YF-16 Flight Test Summary

saberrider · by **saberrider** » 03 Sep 2016, 19:52

28 degrees AoA ? How much Gs under this AoA?

vilters · by **vilters** » 04 Sep 2016, 00:28

AOA and "G" are not related in that way.

"Clean" ; You can fly a perfect horizontal "1G" flight at 28°AOA at about a 100 kts or so, depending on weight.

At about 25°AOA the Flight Control Computer disregards the pilots rudder inputs, and at about 29°AOA, the pilot is out of the system completely. He can pull his arm off; the Flight Control Limiters take over to prevent loss of control.

Writing from memory, but getting older by the minute.

saberrider · by **saberrider** » 06 Sep 2016, 07:03

vilters wrote:AOA and "G" are not related in that way.

"Clean" ; You can fly a perfect horizontal "1G" flight at 28°AOA at about a 100 kts or so, depending on weight.

At about 25°AOA the Flight Control Computer disregards the pilots rudder inputs, and at about 29°AOA, the pilot is out of the system completely. He can pull his arm off; the Flight Control Limiters take over to prevent loss of control.

Writing from memory, but getting older by the minute.

28°AOA in F-16? F-16 is limited in CAT 1 at 25° AoA and CAT3 at 18°. At 28°AoA bank angle must be over 80° for a level turn WITH LOT OF RUDDER and speed over 250 kts .

basher54321 · by **basher54321** » 06 Sep 2016, 13:38

saberrider wrote: 28°AOA in F-16? F-16 is limited in CAT 1 at 25° AoA and CAT3 at 18°. At 28°AoA bank angle must be over 80° for a level turn WITH LOT OF RUDDER and speed over 250 kts .

Not seen 28 degrees as a limit before - and don't think it ever was because the man in the know has always stated 25 for the YF as well - not that 3 degrees is much of a difference.

Although the pilot is taken out of the loop around the limit the limiter cannot prevent the F-16 exceeding the AoA by a long way at very slow speeds - if you take for example the deep stall condition happens between 50 and 60 degrees AoA.

saberrider · by **saberrider** » 06 Sep 2016, 20:15

Read somewhere about first F16 blk10 AOA limit is 27.No CAT 1,2,3 where present ,in early types.

basher54321 · by **basher54321** » 06 Sep 2016, 22:12

saberrider wrote:Read somewhere about first F16 blk10 AOA limit is 27.No CAT 1,2,3 where present ,in early types.

Quite a bit on here about it - pretty sure the Block 10 had a CAT 1 & 3 switch. The few degree difference in max AoA could be down to assumptions or the limiter might show 25-27 in the pit.

You're correct on the AoA limiter. I recall it was slightly variable, so called it approximately 15 degrees to CMA.

As you know, there is no Cat II switch position (never has been), but there are Cat II loadings. When a loading is Cat II, the Cat I switch position is used, but the pilot must observe one extra maneuver limit. Cat I loadings are permitted to fly full command 360 degree rolls, but Cat II is limited to full command 180 degree rolls. Cat III has reduced roll rate and AoA capability (automatic) and is limited to 180 degree max command rolls (pilot observed).

Roughly speaking, Cat I is air to air without 370 tanks, Cat II is air to air with 370 tanks, and Cat III is air to ground. There are exceptions found in the -1 stores limitations chart.

All of this information is extremely old (1979 - 81), which was the last time I worked F-16. So if things are different now, blame it on my old age.