Chapter 6: Features and Flight in X-Plane Carrier

X-Plane Carrier is the most realistic aerial combat simulator available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. At the same time, it is the most realistic carrier operations simulator for the platform and, in our opinion, one of the most fun apps out there.

Your ultimate goal in the sim is to take off from the carrier, destroy your adversary in the air without being shot down yourself, and return to the carrier for landing. After successfully landing, you will receive a score based on your performance. How high how can you score? We have never managed to exceed a 90% here.

Catapults, guns, guided missiles, and arresting gear are all realistically simulated (more realistically than any other iPhone app by far), giving users the ultimate aviation challenges of aircraft carrier operations and aerial combat together in one simulation.

Once you have licked the violent aerial engagements and tricky carrier operations in day, night, clear, cloudy, calm, and windy conditions, battling all different sorts of adversaries in all different sorts of weather at all times of day, there is still multiplayer! This gets really, really fun, of course, because this is the first-ever X-Plane simulation where users can shoot their opponents down to a flaming, horrible death.

Ready to try it?

Aircraft
Six aircraft are included with X-Plane Carrier. First is the World War II-era F4U Corsair, a screaming 350+ mph fighter packing two thousand horsepower. This is paired up against the nimble Japanese A6M “Zero”—a much slower, less powerful, but much more maneuverable adversary. Users can fly either plane against the other, experimenting in the advantages of speed versus maneuverability.

Next is the mighty F-4 Phantom, with over thirty-two thousand pounds of thrust, four air-to-air guided missiles, and guns if those fail. This bird flies against the surprisingly fast and agile MiG-21 Fishbed, which puts up an amazing fight with its light weight and tight turns. Users can also take the MiG up against the Phantom to try the battle from the other side. Which plane is better in the dogfight?

The F-14 Tomcat was introduced by the US Navy as a replacement for the F-4 Phantom. Here in X-Plane Carrier, it gets pitted against its own replacement—the F/A-18F Super Hornet.


 * [[Image:F4u_carrier.png]]

Missions
X-Plane Carrier gives the user three different locations to run through two different missions. The first area, San Francisco, California, is used for carrier training—no “bad guys” here. The other two regions, though—Honolulu, Hawaii and Anchorage, Alaska—will feature the enemy aircraft corresponding to whichever plane the user has chosen. That is, users flying the F-4 will have a MiG-21 in their skies, users in an A6M will have an F4U approaching, and so on.

When either of the two combat locations is selected, a slider will appear at the bottom of the Mission tab (found in the settings menu) to modify the skill level of the enemy air craft. Tap and drag it down to 0% for a push-over, or bring it to 100% to fight against the ultimate ace.

Taking Off, Flying, and Landing
To take off from the carrier, a few things must be done in quick succession. First, the throttle slider (labeled 1 in the following image) must be dragged to the top of the screen. The flaps must be pulled down about half way (using the slider labeled 2 in the image below), and the BRAKE button (labeled 3 in the following image) must be tapped to disengage the brakes and activate the catapult propelling the craft off the deck. From there, simply guide the craft down the flight deck and, once clear, pull the nose up and tap the GEAR button (labeled 5 in the following image).


 * [[Image:Carrier_labeled_controls.png]]

Landing on the carrier is a bit more difficult. First, note that the ADF (the arrow in the middle of the HSI, labeled 6 in the previous image) always points the way back to the carrier. This is invaluable in setting up an approach to the carrier.

To set up an approach to the WWII carrier used with the F4U (whose landing deck goes straight down the flight deck), a pilot should fly either a 90 or 45 degree intercept (depending on the aircraft's distance) in order to get behind the ship. If the ship is traveling north, and the aircraft is coming from the east with the ship to its north (as in the following diagram), the pilot will continue on his or her intercept trajectory until the ADF is pointing either 45 or 90 degrees to the right, at which point he or she will turn in toward the landing deck.


 * [[Image: Carrier diagram.jpg]]

If the carrier is instead the John F. Kennedy-class ship used with the F-4, F-14, and F-18, the landing runway is angled 30 degrees to the port (left) side—it is not straight down the flight deck like in the older carriers. This was done to prevent the all-too-common overruns that occurred in WWII when a landing plane crashed into the stacked line of planes at the far end of the carrier. A pilot landing on such a carrier must correct for this angling. Using the example and diagram above, the pilot would instead wait until the ADF was pointing either 15 or 60 degrees to the right before turning in for a landing.

