Caesar

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I don't agree. The Shuttle was the first step towards reusable orbiters, something that will be a necessity if we are to go out into space, or evolve space-based travel. In that regard, the Shuttle is anything BUT a dead-end street. Primary issue is money; yes, it is easier and cheaper to make a one-time-use capsule, but it is a rudimentary means to get to space, and is highly limited crew-wise. But it is questionable if the lack of an escape system would have helped with the shuttle disintegrating as it did. What is worse in my mind is that the whole Challenger Disaster could have been averted entirely if some people up top didn't rush to get it into space. After an 18-degree F night, and a 31-degree F launch, with a booster system with parts never intended to survive long in less than 40-degree F temperatures, one of the o-rings in the SRB's failed. They put the system outside of its effective limitations, launching on a cold day that the boosters o-rings weren't designed to handle. They launched out of the envelope, a ring failed, and part of the SRB acted like a torch on the fuel tank...the chain reaction started. Had they waited, or re-inspected the o-rings, scrubbed, and then launched within the performance parameters, that crew could be here today. Challenger was lost because of bad decision making and pushing its system beyond its design specifications. For that matter, people construct systems used without effective escape means all the time. Look at airliners. There's a hatch and some rafts, but consider, Challenger was lost during initial boost. What happens in an airliner if an engine catches fire after the plane is taking off? Try to shut it down, but lets say it detonates the wing (keep it Challenger-like). Do the passengers have ejection seats? Nope. They're all dead. The airplane will auger in, taking the crew and passengers with it. We're talking HUNDREDS of deaths, yet we all still fly on airliners. Is it criminal that airliners don't have escape systems for IFEs? And that example isn't far-fetched at all, heck, look what happened with the Concorde. The escape systems used before the shuttle were not designed to work if the rocket blew up. If we do press for a next-gen shuttle sometime in the future, I hope they do incorporate an ejection system, but still am not 100% sure it'd work well if the SRBs caused the tank to blow up again, taking most of the orbiter with it. Its all part of the risk.

Good luck!

Across a 30 year span, and over 130 missions, only 2 accidents, one of which can't even be attributed to the shuttle itself, that's a pretty damn good safety record if you ask me! I can't believe our generation's unwillingness to accept risk. Hell, before they launched John Glenn into orbit, they told him that the rocket they were launching him on wasn't the most reliable. At that time, unreliable meant "likely to explode during liftoff". Could you imagine if we told a shuttle or manned space flight crew that today? "Well, guys, this rocket blows up about 60% of the time. Good luck, and God Speed." Now, consider that we're strapping between 4 and 7 human beings to what is in essence a giant bomb with thousands of gallons of highly explosive fuel directed out of a few nozzles to put people into an environment they were never designed/evolved to endure, AND returning them through extreme heat and aerodynamic resistance, re-entering the Earth's atmosphere repeatedly, and then reusing the same orbiter that just endured such flight. For 30 years! To go through that and have only one orbiter fail during re-entry reflects very well on the Space Shuttle. Challenger's boosters failed, causing and explosion and then disintegration of the orbiter from excessive aerodynamic forces. I think the shuttle was a fine piece of equipment, and that we could have squeezed a few more years out of her.

Well, not entirely. The Turkey drivers and RIOs I've spoken to all agree the Tomcat's cockpit is roomy. Guys at 6' 4" could fit comfortably in the cockpit; by comparison to the A-4 and earlier F-8, which a lot of the bigger guys considered pretty cramped. One pilot even noted that is was good that the A-4's Escapac ejection seat had the lower handle as its primary, since it would have been impossible for him to get the face curtain over his head and maintain spinal alignment during punch out due to the Scooter's tiny pit!

