Progress report time!
Great to see some posts about old players (like me) coming back as well as some new blood too. Thought a progress report might be educational to these two groups of players (and anybody else for that matter).
Many thanks and
to Clu and Sik1 (who was not feeling well but spent time with me anyway!) who were kind enough to spend a little time with me in the TA. Both revealed to me that my two biggest problems are SA and energy management. I already knew that actually but I got some good tips on how I might improve that.
First, concerning SA, Clu advised me to work on circling around the drones trying to maintain sight of them. I used to do this and had forgotten about it. I've started doing that again and it does help a lot. I also adjusted my TIR speed from 2 to 1 and increased my smooth from 10 to the maximum (40). This seemed counter-intuitive to me as it seemed I want more speed but just the opposite is actually the case (for me). Now, it simulates "natural" head movement. That was a huge improvement.
Another simple improvement was adding the HUD to my cockpit. I've always avoided such "unrealistic" devices but since I am so bad at this anyway, I decided what the heck! It really does help me not lose altitude in an engagement. I can glance up at the HUD and quickly see if I've lost altitude and I know that I'm killing my smash. I'm unashamed to now sport a spanking new HUD device right there in the cockpit of my vintage WW2 aircraft. So sue me!
Sik advised me to practice flying around as slowly as possible offline so as to get the feel for the limits of the plane. This is actually something I always did in RC when warming up for an aerobatic program. I have added flying through the hangers and flying around inverted (though appears not to be fully modeled) as part of that practice procedure. This has definitely helped.
Clu encouraged me to learn to fly defensively. Rather than think about getting the kill, learn to evade, frustrate the attacker, etc. and just let the kills come when the opportunity presents itself (that opportunity has yet to present itself!
). I've been really concentrating on that to the point where I've flown sorties without ever flying a shot even though I engaged a number of targets. I've never had a great KTD in this game and my current 0.25 may be the lowest I've EVER had since 1999 but I refuse to be discouraged about it. This is a training schedule here and I'm in my first month. Numbers don't matter right now (if they ever will).
Ok, final thoughts. Though I have several serious weaknesses as a fighter pilot, I know how to fly an airplane and have been flying with precision for many years. How can I bring my flying skills into making me a better fighter? How can I use my strengths to overcome my weakness? This is my quest. I feel in my spirit that there is a great fighter pilot trying to break out. [Please take this as tongue-in-cheek as I intend
].
I hope this serves as inspiration to any who have been as discouraged as I have been. Though this is as hard as anything I've ever tried to do, it is an exciting and fulfilling journey.
-hb
