How do you approach a Spit?

[ink]

Whats with all this talk and details and etc etc? Your all just repeating the same stuff but in the inverse of eachother.

Look, you want to approach a spit? You First *HO* it; wether or not your planning to fire doesn't matter, but *always* go for the HO to see what kind of a pilot they are.

Someone flying a spitfire is like the someone in your school who grew up with a huge trust fund behind his/her name. They have the ability to always do much more then you without having to do as much work.

Now, someone in that position can usually only fall to one thing: Arrogance. The fact that life seems so easy to them, and quite frankly, it is; means that sometimes they expect their position as flying a spit to account for their mistakes. That is when you strike, fighting a spit is mainly a mental battle and if you can trick him into falling into his own weaknesses, you have him.

But if your really unlucky: They understand how much of an envelope over you they have and aptly apply it, thus; either you die within a very short period of time or you somehow run away (while taking a load of damage).

This is assuming co-alt of course, and even-steven energy states.

The spit is just *that* good, and has always been, because it really is that good of a design.

Peace out.
 

wrong on so many levels.

[mtnman]

He's still coming and I'm still turning, but now I'm dictating the angle-off of his approach.  He began this fight fully in control.  I'm now beginning to take that control away a piece at a time.

Continued...

Turn back toward the spit before he makes you do it.  Conserve your E, while setting him up to burn his own.

I like to do it with a right hand-slightly nose-down turn (conserving my speed) but I'll adjust things to be at the speed and angle of approach I want.  I want to be lower than my opponent, with him diving down at me from my forward upper-right.  I want him to be diving in steeply.  As he comes in, I just wait until he hits the 800-1000 range, and then pull up, rolling left enough to show him my side but not my wings in profile..  If he goes for the shot he shoots behind/under me.  As he passes me I roll left and either drop in behind him or else make an easy turn away from him (depending on his speed).  I make my initial turn to the right because it allows me to roll over the top to the left which is easier for me, but also allows me to drop right in behind him if I want to.

I do that maneuvering at a pace that allows me to hold my speed, or easily regain it by dropping my nose.  On that initial merge he can either dive in steeply or he can shift gears and fly by (to reverse at some point and try to set up on me again). 

If he dives in steeply, he's going to go under me and then either pull up steeply to try to regain his perch, or else zoom away.  If he pulls up steeply, he's going to burn a substantial amount of his E and will be in a less-advantageous position than he started in.  I'll have removed another component of his control over me. 

I'm still dictating how he approaches me.  He only gets to choose yes or no, attack or not.

If he refuses to dive in steeply (or if he zooms away as he passes by) I'm going to extend away and let him get on my tail, but I'm going to stay fast.  Either way, if he lets me get 2K of horizontal separation and then tries to catch me, he's about shot his advantage over me.  I'm in a faster plane and I'll hold even with him, and then pull away.  I'll just reverse back and become the aggressor, or I'll rope him, or else I'll adjust my angle to allow him to catch me (I'll be fast, but since he's catching me this can help convince him I have less E than I really do.  If I want to do that, I do everything I can to reach full speed without pulling away to more than 1.5K or so...

If he dives in steeply and then pulls back up hard, I may flirt with him and see if I can draw him into a rolling scissors.  That's not usually too difficult, since the spit driver often thinks he can out turn me (which he can do if I get too slow, especially if I let things degrade into a lufberry.)  If he's got a bit more speed than I do though, it's a very very bad idea for him to enter a rolling scissors with me.

If he stays too far away to draw into a rolling scissors, I'll just point my nose down a bit, and away from him, to maximize the amount he has to reverse back.  That will conserve my E, while burning his.  I won't dive away though, I don't want to get away.  I want to get my speed up but still allow him to catch up again.  I'll almost always be able to draw him into a rolling scissors at this point.

Generally, in a worst-case scenario, I'll only have to survive two or three of his dive attacks before I'm able to remove his E-advantage.  At that point I'll have several options, but I'll no longer be in any real danger unless I just plane screw up.

[uptown]

Anyone have a diagram of a Luftberry or can explain it to me? I don't know what that is.

