7.0 CHAPTER 7
This chapter is a collection of maneuvers and techniques as described by some of the instructors in the Air-Warrior Training Academy.
7.1 REAL-LIFE TACTICS AND AIR WARRIOR
by Brooke
Air Warrior is a pretty realistic simulation. Most of the things that work in real-life air combat work also in Air Warrior. That's why, if you want to learn more about air combat, you should read "the Bible" of ACM: FIGHTER COMBAT, by Shaw (see the "Recommended Books and Movies" appendix).
However, there are some maneuvers that don't work in Air Warrior very well, at least not without a little modification, because planes in Air Warrior have a "hit bubble." Because of communication delays, bandwidth limitations, and the associated slight amount of jitteryness of planes in Air Warrior (try flying in formation to see what I mean), for playability reasons, each plane in Air Warrior has a hit bubble around it that is larger than the plane itself. If you fire at a plane, even if your bullets don't hit the body of the plane, if they connect with the plane's hit bubble, you score hits, and the enemy takes damage. So, if there's a hit bubble around your plane that is two wingspans in diameter, you can imagine that some maneuvers won't work. Consider a very tight barrel roll. In real life, maybe that would keep you away from a pursuer's gunfire if the pursuer is just flying straight and level behind you. However, the hit bubble might not be out of the line of fire, not unless you have a larger barrel on your barrel roll.
For example, you don't want to just slow down, trying to get an enemy to overshoot. He might overshoot, sure, but unless you get well out of the way in addition to slowing down, he'll put some lead into you as he goes by.
Top
7.2 FLAPS
by Kato
"Flaps are funny things...." -- opening words used in all the best lectures on how to use flaps during air combat.
Indiscriminate use of flaps during air combat is the surest way to get yourself killed, short of flying straight and level with your gear down. Having said that, there is an observation that needs to be made: of the three ACM fighting styles (angles fighting, energy fighting, and boom-and-zooming) only the angles fighters have any business at all employing flaps. If your intent is to use energy tactics or to boom-and-zoom your opponent, you need to maintain your energy state -- lowering your flaps can only hurt your cause.
Flaps can be used in both offensive and defensive situations. Either way, using your flaps makes a statement that has no exceptions. In the defense, your statement is: "I have really screwed the pooch on this one. I have given my enemy the dominant position in this fight, and I am now ready to employ any means available to survive." Make no mistake -- used defensively, flaps are purely a desperation measure. You've foolishly let some slavering killer onto your six. You can't outrun him, and you either have to out-scissor him or hope he just loses interest and flies away (not freaking likely!). If your position is untenable and if you must resort to flaps to save your bacon, the important things to remember are: (1) flaps are only going to help you in a defensive spiral, a rolling scissors, or a bleeding-edge chandelle, and (2) you are pretty much a dead man whatever you do; that is a fitting fate for the pilot who places his plane in front of an enemy's guns.
The Defensive Spiral. This is a frantic play for a few more seconds of life before you get shot to doll rags and can be executed in two basic ways. The first -- where you're going nose down in a spiral in an attempt to gain some separation and perhaps get the enemy on your tail to black out trying to follow you -- has nothing to do with the use of flaps. The other defensive spiral is an attempt to get an attacking pilot to overshoot your plane so you can either kill him or take advantage of a brief escape window. The intent is to roll your aircraft into a dive and to follow a tightly turning, corkscrew path without accelerating. Chopping your throttle, dropping your flaps (and perhaps even your gear) will all help you in your effort to turn hard and to stay slow even though you are pointed at the earth. If you are lucky, and if your enemy is stupid, he may either overshoot you or break off, at which point you need to trim for speed and run for as much separation as you can get.
The Rolling Scissors. Used defensively, the intent behind drawing your enemy into a rolling scissors is much the same as a defensive spiral. You are either trying to force the attacker on your rear quarter to overshoot or to break off his attack because he's too close to track your evasions. The difference between the two stratagems is that during a rolling scissors you are attempting to combine lift and roll rate to turn energy into angle. You should only use flaps to do this during the high-yo-yo portions for short periods of time -- just until you get the nose of your plane below the horizon again. You must time the "flapping" of your flaps with your plane's aspect to the horizon, while simultaneously remaining careful not to bleed off too much airspeed, lest you lose your ability to maneuver at all. Attempt to keep your aircraft right at its cornering velocity.
The "Bleeding-edge" Chandelle. This is the most risky use of flaps in the defense. For you to have any hope of success at all, you must have correctly judged the enemy on your six to have less energy than you, a poorer sustained climbing ability, and (hopefully) less ability to fly at the ragged edge of the envelope without departing from controlled flight. This maneuver is the exact opposite of the defensive spiral. You've sucked the enemy in very close and are now attempting to stay out from in front of his guns while hanging on your prop in a climbing spiral. If your judgments are correct and if you are better at flying on the extreme edge of the envelope than he is, he will stall and spin back toward earth while you climb away to safety. Quite simply, flaps may increase your lift and lower your stall speed enough to pull this off.
Just as in the defense, when you consider use of flaps in the offense, you are making a statement to yourself. That statement is: "My intent is to decisively engage my prey. I have decided that I will NOT be leaving this fight until my opponent is a cloud of smoking debris. It is my intent to stick to my enemy like glue until he is dead, and I am confident enough in my flying and gunnery skills that this event will transpire forth with, because if it doesn't, verily I will be low, slow, and dead shortly thereafter." If you aren't prepared to adopt the attitude described above, you have no business using your flaps. If you do have this pit-fighter mentality, read on, grasshopper! Obviously, studied use of flaps has no part in the boom-and-zoomer's or the energy fighter's bag of tricks. This is pure stall-fighting, angles-fighting, magic.
When, as an angles fighter, a pilot employs his flaps, his intent is first to increase lift at the cost of airspeed (due to increased drag), and by doing so convert that airspeed to angle. It is imperative that a pilot not bleed away so much energy that he loses maneuver options.
The technique used by many of Air Warrior's hottest pilots is to use flaps at the top of a combat loop, following the merge. The intent is to go immediately vertical and use flaps (and brakes, if the plane has them) to bleed energy while increasing lift, thus slowing the aircraft, reducing turn radius and increasing turn rate. The end result is immediate gun angle -- in effect compounding the lead turn on each successive firing pass until reaching a position on the enemy's rear quarter.
At near-stall speeds, flaps can make the difference between hanging inverted at the top of a loop and being able to pull your plane's nose back down below the horizon. When employed in this manner, keep in mind that some planes -- most notably the F6F -- are difficult to pull out of the bottom of a loop if you have your flaps lowered. This can quickly lose a dogfight for you or, at low altitudes, result in your attempting to fly your plane below ground level -- not recommended for your aircraft's structural integrity.
