Spaz...
Im roughly in the 5-6k fuel regime in the default Hornet when I start out and go from there. Last nite, I played with the numbers and worked more on upping the landing gear and flaps drag values in the .air file, than I did changing the static thrust on the aircraft.cfg file.
Right now on the default "clean" Hornet, from memory, I have 250 flaps drag, 150 gear drag, and 55 fuselage drag, in the fa-18.air file. I have 9000 static dry thrust as the value in the aircraft.cfg file. At 5k fuel, on carrier final, I was maintaining glide w/energy caret just a hair above the v/vector even line, at 85 percent thrust. Additionally, at 7k MSL, I could get 620 kts at FULL MIL. These flight parameters are getting closer to what I consider a realistic flight envelope. Tonite, I will continue to experiment and give more results.
Additionally, Ive been working on the CaptSim F-18D in parallel, w/the exception of CARRIER landings. So far, the main difference has been using 10k as a static thrust instead of 9k, as listed above. This helps to offset the additional drag and weight of the weapons/drop tank I have loaded and is more realistic as well, being the D-model has more powerful/efficient engines than the A-model. More importantly, this change helps the CaptSim Hornet behave VERY SIMILARLY to the default as far as low and high end flight profiles. In example, my max speed was .9 mach at 20k MSL at FULL MIL. Landing on a shore facility, I was on-glide at 88 percent power. So, all in all, a good baseline for this modification in getting more accurate flight speeds/RPMs in comparison to the real Hornet.
So to all who would like to help, input the numbers I have for both the default and C/S Hornets in the .air file, and use 9k static (default) and 10k static (C/S) for static thrust in the aircraft.cfg and let me know what your results are. BTW, before I forget, any help is appreciated, but if you are unfamiliar with modding your .air file or not comfy messing with your aircraft.cfg file, please dont change what you got. If you are good with modding, always remember to BACK UP your .air and .cfg file before making these changes.
Later
Sludge