The posts from Mike ('wulfie', 2./JG 14) on the "warbirds.training newsgroup" are archived on this page (with some comments from others). The subjects cover everything from advice to new users to advanced tactics... all aimed, of course, at keeping you alive longer in the arena... thus "Arena Basics".

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Posted by: Mike ('wulfie', 2./JG 14)

Message:

Don't worry...

...be happy.

Usually, if more than 1 aircraft is 'warping' (jumping all over the sky, showing signs of unbelievable acceleration, etc.) your connect is 'shaky'. You need to relog. Sometimes, there's nothing you can do about this, your ISP is shot for the moment and you can't get a better connect.

If I am warping, or think I am, I usually say something on channel 100 - "sorry red A6Ms, this is Gold Fw 190, connect is toast, reloggin". But some people get pretty fired up online. If a guy is having a hellish day, he may just send you a "relog you warping bastard!" type message. Don't take it personal though.

As far as being a new guy...

1. Go to the training arena. Some really good guys there with years of experience. If only 5% of what they know rubs off over a week or two, you are going to be just fine.

2. When in the main arena...

A. Always try to take off at least 1 field 'away from the action' and climb to an altitude of 10,000'/3,000 meters before you enter combat. Having some altitude is never a bad thing. To find out where the action is, hit the F1 key from the tower, this brings up the map, with its radar so you can see little colored dots that represent friendly and enemy aircraft. Radar range is 20 miles per radar station. 1 grid on the main map is 20 miles on a side, and there are radars at every airfield, at cities on the Mediterranean map, and with every CV (aircraft carrier) group.

B. If you are not attacking or being attacked and evading, you should be climbing, looking all over the place, and 'calling 6' for every friendly guy you see around. There is no better way to win over the hearts and minds of your fellow Golds/reds/greens/purples than by saving their butts with a timely '6 call'. It usually helps to overdo the '6' part, i.e. "drex 66666666666". If you have the time, give the aircraft type and range - this helps your buddies a great deal...i.e. "drex 66666666 spit d21 and closing fast" = drex, there's a spitfire coming up behind you fast. It matters - it helps a guy to decide if he should try to outrun an enemy, outclimb him, force the enemy to overshoot, and if he has time to *set you up for a kill*.

C. In any aircraft not armed with extremely low velocity guns, set your convergance between 200 and 250 and try to avoid opening fire on an enemy until you are at d3 or less if at all possible. Probably 2/3 of your kills in the main arena are going to be against guys that do not see you coming. If you open up at d5 or d6 and hit him with 10 bullets, putting a few holes in him, the bad guy is going to break and run for his life. Relax and close in to close range before you fire. Ideally, you'll kill him before he even has time to say "wha-!?".

D. If you see 1 low smoking enemy and 4 of your buddies chasing him, keep climbing and looking around. That low enemy is probably a goner, and when his friends show up you won't be caught low.

E. As far as the F4U goes, when it shows up...

You can out dive anything but a P-47, and almost dive with a Fw 190.

You can roll with any aircraft in WB.

You have good firepower, but you have to hit at convergance to get quick kills.

You are one of the fastest aircraft in the game. The faster ones are the Fw 190D-9, Bf 109K-4, Ki-84 IA, P-51D, P-51B, and Spitfire XIV E.

This generally applies if you are above 8,000' altitude, and are flying a F4U-1D.

Turning is a complex thing - with the right setting and ammount of stick input, you can turn with almost any aircraft in the game long enough to get killing hits on it. But in general, do not conduct a hard turn in the horizontal unless it's going to save your life for a moment (i.e. you have an enemy barreling in on you at 500 MPH IAS and your hard breaking turn will ruin his gun solution) or it's going to get you a kill. Try to avoid turning for more than 3 seconds. The more you turn, the slower you become. A slow aircraft turning in tight circles attracks enemies in the main arena very quickly.

