A matter of perspective

[humble]

I had an interesting...and probably enlighting" experience yesterday. I hopped on for a couple flights afterwork in my yak. Climbed to bout 11k and leveled (from 13) and pointed nose to 1. Got bounced by high nikki, slowly sucked E out then drove him to deck and finally forced an auger. looked at fuel and ammo and rtb/reload...repeated above...watched a 190 cruise over me and vectored away to jump a low chog and co-alt pony. Nailed the chog and got a freebie when pony shed wings trying to follow...190 bounced me and after sucking his E out got him when he tried to extend. Cleaned up a 38 on way home (assist). Total...4K's and an assist. Not recounting this as WOW look at me but usually i wade in take my shots...rarely do i fly "smart"...anyway dinner came so wind her down. After homework and honey-do's the itch returns  . Go to 13 again and level at 10k and point nose to 1. Slow climb to 15k as I go...catch a hog and 38 heading to 27, scream thru 88's and hose the hog, drag 38 clear and zoom him...then once again head on back to 13...re up and catch wiz and some others on the way to 1...go on to furball at 27...catch a couple jugs and a 190 in the mess and finish with an assist on 109. 9k's 2 Assists and no deaths. Think the 1st time i've ever flown a day in AH without dying. Was kind of fun . Now day before got bounced 4-5 times in my yak by multiple bogies and died everytime...with maybe 1 kill...had a blast also.

So, now I'm torn between the "fly smart" and the "lets rumble" schools of flying. But it gives me a new perspective on how Ice and others feel bout the "fly to live" philosphy.

[Ice]

Hiyas Humble

The answer is this...seek the middle ground brother...Fly Smart AND Rumble!

I always start a fight smart, but sometimes I don't finish it smart What helps me the most is strong SA...I've gotten to where 90% of the time I'm looking around during my fights...helps me know when to get out...I've learned to trust that little voice that says, time to go.

Flying to live and yet killing the enemy like you described above has always been my goal...folks make fun of me for doing it and say that it requires no skill...well, I would like to see some of them sustain this style for a tour and in the end see how they fare...it's not as easy as it sounds

Plus, who likes to get a couple of kills just to get killed themselves...certainly not me

It felt kinda good to land those kills didn't it? Now if I can get ya in a pony, then your journey will be complete

Cyas Up!

Ice

[humble]

Actually pony has always been my ride of choice for that type of stuff. The yak is a new affliction. Back in Aug/Sept I was still spending a lot of time in the TA and cleaner flew the yak in there aot. Started messing with it then, and slowly got hooked. I'll usually fly every ride during a tour...but I'm thinking bout limiting my MA selection a bit.

And to answer your question...suprisingly yes. I've augered more than one 5 kill mission (bout my limit in yak) so I didn't think it would matter...but it did. As for SA, mine is still soso but it's more a "state of mind". On the 1st hop normally I'd go 86 cannon rounds 50% fuel...lets go...but for some reason I rtb'd...so instead of 1/2 tank I had 80%...normally I'd turn to 190 or take on the pony as higher threat. Here I knew I'd get a bounce on hog and that pony wasn't a problem. Once I started down that road it was easy to look for weakest link vs best fight. Only time I was in any potential danger was when you cleared 109 off my 6 at 27...and he was 700+ out. Obviously I'm gonna push the "streak" best I can.

[Ice]

It most certainly is a state of mind...patience yields much no matter what your ride is.

Good Luck with your streak...hope getting stupid doesn't afflict you as it so often does me

Ice

[Andy Bush]

Durn!! I wish I could do that!

What do you mean by 'sucking E out' of an adversary? Or better still...how do you do it?

Andy

[Vulcan]

Heheh Humble know what ya mean dude. Started flying my tiffie just right lately. Funny thing is I'm not taking her above 15k, and like you I score the odd 51-without-wings kill :-)

Got on 2 night ago a did a 9 kill run over 2 refuels. Ended up sucking lead from a low Lanc.

