Couple things for the lead, don't try to count down the exact moment of the initiation. A countdown stresses people out to match the correct timing, but the wingmen need to be relaxed to fly precisely. Having everyone be relaxed and pull the same amount is a lot more important than a precisely timed pull. Instead of counting use the natural rhythm of the language for the same effect. For example, say "G-oing... U-p... N-ow", while stressing the beginning of the words and space them evenly with about one second in between each word. The third word would usually be the moment of initiation. Except, do everything an extra 1 second later to account for discord comms delay. If you can't explain what you're about to do in two words, prepend the phrase with "standby for ...." in a non-rhythmical speech to announce what you're planning to do. Second, don't start the pull so suddenly, ease into it with a small, almost imperceptible "sample pull" first and then start increasing it moments later. That gives everyone an idea of how fast you're going to be increasing the pull, plus an extra moment to cleanup the positions after the initial jerk. You can even announce the tiny pre-pull in a rhythm speech separately, for example: "Going... Up... Now(+tiny pull)... (one step pause)... And... Mooore(+start increasing pull)-Pulllll-Moooore-Pull.... Pull... Is... Set(+smoothly stop increasing)". But keep the movements smooth ofcourse, I don't mean to pulse the controls with the rhythm. For the practical part, apart from the sudden jerk at the beginning, from zero to 3G was good. You do want to get to 3+ G quite hastily, so that bit was great. But then you ease the pull too early. I think we'd usually ease through the middle 60 degrees over the top, that is in the +30 to -30 of pitch when inverted. You seem to start easing before you even get vertical. That's about 90 degrees too early. Similarly on the way down, add the pull back when the speed starts increasing, otherwise you quickly get too fast and then can't pull out of the dive in time and end up low. Holding the first pull in for longer makes the loop less tall and more round, so you lose less speed to altitude, which makes the loop wider over the top and thus more round again, which means you don't actually need to ease all the way down to 1G. Just a bit. And the extra speed also keeps the plane more controllable. The decrease in G almost happens naturally due to the reduced speed over the top, you don't even need to change the stick position much at all. Not sure how the hornet's FBW reacts to it though. Also, note that an oval shaped loop will look a lot more round for the observers on the ground. They're viewing the loop at an angle. So you DO want it to be a bit oval, a perfect circle in the sky would look squished when viewed from the ground. And for the wingman: Trim your plane quite a bit nose-down, so you're constantly flying with a bit of a back-pull. That way you only need one or two fingers pulling on the stick. You increase the pull to go up and decrease pull to go down, but you'll never actually need to change your hand position to push the stick forward. This makes the pull initiation a lot smoother and it also completely avoids the issues with deadzones and sticky centers. Keep your hand relaxed, hold the stick lightly with the tips of your fingers only, and do small movements mostly from your fingers. Again, being calm and relaxed is key, and having a lead with a hypnotic rhythmical voice helps a lot. Secondly, you need smaller stick deflections. For example, if you need to adjust your position to the left, you sometimes push the stick almost all the way to the left and back to center to quickly bank left, followed by full deflection to the right and center again to level the wings again. But this upsets your precisely held pull position, it adds extra drag, introduces PIO and overall just looks jittery. Instead of that, try a tiny left deflection, say 5-10% only, but then hold that deflection there for a good second. Your plane will eventually bank the same amount, it will just take a bit longer to get there. On the flip side, you'll maintain the pitch position on your stick a lot more precisely and you'll lose less speed and less lift due to the extra drag from big deflections and you won't need to correct all the other axes nearly as much. Same applies to pitch and throttle. Experiment with smaller deflections but hold them for longer to achieve the same effect in a more controlled way. Your throttle was pretty good though. Hope this helps.
Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:09 Let's Learn 07:26 Let's try! 08:16 Loop 1 10:10 Loop 2 11:33 Loop 3 (and I think our best average loop) 13:04 Loop 4 14:25 Tacview 17:50 Loop 5 19:00 Loop 6 20:13 Goofing Around 20:40 More Tacview 22:15 External Front View of Loop 3 23:23 External Spectator View This was super fun man! Can't wait till next practice. In rewatching, I can see so many awareness mistakes I am making, like calling over the top when I'm still fairly nose up, etc. Can't wait to smash it. 18 inches!
