kts.
As mentioned above, a flare is essential on the F-15, so you shouldn’t damage your landing gear.
Furthermore ground effect on the real F-15 is pronounced and touchdowns are usually very smooth.
I did play around with it and flying at lower weights definitely does help. I guess I was operating at MTOW out of habit, which you can get away with in pretty much everything else I’ve flown regularly so far (up to and including a King Air). I’m guessing the Air Force doesn’t do that when they just want to make a short hop across town. The approach was a bit easier at 50% fuel.
There is an AoA indicator on the default HUD you can enable in external view, so I was flying on that for a while. By my observation, the elevator authority was sufficient to maintain 14 degrees AoA at MTOW, regardless of airspeed or power settings. 10 degrees definitely sounds doable.
I guess I’m also just used to the default F/A-18 in FSX, carrier fighters are sort of built for the kinds of flareless landings that keep breaking this Air Force jet.
Hi, the F-15 Eagles are aerodynamically realistic enough that you must be inside landing weight limits in order for the aircraft to perform as expected. For the Eagles in general you’d ideally be at 45,000lbs or less. When the weights are right and you’re set up correctly for landing ( which you’re doing correctly, riding the throttle to control descent rate ) the Eagles will land at around 140 knots indicated with 8 degrees AOA in the HUD indicator.
In real life, the Strike Eagle can land at up to 190 knots indicated, depending on how much weight it’s carrying. Descent rate and AOA are the main considerations, with a weather-eye on airspeed just in case things get out of hand ( too slow being the main danger ).
Finally, the Eagles always flare on touch down as mentioned, and ground effect does get quite high over the runway. Cut the power at 30ft and flare as the descent rate increases and things should go better for you
The approach was a bit easier at 50% fuel.