DCS AV-8B | Landing the Harrier on the Carrier [Tutorial]

[@rodrigobarbosa6610]

Wow! The best video yet about how to land the Harrier. Thank you for taking your time to do this.

[@epoch71]

One of the best DCS tutorials I've seen. Excellent work. Thank you.

[@lokodehortaleza]

Watched this a couple of times, haven't fallen off the ship ever since. Best instructor.

[@Wllmgab12]

Most Excellent video, well done!! I was pulling out my hair trying to figure out how to vertical land this plane, let alone get on the carrier. A Big thanks Maverick.

[@Aeronaut1975]

Fantastic video, it's an enormous help. Thank you for taking the time to make it. 10/10 for your communication and flying skills.

[@MrPhantom453]

Great level of detail, advice & tips. Thanks for making this vid. Nice flying too.

[@dunbar555]

Great editing, good flying, awesome accent. Flawless video!

[@Hellreign82]

Really nice Bud. I always find myself dancing with the nozzles and consequently messing it up. I'll try this method of going Hover stop and balancing the hat Good work 07

[@104thMaverick]

Hellreign82 Nice one mate let me know how you get on! Remember high work load kills! You want to make it as easy as possible for yourself as you approach alongside, so get that Hover Stop early and ride it out, good luck S!

[@Express0083]

Hellreign82 witches hat

[@BuzZoo]

So composed, so precise. Great video.

[@TitanCalE]

I find the moving ship the easiest. But skrew me. What a nice and complete tutorial here. Looking forward to a crowded deck with crewmen and helicopters parked all over the place.

[@jonhayes9223]

Outstanding video. I’ve subscribed and I look forward to learning more DCS from your clips. Your narration is super pleasant to listen to as well.

[@uscstaylor]

Thanks man that helps a lot, I appreciate you doing this for me.

[@Mi1lerTime]

Awesome, Maverick.

[@welsh2266]

Nice vid mate. Any chance in you having time to make an updated version of this mate using all the aides at your disposal? I'm thinking of buying this soon and would love to see more. Many thanks

[@belgeode]

Nicely done!

[@madlynx3758]

Thank you very much. Learned a lot here. Thumbs up for a Excellent Video.

[@GazzaB1975]

That is an awesome tutorial. Thanks. I must get my arse back into the seat of this puppy and spend some serious time learning.

[@EinsteinEP]

Great video, thanks for the examples and tips!

[@fredericborloo1910]

Excellent instruction! Love your vids!

[@coxy8102]

Top stuff going to give it a try.

[@jodifu6274]

Damn! You make this look easy, and it is NOT easy!

[@104thMaverick]

Thanks man!

[@TheTerriblePilot]

Small gripe but thats not a carrier. Its an LHA, or Landing Helicopter Assault Ship. Specifically it's the USS Tarawa. I actually did some VBSS training on the Tarawa at the Navy's Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Pearl Harbor, back when I was romping around with 1st Recon.

[@duphmongus]

Great video well made and informative

[@Papershields001]

I’m still really disappointed that the UK chose to go STOVL. I mean I understand why going CATOBAR would’ve been to expensive, but the a Queen Elizabeth is HUGE! She could’ve easily used arrestor wires for landing and the ski jump for taking off. She could probably fly EA-18G Growlers off her if the Royal Navy had the inclination.

[@Papershields001]

Maybe even Rafales

[@aewers7]

Seen hundreds of landings from the deck never had this view myself, Was avionics on these beast with vma 211, on deployment i seen one land with no nose gear, truly impressive shit, also seen one take off (against maintenance advice) with a broken chain to one of the nozzles, needless to say that one ended up in the bottom of the pacific.

[@ArtietheArchon]

did you say takeoff with a broken nozzle chain??? might as well leave the canopy open too

[@aewers7]

@@ArtietheArchon it did not go over well at all

[@alemanmza]

Great video, thanks guys!

[@Brimmlinn]

Easily the best tutorial yet. Can I ask what, if any, curves you are using? I can see you are constantly moving the stick as expected, just curious.

