ASAP

There are some real world limitations not included in the video game. There are a lot of variations in weapon fusing options and bomb body combos that cannot be programmed in DSMS. For instance the jet can’t tell the difference between certain versions of GBU-38s and will look the same in DSMS.

There is a logic too it. The reason the HUD shows you the station number you will be dropping from is to help you make sure you have the right bomb selected when you are selecting profiles from the rotary. Let’s say for example: you have two 38s loaded but they have different bomb body types and fuses. One is a penetrator the other is he standard frag bomb body. So you have the penetrator on station 4 and the regular fragmentation bomb body on station 8. Because you have different fuses the jet will only let you select one of those bombs at a time. When you cycle through the rotary to your 38 profile it will select the bomb on station 4, and when you cycle profiles one further it will select the weapon on station 8. That’s what the indication on the hud is showing you. It’s more important for the pilot to be able to determine in the HUD which weapon he has selected than the total number of that type of bomb. That way he can quickly cycle to the 38 profile and make sure station 4 is selected. Now he knows he’s got his penetrator ready and he can attack. The layout of the HUD is also so you can scan top to bottom in the block on the lower left: right profile, right station, bombs ready, right SPI. It’s important to do that while also looking outside and driving at the target The pilot should know how many of what type of weapon he has. He planned the sortie built the UPC load, preflighted the jet and remembers if he dropped one of his 2 38s already or not. If he needs a count of his rockets or something he can just go to DSMS and count. That’s not something you need to immediately assess while on final

The APU should get the core RPM above 24%, the reason you motor the engine though isn’t about getting the core RPM up it’s about getting the ITT down below 150 so you don’t get a hot start. The automatic start should take over from there

The A-10 can use a ground cart in real life. BUT If the A-10 needs a ground cart to start, it is not air worthy. In order to fly it’s required to have a fully operational APU that can provide power and air to start the engines

About the only thing the pilot could do would be to turn the TGP power off and turn it back on 10 seconds later and hope it works. Otherwise you’ll have to get someone else to lase your bombs

I agree in a straight away, and in general, the flight lead needs to not suck at being a flight lead and lead his formation appropriately to not make it impossible for the wingman to get in position. (Reference stripped/saddled comm from one of my earlier posts). Flight lead doesn’t always need to be in max, but a smart wingman and a good flight lead can make it work when necessary. It’s the wingman’s job to stay in formation and tell flight lead when he is unable to do so The brevity term is stripped not sucked ( in the USAF at least You’re obviously not going to gain an energy advantage. You’re going to fix the line in your formation which takes priority over the stack in tactical formations. There are obviously limits to how much you can catch up. But If your at 1.8 nm in wedge behind flight lead and he starts climbing you can delay your climb and preserve airspeed to close the gap to get back closer to 1-1.5nm pretty easy. It works and I do it all the time. You just have to be smart about how and when to swap airspeed for altitude. You will be lower than your flight lead, but tactical formations allow for the wingmen to have a stack. If FL continues to hold max power once he levels off then you will probably get stripped. Again, Flight leads should know better than to do that.

Absolutely. The use of lead lag and pure pursuit are all ways to adjust formation position. The wingman should aggressively use geometry to fix position. Flight lead will have throttles parked in max during ingress and egressing target area it’s 2s job to use geometry. Once 1 is back in a safe hold he’ll pull the throttles back and the wingman can refine his position still primarily relying on geometry. Wedge formation gives wingmen a lot maneuvering room to do that. Granted in a real flying squadron there are standards for what airspeeds are being used in the hold, and flight leads brief their wingmen before the flight on tactics they use. This would include things like attack formation position on ingress/egress and how they plan on transitioning too and from the hold for an attack. the wingman knows what 1 will do and can plan accordingly Climb less steeply. A flight lead who’s climbing 10 degrees nose high will have a slower GS than 2 who’s climbing at 3 degrees. That will let 2 move forward on the line once 2 has fixed the line or gotten in front of the line he can match leads climb or even climb steeper to move back on the line and slide up into position. Once lead levels off he should pull the throttles so he doesn’t leave 2 in the dust. using the vertical also can be used when lead is flying level. You can descend and gain airspeed to slide back forward on the line. This is all very basic tactical formation stuff that USAF pilots learn flying he T-38 at UPT, so it’s expected they will be good at it. If a pilot can’t maintain formation with power or geometry they owe FL a stripped call and then it’s the flight leads job to fix the formation, could be a power modulation or a check turn/shackle that’s up to the FL all of this is assuming a tactical formation. If you are in close or route outside of a landing pattern 1) you have questionable tactics 2) you shouldn’t be in max because 2 can’t maintain formation.

