F-2 MISSIONS
Landing — Pattern, Approach, Touchdown, Full Stop
Landing is not about getting down, it is about shedding energy. The four numbers that decide whether a touchdown counts, the altitudes and speeds around the pattern, why 11 degrees of alpha is the target, and why the runway runs out in the rain.
You can force a takeoff by pulling. A landing is decided the instant the wheels touch — there is no second attempt at it.
And the objective of a landing mission is not the touchdown. It is the full stop. Touchdown is just a gate along the way. This page walks the sequence in the order the game judges it.
1. The touchdown envelope — four numbers and one heading
The moment you contact the runway, all of these are checked at once. Miss any one of them and it is a crash, not a deduction.
| Item | Limit | Failure |
|---|---|---|
| Sink rate | 12 m/s | sink — the gear collapses |
| Speed | 415 km/h | fast |
| Roll | 8° | roll — you land on one leg |
| Angle of attack | 18°, and not stalled | stall |
| Off the runway axis | ±30° | across_runway |
You only get 8° of roll at touchdown. On a crosswind day, crabbing into the wind all the way down tends to put a wing low as you arrive. You have to straighten it out with the runway just before the wheels touch.
On ACE the gear lever is manual, so forgetting it means a belly landing (gear_up).
2. Only three things are scored
Once you are inside the envelope, the quality of the touchdown is scored.
| Item | Points | Full marks | Zero |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sink rate | 40 | 3 m/s or less | 12 m/s |
| Centreline | 25 | within 1.5 m | half the runway width |
| Angle of attack | 15 | 11° ±1.5° | ±7° off 11° |
Nearly half the points are sink rate. How good your landing is comes down almost entirely to how softly you put it down.
The grade itself is decided by softness alone.
| Sink rate | Grade |
|---|---|
| Under 4 m/s | PERFECT |
| Under 8 m/s | GOOD |
| 8 m/s or more | FIRM |
For reference: the game’s own autopilot flown around the pattern touches down at 4.6 m/s and scores 91 before coming to a full stop. That is the benchmark — the low 90s are well within reach.
The scoring wants a touchdown attitude of 11° angle of attack. Drop it on flat and you are short of that; haul back and you go stalled. The answer is to hold a slightly nose-high attitude and take the weight on the mains — and not let the nose fall through afterwards.
3. The pattern comes with numbers
In the ROUND TRIP missions there are seven gates hanging in the air. A gate tells you where to be — and often how fast to be there.
| Gate | Leg | Altitude | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| O1 | Climb | 300 m | — |
| O2 | Crosswind | 300 m | 570 km/h |
| O3 | Downwind | 300 m | 570 km/h |
| O4 | End of downwind | 300 m | 700 km/h |
| O5 | Base | 300 m | 570 km/h |
| O6 | Final | 300 m | 570 km/h |
| Og | Touchdown point | on the deck | 300 km/h |
Speed tolerance is ±100 km/h and altitude tolerance is ±120 m. Drift outside either and the instructor keeps telling you about it.
The one to notice is O4 at 700 km/h. That gate sits at the entry to the turn from downwind onto base, and rolling into bank raises your stall speed — so the brief is to have the speed before the turn. Accelerating once you are already in it does not work.
From O1 to O6 the altitude never changes. You start down after the final gate, not before it — descend early and you fall outside the gate height and get warned. If you are losing altitude in the turns, you are not pulling enough to pay for the bank (Stalls and turns).
4. Energy — high and fast always floats
Any speed or height you carry into the approach comes back to you as runway used after touchdown. On a short field or a painted deck, that is the whole failure mode.
There is one thing to remember.
Don’t carry extra speed. High and fast and you’ll float long.
If you notice you are high or fast, get rid of it before you turn final. Once you are on final there is no distance left to spend.
Whether to flare depends on where you are landing
The correct answer inverts between missions.
| Landing on | Just before touchdown |
|---|---|
| An ordinary runway | Ease back to arrest the sink — flare |
| A painted deck or a carrier | Do not flare. Fly the glideslope all the way onto the deck |
A deck is short, and a flare floats you long and past the wires. Carry your runway habits out to the ship and you will always land long, so switch as soon as you reach the painted-deck missions.
5. Not stalling
The stall begins at 15°, with a warning band from 3° before it — so from 12°.
The reason the touchdown target is 11° is that it sits 4° short of the stall. That margin is what keeps a gust on short final from tipping you into it.
There are two classic ways to get near the stall on approach.
- The speed decays unnoticed, and you pull to hold altitude. The more you pull, the higher the alpha, the less lift, and the faster you sink. The fix is to stop pulling and add power.
- Slowing down while turning on final. Bank raises the stall speed the moment you roll in, so a speed that is safe in level flight is not safe in the turn.
When you are coming down fast, pulling raises the angle of attack and makes the sink worse. Power is what stops a descent. The instructor says the same thing — "Coming down fast. Stop it with power."
6. It is not over until you stop
Touching down does not complete the mission. You have to reach a full stop (1.8 km/h or less).
Wheel brakes come on with negative throttle — the same input as the speedbrake.
Rain halves the wheel brakes
On a rainy stage the wheel brakes lose half their bite. The speedbrake works on air, so it is unaffected.
Measured stopping distances, from touchdown to a full stop with the throttle held fully aft:
| Touchdown speed | Dry | Wet | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 216 km/h | 368 m | 578 m | 1.57× |
| 252 km/h | 476 m | 728 m | 1.53× |
| 288 km/h | 591 m | 880 m | 1.49× |
Halving the brakes does not double the rollout — it costs about 1.5×. At high speed the untouched speedbrake is doing real work, so the first half feels completely normal. Then the speed drops, the aerodynamic braking fades, and all that is left is a brake at half strength — which is exactly when the runway ends. Start slowing early in the rain is the only answer.
The long runway at Matsushima (07/25) is 2,700 m, but the short one (33/15) is only 1,500 m. At 288 km/h on a wet surface the table above needs 880 m, so a touchdown that floats to midfield does not leave enough.
Summary
- The envelope is sink 12 m/s, speed 415 km/h, roll 8°, alpha 18°, axis ±30°. Miss one and you crash.
- Nearly half the score is sink rate. Full marks at 3 m/s or less; PERFECT under 4.
- Aim for 11° of alpha at touchdown, on the mains, and do not let the nose drop.
- The pattern is 300 m and 570 km/h. O4’s 700 km/h is a pre-turn acceleration call.
- High and fast always floats. Spend it before final.
- Do not flare on a deck.
- Rain halves the wheel brakes — 1.5× the rollout, and the first half feels normal.
The takeoff side is covered in Procedures — a violation ends the mission, and the bank/stall relationship in Stalls and turns.
Values in the game are still being tuned and may change.