1) Air combat is rarely absolute, this is especially true as pilot quality increases. You can view seemingly identical tactics yield opposite results until you examine the more "trivial" details involved.
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So 1st and foremost I'm reading "noob" correctly or incorrectly based on the absoluteness of your comments. I've never seen anyone fly a perfect fight, the reality is that the person who minimizes mistakes generally wins.
The reason I'm dealing with absolutes (i.e., "no mistakes") is that if I don't... then the whole thing becomes a mess that you can't analyze. Because there are so many possibilities in every situation and multiple counters...
I HAVE a set of moves/behavioral pattern that will work and I know how to capitalize on mistakes. I don't ever fly into a fight expecting these mistakes to occur, I take them as they occur.
In this mindset, I'm going for the first shot as the F6F and disengaging unless I see a tell (which we've discussed before) for lower skill or a mistake. Maybe I'm wrong assuming my opponent will not make a mistake until I see the first one... maybe that mindset keeps me from getting as many kills as I could. You'd be the first to point it out, so maybe I'll change that mindset. I will have to see how it works out.
The thing is though - when I fly into the fight, I know exactly where my advantages are. I fly towards them. It's just that in the specific F6F case, my risk is much larger flying "all in" because of the Spit's E-building ability and turn rate.
Essentially, there's no "answer" for how to beat a Spit16 in an F6F. The best return/risk ratio that I could see is doing the Immelman lead turn merge (as many many people don't realize how good it is), then disengaging.
It's not an absolute answer, but it's the best return/risk UNTIL you have further information on your opponent's skill. Maybe I should have qualified my statements with that.
2) Performance between dissimilar aircraft is similar or even functionally identical over a large percentage of the flight envelope ... [rest edited out]
Yes I know exactly what you're talking about. It clearly shows on EM diagrams for example.
From the film we see that I am both lower and faster. I think Shawk probably assumed I was at least slightly "+E". Trying force a classic "rocketman" merge opens up a lot of possibilities...mostly bad, especially given his sustained performance advantage.
"Rocketman merge"? You're going to need to clarify.
By countering my merge the way he did he gains both an angular advantage and some additional E. While he ends the 1st half circle 2,000 feet lower he is 100+ mph faster. [...] By doing what he did he placed the fight squarely in our common flight envelope...as long as I reacted by compressing the fight back down into him...had I tried to take the fight up it would have shifted to his portion of the flight envelope as I transitioned to more of my sustained climb rate.
That makes a lot more sense. I believe I misjudged your relative E states in the start of the assessment - I thought you two were more Co-E.
Explain though - how did he generate more E by going into a dive? Dive increases airspeed which increases drag, not to mention he has to flat turn all the way around to point at you. It seems to me that he didn't so much gain E advantage as you lost it by maneuvering harder.
My mistake in Managing my excess E was less then his in carrying to much E up for to long vs setting up more of a true vertical two circle fight. The reality is that he expects to win that vertical rolling scissor just as much as I did, the mistake is in accepting an even odds match up.
That makes sense as well.
Once the scissor actually starts I'm functionally in his donut hole at the moment I transition back to lag. Theoretically it is impossible for him to generate a shot on me from that position since his lift vector wont allow it...basically the more he turns the shorter the vector is so the less total energy he has left. So the end result is we wash back to that position but with me more stabilized with regard to AOT
This is what I see as well, but I guess I'd put it in simpler terms. He can't pull for a shot, you have a control authority advantage at those speeds, so you do a lag roll to gain his tail.
Now my opinion is that since we are within the mutual overlap in flight envelope at 33/34 sec it didnt matter if he did the "curly cue" or not.
Curly cue?
He can't maneuver beyond my capabilities quickly enough to avoid me pulling lead unless he does something radical...if I hose my own lift vector I then push the fight to where he does have the edge and die...by "floating" I maximize my lift vector and maintain relative position when all is said and done. At that point climb, roll and control surface authority are all in his favor. Any type of flat or nose down turn is in mine since we are in a common area of the flight envelope and he can't outrun my guns.
I'm not sure what point of the film you're talking about here.
Here's what I see around 1:00-1:10.
As you pull onto his six, he break turns away. My guess here is that if he continues the break turn while you pull lead for the shot, your E state will be lower than his. He rolls and pulls out of plane, you blow your shot opportunity (not absolute, but from what I'm seeing, a safer course of action than cutting across the nose), then he continues to fight a turn rate fight, extending or going vertical as needed to adjust geometry.
Ok, next step of the fight, he has chosen to cut across your nose. At this point, the speeds are 113 you, 153 SHawk (1:06 timestamp) while you have 200 ft of altitude advantage.
At THIS point, how is it NOT a mistake to reverse his turn and cut across your nose? He's faster and in front, and thereby losing the scissors fight.
Three good options I see on SHawk's part
1) Extend, reset the fight.
2) Continue in a flat turn as in the previous step.
3) Go vertical to control his forward horizontal movement while cutting back towards you.
Is any of these WORSE than continuing in a scissors with you? When the A20 has the advantage in turn radius and stability at those speeds (I think) and he's too fast to prevent giving a momentary snapshot?
I probably fly some of the better vertical scissors in the game and the key is amplitude....the guy who flys the farthest while going forward the least amount wins, so turn rate is not in my opinion the deciding factor. [...]
No, I'm not saying turn rate is important in the vertical scissors. I never said that. So here we are, again you have misread my meaning. I'm saying at the point that he entered the HORIZONTAL scissors with you, he could have instead continued his flat turn and used his turn rate advantage. If you pull lead for the shot, he can pull out of plane. Note, giving you a shot through a continued flat turn is no worse than what he did, which is give you a shot through a flat turn reversal. That is the primary and most lethal mistake that I saw. You may be in his blind spot, but he also slowed down his turn and rolled back towards you, contributing to keeping you in his blind spot.
My issue here is pretty simple, your presenting a bunch of theoretical solutions that take both sides. You'd fly my fight but Shawk "should" have won.
It's simple as well - I would merge like you did. Seeing what you saw, I would have flown in the same manner. Your choice of maneuvers was logical given SHawk's choices (which were illogical to me).
Now, I defer on the merge and vertical scissoring portion. But after you gain his six, can you really say he didn't have a better option than to reverse across your nose? And after crossing your nose, can you really say he didn't have a better option than to reverse across your nose AGAIN?
Note, I had to split up the message because of the max character length.