Sorry I misunderstood. looked like it was just an incorrect list. The AOA indexer isn’t controlled by that rheostat. Just the AOA gauge at the bottom left. When the rheostat is off the lights are off when it’s out of the off position it controls the brightness of the lights just like a dimmer switch in your house. The clock is normally not lit up and a backlight comes on when you turn the rheostat up. The rheostat is just controlling a bezel light that is pointed at the gauges and they all turn up and down uniformly. The signal light should (but doesn’t) make all the warning and caution lights dimmer to include the gun ready NWS lights. The AOA indexer and the refueling status lights are controlled by a separate rheostat on the left console. Pretty sure that also doesn’t work right now.

Nope. The Flight instrument dial lights the following: ADI HSI airspeed indicator vvi aoa guage clock nmsp panel altimeter the rheostat being in the off positions just turns all the lights all the way off. They are analog gauges that require no lighting at all. During the day you could crank them up and probably wouldn’t even notice the light effect in full daylight. The behavior your talking about is in other planes where they have digital displays and it’s controlling screen brightness not bezzel lights. the clock and repeater screens are like an old school game boy screen or a watch face they aren’t back lit at all until you turn the light on. they are pretty easy to see during the day. the signal light dims everything but there are things that will automatically turn them back to bright light when you’re messing with the lights. Recommend that switch be set to dim after you adjust your other lights so you don’t accidentally turn them back to bright

The only voice warnings are pull up and altitude. To the best of my knowledge you cannot turn them down. They are supposed to get your attention because your life depends on it.

I talked to an A-10 guy I know to figure it out. He said if you need to stop quickly it’s faster to get all your weight on the wheels and apply max braking. You’ll be cycling the anti skid but it will stop the aircraft in like 1500 feet if you land on speed with normal recovery fuel. The a-10 demo team does it and the airplane stops really fast. Aero braking is used for airplanes with swept wings that have to land faster and have to bleed off speed before they can start wheel braking or they risk blowing tires. The a-10 apparently doesnt suffer from those same limitations. Also the a-10 apparently tail strikes easy.

Nah. Your good. Your original post didn’t say anything about speeds. Just wanted to make sure you weren’t engaging NWS at 90 knots and being surprised it’s over sensitive. Just eliminating variables. For a min run landing it’s recommended you let the nose wheel drop and get the boards out faster so you can get on the brakes and use the anti skid. At any rate the A-10 doesn’t normally aero brake by holding the nose off the ground. The nose wheel comes down pretty quick and they use the speed brake to do all the work stopping the airplane. But it doesn’t sound like that was your problem. So continue to do whatever you want

Just curious what you are calling a reasonable speed on the runway to start using NWS? It shouldn’t be used above 50 knots (60-70 if there’s a really strong crosswind) because it’s too sensitive. Rudders should be effective above 50. Are normal rudders too sensitive in flight as well? You might just be turning it on too early. Also… A-10s don’t aero brake. Let your nose touch down and open the speed brakes 100%. It’s more effective and puts all your weight on the gear faster making the brakes more effective. Might help you get to the end of the runway at a slower speed so you don’t have to turn off too fast.

True at high speeds the inertia of the aircraft moving forward will force the wheel to straighten out. But you shouldn’t use wheel brakes to steer the aircraft at anything higher than a slow taxi speed, and he didn’t say how fast he was going so I assumed he was creeping along slowly which is when I’d expect that behavior. In a real aircraft using differential braking on a takeoff and landing roll will put a lot of stress on the brakes and shouldn’t be done or necessary under any normal conditions. the only wheel brakes the A-10 has are the toe brakes. The control binding for wheel brakes is just both toe brakes being applied equally. If you have foot petals with toe brakes I wouldn’t even bind the wheel brakes. Just bind the individual toe brakes. And hold both down at the same time

On landing roll the rudders should be efective until about 50 knots at which point you should turn on the NWS to keep runway center line. But really if you can’t maintain runway centerline with just rudder on landing roll, engage NWS. That is usually around 50 knots, but with a heavy crosswind could be closer to 60-70 knots, The behavior you described makes sense and is the way I’d expect an aircraft to handle. With NWS off using the toe brake isn’t moving the nose wheel directly. It’s slowing one of the main wheels more than the other which causes the aircraft to turn. The nose wheel is pretty much acting like a castor wheel and turning because that’s what the aircrafts motion is forcing it to do. NWS off doesn’t lock the nose wheel in place it actually allows it to rotate freely. Taking your feet off the brakes doesn’t force the aircraft to automatically recenter itself so it’s going to stay cocked to the side until you apply brakes on the opposite side.

