Throttle & Afterburner control in planes

[galzohar 31]

Agreed, both the throttle issue and the pedal issue could definitely use fixing. It shouldn't be that hard to make them optional, it's not like the DEVs avoided having 2 million keybindings, might as well go ahead and add some more options so that you can actually control vehicles properly.

These aren't the only control configuration issues that could've easily been fixed...

[7 0]

I vote for this as well.

[phunkmaz 3]

I'm in!

[max power 21]

Proper throttle control would be excellent!

I don't remember OFP's control being analogue, though. I remember it being exactly as it is in ArmA.

[Nicholas 5]

My PC Wheel, just like almost any other on market, comes wich pedals. These pedals got separate analog axes. In Arma, It's cool to let APC advance slowly with slightly pressed gas pedal, but whenever I left foot off the pedal, the controlled vehicle stops, and goes full speed reverse. I cannot assign separate axis for breaking. Or maybe I've missed something?

btw. ForceFeedback is not meant to generate vibrations.

For this, depress your pedals in halfway before assinging them, they each have there own 2 was axis, forawd and back. So hold it in halfway, click on the command you wish to assing, push pedal in all the way, then click ok, repeat with other pedal.

It's liek when assigning throttle control in planes, you have to put throttle in the middle to assign.

[jasono 0]

Another thing is reverse thurst. Now I'm not that experienced with aviation and planes, but do none of the aircraft featured in ArmA2 not have reverse thrust in real life?

[max power 21]

US military aircraft don't usually have thrust reversers. They even remove the ones on the boeing civilian aircraft when they convert them to AWACS.

[jasono 0]

US military aircraft don't usually have thrust reversers. They even remove the ones on the boeing civilian aircraft when they convert them to AWACS.

That's odd, any particular reason why?

[An-225 0]

Jason, the only airplane in ArmA that has thrust reverse for real is the C-130.

Max Power, that is an odd statement.

- KC-135

- KC-10

- C-17

- C-141

- C-5

Just some of the USAF production jets that have thrust reverse. I can also find no reference to the lack of thrust reversers on the E-3 Sentry, and since the Sentry uses the PW TF33, like the KC-135, I am inclined to say that it too has thrust reversers.

There are two fighter jets with thrust reversers. The Tornado and the Viggen. The Viggen is intended to be a STOL airplane able to take off from a highway. Thrust reversers only add more weight to the airplane, so instead fighters and attackers get fitted with large airbrakes/drogue chutes and can only operate from long runways.

Edited June 6, 2009 by An-225

[max power 21]

The c-130 has a prop pitch control, not thrust reversers. The KC-135 only has thrust reversers in the E model.

You can see that the e-3 doesn't have reversers just by looking at it.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/E3_sentry_zh101_kemble_arp.jpg

Notice the lack of thrust reversers.

I got that information on a show called Flight PATH that did a segment on AWACS, which included a walk around of an E-3 by an E-3 pilot. He was saying, "Notice on the nacelles, since this is a mil-spec aircraft, there are no thrust reversers like there are on the 707". I saw that only last week.

If there are other USAF aircraft with thrust reversers, there are. The pilot led me to believe that thrust reversers are uncommon on USAF aircraft. It looks like those are all cargo aircraft you're pointing me at, so maybe they are common on C series airplanes.

[An-225 0]

Not sure on the exact terminology on the C-130 (you engage reverse thrust by pulling the throttles past the idle detent) but prop pitch control essentially does the same job.

The E-3 Sentry picture you posted is a British airplane with CFM engines. I'm no expert on engines, but I can see a demarcation line where the rear nacelle splits to deflect thrust, however the removal of thrust reverse is plausible on a CFM engined AWAC.

However, the KC-135s that serve in the USAF with PW TF33s have thrust reverse, it makes no sense to remove thrust reverse on TF33 E-3s.

Sorry about the thread being derailed, its hard to discuss aviation in depth elsewhere.

Edited June 6, 2009 by An-225

[aus_twisted 0]

Proper throttle control would be excellent!

I don't remember OFP's control being analogue, though. I remember it being exactly as it is in ArmA.

It's analogue, think I'll make a video and show the possibilities with analogue throttle in OFP

Edit:

I made a video showing the use of analogue throttle in OFP shown here

YouTube HD -

Edited June 6, 2009 by AUS_Twisted

[frederf 0]

I approve of the throttle=thrust method of control. It's being too long in coming. If BIS assumes that we have joystick axes then there is no problem that I can see. Perhaps they are afraid of people being upset using keyboard control? I think that any keystroke applied to thrust up/down should just utilize a virtual axis like MSFS does.

Afterburner would be an interesting addition, perhaps the config can have values:

afterburnerStart = 0.9

minMilitaryThrust = -500

negativeThrustMaxSpeed = 100

maxMilitaryThrust = 10000

afterburnerMaxThrust=30,000

This would mean that throttle ranged from thrust reversers (available below 100 kmph speed) to max military thrust at the 90% throttle axis mark. From 90% to 100% throttle axis the afterburner would kick in and would ramp linearly from maxMilitaryThrust to afterburnerMaxThrust. I'm trying to be very kind and practical when it comes to complexity for the coders. The values are only examples of course, to remove thrust reversing entirely one would config the min thrust value to 0 or even a small positive number (I assume jets/props have a small idle forward thrust).

