Mig-29 Optimum Fuel Conservation

[AlxF]

Can anyone tell me the Mig-29 best altitude/speed setting for best range, even with 3 tanks the a.i wingman is RTBing prematurely. Apologies if this has been asked before.

 

I do hope the a.i is improved in Black Shark so the planes (Mig-29's in particular) are more sensible with their afterburners.

[Sundowner.pl]

It should be 0.8Ma at 12000m ... that's what the real thing fly for best range. I don't know if that's true in the game... I fly Eagle :smilewink:

 

But I can tell you this - stay away from using AB and you will be fine... don't even think about using it for take-offs - unfortunately, you can't tell this to AI, co it will always run out of fuel before you do.

[51GRIZZLY]

Just to make a test i took off from Sukhumi with 1 center and 2 wing tanks, 2 R77 and 2 R73.

Takeoff with powersetting at 10 klimbing to 6000 meters at 15 deg. angle, then cranked to full burners going level at 12500 meters.

Power back to 10 cruising at mach 1.01 following the coastline

all the way to Khersones ( Sevastopol ) i landed with 2000 kg. fuel left and i didn't even bother to drop the wingtanks.

So dont tell me you cant fly a decent CAP in a MIG.

[ericinexile]

You can approximate an optimum altitude by climbing at something close to corner speed to an altitude that does not require full non-AB thrust to maintain level flight at a reasonable cruise speed (M.80-.85). (if full power does not yeild a climb of 2-3 m/s, you are probably too high.) Maintain that altitude until you are at a distance from your destination where a descent can be made at idle power without the use of speedbrakes. (A very rough approximation for RU a/c is altitude in meters divided by 100.--i.e., 10000M = 100km. For US a/c use Altitude divided by 1000 and multiply by two--i.e., 30000FT = 60 NM.)

 

Smokin'Hole

[Kuky]

AI is RTB-ing prematurely because they use afterburners way too much and way too long... so they run out of fuel... stupid AI :D

[AlxF]

Yeh the a.i just selects a target and afterburns continually until it is in range. I was playing the last chance campaign and there is a mission (number 15 i think) where you have to travel to the west of the map and engage 2 f-18s. However I played it (I would have about 5000 fuel on contact) the wingman would always put on his landing lights, call bingo and turn back leaving me to them with 4 missiles. I circled around after take off so he didnt afterburn to catch me so I think I did the best I could.

 

Im too inexperienced for multiplayer so I am stuck with the a.i for the time being.

[3Sqn_Sven]

As high as you can go and 90% throttle. 90% rpm is best range setting for gas turbine engines, seems to be modelled pretty well.

[RvETito]

At transsonic speed from 0.95M to 1.15M the a/c has the highest wave drag, i.e. great fuel consumption. In any case pilots try to stay out of it when possible, they just fly faster or slower. For the MiG-29 the maximum range cruise flight is at 10000m altitude and 0.9M. Of course, the higher you fly the less fuel consumption is. The MiG-29 can climb pretty fast up to the service ceiling of 18000m but the question is how much of a fuel you'll spend to climb that high.