This afternoon we get a real treat as we climb into a high tech AT-6B Texan II for our trip to the bombing range. In our last mission (Training Mission #05) we explored the somewhat mysterious art of manual bombing. For sure it takes a lot of practice and a good bit of utilization of standard profiles or at least the ability to recalculate on the fly. For those (like me) that are a bit more mathematically challenged, the AT-6B will be a great platform.
On our mission to the range we’ll be carrying a pair of BDU-33/B and BDU-48A practice bombs as well as a couple of wing mounted fuel tanks.
Our official primary target (necessary for mission success) is the center fuel tank of the fuel farm at the range airfield. As a personal/accuracy goal, try to ONLY strike the center fuel tank and leave the other two standing. Secondary targets to practice your bombing accuracy will be the center aircraft pad on the east side of the airfield (a static drone aircraft should be there) and the two fuel tanker trucks in the convoy at the north end of the airfield. Again, attempt to only strike the two tankers and leave the rest of the convoy untouched.
Departing our airbase in the heavily modified AT-6B by FastCargo based on the model by Dels that we’ve seen in our previous missions (and a nod to Dave for contributing as well!).
The cockpit is more modern looking with nice displays that present the information in a bit more of an easily readable format.
And for our flying enjoyment – this version of the T-6 has a HUD!
Once again it is worth noting that a substantial power reduction can reduce your fuel flow significantly without much performance loss (20-30 knots). Here we’ve dropped our fuel flow from 617 lbs/hr to 428 lbs/hr and we are only going slightly slower.
Approaching the range we can see our target area out of the left side of the cockpit. The 3-tank fuel farm is located on the northwest side of the airstrip. We are targeting the middle tank.
Overflying the field at about 15,000’ we roll in to the left and pull our nose down onto the target before rolling upright.
You’ll notice that we have a nice CCIP piper that will float up onto the HUD. Compared to manual bombing the CCIP “put the dot on the dot” is a million times more easy to utilize.
As the dot crosses the base of the tank, press and hold the pickle button and keep the aircraft stabilized.
Shack! The small marker charge in the BDU-33/B is enough to detonate the fuel tank. A good idea to assure you only hit the center tank is to fly your attack perpendicular to the line of tanks so that your bomb won’t accidentally fall short or long and hit the other tanks.
After climbing up and away to reset we can roll in on our second target. There should be three static drone aircraft parked in the dirt on the east side of the runway – choose the middle one and make a run on it using your remaining free fall BDU-33/B.
As you close on the target the CCIP piper will start rising up the HUD. Get your steering set early to assure a wings level release.
Is it close enough?? With the small blast radius of the practice bomb you’ll have to get pretty close to get a target damaged.
Boom! Close enough!
The last targets we’ll strike are the two fuel tankers in the static convoy on the northwest side of the airfield.
It is worth noting that the AT-6B is very quick to accelerate in a dive once you cross the threshold of about 280 knots. Judicious use of the speedbrake is necessary to prevent an out of control airspeed trend.
On a normal attack we’d probably want to run in parallel to the convoy formation to spread our ordnance over the maximum number of vehicles. We are targeting the two tankers in the middle of the line so we’ll have to be very careful on our release that we don’t go short or long. Since we’ve used up our “slick” bombs we will now be using our BDU-48A retarded bombs that allow for a shallow delivery at low altitude.
For maximum accuracy in all bombing modes I’d recommend using the narrowest field of view setting (with the highest zoom) which will allow you to more precisely set your piper on the target.
Release! – Now hold our breath and see where it lands!
Boom! – That looks promising. We have to wait a few seconds to see what exactly got blown up…
It looks pretty good..! I sure wouldn’t stay seated in the cab of my truck if I saw THAT in my rear view mirror!
Once the smoke clears it is apparent we struck the farther truck (the one furthest west)…
With so much smoke obscuring the target area I come back around and make the final attack run perpendicular to the convoy to give me a shot at seeing the target tanker.
Pickle one last time..!
I think that will work…
The second tanker erupts in a fireball and our range time is done.
Obviously CCIP bombing is far easier than manual bombing. I’m sure there is a lot more satisfaction to running the numbers and adjusting for different speeds, angles, and winds with manual bombing, but there is also a good bit of satisfaction of seeing things go up in flames more often..!
Unfortunately I lose 20 minutes of flying out of my Logbook because I accidentally hit ESC which is a bad habit carried over from another sim but which quickly drops you out of a mission in SF2.. But the rest of the stats are valid.
Fun training mission and a great flying airplane. Looking forward to our next hop where we will look at some additional weapons delivery methods.
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