[max power 21]

Not sure on the exact terminology on the C-130 (you engage reverse thrust by pulling the throttles past the idle detent) but prop pitch control essentially does the same job.

The E-3 Sentry picture you posted is a British airplane with CFM engines. I'm no expert on engines, but I can see a demarcation line where the rear nacelle splits to deflect thrust, however the removal of thrust reverse is plausible on a CFM engined AWAC.

However, the KC-135s that serve in the USAF with PW TF33s have thrust reverse, it makes no sense to remove thrust reverse on TF33 E-3s.

Sorry about the thread being derailed, its hard to discuss aviation in depth elsewhere.

Only the KC-135 E's have thrust reversers. All other models do not. This can be read in numerous sources. The E-3 does not have thrust reversers, full stop. If it's alright with you, I think I will take the primary source information from a pilot of the aircraft over your word.

[An-225 0]

Hmm, the E is the only one with thrust reversers. I always assumed that there would be no difference between a military TF33 or CFM and a civilian TF33 or CFM.

Frederf, 100km/h is equal to 53 knots. You generally do not engage thrust reversers below 60 knots in a jet plane. A C-130 or C-17 will deploy thrust reverse at 200 knots, which is 370km/h. I would rather have the ability to deploy reverse thrust at almost any speed.

[frederf 0]

The values were examples and could be applied differently for each aircraft vehicle.

[galzohar 31]

If afterburner is triggered by a joystick axis, there should really be a "range" where you would be at 100% with no burner, as often you will want to fly at that mode and shouln't have to play around the 95%-low burner area trying to find that exact spot that gives exactly 100%. Or just make it optional and allow binding a key for burner instead.

Besides, for people with no joysticks, like some flight simulators you should be able to bind a key to "thrust up" and "thrust down" and actually be able to see what the in-game throttle is set to. Being able to also bind yourself certain throttle levels in advance would be a nice addition as well. Yes those are a lot of extra hotkeys but they're not everyone has to use them, only those who find them useful and comfortable to use (or that don't have the joystick solution).

Driving cars in this game has very similar issues, for both gas/break and steering.

[frederf 0]

One could have a "military throttle end = 0.9" and "afterburner start = 0.93" for that deadzone at the top of the military throttle range. I know real jets like the F-16 have such a deadzone.

[Thrash 0]

I'm curious as to why this hasnt been implemented in Arma1-2.

There must be a solid reason as to why it's not available otherwise i'm sure they would have slapped it in there.

Maybe a point of difference from VBS? Although i'm sure this wouldnt be the case, you never know. Possibly engine limitations?

A quick word from the BIS as to why it's not available would be nice.

[aus_twisted 0]

I'm curious as to why this hasnt been implemented in Arma1-2.

There must be a solid reason as to why it's not available otherwise i'm sure they would have slapped it in there.

Maybe a point of difference from VBS? Although i'm sure this wouldnt be the case, you never know. Possibly engine limitations?

A quick word from the BIS as to why it's not available would be nice.

The reason from what I know is it's been like this since BIS ported OFP to XBOX and that was carried over to ArmA1 etc :( It's not a engine limitation thats for sure and I cant see how such a simple control feature has anything to do with VBS.

I was hoping one of the BIS devs would of replied as this thread has been here since October last year

[Meek 10]

ArmA2 is not a flight simulator, which may be the reason Bohemia Interactive has not implemented the suggested method of controlling thrust.

That being said, not being a fan of flight sims, I approve of the suggestion, as it is something I have definitely missed while flying aircraft.

One concern is the display of the thrust levels, as all the aircraft display their information on their HUD or control panel, how would the trust levels be displayed?

[Sonar 0]

OFP wanst a Flight Sim either but it had it. So the question remains why wasn't it included?

[max power 21]

OFP wanst a Flight Sim either but it had it. So the question remains why wasn't it included?

It didn't have it for me. On my computer, the throttle behaved exactly as it did in ArmA.

[Sonar 0]

Did you map it? or tell your puter you had a joystick? I know that sounds like a redundant question, but I have come across peeps that didnt know they had to turn it on and/or map the JS. Esp given the range of controllers avaiable. So I dont mean to sound condesending or anything mate.

A side note Im glad they fixed the flight model to react to rudder inputs better than ArmA. Its a hoot to fly now. So it makes the flight sim agrument less. As in its rapidly evolving into a combined War/Flight Sim....well done again BiS

Edited June 10, 2009 by Sonar

[max power 21]

How would I fly with my joystick if it wasn't mapped? And why would it deploy the airbrakes at zero throttle and maintain speed at 50% throttle, and behave exactly as it did in ArmA if it was in error?