OK, let's take these one at a time.
Originally posted by Andy Bush:
Dwarf: You've used a lot of terms there that don't quite fit. In the drawing, there is no indication that I can see that Red wants a two circle fight.
Then why does he reverse at the first cross? Beginning on the right side of the diagram, the aircraft are on, neutral and converging paths. They initially pull into each other. Both reverse after the crossover. Blue is obviously in an E bleeder, and can be expected to get a tighter radius turn from the beginning. Red's only hope, if he stays engaged is to make a two circle fight of it.
Either Red knows this and has reversed to make a two circle fight of it, but hasn't paid enough attention to what Blue is doing, or he isn't aware of Blue's turn radius advantage, and foolishly believes he can win a one circle fight.
In order to begin to explain why the fight proceeds as diagrammed, you need a rational explanation for why each pilot did what the diagram shows. Blue has no reason to reverse on his own. If both aircraft maintain their current turns, he gets the one circle fight that favors him in this matchup. Thus, Red must have reversed first and Blue reverses to deny him the two circle fight he's trying to achieve.
You also throw in the term "corner"...CV has no place in a scissors discussion. This is a slow speed fight, usually flown way below CV. But you are correct in one thing...the classic in-plane scissors is a drawn out one circle fight in a manner of speaking...although we would not describe it that way.
OK, where is it chiseled in stone that you can't scissor if you're bounced at higher speeds?
From the turn radii explicit in the diagram, the speed of this engagement has to be above CV. From the outcome, it has to have concluded before Blue's speed dropped below CV and his turn rate started decreasing.
One last thing...this is again an "in-plane" type of scissors...not to be confused with a "rolling" scissors.
Andy
Yup, it's "in-plane" alright. Although, as diagrammed, both planes should be making some effort to get "out-of-plane" at crossover.
Given the diagram, there can be no doubt about the outcome of this fight. Blue will always win (unless he can't hit the broadside of a barn), because his aircraft turns the tighter circle. The whole thing is predetermined as long as the two aircraft remain "in-plane" and continue to reverse back into each other. Red's only hope is to bug out as soon as he sees that Blue isn't going to let him make a two circle fight of it.
If you're an attacker with advantage, there is no need to scissor, and every reason not to. There are umpteen other, less risky, things you can do to make the kill. Scissoring is one way a defender has to convert a bad situation into something better, and would only be initiated by someone in a desperate situation.
Therefore, a scissors fight does not start from a neutral position and is determined by pilot skill and timing, not the capability of the aircraft. Either pilot could win the scissors fight. The defender wins if his timing is even close to spot-on. The attacker wins if it isn't.
The object of the scissor, is to force your opponent to remain in a constantly loaded condition while you spoil his aim and buy time and space to create a reversal. (zig-zag) If you're in an E bleeder, you'll never do that by keeping your aircraft constantly loaded as well. (Fly arcs)
In a scissoring fight, the opponents do not cooperate to simultaneously reverse as in the diagram. The scissoring pilot times his moves to his opponent's responses. Not making his next reversal until the opponent has fully committed to responding to this one.
For all of these reasons, I maintain that the diagram does not depict a scissors fight, but a running one circle fight between one pilot that knows what he's doing (Blue), and another pilot who is basically clueless.
Dwarf
there... I think the formatting is right now and it says what I mean. Pick it apart
[ 07-29-2001: Message edited by: Dwarf ]
[ 07-29-2001: Message edited by: Dwarf ]
