HOW TO FLY AND FIGHT IN AIR WARRIOR, v3/21/1997

OUTLINE

0.0 The purpose of this manual

0.1 List of contributors

1.0 Chapter 1

1.1 Basic aerodynamics

1.2 Aerodynamic controls and surfaces

1.3 Instruments

1.4 Basic maneuvers

1.5 Basic gunnery

1.6 Exercises

1.6.1 Takeoffs and landings

1.6.2 Basic aerobatics

1.6.3 Basic gunnery

1.6.4 View keys

2.0 Chapter 2

2.1 Radio

2.2 Navigation and use of radar

 2.3 Spin recovery

2.4 Turning on edge of a stall

2.5 Turning on edge of a blackout

2.6 Exercises

2.6.1 Turning on the edge of a stall

2.6.2 Turning on the edge of a blackout

2.6.3 Spin recovery

2.6.4 Fight off-line

3.0 Chapter 3

3.1 Aerodynamics and flight dynamics

3.2 Gunnery

3.3 Basic ACM overview

3.4 Basic ACM specifics

3.5 Exercises

3.5.1 Max-g vs. 3 g turns

3.5.2 Zero-g vs. vertical dives

3.5.3 Max-g, low-g, and extended-climb Immelmans

3.5.4 Angles fights

3.5.5 B&Z fights

3.5.6 Energy fights

4.0 Chapter 4

4.1 Overview

4.1.1 Air Warrior II

 4.1.2 Air Warrior for Windows and Mac

4.2 The F6F-3 Hellcat

4.3 The F4U-1D Corsair

4.4 The P-38J Lightning

4.5 The P-51D Mustang

4.6 The P-47D Thunderbolt

4.7 The F4F-3 Wildcat

4.8 The P-40E Kittyhawk

4.9 The Spitfire Mk IX E

4.10 The Spitfire Mk Vb

4.11 The Spitfire Mk Ia

4.12 The Hurricane I

4.13 The Hurricane IIb

4.14 The FW 190A-8

4.15 The FW 190D-9 Dora

4.16 The FW 190A-3

4.17 The FW 190A-4

4.18 The Bf 109F-4 Franz

4.19 The Bf 109K-4

4.20 The Bf 109G-2 Gustav

4.21 The Bf 109E-3 Emil

4.22 The Me 110C-4 Zerstorer

4.23 The Ki-84 Hayate

4.24 The A6M5 Zero

4.25 The N1K1-J Shiden

 4.26 The Yak 9D

4.27 The LA-5FN

4.28 Exercises

4.28.1 Dives

4.28.2 High-speed turns

4.28.3 High-speed roll

4.28.4 Low-speed sustained turns

4.28.5 Low-speed roll

5.0 Chapter 5

5.1 Level bombing

5.2 Dive bombing

5.3 Dropping troops

5.4 Bombing tactics

5.5 Bomber escort

5.6 Bombing strategy

5.7 Exercises

5.7.1 Level bombing

5.7.2 Dive bombing

5.7.3 Bomber evasives

6.0 Chapter 6

6.1 Capturing airfields and other structures

6.2 Carrier operations

6.3 Vehicles
 6.4 Gunning in bombers

6.5 Etiquette

6.6 Exercises

6.6.1 Carrier operations

6.6.2 Prepping airfields

6.6.3 Vehicles

6.6.4 Aggressive bomber flying

7.0 Chapter 7

7.1 Real-life tactics and Air Warrior

7.2 Flaps

7.2.1 Other flaps

7.3 Nose-low turns

7.4 Other nose-low turns

7.5 Split-S attack

7.6 Vertical yo-yo attack

7.7 Avoiding B&Z

7.8 Jinking

7.9 Extending

7.10 Avoiding wing failure

7.11 Furball tactics

7.12 Chopping throttle

7.13 Climbing turns

7.14 Other climbing turns

7.15 Immelman with turn at the top

 7.16 Vertical rope a dope

7.17 Visual clues

7.18 Situational awareness

7.19 Very-basic multi-plane tactics

7.20 Exercises

7.20.1 Flap settings in stallfights

7.20.2 Chopping throttle in a high-speed split S

7.20.3 Chopping throttle in a high-speed turn

7.20.4 Compressibility and wing failure

7.20.5 General practice

8.0 Conclusion

Appendix: Definitions

Appendix: More on ACM

Appendix: The Twist files

Appendix: Historical scenarios

Appendix: Recommended books and movies

Appendix: The history of Air Warrior

Appendix: Biographies of contributors

Appendix: Previous introduction

Appendix: Getting started in Air Warrior

Appendix: Prices for on-line services

0.0 THE PURPOSE OF THIS MANUAL

Air Warrior is a multiplayer combat flight simulator. For WWII

aviation enthusiasts like me, it's a dream come true. For more

information about what Air Warrior is, how to obtain the

necessary software, and how to get on-line to play, read the

"Getting Started in Air Warrior" appendix. The information

included herein is applicable to all current Air-Warrior

software: Air Warrior II, Air Warrior for Windows, Air Warrior

for Windows 95, and Air Warrior for the Macintosh.

This manual started out as a project for the Air-Warrior Training

Academy back in the days when GEnie was the main place for Air

Warrior. Since then, Air Warrior has expanded to many more

on-line services, and it seems that there is a need for a manual

on how "to fly and fight" not just for students of the Academy

but for new pilots in general. This manual is a step in the

right direction, although I suspect that it will be updated from

time to time. The latest version and updates should be available

on the Web at "http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~brooke/", among

other places.

Air combat is a very complicated business, and since Air Warrior

is quite realistic, there is a steep learning curve. The purpose

of this manual is not to eliminate the need for lots of in-flight

experience -- no manual can do that -- it's purpose is to speed

your progress. Keep in mind that, even if you aren't in the

Training Academy, doing the in-flight exercises at the end of

each chapter is highly recommended.

This manual starts out with some basic concepts, but it rapidly

gets into the meat of Air Warrior, subjects such as air-combat

maneuvering (ACM), the strong and weak points of the various

aircraft, and fighting tips from some Air-Warrior veterans. The

appendices give some auxiliary information on topics such as

historical scenarios (which are, in my opinion, the greatest fun

in Air Warrior) and recommended books and movies.

Parts of this manual describe character sequences to hit on your

keyboard. These sequences are correct as of the date this manual

was written, but there is no guarantee that they won't change

with updates to the Air-Warrior program. If you have problems

with the commands, consult your manual or the help page in the

program (by pressing the "F1" key). The general notation used in

this manual is that the character sequence is given in quotes,

and any special keys are given in angle brackets, such as

"<Enter>" for pressing the "Enter" key. For example,

"'*go<Enter>" would mean that you hit the "'" key (the apostrophe

key), the "*" key (shift-8 or the asterisk), the "g" key, the "o"

key, and finally the "Enter" key.

There is an appendix that gives definitions of some of the common

Air-Warrior terminology (the "Definitions" appendix). So, if you

come across some unknown words or abbreviations, take a look

there. Speeds listed in this manual are for indicated airspeed

(as opposed to true airspeed) in knots unless otherwise noted.

This manual was originally laid out so that, each week, Academy

pilots could read a chapter, practice the exercises (flying

off-line for an hour or two), and spend several hours on-line

flying for a time commitment of about 5-10 hours per week. That

should give you some estimate of the time requirement to get

through the whole thing. This manual was also laid out for

instruction in full realism (i.e., with stalls, blackouts,

redouts, spins, etc. all turned on). Why set out to learn
anything less? (Still, most of the information in this manual is

applicable to arenas with less than full realism.)

Like many things in Air Warrior, this manual is a collaborative

effort of enthusiasts who put in the time because they love the

game and want to see it thrive. Each contributor is listed by

handle under the title of the section he wrote, and there is some

biographical information in the "Biographies of Contributors"

appendix, which includes e-mail addresses of contributors.

If you have comments, suggestions for improvement, or errors to

report, please feel free to contact me at the following e-mail

address.

-- Brooke P. Anderson, Editor

e-mail: brooke@alumni.caltech.edu

AW handle: Brooke

(Yeah, it's an imaginative handle, but there's a history behind

it.)

0.1 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Chapter 1, text: Eyeballs

Chapter 4, F4U-1D, P-38J, FW 190A-8, Bf 109-F4: Twist

Chapter 4, Ki-84 and Yak-9D: Specter

Chapter 4, Spitfire: Chick

Chapter 7, Flaps, Nose-low Turns, and Climbing Turns: Kato

Chapter 7, Situational Awareness: Bug

Appendix, More on ACM: JD, Killer, Rash, Holmes, Fool, Bug,

Spellbound, and Twist

Appendix, the Twist Files: Twist

And the rest: Brooke

1.0 CHAPTER 1

by Eyeballs

In order to fight, you must know how to fly. Flight simulations

let you "drive" an aircraft around, pretending to be maneuvering

and fighting. But to get the most out of your aircraft, you must

fly it, and to fly it you must understand it. Experienced pilots

may want to skim this discussion of basic concepts, but don't

skip it entirely. There may be a nugget worth your time. This

chapter covers basic aerodynamics (lift, weight, thrust, control

surfaces, etc.), instruments, taking off, landing, basic

maneuvers (including basic aerobatics), and basic gunnery.

1.1 BASIC AERODYNAMICS

Four forces act on an airplane if flight: lift, thrust, weight,

and drag.

Lift is a force exerted by the wings. It is considered to be

exerted perpendicular to the wingspan and the relative wind.

The relative wind is the air moving in relation to the wing.

Lift is generated by the interaction of the wing and the air.

The end result is that air is displaced downward. Newton's 1st

law says that for every action there is a reaction. So if the

wing forces air downward, then the air forces the wing upward.

The angle of attack is the angle between the relative wind and

the anterior-posterior line of the airfoil. Since the wing is

tilted slightly upward in relation to the relative wind, the lift

vector is pointed slightly backward. Lift will increase as you

increase the angle of attack but not forever. Eventually the

angle of attack becomes so great that the air can no longer flow

smoothly over the top surface of the wing. The loss of smooth

flow of the wing causes a decrease in lift and an increase in

drag. This is called the "stall." You have lost control of your

aircraft. The stall will come at a certain angle of attack no

matter where your nose is pointing. The only way to recover from

a stall is to reduce the angle of attack.

Increasing the angle of attack increases the lift for any given

airspeed. So as an aircraft slows down, the angle of attack must

be increased to maintain flight. Maneuvering requires increased

lift so the angle of attack will be increased to create the force

that causes the aircraft to change direction. Increasing the

angle of attack to maneuver makes the pilot feel heavier and is

called "pulling g's" since the maneuvering force feels like

increased gravity. The most important message here is that you

slow your aircraft down every time you maneuver.

Thrust is furnished by a propeller or a jet. They take air and

move it backward. This resultant force pushes the aircraft

forward. Thrust is controlled with the throttle. Thrust

decreases with altitude because the engine develops less power

and the propeller is less efficient. Supercharging of the engine

helps it maintain power at higher altitudes, but the propeller

still suffers.

Drag is produced whenever an object is moved through a fluid

(such as air). Drag acts parallel to and in the same direction

as the relative wind. The total drag is made up of two

components: parasitic drag and induced drag. Parasitic drag is

the drag created by the aircraft being pushed through the air.

Parasitic drag increases with the square of the airspeed.

Double the airspeed and the drag increases four times. Induced

drag is created by the lift vector being tilted backwards. It is

related to the angle of attack, so that the slower you fly or the

more g's you pull, the more drag you induce.

Gravity is a force acting downwards. It does not always act

opposite to lift.

1.2 AERODYNAMIC CONTROLS AND SURFACES

Aircraft have the freedom to move in all three axes. The axis

that runs down the middle of the aircraft from nose to tail is

called the roll axis. The line from wing-tip to wing-tip is the

pitch axis. The line perpendicular to these other two is the yaw

axis.

Pilots control the aircraft around the roll axis with the
ailerons, a set of movable panels set near the tips of the wings.

Moving the stick to the side causes the panels to move up on that

side and down on the other. When the aileron goes up, the wing

is forced down. The opposite action occurs on the other wing.

The resulting motion is called roll.

The pitch axis is controlled with the elevators, a movable flap

at the tail. Pulling the stick backwards raises the elevator.

This forces the tail down and the nose up. Forward stick does

the opposite, forcing the tail up and the nose down.

Yaw is controlled with the rudder, a movable surface oriented

perpendicularly to the elevators. Pushing the right rudder pedal

cause the rudder to move to the right. This pushes the tail to

the left and the nose to the right. The rudder pedals are also

connected to the steerable nose or tail wheel on the aircraft and

can be used to steer while taxiing. The rudder pedals are not

used to steer the aircraft in the air. Turns are made by rolling

the plane into a bank and using the lift vector to pull the plane

around. Also note that the rudder pedals work exactly backwards

when compared to the steering pedals on a sled or some childhood

riding toys.

Flaps are a set of movable surfaces on the bottom or rear edge of

the wing that can move down or back to change the shape of the
wing. They increase the lift of the wing. They are used

primarily for taking off and landing. Some aircraft can use them

for better slow-speed maneuvering. The use of flaps is directly

related the type of flap and the type of installation on each

aircraft. Some flaps produce nearly all drag and are used only

for landing. Others have settings that produce more lift and are

very valuable in a fight by lowering the stall speed and

increasing your ability to turn at slow speeds. You need to

study each type of aircraft you fly to determine the proper use

of flaps for each one.

1.3 INSTRUMENTS

Air Warrior uses English dimensions of feet, yards, miles, knots,

etc. for measurements. Aircraft that had instruments calibrated

in meters, kilometers, etc. will use the English units to avoid

the confusion of trying to convert meters to feet, knots to

kilometers per hour, etc. in your head while flying.

The altimeter is an aneroid barometer calibrated in feet instead

of inches of mercury. It tells you how high you are above sea

level, not how high you are off the ground. Since the

Air-Warrior world always has the same barometric pressure,

temperature, and relative humidity, our altimeters need not be

adjusted like real ones. It always measures a true altitude in

feet.

The airspeed indicator measures your speed through the air. It

compares the pressure created by air rammed into a tube as the

aircraft flies forward with the ambient pressure. This is

converted on a dial to speed in nautical miles per hour (knots).

This system works just fine at sea level. But as the air density

decreases with increasing altitude, the ram pressure will be

lower and the airspeed will appear lower. This lower air speed

is called "indicated airspeed" (IAS) and it is always less than

true air speed (TAS).

Just as the ram pressure decreases for the airspeed indicator,

the dynamic pressures on the wing decrease. IAS then becomes an

accurate measure of how fast the wing is "flying." Stall speeds

stay approximately the same at all altitudes with IAS, but

decrease as altitude increases with TAS. Air Warrior lets you

chose to use IAS or TAS in your aircraft. Except for some

testing conditions, you should use IAS.

The rate-of-climb or vertical-speed indicator measures your rate

of climb or descent. It maxes out at about 4000 feet per minute

climb or descent. It does not have any of the errors inherent in

the real instrument.

The compass is a magnet attached to a display with directions

from 0 to 359. As the airplane turns, the magnet stays oriented

to the North pole exposing a different part of the display.

This indicates the true magnetic heading of the aircraft.

Air-Warrior compasses suffer from none of the errors of real

aircraft compasses and always indicate true heading.

Air Warrior gives you a choice of having an attitude indicator

(artificial horizon) or a control position indicator. The second

is a hangover from the days when pilots flew with mice instead of

joysticks. A pilot could see what type of control input he was

using by looking at the position indicator. Nowadays almost

every one uses a joystick and the artificial horizon. The

artificial horizon shows a circle with blue on top (sky) and

brown on bottom (ground). The line between them (horizon) will

always stay parallel with the real horizon. A quick glance at

the artificial horizon will help you orient yourself during

maneuvers when you literally don't quite know which direction you

are pointing.

There is a rudder position indicator for nearly the same reason

as the control position indicator. If you do not have rudder

pedals, you will be using a mouse or keyboard to control the

rudder. You then need the rudder position indicator to tell you

what you are doing with the rudders.

There are also fuel and oil-pressure gauges. The fuel gauge

needs no explanation. The oil-pressure gauge can be important

because certain maneuvers can cause loss of oil pressure. If you

continue in the maneuver too long, your engine will be damaged.

Also, combat damage can cause you to lose fuel or oil. So keep

an eye on these gauges if you have been hit. When either gauge

reads zero, the engine stops running.

The landing gear and flaps have indicators on the panel to show

their positions. Trying to lower either of them at too high a

speed can damage them so that they cannot be raised or lowered

from an intermediate position.

1.4 BASIC MANEUVERS

Flying an aircraft in Air Warrior is easier than flying the real

thing. The computer provides stability that many of these

aircraft lacked. In addition, many tasks required of real pilots

are handled by the computer. You do not need to monitor the

temperature of the engine and operate the systems used to control

that temperature. You do not need to watch fuel gauges for many

tanks and switch tanks during flight. The power settings are

handled with one control, not two or three.

Real aircraft require the coordinated use of rudder and aileron

in banking. At different speeds and engine power settings,

rudder is used to counteract yaw produced by the ailerons or

engine. This coordination is automatically done by an

experienced pilot without a thought. His clue to the need for

coordinating rudder is a pressure on his body. Literally the

real pilot uses coordinated rudder by using the "seat of his

pants." The Air-Warrior program does it for us.

Aircraft change speed by changing their pitch attitude. They go

faster when the nose is lowered. This takes constant pressure on

the stick. Real aircraft have a control that allows the pilot to

substitute for this steady pressure. By adjusting this control,

called "trim," the pilot can adjust his aircraft to fly in a

constant state without applying pressure to the controls. This

state can be a climb, descent, or level flight. The Air-Warrior

program automatically trims for you. Whenever you move the

controls and adjust the pitch and roll of an aircraft, it will

stay there when you release that pressure. So flying straight

either level, climbing, or descending requires no input. Climb

(or descent) rate is governed by the throttle setting.

Turning an aircraft requires banking in the direction of the turn

and then applying back stick to turn. The amount of back stick

varies with the angle of bank. More bank requires more stick.
Too much or too little stick will cause the aircraft to climb or

descend. It takes a lot of practice to be able to turn tightly

and maintain altitude. This becomes real important when you are

fighting someone at low altitude!

Basic aerobatic maneuvers are rarely used in combat but can help

you learn to control your aircraft when it is no longer in a

normal flight attitude. The loop is an exception. It is

regularly used in combat. The maneuver takes the nose of the

aircraft through a full circle vertically. The advantage over

turning horizontally is that the loss of speed due to gravity on

the up side is paid back on the down side. A horizontal turn has

gravity taking from you all the way around. Combat pilots do not

turn in the horizontal unless their speed is too low for the

vertical. You must have sufficient speed at the beginning of the

loop to get the nose all the way up and over. You will lose

speed until you have achieved inverted flight and have the nose

pointed down again. During the downward half of the loop, you

will gain speed. Making loops round takes a constantly different

amount of back stick throughout the loop. Combat pilots don't

worry about that.

You need to know the minimum speed required to loop. If you are

just a little too slow as you reach the top of a loop, you can

use flaps in some aircraft to get you over the top. As you dive
down the back side of the loop, you may get going too fast to

pull the nose onto your target. Decreasing the throttle can help

there.

Half a loop can be done going up or down. Both can be used to

change direction. Going up in a half loop with a roll to upright

at the top is an Immelmann. It is better than just turning

around because as you slow down, you turn faster. The speed you

lost going up is gained as you dive back down. Doing the roll

first and then diving through the second half of a loop is a

split S, named for the fact that it could be seen as the bottom

half of an S. This maneuver is not so good a way to reverse

direction because the speed gain in the dive slows the turn rate

and the extra speed produces more drag. The extra speed

therefore can not be used to get back as much of the altitude

loss. The split S is good for avoiding pilots in faster planes

who cannot follow you in this maneuver because they speed up more

than you in the dive.

Rolls come in different varieties: barrel, aileron, and snap.

The barrel roll is done by applying some back and side stick at

the same time. This causes the aircraft to roll and pitch and

follow a corkscrew path. It is said that you roll around the

outside of a barrel. At all times the wings are parallel with

outside circumference of the barrel. This maneuver is valuable

in combat to keep your aircraft from being shot by one that is

right behind it. A secondary gain from this maneuver is that it

slows you down and it takes longer to fly around the barrel than

straight through it. Cutting your throttle and barrel rolling

can make an enemy overshoot. When he gets in front of you, then

you are no longer defending. Be warned though, keeping track of

just where the enemy is while you are barrel rolling is not easy.

Aileron rolls are performed with all the controls constantly

changing to make the aircraft roll around the roll axis which

continues to point in the same direction. This maneuver is used

for victory rolls over your home field and has no other use in

combat.

Snap rolls are performed with full back stick, aileron, and

rudder. The aircraft stalls and rotates violently, making this a

good evasive maneuver. But since it slows you down, it probably

only postpones your death if you were in enough trouble to try it

in the first place.

Taking off is usually easily accomplished by applying 100%

throttle and allowing the aircraft to accelerate to flying speed.

Aircraft with tail wheels will fly off on their own. Tricycle

landing-gear aircraft will require back stick to rotate the nose

to takeoff attitude. Takeoff speed is about 130% of the stall

speed. You can look this up for each aircraft in the flight

manual. Remember this is for the aircraft at maximum gross

weight. If you do not have full fuel and bombs, you will be

lighter than this. In any case, flaps are not normally required

(except on takeoffs from short fields or aircraft carriers).

If you find that you cannot get a particular aircraft to take off

from a given field, probably because it is too short, then up to

half flaps can allow the aircraft to take off at a lower speed

and therefore shorten the takeoff run. The ultimate example of

this is taking off from an aircraft carrier in some aircraft with

heavy fuel and bomb loads, but that is an advanced subject.

Landing aircraft is much easier in Air Warrior than many other

simulations, but you still must keep the airspeed, rate of

descent, and attitude of the aircraft within reasonable limits.

But then Air Warrior gives you so many visual clues that an

experienced pilot can easily make landings using those clues

alone, without needing to rely on instruments at all, just like

flying for real.

The first consideration in landing is to determine the final

approach speed. There are two types of approaches to landing in

Air Warrior. The first is landing with enemy on your tail.

This is not a basic technique. It will be covered later. The

second landing is the routine return to base in a secure

environment. The speed for this approach should be about 130% of

the stall speed at your current weight. 130% of the stall speed

in the manual is OK but not ideal. You might want to practice

stalling different aircraft to figure out what the stall speed of

each is at a light weight.

As you approach the landing field you should be descending. A

simple technique is to just aim at the end of the runway. If

your airspeed gets too high (over 300 knots in a fighter or 250

knots in a bomber), you can reduce throttle. When you are about

as far away from the runway as the runway is long, you can reduce

the throttle to idle. When your airspeed drops below 200 knots,

lower your landing gear. Keep the nose pointed at the end of the

runway. If the airspeed starts to drop below the approach speed,

add throttle to keep the speed up. As you descend through 50

feet, level the nose and chop the throttle. You should be

striving to keep the aircraft straight down the runway, the wings

level, and the nose level or slightly high. You should settle on

gently. Hit the brakes and stop. You may exit the aircraft when

the plane comes to a complete stop.

If you find that the aircraft will not slow down with the

throttle reduced to idle and the nose of the aircraft pointed at

the runway, you are too high. You can make a 360 degree turn
while descending to correct that. If really high, do two or

more. You can also try turning 90 degrees to one side and then

turning back toward the runway. If you pull back hard on the

stick and pull high g's, you will slow down very fast!

If you cannot get stopped on the runway, you are landing too

fast. Slow down. You can try aiming at a point in front of the

runway, so that you perform the slowing down as you settle in a

level attitude maneuver before you get to the runway. If the

screen goes red and if you get the crashed message, you either

touched down too fast, in a non-landing attitude, or tried to

turn after touchdown. If you touch down and if you crash but not

right away, you were probably going too fast. If you think the

speed was OK and if you were not turning, then your attitude at

touchdown was bad. Flaps are not necessary for most landings,

but they are a help getting the speed down on landing. So if you

have trouble with running off the end of the runway, try flaps.

1.5 BASIC GUNNERY

The object of fighter combat is to shoot the enemy with your

guns. You get into a position to do so by maneuvering your

aircraft. But just pointing your guns at him might not be

enough. Air Warrior models the flight of the bullets, and you

must make them collide with the enemy aircraft. If you are
shooting at a target from the side, you must lead the enemy

aircraft like leading a quail with a shotgun. You must also take

into account the effect of gravity on the path of the bullets.

The bullets drop as they travel away from your guns. When you

are pulling g's (back stick), the bullets seem to fall below the

nose of your aircraft. In fact they are flying straight, but you

are moving your nose up away from the bullet stream. So if you

are pulling g's you must increase the amount of lead to

compensate. Or you can pull the nose ahead of the target,

release back stick and let the enemy fly through the bullet

stream.

Obviously, if you get behind your target so that the angle

between his flight path and yours is small, there is little need

to lead. It is easier to get more hits. In addition, as you get

closer your bullets will not spread out so much. The bullet

density will be higher and more will hit the target. Air Warrior

models these effects, so being on your enemy's tail and up close

will result in more damage per second. You will hear pilots

speaking of lethality, which is the term used to quantify the

killing effect of your guns.

Aircraft with guns in the nose have different gunnery

characteristics from the planes with guns in the wings.

Wing-mounted guns were not set to fire straight ahead. This

would have produced a very low bullet density. They were instead

aimed to converge at a point several hundred yards ahead of the

plane. This convergence is modeled in Air Warrior so that

wing-mounted guns have good lethality up close, more at the point

of convergence, with a rapid drop off beyond that range.

Nose-mounted guns have a very high lethality up close, dropping

off gradually to maximum range. Their relative lethality is

better than that of wing-mounted guns except at the convergence

range.

Cannons have much greater lethality than machine guns, especially

for big, tough targets like bombers.

Lastly, each gun has a specific load of ammunition and firing

rate. You will see that some aircraft have more ammo for some

guns than others. As guns run out of ammo, the lethality drops

off. In some aircraft, the effect is so pronounced that you

might as well return to base for ammo after shooting 50% of your

ammo.

1.6 CHAPTER 1 EXERCISES

by Brooke
1.6.1 TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS

Taking off is easy. Practice enough landings so that you can

land without crashing or running of the end of the runway.

1.6.2 BASIC AEROBATICS

Practice doing loops, rolls, Immelmans, and split s's. You

should be able to do all of these maneuvers without stalling,

spinning, or blacking out. Practice continuous looping, many

loops in a row. You should be able to do this without losing

much altitude from the bottom of one loop to the bottom of the

next.

1.6.3 BASIC GUNNERY

Take up a fighter and shoot at the corners of the roof tops of

buildings. Pick one corner, shoot at it for a couple of seconds,

then switch as quickly as possible to another corner, and so on,

until you have to pull out. Do many passes on buildings.

1.6.4 VIEW KEYS

Effortless use of the view keys is essential to effective

fighting in AW. If you can't use the view keys as easily and
naturally as you would look around in real life, you WILL get

shot down by enemies whom you lose sight of in combat. To get

initial practice with view keys, do continuous loops over the top

of a building and keep it in sight whenever possible as you loop

the plane. You will look forward, then as you go into your loop,

look back until the building comes into view, then look back and

up, then up, then forward and up, then forward, etc. Do many

loops in a row. Then fly over the building and do a roll, again

keeping the building in sight whenever possible (e.g., looking

left, then left and up, then up, then right and up, then right,

etc.).

2.0 CHAPTER 2

by Brooke

This chapter talks about using the radio, navigation, and using

the radar (which are useful in the regular arenas and vital in

historical scenarios -- see the appendices for details on his

historical scenarios) and spin recovery, turning on the edge of a

stall, and turning on the edge of a blackout (which are important

in dogfights).
2.1 RADIO

The radio in Air-Warrior planes has 999 channels and one intercom

channel. To change channels, type "<Esc>t", then the channel

number, then the "Enter" key. For example, to tune to channel

69, you'd type "<Esc>t69<Enter>". To send a message on one of

the normal channels, hit the "/" key, type your message, and then

hit the "Enter" key. To send a message on the intercom channel,

hit the "`" key (the one under the tilde or "~" key), type your

message, and then hit the "Enter" key. To send a message on

channel 2 regardless of which channel you are tuned to, hit the

"'" key (apostrophe key), type your message, and then hit the

"Enter" key.

Channels 1 and 2 have special functions. Channel 1 will

broadcast a message to everyone in the game who is tuned to

channel 1, even to people in other countries who are tuned to

channel 1. Obviously, it's a bad choice for a message like "OK,

I'm trying to sneak my B-17 past the C's to cream C1. Wish me

luck." (Unless you are trying purposefully to mislead the C

landers.)

Channel 2 will broadcast a message to everyone in your country

regardless of which channels they are tuned to. Messages that

come over channel 2 have an asterisk in front of the sender's

name. For example, "*Brook: Hello, folks!" means that Brooke

sent the message on channel 2. In historical scenarios, channel

2 is used by the command staff and for important reports of enemy

positions.

On channels 3-999, only those fellow countrymen who are tuned to

the same channel you are will be able to hear your messages.

These channels are usually used for private conversations. In

historical scenarios, each squadron or flight generally has its

own frequency.

The intercom channel broadcasts only to those people in your

aircraft or vehicle (i.e., to the pilot and gunners).

In the Air-Warrior arenas, pilots generally remain tuned to

channel 1 so that they can hear messages from and use "/" to send

messages to people in other countries; but they use "'" to send

confidential messages to all of their fellow countrymen, such as

to report enemy positions, to form up bomber escort, and to form

missions. People in bombers or ground vehicles also use "`" to

talk only to the people (such as gunners) in their bomber or

vehicle.

Channel 2 is also used to call for help in a shorthand way -- in

an emergency when you can't afford to type anything complicated.

It's the "3 clicks" signal. You hit type "'<Enter>" (i.e., the

apostrophe key and then the "Enter" key) three times in quick

succession. On America Online, your fellow countrymen listening

to channel 2 would see something like:

*Brook:

*Brook:

*Brook:

which means that Brooke is in deep trouble and is yelling for

help.

Another custom on the radio is to reply with "cc" to indicate to

a message sender that you have received and understood the

message. For example, I might radio to you, "2 b FW 190s coming

s from a2," and you would reply with "cc" to tell me that you now

understand that two B-land FW 190's are headed south from over

airfield A:2. Without the "cc," the message sender doesn't know

whether or not you saw the message he sent. You might have been

looking at something else and missed it in you message window.

Use "cc" to avoid such uncertainty.

2.2 NAVIGATION AND USE OF RADAR

Press the "F10" key to turn on radar. You can zoom in and out on
the radar screen with the "[" and "]" keys.

When you pop on your radar, you will see a grid. North is always

at the top, and your plane is always in the center. The grid

lines form squares that represent sectors that are 12 miles on a

side (10 nautical miles). These sectors are numbered in (x, y)

or (column, row) coordinates. For example, if you are in sector

(4, 7) and you fly into the sector east of that, you'd be in

sector (5, 7). The sector north of (4, 7) is (4, 8) -- and so

on. To find out where you are, type "<Esc>w<Enter>" (i.e., where

am I?).

This lets you refer to positions in two ways. You might say "I'm

6 miles south of A1" if you are half a sector length south of

airfield A1. Or you might say "I'm in (6, 5) ne" -- i.e., the

northeast part of sector (6, 5). Being able to determine your

location and the location of others by use of sector numbers and

other references is essential for participation in historical

scenarios and mighty useful in general.

In addition to navigation, the radar screen is used to locate

aircraft around yours. If you are close enough to another air

craft, if both your aircraft and the other aircraft are within

range of one of your country's radar installations, if the other

aircraft is not too low, and if the installation is operating

(and not destroyed by an enemy bomb, say), you will see the other

aircraft on your radar screen. These settings can be varied by

Kesmai personnel, but generally, you need to be about 5000-8000

yards from the enemy plane and both you and the enemy need to be

about 1.5-2 sectors from your radar installation in order for

your to see an enemy on your radar.

