When restricting A/B, AI cannot maintain altitude and speed

[Hymlee]

Hi,

I've set up a simple mission (as attached) to test the functionality of the option "Restrict Afterburner Use". (youtube, track and mission file attached)

6 planes in the mission, all have their afterburner uses prohibited :

1. FA18C / F16C, not loaded with any stores

2. FA18C / F16C, Heavily loaded, set to orbit at waypoint 1 at 30000ft at 400TAS (about 250IAS and Mach0.67)

3. FA18C / F16C, Heavily loaded, set to travel from WP1 to WP2 at 30000ft at 400TAS (about 250IAS and Mach0.67)

 

I expected the AI to fly well even with the A/B off as the flight parameters are nothing special and within normal envelope. But turns out not.

 

Observation:

When AI were climbing, they were performing as usual.

When AI reached WP1 and start orbiting, the 2 heavily loaded aircraft could NOT maintain their speed and altitude and began to drop altitude. On the other hand, the aircrafts with empty stores performed well.

I suspected if the orbit task is bugged, so 2 more aircrafts were sent not to orbit but to travel from WP1 to WP2. The heavily loaded FA18C could maintain speed and altitude, whereas the heavily loaded F16C could not.

 

My Thoughts:

Despite the FA18C and F16C were heavily loaded ( 3 fuel tanks + 2 x 2000lb bomb), the flight parameters (30000ft and 250IAS) should be well within the aircraft flight envelope, even without the use of afterburner. (at least that was the case when the aircrafts were flown by me instead of the AI). But it turns out that the AI do require full afterburner to maintain normal speed and altitude when fully loaded. Any chance or plan to tune the AI's flight modelling?

Many thanks for your time and happy to discuss.

AI cannot hold alt.miz AI cannot hold altitude.trk

Edited April 1, 2023 by Hymlee