fuel management : introduce some help in flight plan and briefing for noobs ?

[lefuneste01]

Hello, I started this campaign and are quite happy with it, even if I did only the fam. flight for the moment. I specially like efforts made to align the simulation and real life processes, plus all the interaction and voices. It seems to me I'll be able to learn a lot in the way to flight the F4E thanks to your work.

But there is a "blind spot" in briefing and flight plan. We have the headings, alt,.. but not the speed and so time on waypoint or time to travel. I'm used to have campaing/mission having globally enough fuel to do what you have to do, so I did not care too much, but I ended my first fam. flight out of fuel in middle of nowhere...I was not aware of the fuel consumption of the F4E in afterburner, not displayed in fuel flow counters and I did not care too much on monitoring fuel quantity before reaching alert levels...Good lesson to learn the F4E, you may say

I did again the mission by using low speeds/fuel flow for travelling and limiting the number of manoeuvers to 1 of each, to avoid to be again out of fuel. But now I'm wondering what will be the situation for next mission, as there are different manoeuvers to do, and so at least mil. power or more during them...It should be good to have elements in flight plan (speed ?) to ensure people will come on manoeuver area with the expected fuel level, as to provide a "bingo" fuel ensuring capacity to come back to airbase: if you did not achieve all the objectives and reach in bingo, you'll know you will have to restart mission...

I search in campaign doc. some elements on assumed cruise parameter but did not find them...

More globally, fuel management is a crutial topic for mission planning, I'm sure you did it to ensure feasability of your campaign, so it should be great to have some fuel elements somewhere in the briefing or kneeboards, to help noobs like me...It may help also by ginving example to plan later mission, even outside your campaign.

Maybe something like this (coming from F4manual) ?

Edited April 12 by lefuneste01

[lefuneste01]

Just to test, I asked chatGPT a fuel planning for your flight plan (dist. + altitude) :

Phase	Distance / Time	Altitude	Speed (TAS)	Fuel Used (lbs)	Notes
Startup & Taxi	~5 min	Ground	—	~150	Idle + taxi
Takeoff & Climb	~5 min	To FL200	Climb profile	~550	May include short AB burst
Enroute to AO	~80 nm / ~11 min	20–14k ft	430–415 KTAS	~1,300	Cruise at 85% RPM
Combat Allowance	Variable	AO Altitude	Flexible	~6,000 available	Includes AB, loiter, maneuvering
RTB (Return Leg)	~90 nm / ~13 min	14k–4.6k ft	415 → 390 KTAS	~1,700	Descent included
Approach & Land	~5–7 min	4k → 0 ft	Pattern speed	~500	Includes approach and taxi
Reserve on Landing	N/A	Ground	—	2,000 (required)	Safety buffer — min fuel at shutdown

I'll see when I'll fly the mission...What do you think about it ?

Edited April 12 by lefuneste01

[Reflected]

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the feedback. It's a fair point, and in Red Flag it will be very precisely planned, with speeds and timings, to the second, like you said. Some people will find it even too 'restrictive' so to speak. However, Top Gun in 1969 was different. You flew out to the range (not a very long distance), did stuff and when you were low on fuel you came back. There are no speeds and timings you had to hit precisely, it's all up to you.

There is a bingo on your kneeboard, that's all you need to know - also, your instructor will tell you about cruising speeds in combat as soon as you enter the range.

As for the exercise, at the end of the day, it's a bunch of complex scripts, not a real life instructor in your backseat, so I cannot make the tasks infinitely flexible, depending on how much fuel you burned, if you know what I mean. Also, the backseat doesn't have a fuel gauge, only you can monitor it.

As long as you don't use burner unless you have to, and always try and stay close to Quartzite without wandering off too far, you'll have plenty of fuel to complete the exercise and RTB. I never ran out of fuel during testing, and I had to play the mission 50+ times.

All the upcoming missions will be split into parts for training purposes, one of the downsides (upsides?) is that you won't have to worry about fuel management anymore.

What I can do for the FAM flight is to make sure the mission progresses if you hit CESAR before the exercise is complete, in case you're low on fuel and decide to RTB

[lefuneste01]

On 4/13/2025 at 1:36 AM, Reflected said:

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the feedback. It's a fair point, and in Red Flag it will be very precisely planned, with speeds and timings, to the second, like you said. Some people will find it even too 'restrictive' so to speak. However, Top Gun in 1969 was different. You flew out to the range (not a very long distance), did stuff and when you were low on fuel you came back. There are no speeds and timings you had to hit precisely, it's all up to you.

There is a bingo on your kneeboard, that's all you need to know - also, your instructor will tell you about cruising speeds in combat as soon as you enter the range.

As for the exercise, at the end of the day, it's a bunch of complex scripts, not a real life instructor in your backseat, so I cannot make the tasks infinitely flexible, depending on how much fuel you burned, if you know what I mean. Also, the backseat doesn't have a fuel gauge, only you can monitor it.

As long as you don't use burner unless you have to, and always try and stay close to Quartzite without wandering off too far, you'll have plenty of fuel to complete the exercise and RTB. I never ran out of fuel during testing, and I had to play the mission 50+ times.

All the upcoming missions will be split into parts for training purposes, one of the downsides (upsides?) is that you won't have to worry about fuel management anymore.

What I can do for the FAM flight is to make sure the mission progresses if you hit CESAR before the exercise is complete, in case you're low on fuel and decide to RTB

Thanks for your answer. I'll will for sure purchase the red flag, at least to help people like you continuing doing campaign as you are doing. I do not know when I'll finish the mig killer, but I'm sure I won't be disapointed by moving to the red flag later.

I just did not see the bingo cell in the kneeboard...my bad again. 2 lessons in a same mission ! Take care of fuel jauge and read extensivelly kneeboards...