Using the radar screen, you can also tell how many friendly and

enemy planes there are in a given sector. Usually each sector

has colored counters for enemy and friendly planes, so you can

see where the action is, where friendly forces are outnumbered,

and where enemy forces are outnumbered.

You can stay off radar screens by flying very low to the ground

-- usually under 200 feet altitude. However, you will still

usually generate a counter in a sector. So, let's say that you

are in a sector that shows only one enemy counter. Let's say you

are sure you'd spot an enemy on the radar if he were not below

200 ft. Now you know he's under 200 ft. In that case, he might

be flying a bomber. If you are in a sector that is on the way to

a strategic target, it might be that an enemy bomber is trying to

skirt trouble by flying low, under radar, through a sector

without a lot of enemies in it, trying to sneak through.

Knowing this, you can go down and look around for such an enemy,

just to make sure. Or, you can employ such tactics yourself when
planning out a bomb run on an enemy target.

Radar -- AND out-of-cockpit views -- are limited in that you can

see only a limited number of aircraft at once, even if there are

more aircraft in the area. At one point, the limit was somewhere

around 12 aircraft at a time, but that will change as Kesmai's

computer programs are updated. At any rate, you can guess that

it might be a problem if you see lots of friendly aircraft and

then are shot down by an unseen enemy or if you are shooting at a

seen enemy and shoot down an unseen ally who was on its tail. To

get around such difficulties (which crop up mostly only in

historical scenarios), there are "bias modes." You can set your

bias so that, if you hit the limit, enemy planes are shown in

preference to friendlies, friendly planes have preference, the

closest planes have preference (which is the default), or bombers

have preference. You don't have to mess with this much unless

you are playing in large historical scenarios. The enemy bias is

"'*re<Enter>"; friendly bias is "'*rf<Enter>"; closest bias (or

unbiased) is "'*ru<Enter>"; and bomber bias is "'*rb<Enter>".

2.3 SPIN RECOVERY

An aircraft spins when one wing stalls and the other doesn't.

In Air Warrior, this happens when you stall while still holding

in some aileron or rudder (instead of having your stick centered

left to right and having your rudder centered). It sometimes

happens if you stall while in a steep bank and slide to the down

side.

Spinning can be used as a defensive tactic (as you'll read

about), but in your Air-Warrior career, there will be plenty of

times when you'll spin unintentionally -- while trying to pull

just that LITTLE extra bit of g's to get on someone's tail, while

not paying attention, whatever.

To recover from a spin, apply full rudder opposite to the spin,

use your ailerons to level your wings and to keep them level, and

push forward on the stick. As soon as you recover (your stall

light goes out), center your rudder and commence a pull out. If

before recovery you find that your plane is in a steep nose-down

attitude, apply ailerons opposite to the direction of the spin,

too (in addition to the rudder).

Quick recoveries require quick, correct action. The two most

common mistakes I see in spin recovery are (1) not applying the

action soon enough and (2) not recognizing the direction of the

spin and applying rudder in the wrong direction. If you worsen

the spin by applying rudder in the wrong direction or by waiting

too long to apply correct action, the plane can get into a

nose-down attitude where it seems to be rolling as well as

spinning. That's when you'll need to apply aileron as well as

rudder to come out quickly.

2.4 TURNING ON THE EDGE OF A STALL

Often in Air Warrior, dogfights degenerate into stall-speed

turning fights. In this situation, the plane that has the best

low-speed turning performance has the edge. The pilot who can

wring the best turn rate out of his plane also has the edge. It

is very important to be able to turn well at near stall speeds.

In these conditions, you will be at full throttle (and often full

war-emergency power, if you have any left) while the plane is

buffeting (screen shake) and the stall light is flashing. What

you want to do is to pull as far back on the stick as you can and

still not stall the plane. There are three indications of

stalling: the stall light going on (obviously), an abrupt

decrease in the reading on the g meter (as your wings lose lift

when they stall, resulting in your plane not pulling g's), and an

abrupt decrease in your turn rate (again because of the loss of

lift).

So, (1) if you see the stall light go on solidly (instead of

flashing), (2) if you notice the g's drop quickly from about 3

g's despite the fact that you haven't released back pressure on
the stick, or (3) if you notice that your turn rate as decreased

rapidly (this you judge visually as the terrain stops moving by

as rapidly) -- then immediately release some back pressure on the

stick, enough so that the stall light goes out or starts flashing

again.

In a real fight, once you have the experience, you will find

yourself flying the edge of the flight envelope, perhaps

occasionally crossing the edge but immediately recovering. You

will be able to fly at the edge of a stall without losing

altitude (in fact, this style of fighting is prevalent on the

deck). If your opponent can't do this, you have a very big edge

in a stallfight. He might stall, spin, and crash; or he you

might out-turn him and then shoot him down. If he can't do this

and you can, he needs a vastly superior low-speed plane just to

be even with you in this situation.

2.5 TURNING ON THE EDGE OF A BLACKOUT

In the previous section, I talked about turning on the edge of a

stall. That's the low-speed end of the turning envelope. At the

high-speed end is turning on the edge of a blackout. This is

where you will be if you are in a high-speed turning fight.

Each plane wants the highest turn rate, and if you have enough

speed, that rate is limited by how many g's you can pull.
Here, you want to hold about 6 g's. Any more and you will black

out. If you do black out, your opponent can more easily maneuver

onto your tail and shoot you down (as you won't be pulling many

g's when you are blacked out). If you don't pull many g's

(trying to stay away from blacking out), your opponent can out

turn you. So, you want to keep an eye on the g meter and try to

stay at about 6 g's. If you cross over 6 g's, back off

immediately, and then pull back on the stick again to establish 6

g's.

2.6 CHAPTER 2 EXERCISES

2.6.1 TURNING ON THE EDGE OF A STALL

To get practice with low-speed turns, take your favorite plane up

to about 7k and then keep a level turn, pulling as many g's as

you can without stalling. Fly close to the stall though, with

the stall light flashing and with the plane buffeting. Do many,

many turns to practice your ability to turn on the edge of the

stall.

2.6.2 TURNING ON THE EDGE OF A BLACKOUT

To practice avoidance of blackouts, climb up to 15k and then

enter a diving turn (a spiral descent at full throttle). Make

the spiral steep enough to keep your speed up to about 225 knots

or more. Pull a continuous 5.5-6 g's. You will black out if you

pull more than 6 g's for any length of time. Practice flying at

the edge of the blackout (about 5.5-6 g's).

2.6.3 SPIN RECOVERY

To get practice with spins, do the low-speed turning practice for

a couple of revolutions, then pull back on the stick to get into

a stall. When you are stalled, roll the plane. That should

quickly initiate a spin. Recover as quickly as possible.

Also, practice spin recovery from the top of an Immelman. Pull

up into an Immelman starting at about 160 knots. At the top of

the loop (when you are fully inverted), pull back all the way on

the stick and roll the plane. You should get into a nasty spin.

(You can add some rudder if rolling alone doesn't do the trick

quickly enough.) To recover, roll so that the plane is right-side

up, then recover as before.

2.6.4 FIGHT OFF-LINE

If your program has off-line missions, take up your favorite

fighter and have some fights.

3.0 CHAPTER 3

by Brooke

This chapter discusses more about aerodynamics and flight

dynamics, more about gunnery, and basic ACM (air-combat

maneuvering). ACM is also covered in the "More ACM" Appendix --

I suggest that you look through that appendix after reading this

chapter and again after reading Chapter 7.

3.1 AERODYNAMICS AND FLIGHT DYNAMICS

Chapter 1 talked about induced drag. Induced drag is the part of

drag that is a result of the lift generated by the wings -- the

greater the lift generated, the greater the induced drag.

Induced drag acts in a direction to slow down your plane. This

is important to keep in mind and has many applications to ACM

(air-combat maneuvering).

There are times when you'd like to slow down as quickly as

possible (for example, if you want to make a high-speed enemy

overshoot you). Obvious ways to do this include chopping the

throttle, deploying a speed brake (if your plane has one), and

deploying flaps. A less obvious way is to pull a lot of g's --

more g's means more lift which means more induced drag. Induced

drag gets quite large when you pull 6 g's.

There are also times when you'd like to keep your speed or to

gain more speed. In that case, keep in mind that you don't want

to pull g's if you don't have to -- fewer g's means less drag.

So, when you are running away from an enemy, don't be ham fisted

-- don't pull more than about 3 g's unless it's necessary.

Another aspect of aerodynamics that is useful to keep in mind

applies to flaps. The deployment of flaps results in increased

drag and in a nose-down pitch moment. For low-wing planes (most

of the planes in Air Warrior), drag on the wing (being below the

level of thrust and below the center of gravity of the plane)

adds to the pitch moment, and so when flaps are deployed, the

plane will pitch nose-down, and you have to correct for it.

There are two situations where this is dangerous. First, if you

are flying low to the ground, be careful when you deploy flaps.

That nose-down pitch can be enough to nose you into the ground if

you aren't paying attention. Second, be careful of deploying

flaps at high speed in planes that weren't built for it. The

P-51 and P-38 have high-speed flaps, for example, but the bombers
and the C-47 definitely do not. You can get into severe trouble

if the flaps are deployed and you subsequently get to high speed.

The higher the speed, the greater the aerodynamic affects and the

greater the pitch moment. In some planes, the pitch moment can

be so great that you won't be able to keep the plane from nosing

down even with full elevator. These planes won't let you deploy

the flaps at high speed, but they will let you deploy the flaps

at lower speeds and then get up to a high speed (by deploying the

flaps at low speed and then diving, for example) where you will

have this problem. Be careful in bombers and C-47's -- retract

flaps before diving.

(For those who know more about aerodynamic theory, it should be

stated that Air Warrior does not model the drastically increased

drag due to flow separation off the top of the wing as would

occur during the buffeting effect. Therefore, while in real

planes it is not always best to pull all the way into the buffet

during turns because of the greatly increased drag, in Air

Warrior there is no increase beyond what one would get from

induced drag. I hope that they add this extra bit of realism in

future versions.)

Obviously, changing direction is an important part of aerial

combat, and every change of direction involves a turn of some

sort. (A loop is just a turn in a vertical plane.) There are two

measures of a turn that are important in combat: turn radius and

turn rate. A small turn radius makes it harder for an enemy to

bring his guns to bear on you, and he will need more lead. A

large turn rate is good as that means you can change directions

more quickly, coming around on an enemy's tail or getting the

hell out of the way. As a general rule for the planes

represented in Air Warrior, the radius of a plane's turn is

smaller the slower it is flying, all the way down to near stall

speeds. (The same holds true for cars: you can turn more

tightly while driving slowly than you can while driving at 60

mph.) The rate of a plane's turn increases with decreasing

airspeed until you reach a speed at which you can no longer pull

6 g's (200-250 knots or so for most of the WWII planes). Then

the turn rate decreases. So, turn rate and turn radius are

better the slower you go, down to about 200-250 knots (depending

on the airplane) -- slower than that, you trade off a worse turn

rate for a better turn radius. Managing turn rate and turn

radius is thus a matter of managing speed.

Speed management is a part of energy management. Energy for an

aircraft is the sum of its kinetic energy (due to speed) and its

potential energy (due to altitude). You can trade speed for

altitude by climbing, and you can trade altitude for speed by

diving, both without losing total energy assuming that you don't

pull a lot of g's. Energy is used up by drag and replenished by

the thrust of your engine. Induced drag (discussed in Chapter 1)

increases with pulling g's, and thus so does energy loss.

Overall then, you can trade energy freely between speed and

altitude (not wasting it in the trade); you can spend energy by

pulling g's (turning); and you can gain energy back by letting

the thrust of your engine add it back gradually over time.

Let's say that you are flying rapidly along and want to do a 180

degree turn quickly. What's a good method? You could just crank

your plane into a hard, flat turn. In that case, you would have

used up a lot of energy by pulling a lot of g's, and you would

have had a poor turn radius and turn rate because at least the

start of your turn was entered at high speed. Instead, you could

zoom climb, converting speed into altitude. Now your speed is

lower, and you can turn rapidly and tightly. Then, once you have

turned, you can dive back down to your original altitude, and you

will have more speed than you did at the end of the flat turn.

This is an example of wise energy management and is the key to

one style of fighting -- energy fighting -- which we will discuss

later in the chapter.

3.2 GUNNERY

Chapter 1 also talked about gunnery and leading the target.

Air-Warrior planes have lead-computing gunsights -- they give you

an idea of how much lead you need (i.e., how much in front of the

target you need to aim) if you have the range set right and

assuming that you and the enemy continue to turn at the same

rate. You put the lead-computing sight on the target and try to

hold it on the target -- that shows you the right amount of lead

to be pulling at the moment.

Many pilots prefer to aim by looking at the tracers alone and not

by using the lead-computing sight. If you do use the

lead-computing sight, the best range to set it for, in my

opinion, is 400 yards. At ranges longer than that, you shouldn't

really be shooting (unless the target is not maneuvering much);

and at ranges shorter than that, you can aim easily enough

without the help of the lead-computing sight. The maximum

effective range on most guns in Air Warrior is about 600 yards --

beyond that, you're usually wasting your ammunition.

I pay attention to the lead-computing sight only at 300-500 yards

in order to see how much lead I should pull. At ranges shorter

than that, I pay more attention to the tracers and mostly ignore

the sight. It's just a matter of preference -- you'll develop

your own style with experience.

In Air Warrior, the tracers travel the same path as the non-

tracer ammunition (unlike in real life where there is sometimes a

significant difference) -- so your bullets are definitely going

where you see the tracers go. Yet sometimes in Air Warrior, it

looks like you should have hit an enemy and yet you will see no

damage to his plane. This situation is called "blanks" by

players and is due to to network effects, such as packet delays.

Sometimes the enemy plane will jump around erratically (called

"warping"), making it hard for you to line up a shot. These are

also due to packet delays. In my experience, for most people,

these problems are infrequent and not severe -- but tell the

network people if the problems become frequent or severe so that

the problems can be fixed.

Also sometimes you might find yourself taking hits when it looks

like an enemy plane is too far behind you to hit you. The planes

you see are typically delayed about one second from where they

really are due to the transmission times inherent in the network.

If a plane is traveling at 300 knots, it travels about 175 yards

in a second. So, if you and your pursuer are going 300 knots,

the actual distance to the pursuer is about 175 yards less than

what you see on your readout. If the delay is 2 seconds, it's

350 yards less, and so on. Generally, you aren't safe from

taking hits until the enemy is more than about 1500-1600 yards

back -- that is good enough to account even for pretty severe

transient delays in the system.

3.3 BASIC ACM OVERVIEW

Chapter 1 talked a about some of the basic aerobatic maneuvers

such as loops, Immelmans, split S's, and rolls. Add these to

climbs, dives, and regular turns and to high and low yo yo's

(which I'll discuss soon), and you have a basic set of air-combat

maneuvers that you'll string together as appropriate -- an

air-combat vocabulary.

A high yo yo is like a normal turn except that it isn't a flat

turn. Consider your flight path during a flat turn as the

outside rim of a paper plate: a regular circle. If you take a

portion of the paper plate and fold it so that one part sticks up

into the air at an angle, you have the type of flight path you'd

take during a high yo yo. For a high yo yo, you go into the turn

as usual, then pull back more on the stick so that the plane goes

into a climb, then roll into the turn much more steeply (perhaps

going to a vertical bank or even going slightly inverted) while

continuing to pull back on the stick so that you dive back down,

then rolling back to a more shallow bank to pull out of the dive

to go back into a normal flat turn. It's a normal turn with, in

the middle of it, a climb up and then a dive back down.

A low yo yo is similar except it's like folding the paper plate

so that one part sticks down at an angle -- it's a turn with a

dip in the middle of it. You go into a turn, let the plane dive

a bit, and then pull back up to the altitude at which you

started, all while turning.

Now, what use are these maneuvers, anyway? Once you master the

maneuvers, how do you string them together in order to kill your

aerial opponents? This is the meat of ACM, and we'll cover a bit

of it here and then a lot more in Chapter 7. Your choices for

maneuvers depend upon the style of fighting you use (which

depends upon how many friends and enemies are around, what types

of planes are around, what type of plane you are in, the energy

states of the planes, the fighting style of your opponents and

allies, and your preferences in fighting -- no small list of

variables, which is why humans are still better than computers at

ACM). Let's talk about styles -- there are three basic styles:

angles fighting, energy fighting, and boom-and-zoom (B&Z)

fighting. (Sort of like in kung fu movies: "Ah, I see that you

use angles style. I studied energy style under master Ling Cho.

Prepare to die.")

Angles fighting is the most common in Air Warrior. Here, you

spend your energy (early in the fight) on getting a good shot at

your enemy, hoping to shoot him down early, before all of your

energy is used up. It's the most common style in Air Warrior as

it results in the quickest action and requires little patience.

Most angles fights involve a quick high-G lead turn in some plane

(it might be a lead Immelman or a lead high yo yo or whatever).

A lead turn is a turn done so that you get within firing range of

an enemy and have enough lead so that you can get the shot --

like cutting him off at the pass. You are going for the best

angle, whatever that happens to be at the time. An angles fight,

if no one is shot down early, often degenerates into a

low-altitude stall fight, where both planes are chugging around

at stall speed and 200 ft. altitude. At that stage, low-speed

turning rate (and the pilot's ability to turn on the edge of a

stall -- see Chapter 2) is very important.

Energy fighting takes more patience and forethought. It involves

being very careful on how you spend your energy, trying to trick

your enemy into wasting more energy than you do. You pull g's

only when you have to do so or when it results in little loss to

your energy (such as by pulling few g's or pulling g's only when

you are slow). If you are successful in holding onto more energy

than does your enemy, when you are at a clear energy advantage,

you spend your energy on getting into a good position (usually

onto the enemy's tail). Energy fighting is safer than angles

fighting because (until you spend your energy near the end on

saddling up, and you generally don't do that until you are fairly

sure that it will work) you have a decent amount of energy to

spend in an evasive maneuver or in running away. Energy fights

have angles fights as the end game -- you can always start an

angles fight if the energy fight isn't going well.

B&Z fighting takes the most patience and forethought, is the

safest form of fighting, and results in the lowest rate of

killing. In B&Z fighting, you find an enemy at a lower altitude

(or really a lower energy state); you close on him at high speed

(usually trying to set it up so that you are closing on his tail

or at least the rear quarter) -- this is the "bounce"; you take a

shot; and you "zoom" off to safety. Repeat as necessary. If it

looks like someone can get into a B&Z position on you, you run

away (unless you want to convert to a different style of

fighting).

I like angles fighting when I'm just horsing around, looking for

quick action, or when I'm fighting an opponent who isn't too

skilled. I like energy fighting when I'm looking for quick

action but am fighting a skilled opponent. I like B&Z fighting

when I'm flying planes that don't turn well at low speed compared

to the opposition or when I want to see how many kills I can get

before dying.

3.4 BASIC ACM SPECIFICS

OK, so I've blabbed on about generalities. Now, how about some

specifics? Let's start by discussing some basic situations and

then move on to a few more involved ones.

In WWII, a lot of air-to-air kills came from situations where the

enemy was flying straight and where the victorious pilot flew up

behind him without him noticing and shot him down, usually by

diving from a higher altitude (classic B&Z). In Air Warrior,

because there is radar and very good visibility, it's much harder

to sneak up on someone without him noticing, but it does happen

-- especially in target-rich environments where a person can get

fixated on a target or two and forget to watch his tail. So,

rule #1 is "watch your tail." Obviously, you can't watch your

tail at all times, but it's easy to look back in Air Warrior --

make sure that you do it as often as the situation demands. If

you are fighting one enemy and if there's no one else around, you

don't have to check your tail much. If you are fighting in a

huge dogfight involving many enemy planes (a "furball"), you have

to check your tail a lot -- every few seconds or so to make sure

that no one is saddling up on you. Remember to look back when

you stop turning hard, perhaps in order to get a shot. Look back

before or as you slack off on the turn.

Actually, just watching your tail isn't good enough. Before you

get into a fight (i.e., get engaged), you should be looking

around a lot, including checking your blind spots, such as

underneath your plane. Look all around, and occasionally do a

roll or a steep bank to the left and then to the right so that

you can look for enemies coming from underneath you. Then, once

you get into a fight, you need to watch your opponent as much as

possible. It is a common axiom in ACM that "if you lose sight of

your opponent, you will soon be dead." That's why it's so

important to learn to use the view keys so well that they are

second nature. If you do lose sight of an enemy in a dogfight

and don't know where he's gone, look first behind you then check

other views -- and do not stop turning or maneuvering. I have

fought many, many inexperienced pilots who slack off on their

turns or other maneuvers (sometimes they even fly straight) after

losing sight of me in a fight. They generally live for only a

handful of seconds after that.

So, assuming that you see the enemy coming, what do you do if he

is diving on you? If you have lots of time to prepare, do a

gentle turn toward the enemy. That way, you don't waste your

energy in pulling high G's, and the enemy is now approaching you

from the front, making the closure speed higher and the

probability of hitting lower. Now you just have to avoid the

head-on shot, a subject discussed in Chapter 7.

What if you don't have lots of time to prepare, and an enemy is

closing on your tail for a shot? A hard turn or hard loop is the
answer -- you have to get out of the way. (By hard, I'm talking

about pulling 5-6 g's or as many as you can manage.) I have three

favorites, depending on the situation.

First, if I don't think that the enemy has such a huge speed

differential on me and if I have a decent amount of speed, I like

a hard climbing turn or an Immelman that is slightly off to one

side or the other rather than executed purely in the vertical

plane. It's harder for an enemy to track you if you are turning

in other than purely horizontal or vertical directions; and the

climb converts speed into altitude so that I don't just waste all

my energy in the turning part of the maneuver.

Second, if I don't have much speed so that I can't do a hard

climbing turn without ending up at stall speed (and thus not

being able to generate a good turn rate), I do a hard nose-low

turn (usually very nose low in order to get quickly the speed

needed to pull some decent g's). It's hard for an enemy to get a

shot on you under these circumstances. It's especially effective

at low altitudes, where the enemy can't concentrate as well on

shooting you if he also has to worry about hitting the ground.

Third, if the enemy has a huge speed differential on me (i.e.,

such a huge energy differential that gaining just a little energy

on him won't matter), I chop my throttle and do a hard split S.

A plane that's going much faster than you are can't match your

maneuver in these circumstances because of the turn-rate and

turn-radius explanations give above. If he tries to follow (and

doesn't chop throttle and apply speed brakes or high-speed flaps

or both), he will end up at a much lower altitude than you. If

not, if he almost manages to stay on you somehow (speed brakes,

chopping throttle, whatever), you can do a second split S. The

goal is for you to have him end up way underneath you. Then,

despite his greater speed, you have an altitude advantage.

Because he was probably pulling very high G's at high speed and

because you might have been pulling only moderate G's, you might

have been able to eat into his initial energy advantage this way

-- you try to trick him into wasting huge amounts of energy.

(It's an especially funny trick when you can do a split S and

miss the ground but he can't because his speed is too high. Yuk,

yuk, yuk.) Make sure you only do this if when the enemy has a lot

of speed on you and is really hauling. Otherwise, a hard split S

really wastes a lot of energy -- it's only good in the case where

the enemy will waste a lot more than you do.

Let's say you are the one who has done the pass on the enemy, and

because he is evading, you are going to overshoot. What should

you do? If the enemy doesn't turn hard enough or if your speed

is not that much greater than his, there are techniques you can

use to keep from overshooting. If he does a flat turn, you can

do a high yo yo. You trade some speed for altitude, turn with

the enemy (now that your speed is lower), then spend the altitude

part of your energy in holding a higher-G turn (and higher turn

rate) than your enemy can perhaps muster. If he flies mostly

straight and you still are overshooting, you can climb up, flip

inverted, and then pull back down onto his tail (sort of like a

high yo yo without turning). Or you can do a big barrel roll,

eating up some speed by pulling g's. Or you can chop throttle,

apply speed brakes (if you have them), or deploy flaps (if you

have high-speed flaps), or any combination thereof. If your

speed is very much greater than his, you can just pull up, get to

altitude, and come back for another pass (B&Z fighting). Or, you

can do several B&Z passes, getting the enemy to use energy in

high-G evasive maneuvers while you convert to energy fighting.

By the way, how do you convert energy into a good angle assuming

you have an energy advantage on your enemy? The key is in making

the enemy get slow so that his turn rate is poor. Then you use

your energy (usually in the form of altitude over the enemy) to

generate enough speed so that you can out-turn the enemy. If you

are turning over an enemy, and the enemy is chugging around in

turns at 130 knots and 3 g's, you can go into a diving turn and

pull 4-6 g's for a little while (until your initial energy

advantage is used up by the extra induced drag). You spend that

energy on extra turning rate when you think that you are close
enough to the enemy's tail so that a burst of extra turning rate

is all you need to get onto his tail for a shot.

Another way to temporarily boost turning rate at low speeds is to

use war-emergency power (WEP), which lasts up to about 10 minutes

in a lot of planes. It boosts turning rate because it boosts

your speed. You can also deploy flaps. Some planes allow you to

deploy 10-20 degrees of flaps that will increase turning rate.

The disadvantage is that they will also drop your speed, so you

won't be as able to split S and to run away or to follow an enemy

who does a high yo yo. I don't use flaps much unless I'm in

trouble in a stallfight, then I give them a try.

As for angles tactics, the simplest attempt is to point your lift

vector at the enemy and pull as many g's as you can until you

have enough lead for the shot ("point your lift vector at the

enemy and pull" as it was explained to me by "Sheik," a former

F-16 pilot, when I asked him how F-16 combat compared to

prop-plane combat). The lift vector is the direction of lift

from the wings. Imagine yourself sitting in an airplane in

flight. Imagine an arrow drawn from your ass to the top of your

head -- that's the lift vector, more or less. This strategy is

the equivalent of the strategy a computer chess program uses when

it looks zero steps ahead in order to figure out its move, but

it's better than trying to predict ahead with an undeveloped set

of prediction rules. It's the same as just trying (for as many

g's as you can manage) to get your nose around onto the enemy for

a shot. It doesn't really matter what the enemy is doing -- you

follow him wherever he goes and are just trying to get enough

lead on him for a shot. This isn't such a horrible thing -- it's

simple; it's common among the newer pilots; and it's a natural

tactic to use when you first start dogfighting.

Another common situation in Air Warrior is the head-to-head pass.

Here, if I want to engage, I prefer energy tactics. After I pass

the enemy (and avoid the head-on shot with a jink, as discussed

in Chapter 7), I go into about a 40-45 degree climb, converting

speed into altitude. When I'm at about 150 knots, I pull back

over in an Immelman. If the enemy wasted energy, I now have an

altitude advantage on him, and I can do passes on him from higher

altitude until I get into a good position to use my energy in a

high-G turn onto his tail (G's that he can't match if he is out

of energy). The danger is in getting shot during the

low-speed-Immelman part of the maneuver. If you see the enemy

getting closer than, say, 1200-1300 yards or so during your

climb, pull into a hard Immelman right away -- don't wait for 150

knots. Another danger is that the enemy goes into a dive before

you merge, then pulls up hard, coming up under you for a belly

shot. To defeat this, if the enemy dives as you approach head to

head, dive at him -- deny him the belly shot.

Do you want to try for the belly shot? The previous paragraph is

an energy-fighting approach. The belly shot is an angle-fighting

approach. To do it, when you get to within about 2500-3000 yards

of the enemy, go into a steep dive. As the enemy approaches to

within about 1500-2000 yards, pull up into a lead climb toward

his belly. You want to get the right amount of lead on him so

that, as he flies past, you can fill his belly full of lead.

Some people do very steep high yo yo's at the merge (the "merge"

is when the two planes pass each other in close proximity). This

is an energy-fighting approach, too, and is probably about as

good as an Immelman. It might be safer, but I still like the

Immelman a bit better for energy reasons.

What if you are in a fight, it is going badly, and you want to

get out of it? How do you disengage (or, in the vernacular, "bug

out")? This is perhaps more tricky than winning the fight in the

first place. Having a plane that is faster than your opponent's

helps a lot, as does having a plane that can withstand some hits

in the process. There are a couple of techniques that I like,

both involving jinking. Jinking is flying erratically,

unpredictably, in an effort to throw off the enemy's shot.

First, there is the spiral escape. It relies on the fact that

it's hard to shoot someone when you're both close to blacking

out. Here, you keep turning (so as not to present a good target)

and go very nose low. Soon, as you accelerate, you can pull 6

g's even if you couldn't before. Erratically change the angle of

your bank, but keep pulling lots of g's, and keep increasing your

dive. Don't pull more than 6 g's, though, or you'll black out.

You will rapidly accelerate, and it will be hard for the enemy to

get a good shot on you as he is pulling 6 g's to stay on you and

as you wiggle around.

Second, there is the vertical escape. It relies on getting as

much speed as quickly as possible. Here, you roll inverted and

pull quickly into a vertical dive (like executing half of a split

S). As you dive vertically, barrel roll your plane (which works

great all by itself as a defensive if you have a roll-rate

advantage on the enemy -- see Chapter 4 and Chapter 7), apply 2-3

g's of positive and negative elevator at random, roll left and

right at random, or any mixture of the above. Unless you have a

good roll-rate advantage, the more erratically you fly, the

better. Be careful not to apply more than 3 g's of negative

elevator or you will red out, which is just as bad as blacking

out. This maneuver works best if you can start the split-S

portion when the enemy isn't right on your tail. The maneuver is

best commenced by shouting "Screw this!" as you dive out of the

fight.
There are more suggestions in Chapter 7, but this is plenty for

now. There is a great deal more to ACM than can be taught in a

book -- you will have to fight a lot in order to learn. The main

point of reading all of this is to speed your progress, not to

eliminate the need for in-flight experience.

3.5 CHAPTER 3 EXERCISES

3.5.1 MAX-G VS. 3 G TURNS

Get your plane up to 275 knots or more and try some 180 degree

turns at various g's. Does pulling max g's (i.e., the most you

can pull without blacking out or stalling) instead of 3 g's

really make that much of a difference in deceleration? How about

for a 360 degree turn?

3.5.2 ZERO G DIVES VS. VERTICAL DIVES

Climb to 7k and compare two techniques of diving away: the zero-g

extension and the vertical dive. For the zero-g extension, push

forward on the stick and maintain zero g's until you need to

start a pull out. You might need to maintain just a little above

zero g's in order to keep your oil pump happy -- some planes

can't take zero g's for too long. Aim for pulling out so that
you end up right on the deck. For the vertical dive, roll

inverted and pull max g's until you are vertical. Again, hold

the vertical dive as long as possible and aim for pulling out so

that you end up right on the deck. When you are on the deck,

which maneuver resulted in the highest speed? Which maneuver

would give you the most separation from an enemy, and which would

give you the quickest separation?

3.5.3 MAX-G, LOW-G, AND EXTENDED-CLIMB IMMELMANS

Try various ways of doing Immelmans. Get up to 275 or more knots

and try a max-g Immelman. Note the speed and altitude at the

top.

Then try one starting at the same speed and altitude as before,

but pull less g's. Note the speed and alt at the top, then do a

zero-g extension back down to the alt at which you completed the

max-g Immelman. How does your speed compare now with that at the

completion of the max-g Immelman?

Finally, get up to the same starting speed and alt as before, and

pull up gently into a steep zoom climb (45-60 degrees). Stay in

the climb until the plane reaches about 150 knots, then pull over

into an Immelman. Again, note the speed and altitude at the

completion, then zero-g extend back down to the alt of the

completion of the max-g Immelman and note the speed there.

Of these three maneuvers, which seems to use energy most

efficiently? Which would you use in a one-on-one fight against

an identical aircraft at the same speed and alt and if the fight

starts with a head-on pass? What do you think of pulling max g's

up into a vertical zoom climb, holding it until you nearly reach

stall speed, then pulling back down into a vertical dive? Under

what conditions would that be a good maneuver?

