"I push my stick so I'm diving, so that he doesnt get a HO firing solution"
- setting yourself up for a cockpit shot there
Cockpit shot is a possibility, but it is also an incredibly hard shot to take and the chances of it happening extremely slim. The closure speed and angle between two planes approaching head-on usually means the appropriate amount of lead is also incredibly longer than one might expect.
It even gets better, when you go into a dive with a slight turn to left and right - virtually impossible to hit a plane evading that way for an average pilot. The only instance where you get hit, is most usually when you start the dive too late - which usually takes off the vertical stab.
I've seen only a handful of people who can consistently deal critical damage against a plane going into that typical evasives - 3 pilots, fester, Taki, and Rude immediately come into my mind. Besides these guys I've almost never been shot down while trying to evade a HO.
"I'm already climbing to reverse on him while he's still going straight, giving me an angles edge"
- My opponents rarely oblige me by flying straight through a merge. Ususally, they've got the same idea as me. They either head up, or turn immediately after they pass.
I'll sometimes point my nose down to gather speed, then zoom up either right before we pass (i know i know) or immediately after, but I assume he's either doing the same or turning. But sometimes (and this baffles me) they's head straight for the deck even though they my be in a plane that can't possibly outrun my PonyD.
Depends on situation. Experience usually dictates to the pilot that when the enemy turns first then you go straight, and when the enemy does not turn you turn first. However so many different variables are in concern with what happens after the first HO merge that it's almost too hard to discuss.
I'm in full agreement with you there. That's not yer typical HO dweeb kneejerk reaction. That's talent.
Then you don't have to complain about anything. Typical HO dweebs are super easy to avoid and take advantage of. You know they will rely on maximum turns and pulls at every possible corner to get a gun solution any way they can(which usually results in HOs) - what's easier to handle when you know what he's gonna do?
The guys that really scare me is the ones in Spit9s or N1K2s who know how to use that plane - luring fast fighters into lazy turns or shallow dives and bam! - a catastrophic overshoot with not much E difference bewteen two planes, which usually lands the enemy plane behind my 6 at 400~500 yards, with the acceleration advantage on me. As I accelerate away the fediddlein' long-range gunnery aspect of AH kicks in as they snipe or spray Hizookas and quad-Type99s at 500~600 yards.
That's what bothers me - HOs have not for once bothered me.
