Rolling Scissors

[Sancho]

Roll you vector lift on the who???

[Fester']

Damn Guys!  What a fight!  About halfway through My hand was going numb from flipping through the views.  I looked at my stick and had it pulled back against the stops <GG>  Guess I know why I blow my E huh? <G>

Great fight and thanks for the film!

[Grayeagle]

Rolling scissors is always a contest to see who can go slowest to get behind someone.

Jug would be good at it, as it bleeds E fast at high AOA.

I have been in a few now, won some, lost some.. in my Mustang. Against similar plane types.. I wont scissors a spit or any turn fighter ..they can fly slower and still manuever when my stang is about done.

I get a huge laugh outta E types tryin to scissor a turn fighter.. if the turn fighter is any stick at all he owns the fight

-GE

[Lephturn]

GrayEagle,

Yeah, the Jug is good at the slowing down part.

The problem is, a rolling scissors is also about who can keep flying rolls the slowest.  The first guy who can't make the top part of the roll is going to die as long as the trailing pilot is smart enough to avoid the overshoot.  The Jug just doesn't keep it's nose up that well at very low speed.  Basically, if the fight decays below 150 Mph or so and the Jug is still out front, he's dog meat to anything with a lower sustained turn speed.

That's why I choose other methods if I can to force an overshoot.  I'd hit a rolling scissors if an overshoot looks likely and I think I can get a good shot position from it by rolling onto the attackers tail as he blows past, but in a relatively static situation it's too dangerous.  In a Jug I want to be faster than the enemy, but if I can't have that I want him much faster than I am.  If he is not much faster than I am, I am going to do something other than a rolling scissors.  Like run on the deck at 600 MPH.  

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Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer

A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs http://www.flyingpigs.com

Check out Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH articles and training info!

[This message has been edited by Lephturn (edited 04-30-2001).]

[Dead Man Flying]

Neat film, Jekyll.  Very informative for those who would like to learn about well-execute rolling scissors.

Looking over the film, I did notice one area you could work on that would probably have won the fight for you early.  Try variable throttle control, especially in the downward portion of your scissors.  At one point, you cleanly overshoot Grunherz; this could have been avoided with more liberal use of different throttle settings throughout.  If you have one of those sticks that makes it really difficult to adjust throttle, consider cutting your engine for those portions where you need to slow down.

Hope that helps.  

-- Todd/DMF

[Jekyll]

Yep DMF, throttle control during the rolling scissors is a major factor I need to work on.

Plus, if you go slowly through the film, I get way too aggressive at one stage, neglecting to maintain a good lag position, which causes most of my overshoot problems.

The rolling scissors is one maneuver that you simply cannot force:  you have to let your aircraft do the job at its own pace.  Getting too eager to claim that kill is a problem that I'm trying to work on .... but its not easy  

Patience grasshopper ... patience  

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Jekyll
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
Aces High Training Corps

[Grayeagle]

 

Originally posted by Lephturn:

The problem is, a rolling scissors is also about who can keep flying rolls the slowest.  

-grin- Same thing I said .. different words.

In the food chain.. I think the Zeke is still the rolling scissors champion .. because it can maneuver at the slowest speeds.

The Mustang - FW-190A scissors has always been a toss up.. the better stick will win it as both planes have advantages to work with.

I dislike the Jug for a number of reasons..not the least of which is it bleeds E all over the sky at anything over 4g of pull much worse than even a Mustang.

It's a great bomber tho

-GE