esb77

Well it's nice to see that Eagle Dynamics has increased spending on training for Russian Army and allied forces enough so that they're actually firing their Iglas at enemy aircraft. A bit of trivia about the Georgian theater. In the 2008 war all of the Su-25s confirmed as lost to air defenses were lost to Iglas fired by the Russian Army and South Ossetians 'advised' by Russians. It wasn't overdeveloped inter-service rivalry, it was just that the Air Force never bothered to tell the Army that they were sending in support flights. Oh, and also the Igla operators felt that using the IFF function was a needless waste of time. If the account I read was accurate in at least one case the shot down pilot was rescued by the unit that shot him down. General rules of Iglas: Where there are trees there are Iglas. Where there are buildings there are Iglas. Where there are helpless supply trucks there are Iglas. Where there are trees or buildings you will not see the Iglas no matter how much time you spend looking. The range of an Igla is at least 2 km longer than whatever you think the maximum possible range of an Igla is. The Igla likes you more than it likes your wingman, even if your wingman is the sexiest woman in the world it still likes you better. If your wingman is an AI this will make him very jealous and he will do everything he can to steal the Igla away from you. If you fly your plane into the ground the Igla will usually get bored and go do something else instead of chasing you, but not always. Iglas are good at multitasking, they can hit your plane, your flares, and the neighbor's annoying dog that keeps pooping on the Igla's lawn. The Igla comm man does not fire Iglas. He is lying down because he is taking a nap. Please do not wake him up, he is very tired. Iglas can not miss, partly miss, or mostly miss. A well built plane can take two partly misses or five mostly misses. Not misses can destroy entire Aviation Wings. Iglas know that pilots love them best because life would be so boring without Igla surprise parties. Igla fun isn't real Igla fun until you're using line of sight weapons below a low cloud deck.

Actually I was only partially kidding about staying away. Depending on how much Simulation/Game ratio you want to operate on having the pilot decide to scratch the mission is a potentially valid option. I suppose it partially depends on how much you object to getting shot down and how you think your command will react to failing to achieve the mission objective. I read a history of the 2008 Georgian war and the Georgians had a total of 1, count 'em 1 aviation strike that hit any targets at all. That was with all aircraft and all sorties. On the second or third day they decided that aircraft were expensive, pilots didn't want to die, and so they hid all their aircraft and didn't fly for the remainder of the war. The Russians did much better in terms of mission completion, depending on the standard you use you could call it something like 50 to 70%. They also lost 6 aircraft and several aircrew. Three or four, including all 3 of the Su 25s were shot down by the Russian Army and South Ossetian forces being assisted by Russian 'advisors'. One airplane may or may not have been hit by Georgian air defenses, they claim they hit it, the Russians claim that they didn't shoot it down, the historian who looked at the evidence thinks that probably the Georgians shot at it, but the Russians shot it down. The remainder of aircraft losses didn't involve shooting. There have been times when I have done part of a mission, and then decided to RTB to pick up a strike package with more serious SEAD firepower. The mission editor can give even a low ranking pilot an astonishing amount of command authority :thumbup:. Four Su-25TMs with full SEAD loads flying three minutes ahead of you? Not a problem. No complaints about the cost of guided munitions either. Also keep in mind that a real strike pilot would normally have hundreds to a thousand or more flight hours in various trainers before piloting a strike aircraft. A Su-25T pilot would also have at least hundreds of hours in a regular Su-25 and hopefully a few hundred hours in the T variant. Adjust your expectations about what a rookie virtual pilot should be expected to accomplish accordingly.

As far as the Kh-25ML goes max, range is about 12km if you're going fast and and 1500 or more meters AGL. It is much better at hitting from max range than the Vhikrs are. The BUK uses radar missiles, and I believe that they're semi-active, which means you have to be illuminated by radar for them to guide. To get close enough to use a 25ML you first have to kill the search radar, which can do target illumination out to very long distances. Once that is dead the missile depends on the launcher's built in radar, which has a range of something like 10-15 km. So if dealing with launchers only you have a chance, because the missile only works if you are lit up by a radar unit. In fact if the launcher activates and fires on you after you have launched you're still ok as long as: a) your missile hits first and b) you maneuver enough so that you're not where the missile's inertial guidance system expects you to be after it looses the launcher's radar illumination. (this assumes only one launcher is illuminating you ) Getting outside of visual range and flying around to the side or behind the launchers also exploits the radar dependency of the missiles. If the turret of the launcher is pointed away from you, the radar is also pointed away from you and you can get as close as you want to without worrying about missiles. I've killed a launcher with guns once doing this. When I was attacking I thought it had fired all its missiles shooting down my wingman, this was not some sort of brilliance on my part. Even with the Shkval's magnification it's very hard to figure out which way the turrets are pointing without cheating by using the enemy vehicle camera views. If the skill level of the launcher is high enough they may do 'visual' spotting and turn the turret in your direction, then turn on the radar and shoot you down. A note on this, if you fire a missile its smoke trail is like a giant sign saying, "HEY, THERE'S A MILITARY PLANE HERE!" So if there's more than one launcher that you're trying to kill with laser guided munitions go evasive and approach from a new direction after each missile you launch hits. This raises the question of how do you tell which way the launcher is pointing? The best answer is to play multiplayer and have a ground observer get close enough to tell you. In single player the options for Russian faction are to use ground camera views, or to just pick a direction and hope you get lucky. ( In the 2008 war the Georgians relied heavily on the 'just pick a direction and range' method of spotting. In general it does not work very well. Actually it usually doesn't work at all. ) If the BUK operator AI is totally incompetent, all the launchers will face your initial approach heading, making it very easy for you to get outside visual range (fly low and about 15 km away) and come around to hit them from behind. Well managed BUK units will have each launcher cover one sector of the sky and will be very difficult to sneak up on. Fast, low, and masked by terrain is your best bet for approach, and then hope that you can get back out of range before the other launchers turn in your direction. Lots of practice at missile evasion also helps. If you're low and close the best bet is to try to run the missiles into the ground. Flankertraining.com has a good video on missile evasion including how to do this. I also tend to operate on the theory that high tension power lines and towers should provide confusing signatures for the radar. Not sure if it really works in game, but gives you some idea of what I mean when I say flying a low approach. As far as going over or under the wires, it's your choice, over is usually a bit safer in terms of avoiding collisions but under should get you closer to the radar horizon. There's another post I made after I had flown for about a month that contains some more about SAM evasion http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=110779 . The Georgian oil war campaign can be pretty painful until you learn to deal with the passive SAM installations.