A good defensive manuever (but by no means the only 1) for you is to enter a dive...pick up some speed...then conduct a half roll and dive away - pulling some hard Gs after the half roll. Why? You gain speed quickly in the dive. And even if your enemy can dive with you, you are a tough target for 3 or 4 seconds as he matches your angle of dive. You also roll at high speed better than any aircraft in WB except the P-47 and Fw 190, which are your equals. So most enemies who lock onto your 6 in the dive cannot match your half roll. By the time they do, you have probably gained 400 yards to 500 yards of critically needed separation, and are still diving away.

F. Here's a good way to get some kills and make friends. Pick a friendly aircraft who is of a similar type (for the F4U, call it a P-47, P-51, or Fw 190). Now type ".hl xxxxxx" with xxxxxx = the handle of the guy you are following. Stay about d20 above and behind him. Then pick off guys who try to get on his '6'. Assign a private radio channel to him (by typing ".radio 4 xxxxxx"). Then, when you need to give him a '6' call, use the 'alt'+'/' keys to open up the frequency to him - your '6' calls will show up in glowing white, and are very easy to see. The good thing about this is that you usually know where the enemy is going to be in 3 or 4 seconds - where the guy you are covering is right now. And the key thing to being able to make good gun passes is to be able to fly 3 or 4 seconds ahead of the guy you are trying to shoot down.

G. Once you have about 3 or 4 months of WB time under your belt, go read Fletchman's writeups on flying the F4U and Energy Fighting. Until then, kill things and enjoy being immortal. 8)

See you up there,

Mike ('wulfie', 2./JG 14)

Newsgroups: warbirds.training

Subject: YES! 8) Read on...

...for some things about vertical engagements.

The short answer - you *definitely* want to be working the rudder and *sometimes* the flaps, depending on the situation.

Some aircraft don't need flaps to 'pull over the top' of a loop at any speed.

Some aircraft need some flaps at lower speeds, and some aircraft need both flaps and some rudder to pull a 'clean' loop at low speed. Practice your loops offline - when you get near the top, as the stall horn starts to come on and the aircraft gets a case of the 'pre departure mushies' you will need some rudder to keep the nose 'on line'. Also, one notch of flaps (maybe 2, if you are at a REALLY low speed) helps to allow you to pull the nose 'over' quickly without stalling the aircraft out.

Always make sure someone isn't climbing right up your tail as you loop - uninvited guests can be the most annoying, no? If you see someone 'zooming' into gun range, give yourself a little flap and roll out of the loop, towards or under the attacker if you can.

This is all very difficult to explain with words. I fly for the Golds...if you see me online, we'll set up a quick H2H, or you can fly as an observer, etc.

Oh, and read Fletchman's pages on energy fighting. 8)

Oh, and weak a silk shirt. You can't be cool without a silk shirt. 8)

See you up there,

Mike ('wulfie', 2./JG 14)

Newsgroups: warbirds.training

Subject: A: pitch settings

Glenn,

Try using 10/20/30/40/50/60/70/80/90 for pitch,and 1/4/9/16/25/36/49/64/81 for yaw.

These will give you some fine aimingcontrol.

As you get more and more 'smooth' with the control of you aircraft, you may want to slowly increase all values to 100.

Good Luck,

Mike ('wulfie', 2./JG 14)

Newsgroups: warbirds.training

Subject: If you want to live...

...make your fighter/bomber attack runs at very high speed and with a low angle dive.

There was a real life F-4 Phantom pilot who once stated that the technique they would use to bomb targets in a shallow dive went something like this...

"...aim...wait...feel...release..."

...basically, get your aircraft lined up on the target, then release your bomb when you 'feel' like you are going to hit.

It sounds really funky, but it works like a charm. It takes a fair ammount of practice in the aircraft you will be flying (i.e. don't jump from aircraft to aircraft when practicing) but when you get it down, you don't need a special sight, and you can put your bomb on the target from any altitude at any speed/angle.

