Originally posted by Drano:
The Badboy has taught more people than I can count about ACM. Glad to say I'm one of his diciples. <S>
Drano
As I've said before, Badboy has a lot of talent when it comes to explaining much of ACM. What he has to say about the scissors is good and informative. The diagram he created to illustrate his words isn't.
Maybe I'm being overly pedantic, but I remember how much a clear and accurate illustration would have helped me when I was learning this stuff.
As to Shaw:
(page 83 - 2nd full paragraph)
"During the nose-to-nose phase each pilot attempts to get the nose of his aircraft pointed at the opponent first to create flight-path separation inside the other's turn which cannot be taken away.
In general, the slower or tighter-turning fighter will win this phase, as illustrated in Figure 2-13." (page 79 for those following along) "The flat scissors tends to draw fighters closer and closer together, so speed usually remains the determining factor in the nose-to-nose phase as long as the scissors maneuver continues.
To gain advantage during this phase, a fighter should decelerate as quickly as possible. " (Seems Badboy and Shaw have a slight difference of opinion about whether one should chop power. It also seems that the scissors is a viable tactic at speeds above CV, not only when low and slow.)
"After one fighter has generated some separation, it must reverse and lead turn its opponent in order to gain further advantage.
Reversal technique and timing are critical to success in the scissors. First, the rolling reversal should be as rapid as possible. This usually involves unloading the aircraft and applying full roll controls as described in the Appendix. Each fraction of a second during the reversal the aircraft is traveling essentially in a straight line, wasting valuable turning time and decreasing hard-won separation. A significant roll performance advantage can negate a substantial speed differential."
(Unload early, roll hard, and ZIG)
"The timing of the reversal determines the TCA" (Target Crossing Angle), "at the overshoot, with an early reversal resulting in lower TCA and subsequently greater angular advantage (lower AOT) later in the maneuver." (Angle Off Tail) "The reversal point also controls the nose-tail separation at the overshoot, however.
The longer the reversal is delayed, the greater the separation will be when the overshoot occurs."
So, the scissoring plane does NOT stay loaded up at all times. He times the reversal so that it is most to his advantage, and then reverses as hard and quickly as possible in order not to lose the separation he's already won and to gain maximum position advantage for the next pass.
Not only does that not sound like what Badboy has illustrated, diagram 2-16 on page 82 doesn't look anything like Badboy's illustration either.
Dwarf
[ 07-29-2001: Message edited by: Dwarf ]
