IndiaFoxtEcho F35 Lightning

First, the space I’m playing in wouldn’t allow using additional peripherals. Second, I like the practicality of the Xbox controller and it works fine with every aircraft so far. I would never intend to purchase and patch on a cumbersome keyboard just because some aircraft would need keybindings for some insignificant features. In this case, if switching nose wheel steering on/off is truly a feature in the F-35 then it must have its switch somewhere physically. I doubt real pilots attach a keyboard before flight to turn it on.

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Brother, get a wireless 10key numpad and then you can have all the key binds you want with a minimal footprint.

As for the nose wheel steering switch, front side of stick maybe? Cant remember for sure and it’s been so long(pre major update) that I’ve been in the F35.

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I doubt they also use an xbox controller either so thats a moot point

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IndiaFoxtEcho F35 Lightning.

Hi I just flew the updated F35C and F35A and had a wierd issue in the cockpit. I was unable to use the mouse to change panel states on the glass cockpit. I in the picture below I was able to mouse click on the area in green but not able to mouse click anywhere in the area circled in yellow. Did some investigation in the manual and creators facebook page but couldn’t find anything.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

I just flew the F35 to check out the latest update and did not encounter that issue.

On another note, the sounds are just incredible now with deep-rumbling afterburner and perfect wind noises. I had an absolute blast with it.

Nope, they use knobs and switches or functions on the PCD that should also be modeled without the need for key bindings.

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Ditto! Right on the money. If the real aircraft has a toggle on the control stick or in one of the pilot facing displays, then we should be able to just toggle that on the fly and get steering while taxiing

Oh wow… Really?

I cannot wait for this!! Will probably drop on Xbox in a week or so I’m guessing

No but they do not need to attach an extra peripheral just to get the nws working so your point is actually moot.

If real pilots toggle it on/off from the cockpit, we should be able to do the same by bringing up the mouse pointer and clicking on or selecting the relevant command/button/switch

Hi
The switch can be found in front side of flight controls stick as someone was remembering, just found it myself.

-eelis-

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Just had my first flight after the update with the F-35A. Great sound and now also very good cockpit vieuws. No issues with the PFD’s: can click everywhere and get responses. When encountering an issue it sometime helps, when you restart the sim. If not, then just delete the plane add-on and redownload it. Hope, that the issue with your PFD’s will be solved.

IndiaFoxtEcho F35 Lightning II.

I have tracked down the source of the glass cockpit and afterburner issues in the F35. It was the F-35 Improvement Mod by Lord Frites available on flightsim.to. They have actually deactivated downloading of the mod.

So if you have this mod, folder name ‘lrdfrt-aircraft-f35’ I would highly recommend you deactivate it till and new update is posted. The creator suggests they are working on an new update. Link to mod page F-35 Improvement Mod for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS.

Hope this helps anyone who is having any issues.

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Hi, I jus installed MCFS from steam and bough the F35 plane from JustFlight. I seem to be experiencing some problems with the pdc screen , im using dx 11 and all settings to ultra on a win 10 , very powerfull system nvidia 4090 and some of theose new fancy intel cores cant remember the numbers , my probelms are that when I open autopilot the squares in which you are supossed to imput your altitude for example and other such values are just blank black squares you cant imput anything , only route hold and 1 diferent one seems to be functioning, also when i press menu an then cruise to reset my in plane screen to crusie mode in the quater of the screen under the menu a specific window opens with bunch of numerics , basically such commands as menu-cruise also dont work? Do you have any idea what is couseing such strange bugs? Thanks in advance.

Ps , the just flight version comes with an autoinstaller , you unzip the thing whenever you want and you run the exe and follow the setup , just occured to me that such info might be helpfull if somehow the setup is cousing some unique bug .

1.3.5 is now available on the marketplace, PC and Xbox. I immediately downloaded the update and tried it. I have all positive impressions!

