DCS A-10C procedures

[Arclight]

Right, just a quick checklist. I know there's a ton of 'm out there, but having one here can't hurt, right?

It's just my own way of doing it. Use this as a guide to find what works best for you.

I've divided it into "sections" and a "flow": first section is providing basic electrical power and enabling communications (engines are noisy, so you can't just shout anymore). Then comes APU and engines start, and shutting down APU again. Then I close the canopy and start a flow to get everything else up and running.

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Right, first things first: an A-10C needs electricity. Engines and APU are off, so that leaves batteries. Ground power is an option too, but I'm assuming ground services are not available. Enable the battery switch and switch the inverter to standby (up). At this point I prefer to uncage the SAI (standby attitude indicator) as well, lest I forget.

It's gonna get noisy in a bit, so let's turn on the radios. Set both VHF radios to transmit/receive mode. Set UHF to "both"; this will let you transmit/recieve, as well as monitor the guard channel.

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Properly prepared, we can launch the engines, though APU comes first. Enable the boost-pumps for all 4 tanks. If you have external tanks, be sure to enable those pumps as well. Start the APU and wait for it to stabilize, then enable the APU generator. Might as well turn on the engine generators as well, while we're there.

Now start the engines. The A-10C goes through an automated start-up cycle, indicated by a flashing caution light in the top-left of the panel. To start, just move the throttles to idle (do note that this is done by a keystroke, rather than moving your controller throttle. Make sure it's at 0 before trying to start). Let the caution light extinguish (cycle finished) before starting the second engine. Finally, turn off APU generator and shut down the APU itself.

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Navigation needs quite some time to align, so let's enable that first. Enable CDU and EGI. Turn the left dial to flight plan.

So now it's noisy; lets close the canopy. Now it's not so noisy, but you cut off your supply of fresh air. This prompts a flow across the panels, starting close to the canopy switch: oxygen and climate control. Enable oxygen flow from the liquid oxygen supply. Continuing down along the far right of the right-console, you'll get to the bleed air, main air supply and temperature/pressure control switches. Enable all to pressurise the cockpit. This will keep you from blacking out due to hypoxia at high altitude, as well as keeping you nice and cozy.

Continuing down you get to the lighting panel, which I'll skip here. Then, moving back up along the left side of the right console, you pass ILS, TACAN and CDU/EGI panels. Setting this up further is beyond the scope here. Next you get to the counter-measures panel. Set the dial to standby and enable all 4 switches.

(remember to activate it from standby in flight)

The flow then jumps to the left console, back to the radios (further set-up is mission dependant and again beyond the scope here) and then up. Hidden under the throttles are 2 switches; one for EAC, which we aren't ready for, and one for the radar-altimeter. Enable that one.

Going down along the far-left of the left console, you'll wind up at the SAS panel. Enable both switches under yaw and pitch, 4 in total. Keep the T/O trim button pressed untill the indication light lights up.

On it is to the front dash, lower-left, where you find the switches for CICU, JTRS and IFFCC. Set the first 2 from the left to enable, and set the third to the middle position. Press enter on the up front controller and IFFCC will run through a BIT, after which you can enter some parameters. When set, turn IFFCC on. The MFCDs should be up as well, so load the data from the cartridge (load all) and wait for it to load fully. You can enable the TGP to start the cooling cycle if you want, though I'd leave master arm and such off untill airborn.

Now whe come back to EAC. For it to enable, the inertial navigation must be finished aligning. What you want to see is a flashing "INS NAV RDY" indication on the CDU. If it ain't flashing, give it some time. When you get that indication, set the CDU to nav mode and enable the EAC switch.

You're ready to roll. Enable nose wheel-steering and anti-skid, taxi and hold short, set flaps for take-off and enable pitot heat.

(easiest way to determine if you did it right is to look at the caution lights panel. If nothing is showing, you're good)

(track going through the above. I enabled EGI&CDU soon after getting power from APU to save time on start-up. This is by no means wrong, but normally I use the time spent waiting on alignment to double-check and set up radios etc.)