AKskurj
Excellent question. This is something that I have to continually remind myself to think about when flying AH.
'Flying to the elbow' is a lag pursuit technique useful when attacking better turning targets when you are at relatively high angle off (or aspect angle). The idea is that the lag pursuit gives additional turning room for you to make the corner when converting to the target's six. It's important to note that this technique is used when your objective is to maneuver to the six o'clock of the target. If that is not your objective (let's say you want to go for a high deflection shot and then separate), then the 'elbow' technique is not the thing to do.
In AH, I see this most often when attacking a furball. I pick out my target and then visualize a point in the sky behind and above him. How far? Pretty far...a good twenty fuselage lengths, or about 1/4 of the width of the monitor screen. The more overtake (closure) you have, the more separation you will need. This maneuver looks like a High Yo-Yo flown at long range.
Turn to point your nose at your estimated six o'clock point. The target will likely be moving rapidly towards your monitor edge, so be ready to switch to a side view to keep him in sight. Now, if the target is still flying in the same general direction, roll your lift vector towards him and switch to a top (up) view or up 45 view to regain sight of the target. Now play your back pressure to pull the target down into your forward view.
If the target has changed his direction, you may want to continue your initial pull to the elbow (the 'yo-yo') while you watch him in your side view. You may not want to commit yourself towards him if he is taking away your turning room. In this case, you repeat the process over by turning towards his six while keeping your separation.
The following picture shows the point. Disregard target range...by the time you got to this range, you should have already pulled off to the elbow!
Andy
[This message has been edited by Andy Bush (edited 01-11-2001).]
