Appendix 8 - The Previous Introduction

The following is the introduction that I wrote for the Air-Warrior Training-Academy version of this manual. I include it here for amusement and in case the Academy gets up to speed again.

Welcome to the Air-Warrior Training Academy. The goal of the Academy is quite straightforward: to take you, the still unformed and malleable clay of cadethood, and to mold you into an aerial killing machine, one that will prowl the skies of Air Warrior and rain down death and destruction upon your enemies, be they in the air, on the ground, or on the sea. This goal is straightforward, but it is not easily achieved. To do so, two things must happen. First, the expert instructors of the Academy must impart a portion of their expert knowledge to you. Second, you must develop the skill necessary to use that knowledge. More than anything else, it will take a lot of practice on your part. This cannot be overemphasized. Air Warrior is a very realistic game, and the nuances of aerial combat cannot be learned without a great deal of practice and experience. Fortunately, this practice is usually a lot of fun -- and if you practice enough, you won't even once be asked to polish the Academy toilets with your toothbrush.

As a further motivation to succeed, keep in mind that, if you do become a deadly killing machine, feared and respected throughout Air Warrior's azure skies, it is a great source of pride to your instructor, who can then claim that he taught you everything that you know. It would be nice to tell you conversely that, if you do not progress past bumbling ineptitude, it is a source of great humiliation to your instructor, an indication of miserable failure on his part. The truth of the matter is that your instructor will in that case deny all blame, claiming that, despite his formidable educational technique, you were untrainable and would have been best employed in the mess tent piloting a potato peeler. However, let us dwell on the positive.

The Academy will teach you to fly with all of the realism settings for Air Warrior enabled: spins, blackouts, redouts, stalls, etc. Keep them on when you practice, too. If this does not appeal to you then you are probably operating under the delusion that Air Warrior is only a game. The Air-Warrior community is a collection of military-aviation enthusiasts, people who wish they could have been fighter pilots, and in a few cases, people who already are fighter pilots. (It might also have a large number of misfits who would be in prison if it weren't for the healthy release provided by games like Air Warrior, but that's beside the point.) When they shoot someone down, they want it to say something about their piloting skill. They want the fights to feel like what, all of their lives, they've read about in accounts of real aerial combat.

Without realism, you might as well play Super Space-weenie Shoot-'em-up (TM) v3.51. "Hey, I just shot down Darth Vader! Cool! I am one sierra hotel space-fighter jock!" you say? Who cares? But take up a Warhawk and find the heavily escorted Japanese bomber stream at 15k, heading south to hit Milne Bay in the Air-Warrior scenario "Saga of the 5th Air Force." Get out a quick message -- "Many buffs 1 sect n milne 15k. In in in." -- and dive in through a cloud of angry Zeros, every one piloted by a real person burning with the desire to shoot YOU down. Pick out a Betty and come screaming in for the shot. Stay on her as her pilot spots you and cranks into a hard break turn to the right. Watch those g's -- with so many Zeros around, you're dead if you black out. Feel the tension build as you pull some lead to get your shot -- you know those angry Zeros are only moments away from firing on you. Line up quickly and expertly, not missing the chance even though you're closing now at a big angle and 300 knots. Hold down the trigger. Watch the tracers arc out toward your prey. Watch the strikes all over the bomber as you pour on the shells. Watch the debris stream away and the Betty explode a moment later. Then slam your stick hard to the right, going instantly into an evasive -- you don't need to look back to know what's right on your tail firing right now. Click in war-emergency power. Barrel roll right, diving hard for the deck. Jink the whole way down, evading the angry Zeros, which are trying so desperately to kill you. Jink. Roll. Use your speed to get away with your life -- barely. Now you're talking.

There is a lot to Air Warrior, and the purpose of the Academy is to get you into the thick of it as quickly as possible. Before each session of the Academy (by "session," I mean the on-line portion, where you interact with the instructor), you should read the assigned portions of this manual and do the assigned off-line exercises. At the beginning of each session, you will be able to ask questions of your instructor. These questions usually concern the reading material or the off-line exercises but may stray to more esoteric issues such as why Air-Warrior pilots are vastly superior to and more powerful than the uninformed masses who fly unrealistic, watered-down flight-simulation games made for sissies. Next, after all of the questions are answered and after some amount of other pontification, the instructor will take you and your fellow classmates up into the virtual skies of Air Warrior and, among other things, teach you how to kill each other and how to destroy everything in sight.

The instructors are well qualified to explain such issues. They are a group of volunteers, pulled from the ranks of Air Warrior because of their flying skill and their ability to teach. You will be taught by some of the finest, most-experienced pilots in the game. They are also the ones who have collaborated to produce this manual. (As you read the following chapters, note that the collaboration is the reason for the inconsistency in writing style, not insanity of the author -- although sanity of all instructors is not guaranteed.)

Now, having trudged patiently through this long-winded introduction, you must be eager to get to the meat, your mind hungry for any tidbit that will help you to become the deadly aerial killing machine that you were meant to be. Or there's a potato peeler with your name on it. Which is it going to be?

-- Brooke

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