Angle of Attach

I'm new to DCS and FC3 and I'm trying to fly the A10A. It seems that the Angle of Attack is very high, even in straight and level flight, and as soon as I try to maneuver I get an accelerated stall almost right away. Obviously the faster I'm going the longer it takes for stall onset but this thing is handling like it's a million pounds. I've experimented with 50% fuel and no weapons but it still seems to always be close to stall. Is there something I'm doing wrong? I've also verified in axis tune that my x52 throttle gets full range so it seems as if it's not a throttle problem.

oh. and I guess I can't spell "Attack"

at what altitude are you?

How much speed did you have at that altitude?

When lightly loaded, the A-10 should turn like mad. Make sure you're maneuvering above 200 knots with flaps fully retracted.

Keep in mind that the A-10 is rather pitch sensitive. At times, half back stick can result in a stall.

Also, what indications are you getting of an accelerated stall? Chopped/solid tone, or wing drop?

Ok. I've got some detailed info to hopefully get to the bottom of this. I loaded up Gory Gori mission on FC3 with the A10A. Unlimited Fuel, Unlimited Ammo.

The minute the mission starts I'm at:

Angle of Attack 15.5

Holding level flight AOA soon goes to 19 and settles in there.

I go Full Throttle on my x52. Looking down @ the thrust levers I see the large black handle attached to a stem which goes through a slot into the aircraft. When my x52 is full forward the lever/stem goes into the aircraft slot about 60% down the slot towards aircraft forward. I would think it would travel down the slot to the full forward position but I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like @ Max throttle. I keep my x52 full throttle for the following:

In straight and level flight my max airspeed settles in around 305kts level @ 2500' with 10 degrees nose up pitch.

30 degree bank AOA is 20 @ 280 kts

60 degree bank level flight 240 kts

Now I do a left crank and bank and keep altitude level. @ about 3g's I start to get the intermittent stall aural indication. It soon goes solid sounding. Within 5 seconds all my speed has bleed away I'm @ 150 kts pretty much stalling.

Now I exit the mission and go to the Controls option. Under axis commands>Throttle common>axis tune> I move x52 forward and aft and it goes from corner to corner. Top right to bottom left. Seems to me that its working fine so I don't know why it feels like in the game I'm not getting full throttle.

This just doesn't seem right. It's like the whole time I'm flying this A10A in the battlefield it's always just dying to stall at any attempt to turn and flying as if it's very underpowered. I've heard there's a way to pull up the joystick axis graphic in flight but can't find the command. Maybe that might help me determine if my throttle is not going full forward in the game?

check with rctrl+enter to see the current input of your controls when you are flying

Right ctrl enter brings up control indicator.

First: is the AoA coming from the cockpit gauge or external view? I'm assuming the cockpit? It usually reads about 10 degrees high because it's showing "units" and not degrees.

Assuming you're at low altitude (less than 10k ft) you should easily be able to reach 320 knots even with full fuel (but no stores)

I pulled up control indicator and it shows throttle going full forward. Back in the game now with unlimited fuel turned off as well as unlimited weapons.

No change in aircraft handling.

I went full power and climbed. @ 240kts I was only able to get 2,500 fpm climb with 15 degrees of pitch (On the ADI) AOA was showing 20.

So I'm getting full thrust from my flight controls

Engine gauges indicated 90 percent (pretty close to full power)

Fuel gauges were showing 5.5k per side

This thing still seems way under powered/ not handling properly. any suggestions? can someone try this mission and see if they get the same handling results? I'm at a loss. It seems impossible to fly this mission and be an effective ground attack aircraft when every time I turn or climb this thing wants to stall.

2500 fpm sounds pretty reasonable, actually.

Are you absolutely certain you didn't just overestimate the A-10's performance? It does have a pretty low thrust to weight ratio and requires good energy management for maneuvering aggressively. It's definitely not a fighter.

What is your payload? How does the performance compare to the -1 charts? Are you experiencing under-performance compared to -1?

I haven't looked at -1 charts. Where can I find them? I may have been over estimating the performance. It's surprising to me though that the airplane handles like that at max weight. I actually have a couple thousand hours flying the Canadair regional jet CRJ 200. It has the same engine as the A-10 except it's derated and it has the same Max gross weight. I feel like I got better performance out of the regional jet and those engines are derated. I did go into the mission editor and cut the fuel down to 25% and removed all of the armaments. I got to climb rate of 4500 ft./m at 240 kts. So it did handle much better when I lighten up the load. I've seen videos of this thing cranking in banking all of the battlefield so maybe I thought they could perform a little bit better than it does.

You may be over-loading the aircraft. Your drag in the CRJ is also significantly less compared with an A-10 sporting armaments, and I think the SL thrust is about the same ... try taking 2 AGM-65 and 4 500lbs bombs, no more.

You can find the -1 here:

http://www.476vfightergroup.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=42

Just wanted to give an update to all who have helped. It's me. I just overestimated the crank-ability of this thing. Being more gentle on the stick and avoiding 20 degree pitch and 90 degree banks have avoided the accelerated stalls I've been getting. Now, unless I've built up at least 260 kts, I keep banks to 2g and avoid pointing skyward and it conserves energy much better. I'm four missions in to the campaign and have been pretty effective at flying this thing. I think I was just used to flying fighters from my old falcon 3.0 days. Still have much to learn getting my feet wet with FC3 and DCS but I'm having a blast playing it with rift. Thanks again!

Great! Glad it was resolved! :)

I've seen videos of this thing cranking in banking all of the battlefield so maybe I thought they could perform a little bit better than it does.

yeah real warloads for the a-10 are like 2 mavs 4 bombs and a hydra pod or less, not being ridiculous and carrying 4 triple ejectors and 3 cbus.