Originally posted by Simaril
Ren,
I think you misunderstood the entire point of the post. Re-read it...
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Nope, I didn't misread it.
Guys like Boelcke were some of the first to establish some sort of fighting procedures and put it into a set of basic rules of engagement. They were somewhat primative but if you followed them and the dude in the enemy plane didn't know about them you had a durn fine chance of killing him.
Guys like Richtofen were students of Boelcke and took those basic procedures and expanded on them as he gained experience. For example, the immelman probably happened because he dived on some poor slob, from out of the sun, missed and figured he had the speed, why not go up? He did and when he got up on top he rolled level to see what the poor slob was doing. Hey! This works!!! Let me try again since the dude below is trying to climb to me but real slow. I can dive in but if I miss I can go back up and do it again!!
Enter Germany who got to practie dogfighting in a civil war in Spain. They are fighting in a superior plane (the 109) agasint older stufff and again expand on the the rules they learned from earlier wars. Think about it guys like Hartman learned alot because he had a much better plane than many of his enemy's (readd...Russian planes of the time were kinda weak). He used tactics designed to maximize his planes strengths against his opponents weaknesses. Why do you think all the air forces of that era were always trying to get their hands on enemy planes? So they could compare the diffferences so they could be put to use tactically.
Move into more modern times....Korea...thinks spies. America was using F4's and some new jets over there. Imagine the shock when a mig15 showed on the scene. Hmmm, how do you fight one? by "reacting" to his moves? When he can turn inside you? Wait...you didn't know that until you died...or by some stroke of luck dived away and ran. Expect there was one important factor left out. Many of our pilots were WW2 aces. They alreadyd learned tactics and when they walked into something didn't they fell back on training. New planes came out and the tactics and knowledge they carried with them into the new planes allowed them to win the air battles of the day. They didn't react frm instinct they saw the setup and used tactics to establish dominance or bug as required. It was learned from the life and deaths of other pilots who passed on their knowledge.
I could get real deep in discussion but the issue here is:
This ain't RL so you get as many chances as you want to try anything you want.
The differences between reacting to the other guy and not is knowing why you are doing what you end up doing. Not that you happened to be able to do. But the real reasons why it works that way.
Think about this....
you are in a flight sim which matches differences in performance between planes. Wow!!!
That means you get to use those differences in a fight to your benefit. FYI, when I was learning my trainer taught me the first rule was make a spread sheet (yeah old stuff, huh?
. He said write down each plane type. note its turning abillty, climbs, zooms (frontal mass), roll, speeds, guns, fuel loadouts, etc. Study the differences. If you're not sure of it get in the plane and fly it. Fly every single plane there is. GO up against differrent planes and put the information you glean to good use.
Now tactically set up the fight they way you want it to go. It if begins falling part know when to get out. Use your differences knowledge to win the day.
More on tactics. You can set up a fight to make the guy what you want him to do. In other words you make the setup to the fight have a predictical outcome. You know what you want the guy to do and you get him to do it. If he doesn't happen to follow your plan who ever said you have to stay in the fight? Extend and go for a reset of the fight. There is more than one way to setup a fight. If he doesn't like your first setup use another one on him.
So making a tactical decision to set a guy up at the beginning of the fight is a far cry from reacting to a situation. Furthermore an instantaneuos rection to being jumped when caught unware is merely a trained response to stay alive. Guess what? It's reacting as you call it but it can be a trained reaction designed to get you past the attack. After the pass you begin making tactical decisions on setting the guy up.
The real issue is learning from scratch. The new guy needs to setup views, understand how to use them, learn about lift vector, 3-9 lines, rudder usage, deflection, lead tun, types of pursuit, unloading, ttypes of drag and how they affect the fight, basic flight skills, advanced flight skills, combat flight skills....the list goes on and on. If you miss something it means you might not know why they guy is able to do what he is doing. If you don't know why....you see a lot of the inside of the tower.
USMeddog knows how to set someone up so I'm still haven't figured out what he's really asking for. I sense he's just hit a learning plateau and needs a push up over the minor hurdle to begin moving forward again. But only he can elaborate.
Hope this helps.
