How do you calculate CAS playtime?
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Hi guys,
I’m just learning about CAS and I was wondering, how do you calculate the playtime?
I assum it’s something like:
TOTAL FUEL (at loiter station) - BINGO FUEL = playtime fuel
But how do you decide how much you will burn if you are doing several passes dropping ordnance and/or strafing?
I looked at all the real manuals available but couldn’t find a suitable chart / table.
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In the -1 from the BMS doc folder , in the chapter about fuel system there is a table on how to calculate bingo. From that table you can see that there are the values for low level and medium level. You can use those numbers to figure out how much you gonna burn.
A much more direct way of doing it would be simply looking at the average speed you are maintaining and how much lbs/hour you are having shown on your fuel flow meter. From there with your bingo information you can simply do the math like you mentioned above. Round it up, if you have for example 6800 lbs/hr indicated just make it 7000.
‘After doing it a couple of times you will develop a sense for how much time this much fuel gives me.
The numbers in the -1 work pretty well.
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Hi guys,
I’m just learning about CAS and I was wondering, how do you calculate the playtime?
I assum it’s something like:
TOTAL FUEL (at loiter station) - BINGO FUEL = playtime fuel
But how do you decide how much you will burn if you are doing several passes dropping ordnance and/or strafing?
I looked at all the real manuals available but couldn’t find a suitable chart / table.
If I understand your question correctly, see playtime as a maximum time, not average or minimum (as loitering is minimum consumption).
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Hi!
Correct.
You don’t care since you know your BINGO. So you can work until reaching your BINGO.
Regards
Ok, but when you check in with the FAC you are supposed to give them your available playtime. If you have say 3000 lbs left till you reach BINGO, how can I figure out how many strafe passes & bombing runs I can do because the fuel flow varies wildly during a pass?
EDIT: I think Lorik and Canuck have explained it…playtime is the max time you can loiter (to be confirmed), and Canuck explained how to calculate it.
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If I understand your question correctly, see playtime as a maximum time, not average or minimum (as loitering is minimum consumption).
Aha, ok, so when you check in with you FAC you give them the max time you can spend loitering? and to do those sums it’s what Canuck said above.
I’ll try to do a bit of research to find out exactly what playtime means. -
ICP 5
Endurance page, line 3, time to bingo -
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… yes … but keep in mind that it takes instantaneous FF.
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Had a good look around and although I couldn’t find a clear,concise description of the word “Playtime” it is clear that this means time on station available, which makes sense. I assume the station would be a point somewhere near where the battle is taking place.
This also makes the time available calculation much easier and as Leech says, endurance page does the job for you.
Thanks guys!
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… yes … but keep in mind that it takes instantaneous FF.
So dose calculating your fuel on the spot
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Had a good look around and although I couldn’t find a clear,concise description of the word “Playtime” it is clear that this means time on station available, which makes sense. I assume the station would be a point somewhere near where the battle is taking place.
This also makes the time available calculation much easier and as Leech says, endurance page does the job for you.
Thanks guys!
Whatever you do, use common sense and keep it simple.
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Whatever you do, use common sense and keep it simple.
Good advice, I have a tendency to over complicate my thinking when it comes to procedures!
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If I may add to the conversation…In the Hornet don’t forget to multiply FF by 2.