And good stuff there MtnMan 

[Midway]

Anyone have a diagram of a Luftberry or can explain it to me? I don't know what that is.

And good stuff there MtnMan 

This looks like a good discussion: http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?topic=262028.0

[uptown]

pfff so that's a luftberry? I always called that the "dork flies in a circle" move.   I guess Luftberry sounds more professional  

[Midway]

pfff so that's a luftberry? I always called that the "dork flies in a circle" move.   I guess Luftberry sounds more professional  

 

[titanic3]

Luftberry doesn't really work if the other is a good shot. Matter of fact...I can't think of a situation where it'll work at all. Keep making passes until the luftberry dies.

[FLS]

pfff so that's a luftberry? I always called that the "dork flies in a circle" move.   I guess Luftberry sounds more professional  

Raoul Lufbery was a WW1 ace. The defensive circle he popularized was flown by a squad so each aircraft was protected by the aircraft behind it. The term is currently used to describe any extended circle fight between 2 aircraft.

[uptown]

Raoul Lufbery was a WW1 ace. The defensive circle he popularized was flown by a squad so each aircraft was protected by the aircraft behind it. The term is currently used to describe any extended circle fight between 2 aircraft.

The North Vietnamese or Koreans did that as well from what I understand. But the American pilots called it a Wagon Wheel IIRC.

[shiv]

Continued...

Turn back toward the spit before he makes you do it.  Conserve your E, while setting him up to burn his own.

I like to do it with a right hand-slightly nose-down turn (conserving my speed) but I'll adjust things to be at the speed and angle of approach I want.  I want to be lower than my opponent, with him diving down at me from my forward upper-right.  I want him to be diving in steeply.  As he comes in, I just wait until he hits the 800-1000 range, and then pull up, rolling left enough to show him my side but not my wings in profile..  If he goes for the shot he shoots behind/under me.  As he passes me I roll left and either drop in behind him or else make an easy turn away from him (depending on his speed).  I make my initial turn to the right because it allows me to roll over the top to the left which is easier for me, but also allows me to drop right in behind him if I want to.

..snip

Aha. I think I see one of my mistakes right there. I haven't been pulling up to avoid the shot as much as I'm going straight into the barrel roll there, so unless he cooperates all I'm doing is making him miss and not much else.

Thanks Mtnman, appreciate it.

[Ardy123]

I like to get them in close, then because the k4 can change e states faster, I'll change my e state and suddenly slow down (with a barrel roll reversal) forcing an overshoot and try to pop them with a tater.

[Big Rat]

Awesome! Pencil me in for Tuesdays @ 9cst then.  And I welcome the homework    


@ Ink: I'm going to log in at 7pm cst tonight. Will that time work for you?

See you tonight
 
BigRat

[morfiend]

stop "thinking" about it and just react.

what did Bruce say.....Practice Practice Practice...and you wont have to think about it, it will do it all on its own.

get out there and fight, avoid the HO attack at all costs,(except 262 they deserve to be HOed ) never back down, never run.

merge with them so you get a shot but deny them one, if they are rolled to the right....roll to the left into them, and vice versa....

  Ink, your first comment is fine if your at the stage when things come instinctive but most aren't at that stage. The average pilot in AH is in the cognitive stage where they still have to think what to do next.

   This is what makes the learning curve so steep,like any sport you must practice,practice,practice until thing start to happen automatically. Your obviously at the instinctive stage so it's easy for you to say and think like that,however it can take the average player a few years to get there.

   Oh did I mention PRACTICE!!!!



   

[ink]

  Ink, your first comment is fine if your at the stage when things come instinctive but most aren't at that stage. The average pilot in AH is in the cognitive stage where they still have to think what to do next.

   This is what makes the learning curve so steep,like any sport you must practice,practice,practice until thing start to happen automatically. Your obviously at the instinctive stage so it's easy for you to say and think like that,however it can take the average player a few years to get there.

   Oh did I mention PRACTICE!!!!



   

you must have noticed that at some point the plane tells you what it wants to do?

[uptown]

See you tonight
 
BigRat

i was just coming here to say the same thing