Couple things for the lead,
don't try to count down the exact moment of the initiation. A countdown stresses people out to match the correct timing, but the wingmen need to be relaxed to fly precisely. Having everyone be relaxed and pull the same amount is a lot more important than a precisely timed pull.
Instead of counting use the natural rhythm of the language for the same effect. For example, say "G-oing... U-p... N-ow", while stressing the beginning of the words and space them evenly with about one second in between each word. The third word would usually be the moment of initiation.
Except, do everything an extra 1 second later to account for discord comms delay.
If you can't explain what you're about to do in two words, prepend the phrase with "standby for ...." in a non-rhythmical speech to announce what you're planning to do.
Second, don't start the pull so suddenly, ease into it with a small, almost imperceptible "sample pull" first and then start increasing it moments later. That gives everyone an idea of how fast you're going to be increasing the pull, plus an extra moment to cleanup the positions after the initial jerk.
You can even announce the tiny pre-pull in a rhythm speech separately, for example:
"Going... Up... Now(+tiny pull)... (one step pause)... And... Mooore(+start increasing pull)-Pulllll-Moooore-Pull.... Pull... Is... Set(+smoothly stop increasing)".
But keep the movements smooth ofcourse, I don't mean to pulse the controls with the rhythm.
For the practical part, apart from the sudden jerk at the beginning, from zero to 3G was good. You do want to get to 3+ G quite hastily, so that bit was great.
But then you ease the pull too early. I think we'd usually ease through the middle 60 degrees over the top, that is in the +30 to -30 of pitch when inverted. You seem to start easing before you even get vertical. That's about 90 degrees too early.
Similarly on the way down, add the pull back when the speed starts increasing, otherwise you quickly get too fast and then can't pull out of the dive in time and end up low.
Holding the first pull in for longer makes the loop less tall and more round, so you lose less speed to altitude, which makes the loop wider over the top and thus more round again, which means you don't actually need to ease all the way down to 1G. Just a bit. And the extra speed also keeps the plane more controllable.
The decrease in G almost happens naturally due to the reduced speed over the top, you don't even need to change the stick position much at all. Not sure how the hornet's FBW reacts to it though.
Also, note that an oval shaped loop will look a lot more round for the observers on the ground. They're viewing the loop at an angle. So you DO want it to be a bit oval, a perfect circle in the sky would look squished when viewed from the ground.
And for the wingman:
Trim your plane quite a bit nose-down, so you're constantly flying with a bit of a back-pull.
That way you only need one or two fingers pulling on the stick. You increase the pull to go up and decrease pull to go down, but you'll never actually need to change your hand position to push the stick forward. This makes the pull initiation a lot smoother and it also completely avoids the issues with deadzones and sticky centers.
Keep your hand relaxed, hold the stick lightly with the tips of your fingers only, and do small movements mostly from your fingers. Again, being calm and relaxed is key, and having a lead with a hypnotic rhythmical voice helps a lot.
Secondly, you need smaller stick deflections.
For example, if you need to adjust your position to the left, you sometimes push the stick almost all the way to the left and back to center to quickly bank left, followed by full deflection to the right and center again to level the wings again. But this upsets your precisely held pull position, it adds extra drag, introduces PIO and overall just looks jittery.
Instead of that, try a tiny left deflection, say 5-10% only, but then hold that deflection there for a good second. Your plane will eventually bank the same amount, it will just take a bit longer to get there. On the flip side, you'll maintain the pitch position on your stick a lot more precisely and you'll lose less speed and less lift due to the extra drag from big deflections and you won't need to correct all the other axes nearly as much.
Same applies to pitch and throttle. Experiment with smaller deflections but hold them for longer to achieve the same effect in a more controlled way. Your throttle was pretty good though.
Hope this helps.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:09 Let's Learn
07:26 Let's try!
08:16 Loop 1
10:10 Loop 2
11:33 Loop 3 (and I think our best average loop)
13:04 Loop 4
14:25 Tacview
17:50 Loop 5
19:00 Loop 6
20:13 Goofing Around
20:40 More Tacview
22:15 External Front View of Loop 3
23:23 External Spectator View
This was super fun man! Can't wait till next practice. In rewatching, I can see so many awareness mistakes I am making, like calling over the top when I'm still fairly nose up, etc. Can't wait to smash it. 18 inches!