Vehicles - JET/Plane Landing gear indicator

[AlphaClient]

The suggestion(s) I am putting forth are for jets and planes to have a landing gear indicator. I have looked through the other suggestion threads and found nothing relating to this idea. The only thing close is manual transmission gears.

Most pilots are specialized in the aircraft they fly and spend a ratio of 10:1 trainning over actual combat duty in real life - this is a reality mod meant to mimic real scenarios. Given the cockpits in game, in jets or planes is not animated, a light or something couldn't be added to that. I am suggesting the addition of a landing gear status "indicator" to the HUD itself as another weapon slot, just like #1 = flares / radar off. My HUD would be Hit # 6 and the display simply shows "DOWN" or "UP" to indicate the landing gear status or possibly even deploys the gear maunally. The code for an indicator would be basically an IF gear is down, THEN print "DOWN", ELSE print "UP" statement. There is much more to it ,I know, but you get the simplicity I am aiming for.

***EDIT*** Having it on the HUD like AIX's MI-24 would be wonderful. (see another persons post below) ****

The HUD indicator would help all pilots learn how to land all types of aircraft, novice and noob alike. Not all of the aircraft's gear comes out at the same speed or altitude- Each and every one is different. One of the hardest parts about landing any aircraft in PR .856 is getting the airspeed right. Too fast on approach and you will go boom... this is because your gear is not down. We see people overshoot the runway on a daily basis in trainning servers and they are trying to do a regular landing. The experienced pilots know they are going too fast and try to get back up in the air. Noobs tend to run into the rough after touchdown and overshoot- hitting the wall or another person/jet. Also, having this weapon slot on all jets and planes would help both regular and VTOL types of aircraft in landing. Trying to do a VTOL landing is critically dependant on having your gear out and having enough altitude. Right now it is un-realistic to change views to see if the gear is down. To me, having a status indicator or manual button would be more in tune with reality.

A reasonably educated person can see that the harrier was introduced to trainning because it might possibly make an appearence on carrier maps such as Mattrah City or Op barracuda or any other map in the works. The average person would have a hell of a time landing on a carrier with the harrier as it is. As a trainning aid for pilots to learn how to master landing these VTOL beasts, add an indicator weapon slot or manual landing gear button. Right now it is un-realistic to change views to check if the gear is down. An indicator light on the HUD would be realism for a harrier pilot. On a map with aircraft carriers, it would be very technical to land and is prolly why no VTOL jets are on carrier maps (yet). I certainly hope they are added!!!! I am a fan of the harrier even though I know it is only beta, only on kashan trainning and has some bugs to work out. Even if it needs to be replaced by another VTOL class craft. KEEP VTOL!

A side note.
TBH, I think being a good pilot takes time and practice. It took me some time to learn how fast to approach the runways and flare the throttle/pitch the nose so the aircraft comes in smoothly and stops in time. For me to land the harrier on kashan- trainning- took a lot of "getting to know" the air aircraft. I know it seems like I talk a lot about the VTOL class here, but that is because I practiced heavily with the Harrier and learned much about it. To the point now that I can teach others. Since most people have a hard time even taking off much less landing, I wanted to put some thought into why it is so difficult to master. The most important thing about going to or from VTOL in the harrier is having the gear down and enough altitude. I made a HOW TO post about VTOL landing the harrier : https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f141-a ... cally.html I know the landing gear comes out auto-magically now. And sometimes only one side will come out on the harrier... Would it be more work to make it manual vs making another weapon slot? Sure there are a million ways to skin this cat- Change the code settings of it to be more like the F-35 in regular BF2, Add an indicator to the HUD, Swap the harrier out for another, Make the landing gear manual, etc,etc. Even if the Dev team left the harrier the way it is now, minus the views and plus the HUD indicator, more pilots would be able to land it. The worst case would be to remove VTOL class - carrier duty aircraft from the mod

[Welshboy]

I don't think that landing gear even works on the BF2 engine

[Sinn_Ah_Taggh]

Hmm...im no expert at this but i think it could be possible.
I played some AIX 2 last night on the map Daquin Oilfields and the chinese have this (i forget the name):


This heli has a landing gear indicator wich when deployed lights up a green lamp reading "GEAR" .
When the heli passes an sertain alltitude/speed the light goes off and the gear subtracts into the hull.

Maybe the same principle could be used in this case?

[AlphaClient]

Hmm...im no expert at this but i think it could be possible.
I played some AIX 2 last night on the map Daquin Oilfields and the chinese have this (i forget the name):
This heli has a landing gear indicator wich when deployed lights up a green lamp reading "GEAR" .
When the heli passes an sertain alltitude/speed the light goes off and the gear subtracts into the hull.

Maybe the same principle could be used in this case?

That is the MI-24 I believe, YouTube - The Top 10 Best Attack Helicopter in the World Looks an aweful lot like the first heli shown in the vid at that link.

