Although you can always end a mission after completing it by pressing
the END key, it's always a good career
move to return home and land your aircraft. Management likes it when you
bring your aircraft back in one piece
so it awards you with an additional 1,000 points for doing so.
Fortunately, the F-22 is so advanced that much of
the work is done for you. The on-board navigation and autopilot system
makes finding your way home easy.
There is even a "help" key available if you do not want to bother with
actually doing the flying yourself.
Screen text will let you know when you've completed your mission and
it's okay to return home. Once you have
completed your mission, press the H key. This activates your Automatic
pilot and guides your aircraft directly
toward your Initial Approach waypoint. (Autopilot levels off the
aircraft and sets your engine power to 80% or
Cruise Speed.)
You should note there is a difference between activating the Autopilot
using the H key and simply using the
Autopilot key itself. If you press the Autopilot key, your aircraft will
immediately begin to follow the pre-set
waypoint path. Pressing the H key however, causes your autopilot to skip
any intermediate waypoints and take
you immediately toward the Initial waypoint along a direct path.
Once you reach your Initial Approach waypoint, the Autopilot is updated
with the position of the next waypoint
in the sequence which just happens to be your Final Approach waypoint.
It is a simple matter to proceed into the
air traffic pattern from the Final Approach waypoint then land.
If you've taken care of all the bad guys, consider using the Autopilot
key instead of the H key. It may take you
the long way home but it's foolproof. You can't get lost using the
Autopilot even at night or in adverse weather
conditions. On the other hand, if there are still enemy aircraft lurking
nearby or active SAM sites in your vicinity
you'll want to avoid using the automatic pilot. It's not flexible enough
to allow you to get down low and stay
hidden.
Flying back home without using your Autopilot at all is not difficult,
it just takes concentration. Toggle the N key
until the Initial Approach waypoint is entered into your navigation
system. The words "INITIAL APPROACH"
will appear in the upper left corner of your HUD. Now, all you need to
do is pay attention to the position of the
waypoint caret on the heading indicator stretched across the top of your
HUD. When the caret is centered, you
are flying a heading that will take you directly to your Initial
Approach waypoint. Once again, after reaching the
Initial Waypoint, your navigation system is automatically updated with
the position of the Final Approach
waypoint.
To assist air traffic controllers in keeping aircraft from smashing into
one another, each airbase maintains an air
traffic pattern in the sky. Even though you can't see them, air traffic
patterns set up corridors (flight paths) in the
sky. Just as motorists on the ground are expected to stay in their
proper lane, so too are pilots. Think of an
airbase runway as a one way street. All traffic taking off and landing
must travel in the same direction.
IMPORTANT POINT: Your Instrument Landing System (ILS) is set up so that
it only functions if you
approach the runway from the proper direction. If you attempt to land
against the flow of traffic your ILS system
will not appear on the HUD.
The proper direction of travel is shown by the "arrow" markings painted
on both ends of the runway. These
arrows are hard to spot from a distance so before leaving an airbase
make note of the compass heading of the
runway traffic flow. This way when you are returning home you will know
ahead of time if you are approaching
the runway correctly.
Since you are flying the F-22, America's most advanced tactical fighter,
you are always given priority landing
clearance. This means that you land ahead of everyone else. (The
military wants to get this very expensive
machine safely on the ground and in a hangar as quickly as possible.)
Landing your aircraft is just a matter of being at the right speed and
altitude at the right time and place. It requires
just as much concentration, if not more, than actual combat so pay close
attention to what you're doing and plan
ahead. You can be killed just as dead messing up a landing approach as
you can by an enemy missile. Any
situation that has you flying low and slow also has the potential to
turn deadly in an instant. When landing, you are
very near your critical flight tolerances so should a stall occur,
you'll have very little time (or space) to correct the
problem. Stalling at low altitude will most likely cause you to "auger"
in.
Initial Waypoint: Your Initial Approach waypoint is merely a point in
space that has been programmed into
your on-board navigation computer. It is usually located within fifteen
nautical miles of the runway. The purpose
of this Initial Approach waypoint is to get you back in the vicinity of
the airbase yet keep you far enough away so
that you are not crowding the other aircraft in the pattern. It also
gives you time to prepare for your landing.
You should plan on arriving at the Initial Approach waypoint at an
altitude of 5,000 feet (plus or minus 500 ft.) at
a speed of 400 knots. Long before you reach the Initial Approach
waypoint, therefore, set your engine thrust to
60%. This will slow you down gradually. It's always better to allow your
airspeed and energy to bleed off rather
than have to use your airbrake.
