Corkscrew -- What is it?

[darbar]

I had a squadie pull a corkscrew maneuver on me in the H2H arena the other evening. We were both in SpitV's.
Can someone tell me how that maneuver is pull off? And what exactly is it?
Thanks!!

Darrell Barnes (darbar)

[acetnt]

corkscrew - do you mean an exaggerated barrel roll.....in this case, if you have e or some alt. Pull joystick one way and apply opposite rudder e.g. pull the stick to the back right then as the plane starts to go in that direction, Apply full left rudder. Once the roll starts I point the aircraft to the ground......in this way I can force an overshoot. Note : 1. Make sure the guy behind you is close before doing 2. Much better to do this with some alt so that you can recover after.

[darbar]

I'm not well versed on flight maneuvers, so please bear with my foolhearted attempt at doing so ... LOL

Basically what happened was we were at the same alt, same plane, same speed when he said "watch this" ....

I saw his plane bank to the right with a small alt gain, then bank to the left through a small dip when all of the sudden, he was flying directly at me (about 1000 below due to loss of some alt).

I asked him what he just did and he said it was the corkscrew maneuver which was great for people on your six. I guess he is still mad at me for not taking him to the Indy 500 with the rest of my squadron this year .. I promised him tickets for next year so maybe he'll walk me through it sometime.

Again, my apologies for not understanding the name=manuever. Heck, I'm still trying to associate these moves with names .. that would be a great educational tool for people eager to learn if someone could throw something together like that .... i.e. here is the name of the maneuver and how to do it.

Thanks again for all of your help!!

Darrell Barnes (darbar)

[AcesGun]

Corkscrew - The corkscrew is an effective defensive maneuver, and can often shake pursuit with its sometimes confusing directional shifts. With practice it can be employed in head-to-head passes to avoid damage while able to fire on the enemy. It is performed by starting a roll, followed by a climb, after a moment, the roll should be switched to the other side, with the climb continuing. You can continue in this fashion infinitely.

(Copied from http://www.angelfire.com/il3/NewRepublicSquadrons/PilotsHandbook.html)

Barrel roll - The barrel roll is a combination between a loop and a roll. You complete one loop while completing one roll at the same time. The flight path during a barrel roll has the shape of a horizontal cork screw. Imagine a big barrel, with the airplanes wheels rolling along the inside of the barrel in a cork screw path. During a barrel roll, the pilot experiences always positive G's.

(Copied from http://web.winco.net/~efildes/slowroll/maneuver.html)

[darbar]

That is an awesome response!! Exactly what I needed!!!
I really appreciate you taking the time to send that info. Your efforts will not be in vain.
Best Regards,

Darrell Barnes (darbar)

[Elysian]

Hi darbar,

This is a real common manuever, especially for "turny" planes like spits.  

What he's doing is turning right first to gain some lateral separation from you.  This is preparation for the left turn, where he'll close up the lateral separation he just gained thereby giving you less time and room to counter or try to gain angles.  

If he started the maneuver by just turning hard left initially he'd give you a lot of options to gain angle, closure, separation etc. (lead turn/lag turn, yo-yos, o and on...).

In the left turn he'll probably bank towards the ground and then up towards you.  He gets an extra G in his turn rate from gravity this way plus speed from diving to manuever aggressively with.

If everything goes right he'll be set up for a head-on merge, him being beneath you at least level with the ground if not starting to turn up towards you.  

This is a really advantageous merge position for him, think about your options vs his and you'll understand why.

Hope this helps, good stuff to understand .

[MaddogJoe]

This is all great info, but without yardages I'm going to be toast !!! I know ya can't get away with this move D:600 but it does sound like a move ya want in your bag !

[bigjava]

Originally posted by darbar
I had a squadie pull a corkscrew maneuver on me in the H2H arena the other evening. We were both in SpitV's.
Can someone tell me how that maneuver is pull off? And what exactly is it?
Thanks!!

Darrell Barnes (darbar)

also that....
there is the  corkscrew  bomber manouvre.
it was a tipical maneuver during which the bomber's pilots are going to try to avoid a night figther at 6.
so they do it during the nite and without the big icon  which we have over the head in Game



 A) If the fighter attacks from the port side, the bomber pilot banks at 45 and dives to port at full throttle.
B) After descending for about 300m. (1,OOOft) the pilot starts climbing. He is still turning to port.
C) Halfway through the climb he banks to starboard, but continues to climb. This reduces his speed sharply, which sometimes induces the attacking fighter to overshoot.
D) After regaining the same altitude, and while still turning to starboard, the pilot starts another dive.
E) He descends half the distance of the previous dive, and then turns to port.
F) If the pilot has not shaken off the fighter, he can repeat the manoeuvre.  
Source: Cross, R., The Bomber (London, 1987).
Courtesy of The Oxford Companion to World War II
Compiled by _VR_Tuvok

so i'm not sure that  will be effective in a spit

[Elysian]

The maneuver darbar described his buddy doing is completely different from that bomber diagram you've got there.  His friend probably just calls it a "corkscrew" for lack of better terminology.  I'd call it a well executed split-S reversal.

I'm responding to the description he wrote of what he saw, not some "official" definition somewhere of what a "corkscrew" is *supposed* to be.

What darbar described is bread and butter in ACM and really can be used by any fighter.  Especially spits because they can make it work at much closer ranges with their excellent maneuverability, low stall speed and good dive characteristics.  I run across it all the time as well as use it myself.

[Elysian]

Hi MaddogJoe,

You most certainly could use this manuever (the one darbar and I are talking about) from d600, just have to have a good handle on the enemy's E state and what his plane can do.

If I'm in a spit 5 climbing at 140 IAS let's say... with a 190d9 on my 6 chasing me at d600 but not gaining or gaining slowly I'd go for it in a hearbeat.  At that speed he's about to stall anyways, spit 5 won't stall till 100...  I have 40 mph of leeway in which to pull up, right then left, and down into him, if he follows he's a sitting duck at those low speeds.

Plus I'd want to act before the d9 could gain E with that giant engine of his.

Plenty of variations on this type of move, plenty of different situations where it would or wouldn't work too.