3.5.4 ANGLES FIGHTS

If your Air-Warrior program supports off-line missions, take your

favorite angles fighter up (Spitfire, Ki-84, Zero, whatever) and

have a one-on-one fight. Use angles tactics only.

3.5.5 B&Z FIGHTS

If your Air-Warrior program supports off-line missions, take your

favorite B&Z fighter up and have a one-on-one fight. Use B&Z

tactics only. Pick a plane that climbs well (Spitfire Mk IX,

N1K1, Bf 109F-4, or F4U-1D) and, if you can, have the

computer-controlled opponent in a plane that doesn't climb well

(P-40E or P-47D).
3.5.6 ENERGY FIGHTS

If your Air-Warrior program supports off-line missions, take your

favorite fighter up and have a one-on-one fight. Use energy

tactics only. If you can, have the enemy in the same type of

plane that you are flying.

4.0 CHAPTER 4

4.1 OVERVIEW

by Brooke

This chapter is about the various propeller-driven WWII fighter

planes and especially about the differences among them. With the

introduction of Air Warrior II, there are now two plane sets.

Air Warrior for Windows and the beta version of Air Warrior for

the Macintosh have available one set of aircraft, and Air Warrior

II has available an expanded set.

Before we get into a lot of detail on each plane, let me give a

brief overview. (By the way, for those of you who like Twist's

excellent descriptions of aircraft, there are more of his

descriptions in the appendix called "The Twist Files." It never

hurts to get more than one opinion about the capabilities of an

aircraft. Also, Air Warrior II has excellent information on the

various aircraft -- I highly recommend reading it. Click on "fly

a mission," click on "change theater of operations" to choose a

theater, then click on "aircraft information/check ride.")

For dogfighting, the most important characteristics to keep in

mind for each type of plane are: turning performance, top speed,

climb rate, and roll rate, and to a lesser extent firepower and

durability. You don't have to know exact numbers for each plane,

but it helps immensely to know how the plane you are flying

compares to the planes you are fighting. Should you mix it up in

a low-speed dogfight with a Spitfire IX if you are flying a P-51D

Mustang? If you are in a Ki-84 Hayate, can you run away from a

P-38J Lightning? Should you trade head-on shots with an F4U-1D

Corsair if you are in an A6M5 Zero? If you are in an N1K1-J, can

you climb away from an F6F-3? If you are in a FW 190A-3, can you

out-scissor a Yak 9D? These are the types of decisions you will

be making in the game.

In the following two sections, I give approximate orderings for

each of the above characteristics. The values quoted are for

planes with 100% fuel loaded, at sea level, and with WEP on. The

orderings do change at different altitudes (for example, there

are altitudes at which the P-47D climbs faster than a lot of the

other aircraft). However, if you have the orderings in mind at

sea level, that is generally good enough for normal arena play

where the altitudes of combats tend to be low. It would take an

impractical amount of information here in this manual to go into

the changes with altitude. You will aquire a feel for that,

anyway, as you become familiar with a small set of favorite

planes. Also, you don't have to memorize the complete lists --

but, when you are fighting in a particular arena with a

particular group of planes available, you should know how those

particular planes relate.

There are two sections below because there are some differences

in the performance of some aircraft between Air Warrior II and

the other versions.

4.1.1 AIR WARRIOR II

Air Warrior II has available the following propeller-driven WWII

fighter aircraft. From the United States: P-51D Mustang, F4U-1D

Corsair, F6F-3 Hellcat, P-38J Lightning, P-47D Thunderbolt, F4F-3

Wildcat, and P-40E Kittyhawk. From Great Britain: Spitfire Mk.

IX, Spitfire Mk. Vb, Spitfire Mk. Ia, Hurricane IIb, and

Hurricane I. From Germany: FW 190D-9 Dora, FW 190A-8, FW

190A-4, FW 190A-3, Bf 109K-4, Bf 109G-2 Gustav, Bf 109F-4 Franz,

Bf 109E-3 Emil, and Me 110C-4 Zerstorer. From Japan: A6M5 Zero,

Ki-84 Hayate, and N1K1-J Shiden. From Russia: Yak 9D and

LA-5FN.

Maximum sustained turn rate (degrees/sec, courtesy of Blue Baron

at Kesmai): A6M5 (28), Spit IX (28), P-38J (27.2), Bf 109F-4

(25.5), Ki-84 (25.4), Spit Ia (24.2), Spit Vb (24.2), N1K1-J

(24), Hurri I (24), F4F-3 (23.8), Hurri IIb (23.3), Bf 109E-3

(23.2), Bf 109G-2 (23.2), Yak 9D (22.5), Me 110C-4 (22.3), LA-5FN

(21.8), FW 190A-4 (21.4), Bf 109K-4 (21.4), FW 190A-3 (21.3),

F6F-3 (21), F4U-1D (20.5), P-51D (20.3), FW 190A-8 (19.3), FW

190D-9 (19.1), P-40E (18.1), P-47D (15.6). This statistic is not

exactly the same as turn rate in a stallfight. In a stallfight,

the Spit IX cannot match an A6M5, even though their max.

sustained rates are even; the F6F-3 turns about as well as the

Ki-84 and a little better than the N1K1-J; and the P-40E seems to

turn better relatively.

Top speed (knots, courtesy of Blue Baron at Kesmai): P-51D

(314), Ki-84 (309), N1K1-J (305), Bf 109K-4 (304), FW 190A-8

(302), FW 190D-9 (299), F4U-1D (294), P-38J (290), FW 190A-4

(290), LA5-FN (288), Spit IX (287), P-47D (286), FW 190A-3 (281),

Bf 109F-4 (281), P-40E (279), Bf 109G-2 (273), F6F-3 (272), Spit

Vb (250), A6M5a (250), Yak 9D (245), Bf 109E-3 (241), Spit Ia

(240), Me 110C-4 (238), Hurri I (238), F4F-3 (236), Hurri IIb

(220).

Climb rate (ft/min, courtesy of Blue Baron at Kesmai): Spit IX

(4500), Bf 109F-4 (4402), P-38J (4194), N1K1-J (4100), LA-5FN

(3873), FW 190A-4 (3868), F4U-1D (3863), Bf 109G-2 (3853), Ki-84

(3790), FW 190A-3 (3769), Yak 9D (3651), Bf 109K-4 (3620), P-51D

(3453), FW 190A-8 (3400), F6F-3 (3141), Spit Vb (3112), FW 190D-9

(3084), Bf 109E-3 (3061), Spit Ia (2963), F4F-3 (2900), Hurri IIb

(2867), A6M5 (2830), P-47D (2749), Hurri I (2680), Me 110C-4

(2657), P-40E (2500). Some planes more quickly lose climb

performance as altitude increases (FW 190 A series, A6M5, Yak 9D,

LA5-FN, and to a lesser extent the Ki-84), so this order changes

at higher altitudes -- these planes move down the list, although

not below the last three in the list (which climb very poorly at

all altitudes).

Roll rate at 150 knots (seconds/roll, Brooke's off-line testing,

+- 0.5 seconds): FW 190A-3, A-4, A-8, and D-9 (3.5), A6M5 (3.5),

F4U-1D (4), Spit Ia, Vb, and IX (4), N1K1 (4), Ki-84 (4.5), Bf

109E-3 and F-4 (4.5), Yak 9D (4.5), LA-5FN (5), Bf 109G-2 and K-4

(5.5), Hurri I and IIb (5.5), F6F-3 (6), P-47D (6), P-38J (6),

P-40E (6.5), F4F-3 (6.5), P-51D (7.5), Me 110C-4 (8).

Roll rate at 300 knots (seconds/roll, Brooke's off-line testing,

+- 0.5 seconds): FW 190A-3, A-4, A-8, and D-9 (2.5), LA5-FN

(3.5), Hurri I and IIb (3.5), F4F-3 (4.5), P-40E (4.5), P-51D

(4.5), F4U-1D (5.5), P-38J (6), Ki-84 (7.5), N1K1-J (7.5), F6F-3

(8), P-47D (8.5), Spit Ia, Vb, and IX (8.5), Bf 109E-3 and F-4

(9.5), A6M5 (12), Bf 109G-2 and K-4 (12), Yak 9D (12.5), Me

100C-4 (13).

Durability (Air-Warrior hardness rating, courtesy of Twist's Web

page and some educated guesses): P-47D (4.3), F4U-1D (4.2),

F6F-3 (and F4F-3?) (4.2), Me 110C-4 (?), P-38J (4.1), FW 190's

(all about 4.0), Bf 109's (all about 3.8, although the K-4

version might be tougher), Yak 9D (and LA-5FN?) (3.6), P-51D (and

P-40E?) (3.5), N1K1 (?), Ki-84 (3.3), Spitfires (and Hurricanes?)

(all about 3.2), A6M5 (2.4). The following planes will suffer

wing failure if you spike the g meter coming out of

compressibility: A6M5, N1K1-J, Ki-84, and Yak 9D. See Chapter 7

for tips on how to avoid wing failure. In addition, the

Spitfires will rip their wings off if you go faster than about

480 knots.

Lethality at 100% ammo (energy/sec, courtesy Kesmai and some

educated guesses, where brackets indicate planes are close in

performance): FW 190A-8 (14000), FW 190A-3 and A-4 (?), N1K1

(?), {Me 110C-4 (?), Spit Vb (?), Bf 109E-3 (?), Spit IX (8000)},

P-38J (6000), Hurri IIb (?), P-47D (5800), {Spit Ia, Hurri I

(?)}, {Ki-84, Bf 109F-4, Bf 109G-2, Bf 109K-4, F4U-1D, P-51D,

F6F-3, P-40E, Yak 9D, A6M5, LA-5FN? -- all at about 4500}, and

F4F-3 (?).

In my opinion, good choices in the late-war Pacific arena for

typical pilots are the Ki-84, NIK1-J, F6F-3, and P-38J (and the

Spit IX, if it's available). They work well for a variety of

fighting styles, including angles fighting, have few

disadvantages, and so are the least tricky to do well in. They

are not as good at angles fighting as the A6M5, but they are

faster and can use energy and B&Z tactics against it. In the

late-war European arena, for similar reasons, I recommend the

Spit IX, Bf 109F-4, and P-38J. In the early-war Pacific arena, I

recommend the A6M5. In the early-war European arena, I recommend

the Bf 109F-4.

However, keep in mind that just about any plane -- if flown in a

manner that takes advantage of its good traits -- is deadly.

Some planes are just easier to be deadly in than others.

4.1.2 AIR WARRIOR FOR WINDOWS AND MAC

These versions of Air Warrior have available the following

propeller-driven WWII fighter aircraft. From the United States:

P-51D Mustang, F4U-1D Corsair, F6F-3 Hellcat, P-38J Lightning,

and P-47D Thunderbolt. From Great Britain: Spitfire Mk. IX E.

From Germany: FW 190A-8 and Bf 109F-4 Franz. From Japan: A6M5a

Zero, Ki-84 Hayate, and N1K1 Shiden. From Russia: Yak 9D.

Maximum sustained turn rate (degrees/sec, from Kesmai): A6M5a

(27.8), Spitfire IX (27.5), Bf 109-F4 (25.5), Ki-84 (25.4), N1K1

(24), Yak 9D (22.8), F6F-3 (21.3), P-38J (21.1), F4U-1D (20.5),

P-51D (20.3), FW 190A-8 (19.3), P-47D (15.6). This statistic is

not exactly the same as turn rate in a stallfight. In a

stallfight, the Spit IX cannot match an A6M5a, even though their

max. sustained rates are close; the F6F-3 turns about as well as

the Ki-84; and the N1K1 turns a little worse than the F6F-3.

Other than that, the orderings stay about the same.

Top speed (knots, from Kesmai): P-51D (320), Ki-84 (316), FW

190A-8 (309), N1K1 (305), F4U-1D (300), P-38J (300), Spitfire IX

E (293), P-47D (292), Bf 109-F4 (287), F6F-3 (272), Yak 9D (270),

A6M5a (254).

Climb rate (ft/min, from Kesmai): Spitfire IX E (4516), Bf

109-F4 (4402), N1K1 (4100), P-38J (3922), F4U-1D (3863), Ki-84

(3790), Yak 9D (3651), P-51D (3453), FW 190A-8 (3400), F6F-3

(3141), A6M5a (2836), P-47D (2749). Some planes more quickly

lose climb performance as altitude increases (FW 190A-8, A6M5a,

Yak 9D, and to a lesser extent the Ki-84), so this order changes

at higher altitudes -- these planes move down the list.

Roll rate at 150 knots (seconds/roll, Brooke's off-line testing,

+- 0.5 seconds): FW 190A-8 (3), A6M5a (3), F4U-1D (3.5), Spit IX

(3.5), N1K1 (4), Ki-84 (4), Bf 109F-4 (4), Yak 9D (4), F6F-3

(5.5), P-47D (5.5), P-38J (6), P-51D (7).

Roll rate at 300 knots (seconds/roll, Brooke's off-line testing,

+- 0.5 seconds): FW 190A-8 (4), P-51D (4.5), F4U-1D (5), Spit IX

(6), P-38J (6.5), Ki-84 (6.5), N1K1 (6.5), F6F-3 (7.5), P-47D

(7.5), Bf 109F-4 (9.5), A6M5a (10.5), Yak 9D (12).

Durability (Air-Warrior hardness rating, courtesy of Twist's Web

page): P-47D (4.3), F4U-1D (4.2), F6F-3 (4.2), P-38J (4.1), FW

190A-8 (4.0), Bf 109-F4 (3.8), Yak 9D (3.6), P-51D (3.5), N1K1

(?), Ki-84 (3.3), Spitfire IX (3.2), A6M5a (2.4). The following

planes will suffer wing failure if you pull too many g's at very

high speeds: N1K1, Ki-84, Spitfire IX, Yak 9D, and A6M5a. The

Spit IX doesn't have problems until you are over 480 knots;

there, the Spit IX suffers wing failure. The others, though,

have problems at lower speeds. In these planes, be careful when

coming out of compressibility so that you don't rip the wings

off.

Lethality at 100% ammo (energy/sec, from Kesmai): FW 190A-8

(14000), N1K1 (?), Spitfire IX E (8000), P-38J (6000), P-47D

(5800), {Ki-84, Bf 109-F4, F4U-1D, P-51D, F6F-3, Yak 9D, A6M5a --

all at about 4500}.

In my opinion, good choices in the Pacific arena for typical

pilots are the Ki-84, NIK1-J, and F6F-3. They work well for a

variety of fighting styles, including angles fighting, have few

disadvantages, and so are the least tricky to do well in. They

are not as good at angles fighting as the A6M5, but they are

faster and can use energy and B&Z tactics against it. In the

European arena, for similar reasons, I recommend the Spitfire Mk

IX and Bf 109F-4.

However, keep in mind that just about any plane -- if flown in a

manner that takes advantage of its good traits -- is deadly.

Some planes are just easier to be deadly in than others.

4.2 THE F6F-3 HELLCAT

by Brooke

The Hellcat was designed by the Grumman Aircraft Engineering

Corporation to be the successor to its Wildcat as the US Navy's

main fighter. The Hellcat, with its Pratt and Whitney Double

Wasp engine (a 2000 HP, air-cooled radial), was to be faster than

the Wildcat and to have a better rate of climb, more firepower,

and better armor -- yet still be easy to fly and to maintain,

rugged, reliable, and simple to build. The Hellcat met all of

these requirements well. Having first entered combat in 1943,

the Hellcat was widely used until the end of the war, where it

finished with the best combat record of any fighter: an

impressive 19:1 kill ratio. It had a top true airspeed of 330

knots at 22,000 ft. and armament consisting of six 50-caliber

machine guns.

In Air Warrior, the F6F-3 is not best at any one thing -- but it

is good at almost everything. Its worst trait is its lack of

speed -- it is one of the slower late-war planes in the game

(which tells you how slow the Wildcat was) -- so you can't often

run away if a fight turns against you. It also hits

compressibility rather early. It is decent to good at everything

else, though. Its most outstanding traits are its turning

performance, ruggedness, and ammo load.

In the Pacific theater, assuming that Spitfires are not

available, the F6F-3 can at stall speeds turn as well as or

better than every plane except the A6M5, and it can outrun,

outclimb, and outgun the A6M5. The Ki-84 can rival the F6F-3 at

stall-speed turning, and is a lot faster, which is why the Ki-84

is more popular. The P-38J also turns well at low speeds, but it

is trickier to coax full turn performance out of at low speeds.

The Hellcat is one of the most rugged planes in the game. It can

usually withstand several good hits (except as delivered by a FW

190 A series or N1K1, perhaps) before going down. Also, you need

not fear ripping your wings off coming out of compressibility or

in a high-speed dive.

The F6F-3's lethality is mediocre for the same reasons that the

P-51D's and F4U-1D's lethalities are (six 50-caliber machine guns

-- see the write-up on the P-51D). However, the F6F-3 holds a

very large amount of ammunition, as much as the F4U-1D, and it

holds 100% lethality for the whole load.

The F6F-3 doesn't have maneuvering flaps (as do the P-51D and

P-38J). In fact, the F6F-3's flaps are not very useful in

combat; but it does have a speed brake, which can be useful in

reducing a large airspeed in order to turn more tightly. Ki-84's

do not have speed brakes, so if one is following at high speed,

you can sometimes use the speed brake to out-turn him. The

Ki-84, not being as rugged, must worry about tearing off wings

when coming out of compressibility and in very high-speed dives.

When I'm in an angles-fighting mood in the Pacific theater, the

F6F-3 is usually my choice.

4.3 THE F4U-1D CORSAIR

by Twist

The Corsair, like the Marines it often served, was lucky to

survive its way into the second World War. (In the period before

WWII, the Marines were almost dissolved; luckily for the

Americans, this never came to pass). Built primarily for Navy

operations and worked on as early as 1938, the Corsair had a

rocky start when it was initially deemed unsuitable for carrier

operations. Pilots had problems with the long nose giving poor

takeoff visibility, as well as the landing gear assembly causing

some difficulties. An additional problem existed that stayed

with the plane throughout it's history -- the huge R2800 engine

the F4U carried generated significant torque effects at low

airspeeds, and early on the Corsair earned the title "Ensign

Eliminator" to describe its behavior. Pilots unfamiliar with the

plane might wall the throttle at low speeds, at which point it

would quickly flip on its back and plow into the turf.

All of the problems aside from the torque were dealt with in

short order, but the Navy was still wary of the plane and didn't

implement it particularly quickly. The Marines on the other hand

were very happy with it, and it became standard fare for their

Air division. After pilots became familiar with it and after

some slight modifications were made, it was evident that the F4U

was a superior aircraft; it is without doubt only rivaled by the

F6F Hellcat as a carrier-based fighter in WWII.

Like the Hellcat, the F4U was an extremely dangerous plane to

Japanese pilots increasingly dependent on the Zero design as the

war moved on. Its inverted gull wing produced a low-drag

profile, and the Pratt and Whitney R2800 delivered as always

massive horsepower at altitudes most other planes couldn't reach.

[The F4U-1D had a top true airspeed of 361 knots at 24,000 ft.]

A Zero pilot faced in the F4U a plane that was considerably

faster, had twice the horsepower, could climb much better, was

much better armored, and featured the by then staple American gun

configuration of multiple [six] .50's with lots of ammo. Not

surprisingly, the F4U generated a massive (11:1) kill ratio

rivaled only by it's R2800 cousin the F6F.

The Corsair was such a solid design that it was used well after

the war into the 1950's in a variety of roles. For a plane type

that is assumed to make some concessions to its carrier-based

operation, the F4U proved to be an outstanding design. If it

weren't slightly range limited compared to the P-51, P-38, or

P-47, it could have easily filled any of the roles they were used

for as well in the Pacific.

The F4U in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Lethality -- Good lethality, and like the F6F, huge ammo supply.

Roll rate -- [One of the] Best roll rate[s] available in the

Pacific.

Tough -- As with most American designs, a heavily armored

fighter.

Climb -- Excellent climb rates that only an F6F [and N1K1] can

match, but the F4U is faster than the F6F at any given climb

rate.

Weaknesses:

Poor sustained turn ability -- Compared to the F6F, Ki, or of

course Zero.

Take off checklist:

Where: Any Pacific aircraft field.

Field: The F4U isn't the best choice for a capped or

immediate-action field. Although it climbs well, it can't

steadily out turn anything in the Pacific except a P-51; so give

yourself a sector or so to climb in where you can better use it's

airbrakes and flaps from alt.

Fuel: Corsairs are decent in fuel endurance, but super-light

loads don't help them much. Might as well take 50% or more if

you're going particularly far.

Bombs: Two bombs; the F4U is a good dive bomber.

One way of getting a handle on the F4U is to think of it as "the

FW of the Pacific." If you're familiar with both planes, this

may seem a little deceptive, since the F4U has two strengths the

FW does not: it can turn passably well [compared to the FW], and

it has a great climb rate. But the turn ability comes in an

environment filled with such turn wonders as the Zeke and the

F6F; depending heavily on an F4U's turn ability will get you

killed more often than not, since it can't tangle with these

planes at low or medium alts. Similarly, there are other planes

(notably the F6F [and the N1K1]) which can climb much like the

F4U, so you have to be careful when applying that as well.

What makes the F4U like the FW is (a) speed and (b) roll rate.
These two components combined are all you need to go on

multi-kill mission sprees providing you take the time to set up a

situation properly and work from alt on your opponent. The

decent high-speed characteristics of the F4U let you dive in,

take your shot, and climb back out again quickly. Remember to

keep your e-state [energy state] high however, as Ki's and P-51's

[and N1K1's] both have speed advantage on you at most alts.

This is not to say you can't ever use the turn ability of the

F4U, however, just that as a design all of its strengths are

particularly suited to B&Z or energy fighting methods. The F4U

has multistage flaps and the all important airbrakes, so it can

perform tricks similar to those of the P-38 or F6F by coming at

high speed, then chopping throttle and slamming the brakes to

come around quickly on the opponent. It can pull some

interesting tricks with nose-down, flapped turns against the

likes of Ki's -- although this requires a fine edge of control on

the brakes and speed to work correctly. Try speeds of 210-225

with 1 click of flaps, tapping the airbrakes on and off as you go

around, and keeping the nose down to hold a steady speed.

If you've got an opponent roped in and have even a slight

e-advantage over him, [other than the N1K1] the F4U is the king

of the spiral climb in the Pacific. Even F6F's can be had with

this maneuver because of their slower speeds. And one thing to

remember about the F4U is that it really comes into its own at

high altitudes; above 26K you can not only out turn the likes of

a Ki using flaps, but you can also out RUN them. P51s are fun to

start turning at this alt as well. The only plane to beware of

at nosebleed alts is the P-38, a shock to most players who

haven't flown it that high. [Watch out for the N1K1, too.]

Regardless of the fact I despise the Pacific arena in AW, the F4U

is my favorite plane to fly, rivaled only by the FW. Both are

purebred killing machines and exhibit everything that made for an

excellent WWII fighter.

4.4 THE P-38J LIGHTNING

by Twist

The P-38 has probably the most convoluted and interesting

histories of any major WWII fighter. To begin with, the

specifications it was created for were widely regarded as a pipe

dream; unheard of requirements for top end speeds of 360 mph

along with high altitude and massive payload requirements made

many experienced aircraft manufacturers shy away from the

submission process. At the time this design document was

circulating, top speeds of 300 mph were unusual, and no fighters

were designed to operate consistently above 20,000 feet.

But the (then) small-time company Lockheed had an idea that they

could make an airplane that delivered. Using the brilliant and

unconventional ideas of their designer, Kelly Johnson (who later

went on to help design the SR-71 Blackbird among others),

Lockheed came up with a plane that was totally unique for the

time: two engined, using liquid-cooled inlines instead of

radials, tricycle landing gear, staggering operating ranges and

payloads, yet able to maneuver capably with single-engined

fighters.

Had the P-38 been focused on early and more exclusively by the US

war industry, it almost certainly would have become the dominant

fighter of the war. The test models of the P-38 made more

"firsts" than any other plane type; in paper and in the air, it

met and exceeded almost everything asked of it. It's long-range

potential was immediately evident to people like Doolittle and

Hap Arnold (prodded successfully by Lt. Ben Kelsey, an early

supporter of the P-38 and one of the main reasons it survived to

production), since it could deliver payloads of up to 4,000 lbs

and had potential ranges of 2200 miles even early in its

development, later reaching more than 3,000 miles.

But Lockheed as a company was unused to playing the political

games required to bring a major production fighter through its

infancy, and other unique problems plagued the Lightning as it

was developed. It was fast -- too fast, as it become the first

fighter to suffer heavily from compression (until then a largely

misunderstood aerodynamic effect) with deadly results. The

inline V12 engines could be married to a supercharger system that

delivered high horsepower, but the entire system was unreasonably

finicky compared to the much sturdier radials popular in other

designs. Eventually difficulties with the Lightning reached

almost bizarre proportions -- for example a C-47 carrying

equipment to correct compression on many of the operational

P-38's in the 8th Army Air Force was accidentally shot down over

the Atlantic by a British pilot, a setback that cost the P-38

months of good use in Europe.

These events conspired to put the Lightning in a difficult

situation: in the early part of the European bombing campaign,

it was the only fighter with range to fly into Germany and back,

but it was also basically an incomplete design, and Lockheed was

having a very difficult time meeting production demands that

required both new fighters and retro fittings for older units at

the same time.

At just about exactly the time the P-38 had started into its true

potential as a fighter/interceptor, it was pulled from front-line

service by the 8th AAF in Europe and supplanted by the P-51 with
Merlin engines. It was still used in the Pacific afterwards and

was in fact in great demand there, much more so than it's P-51 or

P-47 siblings. At the end of the war, with the cumulative

tuning of several years of operation, the P-38 was an amazing

fighter by any consideration. It could fly farther, at a greater

height, and carry much more payload than any other fighter. [The

P-38J had a top true speed of 363 knots at 32,000 ft. Armament

consisted of four 50-caliber machine guns and one 20 mm cannon.]

The Lightning in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Turns -- Surprisingly to some players, the P-38 can perform an

excellent turn. The trick to it is to get the nose down 20

degrees or so with at least one click of flaps, and possibly

riding the airbrakes. In this configuration you can regularly

confound Spits and Bf 109's that try to follow suit.

Flaps -- The P-38 has the most responsive multi-position flap

arrangement in the game, with some strange characteristics due to

modeling. For instance, letting out a click of flaps causes the

nose to leap up several degrees, very useful when doing vertical

loops (called "walking the flaps" or "pumping the flaps").

Guns -- Good ammo load, and at the very beginning, carries the

extra punch of cannon rounds, the only US fighter so equipped.

Weaknesses:

E-loss -- The Lightning is a bad plane for E-loss [energy loss].

In dives, it compresses fairly easily, which can be recovered

with airbrakes, but that means lost speed and energy. In turns,

it can manage itself well PROVIDING it has some alt to work with.

Once on the floor, it's not very good.

Climb -- [In Air Warrior for Windows and Mac,] Similar to the

P-51 or FW, the P-38 does not climb particularly well. In

particular, it cannot play climbing-spiral games with Spit's or

Bf 109's. [In Air Warrior II, it climbs well.]

Big ass -- Simply put, the Lightning is a big damn target. AW

has to make concessions to the way bullet hits are computed, and

that concession is to create a circle around the plane called a

"hit bubble" based on its wingspan. The P-38 has a huge

wingspan. In real life, this wasn't such an issue because the

PROFILE of the plane is very slim, but this benefit isn't

delivered in Air Warrior.

The Lightning is much like the Hellcat in AW: a jack of all

trades but master of none. It's a capable stallfighter, used

correctly. It can B&Z, although almost nobody flies it this way

(takes too long to climb out and come back). It's the best of

the dive bombers, providing a stable platform, two bombs, and

dive brakes to control descent.

But a lot of the things the Lightning was designed for don't come

through well in AW, or can't because of design considerations.

For instance, as mentioned above, the P-38 has the greatest hit

area of any fighter, even though in real life it had a small

profile. It featured a nose mounted gun set that didn't have to

be tuned for convergence like wing guns, and therefore were

extremely accurate even to great distances, but AW [might not

model this with as much contrast as was evident in real life].

One thing does come through well: the P-38 is the best

all-around fighter at "nosebleed" alts, an important thing to

consider in scenarios. It can easily climb into the 40K+ range,

is maneuverable at that alt, and keeps its speed well. It was

designed as an interceptor, and it does that, very well.

4.5 THE P-51D MUSTANG

by Brooke

I love the P-51D Mustang. When I was a kid, I read about the
exploits of American aces who flew this sleek, beautiful plane.

I still think it's one of the most beautiful airplanes ever made.

The P-51 was originally designed by North American Aviation

Company in response to a purchase request by Britain for more

P-40's. (North American thought it could design something better

than the P-40 and got the go ahead.) The first P-51 was -- from

scratch -- designed and built in the amazingly small span of only

90 days. The innovative airframe was to prove itself in the

years to come, but the P-51 was originally equipped with an

Allison engine, which wasn't worth a damn at high altitude. So,

the P-51 was initially used as a ground-attack airplane because

the Allison worked well at low altitude.

The British seemed happy with the P-51 as a ground-attack plane,

but some bright guy had the idea that the P-51 would be a hell of

a fighter at altitude if only it had a Rolls-Royce Merlin in it.

The Merlin was a V-12 liquid-cooled engine of about 1500 HP at

takeoff. Eventually, a Merlin was slapped in, and the result was

one of the most highly regarded fighters of WWII. (The British

were also the ones who gave it the name "Mustang.") The

Merlin-equipped P-51 was excellent at high altitudes, was agile,

had a very long range (long enough to escort bombers all the way

from England to Germany and back), and was very, very fast (one

of the fastest WWII fighters). The P-51D had a top true airspeed
of 373 knots at 24,000 ft.

In Air Warrior, the P-51D is the fastest prop plane at altitudes

below about 30,000 ft. (Above that, it becomes the

second-fastest -- the P-47D, with its enormous

washing-machine-sized turbocharger, is faster). The P-51D is a

fast-rolling prop plane at high speeds (above about 275 knots)

and can go faster than most other prop planes before hitting

compressibility. Overall, the P-51D handles very well at speed

and picks up speed well in dives. It can also deploy a notch of

flaps at speeds up to about 300 knots, which can give it

extraordinary maneuverability in the 275-300 knot range.

As for lethality, the P-51D's six 50-caliber machine guns are

mediocre. Air Warrior models the boost in lethality due to

explosive cannon rounds (which the P-51D doesn't have) but does

not model the effect of armor-piercing and incendiary ammo, which

is what the P-51D used. It is quite difficult to model the

effect of these things compared to explosive rounds. At any

rate, even though as modeled in Air Warrior the P-51D's lethality

is mediocre, it does have a large ammo supply, and the lethality

stays high almost all the way to the end of the ammo load (unlike

most of the cannon-equipped planes whose lethality drops

drastically when the cannon rounds run out, which is generally

somewhere around the 50%-ammo mark).

The P-51D is a fairly robust plane, too. It will not experience

wing failure at high speeds or coming out of compressibility.

Even though the P-51D has a liquid-cooled engine (making its

cooling system vulnerable to damage from gunfire, unlike the

air-cooled engines of planes like the P-47D, F4U-1D, and F6F-3),

it can take a fair amount of damage and still fly. It is

definitely a more sturdy plane than the Spitfires and Ki-84.

The P-51D does not turn well at low speeds. At near stall

speeds, it will get out-turned by most fighters in the game, with

the P-47D and FW 190's being notable exceptions. Unless you are

fighting one of those or another P-51D, do not allow yourself to

get sucked into a low-speed fight. And against the FW 190's, you

have to be very careful at low speeds because they can outroll a

P-51D by a wide margin.

