Spiral rope climb
Generally, we all fall prey to a nice a "rope a dope" which is basically a plane that has more E than you who gets you to follow him/her up vertical until you run out of speed and stall out, then he/she hammer stalls, flips over, and shoots you frozen in the sky unable to move. This is a great move and takes a lot of practice to perfect (judging E and being just far enough away for them to miss). Many times this can also be a nice set up as well for a squadie to help clear your 6. The only problem with a straight up vertical rope is that you also become easier to pick. There is a better way, although it takes more practice and is a bit harder to time. The spiral rope climb is one of my favorite moves to do in the game.
The spiral rope climb much like the vertical rope climb is a way to get the enemy to seemingly float in the air (out of E) as you roll over and make the shot. What makes the spiral better than the vertical is that you have the ability to hold your E better by simply rolling over rather than doing a 0 E hammerhead stall. Also if you so happen to see an enemy plane diving on you, you can easily go into the nose down turn, rather than be stuck in the air going straight up. The move takes a lot of timing and E control but if you work it correctly you can generally get most planes to follow you. The key is being able to convince them that they can make a shot on you ( though they miss every time because it is a tough shot to make). While they are losing all their E trying to spiral climb with you they are also losing more E than you because they are trying to lead you for the shot.
How to perform one. First you have to judge a persons E, any plane that is screaming with speed is probably gonna climb right up with you and make the shot. You typically want a plane that is going about 50mph or less to engage you. So you have a bit of E and you see someone d800-1000 who is slowly falling further back it works a lot better if they are below you too. You can pull up in and angle (spiral) right or left ( do not go nose head on, but you can nose down before you merge to get a bit of extra E) and try to get him to make a nose up sideways angle lead shot on you ( you want them to go for the shot), you need to be about 400,600 ( but closer is better) away so he doesn't actually get you. If he pulls into you and goes for the shot, He will be pulling up more vertical than you trying for lead shot, keep spiraling around going up and try to squeeze a tad more in the spiral as you go up (ie, the spiral you do gets tighter and tighter to get them to go more vertical and make the lead shot even harder to make. If you do it right, he wont be able to make the lead or have a shot anymore after the 3rd/4th spiral. You continue to spiral around (in the same direction) Judge yours and their E so you know when you need to make spiral tighter. For example If the enemy is a 190A-5 the tighter you make the spiral the more and more he will stall considerably pulling up and turning. You will see him lose all E straight vertical (while you are still in spiral climb). You can use flaps too if you need the extra lift to hold on a bit longer. Once he is frozen, all you have to do is roll over, use some rudder, and stall handling and make the shot for the easy kill or to gain their 6. It's a great move to catch people on, because at first they think they can get the shot, but it is a trap and once they fall for it it is very difficult to get out because you having more E and can roll right around on them at any time. I would not advise performing this move on a ki43, spit16, or even a ki84 because they have a great vert characteristics.
The spiral Dive
So if you are flying a Ki84 at 10k (which is the max alt you should ever fly it) and you want to dive down on an enemy who is 2k how do you do this without your controls freezing? The spiral dive also works great for Jabo over an enemy base as well. It is very simple but incredibly important for setting up attacks in planes that do not dive well. The key is to try and get right over the top of an enemy plane. So say you are 10k and they are 2k. Instead of diving diagonal, get right over the top of them and do a downward spiral cork screw, u will generally need to cut some throttle as well (especially in a ki84). Many players are checking their 6 and not their "look up" view they expect the diagonal dive attack. So if you spiral dive right on top of them, they may not even see you (till it's too late). The spiral climb will keep you slow enough so you don't lawn dart while also giving you enough speed to go for a rope or to get away. It helps with Jabo tremendously to get a precise drop on a target. Also, it allows you to choose other targets, so say you are spiral diving on the 2k plane and you see another plane (going in the opposite direction) that you would rather attack (who is lower than you) then you can easily change your targets. If you are diagonally diving on a enemy, you cant very easily make a quick change and dive on someone else going in the opposite direction. Once you get about 2k above them, you can then go break the spiral and do a straight dive on the target.
