Drop tanks shortcut
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If it’s an emergency and you need to jettison… then just hit EMERGENCY JETTISON.
See page 34 of the T.O. BMS1F-16CM-1 (in your \Falcon BMS 4.33 U1\Docs\Falcon BMS Manuals folder) for details.
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Well you can set up the SJ page in advance, so all you have to do is DMS to the page and hold Pickle, that’s what they do in real life, but yeah Emergency Stores Jettison will also get the job done.
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I don’t see why you would drop tanks but not bombs…. anyone care to enlighten me? Most of the time (if not ALL the time), you drop tanks because you’ve been jumped and that means wanting to get rid of bombs as well. No sense in dogfighting with bombs under your wings. So EMER JETT button is the key.
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Once you’ve set up S-J during your ramp start it actually is quicker to use that if you have a HOTAS set up realistically.
The caveat of course is that the stores are only jettisoned using the pickle button when the MASTER ARM switch is in ARM, but in BMS you don’t often need to jettison your stores before you FENCE in
If you don’t have a realistic HOTAS setup, or you haven’t set S-J up, then there is always E-J to lighten the load.
I’m sure in the real jet there are other reasons why you might not want to press EMERGENCY JETTISON, but they are not relevant to BMS.
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I don’t see why you would drop tanks but not bombs…. anyone care to enlighten me? Most of the time (if not ALL the time), you drop tanks because you’ve been jumped and that means wanting to get rid of bombs as well. No sense in dogfighting with bombs under your wings. So EMER JETT button is the key.
Ditching tanks because you’re trying to go for maximum range isn’t that uncommon in BMS. If you’re stretching the edge of range, ditching the tanks can extend your range because you reduce drag. And in other circumstances, if you have to fight your way through the enemy and you don’t have a proper escort, ditching tanks early and leaving the bombs gives you a bit more back in terms of weight and drag, without scrubbing your ground attack.
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Dropping tanks is very common. They are not expensive (AFAIK only electronics inside is a fuel level sensor) so no need to carry them back to base.
Dropping them reduces drag (those tanks are quite fat) and also it increases your agility (plane turns better).I always drop them when i found them empty. Its good to set bingo to full internal fuel value to remind you to drop tanks when they become empty. Then you set bingo to actual bingo value.
And emergency jettisson is only for emergencies (dogfight or damaged/destroyed engine). In all normal situations you should use SMS selective jettisson.
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now that supply is actually important in campaign throwing away tanks without needing to is potentially dangerous.
well, at least, if you need to actually go anywhere and don’t want to AAR three times on the way there.
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Ditching tanks because you’re trying to go for maximum range isn’t that uncommon in BMS. If you’re stretching the edge of range, ditching the tanks can extend your range because you reduce drag.
I’m sorry, but if you have to ditch tanks to get that extra mileage, you’re planning your mission wrong IMHO. Why not have a tanker and top up before ingress? If you need to reduce drag that much, you aren’t leaving room for “play time” or emergencies during your mission.
And in other circumstances, if you have to fight your way through the enemy and you don’t have a proper escort, ditching tanks early and leaving the bombs gives you a bit more back in terms of weight and drag, without scrubbing your ground attack.
So you ditch your tanks but not your bombs? So you dogfight with your bombs on?
Dropping tanks is very common. They are not expensive (AFAIK only electronics inside is a fuel level sensor) so no need to carry them back to base.
Dropping them reduces drag (those tanks are quite fat) and also it increases your agility (plane turns better).I always drop them when i found them empty. Its good to set bingo to full internal fuel value to remind you to drop tanks when they become empty. Then you set bingo to actual bingo value.
And emergency jettisson is only for emergencies (dogfight or damaged/destroyed engine). In all normal situations you should use SMS selective jettisson.
Sure, I get the point that it weighs down or drags the aircraft and reduces performance but even if they’re “cheap,” I’m pretty sure you’re encouraged to bring them back if possible, not just jettison them willy-nilly.
