2.0 CHAPTER 2
2.1 RADIO
The radio in Air-Warrior planes has 999 channels and one intercom channel. To change channels, type "<Esc>t", then the channel number, then the "Enter" key. For example, to tune to channel 69, you'd type "<Esc>t69<Enter>". To send a message on one of the normal channels, hit the "/" key, type your message, and then hit the "Enter" key. To send a message on the intercom channel, hit the "`" key (the one under the tilde or "~" key), type your message, and then hit the "Enter" key. To send a message on channel 2 regardless of which channel you are tuned to, hit the "'" key (apostrophe key), type your message, and then hit the "Enter" key.
Channels 1 and 2 have special functions. Channel 1 will broadcast a message to everyone in the game who is tuned to channel 1, even to people in other countries who are tuned to channel 1. Obviously, it's a bad choice for a message like "OK, I'm trying to sneak my B-17 past the C's to cream C1. Wish me luck." (Unless you are trying purposefully to mislead the C landers.)
Channel 2 will broadcast a message to everyone in your country regardless of which channels they are tuned to. Messages that come over channel 2 have an asterisk in front of the sender's name. For example, "*Brook: Hello, folks!" means that Brooke sent the message on channel 2. In historical scenarios, channel 2 is used by the command staff and for important reports of enemy positions.
On channels 3-699, only those fellow countrymen who are tuned to the same channel you are will be able to hear your messages as text . These channels are usually used for private conversations. In historical scenarios, each squadron or flight generally has its own frequency.
In Air Warrior III, channels 700-999 are used as Voice Communications (VOX) channels (using the "Q" key). These also are for private conversations with members of your country. Most squads in AW have taken a particular VOX channel as a squad channel, for instance Sky Knight Bomber Group uses 999 as their squad VOX channel. The channels are also used during particular raids where members of the raid can communicate with each other and co-ordinate attacks. At the present time the VOX channels are limited to eight people in one channel at a time.
The intercom channel ( using the "`" key to talk) broadcasts only to those people in your aircraft or vehicle (i.e., to the pilot and gunners). By using the "<SHIFT> Q" the VOX intercom will work.
In the Air-Warrior arenas, pilots generally remain tuned to channel 1 so that they can hear messages from and use "/" to send messages to people in other countries; but they use "'" to send confidential messages to all of their fellow countrymen, such as to report enemy positions, to form up bomber escort, and to form
missions. People in bombers or ground vehicles also use "`" to talk only to the people (such as gunners) in their bomber or vehicle.
Channel 2 is also used to call for help in a shorthand way -- in an emergency when you can't afford to type anything complicated. It's the "3 clicks" signal. You hit type "'<Enter>" (i.e., the apostrophe key and then the "Enter" key) three times in quick succession. On America Online, your fellow countrymen listening to channel 2 would see something like:
*Brook:
*Brook:
*Brook:
which means that Brooke is in deep trouble and is yelling for help.
Another custom on the radio is to reply with "cc" to indicate to a message sender that you have received and understood the message. For example, I might radio to you, "2 b FW 190s coming s from a2," and you would reply with "cc" to tell me that you now understand that two B-land FW 190's are headed south from over airfield A:2. Without the "cc," the message sender doesn't know whether or not you saw the message he sent. You might have been looking at something else and missed it in you message window. Use "cc" to avoid such uncertainty.
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2.2 NAVIGATION AND USE OF RADAR
Press the "F10" key to turn on radar. You can zoom in and out on the radar screen with the "[" and "]" keys.
When you pop on your radar, you will see a grid. North is always at the top, and your plane is always in the center. The grid lines form squares that represent sectors that are 12 miles on a side (10 nautical miles). These sectors are numbered in (x, y) or (column, row) coordinates. For example, if you are in sector (4, 7) and you fly into the sector east of that, you'd be in sector (5, 7). The sector north of (4, 7) is (4, 8) -- and so on. To find out where you are, type "<Esc>w<Enter>" (i.e., where am I?).