I am not a BF guru so I do not know the extent of coding differences between heli's and jets/planes. So it may or may not be applicable from heli to jet/ plane. But you are onto something!!! I am sure it could be hooked from the heli and modded to work for the jets! Good responce!

[rampo]

welcome to the forums alphaclient. but if it even worked the landing gears are prettu much all the time down, this sugestions kinda useless

[Alex6714]

Yeah, although they indicator isn´t hud based. I have no idea how it works except it seems to be another landing gear or something.

[AlphaClient]

I don't think that landing gear even works on the BF2 engine

How long have you been playing regular bf2? I guess it could be overlooked... but yes BF2 has animated and functional landing gear. It is automated so I can see why you wouldnt know that. I think I learned it flying in formation with people and seeing it come out.
That is why when you come in too fast, you die... even if you had plenty of runway and came in level, the gear wasn't out.
Goto a regular bf2 server and fly around in a jet in an external view, go from full speed to a landing speed and watch the gear come out. It was always a tell tale sign in a dogfight that the person was trying to get you to over shoot them. Going slow makes you an easy target tho

[AlphaClient]

Guys, fly in formation behind someone.... you will see that the landing gear goes up after you are above a certain speed and stays up untill you slow down and come close to land, ie: coming in for a landing. Some of the bomber plane's landing gear doesn't go up in PR, like the frogfoot I belive. But all of the jets retract their gear....
Infact goto the link in my first post. you can watch an xfire vid of the harrier and actually see the gear go up, and stay up untill I come in for a landing. Or better yet, read how to land it and you might catch onto why I would make such a point about the gear being out, and knowing it.

Rampo.... have you ever tried to vetically land the F-35 in BF2 or the Harrier in PR? It is extremely important to have the gear out so you do not just belly flop. So the thread is usefull for pilots to learn and also for adding more of these types of aircraft to the PR mod. hopefully carrier maps.

[Sinn_Ah_Taggh]

welcome to the forums alphaclient. but if it even worked the landing gears are prettu much all the time down, this sugestions kinda useless

What?
Are you saying that the gear is allways down when flying?
I dont think i can remember seeing a jet flying past me with their gear down unless they are going for landing or taking of..

I think this idea is good in the sence that it teaches pilots to monitor their own movements in the cockpit and also teaches rutines and prosedeurs.

[AnRK]

If your going too fast for your landing gear to be down when you come to the runway then you won't even need it anyway... If your going a sensible speed then it'll be down, you won't need to check, hop on a practise server and practise your landing and you'll get used to it fairly quickly.

Landing procedure is pretty simple in theory though, line up well before then runway, reduce throttle to just over 50, wait till your going around about 500-700 depending on the jet, lower your throttle a little more and make any corrections, then when you hit the ground lay off your throttle entirely and then use your air brake when you start to travel pretty slowly. Like I said before if you practise it it'll be easy, I'm a pretty bad pilot but I can land pretty well a good 7/10 times and the other 3 will just be a bit scruffy, I very rarely damage or destroy a jet when landing.

[Welshboy]

How long have you been playing regular bf2?

Not long, i just went straight to PR

[AlphaClient]

If your going too fast for your landing gear to be down when you come to the runway then you won't even need it anyway... If your going a sensible speed then it'll be down, you won't need to check, hop on a practise server and practise your landing and you'll get used to it fairly quickly.

AnRK,
Very true about the airspeed and the gear being down on it's own if you are at the right speed.
To be a bit more clear, I would love to have the landing gear indicator on the Harrier as it will only go BACK to hover once you have been in top speed flight, if the landing gear is down. Trust me I learned it the hard way by falling out of the sky for a few hours. It occured to me that the landing gear was down when I originally took off and I could accomplish hover. BUT if I fly around at top speed and try to goto hover, even at 1000m altitude, the damn thing would just fall like a rock. What was missing... landing gear! At top speed the gear is up and will not come back out unless you slow down enough and approach the ground. That doesn't mean you are going to touch the ground. Read my vertical landing post and you will better understand what I mean. VTOL class aircraft were made for aircraft carriers that are over water... If I had to land on the carrier in Mattrah City, with the Harrier, I would want to do it vertically instead of regularly becuase of the short runway and other traffic.

All other aircraft can benefit from it also, knowing that you are going the right speed for your gear to come out is a clear indication that you can touchdown. The indicator on the HUD would eliminate the changing of views in the harrier, which isn't very realistice- hence why it was removed from all the other aircraft.

[Hitman.2.5]

TBH you dont need landing gear when you have been flying long enough, I have been flying since 0.6 you kinda know weather your gonna make it, forget bout landing gear coz it will be there. Just land at around 600 in most aircraft. the thing I worry bout the most is smashing into to the HESCO at the end of the runway or clipping the HESCO over the other side where you approach from (kashan)

TBH its only the tornado where the gear doesnt come out I always get light damage on landing in the tornado from the belly of the aircraft Belly flopping on the tarmack :S

[AlphaClient]

I may look into flying on this game more than other people but in real life, there is a checklist for everything having to do with flying. A checklist to start the plane, take off, in flight checks, and a landing checklist, which has on it- Landing gear down. I know it sounds retarded to anyone who has not really flown a plane but knowing that those checklists exist helped me discover how to vertically land the Harrier. I just made a check list... and landing gear was on it.

