Here are two films from the DA today. In the first one, after shooting me down repeatedly, I had a semi-prolonged fight with m00t, but I still lost the merge (like I did every time). He was always able to get more out of it while still gaining snap shot opportunities on me in the vertical. One thing I saw that opened my eyes a bit was that he wasn't doing a straight immelmann, but something more like a chandelle. I usually make my merges more vertically, but after adjusting to his technique and trying to adapt it I think I was doing better.
The other film is very short, but it's important to me because shane once used the exact same move as batfink does here to kill me when I think I'm going to catch them hanging. Against shane I was in a F6F, he was in a La-7, and just like the fight you see here, I worked into a horizontal turning-fight which I thought would be to my advantage (even more so 109G-6 vs Mossie). Just when I'm getting the nose around he goes vertical, and slices back to introduce me to the 4 hissos. What should I have done once I saw him going up?
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?giyqnfuniin
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zzmidwmminn
I don't fly 109's, and I must not have the skins downloaded for the first film, because all I could see was your gauges, fighting an invisible plane. I could see the icon and the trails though...
I'm not an expert either, but I'd have changed a few things on the first merge.
One, on the merge you let him get started on his turn first. You can't always help that, but then you turned the same direction he did (you both turned left), which in my mind gives him a head start getting on your six. I'd have started by banking to your right, or
into his turn, rather than following his turn. It might not have worked though... In your situation at 20 seconds in, I'd have pulled down under/behind him, and then pulled back up behind him at what would have been about 25 seconds in.
Second, once you missed your shot at the top, you basically got into a series of fairly flat defensive banks, which bled your E, and felt purely defensive from my perspective. I'd have tried to pull him into a rolling scissors instead, starting at about 50 seconds into the film. I felt like you let him have repeated vertical attacks until he wore you down. Had you continued with a barrel roll at about 50 seconds I think you would have had a much better chance.
Overall I'd have tried doing more rolling, barrel-rolling type dodges, which is harder to hit and stay behind than the flatter left-right banks.
Film two- Mainly I felt like your use of throttle killed your chances once you'd missed killing him at the top. You were doing a couple things in that dive/spiral I'd have avoided. One, I wouldn't necessarily have followed him all the way down. You could have leveled out, or even zoomed to stay above him, and had an advantage that way. Two, you cut power and had flaps down (I'm assuming in an effort to avoid over-shooting, and to tighten your turn) but essentially you couldn't keep up with him. At the end all he did was nose up and basically rope you. He could do that with the extra speed he had, and the extra time due to you falling behind.
He was clearly winning the race around the circle by about 44 seconds in. At that point I'd have straightened, built speed for a few seconds, and reversed into him again. When he went up at the end, the last thing you want to do is follow him. Almost anything would have increased your chances at that point. Forced into that situation I'd have turned out of that circle before he could do that. Letting Batfinkv shoot at me never goes well.
Overall on the second one, I felt like you followed him, but didn't really commit to it by following hard/tight enough to force the situation. Instead you followed him in a manner where he was able to dictate the terms. You followed his lead, and he placed you where he wanted to. It made you predictable. Following him tight/close can be dangerous- it can set you up for an overshoot, bleed your E, etc... An alternative is to fight "looser", gaining an E advantage and setting up some attacks from above. You could have done that by pulling out of the spiral near the beginning of it. I would have done it by pulling
up at about 28 seconds in, full throttle and WEP, at least long enough to set up a position above and behind him. Essentially I felt liek you didn't really commit to either style...
I'm not saying you did bad in either. You fought two guys who know what they're doing. And I'm not saying I'd have lived either, just that those are areas where I'd have done things differently...
