cougar_1979

Hey lads, is it OK if i revive this thread? I've been reading it for the last couple of weeks and felt inspired by it. I did 3-4 classical merges (head to head, guns only) in the F-14A (82) against the F-16A Netz. Both clean, both at angels 20, both at 100% internal fuel (i know it's a bit unfair to the Tomcat as it has much more fuel in it). One on one. Everything is set on hard, except the cockpit. I have trouble adapting to the SF2 environment and having a relatively small 19 inch screen does not help. I come from the Falcon community, and in BMS i fly with everything on realistic, but i there i can set the HAT sensitivity to my personal preferenace, while here it is just too sluggish for me. Also, for some reason, in Falcon i can spot an F-15 sized target visually as far as 7nm away, while here, quite often it eludes me even bellow 5nm. Smaller targets are invisible way withing 1nm. That is why i use the red check box. Maybe a bigger screen would help? What are your experiences? Anywyas, some personal opinions when flying the TF30 pwered Turkeys against F-16's....... enter the merge at no less then 450KIAS, i usually fly in at 500-520. Stay fast and use vertical maneuvers to manage your energy. Every fight is an energy fight and learning how to manage your enerrgy is the key. Especially in the F-14A where you need to fly your A game to have a chance against the Netz. My preffered way of fighting it is to do energy "eggs" around it. Enter the vertical maneuvers at no less the 400 knots and try to keep it at no less then 250 when on top and no more then 450 when at the bottom. Your "goldylock" air speed for a sustained turn is around 350 knots. Bare this in mind when you depart the egg. The F-14 regains speed much better then most planes when in the dive, so use this wisely. My strategy involves trying to keep outside the F-16 plane of turning and when my air speed is right to proceed with a nose on tail pursuit. (slight degress, i often read the terms once circle and two circle fight used here and i think they were used oposite of their actual use; two circle fight is when after the merge, both AC turn in the same relative direction, say left handed trun, and proceed to fly nose on tail.... in other words it's a turn rate fight; one circe fight is when both turn inside each other, or nose on nose pursuit, sharing the radius.) After i have inititated this pursuit i try to fly withing 300-400 knots zone, depending on the bandit's behaviour and current loading. One thing i noticed is that the human aviator blacks out very easy, in fact much too easy IMO. At least when compared to the Falcon. On the other hand the AI doesn't black out at all. The video i will upload is from my first fight, when i still have trouble flying the Cat as i would in BMS, i drag it slower much sooner. But will try to upload another video (these things take forever to upoad :( ) some other day from my second fight, where you can see me getting continous nose on just to black out and have to unload. I really hate doing it as i don't think it is a good idea to drop bellow 280 knots IRL, but it seams like i have to if i want a guns kill. In contrast, in BMS i get most my kills at 320-350 knots. But i can remain in the saddle for more then 2 second without blacking out there. Anyways here is the video. It get's kinda boring as they always do after i get on his tail. The AI loves to fly a continous level circle and you generally can't sustain a high enough turn rate to pull big enough leed untill you burn at least 6-7000lbs of your starting fuel. So i just fly a lag pursuit untill i get light enough to lead him for a guns kill.