  • A note for future reference for anyone who’s using an Xbox controller and no mouse: although stated otherwise in the manual, you don’t actually have to set a key binding to enable nose wheel steering. As stated before in this thread, there is a white switch at the front of the control stick, that cycles through the different NWS options (off, normal and high from what I could interpret). The switch is clickable even from the default interior camera position. Just press it once and nose wheel steering works. I personally didn’t bother with key bindings as my controller is congested enough already.

  • Sounds are finally perfect! The annoying oscillating sound is gone, the afterburner has a loud roar and the wind noise is also excellent. I find both the startup and shutdown sounds a bit more “meaty” than before, too, although that could be a placebo effect.

  • I like the additional effect on the PCD (whenever you click something there’s a red crosshair flashing up) and I’ve yet to explore the new menus on offer, and play around with the autopilot. Skipping a few weeks of flying I have to re-learn quite a few things.

  • The adjusted external view is also great, the camera zooms a bit more on the aircraft than before. This is exactly how I always set it up manually before, now it’s just at the right zoom level by default.

Overall I’m perfectly happy with how the aircraft now sounds and operates and even with the additional realism it’s perfectly usable and enjoyable on Xbox, even purely with a controller. Looking forward to flying it much more now.

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It’s an excellent update all in all, agreed, enjoying it to bits.

Chase cam zoom too close for comfort. Looks very weird moving the camera from the front and side to the back. Way too zoomed in and makes the tail and engine nozzle too large.

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What does the VS BIT NO GO error message mean? I’m flying without issues but it’s constantly there. What did I miss?

You now have to go through a self test procedure. Press the small button in front of the main ignition switch (I think it is) behind the throttle and the message will state ‘running’ while it goes through the procedure.

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Thanks. In the meantime I realized it’s only operable on the ground. So I landed, pressed the button and it stated VS BIT RUNNING, then it disappeared. I like these little features in an aircraft, something more to fiddle with.

Another pleasant surprise were the audio callouts, when I disengage the autopilot and autothrottle, or when I reach JOKER and BINGO fuel, etc. The plane feels much more alive now.

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Maybe someone can help me. I looked at the manual but it doesn’t contain such data and I seemingly can’t find anything on the internet. I’m curious about some numbers about the F-35, namely:

  • V speeds. Any data or best practices for rotation and climb speeds, or do we just eyeball it every time? I mean, obviously I have no issue taking off, I’m just curious if there are set numbers for economical use, per variant.

  • Landing speed, stall speed. Same as above — I have a hard time figuring out at what speed I should be landing. I have no information on stall speed either. Currently I usually aim for around 150 kts for landing (F-35A), but I have no idea whether it’s even remotely accurate.

  • Economical cruise. What’s the best cruise speed / level usually? I know the F/A-18 has a page that displays the ideal cruise level, the F-35 doesn’t seem to have such functionality. How do I get the farthest? (In the F-35A I must add. The B variant eats up the fuel in no time.)


Edit: I did some testing with the F-35A loaded with 50% fuel. It looks like the plane starts to leave the ground at around 120-130 kts if the stick is pulled back with 0 trim. (I also don’t know what’s a good trim value for takeoff, obviously it’s manual below a certain AGL.) Obviously, it accelerates so quickly (even without afterburner) that pinpointing an exact V speed is very hard, and quite possibly pointless, too, as a result.

Stall seems to occur at around 100-110 kts IAS, although the aircraft seems to lose its stability and maneuverability at around 120. I definitely got a stall warning below 100.

I set the autothrottle to 150 kts for landing. It feels reasonable. AT disengages automatically on touchdown so this is a great way to land in a nice, stable manner (I use only an Xbox controller which makes it hard to finely adjust throttle manually). It’s possible that in low wind conditions the aircraft can safely approach and land even slower, possibly even 130-140 kts.

Obviously I still don’t know about cruise as it would require long and extensive testing. It would be great to know what altitude and speed is best for this aircraft.