[@104thMaverick]

20 on all 3 Axis with a deadzone of 1, I use a Logitech 3D Pro for my stick.

[@TrickerDCS]

Great stuff brother

[@bradmiller2039]

Well Done Really helped me with my landings!

[@TechGamer45]

Great vid, Just need the docs for the RN invincible class...

[@mactgnr]

Nice vid bud, looks so easy....

[@Plydrms]

That's some nice smooth flying. What are your graphic settings? Your water looks amazing....any enhancements like reshade, or nvidea inspector?..thanks

[@BIGNEWY]

Nice tutorial mate

[@Phoenix_VR]

very well done.

[@104th_pyromaniac5]

Another top notch tutorial, thanks buddy! Gonna make this some required viewing when 2.5 rolls out and we start regularly hosting Caucasus again. And also going to be making good use of the "witch's hat" terminology, hadn't heard that before. Probably going to get on people's nerves a bit, but I think it's worth it.

[@104thMaverick]

Thanks man

[@beny874]

This is great man. Thanks for this. I do have a question though. I can usually fly 2 sorties just fine from the carrier. However, on my third recovery I lose engine power after about 10 seconds of being in hover. My water is on, DECS is on. I'm not sure what I'm doing to overdress the engine.

[@104thMaverick]

Not had this happen to me or heard of it from anyone else but I will keep an eye out for it. I've had more than 3 recoveries on to the boat so it hasn't happened to me yet.

[@fargo007]

Excellent breakdown here, and thank you. Question - what was the wing load for all of these landings? I could see the fuel amounts in the cockpit but did not have any reference to what weight was on the wings.

[@104thMaverick]

fargo007 Thanks! Wing loading was Two Fueltanks with Two Aim9s (one of each on both wings)

[@fargo007]

Thanks! Are short landings done on the ship as well, for when the wing loading is just too heavy to do the standard landing like this? Hoping to see that covered in future videos if so.

[@104thMaverick]

In an emergency yes, however under normal conditions the procedure would be to dump fuel / hold until your fuel was low enough to make a landing attempt. Harrier pilots often landed with only a few minutes of fuel remaining so its important to train this on land before attempting to make any low fuel landings on the boat ;)

[@Epicburst]

So when would you use a vertical landing over a regular one, or vice versa?

[@104thMaverick]

Harriers do not land like conventional aircraft on a carrier mate, all landings are vertical on a ship, unless it's an emergency or something is wrong with the engine.

[@Epicburst]

104th_Maverick That's really cool! Thanks for the answer!

[@P90F55]

Like a pro.

[@Lynch30]

awesome vid mav

[@quimwawa]

Nice, fantastic!!! Thx

[@38fade]

Thank you for a very informative video 👍 Is the hovers top a button, sorry just after getting this😁

[@104thMaverick]

Thanks! Hover stop is not a button mate no, its the term for the nozzle position when it is at 82 degrees:)

[@jambo211]

Awesome bro

[@juniorslothsix5562]

very good

[@skulleader]

Hello, in first a great thanks for this awesome video +1 At 8:00 you use the Tacan, is it the tacan of the ship ? If it's the case please can you give me the frequency of the tacan for this ship ? Also, do you use the waypoints (with mission editor) for have rejoin the ship ? In advance a great thanks, Skulleader +1

[@104thMaverick]

skulleader hi and thanks! Sadly the Tacan is not working yet so everything is VFR at the moment sir, we hope to have tacan added for ships in the near future.

[@skulleader]

Thanks for your answer, I wait the Tacan because it's the must to have for our Harrier +1

[@skulleader]

Hello again, please can you me us the spedd of your ship ? 22 knt ? Thanks in advance ;-)

[@104thMaverick]

Its a different speed on some of the clips but I think on 2 or 3 of the clips its doing 18 knots. I try not to worry too much about what speed the ship is doing before I reach it and prefer to match the speed visually first then cross check my HUD speed to see how fast she is going.

