The Classic Dilemma
Here is "Sensei" Rapier’s lecture in response to squaddie Baddog’s simple yet vexing question:
"What do I do if there is a guy that is above me?" - Baddog
Actually, all sniping comments aside, this is one of the classic dilemmas of air combat. Basically, you have an opponent that has a substantial altitude advantage who is converting to your six. The problem is one of Energy (E) differential and position.
Your mission Jim, should you choose to accept it, is to get the bogie to bleed energy while never giving away position to allow him a killing shot. You on the other hand can’t afford to lose any more energy than absolutely necessary. This is a problem :). You have to maneuver but maneuvers costs energy.
The key is to make all you maneuvering count. That being said there are several approaches that I have found to work well. Prior to the first pass you should have it clear in your head, what advantage of your plane it is that you want to use against his plane. If you’re in a spit and he’s in an FW, you want to convert this into a flat turning fight where you have the advantage. If you are in a 109 or Niki, you want to get him co-alt where your climbing advantage will start to tell.
The one way that I have found that is absolutely guaranteed to keep you from being hit, is a split esse done as he enters gun range (in DOS-land that’s about 1800, in AOL-land its more like 1600). This has a big problem in that it has no offensive capability at all, making it less than ideal for turning the odds around. I’ll use it when the guy has lots and lots of E and I want to take the fight down to the deck to make his problems greater. If he has more than enough E, I’m not really hurting myself if I give him more and I can take the fight down to the deck where I hopefully can bleed him dry. This would be especially true if you plane has a real performance advantage down low that your opponent doesn’t. Example P47 vs. FW.
Second is better. You split esse and see if he follows. If he does (if he’s stupid), you start a second split esse and chop throttle and throw out the anchor. You want to make him overshoot. Many folks forget that they are constantly accelerating as they dive and find themselves overshooting and blacking out. Of course if he’s good he may chop throttle on
you which could be bad for your longevity.
Another good one is a barrel roll under. I have seen and used this two ways. One is a break turn when he comes into range and continue till you’re at 90 degrees from your original flight path then pull up into a loop and look for him when your inverted at the top and try to pull down on him. You will probably take a hit or two on the break so you need to finish him fast. The other is a break downward like you’re going to start an oblique split esse then roll back upright, up and over your opponent’s flight path. This will hopefully cause him to overshoot and give you a brief shot. HeBee’s an expert on this one so you might ask him for a better explanation.
Another fun one, specially if you’re trying to bug out, is to roll inverted and start a split esse. Continue till your vertically nose down, but instead of continuing to pull under, roll till your canopy is pointed in your original direction and pull out. Lots of times he thinks you’re split essing and pulls up and out. You have accelerated and are now boogying away. Or you can pull back up and maybe get a shot on him while he’s climbing out and not paying attention.
Or you can try to pull up into him, forcing a head on. As he comes into range, down rudder to skew you’re flight path and throw off his aim. Generally a series of nose to nose turns will cause him to bleed energy as it encourages him to pull hard on the stick in pursuit of angles. You want to build E in level or even in a slight dive until you see him commit to the pass, then pull up into him. Repeat as necessary to get him to bleed to co-E. Once he is co-E you have an essentially even fight. There are other tricks to get a co-E situation.
Long horizontal extensions cause him to dive to your level while you are building E by increasing your speed or even a shallow climb. Avoid high gees unless you have to to keep from hitting the ground or to keep him from hitting you with a killing shot. The rest of the time you want to be gentle on the stick and build your E while encouraging him to pull hard. Always try to present him with angles that will cause him to pull hard. Of course this is a very difficult thing to accomplish, and really unless he makes a mistake you are likely to die. Just remember that good SA begins BEFORE he’s saddled up on your six. Once he’s there, you have a real problem :).
@=={–RAPIER—-