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yeah. AAR in the falcon is pretty “”“”“”““easy””“”“”"
IMO you jettison those tanks in an emergency or not at all.
if you get pounced, jett, sure.
it bothers muh realism when people put some tanks through people’s houses to get back home marginally faster (in fact, i’m not sure there’s really a speed increase at all… falcon seems to cruise at .91 mach pretty much regardless of drag, though you might have to burn to get there with heavier loadouts)
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Thanks everyone. Im not so much worried about drag or speed/range more so G-Limit because even after having dropped bombs on a recent mission I was still CAT III with the tanks on so I couldnt pull more than 6g. I didnt realize you could set up S-J before taking off so that would probably be the way I go
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I’m sorry, but if you have to ditch tanks to get that extra mileage, you’re planning your mission wrong IMHO. Why not have a tanker and top up before ingress? If you need to reduce drag that much, you aren’t leaving room for “play time” or emergencies during your mission.
Not every theatre has tanker assets, and have targets far off, so you make do with what you’re given.
So you ditch your tanks but not your bombs? So you dogfight with your bombs on?
As prep for the dogfight. Losing the tanks gives you some of your maneuverability back. Getting stuck in it like that isn’t fantastic, but if you can quickly dispatch a foe without having to dump your bombs, then your mission isn’t scrubbed because a few MiG-21s wandered in your direction.
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Yes, thats why i avoid WVR dogfights when i have AG stores. I fire AMRAAMS to get rid if the enemy and i am always trying to do it before they enter visual range. I always avoiding dropping stores (i mean weapons, not tanks), bombs are quite expensive and also nobody wants to screw a mission just because of some MiG-21s.
I remember DCS A-10C when AI wingmen was dropping stores when engaing enemy helicopters. This was one of stupidest ideas that ever made their way into flightsims (together with rooftop/bridgetop tanks and removal of Laser Maverick avionics from DCS). Not much better than AI wingmen crashing right after takeoff you can find in BMS…
So you ditch your tanks but not your bombs? So you dogfight with your bombs on?
Bombs are more expensive. One CBU-105 costs almost 1 milion dollars… Imagine dropping 2 or even worse 4 JASSMs (hope they come in 4.34), this could be more expensive than replacement of engine. After few JASSM drops you could waste money you could spend on a new F-16!
Tanks are suckers, they generate more drag than average bomb, they are fat suckers and when you drop them in dogfight they are usually empty or at least half empty.
it bothers muh realism when people put some tanks through people’s houses to get back home marginally faster
War is brutal, in fact nobody cares… Even when they say that civilian life is most important for them…
Dropping tanks on a houses… Well dropping (not jettissoning) armed bombs on houses in Afganistan was not better. -
Not every theatre has tanker assets, and have targets far off, so you make do with what you’re given.
Fair enough… I was assuming default Korea theatre.
As prep for the dogfight. Losing the tanks gives you some of your maneuverability back. Getting stuck in it like that isn’t fantastic, but if you can quickly dispatch a foe without having to dump your bombs, then your mission isn’t scrubbed because a few MiG-21s wandered in your direction.
Er, no. When expecting a dogfight, drop everything. How would you feel if you drop tanks “in preparation,” get jumped, keep your bombs, then get your ass handed to you?? I bet you’d be thinking “should’ve dropped those bombs!” Or are you saying you’ll turn-and-burn for a few seconds to see whether you can kill him and keep your bombs or whether you’ll need to “get serious” about the fight and drop your bombs and concentrate on pulling max performance? That sounds like a waste of precious few seconds which, in a fight, can be very precious indeed!
Even if you don’t get in a knife fight with the other guy, lobbing AMRAAMs at range would still have you burning fuel to get your speed up –-- the bombs won’t help your acceleration at all. Then you will have to notch and I expect you will have to do evasive maneuvers shortly afterwards ---- the bombs won’t help your maneuvers at all.
In short, I would’ve thought that if you decide to fight an air threat, you dump everything else you have and get ready to fight.
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Bombs are more expensive. One CBU-105 costs almost 1 milion dollars… Imagine dropping 2 or even worse 4 JASSMs (hope they come in 4.34), this could be more expensive than replacement of engine. After few JASSM drops you could waste money you could spend on a new F-16!