Buk killing advice: The search radar will light up at fairly long ranges and can be hit with a Kh-58 quite reliably, provided that they don't turn off and move after you launch. On occasion a Kh-58 launched from very high or very low altitude will manage to miss on its own in a cluttery environment when launched from max range. I usually fire one Kh-58 when I'm at about 80% of max range and that usually does the trick. The launchers have variable behavior depending on skill level. Sometimes they do continuous transmission in which case they are easy kills for Kh-58s or Kh-25MPUs. Other times they will shut down after the SR unit is killed and not fire up again until you are well within engagement range. I've gotten as close as 3 km at times. If your only tools are ARMs and the Phantasmorgia pod the 'silent mode' behavior gives the BUK a very high kill probability on you if you get too close. There are a couple of ways to deal with this. Stay away. Stay far enough away and they will never hit you. You may not complete the mission, but you won't get shot down by a BUK. Russia could only afford 8 Su-25Ts, that was the entire production run. Presumably your commander will be pleased that you didn't get shot down, after all, that's what the much cheaper regular Su-25s are for. Mixed payload, spotting, and craftiness. Instead of a pure ARM loadout for SEAD swap out 1 - 3 Kh-25MPUs for Kh-25MLs. If you have good visual spotting and know exactly where the launchers are this gives you enough standoff range to have a fighting chance at winning the engagement. Using terrain masking or coming around to hit them from behind can help tilt the odds in your favor. Also try to engage at max range, pre zoom your Shkval, turn your laser on, and if you don't get a good lineup at max range break off and try again. Flirtation. Fly around at the edge of their engagement range, and try to get them to fire all of their missiles at you where you can easily outmaneuver them. The standard BUK group has 3 launchers with 4 missiles each. So after 12 missiles have been dodged you can (hopefully) run in and have your way with them, because in game they don't reload very quickly. Insanity. Reduce altitude until you're skimming the ground and push throttle to at least 95%. Follow terrain and building masking in until you can engage with guns or rockets. Assuming that you don't crash this can work if you have truly amazing gunnery skills.

I know you can spawn new unit groups in response to triggers, if it is also possible to despawn them then you might be able to create the illusion of very significant behavior changes by using a trigger to erase the normal group and spawn a 'demoralized' group to replace it.

Here's one more difference, if you want to have the same degree effectiveness, especially in an environment containing hostile air defences, you need to be a much much better pilot if you're flying the Su-25. The 25 and 25T are a real clinic in the degree to which improved avionics, especially targeting systems, enhance a combat aircraft's lethality. I adore the Shkval, but to put it bluntly: any idiot can take off and slew a targeting pipper around a screen; to reliably put bombs, shells, and rockets on target though, you really have to know how to fly.

Thanks for the replies, folks. AlphaOneSix, thanks in particular, because space, comma, or tab delimited data is an ideal output for further processing.

I'm wondering if there is an easy way to do automated flight data recording in DCS. I searched the forums hoping that maybe I could deconstruct .trk files, but it turns out that they record player input. What I'm looking for is flight model output, the stuff that gets fed to the cockpit instruments. Airspeed, barometric alt, real alt, normal acceleration (g meter), that sort of stuff.

