Some defensive Spit-16 flying for you, Magic.
Also, in reply to your original post:
Initial SetupThe first thing you should have done was identify the aircraft as soon as the tag became visible (not too hard - the tag says YAK) and quickly break down the type's general advantages and disadvantages relative to you. Most all Yaks are going to be faster than you, you're going to turn a lot better than all of the Yaks, your aircraft (Spit 16) can maintain its E better than any of them. Additionally, once the fight gets slow, your climb performance will greatly outperform theirs due to the Yak's torque (which is opposite yours). This quick assessment should readily point out that you're the angles fighter, and the Yak is the energy fighter.
So, in the first 1-2 seconds, you should know that your endgame is going to be an angles fight, and will likely be a rolling scissors if played correctly.
Now, we look for the next aspect of the fight - relative energy levels. The easiest way to do this is to note how quickly the tag distance numbers change - closure rate. The Yak looks to be about 320-350mph. Closure rate estimations and the airspeed that comes from them are never 100% accurate, but the goal is to quickly find the range you suspect them to be in and act accordingly. Glancing at your airspeed indicator, you're doing about 270mph true, so the Yak has 50-80mph of airspeed on you.
What does this mean? This means several things, but most notably that not only is he an energy fighter, but he also has a distinct energy advantage. We always want to assume that our opponent will fly perfectly, so we'll plan for him going vertical (what every energy fighter should do given an energy advantage and proper separation), pulling hard G's, and trading that airspeed for position over and behind you.
Once we have our aircraft advantages/disadvantages and energy levels (which should occur no less than 3-5 seconds after sighting your opponent), we need to develop tactics.
The Yak is the energy fighter, so you should plan for an aggressive vertical fight from the Yak. You are the angles fighter here, and anything the Yak does for angles, you can do better; note that we also don't want to commit to the vertical while the Yak has an airspeed advantage, as the vertical bleeds airspeed quickly. Once in the vertical, it becomes a game of "chicken" to see who will run out of E first, and you don't want to enter it at an energy disadvantage. Therefore, you should use the vertical as much as possible without committing to it - we do this with oblique turns (turns that are half vertical, half horizontal).
So, recap - we will plan for the Yak using aggressive vertical maneuvering with an airspeed advantage, and we will use oblique turns to both minimize committing to the vertical, while encouraging the Yak to turn.
You should have these tactics chosen within 1-2 seconds.
Finally, right before you merge, you should see the aircraft's specific model (Yak-3). This is commit point for what tactics we specifically will use. The Yak-3 is the turner of the Yak family, so be prepared for a more angular energy fight, although you will still remain the angles fighter and the Yak will be the energy fighter. Functionally/practically, this means this specific Yak pilot will likely pursue angles more aggressively, which means you'll likely need more lead turning and that your opponent will likely be easier to suck into committing to a turnfight.
AARSo, what actually happened? Well, the Yak did just as I described. Notice how he started nosing down before the merge. He already had a sizeable airspeed advantage, therefore the only possible use for more airspeed would be to burn it aggressively, i.e. the vertical. You can see 2k out that he's diving for position, which confirms our initial assessment.
So what went wrong? Well, notice that the Yak starts widening his turn on the merge (a lag turn of sorts). He's widening it so it allows him to offset his own slight turn back into you, making it effectively tighter. You should have kept your nose pointed at him right up until the merge, as doing so would actually result in him losing angles himself as he set up a lag turn; instead, you allowed him to widen his approach for a further advantage. Had you kept on him and had a zero aspect merge, his energy would have been more of a liability. Before the merge, you should have nosed down to pick up airspeed to offset his airspeed advantage, and then done an oblique turn to the right across his flightpath.
Now, we can't say anything past this point, as it didn't happen. However, should you have actually done the above, he would have likely been above you, perpendicular to your flight path with a near 90* deflection shot. At that point, you could have reduced throttle and sliced through the horizon and forced an overshoot. Again, this is speculation, but it's what I would have done.
NotesWhat FLS said is good advice - if you're going to spend to the time to watch you or someone else's fights, then you need to have a learning objective/DLO from watching them. You should always identify what won or lost every fight. Without that, watching any film is going to be a waste of time.
Going one step further, here's an example of what I was referencing about quickly ID'ing your opponents and determining how to fight them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heqsXFjWg_4In that fight, notice that I quickly noted my airspeed and assessed the targets in their order of threat: TYPH (Tempest), P-51 (D), 190 (D-9). The Typhie was likely to be a Tempest, of which my plane has absolutely no primary advantages over, aside from forcing a head-on shot. Therefore, I need to eliminate it quickly at the merge, especially given that I'm outnumbered 3 to 1. The P-51 is likely a D model (as 90% are), and his edge in maneuverability in a 3v1 situation will quickly put me on the defensive if not taken care of, so he is threat #2. The 190 is likely either a D model (about on par with my aircraft) or an earlier 190 series, so at best it's equal with my aircraft. Same aircraft ACM is relatively straightforward, so the 190 represents no inherent threat provided I don't allow him a guns solution.
So, within 3 seconds, I know my attack order will be Tempest > P-51 > 190, with room for adjustment if the situation dictates.
For tactics, I'm slow, but they're nearly co-alt, so diving away would only limit my options further. Therefore, I decide to try to quickly hit the Tempest with a deflection shot on the merge while simultaneously turning to keep the 190 at bay while the P-51 comes in.
It's all about quickly summarizing your opponents' abilities, target prioritization, and generating tactics based on those parameters.
-=S=-
