Cruising - weight, height, throttle & speed?

[Megagoth1702]

Hey folks!

 

I got a few questions regarding moving from A to B.

 

Is it ok to be at 100% load when traveling? What abour a slight overload? My favorite configuration is a bunch of mavericks, a bunch of GBU 12s, two GBU 38s and 100% fuel. That fuel makes me weigh about 107%, is that too bad?

 

At what altitude should I cruise around? I know for transport airplanes there are altitudes that have the best fuel/mile ratio. Is that the same for the A10? What about "perfect cruise altitude" vs. "safe from AA altutide"?

 

Should I travel at 100% throttle? Is there an area where the A10 consumes way less fuel for pretty much the same thrust? Any tips on that? 100% all the time seems to be a "waste of fuel" since I know from several flight sims that cruising throttle is not 100%. How about the A10?

 

Speed? I guess that here throttle is more important than speed - but what are your thoughts?

 

 

And sorry, I just got an idea ... I should start looking in the manual!

But while I will do that in hope to NOT find something - post up your tips!

 

Thanks a lot in advance!

[GGTharos]

My thoughts are that your payload is a drag (drumroll!).

 

Try two mavericks and 4-6 bombs of your choice, then come back and relate your experience ;)

 

And yes, I said two mavericks. No TER/MERs for anybody.

 

The higher you go, the better your fuel economy, and the safer you are from SHORAD. Have a full fuel tank also gives you significant loiter times at altitude, which is what the A-10 is all about.

 

There is no area where you get less fuel consumption for same thrust. You get less fuel consumption for less thrust. At high altitude. Speed is quite important, as is AoA, since you can set 'econ cruise' by either for a given altitude. There are charts in this forum that you can read to figure these things out, IIRC.

Edited November 1, 2011 by GGTharos

[Speed]

You can get up above most SHORAD just fine even if you unrealisitically heavy though. I donno how accurate that is, but I could get above SHORAD carrying 6 LGBs, 6 Mavs, 4 CBUs, a TGP and a jammer. You can get up to 24k, 25k feet with such a load out. It takes a while to get up there though, and yes, your fuel economy sucks. And no, it's not very realistic, A-10s just don't carry those kinds of load outs in real life.

[Megagoth1702]

Come on man - 6 MAVs is awesome! And after air defenses are gone - bomb the shiet out of the enemy with a ton of bombs. :-/

 

I mean I got no idea of real life employments but WITH the A10's long loitering time, why not arm it up to the teeth? I mean with 70% fuel the load is still 100% and 100% means "ok", doesn't it?

[GGTharos]

Because it's a high-drag, fuel-wasting (loiter-time reducing) proposition. That's why it isn't 'armed to the teeth' in reality - the payloads are mentioned are quite adequate for the job.

 

The only time you'd see an A-10 (A or C) with 6 mavs in reality (and no bombs or anything else) would be a Fulda Gap scenario. For everything else, the payloads I mentioned work just fine, unless your idea of simulation is trying to earn up arcade high score with a well simulated aircraft - hey, to each their own :D

 

Come on man - 6 MAVs is awesome! And after air defenses are gone - bomb the shiet out of the enemy with a ton of bombs. :-/

 

I mean I got no idea of real life employments but WITH the A10's long loitering time, why not arm it up to the teeth? I mean with 70% fuel the load is still 100% and 100% means "ok", doesn't it?

[Jona33]

Come on man - 6 MAVs is awesome! And after air defenses are gone - bomb the shiet out of the enemy with a ton of bombs. :-/

 

I mean I got no idea of real life employments but WITH the A10's long loitering time, why not arm it up to the teeth? I mean with 70% fuel the load is still 100% and 100% means "ok", doesn't it?

 

Because the moment your being shot at all those very heavy and very expensive weapons are going to need to go. Plus you shouldn't be able to carry 6 mavs+ a TGP to due the mav launch damaging it. I like 2 mavs (H or D), 6 GBU-12 and sometimes 2 GBU 38. I just wish we could have two GBU-12's on a rack. Looks so cool (and the extra two are a bit unnecessary). :thumbup: The GBU's can take out SHORAD if you fly at 15-18 thousand feet. And if you have proper SAM's there, why the hell have the A-10's turned up. Remember the gun can take out almost anything so the stores are mainly good at taking out the AD.

[Speed]

Remember the gun can take out almost anything

 

Not if you have a hard deck altitude of like 15k feet to avoid getting shot down.

[cichlidfan]

Come on man - 6 MAVs is awesome! And after air defenses are gone - bomb the shiet out of the enemy with a ton of bombs. :-/

 

I mean I got no idea of real life employments but WITH the A10's long loitering time, why not arm it up to the teeth? I mean with 70% fuel the load is still 100% and 100% means "ok", doesn't it?

 

Keep in mind also, in RL they have more than one A-10 to hang those weapons on.

 

Also, from what RL reports I have read, those pilots are getting rid of the dumb bombs first (less drag/weight = more ability to manuever/avoid threats) whenever possible.

