Originally posted by MANDOBLE
Widewing, your mistake is related to SA, you never end alone suddenly, most of the times you have time to see what your country mates are doing, enganging, retreating, etc and you have some time to act in consecuence. Every time I get alone is just cause I decided to keep in that situation or cause all the surrounding rooks are already dead.
This was the situation: I take off from CV, and spiral up to 6k. I spot several Rooks milling about and suggest we head to 10, I'll de-ack it and we can cap it. As we arrive, I spot two Rooks getting gangbanged below and announce that I'm heading in, "please cover me". I roll in and shoot a Bish off the tail of a Rook. As the horde responds to my unexpected intrusion, I look for my buddies to clear my tail, or at least call out cons on my six. I spot them still at 6k, but they don't come down. The guy who's tail I cleared runs for the cover of the Task Force ack. No one responds to my requests, except Zulu9244, who is too far away to be of immediate assistance. I get 1 or 2 more Bish, but the horde eventually shoots out my motor and I bail out.
I was aware of the location of teammates and the enemy. Had my teammates responded, I believe I could have extracted myself from that situation and get them clear too. They did not respond.
I guess I'm spoiled by the quality of the pilots I fly with in the evening (U.S., eastern time). If I call for help, someone always responds and they know that I will do likewise.
My situation was one of my own making, I attacked 6-8 of the enemy knowing that they would gang up on me, but expecting that my teammates would pitch in too. My mistake was not knowing who I was depending upon. They could have been kids on their first ever sortie.
Whatever the result, It was my decision to dive into the horde, so I bear the responsibility of that result. Perhaps I should fly perked planes more often, as this will certainly temper my tendency towards being reckless.
My regards,
Widewing