Lift Vector

[Big G]

Ok guys, See if you can help out poor ol' me here ?

I know lift vector is a point from under your seat to above you on top of the canopy, I know that it's easier and uses something like 1 g to make a turn using this ( i.e., turn/roll in the vertical) as opposed to making 4-5 g turns and losing your E.

But as they say, a picture paints a thousands words and I'm wondering if there's any kind souls  out there that have some film or pictures of this ?
Cheers guys !
Big G

[fuzeman]

Picture's worth a thousand words so here goes:




That's the basics or speed and lift vector. You are also getting into vertical vs horizontal maneuvering. Horizontal your loosing E from the maneuver and E from gravity. In vertical maneuvers your still loosing E from maneuvering but you put E into the energy bank and have it available to withdraw on a dive so you loose less overall E.

[Gooss]

That is awesome, fuzeman.

Lift vector is used in ACM discussions.  The attacker usually wants his lift vector to be on the same plane (flat plane, not airplane) as the bogey, especially for a tracking gun solution.  Exceptions are yo's which are out-of-plane manuevers to compensate for different E states.  

I had the hardest time understanding "out-of-plane" in Shaw's book.  I was wondering how a pilot flew so that he was out of his (air)plane.  Finally, I got it through my thick skull he was talking about the combatants either being in the same lift vector plane or out of the same lift vector plane.

The defender wants to make out-of-plane maneuvers to deny the attacker a tracking gun solution.  

Any other uses in AH for an understanding of lift vector?

HONK!
Gooss

[fuzeman]

The idiots guide to angle fighting  will probably say something like 'roll your lift vector in the targets plane of maneuver and then pull the speed vector to the target to saddle him up.' Thats very very basic and this simplifies it too much, of course, but thats the general idea.
Energy fighting you sort of let the enemy gain some angles and therefore waste his E and then you go out of plane to use your energy advantage to get into a firing position.
Again a simplification and there are many things we didn't discuss that would influence the maneuvers.