Crash,
What you REALLY have to watch out for is the smart pilots out there that will FAKE that move.
Cit did this to me last week in his P-38. I had been working a lower P-38, and after a few passes I went vertical in my Jug, he rolled back onto my tail and zoomed with me. At this point I am drooling, since it is a classic rope-a-dope and when he stalls below me he is going to die fast. I see his nose drop! I pull down for the kill and... the bastard turned around and killed me! D'oh. He had faked the stall and sucked me in.
A good N1k2 driver will fake the stall as well, and use his fantastic acceleration to gain E while he does it. A short 0 G dive looks very much like a stall if you are watching from above.
Even at the start of a fight, it is not that difficult to disguise your E. If I did not disguise my E in the Jug, I would get far fewer kills. I just use my flight path and altitude to conceal my E state. The most elementary form of this is to dive before entering icon range with the bogey and put your E into speed instead of alt. Then you try not to head directly at the bandit, but use lag pursuit to minimize closure. If you are lower and not closing at too great a rate, the enemy will normally mis-judge your energy state. This works well in any of the better high-speed handling planes like the Jug, the Hellcat, the Pony, and the FW that tend to retain energy well at high speed. Since your E state is normally judged mostly by altitude, you can disguise your true E state by using speed instead.
That, IMHO, is the root source of almost all of the reports like the ones outlined above.
Judging a bogey's energy state is one of the most difficult things to do in air combat. Add to that the fact that any veteran flight sim pilot will do his best to hide his true energy state, and you will find that you frequently mis-judge the energy state of the other guy.
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Lephturn - Chief Trainer
A member of The Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com "A pig is a jolly companion, Boar, sow, barrow, or gilt --
A pig is a pal, who'll boost your morale, Though mountains may topple and tilt.
When they've blackballed, bamboozled, and burned you, When they've turned on you, Tory and Whig,
Though you may be thrown over by Tabby and Rover, You'll never go wrong with a pig, a pig,
You'll never go wrong with a pig!" -- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
[This message has been edited by Lephturn (edited 02-02-2001).]
