Air Combat Manoeuvres: Situational Awareness (SA)
NUMPAD 5 will centre your view if you get disorientated.
Ever been blown out the sky when you were least expecting it? Or perhaps you’ve blown someone out the sky that was just flying in a straight line? Either way the pilot that got shot down in these examples had no Situation awareness. This document assumes you are a single ship, but if you have wingmen, SA must still be maintained and becomes easier
Whenever you fly, especially online against human opponents, you must keep you SA up. Recently when playing on Hyper-Lobby, I have on several occasions shot down the enemy because I simply flew up behind them on their six. Some of these engagements started with me seeing them as a dot in the sky off my 1-2 o’clock (i.e. through the forward view of my cockpit, meaning they could see me), and I’d simply turn on to follow them. From their perspective, I imagine they simply couldn’t be bothered to keep an eye on that dot – well they paid the price for it and it should bring the point home.
Hyper-Lobby is probably one of the best tools for increasing your dog fighting skills, but it is also the place to practice your SA skills. AI are predictable and most times you can predict roughly where they’ll come from. SA against AI is pretty much redundant until you are engaging them. That being said, you should always make it good practice to keep scanning the skies. Human opponents however are far sneakier.
Once you get into the habit of scanning around the skies through your cockpit, it becomes second nature and you soon forget your doing it. I will break SA into three parts here – Ingress, Contact and Egress.
Ingress
NUMPAD 5 will centre your view if you get disorientated.
This is the part where you take off and make your way to your intended target (be that a CAP area, ground target etc). Before you start your engines, make sure you scan the skies above you. “Vulching” is a common practice for some players, and shooting planes on the ground is unsportsmanlike. Watch out for skies above you.
Once you are airborne and you have “cleaned up your craft” (i.e. raised gear, flaps, etc), make a detailed scan around you. Any dots in the sky could potentially be an enemy. Look for any that look as though they are following you and keep an eye on them. Airfields attract the enemy so it is here you should be particularly careful in your scan.
Once you have left your airfield and are clear of contacts, proceed to fly your course and keep checking the skies around you. Every now and then you should perform a “Belly Check”. Here you simply roll inverted, and scan the ground directly below you. Periodically you must also check your six. This is easier if you have the use of a mirror (Shift-M), and some cockpits are easier to see behind than others. Just because you have a cockpit that is impossible to see behind, don’t get lazy. Look back and then make turns so you can see your six.
Contact
NUMPAD 5 will centre your view if you get disorientated.
This is the target area, and it is likely that both friendly and enemy forces will be operating in the area. Each dot in the sky or low to the ground is a potential enemy. It really depends on what you mission goal is but in this situation, you must keep up a high level of SA. Constantly scan around and watch your six.
At some point the enemy will engage you. You can either fight back or escape. Here it will be dependent on what aircraft are in the equation, and what you mission is. If your purpose is CAP, then you should engage. Once you have committed, you must try to keep a mental picture of where your opponent is when you can’t see him.
If you are both hard right turning on each other, trying to get on the six, you should pan your view straight up as far as it will go. If you opponent starts to come around on your nose, adjust your view to keep him sighted. If he disappears further behind your view (i.e. you can pan UP no more and he is hidden by your seat/canopy), then carry on with your manoeuvre. Often will your enemy disappear as the angles work themselves, but you will find that he comes back at some point into view. Be patient. If he doesn’t come back into view after a while, then he is either coming round on your six (i.e. he is out turning you), or he has gone high or low (or spun/stalled). Either way, keep pulling on the stick and have a quick look to your left and right. This does take practice, but you need to perfect it. If you still don’t see him, then you should try and invert the aircraft and split-s to gain speed and extend, or just fly straight and then scan like mad.
Going back to the turning fight, make sure you keep one eye on your speed. Don’t let it fall too low or you’ll spin. Just because he seems to be coming around on you faster, doesn’t mean he is. His current angle may make it look that way, or he’s pulling harder but bleeding his speed and likely to stall. Keep you stick pressure steady, and see if he comes back into view.
All this of course assumes that you are able to out turn your opponent. IF he can out turn you, then in a straight turning match with no other factors involved, you will loose. If you are superior, at some point he will come into view and stay there.
Egress
NUMPAD 5 will centre your view if you get disorientated.
Once you have completed your objective, it is time to head for home. Leaving the target area is dangerous as an enemy fighter could latch onto your six. Make sure you constantly check your six on the way home; doing crazy-Ivan’s just to make sure. Any dot behind you will catch you up as you slow to land…
Fanatik got shot down only the other day whilst landing – He had just bombed a US carrier in a Ki-84 (I think) and was RTB at full steam. His pursuer, on his six about a mile or so behind and falling, only caught up because Fanatik obviously had to slow down to land. The exact same thing happened to me also, earlier that day. The guy was unable to catch me, but my landing speed allowed him to catch up and shoot me down. The sole reason being because both of us didn’t check our six, or didn’t think we’d be caught. In the end we provided the enemy with the perfect target – slow, straight and no energy.
Obviously fuel is a consideration here. If you have a full tank, chances are your opponent doesn’t (especially on HL). Take him on a grand tour of the map (if you’re faster). If you have little fuel, or are slower, you must turn to engage him. If he out turns and is faster than you, go for a head on shot. Refer back to the Contact section. You could of course bail out – or try a fast landing (wheels up and belly land (turn engines off as you come in). You’ll have to weigh up your options.
By keeping up on your SA, it will keep you alive a lot longer. You may also be able to sneak up on the enemy and catch him snoozing. If you don’t look, you don’t see.
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