Just get the aircraft you fly the most, and practice offline - alot. 8) Come into the target area at 10,000' altitude. When you see the target area, make a shallow dive (100% power + WEP) down to 5,000' altitude - you should now be screaming towards the target at 5,000' altitude. When you see the area you know your target is in, make a shallow dive towards that area. Ideally, you should be releasing on the target in a very shallow dive with your speed in the 425 MPH/700 KMH range.

2 thing to be very aware of -

1. Control your speed well. Don't let the speed creep up on you to the point that your wings fall off and you follow your bomb(s) in. 8)

2. Don't make an especially violent 'pull out' after you release - at the speed you are travelling, you could break some parts off your aircraft.

Now I know you may be more accurate with dive bombing, so why use shallow high speed passes? It's a much better tactic if you want to return to base, and when you 'get the feel of it' it is just as accurate. Basically, if you maintain close to 425 MPH all the way thru your attack run, even an enemy above you will have a tough time intercepting you before you can get to the cover of your wingmen. By reducing power and divebombing, you are making yourself an easy target for any enemy fighters in the area who have some altitude/speed to work with. As an added bonus, at 425 MPH you are thru the 'range envelope' of the enemy AAA pretty damn fast. This may not be a huge issue right now, but with human gunners and more 'in depth' ground targets/weapons/ordinance (can anyone say 2cm FlaKVierling 38?) coming in the near future, it will be - trust me.

So once again - work on one general shallow dive attack pattern offline. Pay attention to where your bombs/rockets hit, then adjust your aim point/sight picture/release time until you get the hang of it. If you work on it an hour or so every night, expect it to take a little more than a week (7 days) to get it down to the point where you become fairly (75% hits/target kills) accurate.

Oh, and as you blow thru after your attack pass, DO NOT yank into a loop to evade enemy AAA fire. Use some slight rolling and rudder work to throw off the aim of the enemy AAA gunners. By looping, you are setting yourself up to get killed by any enemy fighter in the area. An attacking aircraft is a prime target for many - a kill waiting in a nice and safe place - their own AAA.

Also, say you have 2 bombs. You release 1 on your first pass. As you zip away from the target, staying low, you see you have 3 enemy fighters chasing you. Drag them away from the target area. Do not turn until they do, or you get enough separation to loop and dive past them back towards the target safely, or until some wingmen clear them off you.

Why? So when your buddies come in to attack the target, there are 3 less enemy fighters there for them to deal with.

Some guys online will hate you for making smart attack runs. They will probably call "run away little P-51" or something like that on channel 100.

Ignore them. They are losers. Anyone who would question your 'virtual bravery' would do well to remember that *you* are the guy who is diving low/giving up altitude in the midst of a number of enemy aircraft just so you can have the 'honor' of being hosed down by some AAA.

Too many guys consider an attacking aircraft an easy kill. Don't play down to their level. Get in, hammer your target, get home, and help your buddies do the same.

Good Luck...and remember - yellow tracers bad, red tracers worse. 8)

See you up there,

Mike ('wulfie', 2./JG 14)

Newsgroups: warbirds.training

Subject: For the new guys - a few notes on speed, acceleration, SA, and staying alive.

Okay, it's not just for the new guys, but I wanted to get their attention. 8)

I've seen alot of questions/frustrated yells of puzzlement online and on AGW lately along the lines of "My aircraft has a higher top speed than his, how did he catch me!?". I'm hoping this will help.

First of all, when you see the listed top speed of an aircraft in a book, you need to remember that that speed was probably reached at a very high altitude, with an ideal fuel load, and in some cases without armament and/or ammunition being carried by the aircraft in question. Top speed can be important in WB, but acceleration, dive speed, and climb rate are often more important.

Altitude/Energy is often the most important factor of all.

