Caesar

Sent mine in just now.

As the above have said, I've been using the X52 for about 3 years now. It's recently picked up a bit of a squeak, which I've tried to use gun oil to fix; only silences it for a short span of time, so I might be needing a replacement, but it has always worked fine for SF2.

Glad to see the crew came home safe and sound, but sad to see the Shuttle go. Bravo Zulu, Atlantis.

Sierra Hotel! Much thanks to TMF!

Which version of the F-15 are you flying? I just took an F-15C(85) up against a MiG-29 and its gunsight was tracking fluidly.

I think I know what you're talking about. While in the gun pattern, depending on how hard you pull, the pipper will move down with the pull, then as you relax pull on the stick, the pipper will take a moment, then quickly recover towards the top of the HUD. Not entirely sure why this happens, but usually it doesn't matter as much if you're in the gun pattern after having beat the opponent down on energy, so he can't move his plane around very easily. The smaller the stick movements, the less the pipper "sticks". EDIT: Also, do you have your target locked up? That'll make the gun sight move relative to the target - don't know if it's smoother or not, just a suggestion.

Well, one thing's for damn sure, I've been enjoying the F-16C models. I figured, after getting some flight time in them, I might as well see how they perform against the Turkey (as EricJ had also done against the Super Bug). I also figured it was fitting since the F-16C Block 30 was the basis for the F-16N used by TOPGUN to simulate the MiG-29. Did three 1v2 fights, first in the F-14A, second and third in the F-14B at different weights. Fight #1 Loadouts: F-14A - 4x AIM-9L, 2x AIM-7M, gun, no tanks, 75% internal fuel F-16C - 4x AIM-9L, ECM pod, gun, no tanks, 100% internal fuel This fight was over in 1 minute, 2 seconds and was largely the result of TTP's and my missiles not malfunctioning. Fight started one-circle. One of the common TTP's I've noticed is that one plane will act as bait, while the other winds round to your tail. I figure, why the hell attack the bait aircraft? I put about 9g on the Tomcat into the threat, going slightly nose low. This way, I've got gravity to help the poor thrust of the TF-30's to keep those 9g on the frame. Probably bled to about 8g by the time I got nose-on on the F-16 coming for my 6 o'clock. He was not doing a 9g turn himself, but was coming on hard. Got tone as he continued his turn and sent a heater his way. Good kill on #1. I rolled back and pulled hard towards #2, going for max g, while also knowing that the energy bled would get me towards 400KIAS where I could corner quick. I got nose on the F-16 and sent a heater his way, which was fooled by flares. Sent another, which was also fooled, but both shots kept the F-16 flying a predictable evasion maneuver and I wrenched the Turkey into position on his six. He was maneuvering towards the vertical with the blower engaged. I took two snap shots, then a third longer burst, which was much better placed, sawing off his right wing and causing the pilot to eject. Fight #2 Loadouts: F-14B - 4x AIM-9M, 2x AIM-7P, gun, no tanks, 100% internal fuel F-16C - 4x AIM-9M, ECM pod, gun, no tanks, 100% internal fuel Fight #2 took slightly longer, but I followed the same initial TTP. Pulling hard into the threat, I again targeted the F-16 headed for my 6. This time, however, my first heater failed to track. I fired a second, but this one also failed to track. Now I'm in a bit of trouble. Rather than press on #1, I check the skies for #2, since I know he's now going to try to shoot me in the ass. Pull a Split-S into #2 who is just getting nose-on. VSL-High selected and boresight Viper #2 at 3 miles. I know he's going to shoot, but I send a Sparrow his way anyhow. Rather than go for the 1:1 exchange and win the fight, #2 starts popping chaff and maneuvering away from the Sparrow, which he fails to evade and is destroyed at about 1.75miles off my nose. Time to find #1 again. He's gone high and is working his nose to a threatening position. I know I need to close, so that's exactly what I do. Pull hard into the threat and hope that I can threaten him. He's nose-low and lets a heater loose in my direction. Pop flares, cut the throttle and pull hard. The Mike takes the bait and misses my Turkey Beast by a long shot. A loop ensues, which involves a series of high-g turns and rudder to try to get the best position. The F-16 breaks after I begin to go nose-high the second time. I continue a vertical press, and as I reach the bottom of my second loop with some rudder, get tone. Fox 2 - hrmm, that's kind of HOBS, so I'll keep maneuvering. Well, this particular 9M was able to achieve lead and strike the second F-16. All this happened in 1 minute, 38 seconds. Fight #3 Loadouts: F-14B - 4x AIM-9M, gun, no tanks, 50% internal fuel F-16C - 4x AIM-9M, ECM pod, gun, no tanks, 100% internal fuel My third and final fight was a set up to see how the F-14 would handle the F-16 at similar internal fuel quantities, considering at this weight, I had a 1.07:1 TW at the fight's start. Pulled hard to do the same start as the previous two fights (AI really likes that bait and turn start). Fox 2, miss, Fox 2 again hit, roll and pull into remaining F-16. Here's the main thing. At this weight, and with as much thrust as I had, the Tomcat was pegging the accelerometer (10+g if I went full pull) and was holding that "g" pretty damn well. The second F-16 wasn't screwing around; he knew I was pressing hard and was trying to get inside my turn, but with those twin GE engines belching fire and lowering my weight every second, it wasn't going in the Viper's favor. Initially, we were about neutral, so I cut the engines and began curling inside the F-16. My Tomcat was now bleeding speed, but so was the Viper. I sent a HOBS Mike after him, but it didn't track. This wouldn't end up mattering, as I plugged the blower back in at low speed and generated a turn rate that the F-16 couldn't match at his energy state. It took about three seconds and I was nose-on. 20mm, 6000rds/min selected. GUNS! Good kill on the Viper. Fight's over in 1 minute 41 seconds. "Do you have any idea how BIG your intakes look when you're gunning us?" - actual remark by a Viper driver to a Tomcat crew after DACT vs an F-14B Takeaways: A light Turkey Beast is a dangerous plane. However, I think a lot of the successes shown today have to do more with the DACTs we've been flying than anything else. Recall in the earlier pages, it took me some 10 minutes to kill a single F-16! And boy, was it a fight! Now, even finishing the fights with guns, I've got the times down to under 2 minutes. Also, I know that F-16's amazing from the hops I've been flying since I downloaded it. Got guns on some Fulcrums, kills on Flankers, it's a downright beauty to fly, so I was happy with the results going against it. Any Time, Baby!

