Originally posted by Mace2004
One of the funniest complaints is the "you HO'd me" crap. It is a fundamental tenant of ACM to neutralize your opponent. It is a very basic thought and ALL FIGHTER PILOTS LEARN IT, as a matter of fact it's probably one of the first things you learn. You may as well complain when someone lead turns you, pulls lead, or maintains his e. These are all fundamentals in ACM.
If you're defensive either by angles or numbers (4 to 1 for instance) the very first thing you want to do is take away any angles the high-threat bandit presents and eliminate his ability to gain them back through an early turn. You do this by taking him 180 degrees out (i.e., nose to nose) as close to his flightpath as possible (this takes away any turning room he has for a lead turn). Successfully done, this takes away all of his angles and you both end up with 180 degrees to go, i.e., neutral. If you're good at it you can actually threaten him (i.e., the HO) and potentially gain a lead turn (same as early turn) to gain angles on him. If you do not at least attempt to neutralize him by going 180 out then you are an idiot.
Now, on the other hand, there are those that don't even try to fight tactically. They don't even try to maneuver...just put their nose on a bandit and hold the trigger down. While this could be justified when you're outnumbered and absolutely have to cut into their numbers there are those who only do this regardless of the tactical situation.
After looking at your film I'd say a couple of things. First, there was not a single HO although there were several low-angle-off forward quarter deflection shots. Second, you did an outstanding job of maintaining your SA and neutralizing the high threat bandit and/or presenting him with other considerations (i.e., your wingmen and Ack). All of this is sound tactical doctrine and represents exactly what you would do in a RL situation....except I doubt you'd try this in an A-20. My last observation is you need to work on your gunnery. You missed three or four really good opportunities to eliminate a bandit. This is just an observation and not meant as a personal slam at all...I've been needing to go back to basic gunnery school also as I've been missing alot of the same types of opportunities and need to "re-fix" my sight picture.
Wow, you are an AH Trainer?
If I bounce a low con and they go nose up into me, I immediately go vert and might either to a flat turn if the enemy is low on E or do a spiral climb if the enemy has lots of E. I believe that the lower con feels that he has the right to ho, which is not the thinking a trainer should be spreading. Let the trainee decide that. When someone bounces me, I do not go nose up to HO them, I will defeat them with ACM using a simple overshoot.
Fighting for me isn't taking these ho shots, or "high frontal" deflection shots either. Personal choice I've made tells me a fight means I get a solution behind his 3-9 line. These ideas would be healty to spread by the AH Trainers.
I never have to hear anyone tell me "hey man, nice ho". Same type of flying also allows me to not hear "nice vulch, nice ack hugging, stick stirring, gang banging, nice running from a fight".
The golden rule seems to apply to AH as well. It'll affect yourself and also ALL of the AH community. This I believe should be taught by you Mace, since you have the power to improve the community, one individual at a time.
