Thanks for the film. I watched it about 15 times and this is what I saw:
1) There was no Osti. The rounds I thought I kept seeing did not look like field ack, and they were not you. I never saw an unattributed tracer in the film, so I’m gonna go kick my crack dealer in the apple.
2) Your use of views is good. It is possible that after my extension, at the end of my reversal you could have hit me had you not been zoomed in at the time. Other than that one possible place, I saw nothing wrong with the views.
3) Flap and throttle management was very good throughout the fight. You saw that I really started gaining angles and an E advantage once you left 3-4 notches in. I think it was a good call to go more flaps when you did, but getting back up to 1-2 notches sooner should conserve more E yet still allow you to get the nose around. The flap and throttle usage on the kill shot was perfect, and you were still reasonably safe had you missed.
4) Gunnery was also pretty good. I remembered thinking when you fired on the pass at the first remerge that it was silly since there was no way you had a shot solution. I had no idea it was really that close. I was just whizzing around at that point trying to bleed your E down while staying safe from your guns. A more aggressive move there from you might have ended the fight in under 30 seconds. Ouch! You also fired twice there; if the first one was behind, trying to fire again will just bleed E trying to force the nose farther out, so that was wasted ammo and E. But since the first one was so close, I understand. Hindsight and all that. The first shot after the extend reversal was perfect lead for where you thought I was, again no zoom there probably would have ended the fight.
5) E management was also good. You control inputs all looked to be very smooth. For the most part (see above) you kept your flaps in as soon as you were through with them. E management was what finally ended the fight. You did a good job of conserving it while I underestimated what you had left at the end. On the reversal, I banked left to telegraph the turn, and then showed you the same mostly flat reverse turn you had been seeing before. I held it just past 90 deg and I expected you to chop throttle, drop flaps, and pull a hard flat turn to get lead. Once I saw you commit to the turn I rolled back level and pulled it hard over the top and then rolled 90 deg out of plane on the way back down to keep you off balance. This should have left you floundering and pulling hard to get the nose back up, which results in you being out of E for the rope coming at the top of the next loop that I intended to take straight up and drop back on top of you with afterwards. I see from the film that I executed the reversal too early, and that gave you room to make a leisurely lead turn into my path. You did chop throttle as you closed, but did not have to drop flaps, nor pull hard. So when my break turn morphed into the immelman into the loop, I was the one with the E deficit, I just didn’t know it yet. You dropped 2 notches of flaps and easily pulled over the top and followed my subsequent loop up to shoot the helpless spit looking back at you wondering why you had not had to drop the nose down yet to avoid the stall. It would have worked against me.
I, on the other hand, overestimated the Spit Is turn advantage, so I was not pulling nearly aggressive enough nor using enough rudder to sap your E effectively. I am somewhat satisfied that I was still able to generate an angles advantage even though I subsequently gave it away, and I am pleased that I did not auger myself for a change.
6) A Spit I sounds silly when it buzzes by, and the BB guns are almost as comical. ….zzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzz ….
