eadg posted 01-03-99 05:24 AM ET (US)        

Hehe, catchy title, eh? I spent the better part of today fighting gobs of Spit 14's, dying way too often, and cursing their very presence. It used to be that I could bnz spits with impugnity from 1500 feet or so above in my P51 or F6F, but the spit 14 (and to be fair, any well flow late-war e-monger) makes it next to impossible. I'll dive, take a gun pass, zoom, and there he is, after a high-g break to avoid my gun pass, climbing up to me form d9 below and knocking stuff off my plane at will. Sound familiar?

Well, in an effort to help some of you (hopefully even just 1 of you), I thought I'd lay down my thoughts on killing late-war "uberplanes". Mind you, I'm far too silly to follow this advice, but I urge YOU to try it just the same. Btw, this assumes you already know bnz basics and can get some kills from above the enemy by diving, killing, and climbing to safety.

Here goes:

1. First of all, as with any style of fighting where living is important, flying with altitude is essential. To me, in the late war arena (i.e., once the Spit 14 comes out), you need to be flying at 15,000 feet or above. So, take off at a rear field, climb in safe territory (above your fields, etc.), and only once you're at a safe alt (again, 15,000 or more in the latter half of the RPS) should you progress toward the battle.

2. Only attack these monsters when you have a significant energy advantage. To me, that means about 4500 feet of vertical separation (d15 above), assuming you are co-speed in level flight. If he's faster (which you NEED to be able to judge; look at the rate of change his distance using the icon as a hint), you need to be even higher (maybe d20 above). If you're co-alt with a Spit 14, click your heels 3 times and say... Hehehe seriously, DON'T use these tactics in a co-e fight with a Spit. Use your turn and / or roll advantage to chase him away...

3. The big secret: Mind your drag. One of the biggest breakthroughs I've ever made as a pilot was watching the accelerometer (the little G-force meter dial thingy). It turned out that in my normal bnz attacks (say with a P51), after I finished my dive and zoomed, the plane naturally tended to pull up into a steep climb as a result of the trim after the dive. Very good I thought - nice and smooth, no drag, maximizing my speed and altitude in the zoom, right? WRONG! It tuns out I was pulling 4-6 G's in that zoom. And guess what - G's equals drag. In fact, if you've read your Shaw or some aeronautical physics texts, you know that aircraft speed is basically current speed plus thrust minus drag. That is, your current speed is equal to the speed you WERE going, plus any thrust or acceleration, minus drag. Well, the biggest component of drag is the drag from wing loading, i.e G-forces. And the relationship is a nasty one - its exponential. That is, at 2 G's I have 4x normal (level flight at 1 G) drag, at 4 G's it's 16x normal, and so on. SO... if you're in a high-G climb or zoom, you are loading your aircraft with a TON of drag, which slows you down, which weakens your climb, which lets that friggin' drag-proof Spit 14 zoom right up yer tail and turn you into confetti. SO - what to do? Again, the answer lies in managing your drag. So, in the climbout after an attack, try and keep your G-load minimized. Instead of converting right into a pure zoom, extend at 1-G (level or a bit above) for 10 seconds or so. This will create separation while keeping your speed high and the bogie below you (bleeding off his e if he tries to follow you). Then, when you are SURE the bogie can't follow, start your zoom (or other vertical reversal). Note that this may mean actually shoving FORWARD on the stick during the extension, as the plane will want to climb steeply if you're trimmed for level flight (those wings just keep wanting to lift, don't they??). If you do it right, you can keep a Spit 14 below you long enuff to kill him, even in weakly climbing planes (like the P40's). Rule of thumb: If you see the Spit 14 at d18 behind and below you and closing as you extend, DON'T pull up steeply - you'll bleed all your speed (drag from the high G's) and he'll probably catch you as you both top out. Instead, stay at a nice 1- or 2 G level climb; he'll start to fall away after a bit (and if he doesn't, you didn't have enuff of an energy (speed + alt) advantage to START with to have chosen a bnz attack).

4. Don't scoop out below the enemy on the dive part of your attack. I teach all my students that one of the main rules of bnz attacking is to NEVER get below the bandit. Why? Well, first of all, diving is already the worst possible maneveuver in terms of e-retention (think about it - at high speeds, you're trading altitude, RAPIDLY, for little or no gain in speed), so we want to minize the time we're in an e-poor manuever. Secondly, if you DO go below, you are now forced to use a high-G move (yup, adding lots of drag) to get back ABOVE the enemy, during which time he's acelerating in level flight and may catch you as you top out after only ONE such attack. Another reason not to dive below the enemy is that it means you're almost certainly using a bad attack profile - if you're diving below him, you're also probably flying right AT him during the attack, which leads to collisions, Head On's, and all manner of other bad ju-ju stuff. Instead, start your attack with some horizontal separation in addition to the vertical advantage - I like about d40. Work your way to his rear hemisphere, then start a moderate dive (maybe 30 degrees or so) so that as you near the enemy you are almost co-alt and you can smoothly adjust for your shot, take it, and do your low-G eextension and set-up for the next pass. If he turns at you during your dive, DO NOT take the Head On shot. You have the advantage - don't be foolish with it. Instead, simply roll off to one side or the other and gradually extend and pull up into a low-G climb, just as if you had finished your gun pass. I've never gotten hit that way unless I had totally misjudged the e state of the bogey and he WAS fast enuff to climb and extend with me.