Some planes benefit more from use of flaps than others, and those that have incremental flaps usually benefit the most. A rule of thumb which holds true for most planes with low wing loading is that if it has incremental flaps (flaps which can be locked in an intermediate position), then angles fighting should be done with at least 1/4 to 1/3 flaps. In planes with low wing loading and only two flap positions (up or down), this becomes problematic. The solution -- only available with significant practice -- is to attempt to keep your flaps at partial extension through constant switching between flap extension and retraction -- flapping your flaps, if you will.
Remember: Flaps are funny things; handle with care.
Top
7.2.1 OTHER FLAPS
by Brooke
The use of flaps is important. Since it often helps to get more than one point of view, I decided to add the following, even though there is substantial overlap with what Kato wrote. Here are the situations I have in mind when I'm deciding how to use flaps.
The desperation move in a slow, flat turn. Here, you are chugging along at low speed in a turn, without many options, and the enemy is closing on your tail. Maybe you don't even have much altitude. Basically, you have blown the fight so far. Now what do you do? Well, in this situation, while it is true that flaps won't always increase your steady-state turn rate (it depends on the plane), flaps will descrease the radius of your steady-state turn. Also, dropping flaps will MOMENTARILY increase your turn rate (until your plane slows down) -- perhaps enough to get you out of your enemy's sights for part of a turn and to buy you some more seconds of life.
The closing move in an angles fight. Here, the situation is actually similar to the one described in the previous paragraph except that you are the one in the good position, almost ready to bring guns to bear on the enemy's plane. Here, you can drop a notch of flaps to generate that little bit of extra turning rate you need to get the angle on the enemy, to bring your guns to bear for the kill. It's better to get the kill without deploying flaps (it's safer, since you don't waste any energy), but if you feel that you are safe in dropping some flaps and if you are pretty sure it will give you the angle you need for a good shot, you might want to go for it.
Getting the nose down at the top of a loop, top of a high yo yo, or top part of rolling scissors. Here, at the top of the loop, high yo yo, or rolling scissors, if you are near stall speed and if you want to get your nose down quickly (perhaps for a shot, perhaps to keep from getting shot), you can drop flaps. This increases your lift -- and your drag, but you don't care about that too much since you'll soon be accelerating rapidly as the nose comes down -- and allows you to pull the nose down through the top of the loop more quickly. You retract flaps once your nose comes down, once you are diving and picking up speed.
Generating maximum turn rate in a spiral dive or diving barrel roll. Some planes, like the P-38, P-51, and N1K1, can drop one notch of flaps -- often called "maneuvering flaps." In a nose-low turn (i.e., a descending spiral), the fact that you are diving allows you to keep your speed up. Then, if you have a notch of flaps deployed, you can adjust your dive and thus your speed so that you are generating a maximum turn rate for the plane. For some planes, like the P-38, this nose-low turn with a notch of flaps results in excellent turn rates that few planes can match. (The defense, of course, is not to follow the P-38 into a nose-low turn for extended periods of time.) You can also use this tactic in a diving barrel roll to increase the pitch of your flight path, which is like a corkscrew, and to keep your speed down closer to the 225-250 knot range talked about in the next paragraph.
Keeping your speed low. In some situations, you want to keep your plane from accelerating. Why? Well, it is true that scrubbing away speed on purpose means that you are lowering the energy state of your plane, which can be bad, of course. However, down to a point (about 225-250 knots or so, depeding on the plane), lower speeds mean better turning rates AND better turning radii. If your opponent has a lot more speed than you do, you can do things like go into a nose-low turn or split S -- with flaps deployed, throttle chopped, or speed brakes deployed (in planes that have speed brakes), or a combination of all of these things. If you maintain a speed closer to that 225-250 knot range while your opponent is well above that speed and still trying to maneuver with you, he can have a problem. He might overshoot while trying to get his guns to bear, and you can maneuver onto his tail as he overshoots.
Keeping your speed low, part 2. Let's say that you're in a plane (like the P-51, P-38, or N1K1) that can drop a notch of flaps at high speed (300 knots or more). Let's say that you are tooling along at 300 knots, and you are in a fight with a plane that can't deploy flaps or speed brakes at that speed. You can drop a notch of flaps and loop hard on the opponent, who (without chopping throttle, and perhaps not even then) cannot follow your maneuver. You might be able to loop around onto his tail and get a quick shot. It sometimes works with P-51's being followed by Spitfires, which are notoriously bad at bleeding off speed.
Top
7.3 NOSE-LOW TURNS
by Kato
When speaking of nose-low turns in the context of air combat maneuvering, pilots aren't generally speaking of gentle thirty-degree bank coordinated turns where your cowling happens to be slightly beneath the horizon. In the context of ACM, the aircraft is usually describing a hard turn with the wings close to -- or even beyond -- the 90-degree point, with the pilot pulling positive G's even while inverted.
These diving spirals have both offensive and defensive applications, although execution of the maneuver -- and the caveats thereof -- remain similar. Anytime the nose of your aircraft is significantly below the horizon -- even when the drag of high G forces are bleeding away your energy -- expect the aircraft to gain speed as it converts the potential energy of altitude to kinetic energy (airspeed). This conversion brings with it several dangers. The primary one is that as airspeed rises, so does turn radius, which may give an enemy the ability to cut inside your turn for an easy deflection shot. This is basic physics. It is obvious to even inexperienced pilots. And everyday it trips up pilots who know better. To defend against this, watch your airspeed as hard as you watch your six. In a steep dive, only moments separate controllable airspeed from an uncontrolled compressibility lockup.
When flying defensively, avoid turning your plane into a bullet magnet by never cutting a predictable path through the air until you are well clear of any enemy. If your intent is not to disengage from an enemy, chopping or cutting back throttle will help you avoid unwanted airspeed. This, along with cunning use of flaps or landing gear may even force an unwary enemy plane to overshoot -- although this defensive spiral is strictly a desperation ploy and is unlikely to pull your bacon out of the fire against any but the most inexperienced enemy.
Top
7.4 OTHER NOSE-LOW TURNS
by Brooke
Some planes can generate a huge turn rate under the appropriate circumstances (like the P-38 with a notch of flaps). In a nose-low turning fight for this situation, you want full power (and WEP if you have it) and a notch of flaps if you have them. Then you go into as much of a dive in your turn (a descending spiral) as you need to generate 6 g's and a flashing stall light. You want only as much speed as is necessary to stay out of the stall at 6 g's. You are flying two edges: the edge of blacking out and the edge of the stall. You want to use high-speed flaps (if your plane has them) because this edge of the flight envelope will occur at a lower speed (and thus a smaller turning radius) by using 10-15 degrees of flaps.
So, you use this to generate a larger turn rate than your enemy (so that you can come around on his tail and shoot him) and simultaneously to generate a smaller turn radius than the enemy (so that he has an even tougher time getting a shot on you). The problem is that the enemy can refuse to go into a descending spiral with you, and then you will end up lower than he is, and you can be in trouble. The best results are for tempting him into it: do a turn or two flat with him gaining on you a little, and then ease into the descending spiral. If he follows you, he might stay in it until it's too late for him.
