Visitors interview with LCA TEST PILOT
I have had a very good time at the ADA-LCA stall on Friday & Saturday.. I had a chance to speak with WgCdr N. Tiwari, Capt. J Moulankar & Cmde Balaji.. very longtimes with the latter two.. The 15mins of interaction with with Capt. J Moulankar will be the best 15minutes I spent at the AeroIndia show 2007 & 2009 combined.. (Details in later post). For now LCA news - all info posted below is from very reliable sources and cross-chekd too..
In Capt.Moulankar's words " We are at a stage where everyday I want to do more and more of it.. and the more to come sooner and sooner ". EXCITING TIMES ARE HERE FOR LCA-TEJAS.
1. LSP-3 is ready to fly and will do very soon (within next 1-2months). LSP-3 has the radar integrated in it. The radar is has the LRDE/HAL antenna, ECIL/BARC developed APL, indigenous power amplifier and indigenous FRP radome.. the rest is all Elta stuff -- all the signal & data processing units, all the software for AA, AG, AS modes and the fire control algorithms come straight out of 2032.
2. So the radar is neither MMR or 2032. It is a hybrid of both.. as of now - for the near future, not thinking of 2052. Coming to this MMR+2032 radar which will be in LSP3 -- the radar has been extensively tested.. Very very extensively and works very well in all 3 modes.. after the airborne qualification was completed -- they installed this radar somewhere on a rooftop in the vicinity of CABS area of HAL airport and kept tracking the fighter planes flying out of HAL airport evreryday... that is the LCA's, Jags, Kirans etc..
The LSP-3 radar tracked "smaller aircraft" (smaller than LCA - probably Kirans/Hawks) at 100-120km range.. That is the capability of the radar.
3. The LCA has been tested to 6G/-1.5G, 22deg AOA, 1.6M at 7-8Km altitude, 1354kmph at Bangalore level, Also cleared the cieling altitude. (Could not confirm if it was flown to -2G)
4. LCA is all ready to fly close to western border (JaiSalmer) for heavy stores dropping & LGB dropping. Watch out within the next 2-3months. LSP-3 also will go to JaiSalmer iimediatly after its first few test flights for hot weather trials and radar guided R-73 firing.. the previous R73 firing - the missile was just let go.. it was not guided to a target.. At Jaisalmer - in all likelyhood, there will be a guided missile firing.
(well Nagpur is hot.. but JaiSalmer in April-July is a different level of hot.. so they are putting LCA through that also)
5. While the infor regarding the location of future heavy stores dropping was easy to come, the info regarding the location where the 3kg bombs were dropped was hard to come.. But finally when I just managed to get the info (after being informally sworn to secrecy) - I did understand why people were not ready to tell.. probably very few people in ADA too might have been told.. It is better not to post where the Tejas went for 3kg bombdrops..
We could have a guessing game on this thread where 3kg bombs were dropped or have a laugh over it at the next BR meet.. Any guesses?
6. Absolutely no issues at hot weather trials at Nagpur, cold weather trials at Leh or night flying sorties. Went to Leh via pitostops at Nagpur & Pathankot. AT Leh, the engine just started and the plane just took-off like it did in Bangalore. And that was not clean configuration either...with 2 drop tanks attached..
In the words of the TP who flew Tejas to Leh - "It will be far better platform than Mig21.. and as good as Mirage".. "Its endurance or range is slightly better than Mirage, with lesser fuel".. though I wanted to seek clarification on the second statement - i could not..
7. Has 2350kg internal fuel, 100kg used during normal take-off, 2250kgs once airborne.. leaving out reserve fuel - has about 1800kg fuel that can be spent on mission..
depending on mission profile and loading - it can have a mission time of 1hr for loaded conditions with maneuvueres etc or nearly 1hr 45mins if just flying CAP with only A-A missiles at 7-8km altitude (ideal altitude for fuel efficiency). Consumes about 25-30kg per minute (varying altitudes, varying speeds etc as in normal mission profile).
8. Has an internal gun mount on the rightside.. If you see the photos of models - you can see the two openings there.. The gun trials will be the last trials undertaken during FOC.. Air HQ is debating whether we need a gun at all in current scenario
9. As we know the recent LSP's were seen with a single side slot on air intake.. For NP2 there will be three such slots.. For the airforce version taking off from ground without A/B - the airflow will be sufficient.. But for the Tejas-N when it is takingoff with afterburner - it will need higher airflow and hence 3 sideslots on the air intake are planned for.. No significant weight penalty seen..
10. If anyone has noticed the LCA-N model at ADA stall (I could not take photo as my battery died) - you would have noticed a Derby missile rather than Astra model.. YES - Naval Tejas will be qualified for Derby.. so they wont wait for Astra to come around..
Interestingly Capt. J. Moulankar qualified Derby on the SeaHarriers during SHAR upgrade with 2032+Derby.. I will post his SHAR upgrade patch photo later.. And Cmdr.Balaji was also a part of SHAR upgrade.. Indian Navy seems to have a very strong team deputed at ADA.
11. SHAR's have ODL - transferring realtime video and complete radar picture.. Not a bigdeal - "just add a small data card weighing a few hunded grams".. thats all.. And LCA too will have an ODL.
12. What will happen if IN decides to go for CATOBAR for IAC-3 or 4 to suit their interest, if any, in E2C or E2D hawkeye?
Naval HQ has posed this situation to ADA and ADA did a thorough study.. LCA-N can easily be modified to suit CATOBAR operations.. All it needs is a modification of the nosewheel landing gear.. The fuselage as such is designed to take 4.5G's in the horizontal plane - as expected in the CATOBAR operations..
13. There are plans for IRST.. But that will come much much later.. probably only in Mk2.
14. LCA Mk2 will have a higher thrust engine and the "necessary fuselage modifications".. But no larger wing or longer fuselage as reported in some newspapers. Will just add to the post as and when I recollect more stuff..
(From iceman 2009)