Happy Birthday, Gentlemen!

Historically speaking, JM, you're right. The last time I can think of when a Western power had fewer fighters airborne than their enemy was probably Vietnam. Over Libya in the 1980's there were several dogfights that occurred with no shots fired due to ROE between USN F-4's and F-14's vs. Libyan Mirage F-1 and MiG-25s, where the F-4's and F-14's typically flew as a section of 2, and would encounter a Libyan section of between 2 and 4, but could be jumped by other aircraft. Fortunately for us, there were also far more airplanes on patrol in different sections of the sky that could then jump the Libyans. I think the whole concept of being behind on numbers is part of that Cold War "World War III" thought process. The FSU was making a lot more smaller, cheaper planes than us, and we could expect to see a larger number of them airborne in, say, a blitz on Western Europe, or as mentioned earlier, as we had in the skies over Vietnam. Tomcat RIO "Bio" Baranek wrote of 2 versus unknown training engagements: "The 2vUNK is a realistic and valuable training scenario. On the fighter side, the basic unit for combat employment of Navy fighters is a section composed of lead and wingman. The value of a second fighter was borne out repeatedly, so the Navy almost never assigned a single fighter to combat. On the bogey side, in the real world, you rarely knew for sure how many you were facing. Despite the quality of E-2 or ship-board radar controllers, despite the fighters' ability to sanitize airspace, despite the enemy aircraft you may kill before the merge, if you were over enemy territory and were engaged, additional enemy fighters could show up at almost any time. This happened in combat, so TOPGUN trained us for it." (Baranek, TOPGUN Days, 116) True enough today, and for the past few decades, we haven't been in an engagement against an opponent who could directly stand toe to toe in the air. But figuring out how we'd fight against a numerically superior enemy is one of those things we have to be able to know; the world changes all the time, and its better to be prepared than not!

I see what you mean, DA, but even in the era of the F-14, F-15, F-16 and F/A-18, we always figured we'd be lower in overall numbers; hence why there was 1vX and 2vX training with the Tomcat, Eagle, Viper and Hornet to figure how we'd perform in a real-world fight. But I'd be willing to bet that the F-35/F-22 combination will be able to better match an air to air threat better than F-14/F-18 or F-15/F-16 combo against a modern enemy.