This maneuver is best used when the following conditions are met. First, your plane turns better than the enemy plane at some speed above stall speed. Second, your plane turns worse than the enemy plane near stall speeds. In other words, you can out-turn him in a spiral descent but can't out-turn him in flat turns. It is a good way (if you can sucker the enemy into it) to eat up an enemy's initial large energy advantage as, after the two of you have done several revolutions, you will both be at about the same energy.
This maneuver is risky, though. Eventually you do run out of altitude, right? -- and you will most likely run out before a pursuing enemy if you weren't able to come around on him. I don't recommend this maneuver highly, but it does have its moments, and it's one of the few angles tactics you can use when the enemy plane holds most of the cards. I think that energy tactics or running are wiser, but they aren't as action packed. You can turn this maneuver into a spiral escape or a vertical escape (see Chapter 3) if you get desperate.
Top
7.5 SPLIT-S ATTACK
by Brooke
This attack is a B&Z tactic. You overfly the enemy, heading in a direction generally opposite to the direction he is going. When you are near the enemy, roll inverted and watch him in your forward-up view. When he is near the limit of your forward-up view, ready to go into the up view (i.e., he's starting to go directly under you), go into a split S. You might need to chop your throttle to keep out of compressibility or to keep from dropping too far below him in the split S -- it requires good timing that you will get with practice. If you do it right, though, you will pull out of the split S as you are entering range for a shot on his tail. If he didn't see you and hasn't evaded, start shooting at 600 yards. If he has evaded hard, you might have to forgo the shot altogether -- don't waste your ammo on a shot that won't hit. Either way, go into a very gentle climbing turn once you pass him (assuming that you are blowing by him at high speed). If you don't have speed on him, you might want to dive out and get some distance. Once you have your distance (1600 yards or more), you can climb back up to altitude
and come back for another run on the enemy.
To combat this when it is used on you, see the "Avoiding B&Z" section.
Top
7.6 VERTICAL YO-YO ATTACK
by Brooke
This is a B&Z tactic. You dive vertically upon the enemy, firing when you are within 500-600 yards. It will be difficult for the enemy to evade well unless he has some speed, and this is mighty fun when the enemy has a better dogfighting plane but no speed. It's like doing a tap-dance on his head. After you pass him, pull up hard into a vertical climb. Hold the vertical climb until you near stall speed, then pull over the top. Now fly over the enemy again, and repeat the process until you run out of an altitude advantage.
To combat this when it is used on you, see the "Avoiding B&Z" section.
Top
7.7 AVOIDING B&Z
by Brooke
So, some guy with a load of altitude on you is bouncing you repeatedly. What do you do? Well, obviously, when he is close to you, you want to evade, but what's the overall strategy? There are two techniques that I like: going high and going low.
Going high involves eating into the enemy's altitude advantage. So, whenever the enemy is jockeying around above you, out of guns range, you should be climbing. However, keep your airspeed up so that you can evade when he makes his pass. You should have enough airspeed in order to pull 5-6 g's in your plane (175-225 knots depending on the plane). Or you can be more daring, do a harder climb at a lower speed, and do a nose-low turn as your evasive when the enemy does his gunnery pass. Go back into your climb in the direction of the enemy as soon as he is past you. You want to climb toward the enemy -- you want him to have to maneuver to get anything better than a head-to-head shot. At some point, especially if your plane climbs better than his, you will get to his altitude, and then you can press the fight instead of being on the defensive.
Going low involves going right to the deck. Do this when the enemy's plane climbs better than yours or when you don't think you can eat into his altitude advantage. Diving on someone when that someone is on the deck is very dicey (due to speed and angle) -- the enemy will have to dive down, level out, and approach you levelly. After the enemy does his pass, turn gently (not to waste energy) toward him so that his next pass will have to be head-to-head (and you can jink to avoid). Try for 50 ft. if you can -- that leaves the enemy with very little room for any pullout if he's not careful how he approaches. If the enemy wastes a lot of energy in going after you while you are low and if you judge that now you can eat into his altitude advantage, you can switch to the "going high" approach now.
Top
7.8 JINKING
by Brooke
Much reference has been made to jinking. Jinking is used mainly in two situations: to avoid a head-on shot or to avoid getting shot while you run away. Jinking is flying erratically, with little unpredictable deviations added to your flight path but not significantly affecting the direction you are headed.
To avoid a head-on shot (where you and an enemy are approaching nose to nose), first you should veer gently away a bit, so that your nose is not pointed right at the enemy. That generates some angle so that you are harder to track. Second, as the enemy gets within guns range (1000 yards or so), pull a few g's in a direction of your choice or do a few-g barrel roll. Don't pull lots of g's, or you will waste energy; and don't veer too far away from your enemy, or you will generate enough separation (distance between the two of you) that your enemy will be able to go for an angles shot on you. I like to turn slightly away from the enemy at about 2000 yards. Then at 1000 yards, I turn gently toward him, but still with my nose pointed slightly above or below him. This way, as he closes to within gunnery range, I am turning but am not headed right at him. Turning toward him denies a good angles shot.
To avoid getting shot while you run away, you can do one of two things. If your plane has a large roll-rate advantage over the enemy plane (e.g., you are in a FW 190 and the enemy is in a Yak 9D, and both of you are going 300 knots), you can do barrel rolls or parts of barrel rolls at random. Make sure they are barrel rolls and not just aileron rolls (as described in Chapter 1) so that you get out of the line of fire. If you don't have such a roll-rate advantage, roll to a direction picked at random, pull a few g's, roll to a new direction at random, pull a few g's, and so on. Push some negative g's once in a while at random, too. Pick new directions quickly -- don't hold your few g's until you are turning away much from your intended flight path (namely, directly away from pursuit). You don't want something as drastic as an S curve, for example. Just a few g's, pulled for a second or two at a time, then roll to the next position. You an also roll while pulling some g's, or pushing g's. The whole point is to fly erratically, to try to stay out of the enemy's stream of bullets, but not to deviate too far from flying directly away from the enemy. This will usually work only if your plane is faster than the enemy's, of course, this method of running away.
Top
7.9 EXTENDING
by Brooke
Extending is the process of putting more distance between you and your enemy. This is commonly done when B&Z attacking a plane that can beat you in a low-speed fight. At some point, as your energy advantage decreases, you might find that you'd like a bit more separation so that you can move off to get more altitude or to re-evaluate the energy state of the enemy.
If you are going quite fast compared to the enemy, you can simply continue flying mostly level, perhaps with a very slight turn to throw off the chance that the enemy can get a good shot as you go by.
If you don't have a substantial amount of speed on the enemy and if he's in a position as you pass to get a shot on your tail as you extend, you might want to hold a dive as you pass him. In the dive, you will pick up speed and distance more quickly. Again, be turning gently in the dive, or, if you judged that you needed a very steep dive, even a vertical dive, in order to get the separation you need quickly enough, you can barrel roll or jink or both until you are out of range.
