Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Help and Training => Topic started by: Changeup on December 28, 2012, 01:49:12 PM
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I wanted to start a thread that would get a list of drills new players and returning players could look through to improve. If you have a drill you were taught by someone or devised on your own, list it here with an brief explanation of how, what it will help improve, and why it's important.
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Vision: Offline or a High field in the DA
Improves your ability to use your hat switch coordination to not lose sight of your opponent and gives you a heads up on your blind spots in the plane you have chosen. Also can help learning how to fly forward while looking aft. Also helps improve your views if blind spots can be corrected.
Pick your bird and take off alone and stay around 1500-2500 feet. Stay over the airfield and fly.....but never take your eyes off the radar tower....ever. Dive on it, fly by it, roll around it, fly over it inverted, pull it vertical...just go nuts but don't ever take your eyes off of it.
Teacher: MugZ
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One I was taught was to take up your plane of choice and fly level, trying to go as slowly as possible while keeping your wings level. I find it useful to learn what happens to each different aircraft when it stalls, and allows you to be ready for those characteristics when you're stall fighting. You can then use your experience to anticipate what is going to happen next and move your controls to counter it rather than reacting to what the plane does then moving your controls.
Doing this at different alts can be useful too.
Wiley.
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Go to the TA, with a buddy if possible.
Do a few quick divebombing runs with an air start.
Then with a buddy use the air start feature to begin at 10K and turn on lead computing gunsight.
After about 10-20 minutes in the TA you are ready to practice killing in the MA.
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These drills are for use in offline practice, to learn better how to control the plane.
After you have shot down the drones several times, try flying in formation with one. Get on his four or five o'clock, and see how long you can stay there. It is harder than you might think.
Fly through the hangers. In one door, and out the other. Start with the large bomber hanger. Once you are comfortable with that, fly through the smaller fighter hanger. This builds good plane control.
Get in a jeep and drive around for a while. Do some sight-seeing at the different bases, and the town. Then when it comes time to attack, you have a better idea of the targets you are trying to hit. Besides, it gives you an appreciation for the detail that Hitech and crew have put into this game.
:salute
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When you're team is going to take a base, send one or two guys over and have them circle the field just outside of ack range. This prevents uppers and it adds to the intimidation.
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What I did for 40 hours or so one week a few months ago...
(I did this in the MA @ an airfield way away from combat because I thought someone told me the fuel burn in the TA is much longer than in the MA. Plus the added excitement of not being in the TA and crashing ect...)
~ Aircraft of choice.
~ 100% fuel.
~ No External Ordnance or Droptank.
~ Start when "OTR" (on the runway)
~ Finish AFTER Tanks are EMPTY by way of gliding "Dead Stick" to a stop on concrete somewhere on the airfield.
Objective:
Using the Radar, stay Under the Top of the radar tower. Circle as close or tight as you can too Radar.Do Not exceed a altitude higher than the TOP of Radar Tower, doing so is a Fail.
Hoping to:
Wake up your throttle hand and start using it during "angle fighting". One thing I can say in the MA is this... If you are in a turn fighter and get into a fight with another turn fighter, the first to use flaps usally wins. If you are in a turn fighter and someone is BnZ you... If you can make that attacking pilot get into an extended turn with you... Well you should win or make your odds much better. On top of learning to "feather" the throttle. This exercise will help you take a plane into that stall environment and learn to do everything there. Everything you can learn at the extreme end of aircraft performance will help you more than I can put to words.
Speed is not of importance. Focus on staying as close as you can through out a full circle. Use an object on the field to check your start and completion of said circle.
Think that is beneath you then do it inverted. Also add rolling elements into your turns. Do some knife edge work using that rudder. Turn only with rudder. Expanding on the simple goals of staying as close as possible and under the top of the tower will do a lot for you.
Just alone the confidence with flying that low to the trees is invaluable.
Hope this helps.
:airplane:~<Deadstik
:old:
Hint: You control the altitude of your aircraft with the throttle when full flaps are deployed and your aircraft is close to stall speed during level flight, not so much with your elevator.