How to kill zee "Polecat" in zee "Tomcat"? FLY SLOW! Beat the guy twice, and it was all from slow-speed maneuvering, though I would have had him the second time on fuel (he never came out of burner, and I did, AND I got more gas than him!) before I shot him in the face with an AIM-9M. Both fights took a good chunk of time to complete (4 and 5+ mins), and neither ended with a gun kill (tried first time, but it didn't work). In both fights, my Turkey Beast took 75% fuel, no tanks, clean pancake. First fight had 4x AIM-9X (bit of a cheat with the Turkey), second fight had 4x AIM-9M. The F-29A had 100% fuel, no tanks, 2x AIM-9M, 2x AIM-120A's. Both fighters had guns. The first fight, I had no plan to try a sustained fight - I wanted to get nose-on as fast as possible, so loaded 9g on the Turkey and cut the throttles. The Pole did the same thing, but he got nose-on at the same time I did. FOX 2, two times! Nope, neither guides. We passed by, and I went nose-high to try to do a loop to get nose-on. No good, he's turning too well. I follow him for a second, but as I level, he gets inside of my turn. Damn, I'm low on energy! Put the Big Boys (flaps) down! I hold on him for a second, but overshoot, and he gets onto my tail. I'm too close for him to shoot me with an AIM-9, so I pull pure vertical, knowing (realistically) he should loose any vortex lift he had, and will now have a far higher wing loading than me. Initially, he flies SLOWER than me! I pull into a verical loop, at about 90KIAS, the Beast's GE engines push me through, but the Pole is still behind me!? WTFO? Okay, start popping flares, since he's getting nose-on and he shoots a FOX 2 at me! No chance, seeker head probably didn't even see me at the angle he was at. The other thing I noticed is that he's working the hell outta his rudder to try to keep his nose on me. As I come down and back up from the loop, I know he can't sustain a slow speed fight, so I go nose-high again, cut engines, and homeboy comes onto my tail again. I cut engines to make it hard to stay on my six. He's loosing energy and can't keep the nose on with rudder. Plug the burner in nose straight up, and the Polecat can't sustain the slow speed fight. Combined with a pitch-moment-coupling maneuver, the Polecat gets spat out, and tries to pull away in a turn. Damn, not sure if I can turn with him. Recover the Tomcat and, as it would turn out, easily pull inside of his turn. Fired AIM-9X three, and it misses, of course, so I say hell with the angle-off shot, I'm getting direct nose-on, 0-degrees off boresight. The Tomcat with the flaps down can pitch its nose damn well, and the Polecat can't escape. Heart of the X-Ray envelope, FOX 2, good hit. He's not dead, but he enters a flat-spin. Fully develops, and the pilot bails at about 2000 feet above the desert floor. Polecat in a flat spin, headed to the desert floor Second fight, I did proper with AIM-9M's. This one started at a sustained 8.5g, 450KIAS turning downward one-turn fight. Neither fighter gained on the other through about 18000 feet of altitude loss. Both of us were in burner the whole time, and I realized I'd kill my fuel supply, so I put the engines into full military power from full burner to try to get on his six. I gained and could have probably gotten a HOBS shot, but with the 9X's piss-poor performance in HOBS, I knew the Mike wouldn't do well. I lost my advantage, and then dropped my flaps to try to hang with him. The Polecat was pulling inside of me during the scissors, but we were WAY too close for missiles, and he couldn't get nose-on for a gun shot. This continued for about 2 minutes, with each of us attempting a single press into the vertical that was fruitless. The Polecat went high again as I went nose-low (with about 1500 ft to work with), then pulled up. The Polecat was trying to get nose-on by both pressing vertically and pulling into a turn with me. I got my nose on him with no surface distractions for my Mike IR sensors, whereas the Polecat would have to contend with the desert floor. FOX 2! Face-shot, good kill! Polecat explodes above me and spirals into the desert floor. Takeaways? Shoot the damn Polecat in the face 70 miles away! This thing is a nasty little bastard and can get inside of your turn damn quick. Fighting it one v one resulted in almost all of my fuel expended (like I said, he'd have been out, but it's questionable if I'd make it back to friendly lines to tank). Can it be beat? Yes. Is it easy, or even moderately hard? No, it's friggin' DIFFICULT AS HELL. I'll take a Fulcrum or Flanker over the Polecat any damn day of the week!

Stay safe, Sid!

Well, doesn't "Normal" better showcase the modern FM's than "Hard" anyhow? I thought I recalled hearing that. EDIT: I use "Hard" because I'm usually not flying the new, super-modern hardware (and normally the Turkey, which I feel I can throw around better on "Hard")

FM Hard, but to make it more even, I do fly with fuel consumption at Normal (AI doesn't ever run outta gas, so I don't burn mine as quick) and blackout on Normal (AI also doesn't suffer g-LOC or blackout, so I don't blackout as quick).