One thing to keep in mind if you are diving away from an enemy, extending, is that reducing the g's your plane is pulling will help you to accelerate faster. This is because lift causes induced drag, as discussed before. You can "unweight" -- push forward slightly on the stick until your g-meter reads just more than 0 g's. 0 g's would be best (for getting rid of induced drag), but your engine needs some g's to keep its oil pump happy. Unweighting will help you to accelerate faster, but beware that jinking might be more important than unweighting if the enemy is in range of a shot.
Top
7.10 AVOIDING WING FAILURE
by Brooke
The N1K1, Ki-84, Spitfires, Yak 9D, and A6M5 are all susceptible under certain conditions to wing failure. The Spitfires suffer wing failure above about 480 knots IAS, whether or not they are pulling lots of g's. The others suffer wing failure at lower speeds but at high g's (more than 6-8 g's). This generally is not a problem. You just have to be careful of the 500 knot range in the Spitfires; and for the other planes, since you usually don't want to pull more than 6 g's anyway, you don't get into trouble -- unless you hit compressibility.
Compressibility (or "compression") happens when the air over the top of the wing hits supersonic velocities. This can happen when an aircraft is traveling less than the speed of sound because wings displace air, and air has to move more quickly than if it didn't have to travel the longer path across the surface of the wing. When the air over the surface hits Mach 1, strong shock waves form that sweep back from the wing and interfere with the control surfaces. The controls can be effectively rendered immovable. Since the speed of sound increases at higher densities and thus at lower altitudes, compression is more of a problem at high altitudes than low. All of the planes in Air Warrior will hit compressibility if you dive them from a high enough altitude.
Now, this wouldn't be such a big problem except for the transition from compressibility to normal flight. Here's how the problem happens. A pilot hits compressibility (where the screen is shaking to indicate buffeting of the aircraft and where the controls are mostly ineffective) in a high-speed dive, possibly while trying to fire upon a fleeing enemy. He tries to pull out (either because he wants to stop the dive or because the enemy is pulling up), but because the controls are ineffective, even though he pulls all the way back on the stick, he is only pulling 3 g's or less. So, he keeps pulling and eventually gets the nose up, whereupon the speed comes down, or he chops his throttle, or both. The speed comes down, the plane comes out of compressibility. The problem is that, immediately upon coming out of compressibility, the control surfaces have their usual effectiveness. If the stick is all the way back when the plane comes out of compressibility at, say, 350 knots, the plane immediately pulls much more than 6-8 g's. That's when the wings on some planes have structural failure.
The solution is to watch the transition out of compressibility. If you are in compressibility, don't pull back more than what you need to generate 2-3 g's or so. Pulling back more won't help your pullout but might cause wing failure as soon as compressibility ends. Pull back gingerly only -- only enough for those 2-3 g's -- and as soon as the plane comes out of compressibility, immediately release enough back pressure on your stick so that you are pulling only 6 g's or less.
Top
7.11 FURBALL TACTICS
by Brooke
A furball is a large dogfight, involving many allies and enemies. The safest way to attack in a furball is with B&Z tactics; the second safest is with energy tactics; and the most unsafe is angles tactics (but, hey, it's fun).
I'll start with angles tactics first. With angles tactics, you are in the furball -- you are one of the pieces of hair that makes up the fur -- and it's difficult to employ the neat set of strategies that are useful in a one-on-one fight. The most important difference is that you have to VERY frequently check your six. Check every few seconds. Check before or as you slack off on the g's you are pulling. Check before or as you reverse the direction of your turn. If someone is coming in for the shot, you have to pull g's to evade, even if it means you have to abandon a shot on the guy you're following. If one enemy is too difficult to kill, go for someone else (who might be giving you a nice shot as he goes after somebody). Be careful when you change targets, though -- the guy you were after (if he is any good) will keep an eye on you and perhaps come around on your tail as you go after another target. If you get in trouble, pull some g's. Nose-low turns are good if you don't have much energy. Split S's are useful. Anything that allows you to pull lots of g's to get the hell out of the way is useful. Don't get very slow in a furball (like at or below stall speed), as you won't be able to get out of the way if you have to. Of course, if you are in a stallfight next to the ground, you have no choice but to keep turning at stall speed (until you are dead, someone bails you out, you kill your opponent, or your opponent breaks off). If you are in deep trouble, head for friendlies. Head for a crowd. Furballs are confusing places, and whoever is on you hard might lose sight of you or find an easier target. If you do get way too slow and if someone is coming in for the shot, go into a spin (if you have the altitude) -- it's better than just hanging there.
For energy tactics, you can circle around near the top of the furball, looking for people who come up at you but don't quite have the energy to do it. Or you can circle and look for low-energy targets lower down in the furball, upon whom you can swoop down for a quick shot. Watch your six as you prowl. Keep your speed up. If you get into trouble, you can dive down through the furball, pulling some high-g evasives -- maybe your pursuer will go after an easier, less-maneuverable target. If you get clear, you can zoom back up to the top of the furball and look around again. Watch out for people following you back up -- watch your six.
For B&Z tactics, you basically come zooming through the furball at very high speed. Coming through level or in a very shallow dive is best. Pick out a target that is involved in a turning fight and that happens to be turning his tail toward you as you close. Fire at him. If you can't find something like that, fire at the best target you see -- but be careful of allies. After you pass through the furball, go into a shallow, slightly turning climb to one side or the other (not just a straight climb -- remember that it's harder to target someone who isn't in a purely vertical or horizontal plane). When you reach a range of about 1600-2000 yards from the aircraft on the outside of the furball, do a lazy (3 g) Immelman, dive back down, level out, and zoom through the furball again. You can also watch for aircraft that have zoomed through the furball and are climbing up but that don't have the speed you do. You can fly up on their tails and shoot them as they climb. Watch that this doesn't happen to you. You can also employ the "vertical yo-yo" maneuver on furballs -- see the section by that name. If you do, beware losing altitude with each yo-yo and ending up within the furball without any speed.
Whatever tactics you are using, one way to try to shake an enemy who is on you is to go into as dense a cloud of planes as possible and to do a high-g turn to a new direction 90 degrees from where you were headed -- or maybe a high-g split S (watch the ground, though). That way, you don't bleed off all of your speed in the high-g maneuver, but you end up at a radically different heading. Hopefully, the enemy will lose sight of you or go for someone who isn't maneuvering as hard. If you are going fast, and an enemy is hot on your tail, diving under a cloud of friendlies can allow some friendlies to split S onto the enemy. Or you can dive into the cloud of friendlies and turn hard, and keep turning hard until your speed and the enemy's speed are low enough for the other friendlies to engage.
Top
7.12 CHOPPING THROTTLE
by Brooke
As discussed previously, if your speed is very high, reducing your speed will allow you to turn more rapidly and more tightly. Chopping your throttle is one way to reduce your speed rapidly. This is good, but reducing your speed also means that you are reducing your energy. So there is a tradeoff -- when should you chop your throttle?