This is section 2 of the report from my DCS World Su-25 flight testing program. Flight test programs tend to be fairly huge in terms of data produced and time consumed, so I'm putting sections up as I complete them. Don't worry, you didn't miss section 1, that's the table of contents and introduction, which I didn't think was worth putting up until I've finished the whole report. When it's done I'll put the whole thing up as a unit including section 1. With luck I'll have the thing done before the end of the year. Section 1 also has misc details, like what a 'Standard Atmosphere' is. 2 Takeoff and landing 2.0 Takeoff distances. Approximate takeoff roll at maximum gross weight with high drag external stores. Loadout: Phantsmorgia Elint Pod, KAB 500 kr x 2, A-8 Vikhr x 2, UB 32A 50mm rockets x 2, S-25L x 2, ECM pods x 2, fuel to max weight. Air temperature 45° C. Elevation 320m. Takeoff roll distance:2700m I.A.S. at liftoff:330 km/h Takeoff Roll distance Clean Plane, 3770 kg fuel. Air temperature 45° C. Elevation 320m. Takeoff Roll: 1500m Short strip (1800m runway) takeoff weight limit. Air temperature 45° C. Elevation 40m. Loadout: A-8 Vikhr x 2, Kh-25ML x 2, R-60 x 2. Short strip max gross takeoff weight: 16500 kg (36300 lbs) or about 85% gross weight with moderate to low drag external stores. It is recommended that short strip takeoffs be performed with aircraft gross weight of 15500 kg or less. 2.1 Takeoff abort speeds Takeoff abort procedure. Reduce throttle to minimum and wait for turbine r.p.m. to approach 40% then deploy chute. Wheelbrakes may be applied at same time throttle is cut. In borderline cases where ground speed is 60 km/h or less using nosewheel steering to turn the plane may prevent running off of the runway. Be careful not to overdo steering though, or you may drag the wings or damage the landing gear. Loadout: Phantsmorgia Elint Pod, Kab500 x 2, A-8 Vikhr x 2, UB 32A 50mm rockets x 2, S-25L x 2, EMC pods x 2, fuel to max gross weight. Nalchick 2300 m runway. Standard Atmosphere. Max weight abort speed limit, dry, wheelbrakes only. 180 km/h Max weight abort speed limit, dry, chute and wheelbrakes. 270 km/h Max weight abort speed limit, wet, wheelbrakes only. 180 km/h Max weight abort speed limit, wet, chute and wheelbrakes. 250 km/h Nalchick 2300 m runway. Air temperature -5°C Max weight abort speed limit, snowy, wheelbrakes only. 190 km/h Max weight abort speed limit, snowy, chute and wheelbrakes. 270 km/h HAZARD NOTICE: When aborting takeoff on a wet/snowy runway use very fine rudder inputs or if possible do not use rudder/nosewheel steering at all. It is very easy to put the plane into a skid with steering inputs on a wet/snowy runway. If in a skid apply gentle counter rudder and release the wheelbrakes, when the skid is under control reapply the wheelbrakes. If the plane starts to experience significant roll it may be best to release rudder and brakes even if this means leaving the runway. If the plane rolls enough that a wing tip touches turf beside the runway loss of both plane and pilot are possible. Pilot Comments: It seems quite surprising that wet/snowy runways do not have a great effect on stopping distance during an aborted takeoff. The model seems to assume that conditions are fairly favorable to the pilot in terms of reduced coefficient of friction for between tires and ground for wheelbraking. Despite similar stopping distances it is much more difficult to maintain control of the plane when the runway is not dry. Nalchick has a slightly shorter than average runway. The abort speeds listed should be safe for all of the major Black Sea/Cuacasus theater airfields except Novorossiysk and Gelendzhik. 2.2 Landing stall speeds. Landing stalls speeds may not represent an actual aerodynamic stall. They are the minimum speed in level flight where the plane retains acceptable handling characteristics while in a landing configuration. It is recommended that during an actual landing the aircraft be operated at 10 to 20 km/h faster than the speeds listed here. Aircraft configuration: landing flaps, gear down. Weapons payload on loaded planes: Phantsmorgia Elint Pod, Kab500 x 2, A-8 Vikhr x 2, UB 32A 50mm rockets x 2, S-25L x 2, EMC pods x 2. 4422 kg weapons. Alt 100m Clean plane 500 kg fuel ___220 km/h Clean plane 2000 kg fuel __230 km/h Clean plane max fuel_____ 250 km/h Loaded plane 500 kg fuel __260 km/h Loaded plane 2000 kg fuel _270 km/h Alt 1000m Clean plane 500 kg fuel _____220 km/h Clean plane 2000 kg fuel ____240 km/h Clean plane max fuel _______250 km/h Loaded plane 500 kg fuel ___270 km/h Loaded plane 2000 kg fuel __280 km/h Alt 3000m Clean plane 500 kg fuel _____230 km/h Clean plane 2000 kg fuel ____240 km/h Clean plane max fuel _______260 km/h Loaded plane 500 kg fuel ___260 km/h Loaded plane 2000 kg fuel __270 km/h Pilot comments: Depending on plane loading the Su-25T can retain good control authority down to 180 km/h, however sinkrate becomes excessive before buffeting or departure occur. At minimum controllable speed the vertical component of thrust can have a considerable effect on sinkrate. The pilot should be aware that throttle and AoA have a strong interaction when affecting sinkrate in this portion of the flight envelope. Maneuvering near minimum speeds should be limited to 15 degrees bank at most. There are no runways near 3000m elevation in game at present, but if a future module contains theaters in the Andes, Afghanistan, Kashmir, or the Tibetan plateau, the data is here if there's a high altitude runway in the future. 2.3 No chute landing distance. Landing rollout, no chute deployed, dry runway. Elevation 320m. Clean plane, 1500 kg fuel. No chute landing distance: 1700m Pilot comments: Under ideal conditions this might be reduced to as little as 1500m, but for a normal landing for most pilots a runway in excess of 2000m is recommended. Su-25T Flight Test Report_Section2.pdf

AI pilots are, inconsistent. In the stock Su-25T campaign the low altitude air defenses are sometimes so thick that a single plane doesn't hold enough ordnance to do both SEAD and the mission. Operating on the theory that I would be able to complete the missions more easily in a air defense free environment I used to assign my "Excellent" wingman to SEAD. On the same mission: most of the time the wingman gets shot down even faster than I can manage when I'm not paying attention, but on rare occasions the wingman will flatten every air defense unit on the map even to the point of killing tanks that fire at him with their machine guns. I am not sure what accounts for this difference. Maybe the Russian AI pilots have a random % vodka variable? :smilewink: If so there's definitely a sweet spot. For example the Hind pilots when they are drunk enough to try using anti-tank missiles for air to air engagements but still sober enough to be very deadly while doing so. The AI's can handle limited air combat situations reliably, and also undefended ground targets. For anything else it's really quite unpredictable. Oh, and keep in mind that the air defense units also have AI's. I'm not sure how good they are, but under the right conditions an average SAM unit might shoot down an excellent attack pilot pretty easily.

