Hi all,
I have some doubts concerning the mid compression bypass circuit.
To start, at the moment, the corresponding circuit breaker does not pop out, right? It's a bit awkward to test it, because the circuit breaker is on the right RIO panel (8D7), while the key binding is listed under the pilot section only. Wouldn't it make sense to add a key binding also for the RIO and animate it to pop out (and in)? If I'm not wrong, at the moment, there is no indication on the status of the bypass. As per NATOPS NAVAIR 01-F14AAA-1 (p. 1-23), only planes after BUNO 160921 had a test panel for it.
A second doubt relates the potential use of the bypass. The chart showing its operation range (fig. 1-14 of the NATOPS manual, not classified, I purchased online a hard copy, but I'm not sure if I can post it here) shows the automatic range of operation for the bypass. The bypass automatically opens at high alpha and at high speed, to improve airflow quality downstream. My question is: how much thrust is gained keeping it close at high alpha? The manual only cautions against its use because of the increased risk of compressor stall at high alpha (p. 1-18) but does not quantify the potential benefit in terms of thrust (or I didn't find it yet).
