Part II
This section will cover a classic merge of two aircraft. In this case we will look at the scenario where you have a significant energy advantage over your opponent. In general, this will usually mean you are higher than your opponent.
OK, you are tooling along at 7,000 feet and lo and behold you see an enemy loitering around 6,000 feet. For our Metric enhanced fliers make that 2.5K meters and 2K meters. :-) "Easy Meat" you think and dive straight down on him as he approaches you. This will be sort of a head-to-head battle and you expect to kill him/her in the first pass or at least damage them heavily. You notice as you begin your dive you started a bit too soon. Uh-oh, he pops up a bit nose high and fires back at you, you pull up to regain and and he hangs on his prop for a belly shot. Now you are the one damaged. Or maybe he angles up slightly to his left and then hard rudders over to his right. You try to follow but can't because of your high speed... Congratulations on quite possibly giving your opponent his first kill!
The first mistake you made was not determining the true energy state of your opponent. Maybe you had more but the key was you didn't make sure he didn't have any. Simply having more Energy doesn't guarantee a win. You must learn how not to squander it.
Let's take the classic Energy tactic of Boom and Zoom and go over some examples of common mistakes pilots make trying to do it. Some of this is taken directly from Bullethead's excellent article on Energy tactics. I'll make changes accordingly for WWI aircraft.
Mistake #1: Over-extending in the Horizontal. What is that again, and this time in English please?
OK, you dive down on the bad guy after making him do several high-G turns and bleed his energy. You zoom back up and extend away setting up for your next pass. Only you extend too far and by the time you turn around to setup again all that hard work of getting him to burn E is gone because he has regained it. Basically, you took too long and now you have to start over. If he is really good he even climbed a little while you were extending and now your E advantage is less than it was before.
Mistake #2: Under-Extending in The Horizontal
Allrighty then, the first guy escaped because you went too far so now you are going to compensate by dancing on the head of your opponent. Your in a D2 and he is in a N17. You climb better but he can out turn you. You dive down on him and force him to turn under you. In doing so he bleeds E and you Zoom back up, only instead of extending a bit to let you line up, you stay right on top of him. Suddenly, you notice he is making low G turns to stay right under you and you are having to turn hard to try and line up on his 6. Now, at this point you either get impatient and make a really bad dive for a low percentage deflection shot or you end up turning so hard you bleed your E and have to level off to speed up or even dive down. The enemy sees this and uses the opportunity to gain another 50-100 feet in altitude and you've just lost some E advantage.
Many people forget that their high speed dives mean their turning radius is going to be greater than that of your slower opponent. Suppose you are in a poor turning aircraft like the Halb and you are diving on a better turning aircraft like the N11. You keep pulling hard on the stick while on top of him to line up for a 6 shot and draining all your E. You then force your attack and your opponent breaks a hard right turn. Since you are flying a high wing loaded plane (slow turner) and you have greater speed, your turn radius is greater. Your enemy turns inside of you and next thing you know your butt is getting filled with Lewis lead.
Mistake #3: Following more than one break maneuver
This is related to not extending far enough. If your plane is less maneuverable you want to lessen your close rate by being further out in order to need a shallower dive angle to attack. Once you start and your opponent makes a break turn you may be able to track them for a bit, but don't sacrifice all your speed and altitude components of energy for an angle component. If he turns better and gets you to follow him through more than one turn maneuver you are going to lose your alt and speed and get into a turn fight that he is going to win. This is readily apparent when pilots get fixated on an enemy. They get lined up great on the first pass and try to turn at high speed and watch helplessly as their speed drops off and their enemy comes around on their 6...
Mistake #4: Breaking low after a pass
OK, after your first 3 deaths you've learned to keep enough horizontal separation to make shallower dives attacks, but not so far that your opponent recovers E before your next pass. You also learned not to follow that DrI through turns in your Spad. You've made your opponent make several high G turns and you are saddled up for a great 6 shot. You dive and shoot him and then break low and left as he breaks to the right. You start circling around to your left and suddenly see that out of cockpit view as he got his head shot on you. You see after he started his break to the right he saw you break low left. A twist of the rudder and now he is diving onto your 6.
THERE IS NEVER A GOOD REASON TO BREAK LOW TO REENGAGE AFTER A GUN PASS. Period. Your high speed guarantees he will turn tighter anyway. Combine that with a plane that may turn better anyway and you are really hurting. Note, I am talking about a low break for reengagement and not a dive pass where you keep going low to escape.
Mistake #5: The rushed gun shot
Now, you've hit Start New Life, got your alt again, and are approaching your enemy. You remember all your previous deaths and are determined not to die again. You find that perfect altitude and horizontal separation and force your opponent into a series of high G maneuvers while you try to line up a shot. Except, this guy/gal is good. They keep turning under you and blowing your line up. After 15 minutes of this you are getting frustrated as you are sure other bad guys are sneaking up on you. Finally, you think you have a shot so you dive in. Well, its a bad angle and you miss your deflection shot. But, what the hell, a good wing over and I can be back on his 6 and get so you force the maneuver. Only he has gone into a rolling scissors where you are criss-crossing back and forth or maybe you don't pull up in time and you get too low.
Well, your lack of patience has blown your advantage and now you are dead again. This is the most common death for new pilots.
Mistake #6: Lack of aggression
You do everything perfect and get lined up, only its not quite perfect or maybe there is something you missed so you hesitate. Good job, you just missed the perhaps one opportunity you had for making your attack. Before you know his buddies arrive and chew you a new one because you took too long.
Questions:
1) What is the proper horizontal separation for a classic BnZ?
2) Exactly how do I tell when the right time to attack versus attacking too rushed?
3) What if I see after his first turn that I can really, really get a good shot if I follow him through just one more maneuver?
Answers:
1) Experience. Get some air under your butt and fly different planes. Each combination of aircraft will require different numbers. Monos would have less distance obviously than say Camels and Albs. This is why it is important to fly BOTH sides of the airplanes so you get to know what the other guy can and cannot do.
2) You can tell simply by whether you get the kill or get killed. :-) Again, this just takes time and experience. There are no "secret moves" or magic incantations that will work here. You don't have a radar system for calculating your weapons envelope and giving you a tone when it's time to fire. You are equipped with nothing else but Mark I Eyeball and you need to learn to use it properly by practice, practice, practice.
3) And what is your home address for your personal effects? Go back and read the paragraph again.
OK, this post covered some common mistakes of a simply BnZ Energy Fight. The next article in the series will cover some things to do in this situation to better get the kill. Some of it will be repetition. In summary, maintain enough horizontal separation so that you can use low G turns to line up on your opponent while he is forced to make high G turns to get under you. Don't rush your shot, but when you see your chance to attack (you have energy and he doesn't) then do not hesitate to attack. If you don't have the shot don't force it, don't follow the lower plane through more than one maneuver, and finally don't break low to reengage.