posted 08-24- 07:55 PM               

Anyway, I remembered Pete saying how "light" the A10 felt that he had a test of for me, and in maney ways he was right, so I toned down the controls.. until Tom mailed me and we talked about the handling of the A10, I asked him if he would mind me posting some of his mail and he don't mind at all, so here are some excerpts so that when the A10 is released people wont think it's just to manouverable/agile.

Hi Nat,

I recently dusted off SDOE after getting a new PIII 500 and I am
hooked. I follow the posts on the FS info center and noticed you mentioned
the A-10.
I flew the "Warthog" (aka Thunderbolt II!) a big chunk of my adult
life. Although the aircraft limitations are listed, in my experience, they
are mostly ultra conservative. I have pointed that beast at the ground many
times and 'crossed the barber poles' on the airspeed indicatorwith no
serious repercussions. The G limits are very important and if they are
exceeded the aircraft must be carefully inspected for structural damage in
the event of an over G, and external stores make this particularly
important, but as long as recovery from a high speed dive is kept within G
tolerance, there should be no problem.
Anyway, I have never heard of anybody being able to pull the wings off
and A-10, ever. I was part of that particular Air Force community for many
years and have never heard of any Warthog lost to structural failure. The
aircraft is built like a tank. Loss of control might result from
compressability at high airspeeds but I have honestly never heard of
anything structural separating from and A-10 unless it happened to tie (or
exceed!) the record for low altitude flight. Also, even though the GAU-8
30mm is an awesome weapon, any effects of "recoil" on airspeed are only
subjects of humor (the warthog has a calendar instead of an airspeed
indicator!!...NOT TRUE!). Although the kinetic energy of the 30mm round
fired by the A-10 is roughly twice that of a conventional 20mm round, any
effects of recoil are just not detectible to me. The barrel rotates but
there is no physical recoil to the weapon. The sensation within the cockpit
is very stable and solid and even though the vibration of the cannon can be
felt, with a little practice, the pipper (or gun cross) is easily kept where
you want it. Keep in mind, I would consider a two second burst fairly
long. Multiple target strafe is an event in which all A-10 pilots must beco
me and remain proficient and it would typically be two short one second
bursts on two separate targets and a hard breakaway (inside 2000 ft on the
gunnery range was a foul...which would be considered unsatisfactory). I
have on occasion held down the trigger on a strafe pass to fire out all
bullets and the recoil is honestly not noticible under any conditions I
experienced. The laws of physics demand that there be some effect, but it
is, in reality, small enough for me to never have noticed it (and yes, I did
try to notice it early on!).

Nat,

I would be glad to give you input on the A-10. As you may have noticed the aircraft is very nimble. It could use a little more thrust, but then who couldn't? The performance of the aircraft with a combat load is more than adequate. Early on, there was speculation about cleaning up the airframe with fairings and other minor changes to the airframe to improve aerodynamic drag characteristics but it just never got beyond the drawing board. Over the sixteen years I flew it there were many dramatic improvements to its capabilities with regard to navigation, weapons delivery systems, air to air capability, communications and electronic counter measures. Extensive upgrades and mods continue to this day and one of my buddies who is still in the squadron I retired from (104th Fighter Squadron, MdANG) told me that current plans are to maintain the A-10 in its present USAF role until beyond 2010. Nothing so far has made it go faster though!
Energy management is a real consideration at higher altitudes but, down in its element, manueverability is the A-10's greatest asset and, properly flown, energy is not a serious problem. A lightweight A-10 can put on quite and airshow. Most weapons deliveries are at indicated airspeeds of between 325 and 350 knots (1nm = 1.15 sm) so that would equate to between about 375 and 400 mph indicated airspeed. The only times I have really felt energy deprived in the warthog have been in max gross takeoff weight with lots of drag (typically two 600 gal external fuel tanks) configured for an ocean crossing or other long deployment in a low or no-threat, non-tactical environment.

So this bulky Hog is actually very agile, and I think I've got it right. The model is now out with Tom for testing and I'll alter the FM to the best of his knowledge and my ability, and WW has a copy that he's kindly mapping for me since Max is giving me grief again. Currently I'm building the cockpit, I could produce a generic jet fighter pit, but I'm going the try and get this as accurate as I can, so the pit may take as long as the whole a/c itself, but hey.. who said we should build these things fast, you guys love the anticipation right!??

~Nat~

Thanks Tom

posted 08-24- 09:31 PM               

Freaking cool man.

Great find for you and all of us Nat.

I Love the plane.

Tom, Sign up and get into some of the FM discussion (and more

posted 08-25- 05:19 AM               

just goes to show you ...... hey can be lods of fun (sorry..pun waiting to happen )!

Strafing the *!#$ out of everthing in sight with the 30mm, and bombing anything left behind! This A10 is great! It can even dogfight a little !

Has anyone built a SAM missile yet?

p.s. Can't wait to see the DM on this one...they can take a lot of stick and keep flying. Ideal for damage effects !!!!

posted 08-25- 12:15 PM               

Hmm, I wonder if we could do some sort of sam. That would kick major ass.