need evidence F-16 AB Climb Performance

[mkel2010]

From what I've read, the real life F-16 has a greater than 1 to 1 thrust to weight ratio and is able to accelerate while climbing. I'm just getting started with the DCS F-16 but I've noticed that a clean jet in AB climbing at about 45 degrees loses power and drops to under 200 Knots by about 18k feet. Is this normal for the DCS F-16 or am I doing something wrong? I've attached a track showing what I mean. Disregard the Master Caution light. It's for the Anti-skid (which was on when I originally flew it.) I also noticed that there is no external visual evidence that the AB is even on.

F-16 Unrestricted Climb.trk

Edited July 7, 2024 by mkel2010

[BIGNEWY]

Please PM your public evidence to support this. 

thank you 

[Delta134]

As you already confirmed yourself visually, you didn't engage afterburner. You were in military power and didn't go past the afterburner detent. As can be seen from your throttle position, fuel flow and nozzle position indicator. Still, even with afterburner, thrust will decrease with altitude and the plane won't climb indefinitely.

Edited July 8, 2024 by _Delta13_

[mkel2010]

1 hour ago, _Delta13_ said:

As you already confirmed yourself visually, you didn't engage afterburner. You were in military power and didn't go past the afterburner detent. As can be seen from your throttle position, fuel flow and nozzle position indicator. Still, even with afterburner, thrust will decrease with altitude and the plane won't climb indefinitely.

 

You are correct, I hadn't noticed that the throttle wasn't going past the detent in game.

I went back and did some research and figured out how to tune the thrust axis, which I did. The problem is that DCS isn't recognizing the settings. If I'm in game and activate active pause, then go in to the thrust axis tune setting while my throttle is in AB, the axis tune says the throttle is at the mid point of the range (see the third image.) If I move it back to mil power, the axis tune now detects the AB detent position (first image.) If I move back to AB, the axis tune detects this (see second  photo.) But as soon as I go back to the game and unpause it, I'm stuck at mil power. This is a Winwing Orion II base with the F-16 Throttle handle. The device has been calibrated and the Idle cutoff and AB detents are working correctly according to the Winwing software.

Edited July 8, 2024 by mkel2010

[Exorcet]

Was speed set to TAS?

Also your thrust will drop with air density which drops with altitude, so even a plane has a 1:1 SL thrust ratio (which often quotes uninstalled thrust, which is another problem), you can't just point it straight up and expect to accelerate.

[mkel2010]

15 minutes ago, Exorcet said:

Was speed set to TAS?

Also your thrust will drop with air density which drops with altitude, so even a plane has a 1:1 SL thrust ratio (which often quotes uninstalled thrust, which is another problem), you can't just point it straight up and expect to accelerate.

As I said in the follow up post, the problem appears to be that DCS isn't recognizing my throttle going past the AB detent.

[mkel2010]

I got the AB situation sorted, I think. I had to bind a button on the throttle to Cycle the AB detent on and off. As soon as I did that I was able to get past the AB detent with the throttle. I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to work, but it does.

That also solve the unrestricted climb problem.

[lxsapper]

3 minutes ago, mkel2010 said:

I got the AB situation sorted, I think. I had to bind a button on the throttle to Cycle the AB detent on and off. As soon as I did that I was able to get past the AB detent with the throttle. I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to work, but it does.

That also solve the unrestricted climb problem.

Check the special options for the F-16 and make sure you set Afterburner detent to "Always off" you don't need it since you have a physical detent.

[mkel2010]

1 hour ago, lxsapper said:

Check the special options for the F-16 and make sure you set Afterburner detent to "Always off" you don't need it since you have a physical detent.

Thanks, that took care of it.