So, in summary, it is rather easy to whack (or at least scare off) a Spit 14 or other energy demon (like the 109K or Yak-3). Simple rules - only attack with an advantage; attack with a nice, fast, shallow dive and DON'T scoop out below him; take your shot, and extend with a nice, LOW-G extension and climb. Repeat until he blows up

I've taken a few liberties here - for example, I've assumed you're in a plane with good or decent speed, climb, high-speed handling, and lethality. Also, the environment is rather safe in my example - in the arena, there might be a bunch of purple P-51's in the area. But be smart - when a higher threat appears, break off your attack and extend to safety. If the fight turns sour for whatever reason, break off, regroup, and come back when you feel safer. After you've blown your advantage is too late to start to run away against a Spit 14.

Well, this is WAY too long, but I hope it's helped. Feel free to stop by the Training Arena and I (or any other trainer) can show you this stuff in detail (and how to beat it hehehehe). I'm there this Thursday, and Monday's after that.

This lesson brought to you by the letter P and the number 5.

Good hunting,

=eadg=

Member, Warbirds Training Staff

XO, 487th FS

Leonid posted 01-03-99 11:44 PM ET (US)         

Thanks, Eagd! Your insightful instruction for *horizontal*, as well as vertical, separation is something I've been thinking about lately, since Yak-3s tend to accelerate really fast in a dive. Also, I generally agree with never getting below your opponent as long as they knows you're there. If they don't, however, I would suggest getting below as long as you have considerable energy. Ambush kills are the most efficient kills in air-to-air combat I go out of my way to make these type of kills with the long flight to set it up, etc.

Daff RSAF posted 01-04-99 07:06 AM ET (US)            

A couple of notes:

The XIV locks up horribly at speed and goes into a spiral dive at 500mph..If you're running away from one (or trying to), start a slight left turn as you hit 400mph..The spit will have a horrible time trying to follow you...his only real choice it to:

Continue turning right :P

or

Back off the throttle.

Tight lo-speed spiral climbs also works relativly well as the torque is a beast in the Spit...change direction every now & then and watch the Spit stall & flip over.

my 0.02

Daff

Bino posted 01-04-99 10:10 AM ET (US)            

Good points, eadg!

One more thing: a XIV at speed cannot roll very well. A flat scissors in a good roller like an FW or Corsair can succeed in getting one of those nasty buggers off your tail.

Spitboy posted 01-04-99 10:26 AM ET (US)            

As my name indicates, I like Spits.

However, I hardly ever fly the 14. I usually stick with the 5 or 9. The torque on the 14 is just a bear, and it handles very poorly for me at low speeds.

Spitboy -SW-

http://sw.warbirds.org

SnakeEyes posted 01-04-99 11:25 AM ET (US)            

Nice post Eadg... as for defense against the Spit, I'd be more concerned with evading the Spit14, rather than converting...

Spitboy... keep the XIV to the vertical and you'll find that she doesn't stall out all that often... I've found that it's the flat turns that cause her to snap out on ya.

o-o-o-

"SnakeEyes"

XO Fourth Fighter Group

Spitboy posted 01-04-99 11:58 AM ET (US)            

Thanks for the tip, Snak. The main time I notice the torque and pull is when I'm heading down after a vertical, and trying to pull back up. She wants to depart real bad then.

Spitboy -SW-

Konrad posted 01-04-99 02:40 PM ET (US)            

Good stuff eadg. Unfortunatley for you P51 drivers the 109K, spit14, and Yak-3's superb climb advantage over you will eventually get them an alt or e advantage over you even if you start above them.

When someone dives on me i dive gently a bit myself to gain speed (if i already dont have it) and then level out and wait for him to get close enough. Now since he still has more speed, (he dove from a higher alt ) he will overshoot quite easily. The high speed also means that its very easy to red out of or black out.

In other words, if someone dives on me and i have speed then there is no need to do hi-g evasives. Usually all i have to do is pull the stick down a bit till i red out and add a little roll and rudder. If he tries to follow he will burn some of his E and will get a red out(which means he wont hit you

Once he overshoots, and pulls into the vertical I very gently do the same after him. Though most likely on the first time you wont get a killing shot, if you are in a better climbing plane you will close on him once you both get slow. Though most likely you wont get an alt advantage over him the first time, you will eventually.

Konrad

Jg77

SnakeEyes posted 01-04-99 02:59 PM ET (US)            

The main time I notice the torque and pull is when I'm heading down after a vertical, and trying to pull back up. She wants to depart real bad then.

Sounds like you're probably diving too steeply and then pulling back pretty hard... the two kind of go together. The rules for attacking the Spit XIV as mentioned above apply to using the Spit XIV to attack others also.

In short, get some vertical and horizontal separation... this should allow you to use a shallower dive when attacking, which means that you'll be less likely to dive below the enemy, and that you'll pull fewer Gs when zooming.

For example, if the enemy is d12 below and d25 to one size (horizontal separation), you might start out with a 35 degree dive to gain closure, and then settle out to a nice gentle 15-ish degree dive.

In contrast, if the enemy is d15 below and only d5 to the side, well... your attack run is going to probably put you in a 50 degree dive... and to pull out you're going to really have to yank.

o-o-o-

"SnakeEyes"

XO Fourth Fighter Group