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Okay, it's been a few days, then in a week or two it'll be a two-month hiatus for a particularly useless TDY. Anyhow, fights for the day are set in 1974, F-14A Tomcat vs. A-4F Skyhawk (reverse of my last DACT report). The A-4F is definitely a nimble little bastard, and it'll get on you right quick the instant you let it. I flew two fights against the A-4F. Fight 1 Loadouts- F-14A: 4x AIM-9H, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks A-4F: 2x AIM-9H, guns, 100% fuel, no tanks Fight started neutral, and I went for a max performance turn, but pulled a little too hard a little too early, resulting in about an 8g turn that I let bleed down to 6.5, then 6. I had nose-on first, but no face-shooter to hit him with, so, thinking big plane=big target for guns, little plane=little target for guns, I opted to pull into the vertical. As we passed (I went right above him) the Fox driver took a snap shot, which caused me to pitch quick just in case; no hit, so I continued a high loop to get on him. He began a turn, and with gravity aiding me on the way down, I initially thought I'd be able to hang with him, but I hadn't built up enough energy, and the Scooter started to get away. I was too fast for flaps, too slow to match his maneuver, and had more than 18k to work with, time to go nose-down. I began a low half-loop, a bit extreme to be called a yo-yo, but it kept me behind him, and let my energy build a bit. Plugged in the burners and pulled up onto his tail. I fired an AIM-9H which he pulled into, and it missed. Great, he'll probably out turn every damn missile I've got; he's gotta go with guns. I closed, had enough energy to stick to him and outmaneuver him by this point, got in range and hit him with a snap shot, damaging his left wing, fuselage, rudder, and I hadn't noticed it yet, but causing the pilot to punch out! Got closer, inside of the "safe" distance (the plane was still flying and I thought the pilot was still in control), and was starting to get above him, but he slid right in front of my nose, and damned if I wasn't gonna take the opportunity. Hazaaah! Guns! ZZzip! Off goes the port wing, its armament, landing gear, and other Tinker Toy bits. TOP RUDDER! I was probably less than 20 feet away with the Turkey's starboard wing from the Fox wreckage, but passed by without a strike. Close! Fight 2 Loadout- F-14A: 4x AIM-7E-2, 4x AIM-9H, gun, 75% fuel, no tanks A-4F: 2x AIM-9H, guns, 100% fuel, no tanks Fight 2 was a lot faster. Considering that we were nose-on at nearly the same time last fight, I figured, why sustain energy? Rather, I pulled an 8.5g sustained turn onto the Scooter's tail at the start. The A-Minus Tomcat doesn't sustain energy like the Turkey Beast or Super Tomcat, but it does preserve enough energy at high airspeeds to allow for some good rough handling. By the time my AWG-9 locked up the A-4, I was at his 7 o'clock, with the Fox in a moderate left-hand turn. I knew he'd beam my AIM-7's, so I waited a bit, slowed a bit, and followed him. Damn, can that Fox get his nose around! In about 10 seconds, he's beginning to get nose on me! I've still got 2+ miles, and know he's going to press for guns. Fox 1, and Fox 1 again! Ripple fired two AIM-7's knowing I still had about .8mi before Rmin, and that one or both would likely fail. The first Sparrow came off the rail and began guiding true, the second one ran off into the desert. The Fox pulled to try to beam the missile, but darned if the Great White Hope didn't slam into the Scooter just behind the cockpit. The whole aircraft burst into flames and began a spiral into the desert floor. Takeaway: The AI cannot handle the F-14A in any sense, from what I've seen. The A-4F might be a nimble opponent, but rarely ever got around to threatening me. It was a more difficult fight than the A-4E when I went for guns, but nothing out of the ordinary. Respect the opponent and don't fight his fight. Any Time, Baby!

I hadn't seen this one before. Big fan of Top Gear, too. Cool stuff. EDIT: With respect to your question, I think I could fit a Turkey in the back yard, but certainly not on the front lawn.

Sometimes it doesn't break; that's happened to me before. I actually lowered the structural factor so the plane would break earlier - sustaining 18g generally breaks a plane. But, sometimes it happens instantly, other times I get a debrief "One F/A-18C was damaged".