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These are all awesome...I've tried a couple and they're tougher than I thought they'd be! wow. :aok
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Trimming your plane:
Plane of choice, 100% fuel WITH DROPS if available. Then with no drops.
Take off and slow to full-flaps speed. Drop your flaps and see how slow you can fly and for how long by TRIMMING YOUR NOSE DOWN. In a lot of a/c you can actually trim almost level with full flaps. WIthout drops, begin to make turns at your slowest achieved speeds. Then try to roll it inverted by moving the trim up AND down.
During an angles fight, flaps cause the nose to jump up and it stays up....flaps down/trim down allows you to keep your nose on the target at ultra low speeds so you can be deadlier, quicker. Perfect for use after a fight when you've got no E and some score monkey decides to jump you while your getting your speed back up. You'll be surprised how slow some will fly and how much more control you have with the pipper with the nose trimmed down.
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Use your plane of choice then take off at a base,TA is best for this,do figure 8's inside the base.you cant exceed 150 mph,I drop gear so they break if I go too fast,and you cant climb or drop more than 1000 ft. The slower you can fly the better,this will help with low speed handling and control.
Try it,it aint easy!
:salute
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An exercise I like to do is to go to the TA and take up an F4U-1 (not the -1A) Corsair with 100% fuel, take off and climb to about 1000 feet circling the field, and then make a landing approach, but roll inverted and see how close you can get to the runway inverted without crashing, and how far along the runway you can hold that position; then roll out at the end of the runway and do it again.
I like the drill Changeup post about keeping the Radar always in view whilst flying. Another method is to loop through a hangar whilst always keeping the hangar in view during the entire loop and see how many consecutive loops you can do.
I also recall a drill that Tequila Chaser (TC) posted a few years (?) ago about learning to do Spilt S's over the runway using the runway as a guide that you had to stay aligned with at all times. Perhaps he may come in here and post that drill.
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After a half rack of beer I am nearly invincible.
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The Barrel Roll
One of the best BnZ defenses out there when the con is behind your 3-9 line and coming fast. Depending upon your ability to keep your eyes on him, this drill could help you nail him immediately by using a nice, coordinated barrel roll and an accurate snap-shot. Choose any plane you like and get it up to 1500 AGL. This drill also gives the feel and direction for setting up a scissors if the con's E was misjudged and he's slower, this will let you roll right into him.
In the TA, type .target 200. You will see a giant target appear on your starboard (right) side. Turn into the target and get your speed up. Then, cut throttle by 1/2 and with your pipper, draw a circle around the outer circle of the target. You'll need rudder and aileron and watch your speed drop. As you come to full circle on the roll, increase throttle and check your speed again. When your good at it, you will have lost about 100 kts at the low point and gained about 50 kts back which should keep you in the sweet spot for maneuvering should it be necessary. Be sure to work the rolls in BOTH directions. Don't get predictable
Teacher: MugZ
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~ Plane of choice
~ No external load out
~ 50% Fuel
~ Start when OTR
~ Finish when Tanks Empty by way of "Dead stick"
Objective:
"Touch & Go" Take off any heading, keeping gears and flaps FULLY EXTENDED through out entire exercise. Breaking Landing Gear is automatic fail. Encircle airfield and do 10 "touch & go". Start out with 10 in a row, working your way up to being able to run a full tank out of gas doing touch and go's.
Hope this helps.
:airplane:~<Deadstik
:old:
Turn on smoke in the TA by pressing the [R] key. This will help you track your aircraft movements.
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Any time that I get into a rut with my gunnery I go shoot drones. Just go offline and shoot drones for a short time relax and go back into the MA.
It can really help.
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Any time that I get into a rut with my gunnery I go shoot drones. Just go offline and shoot drones for a short time relax and go back into the MA.
It can really help.
This works! Done it many many times
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I like to go to DA lake and just level out as soon as my gear is up. Most, if not all are coming in much higher with a better turning bird then mine (usually spixteens). Fighting from the disadvantage against higher multiple cons is great practice in E management, SA, overshoots, quick breaks and quick gunnery. :salute
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Go to the TA, with a buddy if possible.
Do a few quick divebombing runs with an air start.
Then with a buddy use the air start feature to begin at 10K and turn on lead computing gunsight.