You may indeed make PDF's of any of the Su-25T info I put up on the forums. Next up in my flight test program will be turn performance. I've gotten reputable sources on procedure and done the preliminary math, but the flight tests are going to be more involved (and there will be a lot of them) so it may be a few weeks before that gets posted.

Just for reference and a bit more on why my posts can be a bit rough around the edges. After: writing a test procedure worksheet, making a test mission in the mission editor, flying the test missions, recording the data, doing a basic write-up, and posting it to the forums, I had spent about 3.5 hours working on it. Mind you, that's with most of the flying done at 6x fast forward. Cleaning up the post to be easier to read might have only taken another 10 min, but I was tired, and tired of working on the fuel consumption basics post. If I wanted to do what I would consider acceptable quality of real fuel consumption and loiter time tables it would probably take me at least another 8 to 12 hours on top of what I've already done.

Yes, seikdel, km flown on a fuel load of 520kg fuel. I'm trying to test and publish some of the really basic performance data that is absent from any of the DCS and LOMAC documentation. If I don't give up in frustration, that's a lot of testing and a lot data recording. I also have to try to design flight test procedures that give meaningful results instead of irrelevant garbage. Given those issues and the fact that I like destroying Georgian armor more than basic flight testing there's only so much time I'm willing to spend cleaning test data up past the 'useable' stage. Pretty data and brilliant well written conclusions will be a long time coming unless someone else does the prettying up. I assume that people will read fairly carefully, can do basic unit conversions, and know math to the extent of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Ideally I'd put out stuff with the polish of a good technical manual, but I have to consider how much time I want to spend playing the game vs publishing supplements to the game manual. I do try to check the info threads I post at least a few times, so if I was especially sleep deprived and wind up posting something very confusing I will try to come back and edit it to a more useful version, and am happy to do so.

The, "I just want to fly around and blow s**t up version" For max range operate at 90% to 95% throttle rpm. For max loiter time operate at 80% to 90% throttle rpm. Distance flown in kilometers on 520 kg (1200 lbs) of fuel with clean plane, initial velocity 340 to 400 km/h Altitudes are barometric. Test flights recorded in July 2013, future DCS updates that change the flight model or aircraft data would change the results, possibly to a significant degree. [TABLE] ________Throttle settings rpm ________100%__95%__90%__85%__80%__70% Altitudes 100m____ 57 ___85_____96__101___110___114 1000m___62____92____106__114___129___114 3000m___72___117____132__156___142___N/A* 5000m___84___144____176__160___N/A*__N/A* [/TABLE] *insufficient thrust to maintain level flight Distance in kilometers flown on 520 kg of fuel, v init 400 km/h Payload: gun ammo 100%, Kh-29L x 2, A-8 9A4172 Vikhr x 2, Kh-25ML x 2, S-25L x 2, R60M x 2 4364 kg weapons mass (9601 lbs). [TABLE] ____________ Throttle settings Altitudes ____________100%___95%___90%___85%___80%___70% 100m________58______79____83_____80_____77____N/A* 1000m_______62______87____89_____84_____77____N/A* 3000m_______73_____104____99_____N/A*___N/A*__N/A* 5000m_______86_____123____N/A*___N/A*___N/A*__N/A* [/TABLE] *insufficient thrust to maintain level flight Figures in the above tables were taken from test flights in DCS World and relative error for all figures should be less than 5%. These are not ideal fuel consumption data in terms of mass burned/time for given atmospheric condition and speed. They also don't give you a way to calculate available loiter times. So what good are they? They give you a decent overview of how a frogfoot with either a very light or medium total payload (fuel + weapons mass) is affected in terms of available range vs throttle management. The super simplified science of this stuff, is that for max range you want minimum net drag, and for max loiter time you want to balance low drag with low air speed. Looking at the tables you should be able to see that in general higher altitude and lower throttle tend to increase range. This holds true until the increased AoA needed to maintain level flight at higher altitudes and lower speeds increases net drag to the point where the gains from lower air density and lower air speed are overcome. Of course adding external weapons loads also mucks around with your total drag too. Keep in mind that the data here are for level straight flight. Maneuvering will play merry hell with your fuel consumption, and not in a way that's favorable to you. What's provided here should be enough to let you figure out how to avoid needlessly wasting fuel. If you want enough detail to do preflight planning you either need to use the mission editor/planner functions or you need to dig out a notebook and start taking notes while watching both your clock and fuel gauge very carefully (it's very sound piloting practice, but not as immediately gratifying as watching stuff explode). Su-25T tips for beginners here http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=110779

