Mystified by gear failure.

[Johnny Dioxin]

I've just been out to do some JTAC training, using the venerable STP Dragon's training pack.

 

Everything went as normal, but after take-off my right mainwheel wouldn't retract. I was able to repeatedly lower and raise the other two wheels, but that right mainwheel still refused to budge.

 

I aborted the mission and landed safely.

 

I don't have failures on and my speed was well within the VLO. Is it possible it was damaged by cutting a corner on the taxiway? I accidentally missed the turning to runway 25/26 at Kutaisi and turned around on the taxiway. My nosewheel went a few feet on the grass and I'm sure that right mainwheel did, too. I remember hearing a loud 'clunk' and checking to see if I had a puncture.

 

I'd be highly surprised that traversing a couple of feet of flat grass would cause this kind of damage. :huh:

[BSS_Sniper]

Maybe, but that's why you should taxi slow and not like you're driving a car.

[fltsimbuff]

My guess would be that damaged the gear. It's a 15 ton warplane, not an ATV ;)

 

I am thinking the ground damage modeling is probably necessarily simplistic too (though it does seem to handle realistically in most situations).

[Johnny Dioxin]

I am thinking the ground damage modeling is probably necessarily simplistic too (though it does seem to handle realistically in most situations).

 

I would say so, too - after all, the aircraft is supposed to be suitable for rough field ops according to the data I've been reading on the 'net.

 

Going over a couple of feet (literally - it was a very short piece of grass at the junction of two taxiways) at U-turn speed is hardly gear-breaking activity.

 

Also, if it was bad enough to cause structural failure, it would have caused a puncture, which it didn't.

 

I know the original DCS A-10C was extremely allergic to anything that wasn't concrete-hard, but was hoping that this had been tweaked in the meantime.

 

Saying that, I've done a crash-landing without power onto a road and had to swerve onto the grass to avoid a truck and it was some time before the front gear collapsed.

[Xavven]

I would say so, too - after all, the aircraft is supposed to be suitable for rough field ops according to the data I've been reading on the 'net.

 

That's what I've read, too. Aren't the engine intakes even placed and angled the way they are to reduce ingestion of debris from makeshift runways? This thing was made to handle at least SOME terrain.

[Brewnix]

So this is not a answer to your damaged leg and why. But I once had a damaged leg that wouldn't retracted in single player, I landed hard I think and it wouldn't work but at any rate I had full rack of Ordnance I didn't want to waste. But I notice my wing man was still out and heard him say getting low on fuel so I decided to jump into his plane to see how much fuel and maybe return him to base so I didn't loose a aircraft to fly. Well too low of fuel to make it so I got back in to my original aircraft I have been flying and when the AI took over the problem with the gear was corrected and everything was normal. Not for sure if there was a emergency retract button I don't know about or its a AI bug.

[Johnny Dioxin]

Interesting.