Oh I see what you're saying. It would certainly get you down. There's a couple of other reasons you'd generally want to avoid it in jets. Disrupting airflow into your intake by high side slip angles can compressor stall the engines for instance. To be fair though the Gimli Glider didn't have to worry a whole lot about killing the engines after they ran out of gas . So there is the approach phase when you can do whatever you want really, probably crabbing is the easiest. Everything I found says on final approach the manual recommends a combination of wing low and crab, at the same time. It specifically says before entering the flare though you should use the rudders to align the aircraft fuselage with the runway center line and land using the wing low method. I normally fly the last half mile like that so I'm not transitioning low to the ground. In any rate you shouldn't land with an aggressive crab like an F-16 would.

You are correct but I would pile on and say that using uncoordinated flight to lose altitude faster or slow down is fine in a Cessna or other GA plane. It’s a bad idea in a fighter like this. 1) with asymmetric stores yaw can build up to a point that makes a side slip departure possible, 2) your speed brakes will do the job better anyway. Also you only CAN but SHOULD use the wing low method to land this airplane like you described. It is the procedurally correct way to do it from everything I’ve read/heard. Other jets like the F-16 or the T-38 land in a crab. The A-10 isn’t one of them though. That’s situation dependent. 160 is right around the aircrafts best climb speed. But it’s not very tactical because you dont have much energy to react if you need to defend yourself. On a departure when you’re trying to get to altitude fast it’s fine.

Just throwing out something I learned that I thought was cool. I like realism in sims. I know it’s a game. I just think it’s more fun to do things the right way. Something that has been bugging, and kills immersion for me when flying campaigns with lots of voice acting is the way radio frequency changes happen in the formation. Even in one mission the comm surrounding a frequency change is different every single time it’s done (cough iron flag cough*). Got me wondering if there is a correct formatted way that actual air force pilots do it. Did some looking around and the answer yes, there is a correct way to do it. There are 2 options: option 1: “(flight call sign) push (frequency)” this is apparently the most commonly used option. The flight lead instructs the flight to change a frequency on a specific radio (front, mid, or aft). The flight members don’t say anything. They just make the switch and stay quiet and wait for the flight lead to check them in on the new frequency. 1: “HAWG push 360.99 front” Everyone changes frequencies 1: “HAWG check front 2: “2” 1: “tower HAWG ready for takeoff” other option is GO comm. generally used when there is a lot going on and you need to be certain the wingman heard the radio change. same but the only difference is the wingmen acknowledges the the order before either aircraft switch radios. 1: “HAWG go channel 4 (or just 4) front 2: “2” both switch freqs 1: “HAWG check front “ 2: “2” 1: departure HAWG passing 3,500 for 7,500. Way easier and faster than what I normally hear which is some form of 2 switch to this freq, roger I’ll switch to this freq and then 2 comes up saying hey 1 one I’m up on this freq. it just clogs up radios and prevents actually important comm from happening. In general wingmen don’t say much on the radio for that reason. They are allowed to say 2, 2s IN, mayday, 1 you’re being shot at, in all other situations they should probably not be talking. Unless asked something directly or your just droning in cruise then you might get to talk on the inter flight freq. *i love iron flag, great campaign. Just saying…