Short Range IR and EO SAMs A.k.a. those bleeping ones that Anti Radiation Missiles don't work on. Planning Use the mission planner to look at the map and see where the known SAM emplacements are and what type they are. This may not show you all of the enemy air defense units (at least not in missions with random unit generation), but knowing where some of them are ahead of time is better than not knowing where any of them are. The mission planner can show the engagement range of the known air defenses. This makes it easier to prioritize targets or plan a route to avoid them completely. The mission planner also shows a topo map. It is not a very detailed topo map, but if you know how to read topos it will suggest where there might be terrain masking in relation to known SAMs. Evasion Make sure your IR jammer is on. Combined with flares and maneuvering it's very effective in reducing SAM effectiveness. For a skilled pilot that may mean complete misses, but even if you can’t manage that it can be enough to let you take multiple hits and still RTB for repair. Keep in mind that the IR jammer is installed in the tail assembly and only works if the missile is somewhere behind the plane, sorry but I don't know how wide an angle it covers. If you have enough speed and altitude to do it without crashing, it helps to throttle down to minimum throttle while evading and dispensing countermeasures. It greatly reduces the IR signature that your engines are giving off. The only good thing about the passive SAMs, from a pilot's perspective, is that they have short ranges. If you're more than 3500m up, or 7km away you're probably safe. If your mission planner distance tool is set to US units, be aware that 1 nm = a bit less than 2 km. Payload The Kh-29T, Kh-29L, and the Vikhr all have longer max ranges than Iglas, Strelas, Stingers and the like. This is very useful if you launch at maximum range. Ideally you could load up with Kh-25Ts or Kh-25MTPs, and you would have a fire and forget missile perfect for this sort of SEAD. Unfortunately they aren’t implemented for the Su-25T in DCS World. So instead you have useable, but slightly deficient options. Kh-29T. In theory this is the best option, a fire and forget missile that outranges the SAMs. It has two big problems though. It is very heavy and therefore you can only carry two at a time, which is a nuisance if you have 6-12 SAM units to deal with. The other problem is that it is designed for very large targets and does not like to lock on vehicle sized targets at max range, especially if the vehicle is moving. For infantry with MANPADS it does not like to lock on at all, and the easiest way to get it on target is to just ram the person with the launcher. In general these faults make the Kh-29T a worse option than the laser guided munitions. Kh-29L, Kh-25L, Vikhr. These all work, but there is a fundamental problem with the laser designated munitions. After you launch, you have to keep on flying at the target to lase it until the munition hits*. At max range with a Kh-29L this can be more than 20 seconds of flight time, and depending on airspeed this can take you into the SAM's engagement envelope and leave you with 5 -7 seconds for evasive maneuvers before SAM impact. That's a worst case scenario, but due to another undesirable property of these weapons it does sometimes happen. The laser guided munitions require visual line of sight for targeting. With a low cloud deck this can make it very difficult engage short range SAMs without straying into their engagement envelope. This is especially true of the Vikhr, as it has a range 2km shorter than the other laser guided missiles and it wants the nose of the plane pointed at the target during launch which means you’ll spend some time flying into the SAM’s range with maximum efficiency. As of Nov 2014 the Kh-29T and the Vikhr are the best options for taking out short range SAMs, the range of the Kh-25L suffered very badly when the missile flight models were changed. *Technically you have to keep it in the targeting system's field of view, which means that with practice and favorable geometry you can actually start turning a few seconds before impact. You tend to waste a lot of missiles learning to do this though With practice it’s fairly easy to score 4-6 SAM carrier vehicles per sortie without getting touched in return. The MANPADS are very difficult to visually locate and to get guided munitions to lock on. The best option is to stay out of their range. The next best is to let your wingman deal with them. In open areas the Vikhr and 25L will do an ok job without a target lock if you place the center of the targeting box directly on the MANPADS. In forested areas or built up areas targeting MANPADS can be almost impossible. Dealing with hits Engine fires: If you are hit and one of your engines has reduced rpm, odd exhaust temp, or if you use the exterior view and see a giant mass of flames, make sure that you turn off that engine (R Alt + End for left engine R Ctrl +End for right engine). What you're really doing is turning off the fuel pump feeding fuel to that fire. Failure to turn off fuel to an engine on fire will usually cause your fuel tanks heat up enough to explode after few minutes. Hydraulic failure. If you are out of range of the air defenses bleed off speed to below 400 kmph and deploy landing gear. Time is of the essence so the best method is to enter a steep climb (assuming of course that this won't put you in the sights of another SAM or AAA). You can still deploy gear while the hydraulic system is leaking fluid, but if you wait until after it has all leaked out you can't deploy the landing gear. Also be aware that mechanical steering is less responsive than steering when the hydraulics are working. The airbrakes are hydraulically actuated and will not deploy once the hydro system is dead. They will also