Before deciding to take a hiatus due to extreme frustration, I was running into the problem of my attempts to evade a bounce turning into a HO shot. When an enemy dove down on my six, I turned towards him as I'd been instructed, but he inevitably got a HO shot on me. How do you achieve separation in this instance? Is it better to simply do a quick evasion without turning directly into the con's attack, or is there something else that I was missing.
Contemplating a return, provided I can find a way to mellow out a bit....
-Muzzy.
Since I got firmly involved in this thread, I'll take a shot at this.
With regard to your frustrations, Muzzy, I know the feeling. I’m also taking a break myself for similar reasons and haven’t flown in the MA in weeks. I still try to get in for squad training every once in a while, and I find that participating in events like FSOs, doing practice with my squad and working with others in the TA allows me to take the frustrations of the MA with a grain of salt. I try to think of the MA as a meaningless pick-up game, while FSO is “Friday Night Lights”, if you get my metaphor. Maybe that helps.
As far as your “BnZ evasion turning into a HO” problem, it sounds like you may be turning too soon or turning too sharply into the con, which brings you nose on for the HO. There is both a
timing and an
angle element you may want to work on.
“Turning into the con” doesn’t necessarily mean turning nose on. It could be just rolling to place your lift vector (up view) on the enemy and slowly turning back into him. When you are sure he is attacking (diving), you start to turn and tighten your turn as he gets closer, then evade sharply as he reaches guns range, preferably with both a horizontal and vertical component. If done correctly, he will have difficulty pulling lead for a shot. Instead, he will usually shoot behind you. Watch some of Vudu’s or Latrobe’s combat films and you will see this is a maneuver they use frequently and successfully.
When I do this, I like to hide some E (initially using a low-G or slightly nose down turn), so I can pull up into the con and then over the top as they pass under and behind me. Often you can get a shot on the con as they climb back up or start to extend. If they go sharply vertical you may wind up with a snap shot at very close range, which can be a kill shot. Even just a few pings on a BnZer might motivate them to just extend and go seek easier prey.
The key to all this is timing, so it is something that needs to be practiced.
As always, the best advice is to get with a trainer and ask to work on BnZ evasion/reversals.
My two cents.
<S>
Ryno
