A-10A

1. Hello and welcome to this mission in which we'll learn the basics of taking off in the A-10 and navigation. At any time in this mission you can press the PAUSE key to pause the action. This can be handy if you want to re-read the text.
2. We are currently sitting on the end of the runway ready to go with permission to take off already granted by the control tower.
3. Before we take off though, let's review the basic navigation instruments and HUD data. There are five primary flight instruments located on the front dash.
4. First is the Attitude Direction Indicator, or ADI, which is a sphere indicating aircraft pitch and roll. In the center of the instrument is a horizontal ";W"; waterline symbol with ";wings"; that indicates the aircraft's current attitude.When the waterline is over the black part of the sphere, it indicates that the aircraft is pitched down towards the Earth. When it is over the gray hemisphere of the instrument, the aircraft it pitched toward the sky.
5. On the sphere itself are tick marks at 5 degree increments. There are also indications for 30, 60 and 90 degrees. The position of the waterline over these tick marks indicates the aircraft's pitch angle.
6. Along the sides of the sphere are tick marks in 5 and 10 degree increments. When rolling the aircraft, the "wings" of the waterline align with these tick marks to indicate bank angle.
7. Overlaid on the ADI can be yellow localizer and glideslope bars. These are used for an Instrumented Landing approach and they provide you precise heading and glideslope steering.
The vertical localizer bar indicates horizontal steering directions toalign you with the runway. When this bar is to the right of center, it indicates that your approach is too far to the left. If the bar is to the left of center, you are too far to the right.
The horizontal bar indicates if you are above, below or on the proper glideslope. If the bar is below center, you are above glideslope and if it is below center you are above glideslope.
You want to have these two bars form a perfect cross in the center of the ADI when landing.
8. On the left side of the ADI is the glideslope deviation indication. This caret will move up and down of center based on your glideslope deviation.
9. Below the ADI is the Horizontal Situation Indicator, or HSI. This instrument gives you a top-down view of the aircraft centered on a compass rose. The compass rose rotates so that the aircraft heading is always pointed at the top of the indicator.
10. The steerpoint bearing needle is the white pointer and tail on the outer edge of the compass rose. It always points toward the selected steerpoint. The digital number in the upper left corner indicates the distance to the steerpoint. The number in the upper right corner is the required course to reach the steerpoint.
11. Located in the center of the HSI is the CDI, or Course Deviation Indicator. It is composed of two parts. Let me select another waypoint so that you can see it more clearly.You can cycle waypoints by pressing Right ALT and the ~ (tilde)key.
12. The outer portion of the indicator bar always points to the heading you need to fly to reach your steerpoint. The inner portion indicates how far off the course line you are and to which side of the course line you need to fly to pick up the correct course line track.
13. When the bar is centered and the steerpoint bearing needle is pointing straight up, you are on the planned course line.
14. To the left of the ADI is the airspeed indicator. This instrument displays Indicated Air Speed (IAS)between 50 and 500 knots indicated.
15. To the right of the ADI is the barometric altimeter.This instrument displays your altitude above sea level with a digital window and sweeping pointer. The altimeter scale is read in 20 foot increments and each whole number represents 100 feet.
16. The final basic instrument is the VSI or Vertical Speed Indicator.This indicates your climb or descent rate in thousands of feet per minute. The needle moves clockwise when you're climbing and counterclockwise when you are descending.
17. Let's now discuss the navigation data displayed on the HUD.
18. The Destination Index, also known as the "Tadpole", will help guide you to the steerpoint by both moving side to side on the HUD and pointing its tail in the direction of the steerpoint.
Here for example we are to the right of the steerpoint. The tadpole is offset to the left and is pointing to the left. If we were to the left of the steerpoint the tadpole would be offset to the right and pointing to the right.
When it's centered and pointing straight up, the steerpoint is directly ahead.
19. The second HUD symbol is the "steerpoint heading bug" that under the heading tape at the bottom of the HUD. When it's aligned with the heading caret you are heading to the steerpoint.
Unlike the HSI and ADI, neither of these HUD cues will tell you if you are on the assigned course. They only indicate that your flying towards to the steerpoint.
20. In the lower right corner of the HUD is the navigation data block.
21. The first line displays the waypoint number that is your steerpoint and the distance remaining to reach it.Right now the first waypoint is selected and we are 6.8 nautical miles away from it.
The second line shows the actual time remaining to reach the waypoint and the Delta, or difference, between the planned time and actual time you will get there.
If the Delta is negative, you need to speed up in order to reach the waypoint at the planned time. If it is positive, you need to slow down.
We'll ignore the Delta for this flight since we're not trying to meet a planned Time On Target (TOT).
The third and final line is the mission clock indicating real-time.
22. Before starting the take off roll, hold down the W key to apply the wheel brakes and press the Keypad + key to increase engine power to 90% of fan RPM. Hold for about three seconds and monitor the engine gauges to ensure everything looks okay. If so, increase throttles to 100% fan RPM and release the wheel brakes (W key).
23. As you roll down the runway and pick up speed, use small rudder corrections to keep you centered on the runway.
Use the Z and X keys to control the rudders.
24. At about 140 knots, smoothly pull back on the control stick to a pitch angle of 10 degrees. You can monitor this on the ADI. Hold the pitch at +10 degrees and let the aircraft fly itself off the runway. Be careful not to yank back on the stick and stall the aircraft.
25. With a positive rate of climb established, clean up the aircraft by pressing the G key to raise the landing gear and the F key to raise the flaps.
26. You can now press the ESC key and take control. Use what you learned in this mission and navigate to the destination airfield.

1. Hello and welcome to this training mission on the use of the GAU-8/A 30 mm gun and Hydra 2.75 inch aerial rockets. At anytime in this mission you can press the ESC key to exit the mission.
2. The Warthog's claim to fame is its 30 mm gun. The GAU-8/A has a firing rate of 4,200 rounds per minute, and that equates to 10 rounds fired per second. The A-10 can carry 1,150 rounds in its ammunition drum. These rounds are a Combat Mix (CM) of Armor Piercing (AP) and High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) rounds.
3. To select the gun, enter Air-to-Ground mode by pressing the 7 key and then press the C key to select the gun's aiming reticle.
4. When in range, the gun reticle indicates where the gun rounds will impact if fired at that moment. Inside the reticle is a bar that unwinds as range to target decreases. Each tick mark on the reticle indicates 1,000 feet of slant range. In the center of the reticle is the aiming pipper that marks the desired impact point.Below the reticle is the digital slant range indicated in nautical miles.
5. In the lower left corner of the HUD is the weapons data block. At the top of the data block are the number of gun rounds remaining. Below that is the elevation above sea level where the pipper is pointed and below that is the slant range to the target in meters.
6. The further away the gun is used will result in decreased accuracy and penetration power by the armor piercing rounds. You generally want to fire between 1.5 and 1.0 nautical miles. Use a short one second burst by pressing the SPACE bar and never overfly the target.
7. Here we have a group of four trucks marked by an orange smoke marker.
8. Next we have the 2.75 inch Hydra Folding Fin Aerial Rocket (FFAR). These are considered an area weapon and not designed for a precision attack.They are fired in pairs to offset lack of accuracy.
9. I will select rockets by deselecting the cannon by pressing the C key.
10. Like the gun reticle, rockets also have a reticle with the same properties. The difference being the RKT (Rocket) indication under the reticle.
11. As with the gun, align the pipper over the target, but press the Right ALT and the SPACE bar together to fire a salvo of rockets.
12. You may have also noticed that there is a gun cross on the HUD.This allows you to employ both rockets and the gun when in this mode. When an "X" appears over the gun cross, it indicates the gun solution is not valid.
13. With this first group of trucks destroyed, a second group has been marked with orange smoke.
14. Press ESC to take control of the aircraft and use the gun and rockets to destroy this second group.

1. In this mission we will learn how to configure the Armament Control Panel (ACP) for dropping bombs and how to release a bomb in both Continuously Computed Impact Point (CCIP) and Continuously Computed Release Point (CCRP) modes.
2. For the A-10, we have the option to drop the Mk-82 500 lb. and Mk-84 2,000 lb. Low Drag General Purpose (LDGP) bombs. We can also drop the Mk-20 Rockeye II cluster bomb. We have all three loaded up in this mission.
3. First, we'll select Air-to-Ground mode by pressing the 7 key. We can now cycle the active bomb type by pressing the D key.The selected bomb type is indicated both on the HUD and on the ACP.
4. On the HUD, the name of the bomb is listed at the top of the data block in the bottom left of the HUD. To the right of the CLM escape maneuver indication, the number of bombs of the selected type is listed. In this case, we have 2 MK82LD, 2 MK84LD, and 2 MK20.
5. On the ACP we have 11 buttons, each representing the 11 weapon stations.
A station with a single red light indicates no store is loaded on the station.
A station with a single green light in the top left corner indicates a non-selected station with a single weapon loaded on it.
A station with green lights in the top left and right corners indicates a non-selected station with more than one weapon loaded on it.
A station with a green light in the lower left corner indicates that this station is loaded with the selected weapon type.
6. Above each station a button will indicate either LDGP for Mk-82 and Mk-84 or CW for Mk-20.
7. With the desired bomb type selected, you can determine how you wish to release it.From the Release Mode dial, you can select to release the bomb as a single (SGL), in pairs (PRS), ripple multiple pairs (RIP PRS), or ripple multiple singles (RIP SGL). You can cycle this choice by pressing the Left Shift and SPACE bar together.
8. When either ripple pairs or ripple singles is selected, you can set the number of bombs to be ripple released and the impact distance between each bomb.
Press the Left CTRL and SPACE bar together to adjust the number of bombs to be released. You can view the current setting in the ripple quantity (RIP QTY) window.
To adjust the impact distance between each bomb, you can adjust ripple interval in milliseconds. The current setting can be seen in the ripple interval millisecond (RIP INTVL MSEC) window. To increase the interval distance, pres the V key, to decrease the interval press the Left Shift and V key keys together.
9. For this first drop I will select to drop a Mk-82 in single mode.
10. Up on the HUD, we have CCIP bomb drop mode set as default. In the center of the HUD is a dashed vertical line called the Projected Bomb Impact Line, or PBIL. Because the projected impact point of the bomb is currently not visible on the HUD, the line is dashed. We'll point our nose down until the Continuously Computed Impact Point (CCIP) bombing reticle is visible.
11. With the CCIP reticle visible, the PBIL now becomes solid. At this point we can press Right ALT and SPACE bar at the same time to release the bomb. The bomb should then impact near the reticle pipper location at the time the bomb was released.
12. Although this can be a rather accurate way to deliver a bomb, the disadvantage is that you need to be diving at the target and this could make you vulnerable. It also makes bombing from higher altitudes difficult.
13. To address these short comings we have the Continuously Computed Release Point, or CCRP mode. This mode allows us to designate a point where we want the bomb to hit and be able to release it even when the target is below our nose.Here's how we do it.
14. In the center of the HUD is a dashed circle called the Depressible Pipper. Use the , . / and ; keys to slew the pipper over the spot on the ground where you want to drop the bomb. Once over the target, press ENTER to lock the that point. That point will now have a small box in it with a pipper in the center.
15. To now enter CCRP mode, press the O key. A solid PBIL and reticle will now appear and the designation box will be near the top of the HUD. Fly to align the box with the PBIL and as you fly closer the box it will drop down the PBIL.
When the box reaches the pipper reticle, the bomb will be automatically be released.
16. Although this allows an expanded envelope to release a bomb, it does tend to be less accurate than CCIP bombing. As such, you should base the bombing mode on threats in the area.
17. You can now press the ESC key and take control. Practice bombing the remaining targets in both CCIP and CCRP modes.

1. Hello and welcome to this lesson on AGM-65 Maverick employment. The Maverick is a guided air-to-surface missile that is most used against hardened targets, armor and short range air defense systems. The Maverick is a true fire-and-forget weapon in that once you lock on to the target and launch the missile, you no longer have to guide it.Additionally, the Maverick can engage moving targets and it gives you a considerable stand-off range to engage targets that shoot back.