not retract if the hydraulics are dead. If the brake are deployed when you are hit retract them right away, the plane handles much better when they aren't deployed. Once that's done don't touch airbrakes with a damaged hydro system. If you try to use them and they deploy unevenly the plane can have serious yaw problems. [Edit] With more experience under my belt I'd actually recommend leaving the gear up in event of leaking hydraulics. Putting the gear down puts a bit load on the hydraulic system so you'll lose a lot of aerodynamic control, you also have a lot more drag, which complicates getting back to base on limited fuel and leaking hydraulics. Instead, jettison stores, fly back to base if the plane's fuel and controls last that long, and then orbit while dumping fuel until you're nearly dry and make a gear up landing. If the tanks are empty and the landing is good the plane typically won't explode even if it catches fire. Once down extend the gear (don't worry if nothing seems to happen), shut down engines and request repairs. If all went well you'll be ready to go again in 3 - 4 min. Flaps. If the flaps on one side of the plane have been blown off, or partially blown off, it's best not to deploy them for landing. The differential drag makes it like landing in a very stiff crosswind. Chutes. The way to check this is with the F2 view option. If the chutes have been blown off by a SAM or AAA find a convenient piece of field near your base to aim your plane at and then eject. The runways are not nearly long enough if your chutes are gone. Weapons. If you're hit badly (This is subjective, but if the plane is: on fire, has hydraulic failure, or just doesn't steer all that well it probably counts as badly) you should jettison your weapons stores. Trying to land a damaged plane is hard enough, there's no need to complicate it by carrying around a few tons of flammable materials and explosives. Fuel Leaks. For the most part fuel leaks don't matter much as long as they are not on fire and you have enough to make it back to base. Mostly they just limit the number of times you can attempt to land and reduce the time you can wait for a landing slot at a busy airfield. Body panels. Body panels are not important. As long as it's not a part of a wing or tail it doesn't really matter, you might as well continue with your mission. Finally Keep in mind that cowardice is a virtue in this arena. Don’t feel bad about returning to base to rearm for multiple sorties, or just flying around the SAMs and hitting what you can from safety. Remember, SAM units fare poorly against MBTs and the tank drivers on your side might as well do something to earn their keep, right? Air to Air First repeat to yourself at least ten times, "The Su-25T is a ground attack aircraft, it should not be employed in Air to Air engagements." Having decided to ignore good advice: Payload The ideal AA payload is 2 R73s, 2 R60s, a full load of cannon ammunition and as little fuel as you think you can get away with. Fire missile in pairs separated by a few seconds, and from very close range. Close range = less than 2 km for the R73 and less than1.2 km for the R60. For the less numerically inclined, if you're not worried about accidentally running into your target you're too far away. If you are going helicopter hunting and are by nature a wildly optimistic person you could potentially add 50mm rockets, Kh-25Ls, or Vikhrs. According to the manual you should size the Shkval targeting box to 20m for Helis and small aircraft. Speed and Altitude Try to stay at 700 to 800 km/h and below 1500m, or even below 1000m if you can. At those speeds and altitudes an Su-25 in DCS world can pull up to 8 g in an instantaneous turn, though it bleeds energy like crazy in anything over 3-4 g. Above 1500m altitude and below 650 km/h airspeed the Su-25's maneuverability decreases a lot. Targets Helicopters, preferably unarmed and at least 700m above ground level. They tend to have smaller IR signatures, and the missiles do poorly if there is clutter near the helicoper. Try to make sure the missile has a good view of the Heli's exhaust. Unarmed utility aircraft (AWACS, Tankers, Passenger flights etc). Ideally landing or taking off and at a lower altitude than you are. Most turbofan aircraft are hard to catch if they try to run away. Ground attack aircraft, subsonic bombers, obsolete propeller fighters. These provide a fair fight. Try to avoid fair fights if you can. Turbofan powered fighters. Basically suicidal to engage them. Exceptions might be made if you know that they are out of missiles, out of cannon ammo, and out of fuel. Much better to use Air to Ground munitions on them while they are parked. The Su-25T Drawbacks: Poor acceleration, poor turn rate, low max altitude, crude RWR system, small AA weapons payload, flight manual that doesn't state cornering velocity (or if it does I missed it). Strengths: Higher max speed than A-10s and Helicopters, generous countermeasures payload, IR jamming system in rear arc. Strategy For helicopters try to catch them well above the ground and at an angle where the missile seeker head has a good view of their exhaust, usually from the side and somewhat behind. Against an A-10 use speed and countermeasures to try to bait them into firing all their AIM-9s at long range where you have a decent chance of evading them. Then use your superior speed to run in and unload your missiles on them at very close range. After firing, break and extend. You should not try a turning or climbing fight. In multiplayer against pilots with enough sense to work as a team I suggest avoiding them entirely. Clever A-10 pilots will try to climb above your max altitude where you cannot follow. Run toward friendly Air Defense units. Luring an enemy fighter into range of a SAM battery is usually much more effective than trying to shoot them down yourself.

