dabomb

Perfect. Thanks again for knocking that out so quickly, DArt. Much appreciated. -dabomb

Very good. Thank you, DArt!

Apparently you can run LotAtc or Slmod, but not both right now. Installing LotAtc rc4 server breaks Slmod 7.5. At least it does on my 2.0 server. Let me know what you find with your testing.

Re: LotAtc and Slmod I am not finding a "server.lua" file included with the Slmod files (Slmod 7.5). Will this work with 7.5? -dabomb

Apparently your timing was good, SCU. :) I- Do you use the rudders to coordinate your turns? If so do you do that at specific modes only such as when landing and takeoff or do you also apply rudders when rolling in for a bombing & strafe runs or when turning for the next steerpoint etc. ? The yaw dampener on the aircraft keeps the aircraft coordinated during most turns. The only time rudder use is very important is at very low airspeeds (<160 knots) and high angle of attack. This is typically during air-to-air engagements when you try to force your opponent to overshoot your position so you can let him taste some 30mm. Only other time to use the rudder is on the ground for use with nose wheel steering. If the yaw and/or pitch dampener systems did fail, it become very difficult to employ bombs or gun passes in the A-10. As I mentioned, the PAC system (precision attack control) does great things for gun employment. It helps to keep the aimpoint on the target while the gun fires; otherwise, it is likely the nose of the aircraft will shift long as the gun spins. Keeping a stable pitch attitude also smooths the bombing solution which increases weapons accuracy for the gun and bomb. II- Also I've seen in HUD tapes of strafes what seems like rudder input to correct the aiming for guns, we're always instructed in DCS not to use rudders while aiming the GAU-8, so what is it supposed to be like in real life? Only reason to use the rudders during strafe is to increase bullet dispersion. The only time you would want to do this is when you are shooting an area target (lots of people) with HEI rounds and you cannot see each person with your eyeball (night or long range). You may be shooting at a point in the ground you believe where the enemy is located. Rudder use and "PAC off' will make your gun burst more dispersed to compensate for your precision location problem. III- What's the actual AoA limit for the A-10 & do you ride the chopped stall warning tone? Each aircraft is bent a little differently from another. I never used the AOA gauge and relied completely on the tones. BTW: I am impressed the simulation includes the aural cues. Real world, there are some big implications if you fly in continuous chopped tone. In uncoordinated flight at high angle of attack, it is very likely to create an engine compressor stall. I always advocated pilots to only use the steady tone because you never knew how close to the actual stall you were in chopped tone. Also, the marginal increase in performance was minimal from steady to chopped tone but the consequence of stalling the plane is significant (about 10 degrees of turn per second lost in a stall). I probably have an A-A briefing I can give you all to address this sometime. The only recommended time to use chopping tone was during a ground collision avoidance maneuver for a last ditch maneuver and even then it said to operate between the steady and chopped tones. I ask this because in DCS A-10C when one tries to ride the chopped stall warning most of the time you stall one of your wings leading to a wing dip (rolling) in either direction as soon as you're more than 24/25 degrees AoA.. I've watched CAS videos & cockpit recordings where the pilots do ride the warning for quite a while without any indication of a stall or wing dip. IV- Is the overhead break the most regular landing pattern or do you use other patterns or even straight in approaches just as much? If the weather is good (cloud cover above 2000' above the airport and at least 3 miles of visibility), the overhead pattern is the most expeditious way to land multiple A-10s. A good fighter pilots makes it "one to a full stop" because he doesn't need to spend time practicing landings when he should be practicing killing people and breaking things. He also wants to get out of everyone else's way so they can do the same. I know that sounds like a joke, but I am being serious. Straight in approaches are appropriate for poor weather or emergency landings (single engine, loss of hydraulics, or anything else that may effect aircraft performance). V- When landing, do you idle your throttles before touchdown like they do in high(er) speed jets or do you do that after touching down? Idle throttle when landing is assured. We flew the A-10 at a speed well above stall. For the serious A-10 enthusiast we calculated our landing speed every time we did an approach or landing using this basic formula: 130 knot + 1 knot for each 1,000#s above a 30,000# aircraft A clean aircraft with a pilot and full gun is a 28K aircraft. If I had 4,000#s of fuel and another 2,000#s of pods, suspension equipment and or weapons, then the landing weight was 34,000#. That would result in a final landing speed of 134 knots (130 + 4 knots for being 4,000#s above 30K). Final turn speed was always 15 knots above that so 149 knots in this case. If there was a strong crosswind in excess of 20 knots, then we added 10 knot to final approach speed (144 knots in this case). If there was gusty wind conditions, then we would add 1/2 the gust factor (winds are 180 @ 10G18 then 1/2 the gust factor is 4; final approach speed would be 134 + 4 = 138 knots). Do not apply crosswind or gust factor to final turn airspeed. So to answer your question in most cases I would select near idle power when I was 20' above the ground in a safe position to land. Long engine spool up time is a big issue in the event you have to go around. Two extreme comparisons: In the T-38, we went idle power around 100' above the ground. Maybe a little less, but that plane is an extreme example. I fly a Dash 8 Q400 now (commuter regional prop plane). Going idle in the plane reduces the lift being produced by the engines blowing air over the wing. We tend not to even touch the power until the main wheels touch down firmly otherwise the plane drops like a rock. Sorry about the long questions, I had to get into detail a bit because they were nagging me for a while . Anytime. Good timing on your part. I was headed out for a bicycle ride and it started to rain. Weird for that to happen in Washington state. See ya!

