Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis: Difference between revisions

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| {{key press|w}}  || Autopilot off
| {{key press|Shift|W}}  || Autopilot off
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Revision as of 17:53, 17 September 2019

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis
FGAddon
Mig-21 splash.png
MiG-21bis cockpit.png
Type Fighter aircraft, Military aircraft, supersonic jet fighter
Configuration Low wing aircraft
Propulsion Jet aircraft
Manufacturer Mikoyan and Gurevich
Author(s)
MiG-21bis team
  • Petar Jedvaj
  • David Culp
  • Raptor
  • Stuart Cassie
  • Gary Brown
  • Brendan Black
  • bugman
  • Tomaskom
FDM JSBSim
--aircraft= MiG-21bis
Status Early production
 FDM Stars-3.png
 Systems Stars-2.png
 Cockpit Stars-3.png
 Model Stars-5.png
Supports Bombable
Development
 Website The website for the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis developments.
 Repository The development repository of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis.
Download Download the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis aircraft package for the current stable release (2020.3).
Forum 'Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21bis' topic on the FlightGear forum.
License GPLv3+
This aircraft is NOT available under the GNU GPL 2, the primary license of the FlightGear project. This means that parts cannot be reused in the official FlightGear repositories.

The Mikoyan and Gurevich MiG-21bis is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union.

FlightGear Versions

There are currently 2 versions of the MiG-21bis available in FlightGear:

Eventually, the version in FGAddon will be updated at intervals with the version on Git. The instructions below are covering the Git version, as it is more complete and realistic both in terms of flight model, systems and for supporting military simulation.

Performance Data

Maximum Speed: 1,468 mph

Rate of climb: 44,280 ft/min

Service Ceiling: 58,400 ft

Range: 751 mi

Keyboard Controls

Key Function
s Press start button
Ctrl+f Toggle Afterburner Reheat (CLR)
Ctrl+B Air brakes
Ctrl+d Deploy braking parachute
Ctrl+t Jettison braking parachute
m Engage nose wheel steering
c Toggle canopy
Shift+S Activate smokepod (the color can be changed using drop-down menu MiG-21 -> Smokepod Color)

Flaps and Gears

Key Function
] Flaps down
[ Flaps up
Shift+G Gear handle down
g Gear handle up
Ctrl+g Gear handle safety

Autopilot

Key Function
Ctrl+a Auto-leveller autopilot
Shift+W Autopilot off

Weapons

Key Function
f Gun trigger
q Weapons release - release selected store
Shift+Q Trigger flare release
n Lock on target
Shift+N Unlock target
i Rotate throttle drum up grossly
Shift+I Rotate throttle drum up fine
k Rotate throttle drum down gross
Shift+K Rotate throttle drum down fine
r Pylon select next
Shift+R Pylon select previous
Ctrl+z Centre tank jettison

Ground-Controlled Interception (GCI)

Key Function
F5 Request Picture
F6 Request Bogey Dope
F7 Request Cutoff

Aircraft Help

Checklists

There are ca. 10 Aircraft_Checklists, which can help in many situations.

View Options

In order to get better access to switches and for better readability of the labels in the cockpit, consider adapting the views in the aircraft by using drop-down menu View -> View Options. Reduce the number of views in "Standard views" to the minimum and enable all views in "Mig-21bis" Specific Views. Then you can change the view by v and Shift+V.

Minimal Start-Up

If using the automatic startup using the drop-down menu MiG-21 -> Autostart/Shutdown, then you still should do a couple things:

  • Set the needle of the fuel gauge manually to the correct level depending on the loaded fuel. The fuel gauge does not automatically set to the level in the tank, you need to set the initial level. In drop-down menu Equipment -> Fuel and Payload Settings you can read the value - maybe after having added an external drop-tank and having manually clicked into the "Ventral Drop Tank" slider to get it filled. Please observe that the total displayed will be in gallons, however the MiG uses litres (i.e. you need to multiply by a factor of ca. 3.8).
  • Slave the gyro compass - hold down the FDS button until the Heading Indicator compass needle settles. The compass will drift over time, press the FDS button every now and again to re-slave. The FDS button is positioned just to the right at the top of the attitude indicator.
  • Set the magnetic declination instrument to your current latitude to help minimize gyro error. You can find the current latitude by going to the drop-down menu Equipment -> GPS, sand read the value in the top middle part of the dialogue. The magnetic declination instrument is situated on the lower right part of the console between the pilot's legs.
  • Turn on the auxiliary hydraulics for full aileron control (switch called Pump Unit on in the middle of the top row on the switch panel on the right wall of the cockpit). Not doing so will make it very challenging to handle the roll stability and get decent roll rates.
  • While you are at it turn on the radar altimeter (third switch from left in the second row from the top on the switch panel on the right wall of the cockpit).