As for time aloft, the P-51D with 100% fuel can stay aloft longer

than any other fighter in the game except perhaps the A6M5. For

arena fighting, you generally won't need 100% fuel. Take only as

much fuel as you typically use (plus some safety margin) -- the

more fuel you load, the heavier your plane, and the more poorly

it will turn and climb. 30-40% fuel is probably more than enough

for most arena play (where staying in one plane for more than an

hour is not too common).

With this combination of attributes, the P-51D is an excellent

plane for scenarios, where time aloft, ammo load, performance at

altitude, roll response, and speed are much more important than

low-speed turning performance. In regular arena battles, it is a

much more tricky plane to use. You can outrun everything that

can out-turn you, but if you get caught by a better-turning plane

at lower altitudes (which are common in arena play), you are in

trouble.

Effective use of the P-51D in the arena thus requires planning

and finesse. The key is, if you are fighting a plane that turns

better at low speed, disengage before you get too slow in the

fight. If you have misjudged that point and are already slow by

the time the better-turning plane is coming around on your tail,

dive out if you can, barrel rolling and jinking on the way down.

Or try a very steep, diving spiral. The P-51D picks up speed

rapidly and (in all but a couple of cases) is sturdy enough to

take a hit or two as you outrun your opponent. The earlier you

recognize your trouble, the easier will be your disengagement.

Some specific recommendations for various planes follow. Do not

try to dive away from FW 190's or N1K1's in situations where they

can get some good shots at your tail unless you are very

desperate. The FW 190's and perhaps N1K1's can kill you with one
good burst. Be wary of Spitfires and F4U-1D's. Both of them

are fast planes that handle well at high speed but that can

out-turn you at low speed. Because they are fast, they are more

difficult to disengage from. The Ki-84 and N1K1 are even more

formidable in that regard as they are nearly as fast as the P-51

at some altitudes and yet can turn extremely well at low speed.

Fortunately, the Ki-84 and N1K1 do not roll well at high speed,

are not very sturdy (and can rip their wings off coming out of

compressibility if its pilot isn't careful), and hit

compressibility earlier than the P-51. Be careful about getting

slow around Ki-84's and N1K1's, especially if you don't have a

good altitude cushion for diving out. N1K1's can out climb the

P-51, too. N1K1's even have a notch of flaps that can be

deployed at high speed. Fortunately, the P-51D can out roll the

N1K1 at high speeds.

The following two maneuvers are not the safest of maneuvers, and

I rarely use them; but I thought I'd mention them anyway. If you

can get an enemy to follow you into compressibility, you can

crank your P-51D into a 6-g loop and see if your opponent rips

his wings off coming out of compressibility while trying to

follow you. (The A6M5, N1K1, and Ki-84 are susceptible to

ripping their wings off -- American and German fighters are not.)

Or you can try chopping throttle briefly, deploying a notch of

flaps at 300 knots, and looping hard on your opponent, coming

around for a shot on him as both of you loop hard, rapidly losing

speed. Do not try this against planes with speed brakes or the

ability to deploy flaps at speed (F4U-1D's, P-38J's, F6F-3's,

N1K1's, and of course other P-51D's).

Another variation on the latter maneuver is a split S close

enough to the ground and at a high enough speed so that you, with

throttle chopped and a notch of flaps deployed, can make it

whereas your opponent (in a Spitfire, say, which is a plane that

does not bleed off speed well and that has no significant ability

to slow down other than by chopping throttle) cannot. This

maneuver obviously requires good judgment on your part if you are

to keep from digging a nice ditch in the ground with your

airplane, but it's a good maneuver to try when you are at low

altitude and a more maneuverable opponent is running you down.

In the arena, the P-51D is a good plane for B&Z fighting and,

because of its sleek shape and ability to hold onto its energy,

can fight well in the vertical, such as vertical dives onto an

enemy followed by a pull out and then a vertical climb, repeated

until you run out of an altitude advantage on the enemy. The

P-51D can be a very deadly plane if flown correctly, but it is

not as easy to get kills with one as it is in the more popular

Spitfire IX and Ki-84. Against other P-51D's, FW 190's, and

P-47D's, you can fly however you like, using angles tactics if
you so choose. Against other planes, you will need to use B&Z

and energy tactics. Against Spitfires, N1K1's, and Ki-84's

especially, effective use of the P-51D means that you use

whatever energy advantage you have and then disengage if you lose

that energy advantage. When you have mastered the P-51D, you

will know it, as you will get kills and then get yelled at on the

radio -- there is no other plane in the game that, when flown

well, generates as much frustration in its opponents.

4.6 THE P-47D THUNDERBOLT

by Brooke

Thunderbolt was built by the Republic Aviation Corporation as a

high-speed, high-altitude interceptor for the US Army Air Force.

Originally, it was to be lightweight and have a liquid-cooled

Allison engine. But there were problems obtaining the Allisons,

so the plane was redesigned around a combination of the most

powerful US-built engine (the Pratt and Whitney Double Wasp -- a

2000 HP, radial air-cooled engine) and an enormous

washing-machine-sized turbocharger. The engine and a large fuel

tank were in the fuselage in front of the cockpit, and the

turbocharger was behind the cockpit. The Thunderbolt (also

called the "Juggernaut" and the "Jug") was a huge plane yet,

despite its size and the aerodynamic drag of a huge radial up

front, was extremely fast at high altitudes. The P-47D had a top

true airspeed of 369 knots at 25,000 ft. Overall, US fighters

were rugged, but the Thunderbolt was probably the most rugged.

Thunderbolts have returned to base with cylinders shot off their

engines and after having flown through trees, not to mention with

large amounts of damage from enemy gunfire.

The Thunderbolt was our main US fighter used against the Germans

until well into the war. Eventually, most air combat duty was

flown by Mustangs, as Thunderbolts didn't have the range to

escort bombers from England to Germany and back. Then many

Thunderbolts, thanks to their great ruggedness and ability to

carry heavy loads, were assigned to ground attack. It is ironic

that the plane first used for high-altitude interception (the

Thunderbolt) and the plane first used for ground attack (the

Mustang) switched roles in the later stages of the war.

In Air Warrior, the P-47D makes a good scenario plane but a poor

arena plane. The reason it is a poor arena plane is that it is

the worst fighter in the game for angles fighting, low-altitude

dogfights, and low-speed dogfights. It turns abysmally at low

speeds, bleeds off speed quickly during hard maneuvering, and can

barely get out of its own way at speeds under 225 knots. You are

limited to B&Z fighting except against other P-47D's (which are

almost always rare) and against unwary FW 190 pilots (the

Thunderbolt is worse than FW 190's at low-speed turning, but not

by as huge an amount compared to other aircraft).

However, in scenarios, low-speed agility isn't as important as

the other things -- and the P-47D is good at most of the other

things. Although it's climb rate isn't spectacular at low

altitudes, it holds a fairly steady rate of climb all the way up

to 30,000 feet or more, so it gets to very high altitudes nicely.

You can climb a P-47D to 40,000 feet or more, which most planes

in Air Warrior cannot reach. Up at 30,000 feet and above, the

P-47D is the fastest propeller-driven plane in the game.

There are a few disadvantages that do affect scenario use. The

P-47D hits compressibility at lower speeds than most aircraft in

the game (which can cause problems while pursuing a diving,

fleeing enemy), and bleeding off energy quickly during hard

maneuvers is a problem because you don't get all that many B&Z

passes before you have to move off for more altitude. Also, the

P-47D has a short firing duration, for while it has a large ammo

load, its 8 50-caliber machine guns go through that ammo quickly.

On the positive side, though, the 8 machine guns provide very

good lethality; and the P-47D is the most rugged fighter in the

game, able usually to withstand a huge amount of damage before

going down.
In conclusion, for arena play, the P-47D is harder to be

effective in. It is so ponderous at low speeds. Still, I like

occasionally to fly the P-47D because I enjoyed reading about its

role in history. Also, in a scenario where there are

high-altitude patrols or tough ground-attack missions, I like the

P-47D. For ground attack, it is rugged enough to withstand lots

of damage from AAA and still get to the target. For

high-altitude patrols, it gets up there nicely and is so very

fast. Way up there, in your Thunderbolt, you get to call the

shots -- and that's what the Thunderbolt was made for, after all.

4.7 THE F4F-3 WILDCAT

by Brooke

The F4F Wildcat was built by the Grumman Aircraft Engineering

Corporation and was the main naval fighter for the US until its

decendent the Hellcat came along. Its main opponent was the

Zero, and like the other early-war US fighters, the P-40 and

P-39, it was outclassed by the Zero most respects except

sturdiness. It had a Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp air-cooled

radial engine, which delivered 1200 HP at takeoff and a top true

speed of 273 knots at 16,000 ft. (slower than the Zero).

Armament consisted of four 50-caliber machine guns.

In Air Warrior, the F4F-3 has poor lethality, is not fast nor a

good climber, but it is sturdy, and it does turn well -- well

enough to outturn the P-38J, for example, at low speeds. It is

an agile plane that's fun to fly -- sort of like a sturdier (but

more ponderous) A6M5. Also, it rolls surprisingly well at high

speeds.

4.8 THE P-40E KITTYHAWK

by Brooke

The P-40 was built by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, first going

into production in the summer of 1939. It was built until

December, 1994, and was used in all theaters of WWII on the side

of the US and by the allies of the US. More than 15,000 of these

aircraft were built during WWII. The P-40 (up to and including

the E model) had a liquid-cooled turbocharged Allison engine of

about 1300 HP at takeoff. The P-40F model had a Packard-built

Merlin engine and a top true airspeed of 320 knots at 20,000 ft.,

which was faster than the A6M5. The P-40E and later models had

six 50-caliber machine guns, three in each wing.

The P-40 is most famous for its role as the primary fighter of

the volunteers who flew for the Flying Tigers and who fought

against the Japanese in China. Early models were outclassed by

the Zero, which was faster, could climb better, could get to a

higher altitude, and which was more maneuverable. The P-40 was,

however, faster in a dive and more sturdy; and the P-40F was

actually faster than the A6M5 overall.

In Air Warrior, the P-40E is not as bad a choice as you might

think if, like me, you've heard a lot about how it wasn't as good

a plane as the Zero. The top true airspeed of the P-40E in Air

Warrior is the same as that quoted above for the P-40F. The

P-40E has very poor climb performance and a poor maximum

sustained turning rate. But despite a low maximum sustained

turning rate, it can turn pretty well at near stall speeds.

Also, it is quite fast for an early-war aircraft and is fairly

sturdy. It rolls well -- surprisingly well at high speeds --

accelerates well, and can get up to some pretty astonishing

speeds in dives.

4.9 THE SPITFIRE MK IX E

by Chick

Gather around, gentleman -- let me introduce you to Reginald

Mitchell's Spitfire. Mr. Mitchell based this plane on his

Schneider Trophy winner, the Supermarine S6. The plane had

planform elliptical wings and a powerful engine, which gave it

excellent speed and handling, making it one of the best fighters

in Europe.

The version we use in Air Warrior is the MK IX. This plane has

the following characteristics.

It can out turn all of the other fighters except the Zero and

possibly the P-38 (and there is much discussion of this).

[Actually, the Spitfire, the Hellcat, and the Ki-84 are all close

in low-speed sustained turning and all are better than the P-38

and worse than the Zero, but the P-38 can generate a large

turning rate in a nose-low turn with 1 notch of flaps, which is

probably what Chick is referring to. With the introduction of

Air Warrior II, there are also some planes that turn very well at

low speeds, such as the F4F-3, other versions of the Spitfire,

Hurricanes, and even the Me 110C-4. -- Brooke] The top true

airspeed is fair [345 knots at 20,000 ft.], but acceleration is

good. It dives well, but wings can be ripped off. The Spit has

a very good lethality but looses it quickly. The ammo load is

very light. [The Spit IX had two 50-caliber machine guns and two

20 mm cannon.] Only the Me 109 can out-climb the Spit in Europe.

[Actually, the Bf 109F-4 is comparable in climb rate, and the

other models don't climb as well. -- Brooke] The Spit can

retain energy so well that it is hard to fly. At over 300 IAS,

you start to lose full controls. The Spit will only take a few
hits, so it is not a plane you can afford to give up hits in.

The flaps on the Spit are 3-position: off, half, and full.

Generally a new pilot in Air Warrior will gravitate to the Spit

because it is a joy to fly and, after one masters the throttle,

it is a proven killer. A moderately well flown Spit is more than

a match for a FW 190 or P-51 caught at the same energy state.

Now that you think the Spit is the best plane in Europe, you jump

in and take off, see an enemy, and pull guns on him. I know that

the blackout is not that long, but it seems you could go get a

drink by the time you can see again. How do you fly this thing?

Well, the secret is the throttle. You have to control your speed

with the throttle -- remember I said that the Spit retained

energy well? In other chapters, you will read about energy and

turn radius, but let us think about this: if you were in a car

turning in a circle at 5 mph could you turn tighter (less

diameter) than if you were driving at 30 mph? I think we all

agree that you could. The Spit holds energy so well that it does

not slow down in the hard turns, forcing the pilot to pull more

elevator to turn, causing more G force to be applied to the

pilot, causing a blackout. So, in our fight we have pulled into

a turn with an enemy, and his plane loses energy faster than the

Spit, so he slows down and as a result turns tighter. We have to

cut inside his turn to get a lead shot (shoot in front) on him.
CUT THE THROTTLE. At 150 indicated air speed and pulling 5 g's,

the Spit will out turn everything in the ETO, with the possible

exception of the P-38.

I am often asked how to get kills or how to maneuver to keep from

getting killed. There is no secret move or place to fly.

However there is this: keep the enemy in your up front view and

always pull up into him. I recommend that the new pilot practice

off line flying at just under 150 IAS. Keep the stall light

flickering and do not use flaps. Now start turning in flat

turns, getting into 180 degree turns. Drop the flaps one notch;

now fly at 75 IAS. Next start looping -- the Spit can loop at

150 IAS all day long. Use the first notch of flaps to help you

get over the top of the loop. You should be able to do several

loops without losing altitude, all at 150 IAS. Now that you have

mastered the Spit in slow flight and in vertical (looping)

flight, the next important thing to remember is: keep the fight

in the vertical and keep it going up.

The fuel load for a Spit varies due to missions. Flying 1 to 2

sectors and fighting requires 15% to 30% fuel; longer missions

take 50%. The additional fuel load reduces the maneuverability

of the plane, so do not take more than you need. The Spit only

carries one bomb, but is a good dive bomber.

Spitfires carry a very light ammo load. The cannon runs out at

50% indicated ammo load resulting in a lethality drop of

approximately 80%. The best I have ever done is 5 kills with a

Spit. Strings of 3 kills are rare, so do not despair if it seems

that you only land one or two. Practice, practice, practice.

You have to exploit the strengths of your plane and the weakness

of the enemy planes, so it is important to learn to fly all the

planes. After the Spit, I always recommend the P-51. Only by

mastering the flight and fight characteristics of a plane can you

know how to put it into unmanageable positions.

4.10 THE SPITFIRE MK VB

by Brooke

This was a variant of the Spitfire first appearing in March,

1941. It had a Rolls-Royce Merlin 45 or 46 series engine

(liquid-cooled, V-12, producing 1400-1500 HP at takeoff).

Armament consisted of four .303 inch caliber machine guns and two

20 mm cannon. Top true airspeed was 317 knots at 20,000 ft.

In Air Warrior, it's like the Spit IX with less HP and little

more firepower. So, while it handles roughtly the same, it has a

lower top speed, lower climb rate, and lower low-speed turn rate.
4.11 THE SPITFIRE MK IA

by Brooke

This was the earliest version of the Spitfire, first appearing in

the 1938. It had a Rolls-Royce Merlin III engine, a

liquid-cooled V-12 that developed 1400 HP at takeoff. Armament

consisted of two 50-caliber machine guns and two 20 mm cannon.

Top true airspeed was 300 knots at 20,000 ft.

In Air Warrior, it's like the Spit Vb with less HP and little

less firepower. So, while it handles roughtly the same, it has a

lower top speed, lower climb rate, and lower low-speed turn rate.

4.12 THE HURRICANE I

by Brooke

The Hurricane was produced by Hawker Aircraft, Ltd., which

produced 15,000 of the aircraft (of all models) during the course

of WWII. The Hurricane was used initially by the British as a

fighter and later as a ground-attack aircraft, fitted with

devastating firepower and rockets. The British used it in all

theaters of the war.

The Hurricane I first flew in October, 1937. It had a

Rolls-Royce Merlin II or III engine (a liquid-cooled V-12

producing 1400 HP at takeoff). In the Battle of Britain, it

accounted for more Luftwaffe planes destroyed than any other

plane. Armament consisted of eight .303 inch caliber machine

guns, four in each wing. It had a top true airspeed of 276 knots

at 18,000 ft., slower than the Spitfire Mk Ia and Mk Vb, but the

Hurricane I supposedly turned at least as well if not better.

In Air Warrior, this plane turns well and rolls astonishingly

well at high speed; but it is very slow.

4.13 THE HURRICANE IIB

by Brooke

The Hurricane IIb is the same as the Hurricane I but with a

Merlin XX engine installed and four more .303 inch caliber

machine guns -- giving it a total armament of 12 machine guns,

six in each wing! It first saw service in November, 1941. The

Merlin XX was a liquid-cooled V-12 producing 1500 HP at takeoff.

The Hurricane IIb was bit better at altitude and had better

firepower than the Hurricane I, althought the Hurricane I is

faster on the deck than the IIb. Top true airpseed was 277 knots
at 20,000 ft.

4.14 THE FW 190A-8

by Twist

The FW 190 is much less recognized than the Bf 109, the fighter

plane typically associated with the Luftwaffe, but it served

Germany well and in many ways was a better plane than the more

famous Messerschmitt. First appearing in 1941, the capabilities

of this plane were a rude shock to the British, who worked

quickly to bring the Spitfire in line with the FW 190's

performance. FW 190's were made in large quantities until the

end of the war and served a variety of roles from pure

fighter/interceptor to fighter/bomber.

The principle advantages that made the FW so deadly in real life

are preserved well in it's simulated counterpart; the weapons of

the FW pilot are speed and amazing firepower. At the time of

it's introduction, the FW was both faster and MUCH more-heavily

armed than any comparable allied plane. [Top true airspeed for

the FW 190A-8 was 345 knots at 19,000 ft. Armament consisted of

two 13 mm machine guns and four(!) 20 mm cannon.]

The FW 190A-8 in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Speed -- Top-end speed second only to the P-51 [in the European

theater], but only average acceleration.

Lethality -- Most powerful gun set of any plane.

Roll rate -- Best roll rate available.

Tough -- The FW can not only deal it out, but also can take

substantial punishment.

Weaknesses:

Poor sustained turn ability -- The FW is a terrible

close-quarters turn fighter.

Climb rate -- Can be easily out climbed by most stallfighters.

High-alt performance -- Although it can climb to 38K, the FW [A

series] is very poor above 25K.

Take off checklist:

Where: The FW is available from any plane field in Europe.

Field: Due to it's mediocre climb and poor turning ability, the

FW [A series] is not well suited to low-alt engagements,

especially when outnumbered. Typically the FW pilot should look

around before taking off to make sure there is about a sector

worth of clear air to climb in.

Fuel: The FW has excellent fuel endurance, but doesn't benefit

substantially from lower fuel loads to increase maneuverability.

Taking 30% will get you several sectors to a fight and back, but

taking 50% or even a little more will give plenty of time to

climb to alt, fly for long periods picking fights, and bring you

home.

Bombs: Only one bomb allowed.

The FW is a difficult plane to master, especially for newcomers,

because it is weak in the areas that are intuitive about air

combat. Simply put, it doesn't turn well, and most sim pilots --

especially those used to unrealistic sims -- expect the hard turn

to be the crucial maneuver of any engagement.

The key to flying the FW successfully is to become practiced at

energy fighting, or boom-and-zoom tactics. Given it's

capabilities, it's obvious that the FW is not a stellar

stallfighter -- sustained turns against Spit's or Bf 109's in a

FW are suicide. But there are plenty of ways using it's speed

and roll ability to bring those massive guns to bear on opponents

-- and with the gun set it has, even the briefest guns solution

can be deadly.

Boom-and-zoom/energy fighting are beyond the scope of a simple

plane discussion and will be covered in another page. We'll

assume a general familiarity with the concept and proceed to the

specifics of the FW. When I was learning the FW initially, I

came up with a simple set of rules that allowed me to use it

effectively. They were as follows:

Twist's FW engagement list:

8K is "hard deck" -- when forced below this, switch to egress

tactics.

2K alt advantage preferable over highest opponent, ESPECIALLY

when alone.

Ideal firing pass speed is about 300 kts.

Use shallow attack angles less than 20 degrees -- don't dive in

from straight above.

NEVER dive below opponents current alt.

Avoid fixation -- scan after every pass. If new entry is higher

threat than previous opponent, then ignore previous until new

threat is dealt with.

Remember that the purpose of this rule set is to get you familiar

with the attack style and the plane, and after you are, it's very

possible to bend one or several of these parameters. (I

particularly will deliberately dive below the current fight

plateau against groups of opponents -- but only when I am sure my

speed is much higher to make up for the alt disadvantage.)

It's crucial with these tactics to become adept at assessing

threats against you, a subset of what is known as "situational

awareness." In a stallfighting situation, you are often very

focused on a single or perhaps a few opponents, all of which you

are basically trying to out turn. As an energy fighter, you have

to be aware of EVERYBODY within your visibility range, and not

only that, you must be able to quickly and accurately determine

their energy state relative to you. Are they lower or higher?

Faster or slower? An opponent who is lower but considerably

faster than you is probably even more dangerous than a co-alt but
much-slower enemy -- because you might ignore the lower one out

of hand.

The FW is a powerful energy fighter and is best used when

following energy tactics.

4.15 THE FW 190D-9 DORA

by Brooke

The original A series of FW 190's were excellent planes but did

not perform well at high altitudes. The intent with the D series

was to produce fighters with better altitude performance by

taking the very successful airframe of the A series and fitting a

different engine. The engine chosen for the D-9 was Jumo 213

A-1, a liquid-cooled inverted V-12 that could produce 1800 HP at

takeoff and an amazing 2200 HP at takeoff with water and methanol

injection. With this engine, the FW 190D-9 had a top true

airspeed of 364 knots at 18,000 ft. altitude -- a very grave

concern for P-51 pilots. This plane first entered service in the

summer of 1944. Armament consisted of two 13 mm machine guns and

two 20 mm cannon.

In Air Warrior, the FW 190D-9 has the same excellent roll

response and sturdieness of the FW 190A-8 and is better at

altitude. It does have less firepower (two less 20 mm cannon),

but that still gives it excellent firepower compared to other

aircraft in the game. It is a very formidable plane.

4.16 THE FW 190A-3

by Brooke

This was one of the early variants of the FW 190A line, appearing

initially in 1941. It had a BMW 801 D engine, which was an

air-cooled radial producing 1700 HP at takeoff. It shares the

exellent traits of the A-8 model but has a lower top speed and a

slightly higher rate of climb. Armament consisted of two 7.9 mm

machine guns and four 20 mm cannon. This plane was considered to

be superior to its main counterpart, the Spitfire Mk V. It is

truly an excellent aircraft, even by late-war standards. Top

true airspeed was 331 knots at 18,000 ft.

4.17 THE FW 190A-4

by Brooke

This version of the FW 190 was the same as the A-3 but with a

methanol-water power-boost system giving more horsepower (and

thus higher top speed and climb rate) with WEP. The A-3 first
appeared in the spring of 1942 and, as with the A-3, was

considered to be superior to the Spitfire Mk V. Top true

airspeed was 351 knots at 22,000 ft.

4.18 THE Bf 109-F4 FRANZ

by Twist

The Bf 109 was, along with the FW 190, one of the two backbone

fighters of the Luftwaffe for the Second World War. Early on,

however, it was entirely Bf 109's that took to the skies for the

Reich; and the Bf 109 found its reputation as a solid fighter

during the early European campaigns and the Battle of Britain.

It's probable that the British seriously underestimated this

fighter early on, considering their Hurricanes and especially

Spitfires to be superior, a viewpoint that remains entirely

debatable especially for early-war models. The Bf 109 had been

used quite well in the Spanish Civil War, and the German pilots

flying them had a solid understanding of what the aircraft was

capable of, plus they had the benefit of combat experience in

fast prop-driven fighters that lead to superior tactics. In

retrospect, it was probably a very good thing that the Bf 109

limited Luftwaffe pilots to only a few minutes of combat over

England, because if this "inferior" fighter had been better

equipped for long-range sorties, it would have given the Allies

even more trouble.

Of all the planes in WWII, the Bf 109 probably has the most

interesting history; flown well before the War, it lasted all the

way until the bitter end, undergoing continuous modifications and

refinements. That it was able to cope at all was a testament to

a solid design, but by the end of the war, the technology in the

Bf 109 was more of a liability than a benefit to its designers --

it was being used in roles never envisioned for it and

subsequently didn't fill them as well as newer designs might

have. Total output for Bf 109's approached 35,000, and variants

were produced as late as 1956, a more-than-20-year history of

manufacture. [The Bf 109F-4 had a top true airspeed is 337 knots

at 19,000 ft. and an armament of two 13 mm machine guns and one

20 mm cannon.]

The Bf 109 in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Turns -- Bf 109F-4's can turn with just about anything except

Spitfires [and, in Air Warrior II, Me 110C-4's and Hurricanes],

and even then a well-driven Bf 109F-4 will match most Spit

pilots, especially at the 10-12K range where the Bf 109F-4

actually has a slight turn advantage.

Roll -- The Bf 109F-4 features a crisp roll even at low speeds

and, at higher speeds, is a little less mushy than the Spit,

although it's no FW in this regard.

Climb -- The single biggest advantage of this fighter, the Bf

109F-4 can climb better or equal to anything in the Euro plane

set and can achieve some real nosebleed alts, particularly useful

in scenarios.

Target -- Although the Bf 109F-4 is of average toughness, it

offers a difficult target due to its small wing span and quick

roll ability.

Weaknesses:

Lethality -- The Bf 109F-4 has terrible lethality, mostly because

it's difficult for AW to model the benefit of its prop-centered

cannon which required no convergence. Also, it has a very short

ammo duration.

Fuel -- 7-11 sells Big Gulps with better capacity than the Bf

109F-4 fuel tank. At 88 gallons, it's by far the smallest, and

it's not astoundingly fuel efficient, which compounds the

problem.
Speed -- Unfortunately the Bf 109F-4 is just a little shy in this

area. Spit IX's will out accelerate or level speed it, and

P-51D's, P-47D's, and FW 190's of course easily out pace it.

Take off checklist:

Where: The Bf 109F-4 is European only, capable of lifting off

any plane field.

Field: Bf 109F-4's make good scramble fighters, and when

completely tanked up, they can also take off from a rear field

and reach mind-boggling alts before entering the fray.

Fuel: Take lots. Twice as much as you would in a Spitfire,

which means 60% for just average sorties, and 100% if you think

you're going to be flying anywhere extended. You'll use it up

fast enough -- trust me.

Bombs: 1 bomb.

One of the problems with the Bf 109 is that, as the war

progressed, it became less and less of a "dog fighter" and more

of an interceptor. The model used now in AW, the 109-F4, was

probably the best all around fighter of the entire line, and it
was a fairly early production. The core of the problem with this

plane in AW is that it has to deal with a Spitfire IX which is of

later design and, lets face it, a much better plane. If AW were

all about taking off, climbing hard, jumping a formation of

bombers or fighters, and B&Z'ing them briefly, then going home,

the Bf 109F-4 would probably be seen in a much more favorable

light. Unfortunately, AW doesn't always mirror the way the real

war was fought, which in some ways is just as well (in the real

war most pilots never saw combat).

Many players take the Bf 109F-4 up just to make a point about not

taking the Spitfire IX. The important thing to note about this

is that, while the Spit IX is a better plane in almost every

respect, the differences are often so marginal as to be almost

inconsequential. The only thing a Bf 109F-4 fighter has to truly

fear against a Spit IX is being sucked into extended,

minimum-radius flat turns -- where the Spitfire IX has enough of

an advantage to work a Bf 109F-4 over pretty well. The answer to

this is to make a deliberate effort to stay away from these types

of turns -- a Bf 109F-4 should almost always favor a yo-yo, or

Immelman -- something that maximizes the Bf 109F-4's climb

ability and multistage flaps versus the Spit IX.

Against most other planes, the Bf 109F-4 has a long list of

tricks to pull. It's possibly the best fighter at rope-a-dope

maneuvers, considering its low stall speed, "rocket assist" zoom

climb, and snappy roll even at low speeds. As mentioned, it has

two-stage flaps that allow for interesting split-s and nose-low

turning capabilities, and it features 10 minutes of WEP unlike

most fighters than can deliver 5 minutes (although, at WEP

settings, it uses a percentage point of fuel every 11 seconds!).

Almost every experienced 109F-4 flyer in the arena can be seen

using these in combination against Spits and the like -- dive in

with a decent speed, hook the other fighter into following, pull

what looks like a yo-yo into a hard zoom at an angle, and just at

the point of stalling roll over, drop flaps and come down on top

of the opponent. This works great unless the Spit behind you is

hoarding speed, in which case it gets you into trouble fast.

Another aspect of the Bf 109F-4 that's appealing is it is less

"twitchy" than the Spit and in most respects easier to control.

That is, in turn fights, it tends to black you out less, and it

responds fairly predictably to various turn speeds and flap

settings. I usually tell players just beginning to try the

109F-4 over the Spit initially, as the Spit is a little more

demanding of attention for a newer player. Some players never

get used to the high instantaneous turn rate of the Spit or P-38J

that results in so many blackouts, and for these pilots, the Bf

109F-4 is a more stable fighter capable of holding its own in

most circumstances.
4.19 THE BF 109K-4

by Brooke

The Bf 109K-4 was a further refinement of the G series. It had a

Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine (liquid-cooled, inverted V-12) that

produced an impressive 2000 HP at takeoff. It was faster and had

better high-altitude performance than preceeding series of 109's,

but it was yet heavier and less maneuverable. Armament consisted

of two 15 mm machine guns and one 30 mm cannon. Top true

airspeed was 369 knots at 25,000 ft.

4.20 THE BF 109G-2 GUSTAV

by Brooke

The G-series Bf 109's were designed for more speed and better

high-altitude performance at the cost of a heavier, less

maneuverable plane compared to the F series. The Bf 109G-2 had a

Daimler-Benz DB 605 A engine, a liquid-cooled, inverted V-12 that

developed 1500 HP at takeoff. Armament consisted of two 13 mm

machine guns and one 20 mm cannon. Top true airspeed was 329

knots at 25,000 ft.

4.21 THE BF 109E-3 EMIL

by Brooke

This was an early version of the Bf 109 that first appeared in

late 1939. It had the Daimler-Benz DB 601Aa, liquid-cooled,

inverted V-12 engine, which delivered 1200 HP at takeoff. It had

lower horsepower and higher drag than the Bf 109F-4 and thus a

lower top speed and climb rate and slightly lower maximum

sustained turn rate. It is similar in other respects. Armament

consisted of two 7.9 mm machine guns and two 20 mm cannon. Top

true airspeed was 295 knots at 18,000 ft.

4.22 THE ME 110C-4 ZERSTORER

by Brooke

The Me 110 was the first twin-engined military aircraft designed

by Professor Willy Messerschmitt. It first went into production

in 1938 and was used throughout WWII as a light bomber, attack

aircraft, and night fighter. It had two Daimler-Benz

liquid-cooled engines of 1500 HP each at takeoff and a top true

airspeed of 303 knots at 16,000 ft. Armament consisted of two 20

mm cannon and four 7.9 mm machine guns for forward firing and one

7.9 mm machine gun for the rear gunner.