I'm sorry, but I'm a believer in the F-35. And a step down? The F-35 IS the USAF/USN/USMC's new hotness for TACAIR! Cutting edge, like the UEWR for ITW/AA and SBSS for the SSN. Folks like to bad-mouth it based on reports with questionable accuracy (there's always a counterargument) and which only touch on the unclassified, releasable aspects of the program. You're badmouthing an airplane which you don't even know the true capabilities of. I'm very happy to hear the first production birds are being delivered, and wish the 33d FW the best.

This is an example of the payoff from the constant DACT we've been posting about. No pictures involved for this one. In this case, I went in for some combat in the year 1977 in an F-14A Tomcat with my wingman in an F-4B Phantom II. The competition was a set of four MiG-23 Flogger L's that came to take us down. I was loaded with 4 AIM-7F between the engine nacelles, 2 AIM-54A on stations 1B and 8B under the glove pylons, and 2 AIM-9H on stations 1 and 8 above them, max internal fuel, and tanks. Initially we took off, and I figured, let's do an "Alt-N" thing to get into combat, since I'd have shot at far distance the instant whatever competition got in the air, and I wanted to give 'em a fighting chance. And a fighting chance they got! Popping off the tanks, I detect a flight of four Floggers at about 12 miles off the nose. Lock up the first one and fire an AIM-54 in his direction. I break lock at 9 miles (Phoenix was PITBULL at this point) and selected the next Flogger, instructing my wing to attack. That's when three of the Floggers burned through my ECM and put 3 AA-7's in my direction. Soooo...no one noticed the F-4? Anyhow, hard break to try to beam their radars and deploy chaff. I can see the missiles' smoke trails and can see that two of the three took the chaff, which I am still pumping out, because #3 is not fooled. After realizing I was probably going to buy the farm, I did a hard nose-low rudder roll which caused the remaining AA-7 to get confused and it missed slightly behind and left of my Turkey. Okay, good, why the hell hasn't my wingman fired yet? And now I'm also outta' chaff! In the process of the defensive maneuvering, I notice that one of the Floggers is a flaming wreck, my first AIM-54 has done the job. From this point onward, I also notice two things: #1 - my wingman is utterly incompetent and #2 - the Floggers know this and focus ONLY on killing me. From my position below the Floggers, I pull pure vertical and hear a FOX 2 call from my wingman, which has no effect. I get the trailing MiG-23 on the nose, get tone and fire an AIM-9 at him. I immediately notice that it went stupid, so I put another in his direction, which tracks and shoots him down. Okay, let's see where the remaining two MiGs are. Both of them are turning hard into me. Set the sights on one of them and send wingy to deal with him while I deal with the second one. Here comes the fun part. Over the span of no less than 3 minutes, my wingman is utterly incapable of harming "his" MiG. Not only that, the Floggers aren't even maneuvering to go defensive against the Phantom, but rather to be wholly offensive against me! I have to change who I'm engaging multiple times, and energy management, honed through our constant DACTs, is what keeps me alive. Every time one of the two Floggers gets to a threatening position, I had maintained enough energy to both maneuver to nose-on and close the gap to inside of minimum range so they can't shoot. After a series of circles against both remaining Floggers, exchanging offensive and counter-defensive maneuvers, I get into a decidedly advantageous position against one of the two MiGs, while his wingman is facing the other direction (180-degrees+ of turn to threaten me). Initially, I see I'm two miles out and send an AIM-7F his way. The Sparrow Foxtrot initially guides, then goes stupid. Okay, I'm now inside of the Sparrow's minimum range, and am closing for gun. I check on his #2, tell the Phantom to shoot him again, then re-focus on "my" Flogger. Close to within 1 mile and then see #2 getting nose on again. S#!7. The damn Phantom is behind him and isn't shooting! I try for a quick angle-off snap shot but it misses, and now I've got to AGAIN pull into my attacker. This is the closest that #2 is to firing parameters, but he again misses the chance. Sadly for #2, my Flogger (#1) hasn't made the best decision and tried to turn in my direction in his defensive pull. After a quick, high-g rudder roll, I spit my Flogger out, lock and he's traveling too fast. He falls outside minimum Sparrow range and I fire. This one guides and hits the Flogger. One to go. I hear over the radio "FOX 2" - holy hell, my wingman actually shot! Wait, it doesn't matter, the Flogger is pulling into me to try to kill me again, and wingy's heater doesn't track. I had begun a horizontal scissors slightly before wingy shot, and the Flogger was not winning. He pulled away a bit trying to run when he realized I was going to get onto his tail. I cycled weapons, initially selecting gun, then selecting Sparrow; or rather, thinking I selected Sparrow, boresighted the MiG as he pulled defensively into me at about 1.8 miles. FOX 1! Hrmm, what's with the long delay? The Buffalo rockets up and past my Tomcat. Oh damn! No way that's gonna hit at this close range! Not a big deal, I'll just keep my turn, but wait! The giant AIM-54 has achieved lead! The Flogger detonates off of my Tomcat's nose. Mission Accomplished. Takeaways: In a 1v1 you can beat the opponent down on energy, and many times I do so. Also, when fighting with only rear-quarter shots, you have less to worry about, less angles to cut off. In this case, I had an opponent who had a BVR face shoot capability, as well as AA-8's which were at least a match for my Hotel Sidewinders. Indeed, the enemy did get shots on my Tomcat and nearly killed me before the engagement even started. On the other hand, had I not used "Alt-N" it'd probably have been far more one-sided. Remember, in a furball that starts with nose-on, if you survive the initial exchange, maintaining enough energy to maneuver is tantamount to survival. Had I tried for a low-energy rolling scissors fight, one of those three remaining Flogger's likely would have sent an AA-7 my way as my wingman faltered horribly to try to shoot one down. Instead, without any chaff left, it was maneuvering and energy that saved my ass every time.

