Landing gear and brakes
Raising and lowering the gear, its speed limit, the gear lamps, brakes, steering, touchdown limits and tail strikes.
On this page
Raising and lowering the gear
Press G, or click the red gear lever in the left column of the front panel.
- The gear takes 4 seconds to travel up or down.
- It won't come up while you are on the ground.
- You can't reverse it halfway: wait until it has finished moving.
If the jet refuses, the lever stays where it is, so the lever always shows the real state of the gear.
The gear lamps
| Lamps | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Three green | Down and locked |
| Red | The gear is moving, or it is up when you are low, descending and slow (in NAV mode the GEAR voice warning speaks too) |
| None | Up and locked |
Speed limit
Keep below 500 km/h (270 kt) with the gear down or moving. Much faster than that, from about 575 km/h (310 kt), the gear is damaged, and a destroyed gear jams where it is.
Brakes and steering
- Wheel brakes: hold Space. They work on both main wheels together; there is no differential braking.
- Steering: Q and E turn the nose wheel. Up to 55 degrees at walking pace for tight turns, narrowing to just 4 degrees at 145 km/h (78 kt).
Touching down
How hard you can land depends on how fast you are sinking when the wheels touch:
| Sink rate | What happens |
|---|---|
| Below 3 m/s (590 ft/min) | A good landing: aim for this |
| Below 7 m/s (1,380 ft/min) | A hard landing, but the gear holds |
| 7 m/s (1,380 ft/min) or more | The gear collapses. The jet slides to a stop and the flight is over |
| Above about 15 m/s (3,000 ft/min) | The jet is wrecked |
Watch the VVI in the last few seconds, or the vertical speed on the HUD.
Landing with the gear up, or before it is locked down, also ends the flight with a slide. Land too hard or too fast that way and the jet is wrecked.
Tail strikes
The Su-27 sits with its tail close to the runway. Raise the nose more than about 12 degrees with the main wheels on the ground and the tail touches.
- A light touch does nothing.
- A harder one damages the rear of the jet, but you fly on.
- Slamming it down wrecks the jet.
You get no protection from this when you hand-fly: rotate gently on take-off and don't flare too high on landing.
Lights on the gear
The landing and taxi lights sit on the nose gear leg. They are on whenever the outside lights are on (L) and the gear is down and locked. Their beams show in poor light: at dusk, at night or in fog.
For the whole approach and landing, see Your first flight.
Checked against FlightOut 0.5.2.