Flaps have a mind of there own on the hornet
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Can you before specific? I flew the hornet and the flaps worked like they are suppose to according to the POH. They are not like the flaps on a Cessna!
You need to turn all the assists offâŠ
The F/A-18E irl has automatic flaps, you also got a switch for that in cockpit.
Thatâs not a bug, itâs a real life feature: they are going to extend when airspeed drops.
So if OP does not wanna say something else than âFlaps extend on their own when flying slow while flaps switch is set to âAutoââ itâs simply NOT A BUG.
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In auto mode, flaps will âhave a mind of their ownâ and adjust based on airspeed to give you the most lift.
In half mode they are set to half for takeoff.
In full mode they are set full down for landing.
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glad to have found this information. I do wonder why the flaps adjust so much on taxing though. Is this also normal IRL? thanks, Tim
Is there any tutorial how to disable the auto flaps? may be in the cfg file?
Note, the flaps even in up-auto should not move on deck; with weight on wheels they should be at certain angles depending on configuration and selected flap position.
Why would you want to do that? They are a fundamental part of the fly-by-wire system.
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I have a related question about F-18. When on the ground the control surfaces (ailerons and elevator) can rotate much more (larger angle) than when in the air. It looks like it also depends on the aircraft speed. So the question is how can I turn off that automatic behavior and have full control regardless of my speed? Iâm ok if it will stall or even spin - just turn off those safety features. Is there a way to do so?
Thanks
Itâs fly by wireâŠI donât believe there is a way to do that
Do you mean that this behavior is accurate to real life and thereâs no way to turn off these features at all? There are systems in cars like ABS and Traction Control), but they are usually can be disabled. I expected something similar here as well.
PS Are you sure thatâs not a simplification of the sim?
The Hornet, like most fighter aircraft of its generation and later, is aerodynamically unstable and would be impossible to control without the fly-by-wire system.
Supersonic jets are not cars. 
Most military jets are inherently unstable and the fly-by-wire computers manage the control surfaces. You canât disable the auto flaps as itâs part of their ânot killing the pilotâ systems.
Wings and control surfaces designed for supersonic flight donât provide the same lift as, say, a Cessna and have to account for airflow separation. The flaps in the F-18 are likely balancing out the constantly changing center of lift too. You may want to watch this video:
The fly by wire system is inherently part of the aircraft. I think the better question is, âare the flaps deploying in an overcorrecting nature?â
There are moments where the flaps become more of a burden than an assist. Most likely this is just an issue with the way the fly by wire system has been coded, it just needs some âtweeking.â
The little annoyances are similar to the DA-40 NG in the sim. I instructed in those for well over 500 hours and even landed one in the desert when the turbo failed. The coding for the fadec in the sim needs work.
I am interested to see how many of these aircraft, the F-18 especially, behave when Sim Update 8 brings Computational Fluid Dynamics into the sim.
As I understand it, auto flaps on an F-18 are only supposed to come into play during non-cruise (fast changing) conditions (such as takeoff) and only when asked for and ânot be wigglingâ every time a pilot makes a power or attitude adjustment. Last I heard âpower controls altitude, pitch controls airspeed.â If flaps get into the game âunasked forâ, then the pilot never will be able to get a particular airspeed and altitude set. Does this make sense to anyone?
That isnât how the fly-by-wire works. The F-18 system constantly adjusts the wing configuration for the flight condition. It adjusts the elevators to provide changes in pitch as commanded by the pilot. Except when wheels down, increasing in power produces no pitch up of the flight path, and reducing it produces no pitch down (within normal operating limits of course - there are AoA limits) Hands off, it is âtrimmedâ to 1 G. The aircraft is aerodynamically unstable, with the desired level of âstabilityâ being provided by fly-by-wire feedback. Any changes in trim due to flap movements are dealt with automatically as a normal consequence of the way the system operates.
In landing configuration, it more closely emulates a conventional aircraft - you trim for airspeed, and adjust throttle for rate of descent. Presumably it is done this way to make precise on-speed-and-angle carrier landings easier.
The Hornet does differ in that regard, in Powered Approach mode it trims specifically for AoA. As you mentioned this done to make it easier to land with an optimum hook to deck angle and reduce the chances of a bolter.
I accept all that you say, so let me put it this way. Before my FSX âbrokeâ about two months ago (never to be restored again, I suppose), I flew the VRS F/A-18E âSuperbugâ for over 2000 hours over at least two years. Never a carrier pilot when I was in the Marines over 50 years ago, by referring to NATOPS manuals, I first taught myself how to land a T-28C on a carrier, learned to do the same in a T-2C, and finally spent most of my time after that with the aforementioned Superbug. The Superbug performed marvelously. I could set power and trim up and fly straight and level for a long timeâalmost as if I was on autopilot. Not so with the FS2020 F-18. Many times I worked meticulously to manually get the plane set on 300 kts at 3000 ft, set the trim, but within two minutes the plane would lose trim and begin a slow descent. Thatâs when I noticed (in external view), that for everything I did the flaps stayed in continuous motion ⊠and not just a little bit, but a lot (flappinâ like a bird). Soon I also discovered that whether I set flaps at half or full (by the cockpit indicators), the flaps (externally) always extended to full. Ever since, Iâve always wondered at what flaps setting the flight model was flying at: half or full. This F-18 has comparatively little functionality implemented, but I can live with that until (hopefully) some day that is improved. What I CANâT live with is an airplane that wonât keep trim for more than about 15 seconds. Further comments would be much appreciated.
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I was describing the actual F-18. The MSFS model isnât even remotely accurate in regard to flight modelling. If you want a better approximation try DCS.