Tales from online; ignorance of energy....

[Jumoschwanz]

I was in a relevant situation in the last few days. Flying a Fw190 on a map with lots of clouds, I was skimming the tops of the clouds as most of the action was close to ground level between fighters and ground attack aircraft. I wanted to be able to dive down, make shots and have enough E to escape into a cloud if I had to.

I got a MKVIII Spitfire down that was attacking a gaggle of Bf-110s, the Spitfire had two friends that turned onto my tail. I had some E on them and followed my plan and zoomed up through a large cloud, then I leveled out until I was able to loop back towards the two spits. They were smart enough to save enough energy so they could maintain control and turn out of the path of my attack. Because their energy level was close to mine and they were smart, I decided it was a bad ideal to keep looping with them one vs. two so I leveled out into very slight arcs away from them. They got bored and turned towards home, as I had dragged them far into my territory and they were probably low on fuel. I then turned back towards them with a lot of confidence to give chase using the clouds but unfortunately the map ended.

The MkVIII Spit is a pretty good matchup for a mid-war FW190. Being the pursuer is always a big advantage not only because it holds a high chance of offering some sort of shot at the target, but also because if the target decides to turn 180 degrees back towards you horizontally or as a Split S, then the energy it loses in doing so grants an instant advantage to you. So if you are being pursued then you really need to gain enough of a lead to execute a maneuver that will not only reverse your direction, but also preserve your energy and altitude.....