was gonna put this in the general forums...but i think here is better......
some tips i was thinking of for AvA
everyone seems to think that the german planes are delibretly given an advantage in here.
well.....i flew a 109 the other night, and i can tell ya, it was as hard to spot a pee40, as it is to spot a 109.
so, i figured in the spirit of dawgers tips, i'd add some. mine are more on the order of flying, rather than
adjusting computer settings(i'm too stupid to make the correct adjustments)
ok...first off. camoflauge works. it works VERY well. i guess we fail to realize that in the regular arenas when
there's a bright red neon sign from nearly 2 miles away.
when you fly to a fight, you need to decide where you think it is. if you think it's up high, then get your butt
up there. if you think it's low, then stay down on the deck.
cons are much much easier to spot when you are co-alt, or below them. unfortunatly for us pee38 drivers,
the larger cons are much more easily spotted. kinda like real life. remember. me109 was around 33 foot wingspan
pee38 is around 55 foot wingspan.
so lets presume a low alt fight. in the weeds, 80th style.
whatever you choose to fly, try to pick a camo that will blend into the background. again, there aren't many camo
options for pee38s(that's 'cause real men don't need to hide in the background). i tend to keep the olive drab schemes
because they're 80th, and because they make it harder to tell exactly what the 38 is doing. they kind of "silohouette" it.
all of the other aircraft seem to have decent camo schemes available, to help you blend.
now for spotting them. we'll do easy first.
co-alt. look for a dot. it cannot, and will not blend into the background, if it's got the sky behind it, which it will most of the
time at co-alt conditions. you can see the con at a min. of 2 miles.....once you get used to it, you can almost spot them at 3 to 5 miles.
ok...so now you've got vis on them. what to do? decide on a co-alt merge, or if you think you can keep track of them, then climb
some to give yourself a little "E" to play with. be very careful doing this. you could very easily get popped by one you never saw.
that brings me to somethign i almost forgot. if you're staying on the deck.....it means exactly that.....STAY ON THE DECK. 500ft agl,
and no higher. if you're higher, the con can and will fly below you, and again...you'll get popped by one you never saw. once
you spot him, then go high. if you're going to be above 500 ft agl, then you MUST go higher than the cons "zoom" altitude, to avoid this.
ok...so on the deck, co-alt merge. get in ther tight, and fast. i think it's about D1000 that you can see his wings. at D500, you can VERY
easily see his wings. get the hell in there, and do NOT let him extend. if you can keep him within sight like this, he cannot hide in the background.
remember....regardless of what you fly, if you let him get below you, and give him the room he wants, he will more than likely
use the camo to hide, extend, and come back with an advantage.
when you merge this low, the fight rarely goes above 3k alt agl. even from that alt, you can position yourself to advantage, or you can
just as easily give it up to the other guy.
high alt(meaning 10k agl and higher) is much much easier. you can spot the cons easily at 5 miles out. same rules though. get in close,
but if you're careful, you can let him as far away as 2k without having any problems. if they get below you, it is still possible to lose them
in the background, but it is also much easier to spot them.
the whole key here, is that we need to learn to "unlearn" what we've learned in the regular arenas.
in the regular arenas, we've learned to use the neon sign to judge closure rates, and "E" states. we've learned that if we lose sight
of the other guy for a second, it's ok, 'cause we only have to spot that red neon sign to find him.
we've learned that we have neon red signs to tell us we need to disengage, or get picked.
in the AvA, that is all out the window. in there, you learn to watch the other guys wings. watch what he's about to do. we learn to use
our gunsight for more than to just see where our bullets are gonna go. we learn to better judge speed and "E"(which i messed up on
BIG against jc67 the other night)
we learn, that if we lose vis for a second, chances are when next we spot the other guy, it'll be by following the trail of his tracers
back to the muzzles of his guns.
none of this says any of us are better than anyone else. it is just a different skill set. one that is a real challenge, and great fun to learn.
it causes us to "get" into the fight sooo much more than otherwise.
so, c'mon in guys!!!! the water's fine.
