Help dogfighting (and moderating speed)

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by MaxGunz

Slowing down: 1st to say is don't waste your speed. Best way to slow down is to rise up!

If you are attacking at greater speed than your target but not hugely greater then use yoyo and barrel to stay behind and take occasional sniping shots.

You will fly a longer path, your speed will not take you out in front if you do this properly and yes it takes practice. Best way is to set up a mission with just you and 1 friendly plane flying waypoints around the map at less than high speed. You don't have to shoot, just practice yoyo's and wide spirals behind your leader. Do not try to stay on his tail.

in practice you take the sniping shots as much to force the target to turn -hard- as to hit him. When he does, rise and follow from above (rising slows you down, rise to your better turning speed) then when he straightens out to regain speed you drop to snipe and go back to yoyos as necessary.
When the target slows enough he will not be able to turn well without losing alt. When he runs out of alt to lose, he will turn like a sick cow and be very easy to shoot.

During all this you have the higher speed and retain the ability to rise above. Don't blow it in hard turning, that is what you want him to do.
That is the energy fighter's game. The slower plane may try the angles fight where your main game is to sucker the energy fighter into hard turns to lose his speed advantage. If his plane is poor turning -relative to yours at lower speed- then when he slows down you have a chance to get him.
I would rather have a speed advantage than flat turn advantage especially on a server with multiple enemies.

Originally Posted by MaxGunz

When you fly, are you keeping The Ball near or at center? If not, you can get more speed by doing that.

IRL you would feel when it's out (a pull to one side like when turning a car) which no sim gives. So you have to develop the habit of ruddering about enough but you can with flying practice. and spot checks on that black ball in the curved track for feedback on when you have it right. It has a minor to major effect on your speed and acceleration.

Another speed-factor is your elevator trim. Trimmed nose high, you will never get your full speed and your acceleration will suck. Trim changes with speed and power settings as it does IRL. When you want speed it's better to be trimmed a tiny bit nose down and have to pull back a teensy bit that to be trimmed nose up and have to push. But coming into tight turns you want just the opposite since you will slow down while turning and -need- more and more nose up trim!

And last for now is how hard you hold your stick (with appropriate low-humor jokes) and -not- resting the weight of your arm on the stick. In practice flight you don't need to shoot, what I was taught is to hold the stick with just 2 fingers and thumb to force myself to be a light touch on the controls. Not resting arm weight on the stick is a ***VERY*** hard habit to break. When I get it right, I maneuver much better! When I tire out and rest my hand on the stick I fly more sluggish, ham-handed.

I can't emphasize how important practicing just flying and perfecting your BCM's and ACM's and control habits is. Once you know your maneuvers well and have your habits tuned you will do better and find setting up tactics far easier.

If you could conquer this game in a month, that's all it would be worth and there wouldn't much community around it.

BTW, there are scenarios when it's stacked against you. For Russians it's worst in 41-42 and for Germans it's 44-45. If it's not the planes or lack of firepower (Early-war Russians, play as Germans first time through!) that gets you, it will be numbers. If you didn't have these, you would miss a major aspect of the historic war feeling of being the underdog.
If it gets you down then go practice flying and work on your speed and those maneuvers that failed you. Conquering maneuvers and your own habits isn't as satisfying as shooting a plane down but flying better has it's own rewards that will continue to pay past the next 100 shoot-downs.

This is so true and while it is a well known concept.. the practice takes practice. I have begun to fly around with no target.. just trying to practice keeping my speed up and using the vertical to slow down and keeping that ball as centered as possible throughout the process. It is not as simple as it sounds.