Like everything, it depends. (but the A-10 still doesn't have or need a detent in the throttle). Sort of.. In a tactical formation there's no reason #1 can't go max power, but he does run the risk of getting #2 stripped (out of the commanded formation position and unable to fix it quickly with power). It's 2's job to stay in formation, if he can't keep up he should call "Stripped", at which point 1 should pull the throttles back to allow 2 to saddle up, once 2 calls saddled 1 can accelerate or set a speed. The problem isn't that the A-10 is slow--two A-10's with similar loadouts should be able to hold similar airspeeds--the problem is that it is slow to accelerate. If one throws the throttles into max without saying anything 2 will fall aft and even though he can match speed he wont be able to make up the ground he lost while 1 was accelerating away from him. Easy fix for that is a little bit of wingman consideration from the flight lead. Comm for that could be something like: "1's buster" indicating he's going max power and then delay actually putting the throttles in max. 2 should check throttles to max and start accelerating. After a delay of a couple of seconds 1 can set his throttles to max. The extra few seconds allows the wingman to accelerate and give him a power advantage so he doesn't get left in the dust If you have a specific check in time with a JTAC you would mission plan and make sure you takeoff on time to make that time without having to be in max the entire time. It is easier to slow down than speed up like you said, but if your plan involves being in max power the whole time to make it you have no wiggle room for contengencies. Like I said, 1 can be in max power. BUT if he doesn't suck at leading a flight he has to think about how 2, 3, and 4 can stay in the formation position he wants him in. He has to give them some kind of turn so 2 can pull lead and slide into position or hold the throttle back until 2 is saddled and ready, etc... Also when talking about tactical formations being 2 miles away can still be in a formation. Its actually easier to look through your flight lead into the target area and provide mutual support from further away in a lot of circumstances. I'd suggest you stop holding over AAA and SAMs lol. Find a safe hold where you can receive and think through a 9 line and plan out your attack. This is the part of the fight where you should have your throttles "stood up" and you should be saving gas. Being in max here is only decreasing the time you get to support the guys on the ground by burning more gas than necessary. Save max for ingressing and egressing the target. You hit the nail on the head. 2 should have an energy advantage so he can hold on. Most the time that means he needs some slop in the throttles so he can set a higher power setting, BUT sometimes this could also mean geometry. A smart wingman should also use altitude (i.e start diving to gain airspeed or climbing to trade excess airspeed for altitude) or use cut off and pull a ton of lead in turns to fix line and spacing. There's lots of ways to solve formation positions as long as 1 isn't just driving straight ahead at max power. This requires some kind of contract between the flight lead and the formation "I will set XXXX fuel flow in the hold", or "I will climb out at 700 ITT," "in the hold fly 220 kts", or even "on ingress I'll be max, 2 use geometry and smart wingmanship to stay in postion" This is why fighter pilots have lengthy briefings before every flight. (rant) since we are talking about formation flying and throttle settings..... In persian freedom mission 3 where flight lead tells you to get in (super non-tactical) fingertip formation and then flies cross country at 180 knots is the exact opposite problem which irritates me to no end. There's no reason to put yourself on the backside of the power curve like that especially in a combat zone, and it's more difficult to hold perfect formation at low airspeeds and low throttle settings like that anyway. You pretty much have to drop flaps mvr so you can keep your throttles mid range where you want them to be in fintertip formation. (end rant)

Like Yurgon said there is no reason to put a detent in a warthog throttle since there is no afterburner. The warthog routinely uses the full throttle range and there is no big penalty to being in max. You can park it there for the whole flight and the jet will be just fine. It burns more fuel but it’s not exponentially more like an afterburner would. About those fuel flow override switches. First, they don’t seem to be modeled. second, they are NOT used for times when you feel the need for speed. They shut off the system that is metering fuel flow to the engines in order to keep them within operating limits. Turning them off MIGHT give you a few percent more thrust, (might not based on atmospheric conditions) and WILL over temp the engines if you’re in max power. It’s for emergency use only like if you lose an engine on takeoff when you’re low slow and even after jettisoning your stores you still can’t climb away from the ground and you are willing to overtemp an engine to save the airplane.

I don’t think it should matter but when are you starting it up? Should be one of the last things. Also when you go to the stat page and look at HMCS does it say anything? It could be the brightness is cranked all the way down

I would think Warthogs prefer to stay high as much as they can for a lot of reasons, one of them being threat avoidance. Unless there’s a bigger threat that they can’t overfly, it’s probably a lot safer than trying to run in low and avoid it. Plus it is easier to find targets and communicate.

As I understand it, its true in most if not all cases the laser will at least be artificially masked before the camera is. The system is designed to be a little conservative with the mask zone so it isn’t blasting high power energy off of your jet and reflecting harmful laser energy back into the optics or the at the pilot. if DCS wanted to fix it they’d either need to give us a more realistic dynamically updated LMZ or give us a visual indication of the LMZ in the TGP like the real thing or better yet, both of those features combined.

My understanding is it’s a shortcut to only need to do one button push to fence in for mavericks vs the multiple button pushes of finding the profile then separately calling up the maverick video and then making it SOI. It also prevents the possibility of calling up the maverick as a sensor and not actually having the weapon selected. Employment wise messing with the TDC is a waist of HOTAS effort (but it would work I guess). If you can see the target I’m the HUD then just move the maverick wagon wheel onto the target either by flying it onto the target or space stabilize and slew it onto the target. From there look inside at your screens, get a good lock and send it.

Agreed about the generals. I’ve only met one but he was awesome. I just thought the analogy was amusing so I thought I’d share.