Thor^
Sorry about the delay in answering your post...I had to fly an airline trip to pay the bills!
AH does have a good training capability, particularly when one of the trainers can ‘fly’ with you to observe and demonstrate proper maneuvering. I would recommend that you get some ‘stick time’ with one of AH trainers or one of the folks that have answered this post. I would not be your best bet since I really don’t have a lot of experience with this sim...but maybe I can help with some basic suggestions. Here are some tips for getting started in A2A in any sim:
1. Engage with an advantage. In AH, climb out to at least 10,000 or so before you accept combat with anyone. Most of the large fights seem to take place at or below this altitude. In any case, plan to get a couple of thousand feet above any fight if you can. Then, give yourself enough time to accelerate to a fairly high speed before you jump into the fray...250mph might be a bare minimum, 300-350 is better depending on aircraft type.
2. Fly to the ‘Elbow’. One of the most common mistakes is for newbies to point right at their target and then attack. This often leads to a high angle overshoot where their target is able to reverse on to them. To prevent this situation, I suggest you use the ‘fly to the ‘elbow’ or ‘high six’ technique. This simple lag pursuit technique tends to slow things down in an attack and limits the ability of the target to generate an overshoot. By flying to the ‘elbow’, you can eventually work yourself into a favorable six o’clock attack position. For a discussion of this technique, see my ‘Perspective’ series of articles in the Air Combat Corner at
www.simhq.com. 3. Execute an effective gun attack. The greatest BFM in the world won’t do you a bit of good unless you can hit something when you shoot! Effective A2A gunnery has three parts...getting in range, in plane, and in lead. See my A2A Gunnery articles at SimHQ for some tips and info.
4. Develop proficiency with snap views. The High Yo-Yo is most likely the most often flown BFM maneuver...particularly when flying to the ‘elbow’. Practice flying this BFM maneuver profile using your side views before you try to fly BFM with another pilot. One way is to use the training area in AH. Pick a spot on the ground as your reference point. Starting from above, dive at the point and plan to fly so that it passes off to one side or the other. As the point passes your wingtip, begin a climbing turn back towards the target. Try to regain some altitude to repeat the pass over again. As you do this, practice switching from your forward views to your side and rear views to keep the target in sight. As you bring your nose back around to the target, switch back to your forward views. This practice drill does two things...helps you gain a feel for energy conservation...and gives you a familiarity with view use.
Then, once you have these concepts down, you are ready to start your flying. Put in a little bookwork on these areas...particularly the ‘fly to the elbow’ and gunnery areas...before you fly. Learning ‘on the job’ is fine, but things go much easier if you have a plan in mind before you start. Then, hit the practice field and put in some serious view use training before you go flying with anyone. Not only will this get you off on the right foot, but it will make your ‘instructor’s job much easier since he will not have to correct too many basic errors.
Keep me in mind for other questions...feel free to fire away!
Good luck.
Andy