[Bushmanni]

The AoA meter has three white lines at the outer edge. These mark sweet spots for maximum distance, maximum loiter and landing. Check the manual for more detailed description. I haven't been able to confirm if AoA alone is sufficient to determine optimum speed for loiter and distance but it will give a good estimate anyway.

[GGTharos]

It is. It's used this way in other aircraft as well, IIRC.

[Jimmytime]

I had a similar question about mavs but have since changed my load outs to usually 2 mavs and 4 bombs. Makes the A-10 handle like an A-10 rather than a 747 is one plus. I find more realistic is more better ;)

[Megagoth1702]

Thank you all for the replies!

 

I am surely not looking for arcade scores, haha. :) The single player missions are fairly easy after taking down the AA threats so when AA is down I just rather leave a battlefield CLEAN instead of leaving stuff to the blufor armor units. There are a shit ton of tanks to kill and since my wingman is useless and likes to get shot down I just let him engage the AA threats he knows about with mavs and then send him back to base to finish the rest myself. And I rather do less runs for more effect.

 

The argument that they don't send in 1 A10 for big missions is totally true. I wished I could play the mission with like... 5 other players, 3 flights of A10s. Then there would be no need for such hardcore loadouts!

 

I really understand all of your arguments, thank you a lot for your input!

Now we finished the weapon stuff, let's talk about throttle.

 

100% all the time?

 

EDIT:

 

AoA meter? Angle of attack?

 

There are sweet spots? Huh?

 

I surely missed something, let me open up that manual once again...

EDIT2: Ok I just read pretty much all I could find about angle of attack in the manual but I can't see a section on sweet spots. :-/

Edited November 1, 2011 by Megagoth1702

[arality]

Some charts to lookup, they should have your answers!

 

http://www.dcswiki.com/index.php?title=Climb_performance_(A-10)

 

Edit: link fixed sorry about that!

Edited November 2, 2011 by arality
Fixing Link

[kylania]

Some charts to lookup, they should have your answers!

 

http://www.dcswiki.com/index.php?title=Climb_performance_(A-10)

 

There needs to be An App for That™! :)

[FreeFall]

The AoA meter has three white lines at the outer edge. These mark sweet spots for maximum distance, maximum loiter and landing. Check the manual for more detailed description.

 

I think the manual tells almost nothing about AoA. :confused:

If someone has a good link about usage of Angle of Attack Indicator I would be pleased.

[cichlidfan]

There needs to be An App for That™! :)

 

For a blank page?

[Newt]

Perhaps one of these are what he/she meant to link to?

 

http://www.dcswiki.com/index.php?title=Climb_charts_%28A-10%29

 

http://www.dcswiki.com/index.php?title=Climb_performance_%28A-10%29

 

http://www.dcswiki.com/index.php?title=Category:Performance

http://www.dcswiki.com/index.php?title=Angle_of_attack_indicator_%28A-10%29

Edited November 2, 2011 by Newt

[kylania]

For a blank page?

 

Yeah, he left the trailing ) from the URL, just add that back and you'll see the charts. :)

[NoJoe]

The AoA meter has three white lines at the outer edge. These mark sweet spots for maximum distance, maximum loiter and landing.

 

... That is so freakin cool!! I had somehow missed this bit of info all this time. :doh:

 

Thanks for posting that, Bushmanni! :thumbup:

 

--NoJoe

[Wolf Rider]

AoA meter...

 

The top most (on righthand side) is for landing and it has three notches with a line joing them

23 ~ 21

 

The middle one, (again with three notches and joining line) is for range

20 ~ 18

 

The lower one, (with the three notches with joing lineagain) is for cruising

17 ~ 15

 

Then there is, working form right to left, the big long one with notches, all joined, dialling from 14 back to zero (going from memory here), is where the indicator sits going flat out (usually around 11 > 13)

 

Adjust throttle and trim to set the AoA needle within the desired usage

Edited November 2, 2011 by Wolf Rider

[FreeFall]

Wolf Rider, this document gives a little bit different figures. For example, for landing (seems like between 19 - 21):

 

http://www.dcswiki.com/index.php?title=Angle_of_attack_indicator_%28A-10%29

[Wolf Rider]

yes, I was going from memory (combined with a few Crownies :music_whistling: )... my bad

 

 

 

 

 

the indicator ranges remain the same though

 

 

21 ~ 19 - landing

 

18 (and a bit) ~ 17 max Range

 

16 (and a smaller bit) ~ 15 Cruising

 

then the 14 ~ 0 (going flat stick @ about 13 - 12 - 11 ish, depending on load out)

 

:)

Edited November 2, 2011 by Wolf Rider

[FreeFall]

Wolf, one more thing. You said the middle one is for range.

 

Wiki says "15.6 scale units - maximum range index". And the middle one would be for "maximum endurance".

[Wolf Rider]

max endurance = max range ?

Edited November 2, 2011 by Wolf Rider

[FreeFall]

I don't know anything. I'm a newbie. I just compare wiki and your info. And find some contradiction. Only a bit confused. :noexpression: