swanee wrote:
Misson 2 this last Sunday was a different story as we got bounced by a squadron of Zekes from high above us. The difference this time is we lacked the higher cover from other squads that we had the previous missions.
Fuel in the missions we flew with the bombers has never been an issue so far. We roll at the same time as the bombers. We roll with external tank 100% internal.
Keep in mind we haven't had to jettison the external until we were close to target area.
I prefer to burn off the internal first, down to about 85% before switching to external.
Since the bombers fly so slow, we are at about 60% throttle on the ingress and we don't burn through fuel as quickly as in a max climb out.
Both missions I was involved with where we returned to the carrier, I had 20 minutes fuel left, and that was all the way to the target, loitering to help bombers, and rtb.
~S~ Swanee and all the brave KoN fighters. I take full responsibility for sortie 2 losses because I had you guys carry the bombs besides the full fuel load needed.
I really appreciate your fuel management and will swear to the fact that no KON fighter has left the bombers side before we landed!
A huge "hurrah" from all us buffs sir!