Ive never ever thought of this. Does it make a noticeable difference
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Yes! Blue Angels always flew with slats locked. When you are close to the speed/AoA where the slats constantly extend and retract, it really messes with you precise flying.
Really useful feature and glad they added this. Look in the kneeboard manual for the key combo
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I am going to try that this afternoon. Nice one 
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On the F-14 Tomcast, one of the Top Gun instructors that flew the A-4 explained that the slats would often come out asymmetrically (not at the same time) and cause an uncommanded roll, sometimes opposite to the desired direction. Considering the roll rate of something like 720 degrees/sec, it made for some unpredictable and exciting BFM. 
ETA: His trick was to pull āhardā to get them out together, rather than easing into a pull. Later on some aggressor squadrons pinned the slats like the Blue Angels did.
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Yeah I mean, whatās the price to pay for locked slats? A small % of speed?
I guess the tradeoff is totally worth it.
I remember reading though that at least some of the fighter jocks at NWS (Hawk Smith among them) thought welding the slats shut hobbled the Scooter, so he actually ordered it undone when he was in command of Top Gun, as he thought it was leading to less effectual training. Which then led to a lot of surprised F-14 pilots.
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Iād say a little less lift at high AoA, thatās what slats are there for.
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Oh wait, you guys mean locked SHUT, I thought locked OPEN.
AHHAHAHAH 
Sorryā¦
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I was wondering what you were on about thought i had missed something 
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Well you met me, you should know Iām not a smart manā¦ 
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You know that isnt true, besides, i was fully prepared to bow to your knowledge if you hadnt admitted wrong lol
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Darn, that was a hill I could have died on and took you with me!
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LOL!!
I too would love to know what kind of impact it made on a lightly loaded A-4 IRL. Considering the Scooterās strengths, I would imagine they would be a desirable performance enhancer.
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I know right?!
I wonder if it can be moddedā¦
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Great information. I need to lock the slats until needed, thanks.
To be 100% clear, the slats are not locked through any mechanism that can be controlled in the cockpit. Rather, the ground crew can put some pins and screws in to keep the slats in place. This means if you decide to lock them, which can be done on the ground in the sim by pressing a key combo (which I forgot but is in the kneeboard manual), then they are locked until you land again, come to a stop, and ask the ground crew to unscrew the slats, via the same keybind.
The effect on flight performance and in which circumstances it is useful are debatable, as you can read in @Navynuke99 's and @WarPig 's posts above but the Blue Angels certainly liked it for aerobatics.
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I see, thanks for that. Iāll need to experiment then. Cheers.
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I would imagine that it wouldnāt turn as well. < sorry, states the obvious
I imagine so. So far I havenāt had any problems with the slats in any case. Iāve been practicing iron bomb drops using Iain Christieās excellent tutorials.
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