[Rudd]

if AiX could do it, then yea its possible

AND TBH its a good suggestion. So many n00bs need better indicators of when they are at landing speed, this could be one of them.

A simple convenient way to help ppl land.

[AlphaClient]

I will agree that it is just a simple thing that most people will over look or see as a neat "realistic" add-in. Most of those people fly regular jets, and do regular landings.

Harrier = carrier in my head and a carrier has a very very short runway. If I could land a harrier on the carrier in Mattrah City, I would want to do it vertically so I do not run over everything on the deck. YES I am very aware that it is not on that map... but it was obviously put into the release for a reason, and the only reason the damn class of plane was invented was for VTOL/carrier duty (short runway).***CORRECTION** HARRIER IS WAS DESIGNED FOR VTOL and is mostly USED on carriers*** I hope, I hope, I hope, that the Dev team keeps some type of VTOL fighter/bomber in the mod and utilizes the carrier duty beasts.

To get to hover in the harrier after fullspeed flight, you must have the gear down, and changing views to see if it is down is just not realistic, again- hence why it was removed from all of the other aircraft. This would be a way to remove the external views from the harrier and still be able to use it to its effectivness.

Another note- Really it would be a trainning aid, just an indicator will help many many people learn. If you can't fly it, are you going to try on a deploy'd server? NO.. you will train on it first. This will eliminate noobs trying to fight for it on deploy'd server.

I read another thread a little while ago about another suggestion made. It was about having the people request the pilot kit and you would have to get approval from SL/CO. I think that is a great idea in the fact that it puts qualified people in the right positions.

Hitman, you pointed out that it is the Tornado that you have noticed it would be good for... Wouldn't it be great to know that the gear was down, each and every time you came in for final approach? Realistic- I think so....

[AnRK]

I guess if people are willing to fly without having a go in training mode a few times then it's probably for the best, good point.

[AlphaClient]

Here is a video of the MI-24 Hendi in bf2-AIX2: Landing gear indicators on the MI-24 - Xfire Video

In the cockpit view you'll see the green "GEAR" in the upper left hand corner come on and off. In the beginning of the video it is showing the light coming on and off, the end is a decent external view of the gear in action.

I would call this a landing gear indicator or a dummy light. What do you say?

[rampo]

I have never heard or experienced a case where the landing gear was not down when you landed.

[AlphaClient]

Rampo,
The landing gear not coming out is something I have had happen a few times... Not just in the Harrier, but in the Tornado also- and those were from regular CTOL landings aswell. I was just coming in too fast but still could have made it. Everyone has crashed trying to land before and everyone has landed outside the runway. Have you ever not crashed on those landings because your landing gear came out just in time and saved your *** from the face plant of doom? Yes you may have taken some damage but you didn't die right?

I noticed most noobs just face plant untill they learn how to come in at the right speed. It all has to do with the speed of your approach. For an experienced pilot, the slower speeds that you come in at for a regular landing usually gives the landing gear plenty of time to come out, but not always - and for anyone still in the learning procces the indicator would just help them become educated faster. As Hitman hinted to, once you are comfortable with flying most of the jets and been doing it long enough, the landing gear is something that would go un-noticed. You will kind of know if you are going to make it or not.

Hitman also said "TBH you dont need landing gear when you have been flying long enough."... We don't have realistic forced emergency landings where you would actually skid on the belly without the landing gear out and I am glad we don't. I would never make the suggestion to add that in either. I really wouldn't even want it to be manual gear either, but if that was easier to do than adding a light to the HUD or a weapon slot... then make it manual. I am asking for something that IS a realistic addition to the jets, it will help people learn to land, and eventually you won't notice it because you become experienced. It is very feasible to accomplish the addition and I do not believe it would take longer than the next release. I am not asking for anything outrageious. Just a light or something like AIX2, and not even as big as it is in that mod. It will help everyone trying to fly the VTOL aircraft, but also helps the regual birds learning curve for the noobs too. A necessity in real life for all aircraft is to know if the landing gear is down. Can't take off or calmly land without it.

To vertically land is a different story... Being specific to the Harrier's VTOL ability, you would need some type of indicator that the gear was down to VTOL land. The external views were removed from all other aircraft because it is not realistic to see the rear of the jet, or nose, or chase cam, so this is a way to keep it real and help people learn. It is critically important in the Harrier to hold a slow airspeed, low to the ground and for a few seconds to get the gear to come out, and a few more steps but anyways... All I am asking for is a dummy light to let ya know when it is down. I like what Dr2B said. If AIX can do it, so can PR. That is positive thinking.