After about 10-20 minutes in the TA you are ready to practice killing in the MA.
Air Start? Lead computing gunsight?
Where can I go to read about these features?
Great thread by the way.
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I go and shoot up the drones offline very now and then. When i came back from a long term absence from AH i did this for a couple of sorties before heading to the MA. I lost all my stick settings while i was gone and i have had a lot off difficulty scaling my rudder to my liking, i'm still not 100% satisfied with it. To help with this i set all the offline drones to bombers and i would join trail them using my rudder to jump my gunsight from wingtip to wingtip and from half a wing length away from the bomber to the cockpit. I found this useful to help gain the necessary muscle memory for using the correct amount of rudder for snap shots.
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Air Start? Lead computing gunsight?
Where can I go to read about these features?
Great thread by the way.
The TA. Some of them are F key features. Seek out one of the trainers that are in there and he will give you the list. Or you can look them up in the clipboard. I apologize. I can't remember the keys and I'm at the office so I can't look them up.
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The TA. Some of them are F key features. Seek out one of the trainers that are in there and he will give you the list. Or you can look them up in the clipboard. I apologize. I can't remember the keys and I'm at the office so I can't look them up.
No problem. You gave me the information to where to look. That works for me. Thanks a bunch.
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No problem. You gave me the information to where to look. That works for me. Thanks a bunch.
ctrl tab enables friendly lock,then tab the target plane when in view and you will see the lead calculating gunsight. The air spawns are mostly in the level bombing area,you'll see a set of blue squares on the clipboard map,the location of the blue square is the take off direction,so if it;s in the upper right side it's the NE runway.
:salute
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Lots of good tips. Some I already do and some I need to try.
My gunnery is often suspect, but when it gets really bad, turning tracers off sometimes helps. Makes no sense at first, but I've realized sometimes my gunnery issues stem from "chasing the tracers". Also, the tracers sometimes overwhelm my sight picture (New huri with 12 .303's is horrible.. lol) and I'm not really sure where or how hard I'm hitting the target. Turning tracers off makes you focus on your piper, in much the same way pistol shooters are taught to focus on the front sight post with the target in the background.
Worth a try when you're in a funk if nothing else.
:cheers:
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I go and shoot up the drones offline very now and then. When i came back from a long term absence from AH i did this for a couple of sorties before heading to the MA. I lost all my stick settings while i was gone and i have had a lot off difficulty scaling my rudder to my liking, i'm still not 100% satisfied with it. To help with this i set all the offline drones to bombers and i would join trail them using my rudder to jump my gunsight from wingtip to wingtip and from half a wing length away from the bomber to the cockpit. I found this useful to help gain the necessary muscle memory for using the correct amount of rudder for snap shots.
Great tip Thrila! Reminded me of something I used to do years ago that was similar. I would get behind the drones in Offline and practice taking the wing tip off one side then barrel roll to other side as quick as I could and take the wing tip there, barrel roll to back to the first side and finish the wing and so on, continuing to barrel roll from side to side. Really helped my gunnery back then but I haven't did it in years.
Lambo
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~ Aircraft of Choice
~ 25% Fuel
Objective:
The Rudder Flight. Take off and encircle the airfield using ONLY the rudder for turning. Alerions may be used for maintaing level flight as well with the elevator. Feeling brave try doing touch and gos' with rudder only.
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~ Aircraft of Choice
~ 25% Fuel
Objective:
The Rudder Flight. Take off and encircle the airfield using ONLY the rudder for turning. Alerions may be used for maintaing level flight as well with the elevator. Feeling brave try doing touch and gos' with rudder only.
Niiiiice. I'll be doing this one when I get back to town from biz trip. I need help with my rudder scaling and this drill should help me line-out the feel.
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The flat scissors makes an excellent drill for snap shots and guns defense. You do one or the other to start, then you can do both at the same time when it gets too easy.
For the snap shot drill one player is the shooter and the target player will cross in front and provide a predictable target on a steady flight path. As soon as the flight paths cross both players reverse to continue the scissors.
When the shooter is out of ammo the roles can be switched.
For guns defense the same drill is flown but the target will try to avoid getting hit by jinking up or down in anticipation of the shot.
