F-14B engine performance at FL320

[JesterIsDead]

Doing the Reforger campaign, I notice that the Tomcat is quite sluggish at this altitude. I can barely fly at 300kts under military power at 32000 ft. Is this how the Tomcat behaves at 32000ft?

[Dannyvandelft]

Doing the Reforger campaign, I notice that the Tomcat is quite sluggish at this altitude. I can barely fly at 300kts under military power at 32000 ft. Is this how the Tomcat behaves at 32000ft?

Look at the Mach number, not the kts. At MIL you should be doing around M0.9 depending on loadout.

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[RustBelt]

5 hours ago, JesterIsDead said:

Doing the Reforger campaign, I notice that the Tomcat is quite sluggish at this altitude. I can barely fly at 300kts under military power at 32000 ft. Is this how the Tomcat behaves at 32000ft?

KTS is for low and slow. In the Flight Levels you need to reference MACH as it corrects for the very thin very cold air up there, as well as the compression effects as the speed of sound goes down, and the speed of you goes up.

[Hayrake YE-ZB]

18 hours ago, JesterIsDead said:

Doing the Reforger campaign, I notice that the Tomcat is quite sluggish at this altitude. I can barely fly at 300kts under military power at 32000 ft. Is this how the Tomcat behaves at 32000ft?

300 knots at 32000 feet is around .82 Mach. Indicated airspeed decreases with altitude, but you are still making 480 knots true airspeed. What’s the load out on that mission? If it includes 2 or 4 PH plus SP SW and Tanks with a heavy fuel load, then that sounds about right at mil power. If you let it accelerate, it should get up to around .92 though.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Hayrake YE-ZB

[JesterIsDead]

Thanks for all the responses. This makes sense to me now. Once I settle in at 32,000ft I do get up to MACH .9. So much to learn about flying!

[RustBelt]

The US FAA has free PDF copies of the Airplane flying Handbook and the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators on their website.

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation

 

 

[Coldwarrior000]

7 hours ago, RustBelt said:

The US FAA has free PDF copies of the Airplane flying Handbook and the Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators on their website.

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation

 

 

This is great info. Thanks for sharing!