What does ground power allow you to bypass?

Might sound a silly question, but what does ground power allow you to bypass in the A10C or another aircraft for that matter? I'm new to this so want to learn all I can. Thanks!

In the A-10C; nothing, ground power is not needed

F-86 you need it to start AFAIK

Mig-21 and KA-50 ground power is not needed but recommended

I use it on the KA-50 to have all my system up and running by the time the engine are on.

Ground power on -> APU not needed.

In real life it's mostly used to preserve the APU (talking in general, not about USAF).

Edited November 21, 2015 by secret1962

In real life it's mostly used to preserve the APU.

 

Uhm no, the only time we don't use the APU is for ops checks and even that is only for certain situations. We don't do anything to "preserve" the APU.

In the A-10C; nothing, ground power is not needed

F-86 you need it to start AFAIK

Mig-21 and KA-50 ground power is not needed but recommended

I use it on the KA-50 to have all my system up and running by the time the engine are on.

 

Dang. I never actually considered that using ground power would let me set up all the systems in my KA50 while the engines are spooling up. This will save me some time. :D

Might sound a silly question, but what does ground power allow you to bypass in the A10C or another aircraft for that matter? I'm new to this so want to learn all I can. Thanks!

 

The biggest advantage to ground power is...it's silent! When teaching someone how to preflight you don't have to fight the noise of the Abu to be heard.

 

The second biggest advantage is its almost instantly available. Cuts down the time from spawn until the INS is aligned.

 

Just don't forget to have the crew chief remove it prior to Taxi...they get a little testy if ya drag them down the taxiway by their headset.

Sierra

wouldn't you need bleed air to get spool the engines up though? or purely electronics training? :)

I use it on the KA-50 to have all my system up and running by the time the engine are on.

Well TBH, I haven't used the GP at all lately. Get the engines running and warmed up, run the tests, switch on the generators and proceed from there with the systems - and you're all done in 10 minutes or less. OK, booting up & testing the systems off the GP may still shave off a minute or two, but I prefer my method regardless because it's simple and straightforward...

wouldn't you need bleed air to get spool the engines up though? or purely electronics training? :)

 

Well, yeah...I should have said you can do everything just short of starting engines.:music_whistling:

Might sound a silly question, but what does ground power allow you to bypass in the A10C or another aircraft for that matter? I'm new to this so want to learn all I can. Thanks!

I use GP all the time for start up. It allows you to power up the systems very quickly instead of waiting for APU or engine generator power, but this is just my preference and I know a lot of people don't like to use it. On the other hand, GP is very helpful when you come in to do a repair. You can shut the engines down and not have to worry about having to align or bring systems back up after the repair is completed. You just start your APU and then engines and you're back up and running again in very little time.

The ground power lets you start engines without running the APU. Electrical systems can work from the ground power without using fuel from engines or APU.

The ground power lets you start engines without running the APU. Electrical systems can work from the ground power without using fuel from engines or APU.

 

If it does it's a bug because engine start requires bleed air.

The ground power lets you start engines without running the APU. Electrical systems can work from the ground power without using fuel from engines or APU.

 

It lets to start engines without APU generator, but not without APU (at least in 1.5 open beta).

It's also for maintenance.

One other consideration - in real life you may have an inop apu. you could start the airplane up using ground power and a ground air cart. The ground air cart is not modeled in DCS of course.

 

In dcs i use ground power on the a-10 to get the alignment done a bit faster than waiting for the apu to spool. Also allows me to set everything else up for 2-3 minutes without listening to the apu whine.

I never use Ground power in the Shark. I can start her up in less time and be flying, than it takes for the HUD to show.