Situational Awareness
-
Here is a good tip I just discovered for easily maintaining situational awareness while flying a high speed approach circuit in this extremely high performance aircraft. This can often be very challenging with the typical approach speeds and bank angles used while flying this aircraft, especially if you don't have the luxury of a head tracker like TrackIR, or VR, to quickly change your view from the panel to the runway and back.
To easily keep the runway in sight at all times while flying a high speed circuit pattern, even during steep 60 degree bank high G turns, just configure the seldom used command TOGGLE SMART CAMERA to your Joystick or Yoke trigger button. Then, any time you want to quickly look over your shoulder at the runway , or to the side, or even up if you are in a steep high G turn from base to final, all you have to do is press and hold it! Then, just release the button to quickly return to the normal panel view. It also allows you to quickly look up from the panel at the runway while on final, and during the critical round out and touchdown.