So there you are, strapped into your superfast combat aircraft. Fully confident in your ability to dictate the time and place of every fight you enter into, because your aircraft's top speed is 21 MPH IAS higher than anything the enemy is flying. Here are some tips to help you get home to tell the girls how fast your aircraft is.

1. Develop/use/strive to achieve perfect Situational Awareness. The fastest piston engined aircraft in WB, flying along at maximum speed on the deck, can be caught by a much slower aircraft that has 10,000' of altitude to dive with.

Avoid getting caught on the deck when there are enemies around with lots of altitude (MUCH easier said than done, but get in the habit of paying attention to what's going on 10,000' above you).

2. Fly with a wingman. A good wingman helps a great deal with #1 above. In addition, a good wingman will often kill the bad guy shooting at you when steps 1 thru 492 all fail miserably. A good wingman nearby is never a bad thing.

3. I see this one all the time. Joe Smith is running for his life, with 5 enemy aircraft on his '6', the nearest one being about 600 yards away. Joe is in a faster aircraft, at a higher speed. He is leaving the bad guys in the dust. Then bad guy #4, spraying his twin cowl mounted 7.7mm MGs at Joe from a range of 800 yards, puts a few 7.7mm MG bullets into Joe's aircraft. No damage is done, but Joe immediately conducts a few turns in the horizontal "to throw off the bad guys' aim". The bad guys don't turn. Joe gets caught. Joe prays all those beers he bought the Air/Sea Rescue guys were $ well spent as the sun goes down and the dorsal fins appear.

Why did Joe do this? He probably panicked. He heard pings and thought he was about to explode. But the root of his demise was a lack of Situational Awareness/Threat Assessment - Joe was not aware that he was faster than all the bad guys and leaving them in the dust. Be aware of what's going on. Stay cool. Wear Silk Shirts.

Experienced WB players will try to get 'pings' on an enemy *just to make him turn, so he will be caught by his opponents who are flying a superior pursuit curve*. This is really done.

Alot.

4. When disengaging (or 'dragging' an opponent on your '6' to set him up to be killed by a wingman) use *very slight* dives, banks, etc. to keep the enemy from hitting you with gunfire at long ranges. A good shot can hit and kill a straight and level target at 800 yards almost every time. Never, *ever* fly perfectly straight and level when you know you are being shot at. Use those slight dives, climbs, banks, and jinks.

But remember to keep them *slight*. *Very very slight*. You would be surprised to know how quickly some aircraft lose speed with moderate maneuvers. And shifting your aircraft even 20' in the air can make you an almost impossible target to someone firing at you at a range of 700 yards.

Stay cool. Keep your speed up. Separation is the only real way to avoid enemy guns for any substantial period of time. Help is on the way. I'm diving in from 4000 meters altitude at 750 km/h in my Fw 190 with my hair on fire. Keep your flight path roughly straight and your evasives *slight* and I'll kill the Death Star if it's on your '6'. 8)

5. Give yourself a 'hard deck'. A good altitude for your 'hard deck' is 2000'.

You just blew up that enemy B-25C and escorts are milling all around. The B-25C was at 3700'. You blow thru your head on pass, and there are enemy fighters all around. Many of them are higher than you. So you dive down to get some more speed and get the heck out of

Dodge. Stop your dive at 2000' and level out. Keep that last 2000' for a rainy day when the Aliens come and the Buffalo Bills win the Superbowl. Use that 2000' only when an enemy is getting really close (like d4 to d5) and is closing on you fairly quickly. I'll explain why this is important with #6 below.

Remember - if you are at 10' above sea level and someone catches you while you are being pursued by multiple enemies, you are probably a goner. That 2000' can be used for a last ditch Han Solo style Split S if for nothing else.

6. Okay, so a slightly slower aircraft is closing on you fast. He turns better in the horizontal than you. He's going to get to d1 if you don't do anything about it. What do you do?

Bail out? Not yet. Keep on the silk shirt. Stay cool. Help is on the way. But you will have to do something to survive until help does arrive. So read on.