[@Bers81]

External lights off for landing?

[@MysticSaruman]

Thanks for the video. One question: at about 11.32, when you put the nozzles in the hover stop position (82°), the FPM goes down but abruptly it comes back up, perfectly aligned with the horizon, without any transition. Only because of the throttle increment or did you use some other avionics system?

[@104thMaverick]

It was all manual my wise old friend :)

[@MysticSaruman]

So, acting on the throttle should do the trick, right? Can't be so smooth on it, I find difficult to stay on the horizon line: I put too much engine or too little while hovering. I'm in need of some more practice, I guess

[@104thMaverick]

Someone else pointed this out to me and I re watched it. What you see is a bug mate, sadly I am not that Jedi with the controls. It was a bug that was in early access where the velocity indicator stopped working below around 50kts. This has now been fixed and you will notice that the vector now stays active all the way to touch down.

[@djadamkent]

104th_Maverick Ah that makes sense. Was wondering if it was the AFC being engaged.

[@TheCraigievee]

Random question mate.... where about in Scotland are you from? The way you say ‘ninety’ sounds local! Lol!

[@104thMaverick]

Livingston originally but now I live out near Falkirk

[@TheCraigievee]

Haha! Knew you sounded local.. I’m in Larbert my self mate!

[@104thMaverick]

Small world! Nice to see some more Scottish DCS pilots!

[@liamdrayson4701]

Edinburgh here. :) It was refreshing to have a video narrated by someone with a decent accent, rather than one of those squeaky Yanks! Good work on the landings too.

[@jodifu6274]

I used to be on a submarine out of Holy Loch, in Dunoon, near the Firth of Clyde.

[@Arkaine_]

Question: how do you keep the witch’s hat on the horizon ? The throttle ? The nozzle ? Or the pitch on the stick ?

[@104thMaverick]

The WH has now moved position with one of the latest updates, it is no longer in the same position you see in the video. So the procedure has changed slightly visually in terms of where you now place the WH for reference. But the method of control is the same, you want to do most of the work with the throttle after pitching up a little, this way you will have a steady decel. There is no need to be throwing the nose around to wildly on approach, just nose up slightly and compensate with power as the aircraft slows down.

[@Arkaine_]

104th_Maverick thanks for the response. However its not decelerating that im having a problem with.. At 82 degrees nozzle, i discovered that the plane wants to go in reverse. Hence for my landing approaches. I've taken to just keep it at 75-79 degrees and only using 82 degrees to adjust airspeed.

[@ClangWOT]

Great video ! Are you Irish ? (I’m trying to get better at recognizing accents)

[@104thMaverick]

Almost, I'm Scottish

[@sam0899gamer]

"HOW TO PUT YOUR HARRIER ON THE CARRIER" i'm dying😂😂

[@harrysmith1986]

Are there any vids online with real harrier pilots flying dcs? Like the Hornet vids.

[@104thMaverick]

Only ones I’ve seen are real harrier pilots trying DCS for the first time and they didn’t do so well, which isn’t surprising as it was their first time ever flying DCS. It would be amazing if we got a real Harrier pilot doing a tutorial

[@harrysmith1986]

@@104thMaverick 100% it would, and btw your harrier tutorials are by far the best I've see thus far, especially case1. You fly it much these days?

[@Sandman755]

I notice that when you are dropping onto the deck that your velocity vector doesn't move. When I am landing it rises and falls according to my ascent or descent rate and acts as a sort of secondary VSI. Is this a version change thing, or is there some other reason for this? It's not a problem, I'm just curious.

[@104thMaverick]

Hi mate, this was filmed in an early access version of the Harrier so the Velocity Vector was not working properly in the video. It is now working as it should and will show you your vertical movement all the way down to landing.

[@Sandman755]

Cool. That makes sense. This is a great video by the way. I am still struggling with doing decent landings. It's very hit and miss.

[@Wolfhound_81]

Why would you turn your lights OFF for landing? Isn't it important for other traffic in the circuit to see you?

