One night in the DA, NathBDP and I decided to test out the tailgunning prowess of the Val. I put the Val into a 60 degree vertical climb, set it on auto-angle, and fired straight down at Nath as he climbed to me.
Much to my surprise, once the Val reached almost 0mph in the vertical, it gently nosed down and then looped back up and repeated the vertical climb all over again -- all while still on auto-angle without my touching any of the controls. I had put it into a perpetual loop where it never lost overall altitude and always had a four or five second window of opportunity for firing out of the tailgun at planes below it.
Try it sometime.
-- Todd/Leviathn