Here's where all the weird acceleration and dive speed stuff kicks in, as well as climb rate.

Basically, say a Spitfire VB catches your Fw 190 at 1500' of altitude. Now you are probably going 350 MPH IAS on he deck, and he dove from Mars to catch you. He's probably at 400 MPH IAS and coming right up your tail. What do you do? Well, let's see what the situation is.

A. He is travelling faster. Bad.

B. He turns better in the horizontal. Bad.

C. You out accelerate him. Good.

D. You are faster than he is. Good.

E. You out roll him. Good.

F. You out dive him. Good.

G. You are better looking, and far superior at playing 'Twister' under the influence of 7+ scotch and sodas. You cannot lose.

So what you want to do is this.

A. Force the overshoot (by using a rolling scissors and your superior roll rate at speed, combined with his high rate of closure) and dive away to get some separation while he re-accquires you. Remember #1 above. When he overshoots, you should be watching him overshoot if at all possible. If you can do this, you can often kill him as he overshoots (very difficult to master, but very gratifying anytime you pull it off - you know the last thing in his head was "how did HE kill ME?"). If you cannot shoot him as he overshoots, roll away in the exact opposite direction that he overshoots. This gives you the best separation.

B. Assuming you have saved your 2000' like a good WB pilot, engage in evasive maneuvers until you and your opponent are both at roughly the same speed (this is not all that difficult - your opponent will often be trying to pull 'lead' for a shot on you, and burning more speed/energy than you with each maneuver). When the bad guy is d3 to d4 on you, and both of you are at 200 MPH IAS, dive away. Your acceleration and dive speed will give you 300 yards of separation by the time you reach the deck. If you outclimb your opponent, you can start a very very very shallow climb after you reach the deck. This will increase your separation even quicker.

REMEMBER #4 above. A good pilot in a Spitfire VB in the above mentioned situation will often know that he has one more shot and then you are gone daddy gone. Don't make his last shot a high % one.

7. Part of Situational Awareness is knowing where you are on the map and where the nearest friendly base is.

So say you are climbing, slow as can be, and out of the sun you are bounced by a hot enemy pilot. You see him in the nick of time. You evade (probably with a split s or a hard breaking turn past the vertical). You are all alone. It is 1 on 1, and this guy is better than you (because you are new). What is really important now?

I'll tell you what's important. Knowing the heading to the nearest friendly base at all times is important.

You go into that split s, and halfway thru you roll onto a heading that will point your diving exit from the life saving split s directly at the nearest friendly base. Because that red hot enemy pilot is going to be after you like a rabid dog. If you have to make *any* kind of a turn to get running on the right heading, it will cost you enough speed/angle/energy/etc. that the guy who bounced you will get close enough to kill you.

Always know where you are on the map. So when you are diving to the deck missing your pilot armor, rudder, left aeileron, right wing guns, nose guns, both landing gear, and a large % of your engine oil, you can type where you are, where you are heading, your altitude, etc. all without having to go check the map on your thigh board. Being able to tell friendlies where you are and how screwed you are without having to study the map for 5 seconds is often a matter of virtual life and death.

Finally. Stay cool. Don't over react.

Enough help to save your ass is usually nearby if you have the presence of mind to summon it correctly. When help does arrive - HELP your wingmen HELP YOU.

When that Fw 190 comes in to clear the bad guy off your '6', DO NOT turn underneath him heading the opposite direction. A large % of new guys get shot down because they make mistakes.

This is understandable and expected. The quicker you learn to avoid those mistakes, the quicker you shift from being the hunted to becoming the hunter in the Virtual Skies of Warbirds.

See you guys up there,

Mike ('wulfie', 2./JG 14)

p.s. Don't forget, wear silk shirts. You can't be cool without a silk shirt.

Newsgroups: warbirds.training

Subject: Bad question. Read on.

A better question would be "What's a good way to blow an enemy to smithereens after a head on merge?"

