Terracota
In another post, you said this was your first flight sim. Because of your relatively low experience level, my advice is to not use rolling maneuvers until you have gained more experience in two things...one, more time in becoming familiar with how the AH aircraft respond to control stick inputs, and two, more time to become comfortable with using the snap views.
The main problem in doing rolling maneuvers...either offensively or defensively...in this sim is that the snap view system is limited in its ability to show you what is happening, particularly at your experience level. In simple language, it's just very hard to keep a tally on the bandit when you are using a two-dimensional view for a three-dimensional maneuver.
Offensive rolling maneuvers have names like Vector Roll, Barrel Roll, and Lag Roll. These are all 3D maneuvers designed to control aspect angle and closure. One way to build your ability to use snap views to fly these maneuvers is to go to the Training Arena and practice them using a ground object as a reference. Objects such as mountain tops are good to maneuver against since you can make a mistake and still have room to recover.
Defensive rolling maneuvers have names such as the High G Roll Over The Top or the High G Roll Underneath. These are gun defense maneuvers as are most defensive rolling maneuvers. They are very disorienting to fly while looking to the rear using a snap view. My suggestion is that you do not try these maneuvers.
Instead use a gun jink. A gun jink is performed by rolling your aircraft until your bank angle is approximately 90 degrees different from the attacker. Once you have rolled to this new attitude, then pull back on the stick to get a good 3-5 Gs. Pull for one to two seconds. Then relax your stick pressure. Check your rear snap view to see the attacker's attitude (bank angle). If he is in a bank, make your next gun jink off his low wing...this will allow you to conserve energy.
If you are not comfortable with BFM basics in a flight sim, try the BFM articles in the Air Combat Corner at
www.simhq.com. Andy
