WarThunder - does fuel and weapon load matter in arcade mode?

The simple answer to this question is yes, it does matter what quantity of fuel and ammo load/type you take on board. It does affect the flight characteristics of your plane.

The more elaborate answer to the question is detailed below.

I did four tests - take off from the runway and climb to 1000m, measure the time; each with a sub test - screenshot the exact moment instructor retracted the gear and the "Gear Up" message appeared on the HUD.
In each test I throttled to 100% power with least humanly possible to not go into WEP (overdrive), and I did not touched the flight control surfaces. I used the US P-47D ThunderBolt in Test Flight mode.

The test flight were done with the following settings:

• difficulty level - simplified
• fuel and ammo - limited F/A
• weapons - mg x 8 (test 1 and 2) + HVAR x 10 (test 3 and 4)
• fuel amount - 5min (test 1 and 4) / full tank (test 2 and 3)

Test 1 - basic load of ammo (8 machine guns) and 5 minutes of fuel

time to 1000m - 1 minute and 30 seconds

Test 2 - basic ammo load and full tank of fuel

time to 1000m - 1 minute and 50 seconds

Test 3 - 8 x MGs + 10 x HVAR rockets and full tank of fuel

time to 1000m - 2 minutes and 8 seconds

Test 4 - 8 x MGs + 10 x HVAR rockets and 5 minutes of fuel

time to 1000m - 1 mute and 43 seconds


User named Jingles from the WT EU forums made this video regarding same subject:

Fly safe and knock them dead!
zMeul over and out