Fly the S-2 Tracker
The S-2 Tracker is now flyable from the catapult and onto the angled deck, with a slower, heavier propeller feel than the Skyhawk.
The S-2 Tracker is now the second aircraft you can fly. It launches from the same catapult and lands on the same angled deck and wires as the A-4G, but it feels like a different aeroplane.
Try it
Press N, or use the Aircraft button in the side panel, to switch between the Skyhawk and the Tracker. The sim restarts you on the catapult in the new aircraft. R and T restart on the catapult or on approach in whichever aircraft is selected. Controls are the same as the Skyhawk: G gear, F flaps, H hook.
The guided tutorial is written for the Skyhawk, so starting it switches you back to the A-4G.
What is different
- Radial engine sound. Two nine-cylinder radials with an uneven, burbling idle. Pitch and loudness follow the throttle, the two engines drift in and out of step, and the jet whine is switched off. It sounds muffled in the cockpit view.
- Propellers. Two propellers that blur into a disc as you add power. Thrust falls away as airspeed rises, so the Tracker accelerates hard at low speed and more slowly at high speed.
- Slower. The approach starts at about 101 knots with gear, full flaps and hook down. The Skyhawk's starts at about 123.
- Gentler catapult. The shot is a little weaker than the Skyhawk's. With the default ship speed and wind it is enough to fly away; with the ship stopped and no wind it is not.
- Bigger wing. Roughly twice the wing area at a heavier weight, so it floats more and bleeds speed differently when you pull power.
- No speedbrakes. B does nothing in the Tracker.
- Angle of attack. The indexer uses lower angles than the Skyhawk's. The on-speed circle is about 2.6 to 5.2 degrees.
- Gear, flaps and hook. The gear folds back into the engine nacelles, the flaps drop below the wing, and the hook is under the tail.
Hold on: what is approximate
- The mass, wing area, thrust, drag and stall values are chosen to give plausible handling and a workable catapult shot. They are not taken from a flight manual or a performance chart.
- The side number on the fuselage is a placeholder.
- The model has been checked against the reference photographs only by eye.
- The engine sound is synthesised, not recorded. It imitates the firing pattern of a nine-cylinder radial, not a particular engine, and has not been compared with a real Tracker.
- There is no radome, MAD boom animation or weapons bay.
The Tracker that is towed around the deck and taken down the forward lift is a separate, static model with its wings folded.