Final Approach: The last waypoint entered into your navigation computer
is the Final Approach waypoint. The
Final Approach waypoint is located very near to the end of the runway,
usually within five or six miles. You
should be travelling at a speed no greater than 250 knots at an altitude
of 1,500 feet. Once you reach this
waypoint, your primary concern is aligning yourself properly with the
runway.
Locate the centerline of the runway and use your rudder controls to yaw
the aircraft into alignment. The ILS can
help you a great deal but in most cases, Final Approach will be flown
visually. Avoid using the ailerons. You do
not want to bank the wings of the aircraft to affect small course
corrections, especially this close to the ground.
Gradually reduce your airspeed as you reduce your altitude but remember
that it is better to have too much
airspeed than too little.
Once you are aligned with the runway centerline, check your airspeed and
make sure you have at least 160 knots
of forward airspeed to play with. Press the G key to extend your Landing
Gear. Notice the distinct drop in
airspeed as the gear deploys and locks into place. This reduction is due
to the additional drag now being created.
Now that your gear is down and your airspeed is dropping off, you need
to create some additional lift to help
keep you in the air. You can create lift by deploying your Flaps. Flaps
allow you to operate at slow speeds
without stalling. Press the F key to extend your flaps (you'll hear your
flaps as they deploy). Be sure to maintain at
least 160 knots of airspeed though. Even with flaps extended, don't try
to land with less than 160 knots of
airspeed until you've become more experienced with the aircraft.
At this point (approximately two miles from the runway threshold) you
should perform a quick spot check of your
aircraft. Check to ensure the following:
a) your wings are level with the horizontal plane. Check the Artificial
Horizon indicator if necessary.
b) your gear and flaps are extended.
c) your airspeed is somewhere between 150 and 175 knots. Your airbrake
should not be extended if your
airspeed already falls within this range.
d) your pitch angle is set at 10 degrees on the HUD pitch ladder.
e) the ILS is engaged. It is visible on the HUD when you are approaching
the runway from the proper direction.
Touch-down: Keep your aircraft aligned with the runway centerline using
your rudder controls. Ideally, your
landing gear should straddle the centerline on touchdown. Continue your
descent as you near the runway. Try to
time your touchdown so that it occurs in the first 1/3rd of the runway.
This will give you plenty of braking distance
or room to take-off again if necessary.
Flare: Just before touchdown, pitch the nose of the aircraft up
slightly. This is known as a "flare." You should
always perform a flare so that your rear wheels are the first to
actually make contact with the ground. Never have
your nosewheels touch first. It's just too easy to nose into the ground
and crash.
Always flare your aircraft just before touchdown as shown in the
diagram.
When your wheels touchdown you will hear the tires make a "scrunching"
sound. Apply your groundbrake by
pressing the B key. This will bring your aircraft to a gradual halt.
Once the aircraft has completely stopped, press
the End key to terminate the mission. Congratulations. You've made it
back home in one piece.
Avoid Stalls: The most serious thing that can happen to you when trying
to land is inadvertently stalling the
aircraft. Basically, a stall occurs when your wing surfaces can no
longer produce enough lift to keep you flying.
Contrary to popular belief, a stall has nothing to do with your engines.
In fact, you can stall an aircraft with your
engines running at full blast. Moreover, you can certainly stall a
glider and a glider has no engines at all.
At low altitudes a stall is disastrous because you have so little room
to recover. Your F-22 will generally stall at
114 knots if given a level flight profile and a pressure altitude of
2,000 ASL. Keep in mind however that not all
runways will be located at sea level. In fact, you'll find some runways
at altitudes exceeding 5,000 ft.
Fortunately, your F-22 is smart enough to notify you when you are
getting ready to stall a wing. At approximately
five to ten knots above stall speed, you'll hear an audio warning and
see a red Warning message begin to flash on
your HUD. If you do not move to correct the situation, your F-22 will
enter a stall causing it to begin to spin. It
will continue spinning until you either crash, or correct the stall
condition by adding power, whichever comes first.
To avoid stalling your aircraft, keep your angle of attack low and your
airspeed above 150 knots at all times. If
you do manage to stall the aircraft, immediately drop your nose to
reduce the angle of attack, retract your landing
gear, and spool your engines up to 100% Full Military Power. Keep your
wings level. Soon your airspeed will
begin to increase. When this happens you'll be able to fly out of the
stall. Failure to act promptly however will turn
your F-22 into a "lawn dart".
