A-A kill in an A10

[SAM-Smasher]

Ok im sure there are a few of you out there who are pretty skilled at knocking down aircraft with the A10 when needed, but from all the time ive been flying I have never needed too perform any A-A manuevers in the A10, last night my first A10 A-A kills can be chalked up, which im very proud of, might sound silly to a few of you, but I couldnt help but say anything.

 

For those of you who are interested I have included a report of the action below:

 

Campaign : Hawgs Life

Mission : The Big Valley

 

On returning from a succesfull attack against a convoy deep in a valley, myself and wingman spread formation over the coast heading for our final steerpoints into landing. All gauges checked out ok, looking good for a safe return.... RWR punched out a warning, I confirmed the radar was from SU-34's.... bombers, not much of a threat, but are capable of carrying R-73's.... seconds later my wingman yelled a missile launch, looking over my right should I saw him break only to be slammed by an R-73, sending the doomed A10 into an un-controllable flip.

 

My first reaction was to switch to AA mode and dump flares like a firework, jinking all the way..... the offending SU-34 whooshed over the canopy... in an instant I pulled up the nose allowing the AIM-9's to lock... "missile away". The two sidewinders slammed into the SU-34 causing it to spiral... the pilots ejected and the stricken aircraft slammed into the sea.

 

I began looking for the second SU-34 a quick glance towards my own airfield revealed explosions of bombs impacting the runway... a little distance above a straight and level SU-34 glinted in the sun... I realised it would come after me once it pulled out of its bombing run, I had only one shot at this... I aimed the nose of the hawg ahead of the offender, hoping to sligtly intercept his course as I anticipated a turn out to sea towards my aircraft... after a minute I could see a proper outline of the aircraft.... damn ive been spotted... the Su-34 started to pull towards me... lucky I was close enough to lead my nose ahead of his turn.... last chance... I rolled left placing his plane at the bottom of my aiming funnel, as his plane reached half-way, I pulled the trigger and let out two bursts of cannon fire, the first burst fell short, with the second ripping a tear down the centreline of the SU, it burst into flames... smoke bellowed from its right engine, the plane started to gently yaw and plummetted to the sea, the pilots never ejected.

 

And thats my first hawg A-A kill, I dont count helos as A-A kills really.

 

I hope some of you found that interesting, it was really quite exciting, I had one shot at the last SU otherwise I would have been out-manuevered and downed, really quite tense, especially all that time I spent flying the mission, the thought of being nailed on landing, did not appeal to me much :)

 

Thanks for reading!!

[Kula66]

Sounds great ... It's amazing how this sim gets the blood pumping!!! Great code ...

 

James

[SAM-Smasher]

Yeah I agree it is most certainley heart pounding stuff, I love missions like that, where you just get pounced on out of no-where. I find with most missions, just not flicking through the aircraft in the F2 view helps add some atmosphere, I used to do that to start with to look at the 3D models, I now know what they look like so ive stopped doing that and increased the realism a notch.

 

Flying the A10 makes me feel so in-secure when there are hostile fighters around, the only thing to do is hug the ground and mask yourself, and take the shot if and only if the oppourtunity arises or if your completley stuffed up the kybosh!!

 

Thanks for reading that James!!

[SUBS17]

Good kill, kind of reminds me of when an Aussie Hornet got nailed by a kiwi BAC Strikemaster. You just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

cheers

Subs

[SAM-Smasher]

Aussie Hornet got nailed by a kiwi BAC Strikemaster.

lol now thats interesting!! I think thats somewhat even more rare, being that the Hornet had the capability of a proper fighter, unlike the SU-34 which is reasonobly limited, for the Strikemaster to take down a Hornet there must have been some serious pilot error on the Hornet pilots part, to let himself get into the position to be nailed by a Strikemaster.

 

You just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

You got that right, the first luck being that the SU-34 zipped right over my canopy into the sidewinder cage. and the second luck was having the other SU-34 turn exactly how I wanted him to. :wink:

 

I dont want to get that close to A-A combat in the A-10 again, give me some SAM sites any day :)

[SUBS17]

The Hornet flew across the top of a gully which two Strikemasters were using. Upon seeing a Hornet fly across the top, the strikemaster pilot went vertical and turnned very tight onto his six taking a gun camera photo whilst bending his wings(exceeded his limit by 2-3g). When he arrived back at base they noticed that the diahedral had gone from his wings as they were now level. Of course this led to the end of that aircrafts flying time. The pilot got in trouble, and the Hornet driver never heard the end of it. Of course it wasn't his fault, he was just unlucky.

cheers

Subs

[SAM-Smasher]

Wow thats some story, fancy breaking a plane just to do that!!! Im not sure which pilot I would rather be in that situation??? mocked for life by getting nailed by a Strikemaster, or getting a major shouting for breaking a plane? hmmm :lol:

 

And also being down in a gulley should the Strikemaster pilot even have broken off to engage, considering he may not have even been spotted by the Hornet pilot? but then there is also a possibility that the Hornet could have spotted them on a second pass?

 

Thanks for that, that was quite interesting!!