A-4E Tutorial - Take Off and Landing Practice

[@ericlegear7134]

From your last video, decided to learn the a-4. Yes, engine response is certainly not the 14/18 such that you can control glideslope with throttle. Just started “cheating” via APC and can get some resemblance of precision landing spot. More practice and then we go to the boat. Thanks again.

[@staubsauger2305]

Interesting to see your modified landing technique. As an ex-RNZAF its nice to see our anniversary golden skin used to pimp that Scooter today. Keep up the great work please, Iain.

[@Sidekick65]

Glad you enjoyed it. Hope it did your Kiwi heart some good to see it.

[@s1mo77]

This is fantastic. New to DCS and figure I'd try something free first. Massive learning curve that I'm at the beginning of but this channel has been an awesome help.

[@Sidekick65]

Glad you find it helpful. Drop by my Discord channel or head over to the A4 Discord if you need more advice. Always glad to help.

[@thomasmaier7053]

8:22 that vertical speed is way too high, even for a carrier aircraft. But I agree, way more pitch movement on the stick needed for altitude fixes. Throttle stays in the same position mostly because the response is too slow for a good control loop.

[@box8brewing829]

Keep it coming, Sidekick! Enjoying the tutorials and practices.

[@Sidekick65]

Excellent, feedback like this ensures that there will be some more!

[@nigelhughes862]

Very cool, thanks Iain. This is exactly where I'm at with the A4 too. Absolutely loving it, what a great mod

[@Tamburello_1994]

v2.0? Piece of cake; no effort very first time -- landing . . . My issue was once I was down, getting slowed down proper before hitting the binders. Scooter in the groove! I hadn't flow her since long before this patch. Loving it. Gone is that nasty unstick on take-off and landing. Much more polished. Yeah -- this will get some seat time now. Really appreciate what you do.

[@Sidekick65]

Thanks!

[@RossOneEyed]

Glad to know that I am not alone in breaking landing gear. If only I could get the ground crew out to repair it....

[@sloppydog4831]

Hey Sidekick, good tips. I always have flown this bird and always had real problems landing it, exactly because I did what I always do in other planes. I'll try your method and see how it goes, it makes sense.

[@wavehopper4183]

Dirtied up it's a swine to get on AOA and stable. It wants to balloon and then drops like a stone with slight reduction in power. Tricky thing to land, even using an overhead break.

[@Sidekick65]

Yes. It almost flies like a real airplane... from the 1960s. ;-)

[@wavehopper4183]

@@Sidekick65 Much like my old Ford Cortina, it wants me dead

[@Sidekick65]

Unless you promise to pay very close attention to what it's telling you.

[@dunbar555]

THAT VERTICAL SPEED THOUGH ;) ! nice series of videos though ! subbed

[@Sidekick65]

Yup, definitely need to work on getting the glideslope right.

[@MrSpinkser]

@@Sidekick65 Guess the Navy doesn’t flare… 😅

[@thunderace4588]

Thank you for making this video for us.

[@remyprebandier723]

Thank you for your high quality instructions. I really love your videos Best Regards.

[@Sidekick65]

I am glad that you are finding them helpful

[@wraith444]

I've only landed the A-4 once so far and this was in a slick jet after zipping around NOE at mil power for an hour so I was probably pretty light, but based on that one flight I think I agree with you on the whole control coupling point. When I tried to pitch for alpha/power for glideslope I felt like I was out of phase with the engine so badly that I was constantly oscillating back and forth between fast and high/low and slow... It felt like PIO in a way, it was so odd.

[@Sidekick65]

Yup. Give it a try with APC on - and just aim where you want to go.

[@Taipan303]

Nice. Would love to see some carrier case 1 tutorial for the A-4!

[@Sidekick65]

Coming soon

[@outwardpanicjoe8950]

Case 2 and 3 aswell

[@kalabao52]

Great Tutorial. Thank you.

[@Sidekick65]

Glad it was helpful!

[@0jimmypiffpaff0]

Great! thanks again - keep up the good work!

[@Sidekick65]

Thanks, I appreciate the support

[@rwhunt99]

Looking forward to carrier landings, I admit, I never landed on a carrier with the older version of the A-4e

[@Sidekick65]

not my specialty either. That's why I am glad to have found a willing volunteer to do the flying!

[@kilianortmann9979]

Fantastic Video, love the Scooter but man that gear looks so spindly. I know it is necessary for clearance with the center-line nuke and probably plenty strong, but it does not look confidence inspiring.

[@Sidekick65]

Agreed, but it will take a fair bit of abuse - as is obvious from this video!

[@ThePizzaGoblin]

The difference between high and low speed almost feels like the difference between level flight and a hover for choppers. At least with the back pressure and power. Edit: also, when you say "slats," do you mean the spoilers?

[@Sidekick65]

No. If I didn't mis-speak I meant the leading edge slats that automatically deploy when your speed gets low enough.

[@ThePizzaGoblin]

@@Sidekick65 yeah I asked on the A-4 discord and figured out the difference

[@MrSpinkser]

My main difficulty with landing the Skyhawk is the missing flight path marker - I just can't figure out what to aim at my landing point. Any suggestions? Thank you!

[@Sidekick65]

Obviously it varies depending on the flight regime. For reference, the center of rotation of is about 50 mils above the center of the sight. This is important when diving and rolling out on targets etc when operating at high speeds. In landing config with speedbrakes, flaps and gear, and at around On-Speed AOA, I find that it is around 150 mills below the aim point - so somewhere around halfway between the bottom of the rings and the bottom of the windscreen.

[@MrSpinkser]

@@Sidekick65 Kind of anticipated this answer - „depends on“… 😅 So I need more practice still (a lot). The A-4 is kind of hard to land though, compared to other Aircraft with similar shortcomings (no computer aided HUD). At least that‘s my impression. Not complaining, it‘s just a bigger challenge.

[@skywarp2180]

Fantastic, tks!!

[@Sidekick65]

Glad you liked it!

[@Wildharrier]

I'm having problems installing the new version, I don't know If It has happened yo someone else. I've downloaded the forever free patch, and I install It as always where It is supposed to go; but when I log in to DCS, I have a 2.0.0 beta version without the new patch, eventho in the folders I can see all the new liveries, fixes, etc. Does someone have this problem?. I can still fly this lovely thing, but with the pre 2.0.0

[@Sidekick65]

You could try the A4 Discord server: discord.gg/Qrt62rkGQx

[@Wildharrier]

@@Sidekick65 Yep, I'll try that, thanks!!

[@flacodebuenosaires]

Capo!!!👌👍🏼✈🧿👀🙋‍♂️

[@pabletesoy]

Hello, are you “playing” with the spoilers or are they automatic? Sorry for my english!

[@Sidekick65]

The spoilers need to be "armed" after that they are automatic. The wing slats are fully automatic.

[@pabletesoy]

@@Sidekick65 And why do you use the airbrakes so soon?

[@Sidekick65]

"Standard" procedure with the A4 is to get the airbrakes out early and keep them out. Because of the characteristics of the engine it ud best to land with the engine at fairly high power. It ud more responsive to the throttle when it is at the high end of the power curve.

[@pabletesoy]

@@Sidekick65 Ooook, thanks for this valuable information!

[@Sidekick65]

My pleasure. Enjoy!