Landing Landing is the most important flying skill, even for combat pilots. Wrecking planes every time you try to land puts a serious crimp in your unit's sorties per day. Remember that flying into a hard object (the runway) at high speed without damaging the plane is a pretty impressive trick, and be proud when your number of successful landings starts to approach that of your ejections and pilot deaths. When you're just starting out it's not easy. There's a reason that real pilots start with professional instructors in planes that are easy to handle at low airspeeds. Come in a bit faster than the official landing speed during final approach (the last 5km or so). 260 to 290 kmph is good, and up to 310 is ok. Your speed will tend to vary a bit and you want to make sure that your minimum speed is above stall speed. For the landing approach as a whole, you want to hit the RTB waypoint at about 1000m on the radar altimeter and a speed of 400kmph (the standard RTB waypoint distance is about 15 km from the runway). Try to drop to about 350kmph before you deploy gear and flaps. Come in a little bit lower than the glideslope indicator suggests, it tends to put you down at about the midpoint of the runway. This isn’t always an option if there are hills or buildings near the runway. Do not come in a lot lower than the glideslope unless you want to fly into the ground. Don't panic if you touch down halfway down the runway, the drogue chutes stop you very quickly. Get your gear and flaps down 5 to 15 km out from the runway. They significantly change the Su 25's drag, and it helps to have time to compensate for the changes in airspeed and descent rate. The landing mode autopilot will not land the plane for you. It will control the plane's yaw and roll to try to keep the plane on the airport's ILS glide path. You must control pitch with the stick and airspeed with throttle and/or airbrakes. The landing autopilot stops functioning when you get down to something like 50 or 100m agl. If you're using the autopilot landing mode to line up your approach turn it off at least 2 km out from the runway so you have time to adjust to manual control for the final approach. The autopilot can dial in rather extreme trim settings. If the plane is difficult to control when you revert to manual control activating the emergency leveling autopilot mode L Alt+3 for 10 to 15 seconds will set trim to near neutral positions. Unfortunately the trim reset command LCtrl+T does not work in the Su-25T. Some people prefer a last second turnoff of the landing mode autopilot, but that makes for a very exciting touchdown if the trim settings are extreme. A few hundred meters from the end of the runway reduce throttle and activate airbrakes to start slowing to the proper landing speed, 240 to 260 kmph depending on aircraft loading. If you’re already using airbrakes to control your speed just throttle down. Descent rate at touchdown should be -0.5 to -2m/s although if you don't mind making the ground crew replace the landing gear between every sortie the plane can survive up to about -4m/s. Use the rudder to point the nose of the airplane at the far end of the runway, ideally do this a second or two before the rear wheels touch down. Set throttle to minimum as soon as you touch down. Deploy chutes when speed is below 250 kmph. Press the chute activation key once. Then wait until you have slowed down to press it a second time to detach the chutes. If you press the chute control quickly twice in a row you will find out that the chutes do very little to slow the plane after they have been detached. If you forgot to throttle down before deploying the chutes you'll discover that the jet's exhaust is very effective at ripping the chutes off of the plane. If you come to a complete stop you pretty much have to detach the chutes in order to taxi. If the plane is drifting off the runway use very gentle rudder inputs to correct, strong rudder inputs at speeds above 70 kmph can rip the tire off of the nosewheel. Full wheelbrakes used above 200 kmph can cause enough weight transfer to the front to overload the nosewheel and blow out the tire. This is especially true if the nosewheel hasn't touched down yet because braking from the rear wheels will slam the nose down HARD on the runway. When turning corners during taxing it's good to keep speed below 30 kmph, for straight runs go as fast as you please, but remember that it takes a while for the wheelbrakes to stop from a high speed. Pilot death from crashing into the fuel truck after you landed successfully is very embarrassing. Taxiing with a blown out nosewheel: Try to stay on paved areas, if you go offroad you're in trouble. Keep speed below 20kmph. To change directions: first come to a complete stop, then steer in the direction you want to go, gradually increase throttle to between 60 and 80% until you start to move, as soon as you're moving slowly, kill the throttle and coast. Repeat proceedure for every change in heading. Once you're on a taxiway or parking area turn off the engines and get repairs (if they are available). Wind speed and direction Wind speed is given in meters per second. 1 m/s = 3.6 kmph = 2.3 statue miles/h Flying into the wind while landing is good, and the AI tower will often assign you the best runway for this (not sure how much is AI or if this is something the mission designer does while building the mission). Landing with the wind has the same effect as shortening the runway. Crosswinds close to 90 degrees off of the runway are enough to make real life pilots consider looking for other airports with runways oriented closer to the prevailing wind conditions. You can use rudder to yaw into the wind to fly a straight ground track and then apply counter rudder to align the plane with the runway as you flare, or you can bank into the wind to keep a straight ground track and use rudder to keep the plane aligned with the runway. Until you have lots of practice with them both techniques are highly effective at turning an airplane into flaming wreckage. Ejection seats are handy to keep the fire from spreading to the pilot. Politeness in Multiplayer Do not cut off people already on final approach unless you communicate with them first and they give you an ok for it (even if your plane is busy disintegrating into a flaming wreck, Air traffic control won't wave them off for your emergency so you have to notify other pilots yourself). When you crash and/or park your plane please make an effort to make sure that the plane (or the wreckage that used to be your plane) is not obstructing the runway or the endmost taxiways of the runway.