In Air Warrior, like most early-war planes, compared to late-war

planes, the Me 100C-4 is slow and climbs poorly. The Me 110C-4

also has relatively poor roll performance, but it does turn quite

well, has very good lethality, and a large ammo supply. Unlike

other bomber/attack aircraft, its wings do not suffer structural

failure above 6 g's, and it has no problems coming out of

compressibility.

4.23 THE Ki-84 HAYATE

by Specter

The Ki-84 is one of the best stall fighters in the game, has very

good speed, is a fairly decent during the climb, and if energy is

managed carefully, does a better than average service as a B&Z

platform.

The Ki-84 turns on a dime (second best sustained turn radius --

only the Zero is capable of out-turning it). In a very slow

stall fight, adjusting flaps improves turning performance.

The armament consists of machine guns and cannon. The Ki-84 is

hard hitting through approximately the first 35% or so of it's

ammo load, pitiful as it may be.

Contrary to anecdotal evidence, one can perform high-G maneuvers

even at speeds in excess of 350 kts. Wing failure generally

occurs because of transitions from moderate altitudes (18,000 ft.

or so) to lower altitudes (less than 10,000 ft.) at high speed.

When you observe high-speed buffeting, you must ease off the

throttle and be careful when pulling out of the dive. If you

fail to heed this very sound advice, you and your wings will part

company.

Despite rumors to the contrary, the AW Ki-84 has been observed

running away from F4U's at 450 kts in a dive and living to

re-enter the battle on more favorable terms. The key to flying

this aircraft successfully is patience (waiting for the close-in

shot), experience, timing, and a gentle touch. [Top true

airspeed was 363 knots at 20,000 ft. Armament consisted of two

12.7 mm machine guns and two 20 mm cannon.]

4.24 THE A6M5 ZERO

by Brooke

Manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., the Zero (also

called the "Zeke" by US forces) was one of the oldest designs for

a fighter plane still in use at the end of WWII. The A6M2 Zero
fighter first used in combat in 1940, and except for increased

horsepower and some minor modifications, the same design was

fighting at the war's end -- still as the main Japanese fighter

for both the Army and Navy. While by the war's end, the Zero's

shortcomings compared to more modern fighters were apparent, its

longevity is a tribute to a design that was brilliant and very

effective for its time. The A6M5 had a radial air-cooled engine

of about 1000 HP at takeoff and armament consisting of two 7.7 mm

machine guns and two 20 mm cannon. Top true airspeed for the

A6M5 was 284 knots at 20,000 ft.

At the time of its introduction, the Zero was faster, climbed

better, flew higher, and flew much, much farther than the

fighters it fought against (like the early P-40 Warhawks, the F4F

Wildcat, and the P-39 Airacobra), which gave the Japanese a large

advantage in the air. Later, the US produced more powerful,

faster fighters: the Hellcat, the Lightning, the Mustang, and

the Thunderbolt, all of which fought against the Zero. They flew

faster, flew higher, climbed faster, had more firepower, and were

more sturdy than the Zero (which had no armor and no self-sealing

fuel tanks), but the Zero was still by far the most maneuverable

in a close-in fight.

In Air Warrior, the A6M5 is, without argument, the best

stallfighter in the game. If you get slow around an A6M5, you

are in big trouble unless you are in another A6M5. Even diving

away from a low-speed fight with one is dangerous because the

A6M5 is a very clean plane that accelerates well even though it

has a low top speed when flying level. It has an excellent time

aloft, so you won't need 100% fuel. Even 40% is probably more

than you'll need in most jaunts in the normal Air-Warrior arenas.

It is an excellent early-war fighter. However, in most other

respects compared to late-war fighters, the A6M5 has problems.

It is the least sturdy plane; it is a very slow fighter; it has

mediocre lethality (as its cannon and machine guns did not have

very high rates of fire) and low ammo load; it climbs poorly; and

it handles poorly at high speed.

To fly an A6M5 successfully in Air Warrior in late-war arenas,

you must know how to avoid B&Z attacks (1) as no other plane

(with a pilot in his right mind) will want to mix it up in a

tight angles fight and (2) as you are a sitting duck for any

plane with altitude on you (they all can catch you). You must

avoid the B&Z while trying to draw the enemy into an angles

fight. A good B&Z attacker will cause you a lot of trouble and

will not get slow around you, but some careless people will, and

other somewhat-careless people can be tempted to turn with you if

you give them a little view of the tail of your plane while you

do a lazy turn, tempting them to follow. Of course, if they do

follow, you can tighten the turn beyond what they will be able to
follow -- keep looking back.

So, in late-war arenas, flying an A6M5 and fighting anything but

an A6M5 is mostly a matter of surviving enough gunnery passes

until the enemy gets sucked into a low-speed fight. Keep in mind

that the A6M5 holds its energy very well and turns so well that

it pays to do less than full-G turns unless you need to or unless

the fight is now an angles fight. In between passes by the

enemy, you can pull some gentle turns that don't waste as much

energy yet that are still very tight compared to what the enemy

plane can do. That keeps your speed up and your energy up, and

an A6M5 with some energy is very, very dangerous. If you can

catch an enemy and get him to turn hard, he will usually be yours

unless he is very good at disengaging.

In high-speed fights, such as diving after a fleeing enemy, you

should keep in mind that the A6M5's controls -- especially roll

-- get very sluggish at high speeds, say, over about 300 knots.

Watch out for following a plane that can slow down quickly and

loop tightly on you (any of the planes with speed brakes or

high-speed flaps). The A6M5 can go very fast before hitting

compressibility -- faster than even some fast planes, like the

P-47D. Once in compressibility, though, beware how you pull out

of it. The A6M5 is a fragile plane, and you can rip the wings

off if you pull too many g's at high speed.

Overall, the A6M5 is a joy to fly. It turns on a dime, loops on

a dime, and gets out of a spin with just a tap of the rudder.

Despite having a low top level speed, it is surprisingly fast in

dives. Just be careful not to rip the wings off, and avoid

taking hits at all costs because the A6M5 is one of the most

fragile fighters in the game. It is popular for field defense

when you have little time to climb or to get up to speed before

you will be set upon by higher-energy enemy planes. It's

maneuverability makes it one of the harder planes to hit. It is

also quite fun to dive into a furball with an A6M5 and to mix it

up, killing one hapless low-speed enemy after another, until you

finally are shot down (which is the typical fate, because you

can't run away from much in an A6M5).

4.25 THE N1K1-J SHIDEN

by Brooke

The N1K1 Shiden (or "George," as it was called by US forces) was

built by the Kawasaki Aircraft Engineering Company, Ltd.

(Actually, according to JANE'S FIGHTING AIRCRAFT OF WORLD WAR II,

the N1K1 was the float-plane version while N1K2-J was the Shiden,

but I'll use N1K1-J as that's what Air Warrior uses.) It was a

fast, maneuverable plane with great firepower -- definitely in

the same league as the late-war fighters produced by the US. It

had an air-cooled radial engine that produced 2000 HP at takeoff

and a top true airspeed of over 350 knots at 20,000 ft. Its

armament consisted of two 7.7 mm machine guns -- and four 20 mm

cannon! I doubt that American fighter pilots were too fond of

the Shiden.

In Air Warrior, the N1K1-J is an impressive plane. It is one of

the fastest planes in the game -- faster than the F4U-1D Corsair

on the deck! -- which is fast enough to cause problems even for

the speedy P-51D. It turns well at low speeds (about the same as

the Bf 109-F4, which is definitely no slouch at low-speed

turning). So, in the Pacific theater, you need to beware

low-speed turning fights only with F6F-3's, F4F-3's, Ki-84's, and

of course A6M5's (and Spitfires, if they are in the arena). It

has enormous firepower, as already mentioned, being second in

lethality only to the mighty FW 190's. It has a very long firing

duration (being able to fire its guns for as long as the F6F-3

and F4U-1D). It has one of the best climb rates of any

prop-driven plane in the game. It is easy to get the N1K1-J out

of a spin. It even has a notch of maneuvering flaps that can be

deployed at high speeds, like the P-51D and P-38J. Impressive

indeed. The only traits that are mediocre for the N1K1-J are

roll rate and sturdiness (it does suffer wing failure if you pull

lots of g's at very high speeds, such as coming out of

compressibility). It does have a good time aloft (more than an

hour at 100% fuel and full throttle).

As good a plane as the N1K1-J is, I suspect that it won't be as

popular as the Ki-84 due mainly to the fact that it isn't quite

as fast or as good at low-speed turning as the Ki-84 (although it

is close). Still, it has a lot better firepower and a better

climb rate than the Ki-84 and in fact than almost every other

fighter in the game. It is an excellent plane.

4.26 THE YAK 9D

by Specter

The Yak 9D is a viable option in full realism, but not very

popular. Ammo load is fairly light, much like the Bf-109F-4.

The fuel load is also anemic. This plane is perfect for the

"bounce" with a bit of altitude. The aircraft handles and

performs very well at speeds under 350 kts. The controls get a

bit stiff at around 350 kts. The Yak 9D will sustain a climb

rate of approximately 3500 fpm through 10,000 ft. altitude. It

is a poor performer at higher altitudes. Acceleration is nothing

to write home about. [Top true airspeed was 311 knots at 18,000

ft. Armament consisted of two 13 mm machine guns and one 20 mm

cannon.]
This aircraft will not lend itself to prolonged B&Z passes, as

it doesn't hold it's energy all that well. If your speed is

below 150 kts in a stallfight, there is not anything (save for

the Spit) that will out turn you in the short term. [In Air

Warrior II, there are some other planes that turn well at low

speeds, such as the Me 110C-4 and Hurricanes.] One notch of

flaps is all you have, which is helpful when you are almost in

the "saddle." The flaps have a tendency to really kill your

energy. If you don't get the kill soon after dropping them,

you are "in" very deep.

It is imperative that you be familiar with all of the strengths

and weaknesses of this plane if you plan on flying it seriously.

You've got to know the split-S performance by heart because you

are will be using it a lot.

Generally, the plane is fun to fly, and in the right hands, it

is deadly.

4.27 THE LAVOCHKIN LA-5FN

by Brooke

The Lavochkin LA-5 was a Russian fighter. It had an air-cooled

radial engine that produced 1600 HP at takeoff and a top speed of

308 knots. Armament consisted of two 20 mm cannon mounted in the

engine cowling. This plane is not fast, but it rolls extremely

well and seems to turn well at low speed. Top true airspeed was

325 knots at 16,000 ft.

4.28 CHAPTER 4 EXERCISES

by Brooke

4.28.1 DIVES

Take a Yak-9D up to 12,000 ft. altitude. As you near 12,000 ft.,

adjust your climb so that you are climbing at 150 knots. When

you reach 12k, roll inverted and pull into a vertical dive. Time

how long it takes (starting from being inverted) for the plane to

get to 350 knots. Do the same test for the P-51D. Which plane

accelerates faster in a vertical dive? Do the test with one or

two other planes of your choice.

Do a similar test by climbing up to 4000 ft. altitude and 150

knots. When you reach 4k ft., dive vertically and pull out on

the deck. See how fast you are going on the deck. Do this test

for a few planes of your choice.

4.28.2 HIGH-SPEED TURNS

Take up a Spitfire IX. Get to 5000 ft. alt. Get up to speed and

then dive enough so that you are going more than 300 knots.

Level off, and let your speed decrease to 300 knots. Now do a 6

g turn for 180 degrees (i.e., half a full circle). Note you

speed at the completion of the turn. Do the same with a P-47D.

Which plane holds onto energy better? Do the same for a 360

degree turn. Try one or two more planes of your choice.

4.28.3 HIGH-SPEED ROLL

Take up a Yak-9D. Get to 15k ft. altitude. Get up some speed,

turn on WEP, and go into a 45-60 degree dive. When your speed is

350 knots, do a full-aileron-deflection roll. Notice about how

long it takes -- what the roll response is like. Do the same

test for a P-51D. Which plane rolls faster at 350 knots? Do

this test for one or two other planes of your choice.

4.28.4 LOW-SPEED SUSTAINED TURNS

This exercise requires a watch -- a digital watch with a

stopwatch function is best. Take up an A6M5 to 1000 ft. alt.

Use full throttle, and begin turning as hard as you can, staying

at all times near 1000 ft. alt. Do enough revolutions so that

your airspeed is steady in the turn -- i.e., go into a stallfight

turn. Now pick out a terrain feature that you can recognize

easily (a control tower, a mountain, whatever) and start your

stopwatch when your nose passes it. Let your nose pass it two

more times, and on the third time, stop your stopwatch. Now you

can find out your turn period (seconds per revolution) by

dividing the time by 3 (you did 3 revolutions). Repeat the test

with a FW 190A-8. Note the difference in turning rates. Repeat

the test with one or two other planes of your choice.

4.28.5 LOW-SPEED ROLL

Take a FW 190A-8 up. Get to 130 knots. Do some rolling. Roll

one way and then the other. Note how quickly the plane rolls.

Do the same with a P-38J. Do the same with one or two other

planes of your choice.

5.0 CHAPTER 5

by Brooke

This chapter explains bombing and dropping troops. The most

difficult part of bombing is getting to and from the target

without getting shot down. Techniques for doing that are

discussed in the "Bombing Tactics" section. The other sections

explain level bombing, dive bombing, dropping troops, tactics for

bomber escort, and bombing strategy.

5.1 LEVEL BOMBING

Level bombing is just what it sounds like: flying along level in

your bomber and then dropping bombs. The most difficult part of

this is lining up correctly on the target. Because your bombs,

in addition to falling, have a substantial horizontal speed, you

have to anticipate where the bombs will hit, a task with which

your bombsight helps immensely. If you are flying at high

altitude and at high speed, you will have to line up on your

target well in advance, perhaps by as much as 5 miles (1/2 a

sector width).

Use your radar to line up on target ahead of time. Your bombs

will lay down a line of craters, and you want that line to do as

much damage as possible. If you are targeting a runway or a

carrier, you want your string of craters to run down the middle

of it. If you are targeting a cluster of buildings, you'd like

to plan your approach so that the line falls across as much of

the buildings as possible. Plan your flight path far enough in

advance of the target so that you don't blow your approach.

About half a sector from the target (or a bit less, if you are at

lower altitudes), turn toward your target and line up your flight

path.

Once you are lined up on radar, go into the bombardier's position

and use the bombsight to fine tune your line up. You can zoom

the view in and out to get as much detail as possible and still

see the target. I like to use my rudder to line up as opposed to

the stick -- it skids me left or right until I'm lined up. Keep

in mind that, if you are approaching at an angle instead of down

the center of your target, you will have to swing the nose of the

plane past the target, fly for a little while, then swing it back

on target in order to correct your flight path. You also need to

open the bay doors -- don't forget to open the bay doors.

If you are having trouble lining up, give yourself more than 1/2

a sector to line up. Giving yourself enough room to line up is

essential in level bombing. The better you are at it, the closer

to the target you can go before starting your line up. The point

at which you turn toward the target is called the "initial point"

or "IP."

As you get closer to the target, zoom in the bombsight view. For

runways and large ships, you want to drop your bombs just after

the bombsight crosshairs cross the threshold of the runway or the

deck of the ship. For small objects, drop your bombs just before

the crosshairs cross onto the object. Remember that you have two

batches of bombs (called "sticks" of bombs). You can drop one

and save one for another target (which is useful when you are

bombing small objects -- only one stick would hit it anyway), or

you can drop both (which is useful for runways, carriers, and

other large ships -- you drop one stick, wait a second, then drop

the other stick).

After your bombs are away, it's time to close the bay doors and

to jump back to the pilot's position. Now it's time either to

head for the second target (if you only dropped one stick), head

back to base, go shoot up some enemies (if you have a gunner), do

a bomb-damage assessment (BDA), or a combination of these. BDA

consists of verifying what your bombs did to the target -- for

example, seeing if all of your bombs hit a runway or not by

looking at the craters.

You get to the bombardier's station by typing "<Esc>z<Enter>";

and getting back to the pilot's position is "<Esc>jp<Enter>".

Opening bay doors is "<Esc>a<Enter>".

Sometimes, you might want to slow down before dropping your bombs

so that your line of craters will be closer together. I don't

find that this is usually necessary in order to get all bombs on

a target. If you do, though, make sure that you don't get so

slow that you stall while you're at the bombardier's station.

5.2 DIVE-BOMBING

There are two approaches to dive-bombing: high and low. High

dive-bombing is like what you see in WWII footage: you fly

directly over the target and dive on it vertically. In order to

know whether or not you are over the target, you can use radar to

line up approximately. Arm your bombs and enable your dive-bomb

sight when before you are too close to the target -- I like to do

this about 1/2 a sector from target. As you get close, you can

fly to one side of the target and occasionally dip your wing and

look out the side of your plane to see the target. When you are

over the target, roll inverted, chop throttle, and pull down so

that your sights are on the target. Adjust your flight path so

that your dive-bomb sight is right on the target, and then

trigger off one or both of your bombs. You don't want to be

pulling many g's at all when you drop your bombs -- the key is in

lining up well during the vertical (or very steep) dive. After

you drop your bombs, commence a pullout and go back to full

throttle. After you have pulled out, switch to your normal

gunsight.

You arm the bombs with "<Esc>a<Enter>"; switching to the

dive-bomb sight is "<Esc>sd<Enter>"; and switching back to the

gunsight is "<Esc>sg<Enter>".

Once you are more proficient at dive-bombing, you might want to

keep full throttle during the dive-bomb run -- especially if an

enemy is chasing you. At full throttle, you don't have much time

to line up before you hit compressibility or the ground, but it

can be done with practice.

Low dive-bombing is much different than high dive-bombing. Low

dive-bombing involves flying at the target at very high speed and

at very low altitude (200 ft.). You need to fly fast enough so

that the dive-bomb sight is visible out in front of your plane --

you generally have to be going about 300 knots or more. Once the

dive-bomb sight just touches the outer edge of whatever your

target is, drop a bomb, and immediately pull up into a 6 g (or

even higher, as you can stand even 8 g's for a brief time)

steeply climbing turn. You have to get your plane 500 ft. away

from the blast or the explosion will destroy your plane.

Low dive-bombing is easier to set up than high dive-bombing.

Lining up is easier, and you don't need to get to altitude.

However, split-second timing is required: you have to trigger

off your bomb right as the crosshairs touch the target, and you

have to pull up and away at 6 g's as soon as the bomb is away.

5.3 DROPPING TROOPS

The C-47 Skytrain drops troops instead of bombs, which is one

necessary element to capturing airfields. To drop troops, you

don't need to line up, but you do have to lay the troops down

within about 1500 yards of the airfield. You have to open the

doors (the same command as arming bombs and opening bay doors in

bombers), and type "'*go<Enter>" for each paratrooper that you

want to jump out of the plane -- that's a big load of "go"'s. I

keep typing it until the messages stop saying that a paratrooper

jumped -- just to make sure all of the paratroopers are out.

Some people set keyboard macros so that they have only to hit one

key to do it.

One thing to keep in mind is that the paratroopers won't jump out

unless your C-47 is at 500 ft. altitude or higher. So, even if

you approach the airfield down low, say at less than 200 ft., you

have to pull up to above 500 ft. before you start kicking the

paratroopers out of the plane.

5.4 BOMBING TACTICS

Dive-bombers are (so far in Air Warrior) fighter planes. You

don't need much extra in the way of tactics to get to your

target. For bombers, it's different. Bombers are easier to hit.

You generally don't want to tangle with fighters -- at least

until after you have destroyed the target. You want to get to

the target unmolested.

There are several ways work toward this. (1) You can fly at

extremely high altitude, past where people normally fly because

it takes to long to climb up there. That used to be about 25k

ft., but might be 30k ft. these days now that Air Warrior is less

expensive to play. It works well, but is very time consuming.

(2) You can fly an out-of-the-way path to the target, staying

away from the hot spots. You can tell by looking at the counters

in the various sectors or by getting reports from other players

on which sectors are clear. (3) You can pick a target that is

out of the way. (4) You can fly under radar. This one is most

popular, as it's quick. Keep in mind, though, that you have to

pop up to over 500 ft. before the target, or you will get caught

in your bomb blast. (5) You can have an escort that will attack

any enemies that come for you. (6) You can have your fellow

countrymen clear out a path for you (sort of like an escort but

on a much larger scale). This works well but requires a lot of

coordination and manpower. Sometimes you can get the same effect

naturally by waiting for an area to clear and getting an "all

clear" message from fellow countrymen. Then you can head toward

the target and, on channel 2, keep every appraised of your

situation so that they can help clear a path if there's trouble.

(7) You can employ a combination of these approaches.

However, what if, despite everyone's best efforts, enemies do

find you? Bombers can't out-dogfight fighters (with the possible

exception of the A-26). It's nice to have gunners, of course,

and with gunners you can give fighters a very hard time, but

regardless it's best to call for help on the radio early on. Say

what you're flying, where you are (both location and altitude),

what's about to attack you, and ask for escort help.

As for evasive maneuvers, by far the best -- the most tried and

true -- is the hard nose-low turn into the attacking enemy. If

you are going fast, chop your throttle and do the hard nose-low

turn. Hold about 5 g's -- keep in mind that all bombers suffer

wing failure at more than 6 g's. Don't rip your wings off -- be

careful of your g's. If you aren't going more than about 200-225

knots, keep full throttle in the turn. You want to start turning

when the enemy is 2000-2500 yards from you, and you want to keep

the nose of your bomber well below the horizon during the turn

(unless you are at low altitude and would thereby crash). Doing

this for each pass an enemy makes on you will usually buy you

some time. Hopefully some help will arrive or your gunner will

get the enemy.

Another useful tactic is to get very close to the ground -- 100

ft. or less. As the enemy comes in for a shot, do a hard turn.

The enemy might crash while trying for the shot, not noticing

just how low you are. Or you might try turning toward the enemy

so that he has to do a front-quarter gunning pass and then get

down to about 10 ft. of altitude, again in an attempt to get the

enemy to crash while trying for a difficult off-angle shot.

Being evasive at a very low altitude has saved me more times than

I remember.

5.5 BOMBER ESCORT

Although it is very difficult to protect bombers from determined

fighters, there are several techniques that seem to work best for

escorting bombers. The best is to clear a path for the bomber.

You need to know the target and the bomber's flight path. Then

you fly along it (with as many allies as you can muster) and

clear the area out of enemy planes. If that isn't possible, then

you should either fly above the bomber (going after any plane

that seems to be heading in for an attack on it) or fly above and

behind the bomber (going after any plane that closes on the rear

of the bomber -- you dive down onto his tail).

5.6 BOMBING STRATEGY

Now that you know how to bomb things, how do you decide which

targets to hit? That depends entirely on your objectives. Here

are some of the things that you can do. (Keep in mind that the

settings -- how many bombs it takes to destroy a particular

target -- are configurable by Kesmai and might change from time

to time. That's why I use the word "usually" a lot in the

following information.)

If you want to take away the anti-aircraft cover some enemies are

using near an airfield, you obviously just go in and destroy the

ack batteries (the little dots that show up on the ground as you

get close and that then shoot at you). It usually takes one bomb

to destroy an ack. You can also kill them with gunfire, but the

acks are sometimes quite difficult to kill that way. They can be

tough.

If you want to degrade the quality of an airfield, you can do a

few other things. First, you can bomb fuel tanks (the clustered,

round structrues). That reduces the quality of fuel at an

airfield, which then reduces the performance of planes taking off

from the field (except for the Bf 109's, which can run on

lower-octane fuel). It usually takes two bombs to destroy a fuel

tank, but an exploding fuel tank can damage the tanks next to it,

so with practice and skill you can take out more than one fuel

tank for every two bombs. Once fuel tanks are damaged, nearby
oil refineries (and depots in Air Warrior II) send trucks or

planes to resupply the field with high-octane fuel; but the field

is hampered until the resupply arrives (and the resupply convoy

might get shot up on the way there, eh?). Second, you can bomb

the ammo dumps (the small, solitary buildings). That reduces the

ammount of ammo (especailly cannon rounds) loaded into each

aircraft at the field. It usually takes four bombs to destroy an

ammo dump. Like with the fuel, once a field's ammo dumps are

damaged, nearby ammo factories (and depots in Air Warrior II)

send out trucks or planes to resupply the field. Third, you can

destroy the aircraft hangers (the buildings with sloped roofs).

That causes the aircaft at a field to be more fragile and less

able to withstand damage in combat. It usually takes three bombs

to destroy a hangar. Nearby spare-parts factories (and depots in

Air Warrior II) send out trucks or planes to resupply the field.

If you want to bomb strategic targets, you can go after oil

refineries, ammo factories, aircraft factories, spare-parts

factories, and (in Air Warrior II) various depots. Oil

refineries are recognizable by the tall cracking towers.

Aircraft factories have aircraft near them on the ground.

Destroying oil refineries, ammo factories, spare parts factories,

and the corresponding depots ends their ability to resupply

damaged fields. If you are going to destroy a strategic target

AND damage an airfield, it is best to destroy the strategic

target first. If you do it the other way around, the strategic

target can get out a resupply convoy before you get around to

destroying it. If you destroy a country's aircraft factory and

then destroy the hangars at an airfield, that airfield will lose

the availability of a particular type of aircraft (such as

Spitfires or FW 190's).

If you want to destroy an aircraft carrier, it usually takes 6

bombs. If you want to destroy an airfield, in Air Warrior for

Windows and the Mac, it usually takes 8 bombs dropped on the

runway. In Air Warrior II, to destroy an airfield, you need to

destroy a certain percentage (usually more than 50%) of each of

the following: fuel tanks, ammo dumps, hangars, and control

towers. Oddly, bombing the runway apparently isn't the way to

close the airfield.

If you want to prepare an airfield (or a factory, refinery, or

depot in Air Warrior II) for capture, see chapter 6.

So, now that you know what you want to destroy, how do you find

it? To get a map of an area, you can use the map available when

you click on the "choose an airfield" button before you take off.

That brings up a map that you can look around on (using the

"east," "west," etc. buttons) and zoom in on to get a level of

detail that shows individual structures. In Air Warrior II,

there are some facilities (factories, refineries, and depots)

that are not shown on the map, giving people some targets that

must be found the old-fashioned way.

Air Warrior has a rich environemnt of ground targets.

5.7 CHAPTER 5 EXERCISES

5.7.1 LEVEL BOMBING

Take up an A-26 and do some simulated bombing runs on an

airfield. Make sure that you can line up correctly so that you

are flying right down the center of the runway on your pass.

5.7.2 DIVE-BOMBING

Take up a Corsair and do some dive bombing runs on an ack battery

or, if the version of the software you have has no ack batteries

for off-line play, on a small structure such as the corner of a

runway. If your software has no off-line bombing capability, do

simulated dive bombing runs (i.e, no bombs, but you can still use

the dive bombing sight and go through all of the motions). Try

both low-level and vertical dive bombing runs -- do them both

until you think you have them down. You can also try other

approaches, such as steep but not vertical dives, to see which

methods you prefer.

5.7.3 BOMBER EVASIVES

Take up an A-26 and get to 4000 ft. altitude. Practice 5 g

nose-low turns. When you get to low altitude, go down to 100 ft.

and practice hard turns at that altitude. Practice flying at

10-50 ft. altitude. Fly at 10-50 ft., pop up to 100 ft., do a

hard 180 degree turn, and go back down to 10-50 ft.

6.0 CHAPTER 6

by Brooke

This chapter explains how to capture airfields and other

structures, carrier operations, the use of vehicles, and gunning

in bombers. It also explains Air-Warrior etiquette (i.e., how

not to piss people off too much -- or, looked at from another

point of view, how to piss people off greatly).

6.1 CAPTURING AIRFIELDS AND OTHER STRUCTURES

If you want to capture an airfield, it works differently between

Air Warrior II and the other versions of Air Warrior. In Air

Warrior for Windows and the Mac, one needs to destroy the control

tower (the tallest building) and all ack and then drop a C-47's

worth of paratroopers (eight) on the airfield. The field becomes

available immediately upon capture. You can destroy all

airfields, but you can capture only neutral ones.

In Air Warrior II, you need to destroy the airfield first (see

section 5.6) and then to drop a C-47's worth of paratroopers

(eight) on it. You won't be able to use the field after capture

for about an hour, while it is repaired. You can destroy and

capture all airfields except the main airfield for a country.

In Air Warrior II, you can also capture some factories,

refineries, and depots just as you can capture airfields (i.e.,

by destroying it and then by dropping troops on it). If you

capture such a thing, after about an hour-long repair process, it

helps the resupply of nearby captured airfields.

6.2 CARRIER OPERATIONS

Carriers (sometimes called "CV's") can be difficult to take off

from, especially in a fully fueled, fully bomb-laiden F4U

Corsair. In that plane, you should use full flaps for takeoff,

WEP (war-emergency power), and don't raise the tail of the plane
during your takeoff run -- keep it down so that the nose of your

plane will be angled up as you leave the deck of the carrier.

Handle the controls very lightly after takeoff -- you will be

right on the edge of stalling. Raise the gear after you are

airborne, and raise the flaps little by little as you gain

airspeed. If you can take a fully loaded Corsair off a CV, you

can take off in anything.

Landing is even more challenging. You need land within the white

stripes at the end of the CV in order to catch the arrester

cables. Practicing landings on CV's will make you much better at

landing in general.

Any plane can be landed on a CV and in any direction, as long as

you hit the white stripes. This presents interesting

possibilities if you are near one and in big trouble. Even if

you're in a bomber, coming in sideways to the CV, you can land if

you hit the stripes. I've used this on occasion to land while

being shot at. CV's have a nice ack, too.

6.3 VEHICLES

Tanks and jeeps aren't used much outside of historical scenarios.

Flakpanzers (FP's) are, though. They can be quite deadly to

airplanes. Tanks are occasionally used to kill FP's or to shut

down an airfield by coming close enough to shoot airplanes that

take off. Tanks are difficult to kill except with other tanks.

Vehicles aren't all that complicated. To use one, you start the

engine and put it at full throttle, just like you do in a plane.

Then you use the "a," "s," and "d" keys to shift -- "d" upshifts,

"s" puts the vehicle in neutral, and "a" downshifts. You steer

it with the stick. To get from the driver's seat to a gunnery

position, you type "<Esc>jg<Enter>"; to get back to the driver's

seat, type "<Esc>jd<Enter>". Be careful when cornering at high

speeds -- you can roll some of the vehicles.

In vehicles, some guns rotate and change elevation by using the

stick only. In others, you need to use the "a" key to rotate a

turret to the left, "d" to rotate to the right, "e" to elevate

the gun, and "c" to decline the gun -- then you use the stick for

the fine movement of the gun.

To use a vehicle for airfield defense, it's best to move away

from the runway and buildings because, if the runway or buildings

get bombed and if your vehicle is nearby, you will get blown up.

If you can manage to have a driver and a gunner, you can keep the

vehicle moving and shooting at the same time, and it is thus much

harder to hit (especially by dive-bombing). FP's are best for

airfield defense from aircraft. Tanks are best for airfield

defense against other vehicles.

6.4 GUNNING IN BOMBERS

If you have a choice on which position to take for gunning, the

tail or upper ball turrets are, in my opinion, the best

positions. From there, you can fire on any plane that is coming

up from behind for a shot on the bomber. Also, if you are flying

in a bomber that can also be used offensively air to air (like

the A-26), you can have fun in dogfights hitting fighters that

are trying to stay with the bomber in a turn.

The commands to move around among the various gunnery positions

are "<Esc>jt<Enter>" (to jump to the tail-gunner position),

"<Esc>ju<Enter>" (to jump to the upper turret), "<Esc>jl<Enter"

(to jump to the lower turret or, in the B-17, to the left waist

gun), etc. Not all planes have all positions, so sometimes you

might get a message like "that position is unavailable." The

B-17 has the most positions: "<Esc>jt<Enter>" (tail),

"<Esc>jl<Enter>" (left waist), "<Esc>jr<Enter>" (right waist),

"<Esc>ju<Enter>" (upper), "<Esc>jb<Enter>" (lower ball turret),

"<Esc>jn<Enter>" (navigator's gun), and "<Esc>jc<Enter>" (chin).

