I need help with rolling scissors.
One more question what are the differences between the rolling scissor and the barrel roll.
Ok, let’s clear up the barrel roll question first.
The Barrel Roll is one of a family of closely related maneuvers that can be carried out offensively or defensively. Naming conventions vary among simulation pilots, and it is common to see them refer to a barrel roll when they are actually executing a lag roll, a quarter plane, or a vector roll. I’ll describe the Barrel and Vector Roll attacks together since they are pretty similar in execution (g being the major variable). Offensively, these maneuvers are not seen much in the Aces High arena... When used offensively they are well up the "food chain" in sophistication and complexity, so the barrel roll is employed far more often as a means of turning a defensive situation into a brief offensive one, after a poorly executed attack. That’s the rub, it only works with some unwitting co-operation from the attacker, but it can be very impressive when it works, because it can often get a kill against an attacker that has a big advantage.
Before talking about the barrel roll though, it is important to remain clear about the motive for carrying out any maneuver during air combat, and in air combat there is only one reason to maneuver… Any ideas?
You maneuver in air combat so as to improve your chances of a successful shot. The Barrel/Vector roll is designed to solve an aspect problem when you can match the turn rate and speed of your opponent but you find yourself too much inside his turn. Basically your range and aspect present you with a very low probability shot. In this situation, you have aligned your fuselage with his but you have too much lateral separation, i.e. you have too much sideways displacement. Your objective is to reduce the lateral separation without losing your angle off advantage... meaning you want to get behind him and still keep your fuselage aligned with his.
Make sure you understand the underlying need, what BFM problem are you trying to solve? Assume your opponent is turning in a similar aircraft and you are holding the turn with him. Your angle off is low, your fuselages nearly aligned, that’s good. Your aspect, however, is too far inside his turn... meaning that you are too far away from him with too much lateral displacement for a shot and appear to be stuck there. What you want to do is to somehow move your aircraft across the space between you and your opponent without changing your low angle off and without losing angles or energy. So, the basic idea of these two maneuvers when used offensively is to reduce your aspect angle, without losing your angle off advantage, while holding onto any small closure or turn rate advantage you may have.
Most arena pilots will try to solve that problem by opening their turn, and trying to take the low probability shot, at a close enough range that can work well, but when the combination of range and aspect are just beyond your gunnery skills, attempting to open the turn for a shot will cost angles, increase the range and the aspect, and because they will need to tighten the turn again afterwards to recover, by pulling higher G at higher speed, they will also waste energy. The end result will be wasted ammunition and energy and a bigger BFM problem than the one they started with.
However, that is the most common response in the arena, and sometimes it will work, particularly if in a dissimilar aircraft engagement, one aircraft outclasses the other, in weapons or performance such that the attacking pilot is willing to sacrifice good BFM for a shot, and if you are an excellent shot, you can afford to be lazy. Don’t forget, the whole point of our maneuvers is to reduce the angle off, aspect, and range inside the limits of our gunnery skills.
So, back to the Barrel Roll… Your aspect angle is too high and... you don’t want to overshoot his 3/9 line for all the obvious reasons. If you simply try to pull harder on the bandit and then reverse back to his heading, you will bleed too much energy. Instead, you execute a rolling maneuver designed to reduce your aspect without losing too much energy in the process. You start by aligning fuselages then begin an easy pull to approximately 20 degrees above the plane of motion of your opponent, you should see him low on your canopy rail area, continue the roll over your opponent’s flight path into a lag pursuit position. Aim just behind him. As a technique, do not roll past 90 degrees relative to his plane of motion. Do not use extra back pressure in the roll. Extra back pressure will pull your nose towards his six and will increase your angle off. You do not want that to happen. Hold the roll as your opponent drifts below your canopy rail and continue as your flight path drifts from its starting point inside the turn to a point at your opponent’s high six o’clock. His turn rate will cause you to “float” to his high six. Think of yourself as being “inverted” relative to his bank angle. Now roll quickly 180 degrees so that you are now looking down onto your opponent... your bank angle now approximates his. Your angle off is close to his and your aspect angle is minimal. Overbank slightly to bring your nose down... the enemy aircraft should be coming into your forward view/gun sight so that you can complete your attack.
Vector Roll. For this maneuver, you are rapidly approaching your opponent from the inside of his turn. You have little angle off or aspect, but your closure is excessive. So much so that you cannot kill it with idle power or other braking techniques (dropping flaps or landing gear). You are in danger of overshooting his 3/9 line. You are going to have to let geometry save the day. The concept behind this maneuver is to rotate your lift vector aggressively around the flight path of your opponent. This will require a relatively high g load with a resultant high angle of attack (AOA) and corresponding high drag penalty. This rotating of your lift vector and associated drag will kill off your excessive closure. Start by blending in back pressure and aileron to raise your nose and, at the same time, begin pulling it towards your opponent’s six o’clock. 20-30 degrees pitch should be plenty. Pull your throttle back if closure is very high, otherwise leave your throttle where it is. You will see your opponent descend towards your canopy rail. You will be rolling around his high six. Keep the back pressure in as you continue to roll all the way around back to where your bank angle approximates his. You should have your opponent in your front quarter. If he is not in your forward view, roll towards him and pull until he appears in the gun sight. Do not confuse this maneuver with a Lag Roll. A lag roll is similar but flown with much less g. In a lag roll, you roll with moderate g (2-3) around your opponent’s flight path. The objective in a lag roll is to “back out” from a too close six o’clock position, while a vector roll’s objective is to reduce closure without necessarily reducing your range.
The rolling scissors shown below often results from a close-in vertical overshoot, or may be a natural progression of the flat or low speed scissors. As the name implies, this type of scissors involves a series of barrel rolls with the axis of the roll in the direction of motion. The rolling scissors is a more efficient defensive manoeuvre than the horizontal scissors due to the utilisation of the three-dimensional maneuver (barrel roll). The rolling scissors may be used in nearly all situations where a horizontal scissors could be used, except when the defender does not have enough speed to roll over the top. It is most effective when the attacker overshoots the defender with a high angle off below his flight path.
You continue to barrel roll, placing your lift vector on or slightly aft of the bandit. Your goal is to execute the rolling scissors as shown and explained in the diagram above and to capitalize on any mistake the bandit makes. To stay offensive in a rolling scissors, you use the three-dimensional environment to control your energy effectively by:
- Proper lift vector placement
- Pulling to the edge of the stall
- Trading airspeed for altitude to reduce your forward velocity vector
- Use flaps to lead the top and retract them to lag the bottom, just as you would in a vertical fight
In all this, you are trying to stay behind the bandit. A key factor in winning the rolling scissors is to understand that it is the steepness of your climbs and dives (the helix angle of your flight path) that determines your horizontal movement more than your absolute speed.
Hope that helps...
Badboy
