Diary of a Noob

[PFactorDave]

I wont be good in a few days, but it's certainly not going to take a year. Anyone else have any comments/suggestions?

Well you're certainly going to have the inflated ego thing mastered pretty quickly.    Have you worked on your Channel 200 Warrior skills yet?   

[Hoff]

Well you're certainly going to have the inflated ego thing mastered pretty quickly.    Have you worked on your Channel 200 Warrior skills yet?   

I've been told, "You can't" and "That's not possible" many times in my young lifetime thus far. Each time it's only given me more drive to prove them wrong. More often than not, I do prove them wrong. Call it having an inflated ego, I really don't care, but I would find it hard to believe that many players have progressed as far as I have in a week, so it's not that I'm all talk. I've been practicing, I've been watching films, I've been studying ACM. Keep telling me I can't do it or it's not possible, it only makes me try harder.

[moot]

So you already were posting film, I'd missed that.  If you're going to try hard, try hard but don't pressure yourself over it.  Just sponge it all up, info on all things -SA, gunnery, ACM, timing, etc.  And just keep practicing.  If you can isolate some unknowns you want answers on from everything else in the situation you're having a hard time with, more people will tend to answer.

Try to tune out the smack talk and arguing because at this point it's only going to distract you from what'll really move you up the ladder.

I'll be on tomorrow.  Just ask when you see me.

[100Coogn]

A check 6 call is a gift not an obligation. That's why we thank people for them. The obligation is to check your own 6.

Well said Sir.

Coogan

[Hoff]

Day 7:

   Not much new today, just had a few bad losses against people that had a little more E than expected (or just got lucky) and hit me at D400-800 while roping them right as they were falling out. I've also noticed that I'm not getting a lot of feedback on the films anymore. Is this because I'm not asking specific questions like moot said? Am I posting too many? For some I'm just looking for people to tell me what I do wrong, others I have specific questions. I'll stop posting them for now and until I figure out what works best.

Good: Gunnery
Bad: SA/E Judgement
Film: None

[mausil]

Iam myself a noob too

but I have one or two advices if u want to take it:

*dont stay hanging out in the 6 of a bomber, they call it DeadSix for some reason

*dont get target fixated

example: yesterday I found you "stuck" in my squadmate B24 dead 6, I was going clear him but too fast, so first pass I hitted you ligthly in the left wing from 500 out, barrel roll and come upon ur high 8clock for the second pass and made you go into a spin to the ground smoking and with wing less... why?

target fixated and no paying attention to your surroundings

[Hoff]

Iam myself a noob too

but I have one or two advices if u want to take it:

*dont stay hanging out in the 6 of a bomber, they call it DeadSix for some reason

*dont get target fixated

example: yesterday I found you "stuck" in my squadmate B24 dead 6, I was going clear him but too fast, so first pass I hitted you ligthly in the left wing from 500 out, barrel roll and come upon ur high 8clock for the second pass and made you go into a spin to the ground smoking and with wing less... why?

target fixated and no paying attention to your surroundings

I knew what I was doing. When I'm upping from a vulched field like that I just go for kills and don't really care about living unless I manage to survive long enough to get some alt. I was just beelining for bombers and C47s, you'd be surprised how many fighters plowed into the ground while trying to dive on me as I went for the bombers. I managed to take out quite a few bombers, a 262, a goon, and a 234. I also remember the fight you're talking about. I managed to kill two of the bombers in the formation, and I only ended up dead six after the first two were down. I actually dove down and came in from the low 3 o clock to take out two of them. The only reason I didn't get the third before he got me was because I only had 30 rounds of 30mm before the fight began so I was shooting him with pea shooters.

Thanks for the advice, but I knew I wasn't "flying correctly." I was just messing around trying to take out bombers and goons.

[mausil]

the one im talking about I remember after u go down I looked at him and he had the complete set so probably you or I are confusing something here.. but anyway in the end that dont matter S!

[The Fugitive]

This is why people may have stopped commenting on your films. You are NOT looking for advice on how to fight, all your looking to do is pile up kills. You don't really need any skill do get kills, but if you want to learn how to fight most of these people would be happy to help you.