Remove the StructuralFactor=(number), and the plane shouldn't have specific structural limits. This number takes the g limit and multiplies it by the given number to assess airframe damage. Removing the line should help. Also, there should be a line dictating g limit - you could always set it to a massively high number and you shouldn't have a problem. EDIT: Or as Stary stated, fly "Easy" - I like the limits myself.

Beauty. Glad to see the kids get to hear and practice with good music.

+1 to FC. In game, you can massively exceed the F/A-18's g-limit, including its maximum structural limit. I can think of several times I put the stick in my lap in the F/A-18 and the thing loaded 24g. Apart from the fact that this would have killed me as the pilot, it busted the jet too, wings ripping off. Don't yank so hard on the stick and you should be good. EDIT: EricJ, I think what he's doing is trying to pull into folks at >1M, which causes very high g loads, rather than just dashing to high speed.

Compared to the SF-1 series, I'd say the graphics (at least the planes and cockpits) have seen a major face-lift. Avionics have been updated over time (can't wait to see if the Tomcat expansion results with functional TWS-A/M for multi-target engagement!) and the physics seem to me FAR improved from when the game first hit the shelves. Not sure what to expect in the future, but I'm a fan of where the game has come, and I ain't even an olde-timer!

Heard about this one through several sources. Sucks; most sincere condolences to the families.

Okay, gang, I've been flying a lot of Turkey sorties, so I figured I'd take a bit of a break...sort of. Two DACT reports thus far, first is an A-4F Skyhawk vs. F-14A Tomcat. That's right, I decided to school some Turkey students and go against my beloved F-14. Second fight was two legends: F-8J Crusader vs. F-4J Phantom. Engagement 1 Loadouts: A-4F: 2x AIM-9H, guns, 100% fuel, no tanks F-14A: 4x AIM-9H, 4x AIM-7E-2, guns, 100% fuel, no tanks This first fight proves that the AI can't handle the Turkey well at all. Unlike some of the more modern planes, which use their thrust and turn rates to their advantage, or even some earlier planes like the Phantom and Crusader, the AI does not seem to be able to make calculated, energy saving turns in the F-14A, nor does it drive the fight to the vertical, where the Tomcat has the advantage. This was a basic one circle fight, where I had just firewalled my engine (no burner) and put on a sustained 6g turn against the Tomcat. The Turkey crew initially turned with me, but then for some reason, cut throttles. He's in a heavy jet at 100% fuel, and the TF-30's aren't helping his cause, now he takes it out of blower? It takes about a minute for me to decidedly get on his tail, but once I got behind his 3/9 line, he begins dolphining the plane! Let's burn more energy that we don't have, shall we? This winds up putting me right on his tail. Screw this guy, he doesn't deserve a quick missile to the ass (which by now I could have delivered with ease.) Close on the F-14 and tear him apart piece by piece with my 20mm. Like the Tornado, the Tomcat took three good bursts to kill, fired within about a 15 second period total. The first burst caused him to pull high, but I followed. Second burst caused him to try to unload nose low, and third finally caused the crew to punch out. What an embarrassment! Well, true, A-4F's and Super Fox's would better both F-14's and F-15's (even later F-16's and -18's!) if those later fighters fought the Scooter's fight (which this Tomcat did), but it wasn't even funny. Bingo, Maverick's dead, you're outta there, kid. Engagement 2 Loadouts: F-8J: 4x AIM-9H, 4x 20mm gun, 100% fuel, no tanks F-4J: 4x AIM-9H, 4x AIM-7E-2, 100% fuel, no tanks This fight took longer, but was almost entirely offensive on my part. It was, above anything else, a drawn out one-circle, which turned into a descending one-circle. When I was getting onto the Phantom's tail, I was somewhat low on energy, but faster than the Phantom, which meant that I couldn't get my nose on him completely, and was probably going to overshoot. A rolling scissors ensued for about two iterations, and it then flattened, with the F-4 just barely getting inside my turn. I pushed the nose vertical, dropped flaps and pulled to get inside of his turn. He ran, and I stood on the rudder to get my nose to slice down. It did, but the F-4 was getting away. Fortunately, he went in a straight line for a bit, then turned into me, but hadn't regained enough energy to effectively loose me. I went to gun for a high angle-off attack, but the F-8's cockpit got in the way and I couldn't see the F-4. He shot out in front of me, and I kept pulling moderately, which allowed me to get on his six. He was now climbing and getting away. Hell with it, FOX 2! I figured he's got enough energy to get away, I'm just trying to get him back into gun range. Nope, Sidewinder Hotel hits right under the tails and the Phantom detonates about a mile in front of my Crusader. Wow, wasn't expecting that one. The second fight, like the first, called for energy management, but the F-4 didn't piss it away like the F-14 guy did. For the most part, my F-8 was in a 5g or less turning fight, but with some random spikes into the 9g region to get nose positioning (didn't work well anyway). Since I took on the Echo, I might take on the Fox in a Turkey to see if there's much difference, I think the AI just botched this fight.

