I've been looking for documentation regarding the climb angle and speed of departure after takeoff, but my Google search netted dead sites and every single link that had the information I wanted was "404 not found".

I know that TO speed is generally around the 150kts mark. A long time ago I read that departure speed is somewhere around the 350kts mark. What about angle of climb? 10 degrees? 15?

A lot of what you ask is based on the loadout of the aircraft. A heavily loaded aircraft will more likely have to rotate at 180 versus 150. Likewise, loadout dictates climbout attitude as well, as a lightly loaded plane will be able to make a more aggressive climb. Similarly, a heavily loaded aircraft will need a higher angle of attack in order to maintain altitude than a lighter loaded aircraft, and this applies even moreso in a climb. You need to balance the AoA you can maintain with your Flight Path Marker staying above the horizon (indicating a climb).

Your best bet is to use WDP. If you put in an accurate loadout, it will give you rotation and climb speeds. From there you can set your AoA to match airspeed, then select autopilot attitude mode.

Surely there's a standard degree of climb for you to put you're velocity vector on, no? I understand that aircraft weight will have an effect on AoA, but a 10 degree climb is still a 10 degree climb no matter what your AoA is. My question is more specifically on the degree of climb, not the AoA.

There are some climb/optimum cruise tables in the main checklist (\Docs\Checklists & Cockpit Diagrams\F-16 Checklists\Main Checklists.PDF) that will probably be of interest to you. They state that the best rate of climb Vy is about 420–440 knots IAS for all altitudes and configurations. I haven't tested their accuracy.

From experience: Fuel efficient climb at around 320 to 350 knts indicated. Steeper down low ,shallow up high. Use Buster (full military). As lead for humans pull the power back a litte so you wingies have some excess power without using Afterburners

NEVER ever let the speed drop below 300 knts. The F16 does not like that.

Best energy gain at full ab mach 0.9 below 30k ft andf 550 knts idicated above 30k ft (supersonic path)

Check Shaw the appendix

I agree. I'll set my power a little lower than buster so my wingmen can catch up, and I will adjust my pitch to maintain 330 knots. Definitely never let your airspeed get lower than 300 when you are loaded as all you do is create a lot of drag. More than 4-5 degrees of AOA is slow and inefficient.

You are surely mistaken. You might set a pitch range (i.e. 10-15 degrees) at rotation and maintain that to a certain speed so pilots don't get too crazy with their initial climb and tailstrike or stall. That is pitch angle by the way, not AOA or putting your velocity vector at a certain angle, it's putting the lateral axis (nose) at that angle. The specific angle depends what aircraft you're flying, configuration, how quickly you want to get away from the ground, etc. After that you fly a climb airspeed and set your pitch to attain that airspeed. There may be gouge numbers for pitch attitude that correspond to the climb schedule airspeed, but you don't set a pitch angle and just fly whatever speed it gives you; you fly an airspeed and adjust your pitch to maintain it.

So if there is no standard speed/angle of departure, how the hell is your wingman supposed to be able to catch up to you without telling him exactly what angle your climbing and exactly what speed your going?

Easy. He can use a combination of his HSD, radar, and eyes. But, as a wingman, it is very helpful if the lead jet communicates his departure profile and any necessary changes made to the profile while in flight. It is very easy to say "I'm setting power at 95% and adjusting pitch for 330kts." Done

Or lead and wingman brief the climbout procedure before takeoff and practice the same procedure every time, then there's no need to yap about heading, altitude, speed, etc. In fingertip, if lead makes only smooth attitude and power changes, #2 should be able to stay in formation without being notified of every change. A quiet formation is a good one.

Lead to Wingman: "The only thing I want to hear from you is '2', and 'Lead, you're on fire'."

In multiplayer during takeoff all you hear is people requesting and sharing climb and speed - and steerpoint selection from leader.
Standard for us is 5 degrees climb making that less communicated.

Sometimes i announce a "speed profile" such as afterburner until 400kts, straight ahead 5 degrees and at 400 burner off turning into stpt 2 maintaining 400 kts climbing for angels 22.
(Then fence in when #4 catch up)

When seperation is more than 10 miles it's better to shut the fark up and read data on HSD as cane says, try to keep calls over radio to a minimum (friday beer flights tend to override that rule).

Yet again, I try to avoid wingleader - too much talk over the radio for me

Did you even read the post directly above this quote? I said you typically fly an AIRSPEED on climbout. Try reading what people are saying before asking questions that have already been answered. In real life it is like this:



EinsteinEP nailed it. Brief the procedures, smooth stick, shut up, no problem. The pitch angle DOESN'T MATTER!!!!! If you are staying in position you will automatically have the pitch angle you need.

In the 47th (part of the 72nd VFW), the SOP (standard operating procedures) are 12 deg climb (gun cross) and 350knt rejoin @ 5000ft after take off referencing steerpoint 2. Takeoff speed is based on weight and rotate speed is based on whether it's a full afterburner T/O or Mil power T/O.

Yes I did read. And it didn't make sense to me, hence why I was asking a question. And I prefer answers without an attitude, Mr. Hot Sh*t. Not all of us are knowledgeable on the subject, or real pilots, so cool down and be more specific.

Einstein EP: thanks. That was the exact answer I was looking for.

Ok, ok. Calm down dude. Sorry that my answer wasn't clear the first time, I should have been more specific. It just looked like you didn't even read the post directly above your reply and that is a little irritating to me. I hope you now understand what I was trying to say after Einstein posted, his quick explination was pretty much spot on with "real life" military formation flying.

There are a few ways you can close in on lead on initial form up (if you didn't do a section takeoff):

1. Lead can fly the normal climbout speed at a lower power setting and allow the flight to catch up. This is often done when there won't be many turns made in the flight path. The rest of the flight will fly with normal climbout power and use that extra power to increase speed and catch up.

2. If Lead is making turns on climbout (which happens more often than not), then the flight can form up by simply turning inside of the Leads turn (called "lead pursuit"). In this way, you can fly at the same speed as Lead and still close in on him.

I hope that makes sense to you and helps you in your formation work.

I'm starting to hate the internet--it's to easy to miscommunicate/misunderstand.

Yeah it's starting to make sense now. I still haven't been able to actually try it in multiplayer (as I can't get MP to work, which is a completely different thread). I didn't realize how the pitch angle thing worked until I tried flying formation with AI.

To be honest, it's easier to do in real life than in the sim. It's especially difficult with AI Leads. Hope you get the MP issues worked out so you can at least sim with real people.

Yeah AI have a habit of slamming on the airbrakes without telling you.