Congratulations, and thank you for your service!

Today's fight: F-14A Tomcat vs. 4x MiG-21bis Fishbed; year 1981. The MiG-21 Fishbed is a bit more challenging close in than the MiG-23. It has better maneuverability across the board, but slightly worse acceleration and no BVR capability. Compared to the F-14 at combat weight, it has worse wing loading, but similar thrust to weight. It can also handle surprisingly well at low speed/high alpha. Fight time was 3 mins 7 secs. Loadouts: F-14A: 4x AIM-7F, 4x AIM-9L, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks MiG-21bis: 6x AA-8C, gun, 100% fuel, no tanks The F-14A has the advantage over the MiG-21 across most of the flight envelope. In this case, the fight was fairly one-sided. Initially, I pulled about 8 to 9g into the threat. One of the Fishbeds pulled away as bait while 3 of them headed for my tail. Unfortunately for the bait aircraft, I was equipped with the AIM-9L, and because he continued on that vector, the Lima I fired at him tracked and destroyed his plane with no problems. After firing, I continued my pull into the other Fishbeds. I varied "g" between 9g and 6g to sustain turn into the threat, but also to get myself into an advantageous position on the Fishbeds tails. As the third Fishbed initially was falling behind, I started engaging him, but then #2 became lazy and provided an easier target, so I fired a Lima in his direction. This one missed, but I was getting into a good gun position, got lead, and sheared off his tail. I then pressed on one of the remaining two MiGs, while the second was trying to close on my tail. MiG#3 was below me, so I initiated a bit of an expanded yo-yo to get onto his tail. Coming down to his level, I fired and bagged #3 with a Heater, looked right, and saw the final Fishbed turning into me. I pulled hard into him to try for nose-on and saw we were going to get it at about the same time. I kept the pull, but began deploying flares preemptively, expecting a close-range nose-on shot by an AA-8. I was inside of minimum range too quickly, and he never got a shot. I reversed the Tomcat and pulled towards the MiG's tail. Here's where the wing loading and superior sustained turning performance of the Turkey shined through. We were in a one-circle now, getting towards 250KIAS. I dropped my flaps to "take off" and continued my pull into the Fishbed. It was plainly obvious what was going to happen. The Tomcat took a few seconds, but got nose-on inside the MiG's circle, and I got a good tone. FOX 2! Smack! Fight's over, good kill. Takeaways: the MiG-21 is always a bit trickier if you have to shoot them from the rear quarter, but given this set up, I think it would have taken similar time even if I were equipped with the AIM-9D or H. The first Fishbed I bagged was flying in a straight line; the Lima's better maneuverability wasn't even necessary there. Second kill was with guns, third and fourth were the ones at angle off and may have required a bit more working. Suffice to say, the MiGs were outperformed this time around.