Damn, EricJ, congrats on the MiG with the Thud! Two engagements here, one from 1974, one from...well, since the F-35A isn't in service yet, we'll assume in some alternate reality where the Turkey Beast still flies. Anyhow, first engagement was in an F-14A against the nimble A-4E Skyhawk. Fight 1 Loadouts: F-14A: 4x AIM-7E-2, 4x AIM-9H, gun, no tanks, 75% fuel A-4E: 2x AIM-9H, guns, no tanks, 100% fuel This fight started with a one-circle at 5.5g, until I got nose-low and could bring the A minus into a more proper 6.5g sustained turn. The Scooter's and Turkey's turns got tighter until it wasn't a circle as much as a flat ellipse, and both of us ended up nose-on. Like the Mirage, I know the Scooter can zap me nose-on easier than I can zap him, so I elected to perform a high-g barrel roll over him. As we passed, it occurred to me that even with the TF-30's, the F-14 could fight better in the vertical than the A-4. Solution, begin a loop! The A-4 did not follow, but instead continued straight, and then rolled and pulled left. I had gained 2 miles of separation and was above him. VSL-Hi, AIM-7E-2 selected, and FOX 1! I had the feeling it'd miss, so I switched to guns. That loop had burnt some good energy, so I know I can't start turning with the A-4 right off the bat, but I've got gravity helping me, and "High Angle-Off" enters my squash. Scooter-Echo is still locked up, I stand on the rudder to the left and give the Turkey some pull. Viola! That looks about right. Pull the trigger and the Scooter gets Swiss-cheesed, catching fire. The Scooter driver holds it for a second and I pull up and into him. Just as I get nose on to reverse, he punches out and the Scooter begins to break apart, eventually crashing into the desert. Second engagement was F-14B (96) Tomcat vs. F-35A JSF. Now, I'm a fan of the JSF, and having not flown the bird in a while, wanted to see what it could do. Fight 2 Loadouts: F-14B: 4x AIM-9M, gun, no tanks, 75% fuel F-35A: 4x AIM-120C, 4x AIM-9X, gun, no tanks, 100% fuel Typical one-circle, and I'm gaining on this sucker heavily. As I get nose-on, I get intermittent warnings from my RHAW gear - that phased array can see HIGH! It didn't matter, as I pulled into him hard. Right here, I could have shot, but he suddenly jinked, then pulled hard into my turn. I had to release a bit since I had just brought my energy down to about 380KIAS, and he rolled back into me. He wasn't threatening yet, but I again got the intermittent warning. I used gravity and full blower to regain energy a bit, and we did two iterations of a horizontal scissors. What I noticed was that the F-35's instantaneous turn rate was pretty damn high, but it wasn't sustaining its turns as well as the Turkey Beast. This turned into a descending one-circle fight after I performed a low yo-yo, and the JSF kept turning to the left. Now it wasn't energy loss that was hurting me, but rather, my Tomcat was sustaining energy too well! The JSF was getting inside of my turn because I was pegged in an 9g turn at Mach 1.1, and at low altitude and high airspeed, the Turkey's engines start putting out a LOT of power (real world, 32,000/lbs per engine at .9M at sea level!) We are down in the dirt, and I cut the throttles to try to expend some of my energy and get the fight neutral. This worked, and the JSF began to loose his edge, then lost neutral, as I slipped in behind him. At about 20 degrees angle off, I fired an AIM-9. The JSF driver deployed flares, but the missile couldn't turn enough to hit him. I plugged the blower back in to sustain the 350 or so KIAS. This put me very close to his tail. At about 10 degrees angle off, I fired my second AIM-9M, which also missed (tracked initially, but went for flares). I closed, thus, to gun him. I was gaining, and didn't want to overshoot, so I pulled into a high yo-yo. After reaching the bottom, the JSF driver tried to break right, then straightened. I could see I was getting close to overshoot, was on my side, and stood on the rudder, electing to let the stream of cannon rounds do the work as my nose sliced right through center mass of the F-35. After the hit, I pulled hard, since I initially didn't know if his plane went down (last pic). He was going down, indeed. In the latter case, the Tomcat's better thrust to weight helped me to keep the energy where it needed to be to beat the F-35. What I noticed during the scissors was an initial nose-buck, followed by a slightly less extreme sustained turn. The initial buck seemed to be an attempt to get into AIM-9X parameters early, but thankfully, it didn't work for him today. The A-4, just a nasty little bastard if you let it get you down on energy and fight its fight (turning).