I sent them on to Olie. If/when he answers them, I'll post them here. -dabomb

He has expressed interest in doing another chat and/or podcast, unfortunately he is typically pretty busy with his farm and commercial pilot career. If you want though, post your questions here and I'll send them over to him and see if he can find a few minutes to answer them. (no guarantees on if/when though) -dabomb

You are correct. He retired as a Lt. Col.

Hi Yurgon. You didn't miss anything --Pete just started really quick before I had a chance to start the recording. I believe the first 20-30 seconds or so didn't make the recording. Unfortunately, I think he missed your TGP question and went straight to your list of questions, but I may be able to ask him to take a look at it. -dabomb

Here's a link about K.C. Campbell, one of the pilots Pete mentions in the Q&A: [ame] [/ame]

His call sign was Olie (or Ollie?), not be confused with another pilot who's call sign was Oly.

Okay. Here's a link to the 2.5 HOUR Q&A audio, text chat, and a video that Olie (A-10 pilot) posted. Right-click on each file and select "Save Link As..." to download. Use the text chat to follow along in the beginning of the Q&A as Olie didn't read the questions from the chat before answering them at first (he does later in the Q&A). ftp://ftp.229ahb.com -dabomb

Thank you all for attending. I'm glad to hear you found it informative. I will have a link to the .mp3 of the TS session as well as the chat log up tomorrow.

TS address is ts2.229ahb.com:9984. You will be muted on entering. We will allow people voice if they have questions.

11:00PM Zulu (approx 50 minutes from now)

Yes, I will be recording the session. I will be posting the TS address in a little bit.

Unfortunately, streaming is off the table for this session. just not enough time to get all the pieces together.

That's kind of what I'm thinking. I am going to send him the link to this thread on Saturday morning and let him read over the questions. Then he can answer them as he sees fit. And yes, time permitting, I'd like to see if we can do an open Q&A at the end. -dabomb

Okay, so it looks like we have about 20 people interested so far. Trying to have that many people in TS asking questions is going to be like herding cats, so I propose we do a "standard" Q&A where you can submit your questions in this thread, and I will forward them on to Pete who can answer them for you on TS. I'm thinking if this format looks to be working out and people behave, maybe we can open it up for some interactive Q&A. Thoughts? Also, it looks like this get together will take place on Saturday, Jan. 9 at 3:00PM PST, GMT-8. TS address to follow Saturday AM PST. -dabomb

I'm pretty sure he is aware of DCS World, however I'm not sure he's flown in it, A-10 or otherwise. I will confirm tonight when I talk to him.

I suppose it depends on how many people end up replying to this thread. It makes sense for Wags to do that as EVERYONE in the DCS community has questions about the stuff he discusses, and it would be chaos to try to do a live chat. Seeing as this is just a discussion about the A-10 and not a new DCS aircraft, graphics engine, terrain, etc., I am hoping that this will be a bit more "intimate". (and maybe I'm being naive about how much response to expect). If the response becomes overwhelming, we may have to resort to a formal Q and A.

Okay. I will set this up. As mentioned, it will either be Saturday, Jan 9, or Sunday, Jan 10. I am guessing it will probably be either afternoon or early evening Pacific Standard Time (PST, GMT-8 ). I realize that may be inconvenient for those non-US folks, so I will try to record the session. We will be using the 229th AHB TS server -- address and channel info to follow later. -dabomb

If so, I have one willing to chat with on us TeamSpeak sometime this weekend, Jan 9 or 10. Depending on how many people are interested, I will set it up. Reply here if you're interested in chatting with him. I've known him since he was a kid, and he's a good guy. Could be a unique opportunity to finally get some of your nagging A-10 questions answered. :) Here's an article from 2005 about one of his exploits: http://www.stripes.com/news/air-force-pilot-praised-for-helping-guide-imperiled-plane-to-safety-1.41705 -dabomb *** TS address is ts2.229ahb.com:9984. You will be muted on entering. We will allow people voice if they have questions. ***

Colorado, USA

As has been mentioned, unfortunately, when replayed, track files aren't always a 1:1 representation of a flight. You would think it would be an actual, static, recording of the mission you flew, but it isn't. The best you can hope for is that it is accurate *most* of the time. I've also found that resisting the temptation to speed up (or slowdown) the playback can help with eliminating some of the weirdness. If the flight is long and boring and doesn't get to the "good part" for 15 minutes, sometimes it's best to just wait it out. I've seen my aircraft crash into terrain while speeding up the track playback trying to get the to the action faster. Tracks are weird that way...