Flying

Taxi

In order to ease alignment and to prepare for later use consider enabling the gun sight:

  1. Flip the Gunsight in the switch panel on the right cockpit side (button row, second switch from left).
  2. Flip the pipper switch (right side of the box below gun sight) and fixed net switch (under the box on the right side a bit hidden)

Takeoff

  1. Open the safety pin of the gear handle (Ctrl+g).
  2. Set flaps to takeoff (])
  3. Add full military thrust, count 4-5 elephants, set full afterburner (first reheat)
  4. ~150-200 km/h: 3/4 stick back
  5. ~250-270 km/h: ease up the stick
  6. ~340-360 km/h: takeoff (hold 10° of AoA until well above ground. Else you'll suffer tail strike)
  7. Flaps up ([)
  8. Gears up (g).
  9. Once verified that gears have retracted, set the gear handle to neutral and then put the safety pin back to closed (Ctrl+g).

Afterburner reheat is usually turned off at 600 km/h, unless you need to scramble to intercept. Second reheat (using CTRL+f) is allowed on takeoff for short runways or when you need to get in the air fast, but it isn’t a normal practice.

Autopilot

There are a few different modes - all of which are commanded by using the black panel on the front left cockpit wall below the gear handle:

Stabilise:
  • Enabled by clicking on the button labeled Stabilize. Disabled by clicking on the red button Off or using Shift|w..
  • In general holds pitch and roll - changes are commanded by the stick
  • If in level, then it holds the heading, not the bank angle.
Auto leveller:
  • Enabled by using Ctrl|a.
  • Holds bank and pitch to level.

Landing

  1. Approach with around 500 km/h
  2. Flaps to landing (twice ])
  3. Gear down ( Shift+g). Once locked back to neutral
  4. Final approach ~350 km/h
  5. Once crossed the threshold idle the engine
  6. Touchdown at ~250 km/h
  7. Apply brakes and deploy drag chute (CTRL+d)
  8. Jettison the chute before fully stopped (CTRL+t)

Engine and Throttle Management

In general the engine of the Mig21-bis is less responsive than that of a modern jet fighter - and throttle and engine management is more subtle.

N1 and N2 are the rotational speeds of the engine sections expressed in percentage instead of in the actual rate of rotation. If N1 gets too much higher than N2, you will cause an engine surge (can happen at as low as 20% separation, it's guaranteed by 30%). Therefore one needs to keep an eye on the N1 and N2 needles and sudden changes in the throttle over a large range are bad. The max N1 to N2 ratio depends on airspeed as well, so you'll have to make sure you don't blow up your engine on a dive. The tachometer r.p.m. gauge is situated on the right side of the front panel in the cockpit - below the radar warning receiver and to the left of the radar screen.

On the other hand the air intake cone in the nose is handled by the plane automatically, i.e. without necessary pilot intervention.

Second reheat (CTRL-f) is only effective below 15,000 feet mean sea level, and use should be limited to 3 minutes.

Other Things to be Aware of

  • Angle of Attack: Getting into the yellow range of the AoA indicator results in a high chance of getting into a spin. Getting into the red range of the AoA indicator is not healthy.
  • Compressor stalls: If indicated airspeed exceeds 1300 km/h, the compressor will stall. You'll notice this from the shaking and the drop of N1 and N2. Recovery is easy:
    • Reduce speed
    • Pull back the throttle and wait for it to spool back up
  • Fuel system in negative G: The fuel system cannot feed the engine under negative G load. The engine will shut down in ~10 sec on mil thrust and ~5 sec with reheat / afterburner on. To recover:
    • Stabilise flight
    • Press and hold the starter button (s )

Weapons Management

There is a separate wiki article for MiG-21_Weapons_Management.

Radios / Communication

The radio / communication frequencies must be entered before take-off. There are two ways to do it (the usual way of using the drop-down menu Equipment -> Radio Settings does not work):

  • Using the separate dialogues for the Comm radio, ADF radio and VOR/ILS radio below the MiG-21 drop-down menu.
  • Using the drop-down menu MiG-21 -> Select Radio Config File to load a file. An example file radios.txt is included in the aircraft folder and contains formatting instructions, so you can create your own.

Navigation

There is an external article about navigation, which eventually will be migrated to this wiki.

YouTube Videos

Videos Describing the Git Version

Older Videos on the FGAddon Version

External links