Training Day 3 - Airplane limits, Touch-and-Go landings, Landing on one engine
October 3rd, 2008, 07:00

"Mission:
Take off from Krasnodar and navigate to waypoint 2. Do a touch-and-go at Maykop airbase and navigate to waypoint 3 which lies over a sparsely populated area. Climb to 3000 m and test the limits of your aircraft:
- Stall speed
- Maximum safe speed
- Maximum sustainable climb rate
- Turn and roll rate
- Maximum G maneuvers
- Inflight engine relight
- Aerobatics (Split-S, Loopings, Barrel Rolls)

Surviving this, return to Krasnodar. Close to the Initial Approach Fix, shut down one engine and land your plane.

Loadout:
No weapons. 100% Fuel and 2 external fuel tanks.

Notes:
The weather has cleared up again today. Be careful not to fly your plane over its limits - there is a high risk of crashing if you try to do too much. Nevertheless, try to get a feel for the Su-25 at its limits. In combat situations, this knowledge will serve you well and give you a much higher confidence in your ability to fly the plane."

So today I get to play with the Su-25. I've already noticed that she handles pretty well, there is a lot of power in those twin engines. It will be interesting to see how she behaves at her limits. While I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to handle her, I appreciate the wisdom of sending me off over some dead neck of the woods. But I've always brought the plane back so far... hopefully it won't be different today.

It's a beautiful fall morning as I take off from Krasnodar and blast into the sky


I am to do a touch and go at Maykop and then head off to the north-east - nothing there but fields, farmland and the Maykop bombing range. I quickly check my map and then set a course for Maykop at 1700 m and 700 km/h


Looking out towards the north I blink into the rising sun and again thank my fortunes for not being stuck behind a desk somewhere. What could be better than this:


Going 700 km/h, I quickly reach the IAF for Maykop. Yesterdays navigation lessons pay off today, I effortlessly intercept the ILS and turn right onto final:


The landing is a bit wobbly, I almost dump the plane before the runway threshold. I guess its easy to become overconfident in the Su-25, being as mild mannered as she is. Nevertheless I salvage the approach and set her down on the numbers. Then I roll for a hundred meters or so before I give full throttle again. I see the faces in the tower watch me as I blast down the runway and rise into the air again:


On my route north-east I spot two dots in the distance and a few seconds later I recognize a flight of MiG-23s returning from target practice. Not too successful it seems, as they still have their full load of bombs under the wings
#

Then I reach my final waypoint. I am at 5000m going 600km/h and I decide to test the maximum speed first. I tighten my ejection seat belt, take a deep breath and advance the throttle all the way while settling into a shallow dive. The needle shudders and then creeps clockwise... 650km/h, 680km/h, 710km/h. At 730km/h the plane begins to shake but I press on... 750, 800, 850km/h. Violent spasms buffet the plane as I hit 890 km/h and I notice that my control input is very much reduced and dampened, the plane reacts verrrry slowly to elevator changes. I am not there yet though - I scream downwards, now at 3000m altitude and hitting 900, 950, 970 km/h. I briefly see the needle at 980km/h and that is when I notice that I cannot control the pitch anymore


The plane doesn't pitch up and I'm thundering towards the ground at 980km/h. Not good, I need to slow her and do it quickly. Everything becomes a shaking, thundering blur, I notice the nose drop a little more as I frantically pop my speedbrakes, hoping they won't be ripped from the airframe. I pull the stick towards me as hard as I can, see the ground rushing up and then I can slooowly, slowly feel the nose rise. At 200 meters and 870km/h, almost blacking out from 8Gs I manage to pull her up at seemingly the last moment:



That was close. A little too close. I climb back to a comfortable 3000m and take a few minutes to catch my breath. I'm not done here though, so I pull back the throttle and try to go as slow as possible, to figure out the -25s behaviour near stall speeds. No flaps or brakes for this one - at 300km/h it becomes hard to maintain level flight, I can hardly keep the nose at the horizon.


Slower and slower I go, again the now familiar shake of the airframe... 280, 270, 260 km/h. My AoA indicator screams and yells at me to drop the nose but I try to keep her level as long as possible - and then, at 250km/h I cannot hold her any longer and she simply drops the nose down and picks up speed again.


I am pleasantly surprised at the planes reaction there... no nasty slipping, no violent stall, just a quiet sigh and a self-stabilizing drop of the nose, really a very stable platform.

I try a looping next, but that is no easy feat. She has such a huge turn radius going upwards and slows down too quickly - at 70° pitch it becomes impossible to keep the plane aligned and it just slips away over one side, only to recover a few hundred meters below where I started the climb. I give up on the looping and start a Split-S from 4400 meters.


Much groaning and shaking and pulling later I level her out at 2500m and 850km/h.


The Su-25 definitely is no fun to fly in the vertical plane, it really feels like wrestling a huge chunk of iron into submission. For today, I leave it at that and postpone any other stunts planned. I fear that I've manhandled her enough for one day, I don't want to see the wings fall off on the next maneuver I try. So I head back to Krasnodar where the final challenge for today awaits - landing on one engine.

15 km out from the airport I say a quick prayer and then turn off the right engine. I watch the RPM and temperature needles drop to zero and immediately notice two things - less thrust and strog yaw towards the right.


I trim to the left and apply more throttle to the remaining engine and after a few miles I think I have the plane balanced out again. It feels like walking on eggshells though, I am very gently with the controls and slowly ease her towards the runway.


Thank God!


Safe and sound and with an intact plane I touch down at Krasnodar and quickly taxi to my hangar. I get get out with only slightly shaking knees - thankfully Kapitan Shugarov is there, smiling and holding out hundred grams of ice cold Gzhelka. "To number 93" he says. "May she always return as she did today!".

I drink to that

-- Hobbes57

Great!

Beautifully written and excellent screenshots! You really captured the "fun factor" of this sim. I give it a "two thumbs up!" Well done.

Very nice AAR, sir! Even with no bullets flying around, the tension level of this mission is high!

- Obelix

Great stuff. I'm really enjoying these AARs.

Me too! Well done and keep em coming.

Good job so far !

That was really good reading and catching aswell... Good job

Staffan

Looking forward to the next one!

Love reading these. A question: do these training missions come with the game or do you create them yourself?

Nice job. I love reading training mission reports.. I like that there is a plan to the whole flight..

BeachAV8R

Great AAR. Captures a lot of the flying experience. Loved the stall characteristics.

Excellent AAR, lots of fun to read. I always found the Su-25 a handful to land, especially in a crosswind. I remember once, I got on the ground, had the chute deployed, and the freaking wind dragged my tail off sideways and off the runway.

Course, I find everything that becomes airborne difficult to land, so there ya go.

Great screenshots, by the way.