F-16 Fighting Falcon: History, Performance & Discussion

Goes for every aircraft in game, 23M in his hubris thought that adding the instability of the F-16 would nerf it to his wishes, without remembering that the instructor exists and already compensates for any form of instability in any aircraft in game.

Turns out that allowing an aircraft that is inherently unstable to have that instability while also having the instructor leads to additional rate performance, like everything else in the game.

Wait till he realizes that there are a number of other aircraft that I wont speak of can beat anything in a one circle in game even though they should be handling like an actual bus due to the instructor.

Like what? Enlighten me please

No.

I’d recommend going out and flying some things that aren’t top tier, maybe then you can find them.

I’d rather people keep underestimating the aircraft I am musing at.

DM me please I must know, I’m too curious

The instability being modeled in-game didn’t affect F-16 sustained turn much, and in either case the sustained turn rate isn’t the issue necessarily. I’ve got no idea what your point is (if there is one).

Instructor/fly by wire fixes instability by pulling less AoA, it can’t magically allow the F-16 to pull over 40 degrees in any way (it can do so with manual full sim controls).

In air RB that makes no or very little difference, the thing is that F-16 mouse aim allows it to pull 23.5 degrees out of the 25 it can do in full real when dumper is activated (by comparison the MiG-29A does 21.5-22 degrees out of the 27-27.5 it can do in full real with dumper).
Doing this the F-16 turns very tight and (unlike 3 months ago) actually bleeds quite a lot of speed, but this isn’t a big problem as the sustained turn rate doesn’t suffer remotely as much as the MiG-29 one at low speed, since the F-16 is a relaxed stability aircraft and naturally tends to pitch up at high AoA (instead in stable aircraft like the MiG-29 the higher the AoA the greater the torque elevators need to do to keep it there).

For clarification, is F-16 just overperforming in full real or is it also overperforming in instructor/mouse control?

I really only play with the instructor based mouse control and never full real, so I was curious if the F-16AJ was still overperforming or if it’s mostly for anyone who can take advantage of full real.

This is what ive been wondering for awhile now
They say the F-16 is a UFO But because i only play ARB i never see the AOA they are talking about in here
And id hate for ARB model to be nerfed just because its overperforming in simulator

It’s overperforming in both

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You can reach excessive AoA in mouse aim as well, just not during sudden pitch-up. Instant turn rate is not overperforming due to the AoA issue in air RB as much as it is in full real.

The issue is that the low speed handling and performance of the F-16 is making the MiG-29 useless against it in dogfights to the point that the F-16 is even smoking the Mirage 2000… even when M2K is in full real and F-16 is in mouse aim.

MiG-29 and M2K should dominate the slow speed regions.

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I see.

What speeds should they dominate in?

Low speeds, the F-16 should stick to ~400 knots or better to maintain the energy maneuverability.

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That’s good to know.

I know they’re different airframes, but I’m also looking forward with things like the F-2 and how it’d compare with the existing aircraft and I’d imagine the F-16 is it’s closest analogue.

Flight model is overperforming in full real which causes the instructor to let it pull an higher percentage of his maximum AoA compared to the other fighters.
The F-16 in real life CAN pull the 23.5 degree AoA it does in airRB, his maximum AoA is 25 degree without disabling computers.
The problem is that the MiG-29, M2K and others could pull 27+ degrees AoA in real life without any issue and in AirRB they are limited to less than 22.

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What do you mean with that? Compared to the MiG-29 it has better energy retention especially at low speeds and high alpha (that’s not surprising since MiG-29 is stable while F-16 isn’t). The thing is that at this low speeds (a bit lower than 400kt thought) the MiG-29 would easily force a 1 circle where it should easily win by sheer maximum AoA and minimum turn radius alone.

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At 400 knots it can defend a MiG-29 trying to force 1 circle and maintain the rate

You mean through forcing a two circle with its rate at 400kt?

If you are already pulling max pitch and the target decides to go vertical in the rate fight on the deck… the F-16 will end up losing the fight against the Mirage 2000. Having the additional speed to bleed and improved T/W, improved specific excess power allows you to climb over the Mirage 2000 and continue around the circle. He will be out of energy, and unable to counter you. A single hi-yo-yo and you’re on his six lining up guns again.

The F-16 just has to be very careful not to overshoot a Mirage 2000.

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Thanks for the explanation:) i was just wondering how exactly you intended the f 16 to win considering its extremely dominant when at its optimum speeds and there are a few ways i could have imagined it going. 2 circles are a mess in air rb so this is more plausible and easy. As a mig29 player im sad how little options i get when fighting f16s, tho ig i can alsways hope for a high aspect r73 shot.

Some SEP charts of the F-16, and what seems to be the EM diagram of block 30: