POSITIVE ENERGY MERGE
This section will cover a classic merge of two aircraft. In this case we will look at
the scenario where you have a significant energy advantage over your
opponent. In general, this will usually mean you are higher than your opponent.
OK, you are tooling along at 7,000 feet and lo and behold you see an enemy
loitering around 6,000 feet. For our Metric enhanced fliers make that 2.5K
meters and 2K meters. :-) "Easy Meat" you think and dive straight down on him
as he approaches you. This will be sort of a head-to-head battle and you expect
to kill him/her in the first pass or at least damage them heavily. You notice as
you begin your dive you started a bit too soon. Uh-oh, he pops up a bit nose
high and fires back at you, you pull up to regain and and he hangs on his prop
for a belly shot. Now you are the one damaged. Or maybe he angles up slightly
to his left and then hard rudders over to the his right. You try to follow but can't
because of your high speed... Congratulations on quite possibly giving your
opponent his first kill!
First mistake made was not determining the true energy state of your
opponent. Maybe you had more but the key was you didn't make sure he didn't
have any. Simply having more Energy doesn't guarantee a win. You must learn
how not to squander it. Let's take the classic Energy tactic of Boom and Zoom
and go over some examples of common mistakes pilots make trying to do it.
Some of this is taken directly from Bullethead's excellent article on Energy
tactics. I'll make changes accordingly for WWI aircraft.
Mistake #1:
Over-extending in the Horizontal What is that again, and this time in English
please? OK, you dive down on the bad guy after making do several high-G turns
and bleed his energy. You zoom back up and extend away setting up for your
next pass. Only you extend too far and by the time you turn around to setup
again all that hard work of getting him to burn E is gone because he has
regained it. Basically, you took too long and now you have to start over. If he is
really good he even climbed a little while you were extending and now your E
advantage is less than it was before.
Mistake #2:
Under-Extending in The Horizontal All righty then, the first guy escaped because
you went too far so now you are going to compensate by dancing on the head
of your opponent. Your in a Alb D2 and he is in a N17. You climb better but he can
out turn you. You dive down on him and force him to turn under you. In doing so
he bleeds E and you Zoom back up, only instead of extending a bit to let you
line up you stay right on top of him. Suddenly, you notice he is making low G
turns to stay right under you and you are having to turn hard to try and line up
on his 6. Now, at this point you either get impatient and make a really bad dive
for a low percentage deflection shot or you end up turning so hard you bleed
your E and have to level off to speed up or even dive down.
The enemy sees this and uses the opportunity to gain another 50-100 feet in
altitude and you've just lost some E advantage. Many people forget that their
high speed dives mean their turning radius is going to be greater than that of
your slower opponent. Suppose you are in a poor turning aircraft like the Halb
and you are diving on a better turning aircraft like the N11. You keep pulling
hard on the stick while on top of him to line up for a 6 shot and draining all your
E. You then force your attack and your opponent breaks a hard right turn. Since
you are flying a high wing loaded plane (slow turner) and you have greater
speed your turn radius is greater. Your enemy turns inside of you and next thing
you know your butt is getting filled with Lewis lead.
Mistake #3:
Following More than one break maneuver This is related to not extending far
enough. If your plane is less maneuverable you want to lessen your closer rate
by being further out in order to need a shallower dive angle to attack. Once you
start and you r opponent makes a break turn you may be able to track them for
a bit, but don't sacrifice all your speed and altitude components of energy for an
angle component. If he turns better and gets you to follow him through more
than one turn maneuver you are going to lose your alt and speed and get into a
turn fight that he is going to win. This is readily apparent when pilots get fixated
on an enemy. They get lined up great on the first pass and try to turn at high
speed and watch helplessly as their speed drops off and their nme comes
around on their 6...
Mistake #4:
Breaking low after a pass OK, after your first 3 deaths you've learned to keep
enough horizontal separation to make shallower dives attacks, but not so far
that your opponent recovers E before your next pass. You also learned not to
follow that DrI through turns in your Spad. You've made your opponent make
several high G turns and you are saddled up for a great 6 shot. You dive and
shoot him and then break low and left as he breaks to the right. You start
circling around to your left and suddenly see that out of cockpit view as he got
his head shot on you. You see after he started his break to the right he saw
you break low left. A twist of the rudder and now he is diving onto your 6.
THERE IS NEVER A GOOD REASON TO BREAK LOW TO REENGAGE AFTER A GUN
PASS. Period. Your high speed guarantees he will turn tighter anyway. Combine
that with a plane that may turn better anyway and you are really hurting. Note,
I am talking about a low break for reengagement and not a dive pass where
you keep going low to escape.
Mistake #5:
The rushed gun shot. Now, you've hit Start New Life, get your alt again, and are
approaching your nme. You remember all your previous deaths and are
determined not to die again. You find that perfect altitude and horizontal
separation and force your opponent into a series of high G maneuvers while you
try to line up a shot. Except, this guy/gal is good. They keep turning under you
and blowing your line up. After 15 minutes of this you are getting frustrated as
you are sure other bad guys are sneaking up on you. Finally, you think you have
a shot so you dive in. Well, its a bad angle and you miss your deflection shot.
But, what the hell, a good wing over and I can be back on his 6 and get so you
force the maneuver. Only he has gone into a rolling scissors where you are
criss-crossing back and forth or maybe you don't pull up in time and you get too
low. Well, your lack of patience has blown your advantage and now you are
dead again. This is the most common death for new pilots.
Mistake #6:
Lack of aggression You do everything perfect and get lined up, only its not quite
perfect or maybe there is something you missed so you hesitate. Good job, you
just missed the perhaps one opportunity you had for making your attack. Before
you know his buddies arrive and chew you a new one because you took too
long.
Questions:
1) What is the proper horizontal separation for a classic BnZ?
2) Exactly how do I tell when the right time to attack versus attacking too
rushed?
3) What if I see after his first turn that I can really, really get a good shot if I
follow him through just one more maneuver?
Answers:
1) Experience. Get some air under your butt and fly different planes. Each
combination of aircraft will require different numbers. Monos would have less
distance obviously than say Camels and Albs. This is why it is important to fly
BOTH sides of the airplanes so you get to know what the other guy can and
cannot do.
2) You can tell simply by whether you get the kill or get killed. :-) Again, this
just takes time and experience. There are no "secret moves" or magic
incantations that will work here. You don't have a radar system for calculating
your weapons envelope and giving you a tone when it's time to fire. You are
equipped with nothing else but Mark I Eyeball and you need to learn to use it
properly by practice, practice, practice.
3) And what is your home address for your personal effects? Go back and read
the paragraph again. OK, this post covered some common mistakes of a simply
BnZ Energy Fight. Next post will cover some things to do in this situation to
better get the kill. Some of it will be repetition. In summary, maintain enough
horizontal separation so that you can use low G turns to line up on your
opponent while he is forced to make high G turns to get under you. Don't rush
your shot, but when you see your chance to attack (you have energy and he
doesn't) then do not hesitate to attack. If you don't have the shot dont't force
it, don't follow the lower plane through more than one maneuver, and finally
don't break low to reengage.
Sensei
