[MSFS2024] Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II

[SeedyL3205]

Please use this thread to provide general feedback and impressions about this aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. For all bug reports, please create a new topic (or upvote an existing topic) in the Bug Reporting Hub > Aircraft & Systems section of the forums. Please use the full bug report template when creating a new bug report.

On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being best), how do you rate the Flight Model and Aircraft Systems?

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On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being best), how do you rate the Interior and Exterior Graphics?

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On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being best), how do you rate the Audio and Aircraft Sounds?

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On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being best), how do you rate your Overall Enjoyment of this aircraft?

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Thanks,
MSFS Team

[CaptainKhaos689]

No elevator trim available

[Arrpi87]

Same here. Which is a shame, it seems otherwise a nice aircraft to fly.

[Merlins51]

The stick in this A-10 is cartoonishly large in VR.

[Sekainiitami]

The roll is WAY too tight, it stops on a side when rolling. It needs more inertia to the rolls, and the stall is a bit too generous when doing tight turns, it needs to be a little bit more less able to turn like an f-22. The sounds though are great.

I think the texturing on the inside leaves a little bit to be desired. It feels way too smooth, little to no texture on the metal or panels, like a plastic version of the a10. I would love to see a second pass and give it a bit of a weathered look, or just a bit more detail in the cockpit like other planes. This one feels a bit half baked compared to the bigger planes like the globe master.

[WarpedGorgon55]

Trim doesn’t work - plane is constantly pitching down - making it difficult and not enjoyable to fly.

Would be interested to know if there’s something I’m missing or if this is a bug.

[NostalgicMinion]

The nose art on the A-10 tends to flicker at all times before/during/after a flight. Overall I enjoy the plane, fun to fly, though does this plane sound too quiet to anybody else? Or am I misremembering the A-10 sound?

[Raider276]

The plane is iconic and is a great addition to the Sim, need to know that it has basic autopilot working and that the plane can be trimmed easily. Would be handy to have a lightweight Pilot Operating Handbook for take off and landing speeds

[c0d3c2004]

Sounds are amazing! Love flying it around. Who doesn’t love the A-10? Miss the elevator trim though.

I am unsure if it’s causing me performance issues though. Seems to hit my FPS - wouldn’t be alone there unfortunately.

[ExplorerJB]

Flew this aircraft last night for the first time.

-First issue I noticed are the nose decals and fake gun flickering like crazy.

-No elevator trim makes this a chore to fly as it always wants to pull you down. I don’t find it very enjoyable. Without elevator trim I doubt I’ll fly this very much.

-Flight physics aren’t as bad as I was expecting, but it still feels a bit odd to me. I’m sure it’s flies nothing like the real thing unfortunately.

-Visuals are just ok inside and out. It’s not an aircraft you want to look at too closely in the sim. Nothing amazing as far as that goes.

-I was really hoping the Blacksnake livery could have been included. I always find it disappointing when an aircraft ships with only a single livery.

I’ll fly it more so can figure out where I really stand with this one after more than just one flight, but it’s not something I’m super excited to have in its current state. It’s probably my least favorite of the new aircraft I’ve tried so far, but maybe that will change with time.

[A220driv3r]

If I wanna fly F18 or A10 I will open DCS, at least that one is able to TRIM!

[OldGuard197090]

I gave the aircraft good marks because there are a lot of positives about it. However: no trim control is a very serious issue, particularly on a military jet. I double-checked my trim control settings (hat switch on joystick), confirmed that they are as I left them, which works in every other aircraft with trim.
Noting that the check-offs have “Set Takeoff Trim” but the little Eye of Sauron goes nowhere.

[OldGuard197090]

Starting with the positive: The Total Velocity Vector in the HUD works! This helps fly an untrimmable jet. And the scenery is first rate: well done!
The negative: The HUD brightness control is not modeled. So, whether you can actually see the TVV and other HUD info depends on the background.
Also, air brakes don’t work - no keybinding that I can find, and the system is not enabled in the cockpit. L-39 Albatros has air brakes, jets need air brakes.
So: Fix the trim (WTH?) and on a lower priority, enable HUD brightness control, enable air brakes (little slider right below the mic switch, right throttle).

[dagwit00001]

The airbrakes certainly work:

I haven’t found the (main) in-cockpit control - I’m guessing that it’s one of the buttons on the throttle - but TOGGLE SPOILERS does the job.

