by WW_Sensei
In Part I we covered the basic role of the Primary or Engaged Fighter. This section
will cover the role of the Secondary or Support Fighter. The Secondary is by far
the more complicated of the two roles. While not a hard and fast rule, the more
experienced pilot is often the Secondary pilot. I think you will see why.
These are the basic duties of the Secondary:
1) Keep an eye on the fight
2) Let the Primary know where you are
3) Avoid getting into the fight until called
4) Keep Situational Awareness (SA) of the immediate areas. This includes any
information additional bandits and/or friendlies
5) Engage additional bandits. Make sure your Primary is aware of your
engagement.
6) When the fight is over indicate the egress vector.
The Primary's Situational Awareness after a fight is most likely nil. We will go
over each of these points. Another term often used for maintaining Situational
Awareness of the area and engaging bandits as the approach is called Sanitizing
the area. (Ref: CombatSim.com article).
Point 1-keep an eye on the fight. The Secondary should never be directly above
the fight, directly below the fight or within 500 feet of the fight. Why? Good
question. If you are directly above or below the fight you have to use the F3 view
to watch it to see if the Primary needs help. If you are looking straight down you
aren't looking around elsewhere. Granted, our WWI aircraft are equipped with 'N
key' radar, but many times you can spot tracer fire or a dot in the sky farther out
than the N key range. Stay 500 feet away so that you don't run the risk of a mid-air
collision with the target. A collision is a loss for your team. There are tactics for
two aircraft to engage an enemy, but without practice it becomes dangerous.
Being below the fight in these aircraft is practically useless as your energy state is
too poor to be of much use. If you find yourself below the fight, extend, climb and
return. The most common cause for finding yourself as the Secondary is you were
just the Primary in another fight, made the kill and your Secondary is now
engaged with another aircraft. This is one case of a role reversal and why it pays
for your squadron to, as The Rock would say, "Know Your Roles". :-)
Point 2-Let the Primary know where you are. This is important so that the Primary
can possibly maneuver the enemy for a shot from you or use you to cover his
egress if he has gone defensive. If you are at his high 3 and he breaks hard left
and down he has just given the enemy a 6 shot with no chance of you helping.
Point 3-Avoid getting into the fight. What!? Another good question. What I mean
by this is never put your aircraft in a position to be shot at by the target. If your
busy dodging his bullets then you are not doing the other aspects of your job like
maintaining SA. This is one reason to maintain the 500 foot separation. Of course,
if the Primary is calling you in for a Lead and Bracket or that he cannot get a shot
then it is time to enter. This is also a good reason why to never be directly below
a fight. If you are below then you are just a big, fat no energy target for the
enemy. Extend and climb. Get away from the fight until you can do something
useful.
Point 4-Keep Situational Awareness. This is perhaps the number one most
important duty of the Secondary. If neither the Primary or the Secondary are
maintaining SA then your survival is relying strictly on luck. Ever gone into a fight
2 on 1 or maybe 2 on 2 and the next thing you know there is a furball around you?
How many times were you able to leave that furball alive? See my point? The
Secondary has to maintain SA because the Primary is concerned with getting his
kill.
Point 5-Engage newly arriving bandits. Hopefully, your SA was good enough that
you saw them coming. If they outnumber you then your role is to inform the
Primary and help him egress the area. You may be able to make a few passes at
either the original target or at the closest enemy in order to delay them and effect
an escape. Contrary to the popular practice, one should not "Fight to the Death" at
every encounter. If it is just one additional enemy then the Secondary is to tell the
Primary of the engagement and then engage the bandit. At this point there is a
high probability of a role reversal.
Point 6-Vector the Primary on egress vector. Chances are the Primary will be at a
lower altitude than the Secondary and he will also have no SA left. This
isn't always the case but it is the most common. In either case, the Secondary is
responsible for telling the Primary which way to head out.
Part III will cover Role Reversals or better known as "Do I engage the target or
not?".