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Air Start? Lead computing gunsight?
Where can I go to read about these features?
Great thread by the way.
All disabled in the MAs - but in the DA for example, look on the map for a symbol that looks like a 3x3 box-grid on the map somewhere with a field number listed next to it, one of the boxes on the 3x3 grid will be highlighted to indicate that using that given runway at that given field will start you in the air "here".... this will do as an example -
(http://www.332ndfg.org/BWMAPFR3.png)
Lets look at the air spawn in sector 3,18 - note it has a 3x3 grid with listing its associated field as A-60. So, to utilise it you go to the tower at A60, select your plane and loadout from the hangar, then select the highlighted grid/runway direction to launch on (in our example South), and ta-da. Some maps list next to the airspawn symbol what altitude it will spawn you at, but given they are usualy utilised for scenarios with high-altitude bombers and escort I find they average ~20k.
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All disabled in the MAs - but in the DA for example, look on the map for a symbol that looks like a 3x3 box-grid on the map somewhere with a field number listed next to it, one of the boxes on the 3x3 grid will be highlighted to indicate that using that given runway at that given field will start you in the air "here".... this will do as an example -
(http://www.332ndfg.org/BWMAPFR3.png)
Lets look at the air spawn in sector 3,18 - note it has a 3x3 grid with listing its associated field as A-60. So, to utilise it you go to the tower at A60, select your plane and loadout from the hangar, then select the highlighted grid/runway direction to launch on (in our example South), and ta-da. Some maps list next to the airspawn symbol what altitude it will spawn you at, but given they are usualy utilised for scenarios with high-altitude bombers and escort I find they average ~20k.
Nice workup Babalonian.
Remember, when you air spawn, your flaps are out and youre almost always stalling. Pull them in and let it get some air under her wings.
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Air Start? Lead computing gunsight?
Where can I go to read about these features?
Great thread by the way.
Air starts in the TA are at the bombing range at fields 20,21,22, and 23. You start at cruising speed with gear and flaps up.
To use the gunsight training aid against someone on your side use CTRL TAB to turn on Friendly Lock then TAB to select your target.
You'll see a box around the playerID and a green cross for each set of guns, primary and secondary. Putting your gunsight on a green cross will show you the proper lead to hit your target.
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:rofl
never knew about the air starts :huh
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never knew about the air starts :huh
Noob!
nrshida's Dr. Strangelook or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Horde:-
Go to the furball lake when busy, take favourite ACM plane and upon takeoff empty all guns, that's right: empty. Fly towards and underneath nearest furball and slow down, fly around underneath it. Now forget trying to attack anything (you can't anyway), the exercise is to correctly prioritise the threats as they attack you and practice break turns and reversals of fortune. Because you have no guns once the attack is neutralised or the opponent reversed you will immediately direct your attention to the next highest threat instead of getting fixated on a shot. It is surprising how long you can last for. Final step however is always to jump 200 feet into the air in massive fireball and scatter yourself over a large area. Then takeoff again and repeat.
Objectives & outcomes: general improvement of use of views and close-in situational awareness, mastering prioritisation and tracking of multiple opponents when outnumbered, encouraging tactical thinking on a top down level, improving timing of defensive manoeuvres & reversals and finally illustrating the benefit of making an ally of the very unforgiving ground!
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Noob!
nrshida's Dr. Strangelook or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Horde:-
Go to the furball lake when busy, take favourite ACM plane and upon takeoff empty all guns, that's right: empty. Fly towards and underneath nearest furball and slow down, fly around underneath it. Now forget trying to attack anything (you can't anyway), the exercise is to correctly prioritise the threats as they attack you and practice break turns and reversals of fortune. Because you have no guns once the attack is neutralised or the opponent reversed you will immediately direct your attention to the next highest threat instead of getting fixated on a shot. It is surprising how long you can last for. Final step however is always to jump 200 feet into the air in massive fireball and scatter yourself over a large area. Then takeoff again and repeat.
Objectives & outcomes: general improvement of use of views and close-in situational awareness, mastering prioritisation and tracking of multiple opponents when outnumbered, encouraging tactical thinking on a top down level, improving timing of defensive manoeuvres & reversals and finally illustrating the benefit of making an ally of the very unforgiving ground!
