Takeoffs and afterburner...

[Donut]

At what point is afterburner disengaged and brought back to mil power after taking off from land and the carrier?

 

At positive rate of climb, I retract gear and put the flaps to auto, but I have not found any procedure detailing throttle control after that.

[Preendog]

Uninformed answer:

 

It depends on what you want to do. If you are taking off to ogle nearby sunbathers, you would be out of burner right away. If you are taking off to intercept hot inbound bombers you might stay in burner till you hit 40000.

[Harker]

If you just want to launch, you don't even need to go above MIL for most takeoffs, including catapult launches. Only if you're particularly heavy.

[Donut]

Thank you for the help guys but I am looking for real life procedures and practices.

[Sarge55]

FPAS will give you the best climb rate to altitude for your flight plan. Flight plan will dictate the speed on each leg or fly leads wing.

 

If you are doing join up after T/O then it would be pre-briefed for location (ie WP 1, 30 deg L wheel), altitude (5000') and speed (350 kts). After join up, fly leads wing.

 

Just how we do it (none of us are even remotely Navy pilots) gets us going though.

 

If you want real F-18 pilot feedback go here. https://discord.gg/td9qeqg Ask for Lex

[ExNusquam]

Based on what a RL Hornet guy posted on a different forum:

Gear up as soon as the AoA indexer comes on (weight off wheels)

Flaps at 200 KCAS

MIL at 230 KCAS

Gear should be in the wells by 240 KCAS

[SKIPPY 7-7]

I like to keep the burner on until reaching 350kias, then climbing at that speed in mil power until 0.9 mach then maintain 0.9 mach to cruising altitude. Depending on payload I might stay in minimum burner until cruising altitude.

[G B]

Based on what a RL Hornet guy posted on a different forum:

Gear up as soon as the AoA indexer comes on (weight off wheels)

Flaps at 200 KCAS

MIL at 230 KCAS

Gear should be in the wells by 240 KCAS

 

That is just his technique. Most guys go gear up, flaps up, once airborne. Then they are out of burner shortly thereafter (without a specific number). It’s typically once airborne and cleaned up, which ends up being a short time after lift off.

[Donut]

That is just his technique. Most guys go gear up, flaps up, once airborne. Then they are out of burner shortly thereafter (without a specific number). It’s typically once airborne and cleaned up, which ends up being a short time after lift off.

 

Great stuff! Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.

 

This is the procedure I will follow....seems pretty straight forward and obvious, but I wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly.