Stick setup
So far I've left the defaults alone...I'm finding that keeping the EDGE in a T&B is a bit of a challenge and that at moderate speeds in E fighting I'll blackout a bit. I "F-disked" before I reloaded so I blew my old stick settings out. I'm not certain exactly how I set up before and would love input/comments from folks.
Well, you will have to tune this depending on your stick and your own preferences. Personally, I leave roll at all 100% with a minimal deadband and minimal dampning. I scale yaw heavily starting around 30% and curving up smoothly to 95%. I have a deadband set about 1/4 way up the slider, and quite a bit of dampning as well. I have a twisty stick, so I have to set my yaw up like this. If you have rudder pedals you may want more authority, lower deadbands, and lower damper settings. Pitch is the really critical one. This is very personal, and even will changed based on your style of fighting and your plane for some folks. Start by trying two settings, one all 100% with minimal deadband and dampning, and another scaling from very low to 95% in a diagonal line, with more deadband and more dampning. You'll find one of these situations may suite you better, so pick one of the two extremes and adjust back from there. It's very personal, and will require some offline testing and adjusting. Luckily you can make the changes in flight. Fly offline and take up your favourite bird. Set your scaling, attack a drone or two, then adjust. Lather, rinse, repeat, and season to taste.
Energy Management
Got a chance to fly a few vs Cobra last week and spent an hour or more flying against DZ (forget long name )...anyway all in all not to bad but my e management is way off...my gut feel is that constant G's scrub more E than pull & unload, pull & unload etc. I'd love any tips comments there also.
Overall I think your right. It depends on the plane of course, but generally speaking short pulls and unloaded accelerations whenever possible will conserve your energy better than sustained turns. Most planes better suited to pure E fighting have good instantaneous turn rates, but bad sustained ones, so what you describe works even better in that case.
Gunnery
My gunnery is pretty bad, much worse than it should be. When I view a film clip "guncam" seems much jerkier than "live" is this common..or an indication of packet loss etc smoothed out in vidio stream.
I'm fully aware of effect of G's on gunnery...infact had DZ squeaking I was laggy ...when he was unloading the 20mm in my wake. At same time any comments/tips for gunnery/rubber bullets very welcome.
Yep, shooting at anything more than 1 G is difficult. Whenever possible, unload to at least 1 G before you fire.
As far as "rubber bullets", some folks have seen hits without damage being done, and some video card settings such as disabling V-synch seem to contribute to these problems. Make sure v-synch is ENABLED to avoid problems.
Yes, the film is always more jerky than it feels/looks when flying. The film viewer is updated at about network speed, so your adjustments always look jerky in the films.
What bird are you flying and what convergence are you using? I may be able to provide more specific advice.
last on the list is more complicated, my pos-E tactics truely suck...i'm guessing simply patience. Constantly being forced out of plane by climbing rev looking for FQ shot...the uber nikki is much worse than when I left...but good 190/spit/Chog drivers always have relied on this...hoping to film a few for critique...again all comments welcome.
E fighting is all about starting with a positive E condition and using lag pursuit and the vertical to maintain position. I fly the Jug and the Hellcat (both E fighters) and have little trouble with the N1k or any others. You have to treat a plane like that with respect due to it's good turning, good guns, and great zooming/acceleration, but it's no uber plane. It's also not very fast, so depending on what your flying, you can engage and disengage the N1k at will.
What specific problem are you having vs. say the N1k, and what are you flying? Again, some more info and we'll get into specifics.
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Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer
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