Usually, you should chop your throttle if you are following an enemy at high speed, and you notice your enemy drastically out-turning you (or out-looping you or out split-S-ing you -- they are all turns at heart, just in different directions). At the same high speed, all of the planes turn equally well as they are all limited by the g's the pilot can pull. So if an enemy is out-turning you, it means that he has slowed down. You might need to slow down in order to pursue. This happens a lot in planes that hold onto their speed very well, like Spitfires.
Likewise, if an enemy is pursuing you and if the two of you are going very fast, you might want to chop throttle as you commence a high-g maneuver, in order to increase your turn rate. Generally, you want to do this if you think that it will result in a good shot. Maybe you think that a quick loop back behind the enemy will work well. Maybe the two of you are in a high-speed turn and chopping throttle will give you a quick turn-rate advantage that will get you on the enemy's tail.
Regardless, being the first in a fight to chop throttle can be dangerous. If the enemy doesn't chop his throttle, except in the case discussed previously in Section 3.4, he will most likely end up with more energy than you. Chopping throttle is more commonly used in planes that don't have to worry too much about getting slow. These also happen to be the planes that hold onto their energy better and thus are more likely to need speed reduction anyway: Spitfires and the A6M5.
The safest place to chop throttle is when you are in a very fast, very steep dive. There, chopping the throttle so that you can pull out more rapidly does not necessarily use more energy than keeping full throttle and doing a max-g pullout. You'll go much lower during the high-speed pullout than you will in the chopped-throttle pullout. As an example, Section 3.4 discusses chopping the throttle in a split S.
Top
7.13 CLIMBING TURNS
by Kato
The climbing turn, or chandelle, is one of the simpler maneuvers. Useful when taking off from airfields where enemy contact is possible, a climbing orbit over a friendly ack gives one the time to gain some situational awareness about the theater environment while reducing the threat of being ambushed while still low and slow. Pilot preference and aircraft climbing ability will determine the rate of climb, but there are tactical considerations to chandelling up to altitude. Increasing the angle of bank (the steepness of your turn) reduces your climb rate, since part of your lift vector is now being directed horizontally (toward turning your plane rather than merely keeping it aloft). Thus, a tight turn lengthens significantly the amount of time it will take you to climb to altitude. Conversely, a turning radius that is too large may take one outside your ack's protection. When enemy planes are in the area, keep your climb rate low. That gives you a compromise between getting to altitude and sustaining enough airspeed to exercise defensive options in an emergency. This will help keep you alive if an enemy pilot decides to brave your airfield's ack in hope he can kill you and escape before getting shot up.
The chandelle also has more aggressive uses. Primary among these is its employment at the merge as a variant to the Immelman or split-S. Using the chandelle to take the reversal out of the pure vertical plane moves a lead turn into two dimensions (the concept of the lead turn is presented elsewhere in this manual; understanding it is crucial to air combat success). The largest advantage to using this "hard" chandelle in conjunction with a vertical post-merge reverse is that it moves you out of your enemy's plane of maneuver, forcing him to correct to your flight instead of vice versa. It may also cause him to lose sight of you -- no mean bonus! Lastly, a factor that could be a caveat or an advantage is that pulling the air combat out of the strictly vertical plane increases the difficulty of retaining control if a fight drags on to the point where both pilots are stall fighting (very low-speed, edge-of-the-control-envelope ACM). A good pilot may then be able to force the enemy into spinning out of controlled flight. After that, all that remains to be done is capitalize on his mistake!
Top
7.14 OTHER CLIMBING TURNS
by Brooke
If you are in a low-speed turning fight and if your plane has a large climb-rate advantage over the enemy's (see Chapter 7), you can sometimes go into a climbing turn without getting shot. This is a tricky business, but it can work when flying a Bf 109 (one of the best climbers in the game) against some of the slower climbers (Zeros, Ki-84's, maybe even P-38's, which aren't all that bad) or perhaps even when flying something like the F4U against a Zero. You will sacrifice some turn rate by going into the climbing turn, so you want to start it when the enemy isn't more than say 180 degrees around the circle from you. If the enemy is coming around for a shot as you are climbing, you can always evade with a nose-low turn (picking up speed and turn rate in the diving turn).
The idea is to go into the climb when you are closer to the tail of the enemy than he is to yours, but when you can't manage to get the lead you need for a good shot. You go into a climb. Now there are two situations to account for. First, if the enemy doesn't follow, but keeps a flat turn, you just have to watch out initially that he will out-turn you and get a quick pop-up shot. Make sure you have room at the start and go into a nose-low turn if he is closing too fast. If the enemy doesn't close before too long, though, you end up with a significant altitude advantage that you then can put to use whenever you want to increase turn rate (trade altitude for more speed, i.e., a higher turning rate). Second, if the enemy does follow, you generally don't have to worry about him coming around on your tail (as his turn rate will be lessened, too), and moreover you are now in a great position as his plane won't climb as fast as yours. You just wait until you have that altitude advantage.
Top
7.15 IMMELMAN WITH A TURN AT THE TOP
by Brooke
Many fights in Air Warrior begin with a head-to-head pass, as the enemy often sees you coming and is prepared for it. If you don't have any advantages over the enemy (a better plane, more energy, or more skill), the opening moves are often critical in determining who wins. One maneuver that I like -- but that is dangerous -- is the Immelman with a turn at the top.
Here, after I pass the enemy, I go into a lazy Immelman, pulling 3 g's or less. If I see the enemy pulling a very hard Immelman and coming around on my tail for a shot, I pull maximum g's to complete my Immelman. At the top of the Immelman, I see whether or not the enemy seems like he'll soon have a shot at me.
If the enemy won't have a shot, I roll to one side or the other (to the side the enemy is on) into as hard a flat turn as I can manage given my speed (which is near stall speed). I make sure I have WEP on, and if I have a plane that can generate better turning with some flaps deployed, I deploy them. I then watch for the enemy. If he wasted energy coming up to my altitude (at the top of the Immelman), he won't have as good a turn rate as I do or he won't even be able to make it to my altitude. He might stall out and spin trying to bring his guns to bear. If so, I most likely have him. If he doesn't blow it, we are now both chugging around in a stall fight, and I can fly the edge and see if my opponent can wring as much out of his plane in this flight regime as I can. Or I can go into a descending-spiral fight.
If the enemy will have a shot, I again roll to the side the enemy is on, but I don't roll into a flat turn, I roll only 45 degrees or so (so that I am still slightly inverted) and pull into as hard a nose-low turn as I can manage. I go into a nose-low turn instead of a flat turn as, at the top of the Immelman, I have very little speed and can't generate a good turn rate. If you don't generate a good turn rate, the enemy, if he is below you coming up, can shoot you in the side -- it's much harder for him to do that if you are turning well. Again, I make sure that I have WEP on, but I don't always click in a notch of flaps if the enemy is seems very skilled and aggressive -- I might need the speed to continue my nose-low turn into a spiral-diving escape. Again, if the enemy wasted more energy than I did, I will be able to come around on him. If he didn't, I am now in a descending spiral fight.