When approaching the flight deck to land, a glidepath of about 3.5 degrees is standard. At this time, the tail hook should be lowered by tapping the HOOK button, turning it green. This will allow the tail of the aircraft to catch the arresting wires on the deck. These wires will accelerate the craft from well over 100 knots down to zero in little more than a second.

Unlike in a conventional landing, there should be no “flare” before touching down on the carrier. Whereas, say, an airliner would raise its nose up just before touching the runway (thereby ensuring a smooth landing), a carrier approach should maintain a constant glideslope until the craft hits the deck.

Also, rather counter-intuitively, a real fighter pilot must slam the throttle to full the instant that the aircraft touches the deck. This is because, even when the pilot has done everything right, the craft's tail hook can bounce over the arresting wires in what is called a “bolter.” When this happens, the pilot must be ready to get off the deck safely and come around for another try. Don't worry—even when the throttle revs up like this, the arresting wires will still pull the craft down to zero velocity.

To see how the pros do it, check out the following links:
 * Video: Carrier Landing—F-4J Phantom II in the Mediterranean Sea
 * Video: F-14 Carrier Landing
 * Walkthrough: How to land a jet plane on an aircraft carrier

Combat
Of course, taking off and landing on the carrier are only means to an end. The real goal is the dogfight—shooting down the enemy. Each of the aircraft is equipped with a gun, and the modern jets (the F-4, MiG-21, F-14, and F/A-18F) include AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, too.

Combat Basics
Each aircraft's guns can be fired with the FIRE button (labeled 3 in the following image). To the left of this button is the GUN button (labeled 2 in the following image), and beneath this is a number indicating the number of rounds left (676 rounds in the image below). In the jets, there is a corresponding AIM9 button (labeled 1 in the image below). Tapping this will switch from the guns to the guided missiles, and tapping the GUN button will switch back.


 * [[Image:Carrier_combat_controls.png]]

Using the Gun
When firing a gun, be sure to lead opponents (called deflection shooting)—fire at where they will be, not where they are. Mastering so-called “high deflection shooting” can make the difference between ending a fight quickly and losing it entirely. Whereas the surest shot will always come when a pilot is right on an enemy's tail, a high deflection shot comes from beside or in front of the enemy. In most cases, a pilot has only a split second in which the enemy will cross his or her path of fire, so timing is critical.

Using the Missiles
When firing the AIM-9 missiles, they will more or less lock on to an enemy automatically, even from a good distance. While this makes it relatively easy to score a kill on an enemy, that enemy is equipped with the same missiles, so be prepared to jink (rapidly deflect the flight controls into turns in different directions) when the return fire comes.

Using the Targeting Reticle
The targeting reticle always follows the enemy's aircraft. If the enemy is visible on screen (as in the following image), it will appear as a thin green box around the opponent's craft.


 * [[Image:Carrier_reticle_on_screen.png]]

If, however, the enemy is not visible on screen, the reticle will be “dragged” to the edge of the screen and will appear as a thick green bar on the edge of the screen. For instance, in the following image, the opponent is on the pilot's left side (the green bar is near the center on the left side of the screen).
 * [[Image:Carrier_reticle_off_screen.png]]

The reticle breaks down, though, when the opponent's aircraft is very close to the user's, or when it is directly on the user's tail. In this case, the reticle will bounce around from full left deflection to full right deflection. This is simply a limitation associated with trying to point in three dimensions using a two dimensional display.

Strategy
The key to winning a dogfight lies in creating a situation where your aircraft's strengths are emphasized and an opponent's weaknesses are exploited. This means trying to force a tight, up-close battle when flying a more maneuverable fighter than the enemy, or aiming for dive-bombs and other tactics requiring speed and weight when flying a faster, larger craft.

Additionally, do not underestimate the value of quick combat maneuvers, such as:
 * corkscrews—rolling your craft left or right while continuously varying its pitch
 * feints—rolling to one side as though to go into a banked turn (i.e., a turn with the craft on its side, while pulling back on the controls in order to pull “in” to the turn), but pushing the nose forward instead
 * barrel rolls—often described as “a cross between a roll and a loop” (see the following image, released into the public domain by its creator MioUzaki).


 * [[Image:Barrelroll.png]]

For more information on combat tactics, see the Dicta Boelcke, a list of tactics developed by WWI ace Oswald Boelcke.