Not internally, no, but they do have a specially designed gun pod for the B and C, while the A's gun is internal. Think it has to do with the lift fan assembly in the B; but I don't know why the C's gun isn't internal - suffice to say they've all been designed with the compatibility to carry a gun.

The prevailing thought at the time was that missiles would finish any fight well before planes would see each other. Why install a gun when you have missiles to kill someone 15 miles away? Of course, Vietnam changed all that with the WVR ROE that nullified the range advantages, combined with the fact that the missiles of the time turned out to be horrendously unreliable. Lesson learned: fighters need guns! F-14, F-15, F-16, F/A-18, and even the new F-22 all were designed with guns.

Did two DACT bouts today with the F-14A- (A minus) Tomcat. First one was against the Tornado F.3. This wasn't much of a fight, I pulled behind him from a one-circle pretty darn quick. After a sustained 6.5g turn, I wound up saddled on the Tornado, waiting for him to stop jinking to get a clean shot. Well, let it be known that the Tornado is a tough bird! It took three bursts of 20mm to bring that sucker down. First one zipped through his port wing, horizontal stab, and vertical stab - nothing but blown off Sidewinders. Second went through his starboard flaps, rudder and port engine. Third burst finally sheared off his tail and he spun out of control to the desert floor. Looks like I might have to try to reverse the tables and take on the A- in a Tornado. Second DACT was F-14A- vs. F-15A. This fight I had to take more seriously, since the F-14A- doesn't have the thrust to accelerate with the F-15. Variable geometry is the name of the game, but I'm also a lot heavier than the F-15, so I'm going to be burning more energy anyway. For this fight, I had loaded up my Turkey with 2x AIM-54's on the glove pylons 1B & 8B, 2x AIM-7's at stations 3 and 6, and 2x AIM-9's on stations 1A & 8A. Why the heavy loadout? I'm not entirely certain. Suffice to say, I had beaten the F-15A in the past easily enough only packing AIM-9's and the gun. By the way, this fight took place in 1976, so no all-aspect AIM-9's. The fight started off with a one-circle, and I was inside the F-15 in no time. The problem was that, thanks to the TF-30 engines, I couldn't sustain my turn much longer before the Eagle began out turning my Tomcat. I sustained my turn, but the Eagle was getting away; not good if he could keep his turn to get on my tail. I rolled the Tomcat onto its back and pulled into the F-15 to get gravity to aid me. It worked, but the F-15 was still turning better, so I performed a second iteration, again getting near-nose on. We were now down in the dirt at about 5,000 feet, an area where the F-14A has a decided advantage in the real world according to its aviators ("Fight the F-15 below 18,000 feet in an F-14A") and in the sim world, it seems to be the same way, since I was now locked in another one-circle, but was neither gaining, nor loosing advantage against the better powered F-15. I reversed into a two-circle fight and curled inside of the F-15 who initially hesitated, pulling away from my turn to gain some separation, then pulled back into me. I got angle off and hit him with a snap-shot of my gun. We were very slow now, which is why I took a shot with the game data in the lower left. I continued my pull into him after the snap shot connected (notice flaps down). The Eagle wound up electing to go vertical, exposing those huge Pratt and Whitney engines, and I fired both of my AIM-9H's. The AIM-9H, by the way, likes flares. First one didn't even guide, second one started to guide, but the F-15 unloaded and deployed flares, which fooled the missiles. I was now chasing the F-15, not gaining on him well enough, but getting to AIM-7 parameters. The Eagle was just outside of Rmin, so I fired a Sparrow. That missile went stupid, so I fired the second one, which also went stupid. I had two options now; cut power and wait for the F-15 to get outside of 1.2NM (AIM-54 Rmin) or try to close again and gun him. I went for the latter option. I had the F-15 saddled, and every time he tried to pull into me, I followed him without issue. After some pulling and unloading, I got the F-15 lined up and gunned him. This second fight again illustrates how much better WVR the F-14B is compared to the F-14A. In the B, I can beat an F-15A, C, or otherwise pretty darn quick (reference last page for example). In the F-14A, the plane needs to be lighter (loadout wise), and the energy burns have to be far more calculated. The F-15 simply has superior thrust compared to the F-14A, which is why I tried to shoot him with the AIM-9's as he climbed; no way I'd be able to fight him in the vertical. This particular fight was entirely offensive on my part, but it took a LOT more work to beat the F-15 than it took in an F-14B, or a more lightly loaded F-14A-.