You can get back to the pilot's position with "<Esc>jp<Enter>".

Sometimes, your joystick (or mouse) will swivel the turret as

well as move the gun up and down. Other times, you have to use

the "a" (left), "d" (right), "e" (up), and "c" (down) keys to

swivel the gun, just like in vehicles. Check this out right

after you take off so that you know how to move the gun once you

get into combat.

As gunner, your job is also to watch for enemies approaching.

The visibility in bombers is often very bad, so your input helps

the pilot -- on the intercom (the "`" key), let him know what's

up. Rear visibility for pilots is especially bad in bombers.

6.5 ETIQUETTE

I know what you are saying: "Emily Post was no Air-Warrior

pilot." So what's this section on etiquette, anyway? Well,

there are some things that you can do in Air Warrior that will

really piss people off. I figure that I should explain them --

not so that you won't piss people off (that's your choice to

make) but so that you at least won't piss people off

unintentionally. Also, practicing Air-Warrior etiquette will

usually cause you to be considered a real stand-up kind of guy, a

true man's man of Air Warrior (even if you happen to be a woman),

and some people like being thusly considered. So, with the

reasons out of the way, what are the big gaffs one can make in

Air Warrior?
During a battle, bailing out of a plane that can still fight.

This is the mark of a true sissy. The Air-Warrior credo

(heretofore and henceforth unstated) stipulates that a pilot

should, if possible, hold on to the bitter end. Now, if your

plane gets shot up and loses an engine, ailerons, or elevator, or

if you have run completely out of ammo, bailing out is OK because

your plane can't fight anymore. Actually, in the case of an

engine failure or running out of ammo, a true pilot's pilot would

still stay in the fight, diving for speed when needed, possibly

going for a forced landing while under attack when completely out

of altitude, or trying to get the enemy to crash, trying to get

into a situation where it is possible to disengage, or holding on

for help to arrive. However, bailing out in these cases at least

won't qualify you as (too much of) a sissy. Bailing out is even

OK if your plane is fine, but no enemy is engaging you or chasing

you. Most importantly, though, if your plane is shot up but

still flyable (even if it is losing fuel or oil) or if an enemy

is still chasing you (whether or not he has yet caught you), you

should stay in the plane, even if you are vastly outnumbered.

One of the most loathsome acts in Air Warrior is to run away from

an enemy for a long period of time and a great distance only to

bail out when the enemy finally closes to firing range.

Bombing the crap out of the enemy when he is heavily outnumbered.

Let's say that there are 4 A-landers up and 16 C-landers. With

such lopsided odds, the C-landers should not be bombing A-land

airfields. Why not? Isn't this war? Yes, but with such odds,

there is little the A-landers can do to stop the bombing

onslaught, and when enough A-land airfields are disabled, the

outnumbered A-landers are likely simply to log off, leaving the

C-landers with no opponents. Not much fun, eh? If you're so

eager to bomb that you don't mind that there isn't enough

opposition to make it challenging, you might as well go bomb some

neutral fields or targets that don't matter to the A-landers'

choice of planes or airfields. A better choice is to switch

countries so that you can help even up the odds.

Sometimes, there are only a few people up. In such

circumstances, it's not couth to jump an enemy right after he

takes off. If it's only 1-on-1 with no one else around -- let

the guy get at least a little altitude and airspeed before you

jump him. A truly chivalrous pilot will adjust the circumstances

so that he and the enemy engage at the same altitude and similar

airspeed. If it's 2-on-1 with no one else around -- you should

definitely let the enemy get up to your altitude and airspeed.

Let him know on the radio that you're giving him some time to do

so. He might say that he doesn't care and that you can come

attack him at any time. In that case, as you dive in on him to

deliver his certain doom, you should note to yourself how truly
manly and virile he is.

Diving into a 2-on-1 fight, making it a 3-on-1 fight. This is

more of a fine point. Most pilots accept 2-on-1 odds (even

against them), but 3-on-1 is usually overkill -- 4-on-1 is

definitely overkill. Your time is better spent covering your

comrades in the fight by keeping a watch for other enemies

showing up. Your comrades in the fight generally won't be in

good position to deal with another enemy diving into the action

-- but you can be. You can also call out warnings that more

enemies are showing up, and you can engage a newly arriving enemy

before he has a chance to dive into the action, spoiling his

attempt to assist his hapless buddy. If the fight becomes a

1-on-1 while you are keeping watch, feel free to dive in; or if

one of your countrymen in the fight calls for help, you should

dive in regardless of how lopsided the odds are in his favor.

6.6 CHAPTER 6 EXERCISES

6.6.1 CARRIER OPERATIONS

Practice landings and takeoffs from a CV (carrier) using an F4U

Corsair with 100% fuel and 2 bombs loaded (if your Air-Warrior

program supports bombs).

6.6.2 PREPPING AIRFIELDS

Take up an A-26 and practice prepping an airfield for capture.

In Air Warrior for the Windows and the Mac, practice bombing the

ack and then the tower, all with one A-26 mission. If you can't

find an airfield with an ack, let a corner of the runway be your

simulated ack target. In Air Warrior II, take up an A-26 and go

bomb acks, towers, fuel tanks, etc.

6.6.3 VEHICLES

Drive around all of the vehicles, seeing which ones you can roll

by going at top speed and turning hard. Jump to the gunnery

positions and practice firing at things.

6.6.4 AGGRESSIVE BOMBER FLYING

Take up an A-26 and fly it as you would a fighter. If your

Air-Warrior program supports off-line missions, go up and have

some fights. Get a feel for how careful you have to be in order

to keep from ripping the wings off of your A-26. (Remember that

the wings come off if you pull more than 6 g's.) If your program

doesn't have off-line missions, practice some of the ACM

exercises in the A-26.

7.0 CHAPTER 7

This chapter is a collection of maneuvers and techniques as

described by some of the instructors in the Air-Warrior Training

Academy.

7.1 REAL-LIFE TACTICS AND AIR WARRIOR

by Brooke

Air Warrior is a pretty realistic simulation. Most of the things

that work in real-life air combat work also in Air Warrior.

That's why, if you want to learn more about air combat, you

should read "the Bible" of ACM: FIGHTER COMBAT, by Shaw (see the

"Recommended Books and Movies" appendix).

However, there are some maneuvers that don't work in Air Warrior

very well, at least not without a little modification, because

planes in Air Warrior have a "hit bubble." Because of

communication delays, bandwidth limitations, and the associated

slight amount of jitteryness of planes in Air Warrior (try flying

in formation to see what I mean), for playability reasons, each

plane in Air Warrior has a hit bubble around it that is larger

than the plane itself. If you fire at a plane, even if your

bullets don't hit the body of the plane, if they connect with the

plane's hit bubble, you score hits, and the enemy takes damage.

So, if there's a hit bubble around your plane that is two

wingspans in diameter, you can imagine that some maneuvers won't

work. Consider a very tight barrel roll. In real life, maybe

that would keep you away from a pursuer's gunfire if the pursuer

is just flying straight and level behind you. However, the hit

bubble might not be out of the line of fire, not unless you have

a larger barrel on your barrel roll.

For example, you don't want to just slow down, trying to get an

enemy to overshoot. He might overshoot, sure, but unless you get

well out of the way in addition to slowing down, he'll put some

lead into you as he goes by.

7.2 FLAPS

by Kato

"Flaps are funny things...." -- opening words used in all the

best lectures on how to use flaps during air combat.

Indiscriminate use of flaps during air combat is the surest way

to get yourself killed, short of flying straight and level with

your gear down. Having said that, there is an observation that

needs to be made: of the three ACM fighting styles (angles

fighting, energy fighting, and boom-and-zooming) only the angles

fighters have any business at all employing flaps. If your

intent is to use energy tactics or to boom-and-zoom your

opponent, you need to maintain your energy state -- lowering your

flaps can only hurt your cause.

Flaps can be used in both offensive and defensive situations.

Either way, using your flaps makes a statement that has no

exceptions. In the defense, your statement is: "I have really

screwed the pooch on this one. I have given my enemy the

dominant position in this fight, and I am now ready to employ any

means available to survive." Make no mistake -- used defensively,

flaps are purely a desperation measure. You've foolishly let

some slavering killer onto your six. You can't outrun him, and

you either have to out-scissor him or hope he just loses interest

and flies away (not freaking likely!). If your position is

untenable and if you must resort to flaps to save your bacon, the

important things to remember are: (1) flaps are only going to

help you in a defensive spiral, a rolling scissors, or a

bleeding-edge chandelle, and (2) you are pretty much a dead man

whatever you do; that is a fitting fate for the pilot who places

his plane in front of an enemy's guns.

The Defensive Spiral. This is a frantic play for a few more

seconds of life before you get shot to doll rags and can be

executed in two basic ways. The first -- where you're going nose

down in a spiral in an attempt to gain some separation and

perhaps get the enemy on your tail to black out trying to follow

you -- has nothing to do with the use of flaps. The other

defensive spiral is an attempt to get an attacking pilot to

overshoot your plane so you can either kill him or take advantage

of a brief escape window. The intent is to roll your aircraft

into a dive and to follow a tightly turning, corkscrew path

without accelerating. Chopping your throttle, dropping your

flaps (and perhaps even your gear) will all help you in your

effort to turn hard and to stay slow even though you are pointed

at the earth. If you are lucky, and if your enemy is stupid, he

may either overshoot you or break off, at which point you need to

trim for speed and run for as much separation as you can get.

The Rolling Scissors. Used defensively, the intent behind

drawing your enemy into a rolling scissors is much the same as a

defensive spiral. You are either trying to force the attacker on

your rear quarter to overshoot or to break off his attack because

he's too close to track your evasions. The difference between

the two stratagems is that during a rolling scissors you are

attempting to combine lift and roll rate to turn energy into

angle. You should only use flaps to do this during the

high-yo-yo portions for short periods of time -- just until you

get the nose of your plane below the horizon again. You must

time the "flapping" of your flaps with your plane's aspect to the

horizon, while simultaneously remaining careful not to bleed off

too much airspeed, lest you lose your ability to maneuver at all.

Attempt to keep your aircraft right at its cornering velocity.

The "Bleeding-edge" Chandelle. This is the most risky use of

flaps in the defense. For you to have any hope of success at

all, you must have correctly judged the enemy on your six to have

less energy than you, a poorer sustained climbing ability, and

(hopefully) less ability to fly at the ragged edge of the

envelope without departing from controlled flight. This maneuver

is the exact opposite of the defensive spiral. You've sucked the

enemy in very close and are now attempting to stay out from in

front of his guns while hanging on your prop in a climbing

spiral. If your judgments are correct and if you are better at

flying on the extreme edge of the envelope than he is, he will

stall and spin back toward earth while you climb away to safety.

Quite simply, flaps may increase your lift and lower your stall

speed enough to pull this off.

Just as in the defense, when you consider use of flaps in the

offense, you are making a statement to yourself. That statement

is: "My intent is to decisively engage my prey. I have decided

that I will NOT be leaving this fight until my opponent is a

cloud of smoking debris. It is my intent to stick to my enemy

like glue until he is dead, and I am confident enough in my

flying and gunnery skills that this event will transpire forth

with, because if it doesn't, verily I will be low, slow, and dead

shortly thereafter." If you aren't prepared to adopt the attitude

described above, you have no business using your flaps. If you

do have this pit-fighter mentality, read on, grasshopper!

Obviously, studied use of flaps has no part in the

boom-and-zoomer's or the energy fighter's bag of tricks. This is

pure stall-fighting, angles-fighting, magic.

When, as an angles fighter, a pilot employs his flaps, his intent

is first to increase lift at the cost of airspeed (due to

increased drag), and by doing so convert that airspeed to angle.

It is imperative that a pilot not bleed away so much energy that

he loses maneuver options.

The technique used by many of Air Warrior's hottest pilots is to

use flaps at the top of a combat loop, following the merge. The

intent is to go immediately vertical and use flaps (and brakes,

if the plane has them) to bleed energy while increasing lift,

thus slowing the aircraft, reducing turn radius and increasing

turn rate. The end result is immediate gun angle -- in effect

compounding the lead turn on each successive firing pass until

reaching a position on the enemy's rear quarter.

At near-stall speeds, flaps can make the difference between

hanging inverted at the top of a loop and being able to pull your

plane's nose back down below the horizon. When employed in this

manner, keep in mind that some planes -- most notably the F6F --

are difficult to pull out of the bottom of a loop if you have

your flaps lowered. This can quickly lose a dogfight for you or,

at low altitudes, result in your attempting to fly your plane

below ground level -- not recommended for your aircraft's

structural integrity.

Some planes benefit more from use of flaps than others, and those

that have incremental flaps usually benefit the most. A rule of

thumb which holds true for most planes with low wing loading is

that if it has incremental flaps (flaps which can be locked in an

intermediate position), then angles fighting should be done with

at least 1/4 to 1/3 flaps. In planes with low wing loading and

only two flap positions (up or down), this becomes problematic.

The solution -- only available with significant practice -- is to

attempt to keep your flaps at partial extension through constant

switching between flap extension and retraction -- flapping your

flaps, if you will.

Remember: Flaps are funny things; handle with care.

7.2.1 OTHER FLAPS

by Brooke

The use of flaps is important. Since it often helps to get more

than one point of view, I decided to add the following, even

though there is substantial overlap with what Kato wrote. Here

are the situations I have in mind when I'm deciding how to use

flaps.

The desperation move in a slow, flat turn. Here, you are

chugging along at low speed in a turn, without many options, and

the enemy is closing on your tail. Maybe you don't even have

much altitude. Basically, you have blown the fight so far. Now

what do you do? Well, in this situation, while it is true that

flaps won't always increase your steady-state turn rate (it

depends on the plane), flaps will descrease the radius of your

steady-state turn. Also, dropping flaps will MOMENTARILY

increase your turn rate (until your plane slows down) -- perhaps

enough to get you out of your enemy's sights for part of a turn

and to buy you some more seconds of life.

The closing move in an angles fight. Here, the situation is

actually similar to the one described in the previous paragraph

except that you are the one in the good position, almost ready to

bring guns to bear on the enemy's plane. Here, you can drop a

notch of flaps to generate that little bit of extra turning rate

you need to get the angle on the enemy, to bring your guns to

bear for the kill. It's better to get the kill without deploying

flaps (it's safer, since you don't waste any energy), but if you

feel that you are safe in dropping some flaps and if you are

pretty sure it will give you the angle you need for a good shot,

you might want to go for it.

Getting the nose down at the top of a loop, top of a high yo yo,

or top part of rolling scissors. Here, at the top of the loop,

high yo yo, or rolling scissors, if you are near stall speed and

if you want to get your nose down quickly (perhaps for a shot,

perhaps to keep from getting shot), you can drop flaps. This

increases your lift -- and your drag, but you don't care about

that too much since you'll soon be accelerating rapidly as the

nose comes down -- and allows you to pull the nose down through

the top of the loop more quickly. You retract flaps once your

nose comes down, once you are diving and picking up speed.

Generating maximum turn rate in a spiral dive or diving barrel

roll. Some planes, like the P-38, P-51, and N1K1, can drop one

notch of flaps -- often called "maneuvering flaps." In a

nose-low turn (i.e., a descending spiral), the fact that you are
diving allows you to keep your speed up. Then, if you have a

notch of flaps deployed, you can adjust your dive and thus your

speed so that you are generating a maximum turn rate for the

plane. For some planes, like the P-38, this nose-low turn with a

notch of flaps results in excellent turn rates that few planes

can match. (The defense, of course, is not to follow the P-38

into a nose-low turn for extended periods of time.) You can also

use this tactic in a diving barrel roll to increase the pitch of

your flight path, which is like a corkscrew, and to keep your

speed down closer to the 225-250 knot range talked about in the

next paragraph.

Keeping your speed low. In some situations, you want to keep

your plane from accelerating. Why? Well, it is true that

scrubbing away speed on purpose means that you are lowering the

energy state of your plane, which can be bad, of course. However,

down to a point (about 225-250 knots or so, depeding on the

plane), lower speeds mean better turning rates AND better turning

radii. If your opponent has a lot more speed than you do, you

can do things like go into a nose-low turn or split S -- with

flaps deployed, throttle chopped, or speed brakes deployed (in

planes that have speed brakes), or a combination of all of these

things. If you maintain a speed closer to that 225-250 knot

range while your opponent is well above that speed and still

trying to maneuver with you, he can have a problem. He might

overshoot while trying to get his guns to bear, and you can

maneuver onto his tail as he overshoots.

Keeping your speed low, part 2. Let's say that you're in a plane

(like the P-51, P-38, or N1K1) that can drop a notch of flaps at

high speed (300 knots or more). Let's say that you are tooling

along at 300 knots, and you are in a fight with a plane that

can't deploy flaps or speed brakes at that speed. You can drop a

notch of flaps and loop hard on the opponent, who (without

chopping throttle, and perhaps not even then) cannot follow your

maneuver. You might be able to loop around onto his tail and get

a quick shot. It sometimes works with P-51's being followed by

Spitfires, which are notoriously bad at bleeding off speed.

7.3 NOSE-LOW TURNS

by Kato

When speaking of nose-low turns in the context of air combat

maneuvering, pilots aren't generally speaking of gentle

thirty-degree bank coordinated turns where your cowling happens

to be slightly beneath the horizon. In the context of ACM, the

aircraft is usually describing a hard turn with the wings close

to -- or even beyond -- the 90-degree point, with the pilot

pulling positive G's even while inverted.

These diving spirals have both offensive and defensive

applications, although execution of the maneuver -- and the

caveats thereof -- remain similar. Anytime the nose of your

aircraft is significantly below the horizon -- even when the drag

of high G forces are bleeding away your energy -- expect the

aircraft to gain speed as it converts the potential energy of

altitude to kinetic energy (airspeed). This conversion brings

with it several dangers. The primary one is that as airspeed

rises, so does turn radius, which may give an enemy the ability

to cut inside your turn for an easy deflection shot. This is

basic physics. It is obvious to even inexperienced pilots. And

everyday it trips up pilots who know better. To defend against

this, watch your airspeed as hard as you watch your six. In a

steep dive, only moments separate controllable airspeed from an

uncontrolled compressibility lockup.

When flying defensively, avoid turning your plane into a bullet

magnet by never cutting a predictable path through the air until

you are well clear of any enemy. If your intent is not to

disengage from an enemy, chopping or cutting back throttle will

help you avoid unwanted airspeed. This, along with cunning use

of flaps or landing gear may even force an unwary enemy plane to

overshoot -- although this defensive spiral is strictly a

desperation ploy and is unlikely to pull your bacon out of the

fire against any but the most inexperienced enemy.

7.4 OTHER NOSE-LOW TURNS

by Brooke

Some planes can generate a huge turn rate under the appropriate

circumstances (like the P-38 with a notch of flaps). In a

nose-low turning fight for this situation, you want full power

(and WEP if you have it) and a notch of flaps if you have them.

Then you go into as much of a dive in your turn (a descending

spiral) as you need to generate 6 g's and a flashing stall light.

You want only as much speed as is necessary to stay out of the

stall at 6 g's. You are flying two edges: the edge of blacking

out and the edge of the stall. You want to use high-speed flaps

(if your plane has them) because this edge of the flight envelope

will occur at a lower speed (and thus a smaller turning radius)

by using 10-15 degrees of flaps.

So, you use this to generate a larger turn rate than your enemy

(so that you can come around on his tail and shoot him) and

simultaneously to generate a smaller turn radius than the enemy

(so that he has an even tougher time getting a shot on you). The

problem is that the enemy can refuse to go into a descending

spiral with you, and then you will end up lower than he is, and
you can be in trouble. The best results are for tempting him

into it: do a turn or two flat with him gaining on you a little,

and then ease into the descending spiral. If he follows you, he

might stay in it until it's too late for him.

This maneuver is best used when the following conditions are met.

First, your plane turns better than the enemy plane at some speed

above stall speed. Second, your plane turns worse than the enemy

plane near stall speeds. In other words, you can out-turn him in

a spiral descent but can't out-turn him in flat turns. It is a

good way (if you can sucker the enemy into it) to eat up an

enemy's initial large energy advantage as, after the two of you

have done several revolutions, you will both be at about the same

energy.

This maneuver is risky, though. Eventually you do run out of

altitude, right? -- and you will most likely run out before a

pursuing enemy if you weren't able to come around on him. I

don't recommend this maneuver highly, but it does have its

moments, and it's one of the few angles tactics you can use when

the enemy plane holds most of the cards. I think that energy

tactics or running are wiser, but they aren't as action packed.

You can turn this maneuver into a spiral escape or a vertical

escape (see Chapter 3) if you get desperate.

7.5 SPLIT-S ATTACK

by Brooke

This attack is a B&Z tactic. You overfly the enemy, heading in a

direction generally opposite to the direction he is going. When

you are near the enemy, roll inverted and watch him in your

forward-up view. When he is near the limit of your forward-up

view, ready to go into the up view (i.e., he's starting to go

directly under you), go into a split S. You might need to chop

your throttle to keep out of compressibility or to keep from

dropping too far below him in the split S -- it requires good

timing that you will get with practice. If you do it right,

though, you will pull out of the split S as you are entering

range for a shot on his tail. If he didn't see you and hasn't

evaded, start shooting at 600 yards. If he has evaded hard, you

might have to forgo the shot altogether -- don't waste your ammo

on a shot that won't hit. Either way, go into a very gentle

climbing turn once you pass him (assuming that you are blowing by

him at high speed). If you don't have speed on him, you might

want to dive out and get some distance. Once you have your

distance (1600 yards or more), you can climb back up to altitude

and come back for another run on the enemy.

To combat this when it is used on you, see the "Avoiding B&Z"

section.

7.6 VERTICAL YO-YO ATTACK

by Brooke

This is a B&Z tactic. You dive vertically upon the enemy, firing

when you are within 500-600 yards. It will be difficult for the

enemy to evade well unless he has some speed, and this is mighty

fun when the enemy has a better dogfighting plane but no speed.

It's like doing a tap-dance on his head. After you pass him,

pull up hard into a vertical climb. Hold the vertical climb

until you near stall speed, then pull over the top. Now fly over

the enemy again, and repeat the process until you run out of an

altitude advantage.

To combat this when it is used on you, see the "Avoiding B&Z"

section.

7.7 AVOIDING B&Z

by Brooke

So, some guy with a load of altitude on you is bouncing you

repeatedly. What do you do? Well, obviously, when he is close

to you, you want to evade, but what's the overall strategy?

There are two techniques that I like: going high and going low.

Going high involves eating into the enemy's altitude advantage.

So, whenever the enemy is jockeying around above you, out of guns

range, you should be climbing. However, keep your airspeed up so

that you can evade when he makes his pass. You should have

enough airspeed in order to pull 5-6 g's in your plane (175-225

knots depending on the plane). Or you can be more daring, do a

harder climb at a lower speed, and do a nose-low turn as your

evasive when the enemy does his gunnery pass. Go back into your

climb in the direction of the enemy as soon as he is past you.

You want to climb toward the enemy -- you want him to have to

maneuver to get anything better than a head-to-head shot. At

some point, especially if your plane climbs better than his, you

will get to his altitude, and then you can press the fight

instead of being on the defensive.

Going low involves going right to the deck. Do this when the

enemy's plane climbs better than yours or when you don't think

you can eat into his altitude advantage. Diving on someone when

that someone is on the deck is very dicey (due to speed and

angle) -- the enemy will have to dive down, level out, and

approach you levelly. After the enemy does his pass, turn gently

(not to waste energy) toward him so that his next pass will have
to be head-to-head (and you can jink to avoid). Try for 50 ft.

if you can -- that leaves the enemy with very little room for any

pullout if he's not careful how he approaches. If the enemy

wastes a lot of energy in going after you while you are low and

if you judge that now you can eat into his altitude advantage,

you can switch to the "going high" approach now.

7.8 JINKING

by Brooke

Much reference has been made to jinking. Jinking is used mainly

in two situations: to avoid a head-on shot or to avoid getting

shot while you run away. Jinking is flying erratically, with

little unpredictable deviations added to your flight path but not

significantly affecting the direction you are headed.

To avoid a head-on shot (where you and an enemy are approaching

nose to nose), first you should veer gently away a bit, so that

your nose is not pointed right at the enemy. That generates some

angle so that you are harder to track. Second, as the enemy gets

within guns range (1000 yards or so), pull a few g's in a

direction of your choice or do a few-g barrel roll. Don't pull

lots of g's, or you will waste energy; and don't veer too far

away from your enemy, or you will generate enough separation

(distance between the two of you) that your enemy will be able to

go for an angles shot on you. I like to turn slightly away from

the enemy at about 2000 yards. Then at 1000 yards, I turn gently

toward him, but still with my nose pointed slightly above or

below him. This way, as he closes to within gunnery range, I am

turning but am not headed right at him. Turning toward him

denies a good angles shot.

To avoid getting shot while you run away, you can do one of two

things. If your plane has a large roll-rate advantage over the

enemy plane (e.g., you are in a FW 190 and the enemy is in a Yak

9D, and both of you are going 300 knots), you can do barrel rolls

or parts of barrel rolls at random. Make sure they are barrel

rolls and not just aileron rolls (as described in Chapter 1) so

that you get out of the line of fire. If you don't have such a

roll-rate advantage, roll to a direction picked at random, pull a

few g's, roll to a new direction at random, pull a few g's, and

so on. Push some negative g's once in a while at random, too.

Pick new directions quickly -- don't hold your few g's until you

are turning away much from your intended flight path (namely,

directly away from pursuit). You don't want something as drastic

as an S curve, for example. Just a few g's, pulled for a second

or two at a time, then roll to the next position. You an also

roll while pulling some g's, or pushing g's. The whole point is

to fly erratically, to try to stay out of the enemy's stream of

bullets, but not to deviate too far from flying directly away

from the enemy. This will usually work only if your plane is

faster than the enemy's, of course, this method of running away.

7.9 EXTENDING

by Brooke

Extending is the process of putting more distance between you and

your enemy. This is commonly done when B&Z attacking a plane

that can beat you in a low-speed fight. At some point, as your

energy advantage decreases, you might find that you'd like a bit

more separation so that you can move off to get more altitude or

to re-evaluate the energy state of the enemy.

If you are going quite fast compared to the enemy, you can simply

continue flying mostly level, perhaps with a very slight turn to

throw off the chance that the enemy can get a good shot as you go

by.

If you don't have a substantial amount of speed on the enemy and

if he's in a position as you pass to get a shot on your tail as

you extend, you might want to hold a dive as you pass him. In

the dive, you will pick up speed and distance more quickly.

Again, be turning gently in the dive, or, if you judged that you
needed a very steep dive, even a vertical dive, in order to get

the separation you need quickly enough, you can barrel roll or

jink or both until you are out of range.

One thing to keep in mind if you are diving away from an enemy,

extending, is that reducing the g's your plane is pulling will

help you to accelerate faster. This is because lift causes

induced drag, as discussed before. You can "unweight" -- push

forward slightly on the stick until your g-meter reads just more

than 0 g's. 0 g's would be best (for getting rid of induced

drag), but your engine needs some g's to keep its oil pump happy.

Unweighting will help you to accelerate faster, but beware that

jinking might be more important than unweighting if the enemy is

in range of a shot.

7.10 AVOIDING WING FAILURE

by Brooke

The N1K1, Ki-84, Spitfires, Yak 9D, and A6M5 are all susceptible

under certain conditions to wing failure. The Spitfires suffer

wing failure above about 480 knots IAS, whether or not they are

pulling lots of g's. The others suffer wing failure at lower

speeds but at high g's (more than 6-8 g's). This generally is

not a problem. You just have to be careful of the 500 knot range
in the Spitfires; and for the other planes, since you usually

don't want to pull more than 6 g's anyway, you don't get into

trouble -- unless you hit compressibility.

Compressibility (or "compression") happens when the air over the

top of the wing hits supersonic velocities. This can happen when

an aircraft is traveling less than the speed of sound because

wings displace air, and air has to move more quickly than if it

didn't have to travel the longer path across the surface of the

wing. When the air over the surface hits Mach 1, strong shock

waves form that sweep back from the wing and interfere with the

control surfaces. The controls can be effectively rendered

immovable. Since the speed of sound increases at higher

densities and thus at lower altitudes, compression is more of a

problem at high altitudes than low. All of the planes in Air

Warrior will hit compressibility if you dive them from a high

enough altitude.

Now, this wouldn't be such a big problem except for the

transition from compressibility to normal flight. Here's how the

problem happens. A pilot hits compressibility (where the screen

is shaking to indicate buffeting of the aircraft and where the

controls are mostly ineffective) in a high-speed dive, possibly

while trying to fire upon a fleeing enemy. He tries to pull out

(either because he wants to stop the dive or because the enemy is

pulling up), but because the controls are ineffective, even

though he pulls all the way back on the stick, he is only pulling

3 g's or less. So, he keeps pulling and eventually gets the nose

up, whereupon the speed comes down, or he chops his throttle, or

both. The speed comes down, the plane comes out of

compressibility. The problem is that, immediately upon coming

out of compressibility, the control surfaces have their usual

effectiveness. If the stick is all the way back when the plane

comes out of compressibility at, say, 350 knots, the plane

immediately pulls much more than 6-8 g's. That's when the wings

on some planes have structural failure.

The solution is to watch the transition out of compressibility.

If you are in compressibility, don't pull back more than what you

need to generate 2-3 g's or so. Pulling back more won't help

your pullout but might cause wing failure as soon as

compressibility ends. Pull back gingerly only -- only enough for

those 2-3 g's -- and as soon as the plane comes out of

compressibility, immediately release enough back pressure on your

stick so that you are pulling only 6 g's or less.

7.11 FURBALL TACTICS

by Brooke
A furball is a large dogfight, involving many allies and enemies.

The safest way to attack in a furball is with B&Z tactics; the

second safest is with energy tactics; and the most unsafe is

angles tactics (but, hey, it's fun).

I'll start with angles tactics first. With angles tactics, you

are in the furball -- you are one of the pieces of hair that

makes up the fur -- and it's difficult to employ the neat set of

strategies that are useful in a one-on-one fight. The most

important difference is that you have to VERY frequently check

your six. Check every few seconds. Check before or as you slack

off on the g's you are pulling. Check before or as you reverse

the direction of your turn. If someone is coming in for the

shot, you have to pull g's to evade, even if it means you have to

abandon a shot on the guy you're following. If one enemy is too

difficult to kill, go for someone else (who might be giving you a

nice shot as he goes after somebody). Be careful when you change

targets, though -- the guy you were after (if he is any good)

will keep an eye on you and perhaps come around on your tail as

you go after another target. If you get in trouble, pull some

g's. Nose-low turns are good if you don't have much energy.

Split S's are useful. Anything that allows you to pull lots of

g's to get the hell out of the way is useful. Don't get very

slow in a furball (like at or below stall speed), as you won't be

able to get out of the way if you have to. Of course, if you are
in a stallfight next to the ground, you have no choice but to

keep turning at stall speed (until you are dead, someone bails

you out, you kill your opponent, or your opponent breaks off).

If you are in deep trouble, head for friendlies. Head for a

crowd. Furballs are confusing places, and whoever is on you hard

might lose sight of you or find an easier target. If you do get

way too slow and if someone is coming in for the shot, go into a

spin (if you have the altitude) -- it's better than just hanging

there.

For energy tactics, you can circle around near the top of the

furball, looking for people who come up at you but don't quite

have the energy to do it. Or you can circle and look for

low-energy targets lower down in the furball, upon whom you can

swoop down for a quick shot. Watch your six as you prowl. Keep

your speed up. If you get into trouble, you can dive down

through the furball, pulling some high-g evasives -- maybe your

pursuer will go after an easier, less-maneuverable target. If

you get clear, you can zoom back up to the top of the furball and

look around again. Watch out for people following you back up --

watch your six.