This lets you refer to positions in two ways. You might say "I'm 6 miles south of A1" if you are half a sector length south of airfield A1. Or you might say "I'm in (6, 5) ne" -- i.e., the northeast part of sector (6, 5). Being able to determine your location and the location of others by use of sector numbers and other references is essential for participation in historical scenarios and mighty useful in general.
In addition to navigation, the radar screen is used to locate aircraft around yours. If you are close enough to another air craft, if both your aircraft and the other aircraft are within range of one of your country's radar installations, if the other aircraft is not too low, and if the installation is operating (and not destroyed by an enemy bomb, say), you will see the other aircraft on your radar screen. These settings can be varied by Kesmai personnel, but generally, you need to be about 5000-8000 yards from the enemy plane and both you and the enemy need to be about 1.5-2 sectors from your radar installation in order for your to see an enemy on your radar.
Using the radar screen, you can also tell how many friendly and enemy planes there are in a given sector. Usually each sector has colored counters for enemy and friendly planes, so you can see where the action is, where friendly forces are outnumbered, and where enemy forces are outnumbered.
You can stay off radar screens by flying very low to the ground -- usually under 200 feet altitude. However, you will still usually generate a counter in a sector. So, let's say that you are in a sector that shows only one enemy counter. Let's say you are sure you'd spot an enemy on the radar if he were not below 200 ft. Now you know he's under 200 ft. In that case, he might be flying a bomber. If you are in a sector that is on the way to a strategic target, it might be that an enemy bomber is trying to skirt trouble by flying low, under radar, through a sector without a lot of enemies in it, trying to sneak through. Knowing this, you can go down and look around for such an enemy, just to make sure. Or, you can employ such tactics yourself when planning out a bomb run on an enemy target.
Radar -- AND out-of-cockpit views -- are limited in that you can see only a limited number of aircraft at once, even if there are more aircraft in the area. At one point, the limit was somewhere around 12 aircraft at a time, but that will change as Kesmai's computer programs are updated. At any rate, you can guess that it might be a problem if you see lots of friendly aircraft and then are shot down by an unseen enemy or if you are shooting at a seen enemy and shoot down an unseen ally who was on its tail. To get around such difficulties (which crop up mostly only in historical scenarios), there are "bias modes." You can set your bias so that, if you hit the limit, enemy planes are shown in preference to friendlies, friendly planes have preference, the closest planes have preference (which is the default), or bombers have preference. You don't have to mess with this much unless you are playing in large historical scenarios. The enemy bias is "'*re<Enter>"; friendly bias is "'*rf<Enter>"; closest bias (or unbiased) is "'*ru<Enter>"; and bomber bias is "'*rb<Enter>".
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2.3 SPIN RECOVERY
An aircraft spins when one wing stalls and the other doesn't. In Air Warrior, this happens when you stall while still holding in some aileron or rudder (instead of having your stick centered left to right and having your rudder centered). It sometimes happens if you stall while in a steep bank and slide to the down side.
Spinning can be used as a defensive tactic (as you'll read about), but in your Air-Warrior career, there will be plenty of times when you'll spin unintentionally -- while trying to pull just that LITTLE extra bit of g's to get on someone's tail, while not paying attention, whatever.
To recover from a spin, apply full rudder opposite to the spin, use your ailerons to level your wings and to keep them level, and push forward on the stick. As soon as you recover (your stall light goes out), center your rudder and commence a pull out. If before recovery you find that your plane is in a steep nose-down attitude, apply ailerons opposite to the direction of the spin, too (in addition to the rudder).
Quick recoveries require quick, correct action. The two most common mistakes I see in spin recovery are (1) not applying the action soon enough and (2) not recognizing the direction of the spin and applying rudder in the wrong direction. If you worsen the spin by applying rudder in the wrong direction or by waiting too long to apply correct action, the plane can get into a nose-down attitude where it seems to be rolling as well as spinning. That's when you'll need to apply aileron as well as rudder to come out quickly.
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2.4 TURNING ON THE EDGE OF A STALL
Often in Air Warrior, dogfights degenerate into stall-speed turning fights. In this situation, the plane that has the best low-speed turning performance has the edge. The pilot who can wring the best turn rate out of his plane also has the edge. It is very important to be able to turn well at near stall speeds.
In these conditions, you will be at full throttle (and often full war-emergency power, if you have any left) while the plane is buffeting (screen shake) and the stall light is flashing. What you want to do is to pull as far back on the stick as you can and still not stall the plane. There are three indications of stalling: the stall light going on (obviously), an abrupt decrease in the reading on the g meter (as your wings lose lift when they stall, resulting in your plane not pulling g's), and an abrupt decrease in your turn rate (again because of the loss of lift).
So, (1) if you see the stall light go on solidly (instead of flashing), (2) if you notice the g's drop quickly from about 3 g's despite the fact that you haven't released back pressure on the stick, or (3) if you notice that your turn rate as decreased rapidly (this you judge visually as the terrain stops moving by as rapidly) -- then immediately release some back pressure on the stick, enough so that the stall light goes out or starts flashing again.
In a real fight, once you have the experience, you will find yourself flying the edge of the flight envelope, perhaps occasionally crossing the edge but immediately recovering. You will be able to fly at the edge of a stall without losing altitude (in fact, this style of fighting is prevalent on the deck). If your opponent can't do this, you have a very big edge in a stallfight. He might stall, spin, and crash; or he you might out-turn him and then shoot him down. If he can't do this and you can, he needs a vastly superior low-speed plane just to
be even with you in this situation.
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2.5 TURNING ON THE EDGE OF A BLACKOUT
In the previous section, I talked about turning on the edge of a stall. That's the low-speed end of the turning envelope. At the high-speed end is turning on the edge of a blackout. This is where you will be if you are in a high-speed turning fight. Each plane wants the highest turn rate, and if you have enough speed, that rate is limited by how many g's you can pull.
Here, you want to hold about 6 g's. Any more and you will black out. If you do black out, your opponent can more easily maneuver onto your tail and shoot you down (as you won't be pulling many g's when you are blacked out). If you don't pull many g's (trying to stay away from blacking out), your opponent can out turn you. So, you want to keep an eye on the g meter and try to stay at about 6 g's. If you cross over 6 g's, back off immediately, and then pull back on the stick again to establish 6 g's.
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2.6 CHAPTER 2 EXERCISES
2.6.1 TURNING ON THE EDGE OF A STALL
To get practice with low-speed turns, take your favorite plane up to about 7k and then keep a level turn, pulling as many g's as you can without stalling. Fly close to the stall though, with the stall light flashing and with the plane buffeting. Do many, many turns to practice your ability to turn on the edge of the stall.
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2.6.2 TURNING ON THE EDGE OF A BLACKOUT
To practice avoidance of blackouts, climb up to 15k and then enter a diving turn (a spiral descent at full throttle). Make the spiral steep enough to keep your speed up to about 225 knots or more. Pull a continuous 5.5-6 g's. You will black out if you pull more than 6 g's for any length of time. Practice flying at the edge of the blackout (about 5.5-6 g's).
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2.6.3 SPIN RECOVERY
To get practice with spins, do the low-speed turning practice for a couple of revolutions, then pull back on the stick to get into a stall. When you are stalled, roll the plane. That should quickly initiate a spin. Recover as quickly as possible.
Also, practice spin recovery from the top of an Immelman. Pull up into an Immelman starting at about 160 knots. At the top of the loop (when you are fully inverted), pull back all the way on the stick and roll the plane. You should get into a nasty spin. (You can add some rudder if rolling alone doesn't do the trick quickly enough.) To recover, roll so that the plane is right-side up, then recover as before.
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2.6.4 FIGHT OFF-LINE
If your program has off-line missions, take up your favorite fighter and have some fights.
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