[moot]

Hoff isn't so bad, he just needs to get a good feel for the "flock dynamics" of furballs.  As it is he doesn't pace himself at all, just goes straight for commitment.

One of his comments tonight was "everyone seems to go for me".  Not surprising when you see his navigation thru the furballs - the red guys can easily see that he's focused on his targets.  It's a matter of stick time for him to get better instincts for what the bogies around him will do so that he can be more proactive than reactive.

[Hoff]

Day 8:

   Today I got to fly with two members of Army of Muppets, m00t, and SunsFan. I got to wing up with m00t in MA and as he mentioned he told me that I was being too aggressive and thus becoming an easy target. After flying with him for a while he had to go so I managed to meet with SunsFan in the DA for some 1v1 practice. I learned a lot from him and managed to learn how to merge decently, but still have problems after that. He was impressing me with some move he was doing at the top of the rolling scissors that would pretty much give him a shot on me every time. I didn't know how to defend against it nor how to do it myself. He said he'd be able to explain it with the film, so hopefully whenever he gets a chance he can drop in here or maybe one of you can answer it. Overall it was a really productive day. Thanks a ton to m00t and Sunsfan. I also met BigRat in the TA. He was busy with squad practice but I did manage to set up a time to train with him. m00t and SunsFan also said they were willing to help out whenever they have free time. Again, thanks a ton for taking the time to help me out, I really appreciate it. Hopefully it wont take too long before I am proficient enough to know what to do and what I do wrong without needing someone to tell me. The films for today are of most (I accidentally hit a button or something and deleted one or two of the films) of the merges between me and SunsFan in the DA.

Good: Learning, Merge
Bad: Post-Merge, SA, Committing Too Much
Film: One - Two - Three

[Hoff]

Day 9:

   Flew some more with m00t, had a little fun today messing around with the 110G and the A2A rockets. Also managed to get an A2A kill with the B25H's 75mm on a Typhoon. Started out the day just messing around having fun. Later in the day I started flying the 109k again and had quite a few decent missions. I pretty much got at least 1 kill every mission. I also had an amazing fight with a Yak9U that seemed to never end (until I ran out of fuel and had to RTB). Overall I felt pretty good. My gunnery was a little off, but I'm getting there. It's hard to get those high deflection shots off with the tater not only because of the ballistics, but the frontal visibility in the 109k is abysmal.

Good: 1v1, Defense
Bad: Gunnery
Film: One

[Guppy35]

The key phrase in your last post.  "Had a little fun"

You've found the key

[PFactorDave]

I ran into you flying a 110, trying to HO everything.  You missed me, I dodged your HO and didn't miss you.  

Watched your film...

Timid...  Timid...  Timid..

Flying to your planes strengths, I get that...  That fight with Bongo was nothing more then you using your superior climb rate to stay safe,  Every time you got aggressive, he got the advantage.  So you then spiraled up and stayed out of reach.  Timid, timid, timid.  Agent360 was probably rolling in his grave...  Oh wait, is Agent still around?

The 109k4 is a monster.  Because it can get down in the weeds with a baddie on its six and still hang the flaps out and force a reverse.  The film I just watched was of a K4 pilot who didn't want to take any chances.  You do know that you don't really die, right?

[moot]

You can get the nose out of the way to see the target by ruddering.  It takes some practice for it to become second nature instead of looking back and forth between instruments and out the cockpit, but after a while you'll see that you pull lead into the bogey's break, then roll a bit so that you can rudder the nose out of the way for either a little while (most planes like 109K) and then adjust your lead (with visual memory of the bogie's position and direction) and take a shot in one smooth motion, or actually "hold' the nose up (to the side from cockpit POV) and guide your nose till lead is good and then "drop" the nose by letting go of rudder (ta 152 mostly, no other plane I can think of off-hand has both strong rudder and one-hit-kill guns).

In either case the concept is the same - you pull lead and then a little more, and then double check target status by rolling/ruddering the nose out of the way before taking your shot. 

Dave Hoff is still very new.  He doesn't know the envelopes by heart like we do.  I remember doing the same in an La7.  Flying very lazy high energy curves to keep planes out of reach and gradually letting them get closer to kind of inch towards the edge of their reach and envelopes, all while "seeing what they could do"