2. In this lesson we have two flavors of the Maverick loaded: the AGM-65K and the AGM-65D.
The AGM-65K has a Charged Coupled Device seeker (think of it as a TV camera) and can only be used in daylight hours. The seeker has a magnification of 3x. The video image will appear as a black and white TV video.
The AGM-64D on the other hand has an Imaging Infrared (IIR) seeker that can be used both day and night.
Additionally, the Delta has both a 3x and 6x magnification capability. The video will only show the world in infrared, so vehicles and man-made objects will stand-out.
3. To bring up the Mavericks we'll press the 7 key to enable air-to-ground mode. We now have Maverick indications on the HUD, Armament Control Panel (ACP), and the Television Monitor (TVM).
4. In the center of the HUD we have the "wagon wheel" that shows seeker line of sight.Wherever the wheel is pointed, indicates where the Maverick is looking.You can manually slew the wagon wheel with the , . / and ; keys.
Below the wagon wheel is the digital range in nautical miles.
At the top of the data block in the lower left corner of the HUD is the number of Maverick remaining in the selected type.In this case we have 2.
5. On the ACP, Mavericks can only be loaded on stations 3 and 9 and will be labeled "E/O".The active Maverick station will have a green light in the bottom left corner of the station button.
6. The TVM shows a direct video picture from the Maverick seeker and is aligned with the wagon wheel line of sight on the HUD. Like the wagon wheel, you can slew the center tracking gate on the TVM using the , . / and ; keys.
The small cross on the TVM is called the pointing cross and indicates how far off boresight the seeker is pointing and it what direction. For example: If the pointing cross is left of the TVM center, then the Maverick seeker is looking to the left of the aircraft.
7. When the AGM-65D is selected, you can zoom in and out between 3x and 6x magnification using the + and - keys.
When in 3x magnification, brackets that indicate the 6x magnification field of view are displayed.
8. Up ahead are two groups of target T-55 tanks.The first group is marked with orange smoke.
9. To start the attack, I will use the , . / and ; keys to slew Maverick seeker over the target area and then press the ENTER key to stabilize the seeker on that location.
10. I will then slew the seeker onto one of the targets and wait for a lock, indicated by a flashing Pointing Cross.
11. Once locked, I can now press the Right ALT and Space bar together to launch the Maverick.
12. With this group destroyed, a second group has been marked with orange smoke.

1. Hello and welcome to this lesson in which we will learn how to employ the A-10 against other aircraft. The A-10 is certainly not considered an air-to-air fighter, and mixing it up with dedicated fighters should be avoided. However, in a pinch A-10 can have a nasty bite. As history has shown, the A-10 can also be quite a "Chopper Popper".
2. The two air-to-air weapons of the A-10 are its 30 mm gun and the AIM-9M Sidewinder. To enter air-to-air mode, press the 6 key.
3. Bringing up air-to-air mode will be indicted by the gun funnel at the top of the HUD and the AIM-9M reticle in the middle of the HUD. Additionally, you'll be greeted by the Sidewinder growling sound. Let's talk about the gun funnel first.
4. The gun funnel displays the predicted fight path of gun rounds according to the G-level on the aircraft. The greater the G-load, the more elongated the funnel will be. The idea is to maneuver the A-10 to place the wingtips or rotors tips of the target aircraft to be just touching the sides of the funnel. In doing so, the proper amount of lead is accounted for.
5. Centered above the gun funnel is the gun cross. This can be a handy cue to lay over the target and then "drag" the target through the funnel while firing by pressing the SPACE bar. Given the power of the 30 mm round, a raking shot can be deadly.
6. If at least one AIM-9M is loaded, a reticle will be in the center of the HUD that indicates where the AIM-9M seeker is looking. A low growling tone is an indication of the seeker being active but not locked on to a target.
7. To lock the AIM-9M on a target, fly to position the AIM-9M seeker reticle over the target.If the target is within range, the seeker will latch to the target and the seeker tone will become a high-pitched lock tone.When this happen you can press Right ALT and Space bar together to launch the missile.
8. Note though that the AIM-9M can be decoyed by enemy flares and that the Sidewinder works best when looking up at the target.
9. With this target destroyed, press the ESC key to take control and shoot down the second helicopter.