Speed Test of Aircraft

[iaqmya]

I am thinking of testing speed of aircraft with various load outs.  I am planning on using the mission builder to create a 100 mile level run at the various altitude.   I'm going to use the air start on all nine altitude tests and set the controls to the settings noted in the E6B.  The question now is, how long do I let the aircraft run to take the speed reading.  Question two, should the WEP section be a second test or a follow on from the initial speed test for that altitude.

I am thinking of also testing the bombers empty as well 

[TequilaChaser]

I am thinking of testing speed of aircraft with various load outs.  I am planning on using the mission builder to create a 100 mile level run at the various altitude.   I'm going to use the air start on all nine altitude tests and set the controls to the settings noted in the E6B.  The question now is, how long do I let the aircraft run to take the speed reading.  Question two, should the WEP section be a second test or a follow on from the initial speed test for that altitude.

I am thinking of also testing the bombers empty as well 

iaqmya, do a search for Badboy's AH Bootstrap or Spatula's AH Aircraft Comparison tool, both are designed to let you do speed testing and have instructions, if I remember correctly Badboy's AH BootStrap works with MS Office Excel and open office's version of Excel

I have to step out right now, but if you pm me your address I can send you a copy of Badboy's AH BootStrap, but in order to send or get Spatula's program, you have to email Spatula and he sends it to you directly, maybe Tongs has more info, since he is in the same squadron

both of them are retired AH Trainers, and their programs for testing are trust worthy, with that said, I recommend doing each test at a minimum of 3 times each ( I prefer 5 or 10 times each ) then add results and divide by however many times you did the test ( 3, 5, 10 ) to get a more accurate reading

edit: The AH2 Training Arena Terrain had a built in 30K alt base set up specifically for testing purposes, but I do not know if they left that in when they converted it to AH3, I have only been in the AH3 Training arena twice and noticed that it has changed some

hope this helps

TC

[morfiend]

I would suggest you start above the height you want to test at!

  Use a shallow dive to get to an excessive speed and then allow the plane to slow to it's top speed,this will take less time than waiting for it to accelerate to top speed,which can take several sectors of flight to get those last few MPH.

 Once it slows to top speed at MIL power you can test the wep speed on the same run but again you might run out of time before you hit the top speed. It will vary from AC to AC and what loadout you choose.


 Or you could just use the speed charts provided by HTC and just test the differences with DT's and/or bombs,also rockets.


   

[TequilaChaser]

iaqmya,

it would be nice to see your spreadsheet that you are creating... I did not bother to email you those 2 tools I mentioned after reading your pm, because it looked like you was fully engulfed into doing your own project here....

with that said, I would switch military 100%power and wep in what morfiend described above. It will help you get through each test a heck of a lot quicker

do your dive to the alt you want to test with wep engaged ( if wep is on the particular plane ) and go til the wep runs out, that will be your top wep speed, then the plane will slowly slow down until it stays steady, which will be your 100% WOT Mil speed ( WOT = Wide Open Throttle , Mil = Military )

and again, I recommend doing each test a minimum of 3 times, to get a base line  <----note this is more important for finding turn rate & radius verses finding speeds!

hope this helps

TC

[iaqmya]

Good information gentlemen.  I have copied it and printed it out to review closely.

It appears that I cannot post the attachments here.  I have two spreadsheets.  One will show the final result, the other is a "worksheet" for data on each of the altitude tests for each aircraft.  Any idea on how I may be able to get them to you?

They are prepared to do 10 tests, but I may end up doing five:).  This project will take some time to complete but I think it will be interesting.  I have converted a portion of them to text below.  They may change after I complete the review of the information received.

Again, thanks for the response.  If you come up with any more ideas, please let me know what they are,



Test No:      Test No:   Fuel   1   2   3
Altitude      Altitude   Duration   100   100   100
Power Setting      Power Setting   75%   MilP   MilP   MilP
Aircraft   Weight   Load Out   49         
                  
A-20G   29913   8 x 500 lb; 8 x 50   49   1   2   3
            1000   1000   1000
            MilP   MilP   MilP

Fuel   Aces High True Air Speed
75%   Altitude   Altitude   Altitude   Altitude   Altitude   Altitude   Altitude   Altitude   Altitude
Duration   0   1000   5000   10000   15000   20000   25000   30000   35000
MilPwr   MilP   Wep   MilP   Wep   MilP   Wep   MilP   Wep   MilP   Wep   MilP   Wep   MilP   Wep   MilP   Wep   MilP   Wep
49                                                      
35                                                      

[Bizman]

Any idea on how I may be able to get them to you?

You have many options to choose from. The most obvious would be putting it on a server. Or, if you already have a Google or Outlook (Hotmail/Live) account, you'd also have some space in their cloud drives where you could share your file. A photo sharing cloud might also work, not all of them are restricted to image formats.

[FLS]

I am thinking of testing speed of aircraft with various load outs.  I am planning on using the mission builder to create a 100 mile level run at the various altitude.   I'm going to use the air start on all nine altitude tests and set the controls to the settings noted in the E6B.  The question now is, how long do I let the aircraft run to take the speed reading.  Question two, should the WEP section be a second test or a follow on from the initial speed test for that altitude.

I am thinking of also testing the bombers empty as well 

If you want to compare speed at different weights you might set fuel burn to the minimum setting .001 in Arena Settings.

[TequilaChaser]

What FLS just posted is very important and critical!

If you don't do what FLS posted, it will not be accurate results

Thanks for that FLS, completely slipped my mind

TC

[iaqmya]

I think I may have the testing figured out thanks to the help posted here.
I am using staged missions, one for each altitude.  Test flight path is about 400 miles over ocean using the Tunisia arena.   It starts at the western edge of 0-14.   I accidently made a warp section after the initial spawn at X altitude which runs to the western edge of 1-14.  This was a good error as it levels the aircraft out at the specified speed at level flight plus a foot or two.  Initially I was going to make ten tests per altitude per loadout.  After testing the program with the A6M2, I had a top speed of 268 mph for 6 separate runs.  I have decided to do five tests per run unless I have an anomaly. If that occurs, I will continue for a total of ten tests for that altitude.    I am logging both the IAS and the TAS.  I, as indicated in the above posts, set the fuel burn to .001.   I was amazed to see no reduction in fuel weight during my first test run with that setting.  I can see why it is a necessity.  Each aircraft has a total of 9 basic altitude test, testing WOT, WEP, Normal Power and Cruise.  Yes, these may be unnecessary, but I would like to know the answers.  Additional testing will show any reduction in speed due to hard points after ordinance or fuel tanks have been dropped.  Once an aircraft has completed all tests, I then change the aircraft in the staged mission, along with double checking load out information, for the next series of tests.  With the number of aircraft, we have, this will take a bit of time.  With the last sentence in mind, maybe I should name each test, 9 per aircraft, the aircraft name and altitude?  Such as a6m2x100 (feet), a6m2x1k.  If I do that, I can keep all the testing for future use.  Lots of disk space, but I have three hard drives .  With that in mind, it may be worthwhile to have a second Aces High folder on another drive just for testing.  Any ideas would be helpful and again, thanks for the suggestions and information above.