The newest arena whine: Head Ons

[Vermillion]

Santa, most of what you described are not HO's, they are front quarter snapshots.  

Once either aircraft have started to manuever, or you have multiple aircraft entering an existing fight, its a whole different ball game.

An HO is where both aircraft approach one another on a general 12 line to 12 line direction from a distance and one or either begin to fire from a nose to nose aspect.

80% of what you guys are talking about in this thread are not even HO's.

[Hooligan]

If you die it's because you gave the other guy the opportunity to kill you.  Get over it.

Hooligan

[Swager]

75% of my kills are HOs!

I love em!!  I need em!!!!

HO me baby, HO me!!!!

 

[lazs1]

creamo.... urchin is the best stick in the game.   It is unfortunate that plane modeling and unfair features in AH have kept this a little known secret.   Most of these things that are keeping him down are subtle and therefore require large posts to clear up.
lazs

[Karnak]

StSanta,

In my opinion, once the fight is joined and close there aren't any HOs.  HOs only occur in the merge.  If the faster palne breaks off and then come back in a remerge you can have multiple HOs in one fight. In the looping and scissors fights you described the shots are almost only front quarter shots.  It is rare that both aircraft have simultaneous shots, and above and beyond that, neither aircraft can easily avoid getting into position for a frontal shot. If you are trying to defeat an enemy and you have a shot and don't take it your not really trying to win. I usually won't accept an HO in the merge, but if I get one during a fight you bet I'll fire.

[hblair]

Originally posted by BigJim:
Normally I just troll around here since I left a few months ago and haven't renewed my account altho I suspect I might be soon, But I just can't resist dispelling this myth that HO's can always be avoided, that they are always your fault, and that it takes two to make one.  

A. often if you avoid you will give the attacker the advantage.

B.  The poster's example proves he was NOT looking for an HO but was forced into it.

C. often in a multiple vs one situation you can find yourself in a HO not of your intention.

as for the whine I do agree that HO's happened alot in the actual war (too many examples to quote but Bong comes to mind)
so I do agree that the whine is stupid

BigJim

You guys must be playing a different game than I am. I can easily avoid an HO in 95% of all cases of 2 planes meeting co-altitude in the sky. If anyone in this thread (who believes HO's cannot be avoided) does not believe this to be the case, go to the training arena with me tonight and prove me wrong. I will avoid damage from the HO andthen work my way to your 6 o'clock and kill you in most all cases. There's no black magic houdini action involved, it's pretty easy.

[hblair]

...and when you hear someone scream and yell about someone "intentially" ramming them, mark them off as nuts or ignorant, or both. Or better yet, tell them to go to the training arena, and intentionally "ram kill" me. I'd have to film that one.  

[BigJim]

hblair as soon as I renew my account I would "LOVE" to learn your secrets for avoiding the HO with good results I never was able to master it, most times when the attacker was pressing the HO and I tried to avoid I wound up "shot down".  To be sure pilot skill makes a LARGE difference in any engagment, but to most of us dweebs the HO avoidance is more a "myth" than "reality" and I have heard the same claims time and again so I must need training very badly thanks for the offer.

[ 09-11-2001: Message edited by: BigJim ]

[whirl]

i believe the ho's have more to do with the damage models than anything else.  the fact is forces around a prop and the forces going over(and under) the wings , in reality, would deflect most shots from the front.  
it has more to do with using a HO as yer only acm verses one of many acm's in yer repetoire(sp.)  in most cases the person using the head-on fears an extended engagment so opts out with the attempted quick kill.  i personally enjoy the fight for 6 pos and will only use the HO acm if 1. its being used against me, 2. its a tough buff and the sooner i cut a wing the better, and 3. i'm completly outnumbered and need to clear the playing field a bit.  those that live by the head-on, to me,  don't have the security of experience in ACM.  
its not just knowing an acm, its being able to putem together in a string of acm's, or compound ACM's, as i call them.  ACM's in and of themselves take time to perfect, not to mention adv. ACM's, then trying to combine em..... well now yer talkin years of flight.  peeps aren't interested in that in this day and age--its more about making the top of the board, than the time and effort put into making yer plane "dance."  imho

[Wlfgng]

HO's..    sad but true.

what Milenko and Lephturn said