Kneeboards needed to compute your CG for proper takeoff, abort, rotate speeds, runway lengths needed, etc. Most are 'unnecessary' but I enjoy the added level of realism. The landing distance chart is more practical, for diverts, especially in the rain, for checking runway needed at current weight, in flight.
Compute your cg and headwind component on the ramp per your new loadout, & takeoff knowing the proper abort, rotate, and liftoff speeds, runway length needed, etc.
I could not find performance charts for the ge-402 which is in dcs' f18, only the -400, this is shown in the chart headers.
Thanks to Minsky for his (free to distr) checklists I included here.
Instructions for charts:
1: density ratio, if you are at a high altitude airfield, or if extremely warm/cold, look up your ratio. ie 60f@sealevel=1.0, freezing at sealevel is 1.15. 100f @ 4kft=.8
2: crosswind component, in order to know the runway length needed, lookup the correct headwind component.
3: CG, default hornet cg is 22.3, using the chart, you will tally up your pods, munitions, tanks etc, to arrive at a CG between 18 and 26.
(You'll sea MAC%, meaning mean-aerodynamic-chord, its the effective center of lift measured from the front of the wing. If you load up the gun with bullets, the chart shows it subtracts 2, so 20.3 is the new MAC%, your CG is 2% forward of default.)
4: Now you can use the abort and takeoff charts, using your weight, wind, density ratio and cg.
I could easily have added the following, but skipped for my personal style of play, let me know if interested:
-cruise charts, not the specific ones, the general altitude/mach per weight for endurance or range, I skip because I choose to use fpas for that.
-possibly the most important speed for hornet is the minimum go, or 1 engine TO data. I skipped but may get into single engine stuff one day.
-fuel chart showing exactly what levels to expect in all tanks at all times if you want to do that level of fuel checks while cruising.
-fuel usage charts showing how much fuel is used in a mil vs ab takeoff, climb, etc. In general 300 to 1000 lbs are used in either a mil TO or an unrestricted climb.