Did a couple DACT fights against the Mirage F-1C 200 in the F-14A Tomcat. Standard A-A loadout on the Mirage, and an older-school loadout of 2x AIM-7E-2 and 4x AIM-9H with gun for me. I have to get back into some of the older fighters, because these fights took entirely too long. In the initial fight, I figured I'd try for a two-circle engagement. This wound up with both aircraft achieving nose-on very early, and also saw the Mirage take a pot shot with an AIM-7E well inside of Rmin. The missile flew past harmlessly, and we turned into a one-circle descending corkscrew. Every time my Tomcat got close to the Mirage, he would wind up with me on his tail, just outside missile parameters (as if the AIM-9H could make the turn). Tried some vertical stuff, but nothing really worked until we both got slow enough, and on the deck, for me to drop my flaps. This got my nose around quicker than he could keep away from me and I finally got in parameters to shoot. After two AIM-9H's failed to guide, it occurred to me that guns was the only way this was going to end. He became predictable when I shot my missiles at him, and I was able to raise flaps and accelerate to within gun range. He tried a few turns, but my energy was better, and I shot him with the gun. He spiraled a few times, then blew up. The second fight, I figured, should have gone faster, and it did...sort of. Rather than do a two-circle that would result in poor parameters and both aircraft nose-on (not desirable in a Turkey, since the Mirage F-1 is a smaller plane, thus harder to hit with gun while he could have shot me pretty easy with his own gun), I started a one-circle sustained turn fight. This also wound up turning into a long, drawn out turning match; I had nose-on first, but was too close to effectively shoot at him. He maintained his turn and I maintained mine, but the F-14A- doesn't sustain or regain energy anywhere NEAR as fast as the Turkey Beast (F-14B). Again the fight descended, I got my flaps out, then pulled 'em back in when the Mirage was defensive, then put 'em back out as the fight went back into a turning fight. I knew I'd have to shoot him sooner than later, since this whole thing would take a while to get another good shot on him, so, electing to attack with a high angle-off gun shot, I got the flaps down, pulled inside his turn for a brief moment, got the pipper just right and ZZIP! Initially I didn't think I killed him as he continued to turn for a second, then flopped over into a slow, descending spiral, the canopy missing with gun holes in the nose section of the aircraft. Ouch. His plane crashed into the desert floor. Takeaways: The Mirage F-1C is a comparable airplane to the F-14A Tomcat in a knife fight. The Mirage driver never really threatened my plane more than once, but damn, did these fights take a while to conclude! They'd have probably been faster with AIM-9M's, and in all cases, I fired AIM-9H's at the Mirage, only to have them miss. I think if I kept the fight to even lower g, I'd have probably saved my energy better, but then I'd also loose angles a lot more, and the Mirage would have probably threatened me more. Successful, yes, but also showed me that the F-1C should certainly not be underestimated.