Jekyll posted March 20, 1999 10:16 PM            

Flew the Spit 9 in the MA last night for a bit of a change, and had two successive engagements which caused me no end of trouble.

1. Found a low F4F (-inue-)extending towards his home field and followed him at about 100'. He saw me, broke back into me and the dance began. I was using vertical moves to deny him an advantage, but each time I'd try to engage his turn radius advantage enabled him to dance out of the way and move towards my 6. I wasn;t too keen to drop vertically on him, as he was only at 100' or so and it seemed to invite a lawndart. Eventually I disengaged as I did not fancy the idea of furballing down low close to an enemy field.

2. Spotted a Hurri 2 extending low from his field.. dove on him and the same thing happened. His turn radius advantage enabled him to pull his nose towards me on the merge.. and I didn;t fancy 4*20mm cannon for breakfast . Maintained my E advantage again, trying to Rope a Dope him.. but he wouldnt play that game. Eventually a fellow countryman blew through the fight and forced the Hurri into a maneuver kill.

So the question is... how would you have fought these planes? Remember, you're only at 100' or so, and these bastiges always managed to get their nose pointed at me on the merge.

Advice appreciated

Kodiak posted March 21, 1999 01:51 AM            

Should be able to prevail in both situations without much trouble. That SpitIX easily outclasses both planes in every important performance area. Horizontal turn radius is almost meaningless. When they reverse they burn some E. Simply set up a lead turn and come around in high lag pursuit using the vertical. When you get them in proper position (1/4 roll to the inside and they low in your forward 45 view <kp 9 or 7> ) slice down for a shot or fake a shot. Each time they will break and get a bit slower. Never slow to their speed and never try to match their turns. Stay within striking range so they cant rebuild their E. Repeat as necessary. If done right its a much quicker kill than a saddle up knife fight.

Clear as mud huh? It works for me in the 190s and other high wingloaders. Even prefer using it when against planes with a comparable "turn radius".

Kodiak III./JG54

buile posted March 21, 1999 09:48 AM            

Hello,

If you had a good altitude or speed advantage i would guess that you would have been able to yo-yo them to death. The yo-yo is more aggressive and perhaps a good solution since they didn't bite on the Rope-a-Dope. You'd be using the vertical for your attack, but not diving straight down on them and augering. Everytime they turn to avoid you they are losing speed and maneverability.

You are in a prime position for this as they have no room underneath them to regain speed; they have to extend if they want to pick up any. Once they begin that extension or they are still trying to turn at very slow speed, they should be a sitting duck for the next yo-yo. If you are patient enough, you will be able to get all of your attacks on their rear quarter; they have no hope of bringing their guns to bear on you.

Armchair Pilot,

buile-

p.s. I think though you showed good judgement about not furballing low near his base. Hard to be patient when you have his friends threatening to join the fight from above.

Spitfire posted April 09, 1999 01:01 AM            

Other things come into play. Speed, turning room, g, joystick, quickness of response.

First of all, don't turn the one circle (nose to nose) when in the higher wingloaded a/c. I would have extended on the merge, and pitched back for another pass. Basically you have to be patient for a stubborn target. Diving at a high angle gives you a shorter window for a shot while a low angle gives you a longer eriod. The trade off is that you must be faster in order to maintain an energy advantage.

If he doesn't want to follow a rope a dope and drops off and extends, don't continue the zoom. Immediately drop flaps to reverse own before he gains sufficient separation to escape (you bleed very little energy in this maneuver because of your slow speed a low G). Dont forget ro raise flaps after the reversal to avoid bleeding a large ammount of E! The biggest mistake I have seen in the scenario is people who zoom for too long. By then time they complete their zoom, I am long gone 3000 yards away and at 300+ kts. As soon as he loses interest you must drop down before he escapes and is able to extend and accelerate.

Energy is the the bread and butter of air combat, as =gryf= says in the following post, but it can be used against you if used improperly, much like a Sumo Wrestler using the heavier weight of his opponent to win the match. A turn fighter uses just enough energy to win; using too much is a waste. An energy fighter uses it to extend to a safe distance and reverse when when its opponent lack maneuverability, but extending/zooming too far can allow its opponent to escape.

I can say one thing though, you did the right thing by leaving. You know you strengths and weaknesses, which is a quality that you find only in the best PC fighter pilots.

-spit-

Gryf posted April 11, 1999 05:52 PM            

Jekyll: Personally, I would have pressed both those fights HARD, never giving them any time tio level off. Hugh Looping passes where the bottom of your maunver was at the top of theirs would have burned their Energy off and allows you to maintain the advantage. If they flat turn enough they will fall outta the sky. It's inevitable.

For what it's worth, dropping flaps at all is what I consider disaterous in nearly all prolonged engagements. Yeah, they give you a VERY short term advantage on your standard performance but it is offset by the long term loss of speed. Never just toss Energy away. You can never have too much energy. Only energy you don't know how to use properly. Learn to trade energy for something not just throw it away. THAT is the mark of a good pilot, on the PC or in the real world.

Energy Management is far more important when turn fighting than when Boom and Zooming. If you BnZ you probably have such a substantial advantage that a mistake in conservation will not kill you right off. You should have at least 2 mistakes worth of energy when you BnZ. When you TnB every manuver, every configuration change is a potential disaster. Management of that energy is tantamount to success. Lose E, you lose manuverabilty, you lose the fight.

Michael Weber

=Gryf=