Performing the rope

[Muzzy]

Does anyone have any good instructions on how to do this?  I've been victimized by it a lot, but I've never been able to pull it off. 

[Scotch]

Solo or with a wingman?

[Muzzy]

Solo

[Jayhawk]

I'm not great at it, but I would think to be really good at it, you need to be good at judging what kind of energy the enemy has.  If you've got more energy than him, you should be able to get him to stall out.   There still has to be enough distance between you and him so he can't get the shot off before stall though.

I think you'd have more luck if you can put yourself in a position where the enemy underestimates your energy state.  He won't follow you up if he knows you're going to beat him.  Also, people are less likely to just go strait up in the vertical strait into the merge.  If you can get him turning and slowly pulling up, he can get himself into a bad situation before he knows it.

You can do this by yourself and roll over on top, but if you've got a wingman or just a group of friendlies, an enemy sitting in the air is dead meat.

Btw, I say most of this as a victim of the rope, nothing like hearing the buzzer ringing and knowing you'll be dead in a few seconds.


I reiterate: It's all about energy states.

[Muzzy]

Hmm....so it's a matter of being able to judge the energy state of your enemy, and knowing whether or not you can out climb him before he gets the shot at you?

Question: How do you reverse back down?

[Jayhawk]

Rudder is important because you're usually going to be really low on energy.  That can help get your nose pointed down.  You can kick rudder to one side and let gravity do it's thing.

However, you don't have to be strait vertical for a successful rope.  If you're got the separation and energy, you can begin the pull back on the stick and roll over the top, that will put you in a position to quickly get your plane turned around.  You just can't do this too early and give them a clear profile shot of your aircraft.

[Owlblink]

There's one quick example in Qrsu's post in this thread:
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,296492.0.html

Here's another basicly saying the same thing you've concluded about reading E
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,69170.0.html

I remember finding a video around here called "High Zeke," where Mntman used an F4U to rope a zero piloted by Skotty57

[Roadblck]

Check Mtnman's post in this thread (post #30), he links to some other posts that discuss this, and have a lot of good films in there that illustrate what you're asking about.

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,296567.30.html

[maddafinga]

Read this, it was written years back by a guy who used to kill me all the time in AirWarrior.  He talks about a type of rope that is my personal favorite.  It takes some practice, but you can get it.

http://www.netaces.org/mastermerge/merge3/merge3.htm

When you're done reading that page, go back and start at the beginning and read the entire article, the read it all over again the next day.  You'll start to recognize situations from the article in the arenas, and you'll start using what you learned bit by bit. 

[BaldEagl]

IMO there's four primary elements in a successful rope:

1.  Understand both your and your opponent's aircraft and their abilities.
2.  Understand both your and your opponent's E states.
3.  Be in a position and E state to be able to bait your enemy into an unsustainable climb.
4.  Time your reversal.

If you're off in any of these you'll either be unsuccessful or worse yet dead.

As long as you know both your and your opponent's planes capabilities, properly judge E states and know what can be done with them you're off to a good start but you also need to bait your opponenet.  That means flying just out of guns range allowing him to think he's going to catch you before he runs out of E.  You won't want to use throttle during this phase but other means to remain just ahead of him.  Most likely angle of climb will be your preferred solution.

Keep watching rearward and just before you think your opponent is going to stall begin your reversal.

I prefer to reverse going stright over the top, most likely with flaps out so I can come straight down on my opponent in full profile as he stalls although you can turn in the oblique using both flaps and rudder to get you around.  This does however, give you a tougher shot but, if you do misjudge the reverse then the oblique turn is beneficial to you as it also makes his shot tougher as long as you can give him a side profile when he hits guns range.

Hope that helps.

[Traveler]

It’s called rope a dope for a reason.  As soon as you realize what is happening, perform an escape, exit the area, climb, climb, climb and come back in above that bandit and kill him as he performs the rope on some other dope.

[Ack-Ack]

Remember never attempt to rope a plane that has superior vertical performance than yours unless you attempt it with an overwhelming energy advantage. Also, don't confuse climb rate performance with vertical performance, just because your plane has a good climb rate doesn't always mean that you will have vertical performance to match your climb rate.

Anytime you want to learn how to properly Rope-A-Dweeb look me up and I'll teach you. 


ack-ack

[Dawger]

When you begin your vertical maneuver, if the bandit keeps his nose in pure pursuit on you then you probably have a dope on the hook. Doesn't mean he won't get a shot. Relative energy states still apply but you know immediately he is basically clueless and is just pointing the guns.

If the bandit stays level or lag pursuit you might be the dope and would need to carefully evaluate whether or not your planned maneuver is a wise choice.

DISCLAIMER: Use of this tactic in a multi-bandit environment is a recipe to get killed. It requires that you go well below minimum vertical maneuvering speed and is only effective against the temporarily or permanently stupid.

[321BAR]

Once you are in the rope as the lead plane, timing is everything. If they are losing your plane, you may need to reverse on them earlier than you think. If they are gaining on you, then youre going to have problems unless they are far off your six. using flaps in some planes at the apex of the rope can actually buy you some time to move back in on them and other planes such as the P51 can hammerhead back on the enemy very quickly using flaps and you can get those guns pointed at them much faster. Its also better to fly with a wingman. once you get that enemy roped, have your squaddie take him out. Even last night, me and my squaddie OnFirONE were tag team roping. one of us would lead a contact or two up and the other would take them out. then the lead roper would fly down on the other's six to clear him of enemies. You can consider it like a loose vertical lufberry circle and IT WORKS WELL... both of us got out of there alive. thankfully EDO was there to clear our six once we RTB'd because we overstayed our welcome ( there were 9 planes upping to kill us by then and by the time we were egressing, 2 spit16s were at our alt).

Ive learned to NEVER pull up when in a chase scene... roping an enemy that is equal to your speed and less than 1.5k off your six is one of the most dangerous moves you can think of.

Judging your enemy's energy and speed is the most crucial thing in any dogfight. rolling scissors depends on energy, speed, and maneuverability. vertical fighting all depends on energy even in tight turning aircraft and so on. Energy is key to almost all success in combat.

[lulu]

Hey bro, look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FEo4wAlLjQ

No 'poem' facts only!