End of an era; definitely sad to see it go. We'll see what the future holds, but for now, let's just hope Atlantis delivers her crew home safe at the end of the mission.

I recall in one conversation with a Tomcat RIO, if the carrier had enough prep time, they'd begin arming all available F-14's with their full AIM-54 compliment and launching the aircraft in a tactic that was termed the "Chainsaw". The Tomcats would have priority for launch, would fire their AIM-54's at the bombers and missiles as quickly as they got them in firing parameters, land, rearm, lather, rinse, repeat until the threat was gone, or the carrier lost. This did not mean launching all 24 F-14's necessarily, but every available Tomcat, the more the better. EDIT: There was a documentary called "Super Carriers" back in the 1980's which outlined the entire modern carrier defense layout (modern for the mid 1980's), back when the CVBG was huge. DA's assessment on Tomcat and Hornet placement is pretty close to that documentary, so I'd say is a close assessment. If Typhoid were on, he'd probably have better insight.

Happy Birthday, JM!

Happy 4th, ladies and gentlemen!

Got a pair of fights today, first is a modern set up, Tomcat vs. Typhoon, second is a look at two light fighters, Tiger II vs. Fishbed. F-14B Tomcat (96) vs. EF-2000 Typhoon I didn't take too many pictures during this fight, expecting to have to do a lot of maneuvering, but it wound up taking about 1 minute and 55 seconds. The Typhoon can be a tricky opponent, since it max performs at lower speeds than most fighters, i.e. it has both higher turn rate and smaller turn radius at closer to 350 KIAS compared to other planes which are typically max performing at around 400-450. Loadouts: F-14B: 4x AIM-9X, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks EF-2000: 8x ASRAAM, 4x AIM-120, 100% fuel, gun, no tanks Fight started with the typical one-circle, but I am surprised that the EF-2000 hasn't pulled harder into me. At my current weight, I'm just below 1:1 TW, but will achieve 1:1 within seconds of the start. I've got a solid 9g turn into the Typhoon, and notice that I not only get nose-on, but am pulling to lead the Typhoon. I relax the turn a bit, then pull hard to try to slide onto his tail. During my pull, I begin burning energy a bit too quickly, and we wind up in a one-circle, with me slightly outside of shooting parameters on the Typhoon. I go nose-low, but rather than do pure vertical, I keep the turn in the horizontal and ease off on the g, letting the Tomcat's GE engines rebuild energy. They do so quickly. The EF-2000 had gained some separation, and then pulled hard across my nose. I have tone and figure this sucker's got 9X's, they should give me an easy kill. FOX 2! The next-gen X-Ray goes stupid. The EF-2000 driver also did not adjust his turn, but kept pressing into me, releasing flares upon my firing. Fortunately, I had good energy and kept my pull into the Typhoon. As we passed, I was burning airspeed and the Typhoon reversed into me. A flat scissors ensued, but I was at just the right energy state for such a fight. I cut the throttle for the first iteration, forcing the Typhoon in front of me, and pulling into him, now modulating the GE motors between military and blower to get the performance I need. Second iteration, I'm still behind the Typhoon, and he reverses again, with me still inside of his circle, this time slightly low. He runs at this point, but is right in front of my Tomcat. This time, I don't waste a shot at angle off - got burned earlier, not gonna let that happen again. I let the Tomcat's nose reach the Typhoon's hot exhaust and get a good tone. The Typhoon has begun to reverse as I fire my second X-Ray, which guides true and is not fooled by the Typhoon's flares. Solid contact, good kill, fight's over. Takeaways: The EF-2000 wasn't the most difficult opponent, but he was also loaded up with more stores and more fuel than me, which undoubtedly affected his performance. I also didn't let the Typhoon use his instantaneous turning advantage against me during most of the fight. When I pulled into the scissors, I suddenly thought "damn, this is stupid!" but by then it was too late. I was fortunate, however, to have the responsive GE engines, and was able to keep the energy where I needed it to best the Typhoon even in that fight. Things just worked for the Turkey today. F-5E Tiger II vs. MiG-21bis These two aircraft are very evenly matched; the F-5E and T-38 were used by TOPGUN to simulate the MiG-21 since the foundation of the school, and the Tiger II is even used to this day by VFC-13. Like the A-4 Super Fox, the Tiger II can be a surprisingly difficult opponent thanks to its instantaneous turn rate and its well-known ability to "snap" its nose around at slow speeds. Loadouts: F-5E: 2x AIM-9J, guns, 100% internal fuel MiG-21bis: 2x AA-2, 4x AA-8, gun, 100% internal fuel The fight starts with a one-circle, and I get nose-on first, but the AIM-9J is a rear-aspect missile and has no chance for a shot. We pass by each other, and begin a nose-low turn. I check my airspeed for a moment and suddenly realize that the MiG-21 has reversed and begun to pull vertical just as I pass him. "Loose Sight, Loose Fight" - oh damn! Well, I pull horizontal into him and the Fishbed begins a yo-yo. I pull high myself and we have the start of a rolling scissors. Because I had made a bit of an extension while the MiG was performing his yo-yo, the scissors is spread literally over a mile of separation, but we're both pulling into each other's lift vector, trying to sustain angular momentum to achieve an advantage. At about the third iteration, I pull back a bit hard on the stick at the top and end up in a position of advantage. The MiG now pulls pure horizontal to run. I put on a sustained turn at about 6g and get onto his six. He's going straight, and begins to pull up. FOX 2! Juliet 1 comes off the rail stupid. FOX 2 again! Same as before. WTFO? Guns it is and I realize I'm going to overshoot. I reef on the stick for all I've got and the F-5 over-alphas and departs. Lucky for me, that rudder's humongous authority is usable and I recover the stricken Tiger very quickly. Post-Recovery Not only that, but the MiG doesn't have time to get to a position of advantage. He's high and going towards my 3 o'clock. I nurse the Tiger's nose back to a threatening position and the MiG is flying fairly straight, probably making up his game plan. He starts a series of maneuvers to try to get me out front, but I've got him saddled and am not going to let him make me (nearly) overshoot again. Take a snap shot with the gun and miss. Still saddled, boresight lock, bit of finessing and take another gun shot. This one saws off the MiG's vertical stab, causing the pilot to punch out. Fight's over. Takeaways: The Tiger is a maneuverable little plane, but you have to be careful with it. I did some fam hops before this fight to re-learn its envelope, and learned that it will depart damn quick in an over-alpha. It can get that nose around quick, but if you pull too hard, expect to go on a ride. Fortunately, it recovers pretty quick too, unlike the Voodoo. It is a very even match for the MiG-21, handles the horizontal slightly better, and like the Skyhawk, should not be underestimated within visual range.

