Mission Download: TM05

In our last mission, we went to the Target Range to practice with our guns and rockets. This afternoon's mission will look to get us a little familiar with the most difficult task short of dogfighting: manual bombing. There is nothing that I can write that can give you any better guidance than what has already been written by the masters of all things air combat related: Andy Bush and Leon "Badboy" Smith.

I'd recommend that you start your reading on bombing ballistics with Andy Bush's awesome article Air to Ground Basics Part I. You'll find no better explanation of the why's and how's of manual bombing there.

I'd follow up that article with a Strike Fighters specific weapons delivery article collaboratively written by Andy Bush and Leon Smith titled Techniques for Weapons Delivery in SFP1 Since my time and resources are limited right now, I'll admit that my technique isn't the slightest bit smart and I'd encourage you all to read and apply the information in the articles above. My technique consists of a lot of guesswork and corrections applied to errors rather than good arithmetic and rules of thumb.

Our mission for today will be to take our load of small target practice bombs and try to get hits on a missile carrier truck located at the center of the nuclear bomb target range.





For our mission you should load a pair of BDU-33/B Practice Bombs (low drag) and a pair of BDU-48A Practice Bombs (high drag). These small bombs allegedly act in a manner similar to the real high explosive bombs but weigh a fraction of the real thing and consist of a small charge that sets off a smoke marker to allow the range scorer to spot the impact location. I'd also load a pair of 2.5" rockets as a backup in case none of your four bombs actually detonate the target, otherwise the mission will be a failure (unless you want to go back and refly it until you actually destroy the target with your practice bombs).



Since all our stations are taken up by ordnance on this flight, we won't have the luxury of external fuel tanks. Careful attention to our flight path and fuel burn will therefore be required. The recommended enroute altitude is 15,000' today to reduce our fuel burn and give us plenty of altitude for our first bombing run at the range.



You'll find that you can reduce your torque setting significantly in the T-6 and save a lot of fuel while only losing 20 or 30 knots of speed. Here we are at 60% power but still managing a respectable 210 knots while only burning 240 lbs. per hour of fuel.



Under the high overcast we can see our weapons loadout slung under the wings.



Approaching the target area from the south I'd recommend offsetting from the target slightly otherwise you will not be able to see the target or the concentric circles of the nuclear bombing range over the nose. It would be better to be able to see the target area out of the forward quarter of the canopy to better judge your distance and to time your attack maneuver.





You'll notice that when you select air-to-ground bombs the gunsight reticle automatically depresses slightly. The two aforementioned articles give good information on why that is desirable and they also explain how to best utilize the reticle and "mil settings" to more accurately place your bombs on target reliably.



I've reached the roll in point for my target so I flip the airplane over on its back and pull the nose down toward the target while rolling back the throttle and thumbing out the speedbrakes to keep the speed at a sane level.





For my first run with low drag bombs I choose a steep attack angle and settle the reticle just past where the target is (purely a guesstimation).



Unfortunately I jerk the stick a bit as I'm trying to refine my lineup resulting in a late "pickle" and my first bomb sails over the target landing long. The smoke charge fires and now I have a good reference point from which to make corrections.



Resetting to the south I come back around for a second pass at the target.





My second pass is awful as well and I end up sending the bomb slightly long and right of the target. My excuse is my requirement to hit the (p)ause key frequently to take screenshots, which often causes me to lose the proper stick position necessary for a stabilized approach. At least, that's my story!

With two smoke plumes obscuring the target area I switch to my high drag BDU-48A bombs which are aerodynamically retarded to make them lose energy quickly allowing the strike aircraft to escape the frag pattern even from very low altitudes. I fly up the nuclear range run-in line at 300' and 280 knots.



Crossing over the target I wait for the target to kiss the bottom of the reticle and hit the pickle button hoping I've estimated the proper delivery timing.







This time my release was premature and the bomb falls harmlessly short by at least 50 meters.



I reverse course once more, staying at low altitude, and peer over my shoulder at the 3 smoking bomb impact sites that mark my incompetence.