[@104thMaverick]

They have eyes for that mate, ;) SOP for all at sea recoveries is lights off during the day.

[@Wolfhound_81]

@@104thMaverick Interesting, really wondering why that is. In all aviation I learned so far, safety is paramount and lights off only when fencing in usually.

[@FuriouslyFurious]

Good job. Maybe it's incorrect, but I think I read somewhere that you are supposed to land with brakes on. Is that correct?

[@104thMaverick]

The brakes are still a little buggy in the early access Harrier, so if you land with them on the aircraft starts moving. In the checklists it says to apply brakes after landing, I think in real life they have their feet on the brakes as they land, but I'm not 100%.

[@FuriouslyFurious]

104th_Maverick ohhh yeah, I forgot all about the buggy moving LHD brake thing. Good point.

[@104thMaverick]

The brakes seem to be working a bit better now, I've found when Anti Skid is set to NWS and you set the parking break ON when landing it the brakes will hold you until you move the nozzles forward. At this point its important to apply the tow breaks, disengage the parking break (as it will still be on but not effective) then taxi to parking and setting the parking break again.

[@FuriouslyFurious]

104th_Maverick thanks for the update!

[@abhishekwagh1805]

what keys are you using to control the nozzle angle?

[@104thMaverick]

I have buttons bound to my HOTAS throttle for the nozzles.

[@FlaminSquirrel]

Can you tell us how you're getting the correct altimeter setting?

[@104thMaverick]

You can adjust the altimeter is down on the right hand side of the flight stick. When coming into land on the ship you should have your RAD ALT ON which I didn't have on at the time in the video.

[@FlaminSquirrel]

I know how to adjust it, I was wondering how you're getting the right setting in the first place. I don't think you'd want RAD ALT on; as soon as you got over the deck you'll suddenly get a jump in alt reading.

[@104thMaverick]

Yeah you want RAD ALT on, the reading will jump when you cross the deck but if you come alongside at 120ft as you cross the deck you will be at 50ft (where you should be). You take the RAD ALT speficifally to avoid having the wrong altimeter setting and ending up in the drink during low vis etc. You get the pressure setting of the mission from the mission editor. Another good way to set it if you actually start on the ship is to adjust the altimeter until you get 70ft shown on the HUD which is the height of the deck. That way when you takeoff and come back to the ship you can land with the correct setting but usually in the mission the default is 2992 and won't change unless the mission editor changes it.

[@ApoTroll]

Back when you could do this boat stuff in slow! ;(

[@CapitanTavish]

beam me up scotty, dilithium chamberrrr is empty becouse you must be montgmery scotty isnt it ?

[@rehil123]

very well done but, its a "SHIP" a boat is submersible

[@matthewmcgee]

Naval aviators (of the USN/USMC) traditionally refer to their respective vessels (CV, LHA, DDG..) as a "boat". This is partly because we know it bugs our black shoe brethren, the Surface Warfare Officers. A SWO will refer to them using the proper nautical term, which is indeed, ship. Though submarines are called boats in the USN, being submersible is NOT a requirement for a "boat". Tug boat, fishing boat, sail boat, pleasure boat... "Ship" vs "boat" is mostly a size issue. In NROTC we were taught a ship can carry a boat, but a boat can't carry a ship. (I suspect part of the naval aviator's "boat" tradition may have roots from WWII. The wartime influx of naval aviators, most without a nautical background, just didn't know the difference between a ship and boat. When they realized that using the wrong term bugged the professional mariners, the term stuck!)

[@realcodechris]

The definition is based upon size. A ship can carry a boat, but a boat cannot carry a ship. You're right in that it is a ship, but not for the reason you specific. Also, it' doesn't really matter. what it's called, we all know on the context what he is referring to

[@postalou6802]

WOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW§§§

[@haramaschabrasir8662]

I love this video. But I HATE the landing. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT AAARGH

[@TB-it5pe]

One word "fab" thank god its virtual because i would have bankrupt the MOD by now lol