I like this maneuver because, if my enemy doesn't conserve his energy as well as I do, this puts me right over his head where he can't get me but I can use my energy to come around on his tail. Also, if my enemy blows his timing, I can be up gathering some airspeed in my turn at the top while he is still getting up there, which can allow me to come around on him while he's very slow. The big danger is getting shot in the side or in the canopy if the enemy pulls a very hard Immelman -- that's where your judgment of his position is critical and where quick counteraction is required (namely, the hard nose-low evasive).
Top
7.16 VERTICAL ROPE A DOPE
by Brooke
For the vertical rope a dope, you want to sucker a lower-energy enemy into following you into the vertical. Sometimes you can do this by diving down from a large altitude advantage, leveling off, going past an enemy who is going mostly in your direction, and just pulling up into a vertical climb. Sometimes, you use other B&Z tactics and just watch for the enemy trying to follow you as you climb -- then you go into a vertical climb. Sometimes you use it on a lower-energy enemy if the following sequence occurs. After a head-to-head pass, you both do Immelmans and are in a head-to-head pass again. Now you do an Immelman again, and the enemy follows but doesn't have the energy to complete it. The point is, if you have much more energy, you won't stall out, but the enemy who tries to follow up will. You have to be able to judge how much energy an enemy has compared to you, though -- you get that with practice. If he does follow you, watch him. If he isn't falling back and is close enough for a shot at your tail, it's time to evade hard. If he is falling back, you just watch for his rate of separation to increase drastically -- then he has either stalled or broken off. You then reverse hard back onto him. If he has stalled, he is now flailing around without any airspeed, and you fill him full of lead as you dive upon him. If he broke off, you are now chasing him and can run him down unless his plane can out-accelerate yours.
Don't get into this situation yourself. Don't get so slow following someone that you lose the ability to maneuver -- unless you are quite sure you'll get that shot or that the enemy won't be able to capitalize on your momentary helplessness. Watch your speed when following someone into a climb.
Top
7.17 VISUAL CLUES
by Brooke
You use visual clues all of the time in air combat as you are always judging the future location of an aircraft based upon your past observations of its flight path and attitude. For close-in combat in Air Warrior, when you can see the shape of the plane, using the visual clues is second nature. You'll know what's happening when a plane zooms up into a climb, then slows to a crawl -- he's near stalling. You'll anticipate when a plane rolls inverted at the top of a climb, that he's pulling back down to get some speed. All of this will come naturally and needs no explanation.
Finding the visual clues when planes are at a large distance, though, is less natural. How do you know what another plane is doing when it appears just as a dot? Well, you can always judge altitude, even of a dot. How far above or below the horizon is it? And if you see several dots, dancing around, staying roughly in the same location, you know that they're in a dogfight, that they probably don't have much airspeed. If you see a dot going up and down like a yo yo, you know that he's probably in the process of doing loops -- a looping fight.
Sometimes, in B&Z fighting, you will be attacking a plane that is involved in a low-speed turning fight. As you come through at high speed, it's much better if you can come into gunnery range while the enemy has his tail to you. Once you've been close enough to know which plane is the enemy plane, you can keep an eye on it even as it's a dot and know which side of the circle it's on. You can try to time things so that you are coming in when you are presented with the best shot.
Top
7.18 SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
by Bug
Developing Situational Awareness (SA) is one of the most difficult skills to be learned in the process of becoming an effective fighter pilot, but it's also one of the most important. Some would say that it is THE most important skill, next to learning the directions to the sheep enclosure, of course.
Part of SA lies in having a good grasp of the immediate 3-D tactical situation: knowing or having a pretty good idea of where planes near you are in relation to you, what direction they are pointing, how much energy (E) they have, and how much of a threat they are at any particular moment. Sounds a little bit daunting, doesn't it? When you're just starting at this game you are struggling just to learn the basic geometries of combat, and all the things I mentioned above tend to be overwhelming. Don't worry, for the longer you fly, the easier it becomes to visualize the immediate situation.
We'll talk about some of these things later, but there are a lot of clues to Situational Awareness that you can glean from information the game gives you. And in any situation, you can put yourself in a better position if you just apply a bit of knowledge of human nature. Don't underestimate this last bit, because you can score a lot more kills if you can guess what the other guy might do before he even thinks of it. Sound good? Read on.
The first thing you should always do when you first enter the game is to find out the odds, as follows.
THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU FLY
Yeah sure. You can just log on, go to your favorite airfield, grab your favorite plane and fly. Nothing wrong with that. . . . But you'll be a lot smarter, and kill more if you follow Uncle Bug's advice.
By this time, I'm sure you've set both your handle and (more importantly) your Custom Player ID (CPID). You have, right? If not the system automatically assigns you the handle of New User, and a CPID that is some random nonsense like "xtv145q." It's the CPID that appears in front of all of your radio messages, so if you change JUST your handle, you still appear to the world as "xtv145q." In other words, you appear to be clueless. This is bad, so click on the flight jacket in the lower-left corner of the Officer's Club to change this stuff to something meaningful.
The first thing that I like to do when I get on-line is take a look at the overall strategic situation. Specifically, I want to see what the odds are by country. This information influences my decision of what plane to fly, and where to fly that plane from. More on that later. To get this valuable info type the following into the text area at the bottom of the screen "/theatre". Most commands can be abbreviated. In this case, "/th" does it.
This will show you how many folks are flying in each country. Just add up the vertical columns to get the totals. But wait a minute! Half of the information has scrolled out of the little text window! Just hit the "F2" key to expand the text window to full-screen. Ain't that handy? This is also good for when you are in the radio room trying to taunt the masses into a duel, recruit gunners for your sissy bomber, or whatever.
Note the "/" character in the above command line. This is a little bit confusing, since while you're in the air, the "/" is used to talk on the all-country radio channel. See the radio chapter for details. But on the ground, all commands begin with a "/" character.
Maybe now you'd like to see if some of your pals are up -- or better yet, your hated archenemy Fill-In-The-Blank. You want to check the roster. Either click on the chalkboard, or type "/roster" (or "/ros").
Now you need a field to fly from. You can see a map of the fields by clicking on the view of the Spitfire out the window. This map is a nice feature, since you can also see the sector counters that give you some idea of where everyone else is flying.
As is pointed out elsewhere in this document, the map is divided up into squares called "sectors." Sectors that have planes in them have "sector counters" in the upper left corner of each sector. Enemy planes are indicated by the little orange squares. The number of friendly planes is shown by squares of YOUR country's color below the orange ones (blue for A, red for B, green for C.) Note that this map does not show WHERE in the sector these planes are. It just shows you that that number of planes are in that sector somewhere.