Ok, that's just sick-good. Now I know why you never killed me when I caught you a few times on the deck in there. Having spent the first two years of my AH life at the DA Lake, I remember it well, lmao
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:rofl
never knew about the air starts :huh
Das is bekuzz we's huntz dem Amerikans Bombers!
(http://thinkingscifi.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/dr-evil.jpg)
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Das is bekuzz we's huntz dem Amerikans Bombers!
(http://thinkingscifi.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/dr-evil.jpg)
:rofl
one I like doing is loading up a staged mission.....kill all your friendlies on the way to fight...and take on all the red guys....
there was a K4 vs 10 ponies that was perfect for this.
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Go to a practice arena were u can turn the cv in a tight circle... Take off in a D hog with 100% fuel 1000 pounders and rockets and then land back on the cv asap... With all your ord..
Good for all around pilot skills in my opinion... Back when we had a big squad and a web page we had a badge we would present for three consecutive successful attempts !!S!!
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Task Follow the Leader
Have a friend or two mgo into the TA..
Plane to follow RV8
Plane to use .. any
1st pilot takes off in RV and flys around the airfield and the others follow as close as they can.
What this teaches is throttle control and use of flaps also.
Try to do this with a full tank on takeoff and land empty.
Its alot harder than it sounds.
LawnDart
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Follow the Leader is fun!! Here is something to expand on that.
Objective:
"WingMan Leap-Frog". Staying in a line during this exercise is paramount AS WELL AS staying at a specific altitude. Have Flight Leader CHOP Throttle, and nose up slightly allowing the wingman in the rear to fly UNDER (changing postions) and then (Flight Lead) power back on and nose down to get back in line (behind WingMan). Once level flight has been achieved (at the specific prescribed alt) do it again this time WingMan will be in front and nose up slightly and CHOP throttle allowing Flight Lead to pass underneath.
Once this is done at speed start slowing down and see whats the slowest sustained speed in which you and your wingman can preform the leapfrog.
How CLOSE can you stay to your wingman throughout out this whole exercise??
Hoping to:
Teach Double Attack with a wing man on a single con "in" and "out" of the saddle with guns blazing, while one is attacking the other is getting ready to attack in order to keep constant pressure on the con.
Hope this helps.
:airplane:<~Deadstik
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Deadstik that sounds like fun but for double attack you wouldn't be flying close formation. You'd want the engaged fighter to press the bandit while the wingman flies to an advantageous position to support the engaged fighter and to be ready to attack the bandit.
Close formation is good practice for flyng skills and helps you to appreciate the role of angle of attack on speed control. You might find it helpful to fly basic fighter maneuvers and aerobatics in close formation even though in combat you would spread out to engage the bandit.
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Deadstik that sounds like fun but for double attack you wouldn't be flying close formation. You'd want the engaged fighter to press the bandit while the wingman flies to an advantageous position to support the engaged fighter and to be ready to attack the bandit.
Close formation is good practice for flyng skills and helps you to appreciate the role of angle of attack on speed control. You might find it helpful to fly basic fighter maneuvers and aerobatics in close formation even though in combat you would spread out to engage the bandit.
Yes sir. This was to get new pilots' like myself into that roles' mindset. A true wing man double attack has much more too it, you are correct sir.
When someone is in the saddle as a wing man you might have too just stay on the perch and wait until the bogie makes a move the lead can not keep up with. At that point he would say "out" and you would jump "in".
How fast can you and your wing man go through the leap frog rotation? Go over top instead of under for the position change. Start doing it while trying to make a turn. Make the motion smooth in all directions and variations of the positional change with your wing man.
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Necro bump. :banana:
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:old:
I dont think anyone noticed that the hint given in my first post was related too my second post and the hint in my second was related to the first.
Eighter way this was a great topic... Lets add some more. :salute
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The thing I like to do is pick a groundgun and fly as slow as I can around it full flaps to keep my positive control at low speed from getting rusty. Ive lived through more fights from others crashing at low speed then shot down once on the deck with my Brew.