For B&Z tactics, you basically come zooming through the furball

at very high speed. Coming through level or in a very shallow

dive is best. Pick out a target that is involved in a turning

fight and that happens to be turning his tail toward you as you

close. Fire at him. If you can't find something like that, fire

at the best target you see -- but be careful of allies. After

you pass through the furball, go into a shallow, slightly turning

climb to one side or the other (not just a straight climb --

remember that it's harder to target someone who isn't in a purely

vertical or horizontal plane). When you reach a range of about

1600-2000 yards from the aircraft on the outside of the furball,

do a lazy (3 g) Immelman, dive back down, level out, and zoom

through the furball again. You can also watch for aircraft that

have zoomed through the furball and are climbing up but that

don't have the speed you do. You can fly up on their tails and

shoot them as they climb. Watch that this doesn't happen to you.

You can also employ the "vertical yo-yo" maneuver on furballs --

see the section by that name. If you do, beware losing altitude

with each yo-yo and ending up within the furball without any

speed.

Whatever tactics you are using, one way to try to shake an enemy

who is on you is to go into as dense a cloud of planes as

possible and to do a high-g turn to a new direction 90 degrees

from where you were headed -- or maybe a high-g split S (watch

the ground, though). That way, you don't bleed off all of your

speed in the high-g maneuver, but you end up at a radically

different heading. Hopefully, the enemy will lose sight of you

or go for someone who isn't maneuvering as hard. If you are

going fast, and an enemy is hot on your tail, diving under a

cloud of friendlies can allow some friendlies to split S onto the

enemy. Or you can dive into the cloud of friendlies and turn

hard, and keep turning hard until your speed and the enemy's

speed are low enough for the other friendlies to engage.

7.12 CHOPPING THROTTLE

by Brooke

As discussed previously, if your speed is very high, reducing

your speed will allow you to turn more rapidly and more tightly.

Chopping your throttle is one way to reduce your speed rapidly.

This is good, but reducing your speed also means that you are

reducing your energy. So there is a tradeoff -- when should you

chop your throttle?

Usually, you should chop your throttle if you are following an

enemy at high speed, and you notice your enemy drastically

out-turning you (or out-looping you or out split-S-ing you --

they are all turns at heart, just in different directions). At

the same high speed, all of the planes turn equally well as they

are all limited by the g's the pilot can pull. So if an enemy is

out-turning you, it means that he has slowed down. You might

need to slow down in order to pursue. This happens a lot in

planes that hold onto their speed very well, like Spitfires.

Likewise, if an enemy is pursuing you and if the two of you are

going very fast, you might want to chop throttle as you commence

a high-g maneuver, in order to increase your turn rate.

Generally, you want to do this if you think that it will result

in a good shot. Maybe you think that a quick loop back behind

the enemy will work well. Maybe the two of you are in a

high-speed turn and chopping throttle will give you a quick

turn-rate advantage that will get you on the enemy's tail.

Regardless, being the first in a fight to chop throttle can be

dangerous. If the enemy doesn't chop his throttle, except in the

case discussed previously in Section 3.4, he will most likely end

up with more energy than you. Chopping throttle is more commonly

used in planes that don't have to worry too much about getting

slow. These also happen to be the planes that hold onto their

energy better and thus are more likely to need speed reduction

anyway: Spitfires and the A6M5.

The safest place to chop throttle is when you are in a very fast,

very steep dive. There, chopping the throttle so that you can

pull out more rapidly does not necessarily use more energy than

keeping full throttle and doing a max-g pullout. You'll go much

lower during the high-speed pullout than you will in the

chopped-throttle pullout. As an example, Section 3.4 discusses

chopping the throttle in a split S.

7.13 CLIMBING TURNS

by Kato

The climbing turn, or chandelle, is one of the simpler maneuvers.

Useful when taking off from airfields where enemy contact is

possible, a climbing orbit over a friendly ack gives one the time

to gain some situational awareness about the theater environment

while reducing the threat of being ambushed while still low and

slow. Pilot preference and aircraft climbing ability will

determine the rate of climb, but there are tactical

considerations to chandelling up to altitude. Increasing the

angle of bank (the steepness of your turn) reduces your climb

rate, since part of your lift vector is now being directed

horizontally (toward turning your plane rather than merely

keeping it aloft). Thus, a tight turn lengthens significantly

the amount of time it will take you to climb to altitude.

Conversely, a turning radius that is too large may take one

outside your ack's protection. When enemy planes are in the

area, keep your climb rate low. That gives you a compromise

between getting to altitude and sustaining enough airspeed to

exercise defensive options in an emergency. This will help keep

you alive if an enemy pilot decides to brave your airfield's ack

in hope he can kill you and escape before getting shot up.

The chandelle also has more aggressive uses. Primary among these

is its employment at the merge as a variant to the Immelman or

split-S. Using the chandelle to take the reversal out of the

pure vertical plane moves a lead turn into two dimensions (the

concept of the lead turn is presented elsewhere in this manual;

understanding it is crucial to air combat success). The largest

advantage to using this "hard" chandelle in conjunction with a

vertical post-merge reverse is that it moves you out of your

enemy's plane of maneuver, forcing him to correct to your flight

instead of vice versa. It may also cause him to lose sight of

you -- no mean bonus! Lastly, a factor that could be a caveat or

an advantage is that pulling the air combat out of the strictly

vertical plane increases the difficulty of retaining control if a

fight drags on to the point where both pilots are stall fighting

(very low-speed, edge-of-the-control-envelope ACM). A good pilot

may then be able to force the enemy into spinning out of

controlled flight. After that, all that remains to be done is

capitalize on his mistake!

7.14 OTHER CLIMBING TURNS

by Brooke

If you are in a low-speed turning fight and if your plane has a

large climb-rate advantage over the enemy's (see Chapter 7), you

can sometimes go into a climbing turn without getting shot. This

is a tricky business, but it can work when flying a Bf 109 (one

of the best climbers in the game) against some of the slower

climbers (Zeros, Ki-84's, maybe even P-38's, which aren't all

that bad) or perhaps even when flying something like the F4U

against a Zero. You will sacrifice some turn rate by going into

the climbing turn, so you want to start it when the enemy isn't

more than say 180 degrees around the circle from you. If the

enemy is coming around for a shot as you are climbing, you can

always evade with a nose-low turn (picking up speed and turn rate

in the diving turn).

The idea is to go into the climb when you are closer to the tail

of the enemy than he is to yours, but when you can't manage to

get the lead you need for a good shot. You go into a climb. Now

there are two situations to account for. First, if the enemy

doesn't follow, but keeps a flat turn, you just have to watch out

initially that he will out-turn you and get a quick pop-up shot.

Make sure you have room at the start and go into a nose-low turn

if he is closing too fast. If the enemy doesn't close before too

long, though, you end up with a significant altitude advantage

that you then can put to use whenever you want to increase turn

rate (trade altitude for more speed, i.e., a higher turning

rate). Second, if the enemy does follow, you generally don't

have to worry about him coming around on your tail (as his turn

rate will be lessened, too), and moreover you are now in a great

position as his plane won't climb as fast as yours. You just

wait until you have that altitude advantage.

7.15 IMMELMAN WITH A TURN AT THE TOP

by Brooke

Many fights in Air Warrior begin with a head-to-head pass, as the

enemy often sees you coming and is prepared for it. If you don't

have any advantages over the enemy (a better plane, more energy,

or more skill), the opening moves are often critical in

determining who wins. One maneuver that I like -- but that is

dangerous -- is the Immelman with a turn at the top.

Here, after I pass the enemy, I go into a lazy Immelman, pulling

3 g's or less. If I see the enemy pulling a very hard Immelman

and coming around on my tail for a shot, I pull maximum g's to

complete my Immelman. At the top of the Immelman, I see whether

or not the enemy seems like he'll soon have a shot at me.
If the enemy won't have a shot, I roll to one side or the other

(to the side the enemy is on) into as hard a flat turn as I can

manage given my speed (which is near stall speed). I make sure I

have WEP on, and if I have a plane that can generate better

turning with some flaps deployed, I deploy them. I then watch

for the enemy. If he wasted energy coming up to my altitude (at

the top of the Immelman), he won't have as good a turn rate as I

do or he won't even be able to make it to my altitude. He might

stall out and spin trying to bring his guns to bear. If so, I

most likely have him. If he doesn't blow it, we are now both

chugging around in a stall fight, and I can fly the edge and see

if my opponent can wring as much out of his plane in this flight

regime as I can. Or I can go into a descending-spiral fight.

If the enemy will have a shot, I again roll to the side the enemy

is on, but I don't roll into a flat turn, I roll only 45 degrees

or so (so that I am still slightly inverted) and pull into as

hard a nose-low turn as I can manage. I go into a nose-low turn

instead of a flat turn as, at the top of the Immelman, I have

very little speed and can't generate a good turn rate. If you

don't generate a good turn rate, the enemy, if he is below you

coming up, can shoot you in the side -- it's much harder for him

to do that if you are turning well. Again, I make sure that I

have WEP on, but I don't always click in a notch of flaps if the

enemy is seems very skilled and aggressive -- I might need the

speed to continue my nose-low turn into a spiral-diving escape.

Again, if the enemy wasted more energy than I did, I will be able

to come around on him. If he didn't, I am now in a descending

spiral fight.

I like this maneuver because, if my enemy doesn't conserve his

energy as well as I do, this puts me right over his head where he

can't get me but I can use my energy to come around on his tail.

Also, if my enemy blows his timing, I can be up gathering some

airspeed in my turn at the top while he is still getting up

there, which can allow me to come around on him while he's very

slow. The big danger is getting shot in the side or in the

canopy if the enemy pulls a very hard Immelman -- that's where

your judgment of his position is critical and where quick

counteraction is required (namely, the hard nose-low evasive).

7.16 VERTICAL ROPE A DOPE

by Brooke

For the vertical rope a dope, you want to sucker a lower-energy

enemy into following you into the vertical. Sometimes you can do

this by diving down from a large altitude advantage, leveling

off, going past an enemy who is going mostly in your direction,

and just pulling up into a vertical climb. Sometimes, you use

other B&Z tactics and just watch for the enemy trying to follow

you as you climb -- then you go into a vertical climb. Sometimes

you use it on a lower-energy enemy if the following sequence

occurs. After a head-to-head pass, you both do Immelmans and are

in a head-to-head pass again. Now you do an Immelman again, and

the enemy follows but doesn't have the energy to complete it.

The point is, if you have much more energy, you won't stall out,

but the enemy who tries to follow up will. You have to be able

to judge how much energy an enemy has compared to you, though --

you get that with practice. If he does follow you, watch him.

If he isn't falling back and is close enough for a shot at your

tail, it's time to evade hard. If he is falling back, you just

watch for his rate of separation to increase drastically -- then

he has either stalled or broken off. You then reverse hard back

onto him. If he has stalled, he is now flailing around without

any airspeed, and you fill him full of lead as you dive upon him.

If he broke off, you are now chasing him and can run him down

unless his plane can out-accelerate yours.

Don't get into this situation yourself. Don't get so slow

following someone that you lose the ability to maneuver -- unless

you are quite sure you'll get that shot or that the enemy won't

be able to capitalize on your momentary helplessness. Watch your

speed when following someone into a climb.

7.17 VISUAL CLUES

by Brooke

You use visual clues all of the time in air combat as you are

always judging the future location of an aircraft based upon your

past observations of its flight path and attitude. For close-in

combat in Air Warrior, when you can see the shape of the plane,

using the visual clues is second nature. You'll know what's

happening when a plane zooms up into a climb, then slows to a

crawl -- he's near stalling. You'll anticipate when a plane

rolls inverted at the top of a climb, that he's pulling back down

to get some speed. All of this will come naturally and needs no

explanation.

Finding the visual clues when planes are at a large distance,

though, is less natural. How do you know what another plane is

doing when it appears just as a dot? Well, you can always judge

altitude, even of a dot. How far above or below the horizon is

it? And if you see several dots, dancing around, staying roughly

in the same location, you know that they're in a dogfight, that

they probably don't have much airspeed. If you see a dot going

up and down like a yo yo, you know that he's probably in the

process of doing loops -- a looping fight.

Sometimes, in B&Z fighting, you will be attacking a plane that is

involved in a low-speed turning fight. As you come through at

high speed, it's much better if you can come into gunnery range

while the enemy has his tail to you. Once you've been close

enough to know which plane is the enemy plane, you can keep an

eye on it even as it's a dot and know which side of the circle

it's on. You can try to time things so that you are coming in

when you are presented with the best shot.

7.18 SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

by Bug

Developing Situational Awareness (SA) is one of the most

difficult skills to be learned in the process of becoming an

effective fighter pilot, but it's also one of the most important.

Some would say that it is THE most important skill, next to

learning the directions to the sheep enclosure, of course.

Part of SA lies in having a good grasp of the immediate 3-D

tactical situation: knowing or having a pretty good idea of

where planes near you are in relation to you, what direction they

are pointing, how much energy (E) they have, and how much of a

threat they are at any particular moment. Sounds a little bit

daunting, doesn't it? When you're just starting at this game you
are struggling just to learn the basic geometries of combat, and

all the things I mentioned above tend to be overwhelming. Don't

worry, for the longer you fly, the easier it becomes to visualize

the immediate situation.

We'll talk about some of these things later, but there are a lot

of clues to Situational Awareness that you can glean from

information the game gives you. And in any situation, you can

put yourself in a better position if you just apply a bit of

knowledge of human nature. Don't underestimate this last bit,

because you can score a lot more kills if you can guess what the

other guy might do before he even thinks of it. Sound good?

Read on.

The first thing you should always do when you first enter the

game is to find out the odds, as follows.

7.18.1 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU FLY

Yeah sure. You can just log on, go to your favorite airfield,

grab your favorite plane and fly. Nothing wrong with that. . . .

But you'll be a lot smarter, and kill more if you follow Uncle

Bug's advice.

By this time, I'm sure you've set both your handle and (more
importantly) your Custom Player ID (CPID). You have, right? If

not the system automatically assigns you the handle of New User,

and a CPID that is some random nonsense like "xtv145q." It's the

CPID that appears in front of all of your radio messages, so if

you change JUST your handle, you still appear to the world as

"xtv145q." In other words, you appear to be clueless. This is

bad, so click on the flight jacket in the lower-left corner of

the Officer's Club to change this stuff to something meaningful.

The first thing that I like to do when I get on-line is take a

look at the overall strategic situation. Specifically, I want to

see what the odds are by country. This information influences my

decision of what plane to fly, and where to fly that plane from.

More on that later. To get this valuable info type the following

into the text area at the bottom of the screen "/theatre". Most

commands can be abbreviated. In this case, "/th" does it.

This will show you how many folks are flying in each country.

Just add up the vertical columns to get the totals. But wait a

minute! Half of the information has scrolled out of the little

text window! Just hit the "F2" key to expand the text window to

full-screen. Ain't that handy? This is also good for when you

are in the radio room trying to taunt the masses into a duel,

recruit gunners for your sissy bomber, or whatever.

Note the "/" character in the above command line. This is a

little bit confusing, since while you're in the air, the "/" is

used to talk on the all-country radio channel. See the radio

chapter for details. But on the ground, all commands begin with

a "/" character.

Maybe now you'd like to see if some of your pals are up -- or

better yet, your hated archenemy Fill-In-The-Blank. You want to

check the roster. Either click on the chalkboard, or type

"/roster" (or "/ros").

Now you need a field to fly from. You can see a map of the

fields by clicking on the view of the Spitfire out the window.

This map is a nice feature, since you can also see the sector

counters that give you some idea of where everyone else is

flying.

As is pointed out elsewhere in this document, the map is divided

up into squares called "sectors." Sectors that have planes in

them have "sector counters" in the upper left corner of each

sector. Enemy planes are indicated by the little orange squares.

The number of friendly planes is shown by squares of YOUR

country's color below the orange ones (blue for A, red for B,

green for C.) Note that this map does not show WHERE in the

sector these planes are. It just shows you that that number of
planes are in that sector somewhere.

You want to fly from a field that is undamaged. Well you do,

don't you? If you click on an airfield on the map, you can get a

look at that field's current status. But it can take you awhile

to go all around the map checking all of them. A faster way is

to use this command line: "/airfields" (or "/a"). This shows

you the status of all airfields in your country. You want to fly

from a field that has Ammo, Fuel and Maintenance all at 100%.

Exception: the Me-109 can fly just fine with fuel quality

reduced to 85%.

Okay, now you've chosen your airfield. If there are no bad guys

in the sector with you, go ahead and fly. But if there ARE bad

guys in the sector, you might want to pop your head out and take

a look around first. This is just in case your field's ack

defenses are down, and the stinkin' rotten bad guy is circling

just behind your takeoff point waiting to vulch you as you

helplessly roll down the runway trying to take off. The term

"vulch" derives from "vulture." I leave you to infer the meeting

for yourself. . . .

So grab a jeep and take off in that. Why a jeep? For one thing,

even if you do get shot down in a vehicle, it does not count

against your record in airborne vehicles. For another, a jeep

affords you an unobstructed view in all directions, and a view is

all you want here. Take a look all around, and while you're at

it, check the radar ("F10" key). Locations of planes close

enough to be picked up will be shown precisely, and this you

cannot do from inside buildings.

Some fields don't let you take jeeps out, but will let you take

Flakpanzers. So fine, take one of those instead. However you'll

notice that the view is quite bad from the driver's position.

Type "<Esc>jg<Enter>". This stands for "Jump to Gunner

position." There! Now you have a nice view. However, even if

you see enemy planes nearby, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT shoot at

them! If you do, you are likely to shoot down some of your

countrymen without even knowing you did so, and this can make you

VERY unpopular. See the section on vehicles for more details on

this phenomenon, and how to avoid it.

This sounds like a lot of stuff to do, but in practice takes just

a minute or two. And you end up armed with a pretty good idea of

the enemy's strength and their general location, and this in turn

lets you pick your plane and fuel load intelligently. But hey,

if you want to fly that old Spit from a damaged field five

sectors away from the nearest action, go ahead. But you'd do

better to check things out a bit first. Trust Uncle Bug on this

one.
7.18.2 THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU FLY

OK, now you know about the "/theatre" (or "/th") command,

choosing an airfield by looking at the map and considering number

and placement of sector counters, checking the health of your

fields with the "/airfield" command, and even taking off in a

jeep to see if bad guys are waiting to vulch you. Now it's time

to get in a plane and take off and to exercise aspects of

in-flight situational awareness.

Let's illustrate some of these things with an example that you

may find useful. In this example, we will assume you are an

A-lander. Why? Because, that's why. At this point you should

probably go look at the Real-time European Theater map to get a

good mental idea of where the fields I will mention (A83, A88 and

B86) are in relation to each other. If you don't, you'll miss

the point. . . .

Let's say you log on, and you use the "/th" command. You

discover that there are only two A's up, nine B's, and no C's.

You check the map, and by the sector counters you can see that

there are two friendly counters and seven enemy counters in the

sector that contains A88. Two more enemy counters are in the B86

sector nearby.
What does this tell you? It tells you that all the B's are busy

gang-banging your buddies at A88, and probably flying from their

closest field as fast as they can to get in on the fun. Human

nature, remember? So, what would be a good plane to fly in this

situation? Assuming that you want to stay alive, a P-51 would be

a good choice, because it's the fastest plane in the game, and

will stand you a better chance of getting you out of any trouble

that you get into.

So you check the airfields with the "/a" command and find out

that A83 is not damaged. You take off from A83 and immediately

climb out towards the west, clawing for altitude. You climb up

to 15k or so, heading west. You see a couple of kill messages,

but the only friendly counters are still over A88. Apparently,

your silly countrymen are getting all pissed off and taking off

right away from 88 again after getting killed. This little

furball is bound to be quite low over 88, right? Sure, because

the B's will be trying to kill the A's just as they take off.

You notice that a couple of B's have been killed, and a couple

minutes later two enemy counters pop up in the B86 sector. Ah!

They're probably all bent out of shape at being killed and will

head right back to 88 to get their revenge without bothering to

gain alt. So you fly towards the point about midway between 86
and 88 and hope that you're right. And sure enough, there's a

couple of low dots heading to 88. You head behind them, hoping

that they don't see you, and knowing that your altitude will give

you the speed you need to catch up.

If you time this correctly, you will ideally make your move as

the bad guys get close to the furball, since they are more likely

to be fixated on the fun coming up in front of them, and not

looking out the back as they should be. (Human nature strikes

again!) So you come in behind the trailing plane, keeping your

maneuvers wide and gentle so you don't bleed off airspeed

unnecessarily. You drop below his altitude so that even if he

does look straight back he won't see you. As you get within gun

range, you open up. Hits! Boom, he dies!

Now, his buddy is still 1000 yards away, but off to one side a

bit. Also, he's just about to 88, where only one of your fellow

A's is still alive. You'd have to maneuver hard at this speed to

get a good tail shot, and losing airspeed in the middle of nine

enemies would be a bad thing. About this time you see that the

last of your buddies gets killed. All those bad guys were

twisting and turning, slavering over his kill. Now that he's

gone, they're gonna look around for something else to kill. And

the only thing around is . . . you. Yes, you probably could get

that second kill, but if you want to live you will straighten
out, put the nose level or slightly down and blow right through

this mess, only climbing out when you're well out of gun range.

It's handy that your escape path towards home is already pretty

much the way you're heading. It'd be a coincidence, but you

planned it that way, because your SA is so darned good!

This is an example of the kind of considerations you find

yourself making all the time in this game. Notice that I used

knowledge of how many good and bad guys were flying (that I got

from using the "/theatre" command while on the ground) and

figured out the general situation from number and placement of

sector counters. Then I chose a plane and tactic suited to the

situation. None of this required that I fly like the Red Baron

(and good thing, too!) just that I observe things, and use the

information in an intelligent way. You don't have to be the top

stick-and-rudder man to fly smart, and that is what Situational

Awareness is all about.

Here's a few other general truisms of Air Warrior that you can

use to your advantage:

-- Furballs (as well as any close-in turning fights) will tend to

descend.

-- Almost everyone will tend to gang-bang at the least

provocation. If you're looking to get your own kill, you might

not want to join in with five of your buddies as they try to kill

one enemy, but rather stay at a higher altitude and look for

someone trying to come to the rescue.

-- Bombers almost always bomb the closest enemy airfield.

-- Pilots flying E planes (P-51, FW 190, etc.) straight into

furballs at low altitude are almost certainly dweebs that you

don't have to worry too much about.

-- Pilots flying E planes at high altitudes who fly right over

furballs without diving in are aces that you should worry plenty

about.

-- Someone killed on their takeoff roll (also known as getting

vulched) who is mad enough to pop right up again in the same

spot, to get killed again, will be mad enough to pop up yet

again. To get killed again. Repeat.

-- Patient pilots kill more than impulsive pilots.

-- Pilots afraid to seize an opportune moment don't get kills.

They just fly around.

Notice how the last two points seem to contradict each other.

But they don't really, because the decision on when to be

patient, and when to risk it all depends on the surrounding

situation. Take a look around you when the moment comes for that

decision -- or better yet, know the situation ALREADY when the

moment comes.

The "/theatre" command for general odds, the "/roster" command

for personalities, the sector counters for odds in each locale of

the arena, and the radar and visual sightings for relative

altitude and plane types. Not to mention some understanding of

the way people behave in Air Warrior! All this enters into the

decisions you make. All these things are easy to observe if you

just make the effort. Common sense and awareness of your

surroundings will go a long way to making you a killing machine.

But this is only the general part of Situational Awareness.

There's the other part that pertains to dogfighting I mentioned

earlier, and this I leave to those who understand it better!

7.19 VERY-BASIC MULTI-PLANE TACTICS

by Brooke

Multi-plane tactics are more involved than the tactics you've

read about so far. They are useful in situations involving up to

about five or six aircraft. After that, things start to get a

bit confusing, and you're getting close to furball tactics. At

any rate, this subject is mostly "beyond the scope of this text,"

but I will give a sprinkling of details that seem to apply best

to Air Warrior. I refer you to Shaw's book for more details.

If you are fighting two on one, it is best to start out with one

of the planes using B&Z tactics while the other fights whichever

way it wants. It's definitely not best for both to fight angles

right away.

If you do get into trouble in a two on one, make sure you signal

your partner that you need immediate help. Three clicks on

channel 2 is what is commonly used (i.e., you hit the apostrophe

key and then the "Enter" key -- do that three times in a row

quickly). In Air Warrior on America Online, this would produce

something like the following in your radio buffer (which means

that Brooke is in deep trouble):

*Brook:

*Brook:

*Brook:

Then, if you can do it without getting shot, take the fight to a

position under the free ally, even if you have to dive down a lot

to do it. The free ally can then more easily use energy to get a

shot on the enemy.

For partners who have a communication system worked out, you can

do some fun things. Let's say that an enemy is following you.

You're partner might tell you (with one or two clicks on the

radio, for example) that he is in position for a drag. A drag is

when you fly across the front of your partner so that he can

shoot the enemy following you. It might involve easing off on a

tight turn, for example.

You can arrange before engagement to do a bracket. You and your

partner approach the enemy head on. As you get to about

2500-3000 yards or so, you move apart by about 1500 yards.

Whichever way the enemy goes, the ally on the opposite side can

turn toward the middle for a shot on the enemy's tail (if the

timing works). Again, a click or two can signify the beginning

of the bracket, when you are to move apart.

You can follow each other in trail, one 1000-1500 yards behind

the other. If the enemy goes for the leader, the trailer can

fire at the enemy's tail. If the enemy passes the leader, the

leader loops back while the trailer continues forward. Now if

the enemy stays on the trailer, the leader (having looped around)
can fire on the enemy's tail.

You can both dive simultaneously on an enemy from different

directions. Then, if the enemy turns to go head-to-head with

one, the other has a tail shot.

Two-on-two fights are similar if you and your partner go after

one enemy first. You can use the above ideas while watching out

for the second enemy. If you take one and if your partner takes

the other, then it's mostly two separate one-on-one fights until

someone dies or until the two fights merge.

If you are attacked by two enemies, you are most likely in big

trouble. Be careful of getting into a low-speed turning fight

with one while the other does B&Z passes -- unless you think that

you can polish off one enemy quickly. Be careful of going after

one of the planes while presenting a nice tail shot to the second

one.

7.20 CHAPTER 7 EXERCISES

7.20.1 FLAP SETTINGS IN STALLFIGHTS

This exercise requires a watch -- a digital watch with a

stopwatch function is best. Take up a P-38 to 1000 ft. alt. Use

full throttle, and begin turning as hard as you can, staying at

all times near 1000 ft. alt. Do enough revolutions so that your

airspeed is steady in the turn -- i.e., go into a stallfight

turn. Note your airspeed. Now pick out a terrain feature that

you can recognize easily (a control tower, a mountain, whatever)

and start your stopwatch when your nose passes it. Let your nose

pass it two more times, and on the third time, stop your

stopwatch. Now you can find out your turn period (seconds per

revolution) by dividing the time by 3 (you did 3 revolutions).

Repeat the test with 1 notch of flaps deployed, with 2 notches,

and with full flaps. Which flaps setting (0, 1, 2, or full)

resulted in the best turn rate (i.e., the lowest turn period)?

How does the airspeed for that setting compare to the airspeed

for no flaps?

Repeat this experiment with two other planes that you'd like to

fly frequently in Air Warrior. Now you know whether deploying

flaps in these planes matters much in stallfights.

7.20.2 CHOPPING THROTTLE IN A HIGH-SPEED SPLIT S

Take a Spitfire IX up to 5000 ft. altitude and get it up to 250

knots. Do a maximum-G split S. (Careful not to black out.)

Note your altitude at the bottom of the split S. Go into a 60

degree climb back up to 5000 ft. Note your airspeed at 5000 ft.
Now get the Spitfire IX back up to 250 knots at 5000 ft., chop

your throttle, and do a maximum-G split S. At the bottom of the

split S, go back to full throttle and note your altitude. Go

into a 60 degree climb back up to 5000 ft. Note your airspeed.

Which maneuver (chopping throttle or not) was most

energy-efficient (i.e., at the equal altitude of 5000 ft., which

maneuver resulted in the highest airspeed)? How much lower did

you go in the split S with full throttle than the split S with

chopped throttle?

7.20.3 CHOPPING THROTTLE IN A HIGH-SPEED TURN

Take a Spitfire IX up to 7000 ft. altitude. Get up to speed,

turn on WEP, do a 45 degree dive back down to 5000 ft. altitude.

Level off at 5k and wait for your speed to reach 300 knots. Now

time how low it takes to do a maximum-G 180 degree turn. Note

your airspeed at the conclusion of the turn. Do the same thing

again but chop your throttle right before entering the turn. Is

there much of a difference in turn rate (how long it takes to do

the turn) or turn speed (how fast you are going at the completion

of the turn)?

7.20.4 COMPRESSIBILITY AND WING FAILURE

If your Air-Warrior program allows you to jump into films and

take control of the plane, you can film the first part of this

exercise and use it to do the second part without having to climb

your plane back up to 20,000 ft. and top speed (which takes a

while).

Take a Zero up to 20,000 ft. altitude. Get it up to near top

speed. Turn on WEP for a couple of minutes. Go into a 60 degree

dive. When you experience buffeting, try the controls and see

how effective they are. Now pull all the way back on the stick

and then chop throttle. Notice how your wings tear off as soon

as you come out of compressibility.

Now do the same thing, but don't pull all the way back on the

stick after you chop throttle. Instead, pull back only enough to

pull 2-3 g's on the g-meter. As soon as you come out of

compression, there might be a spike in the g's you are pulling --

immediately relax back pressure on the stick so that you are

pulling only 6 g's. This is how to keep your wings attached

coming out of compressibility -- watch those g's, and don't pull

all the way back on the stick as you are coming out of

compressibility.

7.20.5 GENERAL PRACTICE

Practice as many of the maneuvers discussed in chapter 7 as you

can. When you feel comfortable with them, try doing them in

another plane of your choice.

8.0 CONCLUSION

After you have read all of the chapters in this manual, done all

of the exercises, and flown a modest amount of time on-line

against real opponents, what's next? You can learn more about

ACM by reading FIGHTER COMBAT, by Shaw (Naval Institute Press) --

see the "Recommended Books and Movies" appendix. There's also

more flying, of course. I hope that this manual helped you to

progress much more rapidly than if you had just dived into the

on-line arenas of Air Warrior without it -- but the real key to

increased skill is a lot of flying. Also, since by now you

should know your way around Air Warrior pretty well, you might

want to consider participation in squadrons, historical

scenarios, and war nights.

Squadrons are groups of Air-Warrior folks who fly together

occasionally. For example, in the "More on ACM" appendix, you

might have noticed some pilots putting a "=>DFA<=" after their

handles -- that's for "Death From Above," one of the oldest

squadrons in Air Warrior. Squadrons sometimes get together on

certain nights (squad nights) and form up missions to do various

mischief. Sometimes, two squads arrange to be on at the same

time so that one squad can battle the other. Some squads have

themes or certain flying styles. Some squads have become part of

Air-Warrior lore (like the Aggressors). If the idea of belonging

to a squad appeals to you, you can ask around on the radio when

you fly, or ask in the "alt.games.air-warrior" newsgroup, to find

out what's out there.

Historical scenarios are set up to give people, as much as is

possible, a more realistic taste of combat missions. Sometimes,

scenarios are based upon actual WWII missions or situations.

Regardless, scenarios have definite objectives, missions, and

resources. Many people feel that scenarios are a whole new level

of fun -- that they are to regular arena play what arena play

(with its multi-player action) is to playing stand-alone flight

sims. I'm with them. It's a blast, and it gives me the same

feeling I get when reading exciting accounts of real WWII aerial

combat. You'll hear about scenarios in radio chatter when you

fly or if you keep up with the "alt.games.air-warrior" newsgroup.