Don't get me wrong here. I'm trying to make a point - you are limiting yourself in a way by assuming you have to get on your opponent's '6' to kill him, and I'm not talking about head on gun passes.

There's that famous quote - "Most dogfights are lost, not won". This is totally true. The craziest 1 on 1 engagements are the ones where neither guy makes a mistake for a long time.

What am I getting at here? You are probably going to get a decent % shot on your opponent (assuming your are a decent shot) *before* you wind up parked on his '6'. In other words, your first priority should be to shoot up your opponent without getting shot up yourself. Everything else is secondary.

Planning to get a camping spot on his '6' is often a luxury you do not/will not have (especially in multiple aircraft engagements).

So here's a couple of thoughts/ideas that might help.

1. Unless you are fighting an opponent with a vastly smaller turn radius, you are fairly safe if you can keep your opponent within your 'front 60' (a cone that goes 30 degrees off either side of your nose). Spitfires are good at this in both the horizontal and the vertical.

Using a lag pursuit (if you don't know what that is, ask me or ask this news group - there are probably a hundred guys reading this message that can explain it to you) while trying to keep your opponent within your 'front 60' usually works pretty nice. An added bonus - you are never far from a decent % gun solution if you are keeping your opponent close to your 'front 60'.

Endeavor to get him in your 'front 60' and keep him there *if* you don't really know what you are trying to do.

2. While attempting to do #1 above, always try to perform any maneuvers 'a little more in the vertical' that your opponent does if at all possible. Your opponent enters a tight right hand turn.

As you follow, pick your nose up a bit and then roll into the same turn as you follow him. That extra little bit of energy will often give you the minescule # of degrees you need to shoot up the bad guy.

3. If you are pursuing the bad guy from his rear quarter and it looks like things are going the wrong way - go vertical. It gives you the altitude you will need to escape for a moment or two if things go bad, and puts you in a superior position energy wise to re-engage. When in doubt, climb. Just be sure that the bad guy cannot zoom up your tail pipe and hammer you. Also, you need to endeavor to get vertical before it's too late if your opponent is trying to force you to overshoot. When you see the rolling scissors start, take your shot or climb and set up another pass

NOW, not 3 scissors from now.

All the things above are secondary. Kind of like specific counters or maneuvers in a martial art. You can recite them and study them all you want. But having the *principles* down well will help you learn all the specific 'what ifs' a zillion times better/faster/whatever.

Also, if you are well versed in the *principles*, you are more likely to do the right or almost right thing when you don't know exactly what to do. Am I making sense here?

Here are 2 principles that you should master as soon as you can.

1. Have near perfect Situational Awareness in the aircraft you will be fighting in.

2. Learn all about energy fighting. =flet= has a 1st class writeup on energy fighting on his webpage. Make this the first book of your WB 'bible'. Any aircraft, any situation, any type of engagement, it all boils down to energy and who uses it best.

[Thanks for the endorsement wulfie. Those pages are at:

http://members.home.com/mefletcher/acm.html

for those who may not have known where they are.

Michael "Fletchman" Fletcher]

About 1 year into WB I hit a plateau. I then read =flet='s energy fighting writeup and Cdr. Shaw's book in about 10 days. Then I read them each about 4 more times over the next 20 days. No more plateau. It sounds cheesy, but I honestly started thinking 'on a different level'.

Oh, and semi principle #3 - gunnery. 80% of the WB players are deficient in gunnery. Fire short bursts. Learn weird deflections in your aircraft of choice with your weapons of choice. The end goal is to be able to destroy your opponent's aircraft at any deflection and any speed at a range of 400 yards to 500 yards or less. Often times, in a fight between closely matched opponents, the end result is determined by who is the better shot. Another real life quote that holds true in WB - "Good flying never killed an enemy".

Good Luck, unless of course, you are fighting someone from JG 14. 8)

See you up there,

Mike ('wulfie', 2./JG 14)