Happy Birthday, Slarti! And damn that sounds like a journey.

.

Did a 1v1 in the F-14B against an A-4F Super Fox Skyhawk, and a 1v1 in the Super Fox against the F-16A Block 1. The Super Fox was well known for embarrassing fighters that should have gotten the better of it, thanks to the fact that it was stripped down to reduce enough weight to give it a 1:1 thrust to weight ratio (at low internal fuel quantities), and was already a nimble little airplane, difficult to keep sight on, and with the slats unlocked, a horrendous jet to try to kill in close. Its light weight helps it to build available "g" quickly, and the plane can turn quite well. The Super Fox involved in these fights, however, was a "hard wing" version; easier to take on in a tight furball. The first fight lasted for 2 minutes and 38 seconds, the second, 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Fight #1: Loadouts: F-14B: 2x AIM-9L, 2x AIM-7M, gun, no tank, 75% internal fuel: .98:1 T/W, 55.5 lbs/sf WL A-4SF: 2x AIM-9P, no gun, no tank, 100% internal fuel: .71:1 T/W, 71 lb/sf WL Since I can't set the enemy fuel state, I had the better T/W from the start, and better wing loading. One of the things I hadn't realized before the fight is that the gun was stripped too! (I just installed the Super Fox) So, I was vigilant to keep the Scooter's nose away from my Turkey Beast head on. Fight started neutral, and I began a one-circle. Initially I was pulling 8.5g into the threat, which was still bleeding energy a bit at 15,000 feet. Because I was expecting to have to press vertical, I let off to 6.5g which helped regain a bit of energy while still producing a good turn (think the Beast sustains around 6.5-7g at 55,700 at 15k feet, 450KIAS). I start getting nose on, but I'm not going to be in a good firing position, so as we pass, I press vertical. I probably should have done so more aggressively, since putting a 4g pull onto the plane resulted in me burning a lot more altitude/distance and energy. The Fox stayed horizontal, coming slightly high to begin to follow, and I had a bit of energy to rebuild. As I came down from my perch, I had built a respectable amount, but not enough for a full aggressive press. The A-4 was still traveling horizontal, and I pulled into him. He reversed and a flat scissors ensued. Here's where the Fox got the advantage: I'm lower on energy, loaded up, and his instantaneous turn is better than mine at slow speeds. After about two iterations of scissor, the first massively to my disadvantage, the second just barely so, I explode into the vertical again. By now, I'm at better than 1:1 T/W, and the Skyhawk again cannot match me. Since I entered the vertical at lower energy than I had hoped, I dropped the flaps to wing the plane around a bit quicker. It worked, the Fox running out of energy as he attempted to follow pure vertical. He takes long enough to recover the plane that I'm able to ease my nose into a threatening position. Those huge flaps generate a lot of lift, but also a lot of drag, so I bring them from full down to "take off" configuration, full blower to try to continue my press and regain speed. It works, and the Fox doesn't have enough energy to go on. He pulls high and left, but I've got enough speed by now that I'm matching him without the Turkey giving me grief about pulling harder on the stick. The Fox levels off to reverse, putting him in the heart of the Lima envelope, just under a mile from my nose. Fox 2! Kill. Takeaways: I could always modify the Super Fox to carry less internal fuel to get it closer to what the aggressor pilots had, but I also fear that may cause the plane to immediately RTB. The plane starts