Dang... I swear I wrote a nice long reply to this thread but it somehow never made it through the Internet Jungle into a post.
Well, here is the gist of it:
1. With a P51 closing on your six you need to try to force an overshoot somehow and avoid being shot in the process. A barrel roll is one way. However, there really isn't any such thing as a "0 G barrel roll". If you don't pull back on the stick when you roll, it is just an aileron roll around your axis that doesn't change your flight path, and hence doesn't do what a barrel roll does. A barrel roll is an aileron roll combined with some back stick (and hence some positive G's) to displace your flight path. The result is that rolling and pulling back changes your flight path in a way that is very difficult for a faster attacker to track for a shot. It also lengthens your flight path compared to a plane flying straight ahead, so this increased the chance of an overshoot while you get to maintain more speed than if you simply slowed your plane down to try for the overshoot.
2. You almost never want to go upwards with a faster bogey on your six. If you do, you make everything easier for him. The faster attacker's plane will be trimming nose up likely, so pulling up makes it easier for him to see you and line you up for a shot. In addition, he has more E, so going upwards is good for him, it means more control for him, and usually less for you due to low speed. If you pull up in front of the attacker, you show him your planform making a much bigger target. Indeed, a dead six tracking shot is more difficult... every BnZ pilot's dream is the target that pulls up in front of his guns for the easy kill. The only time you want to go upwards with a faster bogey on your six is when he is out of effective guns range, and then you normally only do it to set up some other kind of move. Upwards moves can increase the closure rate and increase the chances of an overshoot, but beware that it makes you a much easier target. Normally it is better to use some sort of downward move if you want the greatest chances of not being shot.
3. Urchin's move above describes what I would call a "flick-'n-flee". The initial upwards break will put the 190 in the right conditions for a single wing snap-roll stall. You don't have to snap-roll, but sometimes doing the reversal with a snap-roll makes you very hard to track. The upwards pull gets you slow enough to stall one wing, you then combine back stick with rudder to stall one wing and snap roll it 180 degrees. A quick 180 degree roll will work almost as well. Then continue as Urchin suggests. This move will work very well versus many planes if they have more speed, it works well versus P-47's as well, trust me.
There is a counter to the flick-n-flee. It is simply a high yoyo. If I'm diving on your 190 in my Jug, as you break up and right I line you up for a shot and wait for your break move. You hit the snap-roll and pull through underneath. I simply roll 75 degrees left and pull up through a high yoyo, seeing you come out underneath my left wing. Depending on what you are doing, I will then either complete the yoyo and dive down onto your six, or if you pull back into me I will use some out of plane maneuver to prevent the overshoot and maintain position on your six.
Normally what the flick-n-flee does very well is generate separation quickly. In addition you'll notice that my counter to it means I have to lose sight of the bogey as he passes under me, and a smart FW pilot will roll out on a different vector and gain separation as I search for him. Even if I see what you are doing and counter it effectively, the 190's great speed and accelleration means you normally generate considerable separation, often enough to escape the fight versus a slower plane, or one that does not dive or accellerate as well as the Wulfe. If the enemy tries to follow the move, he has to slow down... so the flick-n-flee will equalize E states after a couple of them in a row, again allowing the faster plane to get away.
[ 08-21-2001: Message edited by: Lephturn ]
