While south of Marj, I shot a HARM at Damascus Airbase, but got tagged with a hidden MANPAD. Remaining fuel poured overboard until the engine quit. Luckily, I was within gliding distance of Khalkhalah. Dropped my remaining stores and deadsticked it in.
I do love the Jug. Amazing ground pounder and high altitude fighter. Take it up to 35000ft and you become a God of the skies, no one will be able to touch you
My new go-to livery for the Viper. 149th FW Texas ANG commemorating the 70 year anniversary of the USAF in 2017. It traces its livery roots back to the 1940s when the P-47 was in service.
GBU-12, I took 4 of them on my right CFT, one GBU-10 on the center pylon, 6 AMRAAMs and two bags of fuel.
The nearest tanker racetrack was 160NM as well, but I did a quick calculation in my head and came to the conclusion that it would be plenty of fuel to get back. When I rolled out on the runway I had just over 2000lbs left in the tank. Fuel flow was about 8800lbs/h total for a flight time of a little over 20min (I think it was 23min or something) and you can descent in idle as well which safes fuel too.
She’ll go pretty far on the trip home. I found it easier to land and get her to stop when below 4,000lbs gas, so that’s usually my target. For a lot of my missions (Andersen-Farallon range-Andersen) I only take 50-60% fuel.
Notso left some useful fuel-saving AoA ranges in the discord I like to use too.
Max range <FL250 14.0
Max range >FL250 14.5
Max endurance <FL250 18.0
Max endurance >FL250 17.0