Andy sucking E requires an adversary not wary of E-management. Usually it involves long drags with breaks when they get close. In the tiffie I find a good E sucker is a high speed dive, esp when the con is higher than me. Most a/c compress a lot faster than the tiffie, the resulting time it takes them to recover usually gives me an E advantage and a nice shot at them :-)

[humble]

Andy,

I'm not sure that I can describe it...but I will here. Also, i've got em all on film so I can send em to you.

When I encounter a high bogie I'm resigned to the fact that I'll have to give em a shot. My entire goal is to setup a "bad" shot solution, ideally one that forces them under me. Then they burn extra E to get over me again. As we repeat the cycle I'll judge there zoom and reversal skills. 3rd or 4th zoom I'll push nose down as they pass 1000...they'll think i'm stalling and I'll let nose up as they go over top...usually I'll end up co to positive E at that point and hunt em down...the yak will out hustle anything down low. If I remember correctly with the nikki I chopped on him and used rudder to sideslip his shot...he overshot trying to follow my evasive and burned alot of E...compounded it by getting cute...and died 3-4 min later.

Would love to send you a couple clips....professional critique from someone who's fired a shot in anger always welcome

[humble]

Vulcan,

It's funny but I feel like you do...get plane to it's "optimal" flight level and let em come to me. Tiffie is another sweet ride at mid-alt. I flew tiffie alot before I took a break. Only thing about yak is it's quick acceleration. I'm still not a "smart" flyer and once you lose E in tiffie it's tough to get it back. If I keep evolving in this direction I think I'll switch back, no doubt the tiffie offers a greater upside if well flown.

[Vulcan]

Yeah my favourite in the tiffie and the 190 is down near the deck, let them get to about d2-d3 pull nose up slightly roll inverted and then pull back into a VERY gentle reverse. If you judge it right and keep the reverse gentle enough they mistake the reverse for a shallow dive, the go into a shallow dive and by the time they realize whats happen its to late to follow.

Some will immediately roll and pull back VERY hard and and blow their E to follow you. By this time your completing and a lot lower, but if you've executed it right u have toejamloads of E and can go into a power-zoom and drag em up for a rope-a-dope. Thats if they don't midjudge it and auger (about 20% do). Then some black out and completely lose their SA.

I find about 80% fall for this, the experiencd pilots just go vertical to reverse and keep their E. But by this time I'm usually well out of reach.

[Andy Bush]

Humble

My e-mail is alfakilo@doitnow.com.

I'd like to see the film...but not to critique it...I'd like to pick up a few pointers!

I've looked at other's film as well as my own and have been reluctant to comment unless I saw a BFM error of particular significance. Otherwise, much of what I see in this sim that affects winning has relatively little real world duplication.

For example, we have a limited viewing system, artificial G restraints, net lag that affects distance and closure perception, and flight model issues that tend to create an artificial maneuvering environment. It seems most succesful pilots have learned how to make those factors work for themselves.

Those factors give me the fits, and I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to adjust to them. It simply does not look like this in real life. I don't mean that as a criticism, just an observation.

Not that sims can't portray the BFM environment better. They can...and do. It seems to me that on-line game play, regardless of which sim, tends to be less 'realistic' from my perspective.

Andy

[AKSeaWulfe]

Andy.. is this what your looking for?
Right click the following link and choose "save as.." when you save it be sure to change the .gif extension to .ahf

I had to change the extension to upload it to geocities.. *.zips seem to corrupt the films.
 http://www.geocities.com/weissdr1/sw190.gif

-SW

[Andy Bush]

SW

Can you check that link? I'm not getting it.

Andy

[AKSeaWulfe]

Hmm works for me, have you right clicked on it and chosen "save link as..." or something along those lines? Tried using Internet Explorer if you have it? That's what I'm using and works for me.
-SW

[Andy Bush]

SW
No luck. I can get the other pics off the parent directory, but not this one.

It displays with the little red x box and is not 'savable' using the right mouse click.

[bowser]

Don't left-click on it.  If you're using IE, just right-click it and then select Save As.  Change the extension at that time.  Not sure about Netscape..maybe have to hold shift key down..can't remember.

Actually..after I downloaded it, I can't get it to play.

bowser

[This message has been edited by bowser (edited 11-07-2000).]