So you will not dump your bombs and risk losing your F-16 instead? If you find yourself having to drop your ordnance quite often, you may be flying the wrong flight path or you may need more air cover. Either way, you’ve done something wrong and “saving” a few million dollars does not justify risking life and airframe.
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Fair enough… I was assuming default Korea theatre.
Er, no. When expecting a dogfight, drop everything. How would you feel if you drop tanks “in preparation,” get jumped, keep your bombs, then get your ass handed to you?? I bet you’d be thinking “should’ve dropped those bombs!” Or are you saying you’ll turn-and-burn for a few seconds to see whether you can kill him and keep your bombs or whether you’ll need to “get serious” about the fight and drop your bombs and concentrate on pulling max performance? That sounds like a waste of precious few seconds which, in a fight, can be very precious indeed!
Even if you don’t get in a knife fight with the other guy, lobbing AMRAAMs at range would still have you burning fuel to get your speed up ---- the bombs won’t help your acceleration at all. Then you will have to notch and I expect you will have to do evasive maneuvers shortly afterwards ---- the bombs won’t help your maneuvers at all.
In short, I would’ve thought that if you decide to fight an air threat, you dump everything else you have and get ready to fight.
I’m going to have to disagree. If the fight starts going south, then by all means go Emergency Jettison and flip into CAT I. You will almost never find yourself in a fight that happens slow enough to jettision everything, but too fast to not figure out if you’re losing or not. If they’ve snuck up on you to the point where waiting to see if the fight is starting to go against you is going to get you killed, then odds are you would have died anyway due to poor situational awareness.
Given the effectiveness of the AMRAAM in this game, a ground attack flight can get into a fight without panic dropping everything and going full CAT I, and in campaigns like Isreal, doing so is only going to lead to a loss since mud moving is what keeps you away from the 1/3 strength loss condition.
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If you have to go AA, you dump everything and fight. Or you dump everything and run.
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When needed … pilots doesn’t care about the number nor the type of bombs they have under the wings. If/when needed, they drop stores, no problems …
Remember also that one pilot (salary + formation investments) cost several F-16s. However, during regular war mission, they do not drop wing tanks when empty just to reduce a bit the drag …If you have to go AA, you dump everything and fight. Or you dump everything and run.
100%
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When needed … pilots doesn’t care about the number nor the type of bombs they have under the wings. If/when needed, they drop stores, no problems …
Remember also that one pilot (salary + formation investments) cost several F-16s. However, during regular war mission, they do not drop wing tanks when empty just to reduce a bit the drag …100%
So all those reports in Vietnam and WWII and Korea about dumping tanks before an engagement is what exactly?
You only dump what you need to, and in quite a few of these campaigns if you drop and run at every hint of opposition, you’ll lose. Taking a few risks tactically in order to secure strategic victory seems to make sense in the context of a game.
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Thank you for confirmation, Dee-Jay
So all those reports in Vietnam and WWII and Korea about dumping tanks before an engagement is what exactly?
Er, what aircraft are you specifically talking about when you speak of Vietnam and WWII and Korea?
You only dump what you need to, and in quite a few of these campaigns if you drop and run at every hint of opposition, you’ll lose. Taking a few risks tactically in order to secure strategic victory seems to make sense in the context of a game.
So you’re saying you’ll limit yourself to 70-80% effectiveness as a “tactic”?? I’m sure your virtual wife and family will appreciate that. “He tried to be tactical, ma’am, and that cost him performance in his jet that could’ve otherwise saved his life.” Sorry, but when I go prep for an A-A engagement, I try to make sure the odds are stacked in my favor as much as possible.
Then again, this is from playing a few human-vs-human fights. Maybe fighting against AI is easier, leading to that mentality. I’d rather RTB thinking “I probably could’ve done that without dumping the ordnance” compared to having a nice silk parachute ride thinking “I shoulve dumped that ordnance.”
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When needed … pilots doesn’t care about the number nor the type of bombs they have under the wings. If/when needed, they drop stores, no problems …
Remember also that one pilot (salary + formation investments) cost several F-16s. However, during regular war mission, they do not drop wing tanks when empty just to reduce a bit the drag …Going back to my question –- are there scenarios wherein a pilot would drop his tanks but not his bombs?