With a good idea of the adjustment I need to make I line-up once again on the run-in line and match the parameters of my first run precisely: 300' and 280 knots. This time I wait a heartbeat longer, hit the pickle button and hold my breath.





Boom! I don't know if the bomb was short, long, or dead on, but even the small practice round can detonate volatile components such as fuel trucks and fueled missiles.

With the mission accomplished I turn my attention to my dwindling fuel supply. I climb rapidly to 15,000' to reach a better fuel burning cruise altitude and point my nose toward home base. It is interesting to compare the two power settings and fuel burn rates (left and right corners) and see that reducing power to 60% is a very good trade off for airspeed when one looks at the much lower fuel flow rate at the reduced power setting.



Somehow when I get back to base I manage to damage the aircraft (to hard a hit on the nosewheel?) leaving my plane smoking, but with no jeopardy to the mission status.



The mission is a success.







I feel that there is not much purpose to me trying to cram and then regurgitate information on manual bombing since the top is so well and professionally covered by Andy Bush and Leon Smith. This mission is quite easy once you get the hang of bombing parameters. Just know that you can use the 2.5" rockets as a last ditch resort to getting a mission success if you can't manage to get those piddly practice bombs to hit close enough to the target to detonate it.

BeachAV8R

Now I'm seriously thinking about getting one of the SF2 series game.

Great AAR, thanks!

Fantastic reading!

Funnily enough, after having flown SF2 exclusively for the last year or so I decided to get FC2 when I discovered your excellent Su-25T training missions (which I'm still going through). We seem to have crossed paths!

I have to say SF2 is the perfect sim to get you back into flying after having a kid. It's only now that my son is 3 that I have time for something a little bit more complex, but SF2 still gets stick time for a quick fix.

Many thanks for all these articles. You cannot imagine how much I enjoy them!

Great read!
I absolutely love the SF series, but even after hours of play, manual bombing is still a be-otch. My only form of success comes when I'm at about 500 ft, zooming in straight and level, and rippling 3-4 bombs in a single pass. Its not pretty, but most of the time it works.

I'm guessing that isn't so far off from realistic Matt.. Even though straight and level might not be ultra realistic, I'm thinking that rippling most of the bombs off at once is. Typically, in combat it is "one pass - haul ass"... Unless you are doing CAS or something like that I suppose..

I'm definitely having some fun with SF2..

And isn't that the most important thing?

I find SF2 in all its shades brilliant for that quick fix - but that is also exactly why I haven't read that piece by Andy Bush about AG ballistics - for me it would defeat the object of 'quick fix'.

I read the first paragraph or two, but then had to go off and do something else.

Not enough hours...

One thing you quickly kind of learn is how easy it is to go in to shallow. If you try for a nice, steep dive angle you can usually get hits with the pipper on the target. From reading stuff like "When Thunder Rolled" etc, it was more of a hand-eye practice sort of thing, not so scientific in application, though of course that was part of training.

It is like a dream when you get to fly with CCIP, like with A-7E. That thing will carry close to 30 bombs or so, and you can drop with pin-point accuracy, you can really rack up the kills with it.

It almost feels like cheating when you get a crate with CCIP after dozens of missions with 'iron' sights.

FH

For noobs who don't have the practice bombs in their game (like me) I got mine by installing KillerBee's Ordnance Workshop II here:

http://combatace.com/files/file/10602-mgunnys-ordnance-shop-ii-for-sf2/

I downloaded the mod, ran the .exe (I installed the files in a temporary folder first) made a backup copy of my mods folder just in case (although I've had no problems so far) then swapped all of KillerBee's folders into my active mods folder. Ran the game... bada bing bada bang there were the practice bombs, and a lot more besides, ready to use in the loadout window. Brilliant!

Later on, I'll try making some custom asymmetric loadouts in the loadout.ini file, and try setting up some trim controls too (there is more info about how to do this at the CombatAce forums).

Hope it helps someone!
Kiwi