well, there are thousends good hints, here are some taken from in pursuit by BMBM
“We are always outnumbered!”So, fight only on YOUR terms! There is always a rear field to launch from. Instead of
spending your online time as a bona fide target drone at the forward fields, always with
enemy on top, invest a few minutes in securing an altitude advantage from a rear field. Then
you are ready to rule. Make single attacks, don’t bog down in wrestling individual enemy and
disengage the moment you sense your energy advantage is about to be compromised. Or
better still, collect some 4-8 pilots and work like a team against the solo or gaggle tactics of
the enemy. Think “discipline!”
“All they do is run!”So, let them! If you can’t catch them, why even try? If the bandit is running away it clearly
means that he isn’t a threat. At the most, a running bandit is a lure or a ruse. If you can get
the bandit to run you’ve won the engagement since you’re in possession of the field. On the
other hand, the bandit may call it a draw as he is still alive, and he may be planning a comeback
on better terms. In any case, if the bandit is running scared, you can get him to turn
back for another go by showing him contempt and/or disinterest – check out chapter 17.4.
And if he’s running home to repair or rearm, well, then you have the opportunity to own his
sky so as to kill him all the more effectively next time you happen to meet him. In other
words, follow him to his lair and stake him out as he replanes.
“Scumbag nitwits keep crashing into me!”Since beginner pilots usually fly “pipper-on-enemy” only until they learn the concept of
separation, ramming is an occupational hazard. Pitch two beginners against each other and
they’re highly likely to die in a head-on collision (flying straight at your enemy usually results
in collisions you know), whereas two intermediate or accomplished pilots are far less likely to
collide – because they fly to avoid the collision rather than fly to collide. It really isn’t that hard:
simply point beside your enemy in a head-on approach and you will not collide. The novice
retorts with “but then he gets a free shot!”, to which I say: use the Vertical Luke, i.e. pitch up or
down out of his plane of manoeuvre in order to complicate the shot beyond his capability.
Up close and personal, if you’re feeling the collision coming up, slide out with a stomp of the
rudder or relax stick pressure to slide below and behind your enemy.
What do you do when the enemy is faster and the only thing you have is an advantage in roll rate?
Speed is of course the decisive advantage – he who has an overhead of speed can run down
the slower enemy and disengage from any fight that threatens to go sour. Thus, the slower
fighter needs to secure an energy advantage by storing up on potential speed known as…
altitude. However, before long you’re highly likely to get into the situation where the enemy
is co-E or better thus forcing you to fight on his terms. He who has speed normally has the
climb and dive advantage as well, although there are exceptions to the rule. Anyhow, here
you are, fighting a faster bandit with nothing but your wits and your roll rate – how do you
do it? Your roll rate is of decisive importance inasmuch it allows you to change direction
swiftly and thus create or increase separation which the enemy cannot immediately follow or
make up for.
We can’t support our troops because the enemy is too numerous and have better aircraft than we do.
If I had had a dime for every time I’ve heard this I’d be a rich man today. It is inevitably so
(in a game) that one side will outnumber the other, one side will have a better performing
inventory, one side will have the better pilots and one side will enjoy all the benefits of
superior morale. What’s worse, depending on your allegiance of course, is that these factors
are self-reinforcing: good inventory = more pilots = more success = better morale = more
flight time = better pilots und so weiter. Griping and yammering isn’t going to change that.
If you’re left holding the wrong end of the stick you had better do something about it, right
quick. The first thing to realise in this situation is that you cannot expect to succeed in any
venture at any time under any circumstance. Strike that thought from your mind. You can
only succeed in such situations as your proficiency and circumstances allow, and with the
above-mentioned set of disadvantages ranged against you those situations are few indeed.
Tough luck, but there it is.
Back in 1943 Air Vice Marshal Tedder laid down the law on how fighters should be
employed, in order of priority and in order of discrete tasks to be accomplished before the
next can be contemplated:
a. Fighter sweeps to clear the enemy out of the sky.
b. Escort for light and medium bombers.
c. Interception of enemy aircraft.
d. As a fighter bomber to provide CAS for ground forces.
This doctrine makes all sense. Before you can afford the luxury of CAS you absolutely must
win air superiority. To do so, you must find and defeat the enemy in the air and on the
ground, destroying him with fire and bombs, with interdiction and denial of production.
Such enemy aircraft that venture to do the same to us must be intercepted and destroyed,
and only once these tasks have been satisfactorily completed can CAS become an issue. So, if
you’re outnumbered, outperformed and outmoraled: fly higher, fly faster, engage with
distinction and disengage at the first whiff of advantages lost. Never ever fly alone, treat your
team with as much care as you want them to show you and learn to dominate locally before
shooting for total air superiority. What does all this have to do with “pilot over plane” you
ask? Well, it is not uncommon for sim pilots to make too steep demands on their rides, and
29
on themselves, that they cannot deliver. Realising one’s limitations and adapting to them is
probably the single most important factor in surviving a sortie.
more to find here:
http://pilotpress.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/inpursuit.pdf
