A-7 Lance CAS (Close-Air Support) - PREPARE FOR SHOCK AND AWE!!!

[guz667]

Greetings from Xion Corp.!

Guzworks is proud to present another great craft for your Kerbin military needs: the A-7 Lance! This baby comes packin' with a couple complimentary packages, perfect for every situation where you have to strike a hard target or support your ground forces. Check out the specs and photos below! Performance and weapons demonstration at the bottom!

Name: A-7 Lance

Classification: CAS (Close-Air Support)

Cost: 38,775

Mass (Dry): 9,735kg (9.735t)

Mass (No Payload): 11,535kg (11.535t)

Max Test Payload: 4,612kg (4.612t)

Tested Max. Takeoff Mass: 16,147kg (16.147t)

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Weapons and Performance Demonstration!

Manual

Controls

General

Space Bar - Ignite Engines

Abort (Backspace) - Eject

RCS ® - Communications

0 - Lower Cockpit Ladder

T - ASAS

R-14 III Loadout

1,2,3 - Launch pairs of rockets

Space Bar - Rocket barrage (After engines ignited with Space Bar)

R-15 Loadout

Space Bar - Drop next R-15 Riot

] - Switch to R-15 for guidance mode (hit "]" twice)

R-15 and B-C1 Loadout

Space Bar - Drop next R-15 Riot

] - Switch to R-15 for guidance mode (hit "]" twice)

1 - Drop B-C1 Cluster Bombs

Flight

Make sure to activate ASAS with "T." When loaded with heavy ordinance, be mindful of the craft's pitch. It will continuously try to slowly pitch down. Just keep tapping up and you can go on as if nothing was the matter. The craft can take off starting at about 80 - 100 m/s on the runway. While not loaded down, the A-7 Lance is an acrobat. When loaded down, you can still fly fairly well, but watch your banks. Pull up into your turns and periodically adjust the bank to stay level while turning (unless of course your goal is pitch down some in the bank).

Attack Runs

Using the weaponry and actually hitting things can be difficult, whether the ordinance is dumb-fire, guided, or simply released. Ultimately, learning the weapons themselves and practicing with them is the only way to get better with them. See the following tips on each weapon (and look into my corporation page in the sig as I post more and more of the actual munitions; I will release more detailed guides on how to use them as time permits).

R-14 III Mischief Rocket - This is the Mk. III variant of the Mischief Light Rocket series. This weapon is dumb-fired in pairs. While it is actually controllable, since the weapon is paired, you can only really control one shot at a time...your choice I suppose. The rockets fly fairly straight (save for the occasionally ADD stray...>_>), so the best attack run I've found on smaller targets is to come in low and fire at the edge of the roof of your target. For larger targets, just aim and shoot. Your craft's velocity vector and physical orientation are your aim, so give yourself lots of room and time for your attack run. Finally, when lined up and ready, make sure you are fully throttled and fire away! Range is something from 1 - 3km accurately.

R-15 Riot Guided Rocket - The complications in this weapon are two-fold: switching to the weapon and getting it on target. Press Space-Bar to release an R-15. Press "]" twice to switch to the R-15. Using the navball and visual reckoning, turn the weapon toward your target. When pointing in the general direction, press Space Bar and make sure you are throttled some. You do not need full throttle until you know you are going to hit. While the weapon will do much more with a harder kinetic hit, it means nothing if you can't hit the target because it's going too fast, so take some time and practice hitting things. Anything that can be targeted should be. Remember to burn to rendezvous, like docking.

B-C1 Cluster Bomb - This baby is simple and difficult all at once. To release the bombs, just press 1. All the bombs will deploy and go 'splode on something. Yippee! The bad news is that gravity and Kerbin's drag-o-doom makes it difficult to judge when to release to your target. My best advice is conduct dive bombs on your targets. Line up your vessel with the target and make sure you are coming down at your target, aiming as if you're going be juuust flying over the target. Release the bombs 400 - 750m from your target. You start to get a "feel" for when the right time to release is.

Thanks for stopping by!

Get your A-7 Lance today! (Right-Click->Save As...)

A-7 Lance w/6x R-14 III Mischief Loadout

A-7 Lance w/2x R-15 Riot Loadout

A-7 Lance w/2x R-15 Riot, 6x B-C1 Cluster Bombs

[The Error]

Neato! Quite a nice-looking plane. How'd you balance the CoT/CoM, though? With th engines up high, I mean?

[guz667]

Thanks, glad you like it! The balance was sort of incidental. I was building the craft based off of (if you couldn't tell) the A-10 "Warthog." It ended up pretty similar. I was concerned that the offset CoM/CoT was going to be an issue, but I believe the balance is in the lift. There's quite a bit, and I think that and the combination ASAS make up for it. I believe you still see some of the effects of the offset CoM/CoT when that[ much extra mass is added; the craft tips down continuously, until your pass is reduced by using the payload.

Long answer was longer than intended.

[luizopiloto]

HeyYa Guzz \ /

this plane looks good... but you can improve it a bit more doing 1 thing...

place the main landing gears close to the CoM... so you can rotate the plane more easily at takeoff...

[guz667]

Luiiiiiz!!!

I think I'm going to be making a day time version of the video come Wednesday when I am done wrapping up some family things. When i do that, I will definitely take a look at the wheels. Thanks for taking a careful look at it!

[guz667]

So I never did get around to making that day time video!

I started it, ran into a lot of issues and got frustrated with it. I keep looking at doing the video, but I have such a bad taste in my mouth with it, it's hard to get back to. Sorry to let you down brah brah!