How to glide?

[hesterj]

Hello, I generally fly Russian aircraft and often find myself running out of fuel like a fool. What is the best way to glide at various altitudes? If I am below 1000 meters I will generally rise to 1000 then try to maintain a descent of 10 meters per second as indicated in HUD until I eject before impacting the ground. If I am higher, I try to maintain level flight until I hit about 400 knots airspeed then begin dropping at 10 meters per second.

 

Is there a better way to get the optimum glide envelope in a no power situation? Is it always better to turn excess speed into altitude until you hit stall speed in order to minimize energy loss from drag?

[Exorcet]

Climb until you hit max L/D, then descend in order to maintain that indicated speed. Don't stall, that will cut your glide short.

 

Finding the glide speed is the tricky bit. It is listed in the F-15 manual (they dive AoA for endurance and range, which can be converted to speed), but I'm not sure if the other aircraft manuals mention it. The Su-27 likely has a lower glide speed than the F-15. The Su-25 will have an even lower speed.

[GGTharos]

The f15 had best glide at around 210KIAS. However there's an additional constraint for it and any other jet powered aircraft, which is not necessarily modeled in DCS: your hydraulics are posted by the engines, and if you fly too slow you will lose hydraulic pressure and thus you will lose control. Generally the instructions are to eject if the hydraulics start going through transients or if they get mushy, so that can be a lower speed bound for gliding.

[DarkFire]

For the Su-27, the most efficient glide speed is between 400 and 420 Km/h. If you have no weapons or fuel this will usually happen at about 2-4 degrees nose down and will give you a descent rate between 10 - 14 m/s.

 

In terms of running out of fuel, unless you're in combat, it's good practice to cruise at 85% engine RPM at pretty much any altitude. This will give you the most efficient mix of speed, distance covered and fuel usage. Again this is for the Su-27.

[hesterj]

Thanks for the tips, as for why I run out of fuel I generally reduce the amount I carry with a light loadout in order to fly at 14000 meters in order to give my ET, ER, and 77 follow-up long stick capability before absconding.