A10C engine catches fire for no reason

[Seabiscuit1985]

I was playing the Operation Persian Freedom today, and I was flying at 20k feet. Then all in a sudden my right engine got on fire. The same thing happened to my left engine once when I was flying the Red Flag campaign in Nevada. Does anyone know what was going on? I put out the fire but the engine can't get started again even if I turn on the APU. What should I do to handle it? 

[Yurgon]

There's a whole bunch of possible reasons.

 

The most obvious would be "Random Failures"; that's a game option that you can set to your liking, but it can also be enforced to be on or off by missions and servers. If it's enforced, then your game preference will be ignored.

 

There's another game setting called "Birds". These don't have a visual representation (there are in fact birds in some of the newer maps, but I think those don't affect bird strikes), and it's just a probability for a bird strike. I've had that happen a few times and about 4 months ago a wingman had an engine fire in MP, but I'm not even sure whether it was a random failure or a simulated bird strike.

 

Finally, there's always a chance it could be battle damage. If you're low enough, even soldiers with AKs might hit your jet, then longer range anti aircraft weapons can hit you up to, say, 6000ish feet AGL (maybe higher), and big anti aircraft artillery could reach up to something like 20,000 feet, if not more. And of course SAMs and air launched intercept missiles can hit you anywhere, depending on model and platform, but you'll certainly get a warning from the RWR in case of radar guided SAMs.

 

As for what to do after an engine fire: If the engine of your car has been on fire, and you've cut the fuel lines and emptied a bottle of fire extinguisher under the hood, would you try to just restart it? I guess if it was a matter of life and death, it might be worth a try. Otherwise, it's time to call a tow truck.

 

In the A-10, pulling an engine's T-handle does cut all fuel and should help extinguish a fire. If the fire indication does not go off, and you can see that the engine is indeed still on fire, push the fire extinguisher knob left or right; the extinguisher from the corresponding bottle will then be released into the engine with the pulled T-handle. Afterwards, don't try to restart the engine. Land on the remaining engine and get the jet repaired, or bail close to friendlies if you've lost both engines or you're not sufficiently comfortable to perform a single engine landing.

[MAXsenna]

I was playing the Operation Persian Freedom today, and I was flying at 20k feet. Then all in a sudden my right engine got on fire. The same thing happened to my left engine once when I was flying the Red Flag campaign in Nevada. Does anyone know what was going on? I put out the fire but the engine can't get started again even if I turn on the APU. What should I do to handle it? 

What's you're birdstrike setting?
Serious question!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[Seabiscuit1985]

37 minutes ago, Yurgon said:

There's a whole bunch of possible reasons.

 

The most obvious would be "Random Failures"; that's a game option that you can set to your liking, but it can also be enforced to be on or off by missions and servers. If it's enforced, then your game preference will be ignored.

 

There's another game setting called "Birds". These don't have a visual representation (there are in fact birds in some of the newer maps, but I think those don't affect bird strikes), and it's just a probability for a bird strike. I've had that happen a few times and about 4 months ago a wingman had an engine fire in MP, but I'm not even sure whether it was a random failure or a simulated bird strike.

 

Finally, there's always a chance it could be battle damage. If you're low enough, even soldiers with AKs might hit your jet, then longer range anti aircraft weapons can hit you up to, say, 6000ish feet AGL (maybe higher), and big anti aircraft artillery could reach up to something like 20,000 feet, if not more. And of course SAMs and air launched intercept missiles can hit you anywhere, depending on model and platform, but you'll certainly get a warning from the RWR in case of radar guided SAMs.

 

As for what to do after an engine fire: If the engine of your car has been on fire, and you've cut the fuel lines and emptied a bottle of fire extinguisher under the hood, would you try to just restart it? I guess if it was a matter of life and death, it might be worth a try. Otherwise, it's time to call a tow truck.

 

In the A-10, pulling an engine's T-handle does cut all fuel and should help extinguish a fire. If the fire indication does not go off, and you can see that the engine is indeed still on fire, push the fire extinguisher knob left or right; the extinguisher from the corresponding bottle will then be released into the engine with the pulled T-handle. Afterwards, don't try to restart the engine. Land on the remaining engine and get the jet repaired, or bail close to friendlies if you've lost both engines or you're not sufficiently comfortable to perform a single engine landing.

Thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure it's not enemy fire. I was not in the combat zone yet, actually still 16 miles to waypoint Marshall, and the combat zone is waypoint 6, I was like 50 miles away. It must be a bird strike but how can a bird be at 20000 feet? Is that realistic? 