I thought I'd collect a few of the things I've learned about flying the Su-25T for other people new to DCS World. I'm by no means an expert, so while I hope that the information I provide may be usefull, I make no promise that following it will provide optimal performance. Note that some things discussed in this thread could change as ED publishes updates to DCS and I do not swear that I will notice and/or rewrite for all possible changes. Make sure to check out flankertraining.com tutorial website, it's a great resource. The forum thread Su-25T QuickStart Guide - Fly and Destroy in minutes may also be useful. Find the official LOMAC manual with Google or at http://lockon.co.uk/en/downloads/documentation/lomac_1+1_user_manual/. There's also a Su-25 manual provided in the normal install at .../Eagle Dynamics/DCS World/Mods/aircrafts/Su-25T/Doc/DCS World Su-25T Flight Manual EN.pdf assuming you have the English language version of DCS world. If you have more, or better, advice for beginners, feel free to add to this post in replies. It's not behaving like the Tutorials! The tutorial videos are from Lock On: Modern Air Combat. The DCS World training missions are different, and in my opinion also slightly inferior. Of course if you learn the mission editor, you can make your own training missions. The Su-25T default keybinds for DCS World are not all the same as the default keybinds for LOMAC. If the plane is not funtioning as the tutorial says it should, check the controls section under the Options menu from the main menu screen. If you have more than one module, make sure you're configuring the right one. Finally, at present (July 2013) the avionics model for the Su-25T in DCS World is less detailed than the one in LOMAC. There are Shkval functions such as stepped target box sizing, and zoom levels that are just not implemented in DCS World. You can write to Eagle Dynamics to ask for this to be fixed, but since this is the FREE portion of DCS World be understanding if they feel they have more important development tasks to work on. Update: Nov. 2014. The newer instructional missions for the Su-25T are quite good, and if the current patch hasn't broken them (it happens sometimes) I'd recommend flying each of them at least several times. The instructions for these missions trigger by flying through the square green 'gates', and the next part of the instructions will not trigger if you miss the gate for that part. For making it through the gates I find that it helps to aim the center of the HUD at the top center edge of the gate, and then nose down just a bit as I fly through. You can go back and fly through a gate that you missed, but often it is quicker and easier to just restart the mission if you miss a gate. Fuel management If you run at 100% throttle you will run out of fuel very quickly. Operation at 80 to 95% throttle will give you much more time over target. Depending on payload you can operate down to 70% throttle or so, but climbing and maneuvering are very slow below 80%. Hard banking turns eat up a lot of energy and are not very good for fuel efficiency. Turning at 30 to 60 degrees bank is plenty for normal operation, save the hard turns for missile evasion. To refuel and rearm the engines must be shut down and the turbines fully stopped. In single player mode you may want to use LCtrl + Z to fast forward through this because it takes a while for the turbines to spin down. LShift + Z gets you back to normal time passage. More info on DCS Su-25T fuel management here http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=110985 Maneuverability and the Su-25T Remember that military fighter, attack, and bomber aircraft are really just delivery vehicles. If you try to make a loaded delivery vehicle fly like a hummingbird, do not be surprised when it crashes. Normal operating speed is about 400 to 650 kmph. The Su-25T handles poorly below 300 kmph, and tends to shake a lot at speeds above 750kmph. A list of suggested do not exceed speeds: landing flaps 350 kmph, landing gear 380 kmph, maneuvering flaps 675 kmph, airbrakes 675 kmph, airframe loaded 750 kmph, airframe clean 950 kmph. In the 300 to 500 kmph range using the first (maneuvering) flaps setting substantially improves handling. It also decreases speed and acceleration quite noticeably. In general it's best not to exceed about 15 degrees on the angle of attack indicator. At or past 20 degrees angle of attack you will start to lose control of the plane even if airspeed is well above stall speed. It can take 5 to 10 seconds to reestablish control if this happens, and that is far too long if you are anywhere near terrain that can be flown into. Give yourself plenty of space to run in for attacks. Depending on visibility and your level of experience starting each attack run at 15 to 20 km (7 to 10 nm) out from the target is perfectly reasonable for guided munitions. Throttle down to 60% or less when making descending attack runs and you're much less likely to have problems with overspeed or constantly needing to use the airbrakes. Just remember to throttle back up when you pull out of the attack run. If you deploy the airbrake for long at speeds above 600 to 650 kmph they can jam open. Flying with jammed airbrakes can be pretty annoying. Target spotting and locking The Su-25T relies primarily on visual target spotting, I have no idea where they get the 'all weather attack capability' from. The Shkval can zoom in and help with visual spotting assuming you know more or less where to point the Shkval camera before zooming in. The Mercury pod does give reasonable night time attack capability. Sizing the targeting box properly is important if you want to get a target lock. This is one of the keybinds that is different from the LOMAC default keybinds. RAlt + [ and RAlt +] I think, but check your control configuration menu to be sure. The mission planner and F10 view do not give a perfect situational map, but they are much better than nothing. Together they're about what you might expect from a western MFD with data supplied by recon units that are somewhat slow to bother sending updates, or possibly recon units that suffer from random temporary blindness (I think that this is because units related to mission objectives are shown but targets of opportunity are not, but I'm not entirely sure. There's probably a detailed explanation in the mission editor manual). Turning on labels is totally unrealistic. If turning on labels was realistic every real attack pilot would do it because it works really well as a targeting aid. Pre-slew the Shkval targeting pipper before starting your attack run. Normally you'll want it to be at or near the bottom of the HUD, but this will vary with altitude and airspeed. Control hardware and Configuration Get a HOTAS (stick and throttle) input device. Ideally one with lots of buttons. Assigning modifier buttons on your HOTAS can double or triple how many inputs you can use your HOTAS for. Doing this is boring, but it really pays off. On the axis tune section of the controls customizing the curvature of the input for the x, y, and z axes can make it much easier to do fine targeting when trying maneuver the plane for gun and rocket employment. The level of desirable curvature is dependent on your input hardware, and you will have to figure it out by trial and error. A list of functions (the first group is higher priority ones) that I found important enough to assign HOTAS buttons: Fire Weapon Countermeasures release (chaff and flares) Shkval Target box slew Target Lock Activate Air to Ground Mode Shkval On Laser On/off Weapon Select cycling Eject (still have to press it three times despite reassigning to Joystick) Activate Air to Air Mode Cannon Select ELINT pod on/off Night vision pod on/off IR jammer on/off ECM pods on/off Autopilot off Emergency leveling Autopilot on Airbrakes Wheelbrakes Drogue chute deploy/release When assigning control bindings keep in mind the general principal that things with the potential for disaster (like accidentally turning off the IR jammer when a heat seeking missile is tracking you) should not be assigned to locations where you frequently hit them by accident. The Su-25T is too much fun! Flying the frogfoot may interfere with playing the other DCS modules that you actually paid for. I have not yet figured out a workaround for this.

I often use the F10 view option as a sort of poor man's tactical MFD. That and turning labels on. Both of these options are not very realistic, but they can help quite a bit. However, due to the limitations of my computer hardware visual spotting is not very realistic either. Once I have the general vicinity of targets I often turn off labels as they tend to get in the way for visual sighting if you're using bombs, rockets or guns.