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A10C II Level Flight Speed Issue


zippydoda

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On level flight I can never get above 250 kts and even that's a struggle.  If I pitch up 10-15 on HSI speed rapidly drops to stall.  Engines are at 95% RPM, oil pressure, temps all good.  10K lbs of fuel, flaps up, gear up.  I'm spawning into the Nevada Weapon Practice mission, so don't have control over weight of weapons, but I don't think this is related anyway.  Don't think it would put you into the air with a severely overweight aircraft.  And I've lost a few pounds recently hoping to help the situation.  

 

 I've had this issue for a long time, but busy fighting other fires and deep diving into various scenarios but now it's just annoying.  

 

Ideas?  Thanks!

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The A-10 isn't the fastest jet in the world.

 

There has been some discussion in the past that it should be able to go faster than it does in DCS, but I think this was actually addressed by some changes to the flight model, most prominently by adjusting the drag, and as far as I'm aware, it matches the real life data fairly well.

 

That said, if you can't accelerate past 250 KIAS in level flight, it doesn't mean your jet is overweight per se. It just means it's carrying a lot of stuff that is heavy and draggy.

 

Plus, the outside conditions play a role, like air density and temperature, which will affect engine performance and aerodynamics.

 

Many old missions load the A-10 up like for a cold war going hot scenario, with heavy and draggy LAU-88 triple Maverick launchers and a bunch of CBUs, giving the jet a drag index that has been compared to that of a barn door.

 

If you want better performance out of it, feel free to create your own mission, and I think you might be able to use the mission planner to adjust the loadout as well, but that's only available for missions selected from the MISSION main menu item, not for Instant Action missions. You'll be surprised how much better the Hog handles when it carries a moderate load like the ones commonly used for COIN operations in Afghanistan.

 

Or kill a bunch of targets, jettison those LAU-88s, spend some fuel, and just see how it compares to the heavy jet from the beginning of the mission. 😉


Edited by Yurgon
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As an IRL 135 guy, when we would refuel A-10s over Iraq, Afghanistan, or by Korea, they would struggle to keep up with us in level flight at 190 to 200 KIAS with their combat loadouts.  We would usually have to toboggan to get them their gas because their throttles were at max and they couldn't hold the speed in level flight as they took fuel.  In short, don't expect Viper like speeds from the 10.  

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On 8/15/2021 at 7:36 PM, Chain_1 said:

As an IRL 135 guy, when we would refuel A-10s over Iraq, Afghanistan, or by Korea, they would struggle to keep up with us in level flight at 190 to 200 KIAS with their combat loadouts.  We would usually have to toboggan to get them their gas because their throttles were at max and they couldn't hold the speed in level flight as they took fuel.  In short, don't expect Viper like speeds from the 10.  

Cool!   I was hoping that my Mustang EV wouldn't be faster than this aircraft....

 

Anyway - thanks to both of you.  I have been using the older missions with heavy preset loadouts.  They also do not have some of the updated weapons like the AGM-65L.  I have only briefly looked at the Mission Planner as I figured that I would need to be able to do my own loadouts to practice with the laser Mavs etc.  But I find it intimidating and with everything I'm assimilating with the targeting and weaponry it seems a steep hill to climb right now.  But - as you mentioned I can get up there in an Instant Action mission and just jettison a bunch of stuff and see what happens with regards to performance.  I haven't really had the need for speed as yet - but I was curious why I could never achieve anything close to the cruise speed specs.  

 

Edit: just jettisoned all weaponry - keeping the pods of course, and I gained 30 knots - max level flight speed is 270 kts at 8300 ft, temp unknown.  


Edited by zippydoda
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