F/A-18 tutorial?

I’m gonna need one because I have no idea how to work the computer as far as waypoints and the autopilot etc.

It’s definitely no Cessna. :rofl:

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Wow, the Hornet really puts the hurt on my CPU like no other plane I’ve seen. Anyone else?

My CPU would be maybe 20-25% with many planes, and on the Hornet while buzzing around, I have short, yet sustained, instances of >80%. This is on an i7-10700.

TIme to keep checking YouTube for that tutorial, too…

Also interested in any resources on the F18, I’ve googled a few from other sims but it’s either a slightly different model or different implementation because it seems to have irrelevant details

I did find that it has some basic autopilot settings including Radar/Barometric altitude holds, and a heading hold, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to set the heading.

I also struggled to hold altidude at 40 000 feet, engine just struggled and stalled out around 120 knots even with anti-ice on etc so I clearly have no idea what I’m doing with this plane!

As for performance - it does seem pretty heavy on my end too, I get better performance in a A320 airliner for sure

Bottom left of the front panel, below the left screen, are some knobs. One of them is a heading knob. Hold it left or right to adjust the heading bug left or right on the lower screen. I haven’t checked yet, but once you start moving the heading bug you ought to be able to type in the desired heading on the keypad under the HUD directly.

40,000 ft is pretty much how high an F/A-18E goes. Don’t think you’re doing much wrong.

But, how do i disable the AP, i cant find it out.

Ah okay. ATC told me to climb to 45k feet, guess it’s just classic ATC haha

These military planes make everything so hard. That is probably by design. Keep jackwads like us from easily taking a jaunt.

I was hoping after the F-14, it would be more intuitive. WRONG! Maybe later they do but this is…challenging. :slight_smile:

Can’t figure out Navigation at all at the moment.

At least they have some knobs and switches in a position you can read labels without turning your head awkward.

Gonna’ need a manual and some tutorials for sure!

@bananafactory87 @Kinneas2020

Here you go. Thanks to @Raynen for doing the community this service.

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Not the same simulator, but you can find some F/A-18E info here:
https://forums.vrsimulations.com/support/index.php/Cockpit_Systems#Cockpit_Overview

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Anyone know what they call the speed brake control setting? Can’t find any and have to resort to tight “S” turns to slow down before landing. Thanks.

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The f18 ist more simple then the f14. but it has a lot more systems, that’s just more to learn. but the individual points are simpler

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Shortly I’ll see that point and look forward to getting there. As well experiencing the evolution in the generations beyond it.

Eagerly awaiting my YouTube instructors. : wags clipboard and pen :

The Spoiler.

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Thanks for the Spoilers…I’ll check it out later.

You might want to take a look at DCS tutorials. There are some real solid ones on startup, takeoff and landings. Other than a few items that aren’t modeled in this version, it’s pretty close. Especially surprised that they included a working meatball and E bracket. Many things work the same and you might find it very useful.

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I had been looking at DCS but still was not able to figure out how to get the autopilot modes activated.

In general, there’s only attitude hold and altitude hold. There is no real autopilot as in airliners. There’s also no GPS for navigating (they use TACAN). In the F-18C that I fly in DCS, there is a button row bellow the UFC (up front controller with all the buttons). You would press the AP button, then the ON button. Then you would have a selection of what autopilot hold you would want.

That is the difficult part, there are differences between the C and E versions, I just don’t know the differences well since I only did a few landings in the Super hornet. I’ll jump on now and come back if I find it.

OK…spent the last hour messing with it. It is not really implemented correctly. On the UFC (that is the controller in the middle top that has the numbers) you can press the A/P button and then the different modes comes up. BALT is barometric altitude, RALT is radar altitude, HDG is heading and so forth. It appears you would press the ones you want and it would hold. However, never found a way to be able to move the heading bug. In the hornet, there is a knob on the MPCD (that is the bottom middle monitor) that would allow you to move the heading bug. It doesn’t have it and I tried just about everything I could think of to move it (even assigning the controls for bug increase etc.) to no avail. Looks like it isn’t working yet. Pretty sure modders will come and fix that but unless I’m missing something.

Interesting enough, you can navigate many of the menus (although most buttons are innoperative) but the bones are there for how the system works. You can see the HUD, HSI, Map mode, etc. We’ll see what happens with this mod.

This should help, let me know if anything needs improvement as far as clarity goes.

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AP is a lot different on military planes then civilian… But I’m not an expert, just used them a bit in DCS. Not sure how they are modeled in MSFS.

Where is the barometric altitude set? Please send picture of location, and how to change it.