with roughly 5600 lbs internal, and from what I understand, aggressors flew it at around 2000 lbs. As it stands, I fought the fight as I had to: use the vertical to my advantage. My end fuel state was 9050lbs, still more than 50%, and my total weight at fight's end was somewhere around 52850 lbs (compare to the A-4's 15480 lbs start weight). Will probably try for a 1v2 some time in the next few days. Fight #2: A-4F Super Fox vs. F-16A Blk 1 In Fight #2, since I was the Fox driver, I took off with less gas to better represent the Aggressor Fox. Compared to the F-16, the Super Fox had only slightly worse thrust to weight and wing loading thanks to those damn LERX's the F-16 has making vortex lift. Since I don't know exactly how to calculate it, I won't know his exact wing loading in a turn, but if I remember correctly, its somewhere around 45 lb/sf when the Viper is fast enough in a turn to generate it. Loadouts: A-4SF: 2x AIM-9L, 50% internal fuel, no gun, no tank: .90:1 T/W, 49 lb/sf WL F-16A: 4x AIM-9L, 100% internal fuel, gun, ECM pod: .92:1 T/W, somewhere between 85 and 45 lb/sf WL Having fought the F-16 before, I know that starting two-circle is just asking for a Heater to the face when using 9L or later (usually a 1:1 exchange, but he's got flares and I don't), so one-circle it is! This again illustrated to me the great instantaneous turning capability of the A-4. The little bugger loads an 8.3g turn into the F-16, but because it builds "g" as quickly as it does, can keep that "g" going for a while. By the time I'm down to 350 KIAS, I'm still at about 8g, and am nose-on on the F-16, the Sidewinder tone going in my ears. I could fire, but he's at a bit of angle off, and I only got 2, so I want a better firing solution. I'm initially able to hold my turn with the F-16, but with his afterburner going, the F-16 starts getting away. Rather than try to go over the top, I roll the Super Fox on its back to try to get nose-on quick. This happens about 3 times as the F-16 continues a horizontal descending turn. Each time, I'm going from around 230 up to about 330 KIAS between 4 and 7g. As we run out of altitude, I know I have to take the fight horizontal again, and pull hard into the Viper. I'm feeding in too much rudder, unfortunately, and the Skyhawk begins to depart. I fight it, nose-low at, probably 2500 feet AGL. Skyhawk recovers, but I know that Viper hasn't been wasting his time. He's coming in from high, about 7 o'clock. I pull into him hoping to make the Lawn Dart a Lawn Dart, but it doesn't work. On the other hand, the Scooter's 720-degree per second roll rate and g-build help quite a bit, and I reverse into the F-16. A two-iteration scissors ensues, and we're getting nose-on each other nearly simultaneously. Well, knowing he has a gun and four heaters, I decide to take the initiative. I pull into him at the start of the 3rd iteration as he pulls into me. Just as we get nose-on, I fire an AIM-9L at his snot locker. Closure rate was slow enough, and distance great enough for the heater to acquire and maneuver head-on into the F-16, which detonates just below, nose-on. Good kill, fights over. Takeaways: The one thing to remember about light planes, which also justifies EricJ's beliefs that a lighter fighter can usually give a heavier one a run for its money, is that they can typically build available "g" and turn rate quicker than the big boys (if not sustained). As the screen of my nose-low pull shows, I had about 6.9g on the jet at .59M to curl into the F-16 - that's pretty damn good. And I didn't even have the slats! Suffice to say, NEVER underestimate a Scooter, especially a Super Fox, 'cause he will eat you alive.

