Now that he’s gone; it has been said folks who got his help benefited from some of his skills.
I wasn’t in that group and sort of believe this has seen his best days and isn’t dedicated enough to improve much, although just flying more would do that, and I was a wondering….
What did YKH teach you that made you better in Aces High?
Ill answer:
Skyyr was always willing to go 1 on 1 in the DA and teach dogfighting tactics. Usually we would fly a few rounds and then he'd ask us for a post-fight review of why we thought the fights went the way they did, then he would drill down and ask us why we chose the tactics we did.
In almost every session, what we ended up going back to the basics. He would stress that every single fight was a series of maneuvers, and every maneuver was an individual OODA loop. The trick was identify the situation, select the proper maneuver as quickly as possible, execute it, and then repeat.
What it taught me (and I think most that flew with him) is that dogfighting is both extremely simple and most players (myself included) didnt fully understand that the complexity is in recognizing that and keeping it simple. If you ever sat in comms listening to him talk his way through a fight, it was almost mesmerizing how he could tell you what you were going to do while countering it as you did exactly what he predicted you'd do.
He focused a LOT on basic maneuver selections and the OODA loop. I think that is Skyyr's talent - he's able to break down complex geometry and physics very quickly and simply. This isnt the only sim he flies - he's flown numerous others and he was even better in those, so I know firsthand he wasn't just gaming the game here.