I went with two other guys. One was an online flyer like me, with lots and lots of time in Air Warrior (this was back in the 1990's), but not much real flying time. The other was a commercially rated pilot with about 3000 hours of flying time, but not much aerobatic time and no Air Warrior time.
I had flown some in Cessna 152's (up to the point of soloing out to the practice area). The other AW guy had nearly zero time in real planes. The two of us stomped the commercially rated pilot, though.
I found flying the Marchetti to be a lot like flying in Air Warrior, and we did all the same moves we'd do in Air Warrior: high yo yo's, Immelmanns, split s'es, max-g turns, vertical persuits, etc.
I even got beat in one of my fights with the Air Warrior guy after battling to a stalemate of a circle fight on the hard deck. With neither of us gaining on the other, his instructor let him pop some flaps, and he came around and got me. I didn't know we were allowed to mess with the flaps, but I was amused to find even that standard move worked as it did on-line.
The only downside for me was that, by the end, I was very air sick. I didn't puke, but only barely.
I even got to experience a blackout. I didn't have any trouble with 4-5 g's, which we pulled at times. However --
The Air Combat USA folks worked us in early before they normally start for the day, as it was the only time we could make it. At the end of the series of combats, we had to hurry back to land to get ready for the next group. So we flew at max speed back to the airport, where the instructor pilot takes back over to land the plane. And just like you do it in AH, he came racing in at top speed, then chopped throttle and slammed it into a max-g 360 turn to slow it down then land.
The problem was that he didn't tell me he was going to do that. He didn't say, "By the way, I'm going to pull a lot of g's here in a second, so make sure to tighten up". One moment we were cruising toward the field, and then he just flicked it into a max-g turn. I didn't tense up.
My vision went just like in AH when you slam on too many g's: black came racing in from the edges of vision, and then -- boop -- solid black, and I was out. It took about 1-2 seconds.
I woke up to the sound of the g limit alarm blaring, so I know he pulled at least 6 g's.
Everything -- even being able to experience the blackout -- was a great experience.
It gave me a great appreciation for how accurate and realistic AH is.