Going back to 4th-gen again, this time we've got the F-14A taking on the F-8J, 14 October, 1974. One of the things I've come to notice is that the game handles its older series fighters pretty aggressively. In this instance of a 1v2 against the 2 F-8's, the F-8's survived longer than many modern opposing fighters I've gone up against in DACT, including the MiG-29A, F-15C, Mirage 2000C, F-14B, among others. Loadouts were: F-14A: 4x AIM-7, 4x AIM-9, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks F-8J: 4x AIM-9, 4x gun, 100% fuel, no tanks Fight started off as a one-circle, since I know I've got the performance edge over the F-8's across the board, but also that I'm huge and if one of 'em gets nose-on in a two-circle, he's a lot more likely to hit me than I him. At 15,000 feet at my weight, I've got a 5.5g sustained turn available. I initially go slightly nose-low to get about 8g going into the threat. As I get closer, I know I want to try to snap the nose around quick, so I don't want to loose too much energy and drop the turn to 5.5g. I get nose-on way before the F-8's and close, performing a Max-g pull to try to get a firing solution. I have pulled a bit too late, and push nose-low to build energy. As I pull up, the Crusaders have split. One of them is coming nose-on, the other is working to my six. Again, big plane vs. small plane nose to nose = bad for me. High g barrel roll over the F-8 and continue vertical press, this time to try to wing the nose around quicker than my opponent. He gets some separation (about 1.5 miles, too close for AIM-7, and head on so no heater shot). Now its a one-circle, and I go for a sustained 6g turn (full blower, about 5.5k feet) - this is higher than the F-8 can do by a bit, and I'm gaining pretty rapidly. F-8 wingman had abandoned his press and was back with F-8 lead. I maintain my turn into the F-8's. I see that the wingman is trying to hold position on his lead's tail, which makes him a bit of an easy target. I bring the turn again to around 8g, which bleeds off my airspeed, and plants me onto his six. Lead can't do anything. Perfect firing parameters, Fox 2, AIM-9 Golf to the tail. With the wing finished off, I make some minor adjustments and lead's on my nose. I get tone, but this has to end correctly. Select gun, get a good tracking solution, and guns on the F-8! Total fight time was about 3 minutes, 10 seconds. Again, the AI fights pretty hard with those Vietnam-era aircraft. I had a better thrust to weight, better wing loading, and could outperform the F-8 across the envelope, but they put forth a valiant effort, and worked pretty well to try to hit me from multiple angles at one point.

One thing to remember: weight isn't everything. The F-14B has a far superior thrust to weight ratio compared to most versions of the Skyhawk (between .92 and 1.08:1 compared to about .61:1; the one exception being the Super Fox, which was about the same) and better wing loading (roughly 55lb/sf compared to 71lb/sf). This equates to better sustained turning performance, higher sustained "g", better acceleration, climb, and performance in rolling and flat scissors. I do wonder to myself how to make the F-14 and F-15 tougher opponents, because like you show in your DACT, I eat them alive when I fly the Scooter, and that's not typically what I hear or read when it involves a Scooter fighting an F-14B or F-15 in the real world.

For me, it depends on the plane. I've noticed ThirdWire American fighters like to press vertical, as do the Soviet MiG-17, -19 and -21 if they're offensive. Not sure what defines it, but there are planes that do it, and others that usually don't.