39 minutes ago, MAXsenna said:

What's you're birdstrike setting?
Serious question!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk
 

I did turn on the birds because I thought there would be actual birds flying in the game, tuned out I was wrong. But what kind of bird can fly at 20,000 feet? Is it even scientific? 

[zinhawk]

Really big birds and ducks have been recorded that high, but the probability of hitting one up there is low compared to takeoff and landing where the majority of bird strikes happen. Before my maintainer days I was servicing a Q400 that speared a bee right in the ass with a pitot tube on final and they lost instruments. Stuff happens I guess. 

[elcid]

if you set these in Settings (ie Random Failures and Birds), do they get over-ridden in campaign?  I also experienced an engine failure, and once, I had my laser die on me. The TGP was working but not the laser.

[Seabiscuit1985]

5 minutes ago, elcid said:

if you set these in Settings (ie Random Failures and Birds), do they get over-ridden in campaign?  I also experienced an engine failure, and once, I had my laser die on me. The TGP was working but not the laser.

I guess it's based on the campaign's setting. In Operation Persian Freedom the random failure and bird is not overwritten. But the F10 view can't show your current position even if I turned it on in the setting. 

[elcid]

1 minute ago, Seabiscuit1985 said:

I guess it's based on the campaign's setting. In Operation Persian Freedom the random failure and bird is not overwritten. But the F10 view can't show your current position even if I turned it on in the setting. 

 

ah thanks, good to know

[Foka]

Highest fling bird - Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture – 37000 feet

https://themysteriousworld.com/10-highest-flying-birds-in-the-world/

[Seabiscuit1985]

12 hours ago, Foka said:

Highest fling bird - Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture – 37000 feet

https://themysteriousworld.com/10-highest-flying-birds-in-the-world/

My goodness... But still, thank you so much.

[Faelwolf]

Unless they changed it, bird strike is just another random engine failure variable, and didn't take altitude into account very well. I keep it turned off, as there was a time when I was getting an engine fire on ~90% of flights, especially coming over the runway threshold when landing. It got pretty annoying.  With it turned off, engine fires dropped to 0 other than battle damage.

[Seabiscuit1985]

5 hours ago, Faelwolf said:

Unless they changed it, bird strike is just another random engine failure variable, and didn't take altitude into account very well. I keep it turned off, as there was a time when I was getting an engine fire on ~90% of flights, especially coming over the runway threshold when landing. It got pretty annoying.  With it turned off, engine fires dropped to 0 other than battle damage.

I supposed so. I DCS bird is just a variable which is not affected by altitude. 

[Mogster]

On 7/14/2021 at 12:29 AM, Seabiscuit1985 said:

My goodness... But still, thank you so much.

Even Mallards have been reported at 20,000ft+. Amazing animals.

[A10Yoda]

DCS birds..

[Caldera]

Hey all,

 

No fires but...

 

The left engine seems to just shut off randomly.

 

Master Warning  -->  L Gen  -->  L Oil Press -->  Etc Etc Etc...

 

This has happened, out of the blue, 3 or 4 times.  The engine will not restart. 

 

Anyone else?

 

Caldera

 

[Seabiscuit1985]

6 hours ago, Caldera said:

Hey all,

 

No fires but...

 

The left engine seems to just shut off randomly.

 

Master Warning  -->  L Gen  -->  L Oil Press -->  Etc Etc Etc...

 

This has happened, out of the blue, 3 or 4 times.  The engine will not restart. 

 

Anyone else?

 

Caldera

 

I've never seen that but when I have my xbox elite controller connected to the computer, it would shut off after a long time with no input, then a lot of systems would shut off at the same time even if I never touched them. Perhaps your engine shut off is related to the other devices which are turned off automatically.

[ASAP]

double check the fuel flow switches are not in override. They can get a bit toasty and eventually catch fire if they are.

[zinhawk]

On 10/22/2021 at 6:56 PM, ASAP said:

double check the fuel flow switches are not in override. They can get a bit toasty and eventually catch fire if they are.

Unless they changed something recently, the override switch is not modeled, or modeled appropriately.

[SharpeXB]

Bird strikes! Yeah it can happen although at 20,000’ maybe not. But if you suddenly get an engine fire for no apparent reason? Yeah. I take it as a sign I’ve been playing DCS for too many hours… the odds are certainly slim. 

[jaylw314]

1 hour ago, SharpeXB said:

Bird strikes! Yeah it can happen although at 20,000’ maybe not. But if you suddenly get an engine fire for no apparent reason? Yeah. I take it as a sign I’ve been playing DCS for too many hours… the odds are certainly slim. 

According to wikipedia, Canadian geese have been sighted up to 29,000' (!)  Honk!