You want to fly from a field that is undamaged. Well you do, don't you? If you click on an airfield on the map, you can get a look at that field's current status. But it can take you awhile to go all around the map checking all of them. A faster way is to use this command line: "/airfields" (or "/a"). This shows you the status of all airfields in your country. You want to fly from a field that has Ammo, Fuel and Maintenance all at 100%. Exception: the Me-109 can fly just fine with fuel quality reduced to 85%.
Okay, now you've chosen your airfield. If there are no bad guys in the sector with you, go ahead and fly. But if there ARE bad guys in the sector, you might want to pop your head out and take a look around first. This is just in case your field's ack defenses are down, and the stinkin' rotten bad guy is circling just behind your takeoff point waiting to vulch you as you helplessly roll down the runway trying to take off. The term "vulch" derives from "vulture." I leave you to infer the meeting for yourself. . . .
So grab a jeep and take off in that. Why a jeep? For one thing, even if you do get shot down in a vehicle, it does not count against your record in airborne vehicles. For another, a jeep affords you an unobstructed view in all directions, and a view is all you want here. Take a look all around, and while you're at it, check the radar ("F10" key). Locations of planes close enough to be picked up will be shown precisely, and this you cannot do from inside buildings.
Some fields don't let you take jeeps out, but will let you take Flakpanzers. So fine, take one of those instead. However you'll notice that the view is quite bad from the driver's position. Type "<Esc>jg<Enter>". This stands for "Jump to Gunner position." There! Now you have a nice view. However, even if you see enemy planes nearby, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT shoot at them! If you do, you are likely to shoot down some of your countrymen without even knowing you did so, and this can make you VERY unpopular. See the section on vehicles for more details on this phenomenon, and how to avoid it.
This sounds like a lot of stuff to do, but in practice takes just a minute or two. And you end up armed with a pretty good idea of the enemy's strength and their general location, and this in turn lets you pick your plane and fuel load intelligently. But hey, if you want to fly that old Spit from a damaged field five sectors away from the nearest action, go ahead. But you'd do better to check things out a bit first. Trust Uncle Bug on this one.
THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU FLY
OK, now you know about the "/theatre" (or "/th") command, choosing an airfield by looking at the map and considering number and placement of sector counters, checking the health of your fields with the "/airfield" command, and even taking off in a jeep to see if bad guys are waiting to vulch you. Now it's time to get in a plane and take off and to exercise aspects of in-flight situational awareness.
Let's illustrate some of these things with an example that you may find useful. In this example, we will assume you are an A-lander. Why? Because, that's why. At this point you should probably go look at the Real-time European Theater map to get a good mental idea of where the fields I will mention (A83, A88 and B86) are in relation to each other. If you don't, you'll miss the point. . . .
Let's say you log on, and you use the "/th" command. You discover that there are only two A's up, nine B's, and no C's. You check the map, and by the sector counters you can see that there are two friendly counters and seven enemy counters in the sector that contains A88. Two more enemy counters are in the B86 sector nearby.
What does this tell you? It tells you that all the B's are busy gang-banging your buddies at A88, and probably flying from their closest field as fast as they can to get in on the fun. Human nature, remember? So, what would be a good plane to fly in this situation? Assuming that you want to stay alive, a P-51 would be a good choice, because it's the fastest plane in the game, and will stand you a better chance of getting you out of any trouble that you get into.
So you check the airfields with the "/a" command and find out that A83 is not damaged. You take off from A83 and immediately climb out towards the west, clawing for altitude. You climb up to 15k or so, heading west. You see a couple of kill messages, but the only friendly counters are still over A88. Apparently, your silly countrymen are getting all pissed off and taking off right away from 88 again after getting killed. This little furball is bound to be quite low over 88, right? Sure, because the B's will be trying to kill the A's just as they take off.
You notice that a couple of B's have been killed, and a couple minutes later two enemy counters pop up in the B86 sector. Ah! They're probably all bent out of shape at being killed and will head right back to 88 to get their revenge without bothering to gain alt. So you fly towards the point about midway between 86 and 88 and hope that you're right. And sure enough, there's a couple of low dots heading to 88. You head behind them, hoping that they don't see you, and knowing that your altitude will give you the speed you need to catch up.
If you time this correctly, you will ideally make your move as the bad guys get close to the furball, since they are more likely to be fixated on the fun coming up in front of them, and not looking out the back as they should be. (Human nature strikes again!) So you come in behind the trailing plane, keeping your maneuvers wide and gentle so you don't bleed off airspeed unnecessarily. You drop below his altitude so that even if he does look straight back he won't see you. As you get within gun range, you open up. Hits! Boom, he dies!
Now, his buddy is still 1000 yards away, but off to one side a bit. Also, he's just about to 88, where only one of your fellow A's is still alive. You'd have to maneuver hard at this speed to get a good tail shot, and losing airspeed in the middle of nine enemies would be a bad thing. About this time you see that the last of your buddies gets killed. All those bad guys were twisting and turning, slavering over his kill. Now that he's gone, they're gonna look around for something else to kill. And the only thing around is . . . you. Yes, you probably could get that second kill, but if you want to live you will straighten out, put the nose level or slightly down and blow right through this mess, only climbing out when you're well out of gun range. It's handy that your escape path towards home is already pretty much the way you're heading. It'd be a coincidence, but you planned it that way, because your SA is so darned good!
This is an example of the kind of considerations you find yourself making all the time in this game. Notice that I used knowledge of how many good and bad guys were flying (that I got from using the "/theatre" command while on the ground) and figured out the general situation from number and placement of sector counters. Then I chose a plane and tactic suited to the situation. None of this required that I fly like the Red Baron (and good thing, too!) just that I observe things, and use the information in an intelligent way. You don't have to be the top stick-and-rudder man to fly smart, and that is what Situational Awareness is all about.
Here's a few other general truisms of Air Warrior that you can use to your advantage:
-- Furballs (as well as any close-in turning fights) will tend to descend.
-- Almost everyone will tend to gang-bang at the least provocation. If you're looking to get your own kill, you might not want to join in with five of your buddies as they try to kill one enemy, but rather stay at a higher altitude and look for someone trying to come to the rescue.
-- Bombers almost always bomb the closest enemy airfield.
-- Pilots flying E planes (P-51, FW 190, etc.) straight into furballs at low altitude are almost certainly dweebs that you don't have to worry too much about.
-- Pilots flying E planes at high altitudes who fly right over furballs without diving in are aces that you should worry plenty about.
-- Someone killed on their takeoff roll (also known as getting vulched) who is mad enough to pop right up again in the same spot, to get killed again, will be mad enough to pop up yet again. To get killed again. Repeat.
-- Patient pilots kill more than impulsive pilots.
-- Pilots afraid to seize an opportune moment don't get kills. They just fly around.
Notice how the last two points seem to contradict each other. But they don't really, because the decision on when to be patient, and when to risk it all depends on the surrounding situation. Take a look around you when the moment comes for that decision -- or better yet, know the situation ALREADY when the moment comes.
