Mike,
First, what you are asking to learn -- to convert a defensive fighter position into an offensive one -- is one of the hardest things to do in the game. I say this because I think you are trying to run before you can crawl. To get the best improvement, I think there are a few other basic things you might want to work on first.
In watching your films, I have noticed that most of your maneuvering is done while in the forward or forward up view. Very few (nearly none) of your maneuvers are done while keeping the enemy in view, especially rear views, up view or 3/9 views. You do use those views, but only to briefly look or "glance". You don't
transition views while maneuvering to keep an enemy in sight. Until you can maneuver without ever losing sight of the enemy, all of the good tips and practice items listed above will be of little benefit.
You have to maneuver relative to your enemy and his maneuvers. To do this, you have to keep the enemy in sight while you are maneuvering -- not maneuver and then locate the enemy. Watch your films and note where you are looking
while you are maneuvering. In both your films below, notice that while you are making your break turns, you are nearly always looking forward and NOT keeping the enemy in view.
Here are two specific examples from your films of you flying I suggest you look at. In the first example,
watch from 6:10 to 7:10 (one minute) and note the following:
At 6:10-6:15 you see a Brewster at your high 8 o'clock position with closure (he goes from 2.5K to 2K distance). At 6:20 you glance back again and the Brew is 1.5K (continuing to close) and now at your 7 o'clock (tracking you). Instead of maneuvering against this threat, you go back to your forward view and instead follow the 109 who dives at your 11 o'clock. You pursue the 109 while never looking back to re-acquire view on the Brewster.
At 6:45 you start taking tracer fire (guess what, from the Brewster!). You perform a tight barrel roll (without looking back) and then a high-G break to the right (without looking back to see what effect your turn is having).
AFTER your maneuver, you glace back and see the Brewster is still firmly placed there at your 7 o'clock at 800 yards out, but you only perform a couple slow aileron rolls -- nothing that presents a shooting problem for the Brew (see FLS' comment above). Then the Brew shoots you down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8b5-RU71YHere is briefer example (only 20 seconds) where you tried to maneuver against a con, but did not keep him in sight DURING the maneuver, which got you shot down:
Watch from 5:10 - 5:30 in the following film.
At about 5:12 you notice a Corsair on your high 6 o'clock 2K away. You decide to turn back into him (a good idea -- try to turn INTO threats to force overshoots), however, you make a couple mistakes here. First, you don't turn very tightly and you turn
nose up (so you simply get slow and present a full plane form as a target - again, look at the film from your killer's perspective to see how easy or hard you made yourself as a target!). Second, and most importantly,
you turned without watching the enemy!
When, you do look at 5:22, he is inside your turn at under 1000 yards (your slowing in a nose up turn allowed him to close fast) and he is seconds from shooting you. You try to tighten your turn at 5:26, but
you do so without watching him, so you have no idea whether your turn will be effective or not. In this case, he shoots both your wings off.
During your break turn, you should have stayed in your up view
watching him, rolled right to place your lift-vector
under his nose to get out of plane with him while pulling as tight as you could turn
under him to foil his shot. But without watching the enemy, you have no idea where to roll to get under his nose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoXnHYQeGVgNow lastly, go watch Violator's film of his barrel roll defense (defensive loaded roll). Notice that AS he is maneuvering he is using his different views to watch the relative position of the enemy Yak. He keeps the Yak in sight nearly 100% of the time. This tells him where to place his lift vector, how hard to pull to force the overshoot, when to time the barrel roll to push the Yak out front and then where to place his nose to get a shot on the reversal.
This is only possible to do if you maneuver while keeping the enemy in nearly constant view:
https://youtu.be/YAi_TRAV4E8Using a hat switch to look around and keep something in view while maneuvering in three dimensions is not the easiest thing in the world. For some it is intuitive, but for most new gamers it takes some practice. While I applaud your willingness to dive into the deep end of the pool, I think this is causing you to skip over this fundamental and essential skill.
Working on maneuvering while in different views is, in my opinion, the next key step for you. Until then, you are boxing while blindfolded -- you can't fight effectively against what you can't see. I think it is honestly the root of all of your problems (why you get shot down and lose merges).
I suggest flying with a trainer or any of the of the people who have offered their assistance here and focus on maneuvering while NEVER losing sight of the enemy.
Resist the urge to look forward while you maneuver. Only look at the enemy and maneuver based on where he is and what he is doing. Eventually you will be able to do this without thinking about it. At that point the more advanced stuff will become much easier to learn.
Becoming more fluid with your views is going to unlock many new possibilities for you. I believe it is the single most important thing for you to spend time on right now.
<S>
Kingpin