The thing about trim in this aircraft, though, is that you shouldn’t need it. The aircraft is supposed to incorporate a two-axis (roll and pitch), two channels per axis Stability Augmentation System. Also a basic autopilot:

With the throttle missing, you can see that the top two boxes contain the primary controls for the SAS system, plus the yaw and T/O trim controls.

The central box contains the controls for a basic autopilot.

The bottom box has manual override switches (including an emergency speed brake retract switch) in case the SAS or other control surface systems fail - in particular there’s a manual trim system in the top right of the box.

I may have missed something, but as far as I can tell none of this works.

Will it ever? I gather from comments on one aircraft supplier’s Discord that Microsoft now own outright all the aircraft that came with 2024, and any further changes are at Microsoft’s pleasure.

It would therefore be up to Microsoft to decide when and by whom (and at what additional cost to Microsoft, if the original developer isn’t willing to do further work gratis) a bespoke SAS and autopilot solution for the A-10, or even a basic functioning manual trim system, would be implemented.

Still, I suppose we can expect this to be done in short order. After all, it’s not like Microsobo has anything else on its plate at the moment.

[dagwit00001]

Just had a quick flight in the A-10.

Manual trim now seems to be working, so at least we have a flyable aircraft. For which, it seems, we have to thank Miltech. Thank you, Miltech!

I couldn’t see that fiddling with the SAS switches made any difference. Oh well.

I don’t see this ever being a frequent flyer - it’s a bit heavy and sluggish on the controls - but then of course it’s a bomber not a fighter. Still, I might take it out occasionally.

[hairstreak62]

Great update on the A10 following SU1. The fuselage texture is now more weathered and it looks all the better for it. There are also now cosmetic weapons available. Great update, many thanks.

[Delta2k5]

Also worth to mention that the aircraft is no longer developed by DC Designs but by Miltech:

[LikedHare478430]

Well, news are out!

As mentioned above, we have taken over the long-term support of the A-10 Project. We are aware of some of the existing bugs and will continue working to improve the aircraft over future updates.

However, please beware that there is limited flexibility with regards of liveries (cannot include more due to Licensing).

[dagwit00001]

So I had another test flight and managed to get the autopilot working.

But before I go into that, a word of warning. You are told before take-off to engage take-off trim. You must disengage it again immediately after take-off or you will be unable to trim the aircraft and it will just want to keep climbing.

If you have really good eyesight you can see whether T/O TRIM is off (button up) or on (button down). A binding for it would be nice.

Here’s a shot of the autopilot controls, cropped from a picture I posted earlier (you can just see the T/O TRIM button in the upper left corner).

The left-hand switch has to be at ARM before the autopilot will work. The switch on its right turns the radar altimeter on or off. The autopilot will not follow the radar altimeter at low level, which I tested by almost flying into a mountain.

The button to the right of the radar altimeter switch, which is exactly like the T/O TRIM button, turns the autopilot on and off. Luckily my TOGGLE AUTOPILOT binding works with it and I can see whether it’s on or off by the annunciation in the HUD.

On the right is a three-way switch, selecting between three autopilot modes.

PATH is roll/pitch hold.

ALT/HDG holds the current altitude and turns the aircraft to the heading selected by the heading bug but allows you to adjust that heading using the knob on the HSI.

ALT holds the current altitude but does not allow the heading to be changed while it is engaged. The heading locks to the direction you were pointing at the exact moment you engage the switch, so if you’ve drifted away from that heading because you were banking, there may be a little hunting before the autopilot settles down to the direction it wants.

The heading bug will appear to be locked to that heading but in fact you can still adjust it. You will see it move flickeringly to where you want it before it snaps back to the current heading. If you then switch from ALT to ALT/HDG mode the plane will turn to the heading you did your best to select.

Annoyingly, my heading knob bindings wouldn’t work, and I had to adjust the heading by turning the knob or dragging the mouse. I like me my heading knob bindings, the less mousework I have to do in VR the better.

The next mystery is posed by this panel below the HSI:

The switch is inop. The TCN and ILS buttons feed their respective navaids to the ILS but beyond that I have no clue. If you do, feel free to chip in.

[DuckDuckDuck500]

It’s just a bit strange to me that Asobo clearly wanted this aircraft in the game without any accurate liveries from the only air force that’s ever operated it. The A-10 has had some truly wonderful paint schemes, particularly the A-10 demo team in recent years. Just a shame that they will probably never be seen officially in the game.