The "/theatre" command for general odds, the "/roster" command for personalities, the sector counters for odds in each locale of the arena, and the radar and visual sightings for relative altitude and plane types. Not to mention some understanding of the way people behave in Air Warrior! All this enters into the decisions you make. All these things are easy to observe if you just make the effort. Common sense and awareness of your surroundings will go a long way to making you a killing machine.
But this is only the general part of Situational Awareness. There's the other part that pertains to dogfighting I mentioned earlier, and this I leave to those who understand it better!
Top
7.19 VERY-BASIC MULTI-PLANE TACTICS
by Brooke
Multi-plane tactics are more involved than the tactics you've read about so far. They are useful in situations involving up to about five or six aircraft. After that, things start to get a bit confusing, and you're getting close to furball tactics. At any rate, this subject is mostly "beyond the scope of this text," but I will give a sprinkling of details that seem to apply best to Air Warrior. I refer you to Shaw's book for more details.
If you are fighting two on one, it is best to start out with one of the planes using B&Z tactics while the other fights whichever way it wants. It's definitely not best for both to fight angles right away.
If you do get into trouble in a two on one, make sure you signal your partner that you need immediate help. Three clicks on channel 2 is what is commonly used (i.e., you hit the apostrophe key and then the "Enter" key -- do that three times in a row quickly). In Air Warrior on America Online, this would produce something like the following in your radio buffer (which means that Brooke is in deep trouble):
*Brook:
*Brook:
*Brook:
Then, if you can do it without getting shot, take the fight to a position under the free ally, even if you have to dive down a lot to do it. The free ally can then more easily use energy to get a shot on the enemy.
For partners who have a communication system worked out, you can do some fun things. Let's say that an enemy is following you. You're partner might tell you (with one or two clicks on the radio, for example) that he is in position for a drag. A drag is when you fly across the front of your partner so that he can shoot the enemy following you. It might involve easing off on a tight turn, for example.
You can arrange before engagement to do a bracket. You and your partner approach the enemy head on. As you get to about 2500-3000 yards or so, you move apart by about 1500 yards. Whichever way the enemy goes, the ally on the opposite side can turn toward the middle for a shot on the enemy's tail (if the timing works). Again, a click or two can signify the beginning of the bracket, when you are to move apart.
You can follow each other in trail, one 1000-1500 yards behind the other. If the enemy goes for the leader, the trailer can fire at the enemy's tail. If the enemy passes the leader, the leader loops back while the trailer continues forward. Now if the enemy stays on the trailer, the leader (having looped around) can fire on the enemy's tail.
You can both dive simultaneously on an enemy from different directions. Then, if the enemy turns to go head-to-head with one, the other has a tail shot.
Two-on-two fights are similar if you and your partner go after one enemy first. You can use the above ideas while watching out for the second enemy. If you take one and if your partner takes the other, then it's mostly two separate one-on-one fights until someone dies or until the two fights merge.
If you are attacked by two enemies, you are most likely in big trouble. Be careful of getting into a low-speed turning fight with one while the other does B&Z passes -- unless you think that you can polish off one enemy quickly. Be careful of going after one of the planes while presenting a nice tail shot to the second one.
Top
7.20 CHAPTER 7 EXERCISES
7.20.1 FLAP SETTINGS IN STALLFIGHTS
This exercise requires a watch -- a digital watch with a stopwatch function is best. Take up a P-38 to 1000 ft. alt. Use full throttle, and begin turning as hard as you can, staying at all times near 1000 ft. alt. Do enough revolutions so that your airspeed is steady in the turn -- i.e., go into a stallfight turn. Note your airspeed. Now pick out a terrain feature that you can recognize easily (a control tower, a mountain, whatever) and start your stopwatch when your nose passes it. Let your nose pass it two more times, and on the third time, stop your stopwatch. Now you can find out your turn period (seconds per revolution) by dividing the time by 3 (you did 3 revolutions). Repeat the test with 1 notch of flaps deployed, with 2 notches, and with full flaps. Which flaps setting (0, 1, 2, or full) resulted in the best turn rate (i.e., the lowest turn period)? How does the airspeed for that setting compare to the airspeed for no flaps?
Repeat this experiment with two other planes that you'd like to fly frequently in Air Warrior. Now you know whether deploying flaps in these planes matters much in stallfights.
Top
7.20.2 CHOPPING THROTTLE IN A HIGH-SPEED SPLIT S
Take a Spitfire IX up to 5000 ft. altitude and get it up to 250 knots. Do a maximum-G split S. (Careful not to black out.) Note your altitude at the bottom of the split S. Go into a 60 degree climb back up to 5000 ft. Note your airspeed at 5000 ft.
Now get the Spitfire IX back up to 250 knots at 5000 ft., chop your throttle, and do a maximum-G split S. At the bottom of the split S, go back to full throttle and note your altitude. Go into a 60 degree climb back up to 5000 ft. Note your airspeed.
Which maneuver (chopping throttle or not) was most energy-efficient (i.e., at the equal altitude of 5000 ft., which maneuver resulted in the highest airspeed)? How much lower did you go in the split S with full throttle than the split S with chopped throttle?
Top
7.20.3 CHOPPING THROTTLE IN A HIGH-SPEED TURN
Take a Spitfire IX up to 7000 ft. altitude. Get up to speed, turn on WEP, do a 45 degree dive back down to 5000 ft. altitude. Level off at 5k and wait for your speed to reach 300 knots. Now time how low it takes to do a maximum-G 180 degree turn. Note your airspeed at the conclusion of the turn. Do the same thing again but chop your throttle right before entering the turn. Is there much of a difference in turn rate (how long it takes to do the turn) or turn speed (how fast you are going at the completion of the turn)?
Top
7.20.4 COMPRESSIBILITY AND WING FAILURE
If your Air-Warrior program allows you to jump into films and take control of the plane, you can film the first part of this exercise and use it to do the second part without having to climb your plane back up to 20,000 ft. and top speed (which takes a while).
Take a Zero up to 20,000 ft. altitude. Get it up to near top speed. Turn on WEP for a couple of minutes. Go into a 60 degree dive. When you experience buffeting, try the controls and see how effective they are. Now pull all the way back on the stick and then chop throttle. Notice how your wings tear off as soon as you come out of compressibility.
Now do the same thing, but don't pull all the way back on the stick after you chop throttle. Instead, pull back only enough to pull 2-3 g's on the g-meter. As soon as you come out of compression, there might be a spike in the g's you are pulling -- immediately relax back pressure on the stick so that you are pulling only 6 g's. This is how to keep your wings attached coming out of compressibility -- watch those g's, and don't pull all the way back on the stick as you are coming out of compressibility.
Top
7.20.5 GENERAL PRACTICE
Practice as many of the maneuvers discussed in chapter 7 as you can. When you feel comfortable with them, try doing them in another plane of your choice.
Top