IRRE

Hi Everyone!

We’ve just returned from our second research trip of this year to the U.S!
The first trip of this year was conducted by the art team back in april to collect boring, totally unexciting visual reference stuff.

The main goal of this trip was for the engineering and research team to meet with SMEs and give them a hands on session with our F-14.
Most important to us was to receive detailed in-person feedback on our Flight Modeling, and to then apply that feedback to our F-14.
We were also eager to discuss various systems and aircraft functionality, as well as things like crew communication for JESTER and carrier operations.

After a long and tiring flight from Stockholm to Oakland, we went through the usual routine of collecting our luggage, passing through immigration and getting our rental vehicle.
The moment we turn the key in the ignition, "You’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’" starts blaring through the radio.
We’re now about one overtime induced hallucination away from believing that developing the Tomcat is a divine mission.
No one will expect the Tomcat inquisition.

The next day, it was down to business. We met our subject matter expert, an experienced US Navy Commander and F-14 / F/A-18 aviator.
We hooked him up to a high performance VR-rig in order to have him evaluate our Tomcat and the game was on!

His overall impression of the simulation model was great, and he was able to provide very detailed and absolutely invaluable feedback regarding parts of the flight envelope or controls that need further improvement.
Having brought our development machines with us, we could immediately implement some of these changes and get immediate feedback on them.
Some of these include changing the thrust moment arm, adjusting and tweaking the ground effect and control surface actuator speeds.




Look at that amazing 'stache!

Now that we’ve returned home, our goal is to fully incorporate the feedback into our model, and within the coming weeks set up further remote testing sessions.
We’ve already spent some time tuning the AFCS which was a point of much feedback, which should alleviate some unwanted roll and pitch oscillations. We’ve also adjusted longitudinal stick pitch damping at high G’s.

Through these evolutionary changes, we are able to finely tune and polish our flight model.

We are already immensely proud of the F-14 FM, and as the foundation of the entire DCS: F-14A & B product, we hope its’ accuracy will permeate throughout the entire module.
We wouldn’t be able to get as close as we are without the fantastic contributions by all of our SME Pilots and RIO’s.

On a personal level, the most amazing part of the testing sessions was to watch him ace the carrier landings again and again (which even our own testing team is not able to do consistently) - something we believe speaks volumes about his skill as an aviator and our FM!

Here’s one of those landings. Smooth as silk!




Being able to discuss all things related to Tomcat also gives us some added perspective on the project as a whole as well as assisting us in the creation of JESTER, our two Campaigns (-A and -B) and just satisfying our nerdy needs in general. We're obviously all huge Tomcat fans and this was a great opportunity to delve into less technical details.

We then spent some time running intercepts as a two person crew (we had a second machine and Rift with us) - with one of our team members operating the Radar. Flying DCS: F-14 as a two man crew is simply one of the most enjoyable flight simulation experiences one can have, and doing so with a real F-14 pilot up front was the cherry on top.




I was inverted...
That’s it for this trip!

The entire team is hard at work at bringing you the best F-14 experience we can possibly craft, and we’re looking forward to the early access release and the F-14 roadmap beyond.

There’s still plenty of work to be done, and we’ll keep you updated on our schedule and progress.
Thanks so much for reading, and stay tuned for more updates.

We'd also like to sincerely thank all of our SMEs, both pilots and RIOs (you all know who you are!) and museums and associations that we have been working with for their amazing help and all of the contributions that they have made to DCS: F-14 so far. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Heatblur Simulations
https://www.facebook.com/heatblur/


"....wooah that lovin' feelin'...’"


__________________
Nicholas Dackard

Director | Lead Artist
Heatblur Simulations

https://www.facebook.com/heatblur/