You can get more of a feel about what a scenario is like by

reading the "Historical Scenarios" appendix.

War nights are like mini-scenarios. Scenarios, while being great

fun, run infrequently because they are so involved to set up.

War nights are less involved and run much more frequently

(usually once per week) -- and they can help mollify one's

craving for scenarios in the times between scenarios. If you are

interested, ask on the radio or in the "alt.games.air-warrior"

newsgroup when war nights occur on the on-line system you use.

There are also (usually about once or twice per year) Air-Warrior

conventions, where folks get together for some on-line flying,

trips to plane museums and air shows, etc. I went to one in the

early 1990's in Los Angeles, and it was a blast. It's a lot of

fun to meet folks you've known for years but have never seen.

(No one looks like what you thought they'd look like.) The

conventions are talked about on the radio and in the

"alt.games.air-warrior" newsgroup, among other places.

Well, that's it (finally, eh?). Again, if you have comments,

suggestions, or spot errors in this manual, feel free to send

some e-mail to "brooke@alumni.caltech.edu".

---- APPENDIX: DEFINITIONS ----

AAA. Antiaircraft artillery.

Ack. Antiaircraft artillery.

ACM. Air-combat maneuvering.

Alt. Short for "altitude."

Ammo. Short for "ammunition."

Auger. Means "crash."

AW. Short for "Air Warrior."

Bail. Short for "bail out," i.e., parachuting out of your plane.

BDA. Bomb-damage assessment.

Blanks. "I have blanks" means that you are not getting hits on

enemy aircraft when it seems like you should (are on target and

within range). This can be due to network problems.

Bogie. Unknown aircraft, usually seen in Air Warrior as a black

dot -- an aircraft not close enough to be identified by an icon.

Bug out. Disengage from a fight and run away.

CC. Short for "copy."

Con. Short for "icon." "I con a FW" means that a FW is close

enough to the person sending the message statement that the FW

shows up as an icon on his screen.

Copy. "I copy" means "I hear you" or "I got the message." Used

to acknowledge a radio transmission.

Deck. The deck is the ground. "Flying on the deck" means

"flying close to the ground."

Dot. Same as bogie.

E. Short for "energy."

Egg. An egg is a bomb.

Energy. The energy a plane has, a combination of speed and

altitude, i.e., kinetic energy (from speed) plus potential energy

(from altitude).

Engaged. Engaged in a fight.

Furball. A furball is a large dogfight involving many planes.

IAS. Short for "indicated airspeed."

ID. Short for "identify." Same as con.

In. "I am in" means "I am engaged."

Inverted. Flying inverted means flying upside down.

k. As in "10k." "10k" means "10,000 ft. altitude."

Kts. Short for "knots" (1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour = 1.2

mph.)

Merge. "The merge" is when two opponents come together (not a

collision, but just right near each other), usually a

head-to-head pass.

Out. Opposite of in.

Ping. A "ping" is a hit from gunfire.

Prep. Short for "prepare." "To prep and airfield" means "to get
it ready for capture."

Prop. Short for "propeller."

Refer. Short for "refinery."

Rgr. Short for "roger."

Roger. Same as "copy."

Saddle up. When you saddle up on someone, you have gotten into

firing position behind the enemy.

Six. Six o'clock position, i.e., behind you.

Stick. Short for "joystick" (or control stick). Also, a "stick

of bombs" is one of the two batches of bombs that bombers carry.

For example, the B-17 carries 16 bombs in two sticks of 8 bombs

each. Each stick can be dropped independently.

Warps. Warps are when an enemy plane jumps around erratically on

your screen, making it very hard to hit, not due to maneuvering

on the part of the pilot but due to packet delays in the network.

WEP. War-emergency power.

---- APPENDIX: MORE ON ACM ----

The following material is taken verbatim out of a file called

"tnt-guid.txt", which was first compiled for the Air-Warrior

Training-Academy back in 1994, I think. I included it because

it's useful to hear the views of good pilots. Some of the

terminology might be out of date, as the Air-Warrior program has

changed a bit since then, but most of the discussion is still as

worthwhile now as it was then.

This material was written by JD, Killer, Rash, Holmes, Fool, Bug,

Spellbound, and Twist.

AIR COMBAT MANEUVERING (ACM)

AWTA Briefing compiled by JD, from posts by various pilots

It has been said that all ACM is just turning, with some degree

of vertical thrown in. The trick is knowing WHAT kind of move to

make, HOW to make it, and most important of all, WHEN to do it.

The essential elements of fighter combat are: A. Situational

Awareness, B. Energy, C. Position, D. Gunnery.

Situational Awareness (SA) is the subject of another briefing.

Energy is the currency of aerial combat. He who goes broke first

dies. Hoard your energy when you can, you WILL need it!. When you

spend it, make sure you get something in return, ideally a kill.

Speed of course is kinetic energy. Altitude is potential energy.

DO NOT assume that you are safe just because you are faster

and/or higher than the enemy you see. Look for the higher or

faster one that will kill you. As a rule, the higher plane

presents the greater threat.

Position - the ideal one is where you can shoot the enemy, but he

cannot touch you. The tail shot, or "6:00" position is prized by

fighter pilots for this reason. Above the enemy is nearly as

good.

Gunnery - normal maximum range of anything but a tank cannon in

AW is 650 yards. Your guns fire in one-second bursts. Hold the

trigger down for 1-1/2 seconds (on the SVGA FE at least) and you

expend 2 seconds' worth of ammo. Fire short, well-aimed bursts.

Don't spray, all you will do is waste ammo. The host will only

acknowledge one hit at a time, so holding down the trigger will

accomplish little if anything in extra lethality.

-> Caution on the rear-view phenomenon: This is caused by the

network delay. When you see a plane at 1000 yards in your rear

view, remember that what you see is his position ONE SECOND AGO.

A second's worth of closure can be 3-400 yards, placing you at

600 yards in front of him. That _may_ not always be the case

depending on HIS delay and speed, but follow this rule, it will

save you many deaths: OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR _ARE_ CLOSER THAN

THEY APPEAR!! Always, always, *always* subtract 4-600 yards from

the distance you see an enemy on your 6:00 at, and figure that is

where they see you. In other words, if you see an enemy at 1000

yards, assume you are at 600 in his front view. You are not

_truly_ safe from an enemy's guns until you have at least 1400

yards of separation, and 1600 is better.

Here's Killer on gunnery and the effect of network delay.

I've found that I get hit from 1600 on in with good regularity.

In realtime anyway. I always consider 1600 out my rear view as

700 yds. It all depends on closure rate. If the guy is moving at

150 kts, he travels one helluva lot less distance in a second

than he does at 350 kts. Especially in realtime, if the guy is

diving on your 6 he can hit you at just under 1600 out your rear

view with the net delay, if he's only coing 150, your prolly safe
at 1400 or even less. Also remember that the gun range is set

with muzzle velocity + duration time of bullet flight, your speed

is added to that muzzle velocity so at high speeds you can hit at

slightly more than 650 yds. Also I've noticed that if the guy is

losing packets, you will freeze in his sight motionless for brief

instants and warp 500 yds or more into and back out of range, The

FE only gives hits for bullets that hit the plane, so during

those warps you can be hit no matter how far you actually are

from him. Yet another reason I set 1600 as my limit.

The delay value (d=) is an average amount of delay. Its the

average of delay in seconds for the # of trips, and is rounded to

the nearest whole number. Trips are just that, the data packets

make the trip from Host to FE and vice versa. Hist is the last

average before the current one I believe.

All the info sent back and forth from the host to the FE and back

is sent in packets of data. The delay is the amount of time in

seconds that that transfer is taking.

Esc Q lets you know more about how many packets have been sent

and acknowledged by the host and provides a ratio of

sent/acknowledged.

Due to the effects of the network, gunnery is modeled with a "hit

bubble" around each plane. The bubble is normally set to 3 times

the plane's wingspan. Bullets reported to the host as passing

through the bubble are checked by the host against a series of

criteria that includes range and aspect angle. If the host

decides that there was too much range or deflection involved, the

hit is not allowed. If the hit is allowed, then the target

plane's Front End (FE) is notified of the damage to apply. When

the damage exceeds the plane's ability to withstand it, the plane

is destroyed. - Killer =>DFA<=

Mr. Mustang, Rash on the subject of head-on shots:

I have found it a "good idea" if your are being killed a lot, to

change tactics. If a plane is within firing range, expect to get

hit, and It is your job to make it as hard as possible for him to

hit you.

I'm not saying this to sarcastic, but I believe that with the

delays, our FE's (while planes are pulling G's) can be off by 180

degs or more for brief periods of time, and with this new version

any angle is deadly. - never trust what your FE is showing you.

True, it's chicken dodo for a pilot to fire on a merge, that is

straight and level coming from 180degs opposite directions. But

if you take away the headons, f6's will be able to once again

loop in front of firing guns, and Zeros will be able to do flat

turns until they run our of gas with no fear of receiving any

hits. Now getting caught low, slow or hanging on your prop is

certain death, and that's how it should be - I like it! Just

because some people are getting killed more, because they are

using old outdated tactics, doesn't mean something's porked. Rash

=>DFA<=

THE TWO MAJOR TYPES OF AIR COMBAT

You know this already, they are angles fighting AKA

"stallfighting", and energy fighting, which is sometimes known as

"E-fighting," "Boom & Zooming" or "B&Z'ing".

ANGLE FIGHTING (STALLFIGHTING)

The basic elements of angle-fighting are simple:

1. get on the enemy's tail,

2. hammer him until he dies.

The opening move is the CRITICAL one in a stallfight. Since the

combatants are close, and generally neither has enough speed

advantage to escape, the opener often determines the outcome,

unless:

A. neither pilot gains the advantage in the opener,

B. one pilot makes a mistake the other can capitalize on, or

C. an ally intervenes. The ally can be another fighter, the ack,

or even a dump.

Once combat is joined, assuming neither pilot has a favorable

position, it's a 3-D chess game. It is axiomatic that a pilot who

makes all his moves in the horizontal will not live long. A lot

of our fellow aviators have taken that viewpoint to the extreme.

All of their fights are a seemingly endless series of pure

vertical loops, until one pilot runs a little short of Energy,

and it's all over for him. Rule: He who loops last, wins. That

simply means that the pilot who hangs onto enough E to go

vertical after his opponent is too slow to do so will usually

win. A high yoyo, in which the attacker goes vertical to cut

across a flat-turning plane's turn circle, is the tactic of

choice if you have the E for it.

If both pilots are at the same energy state ("Co-E") and neither
can go vertical anymore, then the engagement degrades into a

horizontal turning match. Usually by this time both are low, and

it's not an option to use a low yoyo to cut the other guy's turn

from below. The low yoyo is less efficient than the high, and

riskier too. At this point, it's a matter of who can out-turn the

who. It is not necessarily a case of whose plane can turn

tighter. The ability to ride the edge of blackout and/or stall

will often determine the outcome. Weight is an important factor

in this situation. If you are locked in a horizontal circle with

an enemy and you are hauling nearly a full load of ammo,

"dumping" some of it, just shooting it off without a chance of

hitting, will lighten your plane and may give you the edge in

turning.

Flaps will tighten your turning circle, but will also slow you

down. Use them, but use them cautiously. Practice offline holding

your plane in a max-G turn. Lower flaps, see the effect.

My advice on the looping and flat-turning stalemate situations

described above: AVOID THEM! Even if you are a dedicated

anglefighter, keep your speed and altitude up enough that you

have options. Learn to perform lead turns in the horizontal and

vertical, and make good use of them. Timing and speed control are

the important issues.

The spiral climb is a DEADLY tactic against many stallfighters.

The zero and Ki-84 are most susceptible to this, though a

spitfire or 109 can sucker FW's and 51's this way also. It works

like this: you have an E advantage over the enemy, OR a plane

that climbs better. You engage him, and notice that he stays

close to horizontal in his moves. Maybe he does a zoom climb, but

he's not working the vertical effectively, and is anxious enough

to pepper you that he is bleeding E too quick for his own good.

You turn with him a time or two, keep your speed up, and don't

pull as many G's as he does. The bad guy's gaining angle on you,

and you know he's salivating. At that point, you go into a spiral

climb. Don't wind the spiral too tight or you'll stall out. You

may need flaps and WEP as you get close to topping out. Watch

the enemy the views, paying close attention to his range

readout. When you see his closure stop, and then his range starts

to rapidly increase, he has stalled out. Roll over and pounce!

Don't get impatient and overshoot. Stay on top, tap-dance on his

head. He will have to dive to regain control, but you will be

nearly impossible to shake off. Just roll your plane to track him

as he turns. A few hard break turns, and he's likely to black

out. Then he's yours!

ENERGY FIGHTING
An energy fight between two good pilots is actually a series of

openers. It's like jousting; thrust and parry, then break off for

another pass.

There are a number of things that come into play in high-speed

fighting. What you CAN'T do most of the time is just line up on a

bad guy from way out, and expect him to hold still. I often do

just that, though, _if_ I am clearing the bandit off a buddy's

tail. I make him break, he blows E, and the friendly lives.

I like to climb out away from trouble, and cruise around at about

28k. Most people, even 51 drivers, level out way below 25k; it's

kind of a psychological thing. If I see a lone bad guy on radar

or get a radio report of one, I figure that's either a dweeb or

another hunter. If I'm near enough, and thinking about engaging,

I need to know how high he is. After I find out, I close on him

and judge his speed. If he is heading for some probable target,

like a tower, I will try to get there first. When I figure he's

starting his dive, then I dive on his target also. All I have to

do is adjust my speed so I don't overtake him too fast. At some

point in his dive, I'll pull onto his 6. It's amazing how few

people will abort a bomb run, even when death is breathing down

their necks.

If I'm tracking the enemy toward a furball, I generally dive in

behind him, but don't go anywhere near as low, and make no

attempt at setting up a firing pass on anyone in the furball

(yet). I follow him down, then pull off and line up on where he's

going to climb out. As he zooms up and out, I dip slightly below

him, line up, and BOOM.

I often make a big circle around a furball, and it tends to piss

off some of my allies who are in it, fighting for their lives.

They get real quiet when they see me whack an enemy B&Z'er like I

just described.

Plucking a low, slow, tight-turning enemy out of a furball is a

little different, but not much. The trick is NOT to focus on the

enemy, but tune in on the rythm of the fight. Watch a furball,

and you will see that planes go round and round, up and down in a

rythmic, predictable, TARGETABLE pattern. (credits to DoK) OK,

that's fine but how can you LINE UP on a spit going around at 150

IAS? Well, one of my favorite tactics that I learned from Fool

is to make a few low-G S-turns as you come in, and follow the

flight path of the plane that the targeted bogie is going round

and round with. If the bad guy is in a looping fight with one of

your pals, and they are not right down on the deck, dive below

them as you come into icon range. Then, carefully gauge the

timing of their loops, and zoom up behind the bad guy as he

climbs. At the worst, you'll make him break, and give your pal
some breathing room.

I make my first pass into a furball AWAY from my eventual egress

route. This is because I will have plenty of speed on my first

climbout, and an enema who may be trying to stick it to me like I

described back there will not have turning room to get on me if I

zoom out toward him.

If your pal is in trouble, low and slow, or if the fight is in

your home turf and you won't have to fight your way home, the

BEST way to kill a low, stallfightin enemy is to get RIGHT on top

of him, cut throttle, and dive straight down on his head. It's

damn near impossible to evade this, because all you gotta do is

roll your plane to track him. You will be in lag pursuit as you

dive on him, then rapidly switch to LEAD pursuit at the moment

you set him up to die. 1K-1400 yards, depending on speed, is

where you pull lead on him and slide onto his 6:00. I usually

drop a notch of flap at that point, and I'm working the throttle

to stay at 275-300 knots. The P-51 turns nicely at that speed,

especially with a notch of flap. You can lower flaps in a 51 up

to 300 IAS. I usually get at least 2 hits on a pass like that,

and often more. If the bandit has hits on him at that point, he's

dead unless I really blow the setup. Even then, I buy my buddy

time.
Leveling out with your victim is sometimes successful, but the

only time I do it is if he is at very low altitude. His speed

being lower, he can out-turn you, so there's no way you can

follow him in a break. If he has 4-5k of air under him, dropping

below his line of sight and zooming up to him is often the best

way. This is especially true if he is making vertical moves, i.e.

in a looping fight. Catch him at the top of his loop, fill him

with lead, and zoom up over him. At that point you should roll

180 and watch what he does. Hopefully he will blow up, but if not

you may see him go into a spin from trying to evade you. If a

friendly is fighting him, ask the friendly if he's OK. If he

says yes, then get your alt back as your pal finishes off the bad

guy.

It all gets more complicated in a multi-plane engagement. If you

are in a B&Z plane like a P-51, do not get drawn into the

furball. Some of your friends are likely to die, but the best

way to help them is to stay fast, put hits on as many of the bad

guys as you can, and make any incoming enemies break or die. -

JD 2959

Holmes ^TH^

Yeah the gut-shot :) Particularly effective when there's no radar

operatin for the bad guy. If you angle the approach from below

just right, he'll not see your icon when he looks in direct rear

view til it's too late. Don't give away too much alt before the

merge, yer lookin only to get a better angle and delay his

seeing you. Another plus is it puts you nose up when you

overshoot. Then you can get right to bidness goin vertical

without yankin too many G's. - Ho 5551

Fool on Boom & Zoom Fighting

B&Z...in a one versus one... We will assume here that your enemy

has seen you and turned around to take your pass headon. Score 1

advantage point for you, you forced him to turn 180 degrees and

use up some of his energy. Now dive in but stay about 1500yds

above him and pull stright up. Pull up early so he sees it,

hopefully he will pull up and try to follow. Watch for him to

stall and dive in on his 6. If he doesnt follow you up, at the

top of your zoom pull back on the stick and level out, you will

be inverted at this point and way above your enemy. When he turns

around to take your next pass, (note; you just scored another

advantage point) wait until he is passing under you, then dive

straight down on him. Now any direction he turns you only need to

roll your ailerons to pull in behind him. The main point here is

to make as many passes as required to slow your enemy down to the

point were he can no longer pull his nose up. I.E. he can no

longer loop, he can only do level turns. Then dive straight down

on him. Some guys don't like this approach, but the straight down

dive negates the enemy's faster turn rate. - Fool 5047

B&Z by Bug

The technique that Fool describes is also known as the

"rope-a-dope" and is dependant on the bad guy following you up.

The problem with it is that it burns up E a lot faster than the

classic b&z, due to the high g's you must pull to get pointed

straight up. You usually cannot do more than about two of these

manuevers before getting dangerously slow and easy meat for a

skilled defender. The usual b&z involves low-g zooms and long

extensions in order to keep that good E. And yes, I will usually

go level with the bad guy just outside of gun range - this is

particularly effective vs. bad guys already involved in a fight.

If they have been fighting for any length of time it is likely

that the combatants have pissed away their E and are now stuck

turning in the horizontal plane. If you blow through them in the

vertical plane, your chances of a nice tail shot are greatly

diminished. - Bug 2472

>OPENING MOVES

The following is a post by Spellbound dealing with the

all-important topic of opening a fight. Opening moves are not

restricted to the start of a fight. However, properly done, the

opener makes the rest of the fight unnecessary!

PRACTICE THE VIEW KEYS!!!

ACM 1vs1: Now that you know the basic fighter manuevers, we'll

start putting them together in 1vs1 engagments. The first move

you make during the merge in a 1vs1 is known as an "opening

move".

The following are some examples of opening moves used frequently.

High G Immelman: As you are closing on the enemy, you pull up

into a full g immelman, in realtime I tend to start pulling up

around 1k or so, bout 1/2 that in 1/2 time. This is an aggresive

opening and the quickest way to reverse direction on the enemy.

It's main disadvantage is that it bleeds energy quickly.

Low G Immelman: In this opening, you conserve energy in doing a

low <around 3 g's> immelman. You can also pull up a bit later
than a high G immelman. Be prepared to take hits if your opponent

went with a high g manuever. In this opening you convert most of

your energy to alt. If your opponent used a high g manuever, you

will have an energy advantage. While you may take hits, he will

likely stall trying to follow you. Once you have an energy

advantage, use your alt to gain position or make firing passes,

now YOU dictate the fight. Vertical Lead Turn: As you are going

head-on, enter a shallow dive to gain vertical separation and

airspeed. If you have the vertical separation, pull up into a

high g immelman a little earlier than normal, 1300 is good for

me. This is a super agressive opening and can gain you a quick

victory, when it works, its beautiful. You find yourself a couple

hundred off the enemies six as he starts to pull up. You must

kill QUICKLY or you will be at a major energy disadvantage. If

you need to follow him over, use flaps to get over the top.

Low g climbing spiral: In this opening, you pull up into a low g

climbing turn. The idea is similar to the low g immelman but it

is a little more difficult for the enemy to keep you in views.

Basically you show the enemy your rear, enticing him into blowing

all his energy to get ya, then you use your energy advantage to

gain alt, then position or make firing passes. This opening may

require you to take hits as well. There are many variations on

these but basicly they fall into high g and low g categories. The

high g manuevers are agressive and designed to get angles as

quick as possible, ie the quick kill. The low g are designed more

to get you an energy or alt advantage which you can then use to

dictate the fight.

What you do following the "opening move" depends on what your

enemy does. Once engaged, you are both reacting to the other. In

an engagment, the pilot making the smarter decisions will

prevail. If you both make the same decision, and the same moves,

the one making the quicker decision will prevail <G>

When in doubt, DO SOMETHING, don't fly straight thinking about

what to do next. Also when in doubt, or if you lost the enemy in

views, go up :) use the vertical to gain alt while you find the

enemy in view.

Practice flying the planes at the edge in a turnfight, practice

riding the edge, both in low speed maneuvers or stallfighting and

at high g, riding the grey.

Be aware that unlike 1/2 time flaps in realtime will give you a

TEMPORARY increase in turnrate at the expense of drag and energy.

After dropping flaps, go nose low to gain speed back when you

pull them up. Also be aware that some aircraft are equipped and

modeled with maneuvering flaps in which they help your

maneuverability at medium to low speeds without a major addition

in drag. The P38 is equipped like this, as are the P51 and F4U.

The first notch of flaps can be dropped at under 225ias or so.

Also dropping flaps can help you pull over the top of that 2nd

immelman much quicker. - Spellbound

Here's a good one from Twist:

With almost all planes the idea to making it productive is the

same: find the strengths of that particular aircraft, and apply

them. Use it at what it does best and try to get the opponent to

follow along and you will have him.

For the 109, the strengths you should look for are the high climb

rate and very respectable turning ability. A 109 in a flat turn

with a Spit pilot who knows what he is doing will most likely

loose the battle. A 109 who makes that same Spit pilot follow him

into a _climbing_ turn has an edge. Much the same for the 38.

Note the interesting reversal: the strength of the 38 is an

amazing turn rate when it is supplied energy, which most 38

pilots get by pitching the nose down in a turn. The 109 pilot who

turns with a 38 nose down is dead. If you are engaged by an

energy player and he doesn't have a large starting alt advantage,

simply climb for everything you are worth when not evasive, while
of course maintaining enough speed to turn when necessary. The

easiest way to do this s to always remember the stronger and

weaker points of your aircraft overall. When you are faced by

another in combat you can take your energy state vs. his plus

your plane strengths and simply stick with the maneuvers that

best use both. The only time you are truly in trouble is when his

plane shares all of your strengths or better, and you are co-e or

lower. -Twist 2471

---- APPENDIX: THE TWIST FILES ----

The following material is taken verbatim from Twist's Web page.

Some of Twist's aircraft descriptions appear in Chapter 4. Since

he has done more, I include the others here since they are also

excellent and since it is helpful to read more than one opinion

on the capabilities of an aircraft.

THE GRUMMAN F6F-3 HELLCAT

The F6F was created as a direct response to the Japanese Zero in

an amazingly short period of time; designed in the spring of

1942, it was tested later that year and by years end was being

mass produced. Despite the short design cycle the plane was an
astounding success in almost all respects, and it was the

performance of this stubby looking plane, coupled with it's

overwhelming production numbers (11,000 were delivered in a two

year time span) that spelled doom for the Japanese hope of air

superiority in the Pacific.

Although the Hellcat might have had a different history in the

mixed bag of designs used in Europe, in the Pacific it excelled

at everything required for victory. It was faster than the Zero,

out climbed it, could climb higher, was heavily armored, carried

a huge ammo supply, worked well off carriers, and turned well.

In this light it's not surprising that this fighter, flown in

ever increasing numbers against a steadily drained Japanese navy

and army, produced the highest kill ratio of the war.

The Hellcat in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Climb -- Only the F4U out climbs the Hellcat. Tough -- Like many

American planes, the F6F can take considerable punishment.

Guns -- The six .50s are fairly lethal, but the 2400 round

capacity makes up for any lack by allowing plenty of spraying.

Turns -- The Hellcat can turn or out turn everything but the

Zeke; however, the Ki is an extremely close match and boils down

to a question of fuel loads/pilot.

Weaknesses:

Slow -- Recall that the Hellcat was designed to fight the Zero,

one of the slowest fighters in the war. It has plenty of speed

to deal with Zekes; but in the mixed environment of games often

has to deal with other American planes that are much faster, like

the F4U or P51 -- or the Japanese Ki. The F6F is the second

slowest plane in the Pacific plane set.

Compression -- The F6F compresses fairly badly, but luckily has

the best airbrakes available, so recovery is possible in short

order. Flying outside compression keeps you at low speeds

however.

Model weirdness -- The F6F has a bad engine condition that can

arise any time the engine is oil starved -- in a spin or inverted

for instance. It takes only a second or two in the AW over

modeled version before the R2800 is porked and starts delivering

considerably less power, which can't be fixed short of replaning.

Take off checklist:

Where: The F6F is a Pacific only plane that operates either from

carriers or regular ground fields.

Field: Hellcats can climb well and are passable at low level

stallfights, but it's important in taking off to do a quick scan

for Zeros, which if they can catch you will easily out turn you.

It takes a minimum of 4K or so to have good dive area to escape a

Zero, so fields should be picked that will give you a full minute

of climbing. F6Fs are also excellent at long range missions,

with the best fuel endurance available.

Fuel: The F6F has huge tanks, but extra fuel significantly

impacts its turning ability. A 20% fuel load can get you 3-4

sectors and back without much trouble, so use 15-20% for

immediate action and no more than 35% for general cruising,

unless you have a particularly long mission in mind.

Bombs: Hellcats can carry two bombs, but compression hurts them

somewhat as a dive bomber.

The Hellcat is an oddity in that it has no clear strengths over

other planes in the Pacific, and yet has the right combination of

abilities to fight any opponent well. It can use turns, climbs

and speed alternatively against various planes to give it a clear

advantage. Only when it faces combinations of opponents that

invalidate one or more of its advantages does the F6F suffer

badly.

Like it's real world counterpart the F6F is a smooth handling

plane and responds well, making it a good ride to learn in. If

handled lightly it can stay in controlled flight at very low

speeds (70IAS) and thus doesn't spin very much, but when it spit

it doesn't recover particularly well and the engine must be shut

down almost instantly to avoid oil starvation.

Flaps are an all or nothing proposition and shouldn't be used

save for tops of loops and the like; hitting flaps in turns

definitely hurts in almost all circumstances, as the plane slows

down drastically when they are deployed and compresses at very

low speeds if they are left on.

One unique advantage of the F6F is it's heavy air brake

capability (air brakes are deployed with the space bar or middle

button on a TM stick). You'd think from the way it slows down

there was a deployable parachute that drops out every time you

slam the brakes, and the combination of laying on the brakes and

chopping throttle allows the Hellcat to blow speed faster than

any plane in the game. This is particularly useful during

initial engagements where you can use it to "dump and deliver" --

come in fast at a very off-angle approach, and when you get close

drop throttle to zero, slam the brakes and pull hard around.

Opponents will have a difficult time visualizing the very small

turn radius the F6F can produce in this circumstance and will

instead react to what they think is a fast plane (=large turn

radius).

Since the Hellcat has such a wide range of rolls it can be used

in it's important to remember which of it's strengths you want to

use against particular types of planes. Against P47, P51s use

climb to get above them and of course vastly superior turn

ability to out turn them. F4Us can't be out climbed but can be

out turned; careful for the experienced F4 pilots who will use

multi-position flaps against you by going nose down on their

brakes with two clicks of flaps -- in these types of turns you

need to ride your air brakes and possibly chop throttle a bit to

match radius. Ki's are difficult in flat turn matches so the

emphasis should be placed on plenty of vertical turns to maximize

use of the Hellcats climb ability. P38s can be both out turned

and out climbed, but watch similar situations to the

aforementioned F4 with flaps and be careful to keep loops as

small as possible in verticals as the 38 can pull some tricks

there. Zekes should simply out climbed and hit from above with

speed -- don't even bother turning as this plane has a

ridiculously overmodeled turn capability.

The Hellcat isn't a stellar boom and zoom fighter because of it's

speed and compression issues; on the way in you compress and on

the way out you don't have enough speed to zoom properly.

However it does very well at energy fighting tactics like the

rope-a-dope because of it's high climb and low speed turning.

THE NAKAJIMA KI-84 HAYATE

The Hayate, or "Frank" as labeled by the Allies, is often

regarded as the best Japanese fighter of WWII (the N1K2 "George"

had better performance but saw very limited production). Brought

into service in 1944, the Hayate demonstrated that the Japanese

aircraft builders had learned the bitter lesson of American

designs: that a speedy aircraft can easily best a more

maneuverable one, using proper tactics. The advanced Ha 45

direct injection 18 cylinder radial engine gave the Frank plenty

of speed, but unfortunately was also the source of constant

problems. The Ha45 required constant and skilled maintenance,

and as the war further hampered Japanese industrial power the

Ki-84 suffered other problems, such as chronically failing

landing gear (they were very long, requiring precise metal

treatment to last).

Had it reached better production than it's 3800 or so made, or

been introduced earlier, the Hayate would have certainly left

even more of a mark in the Pacific. As it was American pilots

were rightfully cautious of this fast, maneuverable plane -- post

war testing showed the Ki84 to be faster at 20K than either the

P51 or the P47.

The Ki-84 in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Turns -- The Ki is an adept turning plane, especially with it's

multi stage flaps and low stall speeds.

Speed -- Able to keep pace with even the P51 until about 20K

Weaknesses:

Climb -- Although fast the Ki is not a particularly good climber

Strength -- Not the toughest plane available, and further is

prone to loosing wings when high speed maneuvers are attempted

Acceleration -- Given a little diving distance a Frank will go

plenty fast, but it's level acceleration is not good.

High alt performance -- The Ki is very much out of its element at

higher altitudes. Above 20K it looses speed on many planes, has

terrible climb rates, and negates any turn advantage against the

F6F.

Take off checklist:

Where: The Ki-84 is a Pacific only plane, available from ground

fields.

Field: The Hayate is a good fighter to scramble in, although the

Zeke is a better instant action fighter if a field is capped.

Fuel: Ki's have medium sized tanks, and suffer less performance

loss than most when carrying large fuel loads. Even with 40%

fuel it's fairly easy to maintain 100IAS turns, so taking loads

of 30-50% is not unusual.

Bombs: 1 bomb

The Frank lives up to it's billing as a superior fighter in AW.

Nothing but the Zeke or decent Hellcat pilots will want to tangle

with it at co-alt, so expect F4Us and P51s to use climb or BnZ

attacks against it. With a few K of alt on any opponent the Ki

pilot can expect to be able to run them down and force them to
turn, where it can expect to win against anything but a Zeke --

and it can always run away from those if something goes wrong (or

Hellcats for that matter).

Not only does it turn well naturally, the Ki has four stage flaps

that help it considerably against closely matched opponents.

It's reasonably easy to use flaps and turn at rates even below

100IAS with good results. And although the AW manual paints it

as a difficult spinning plane, in fact it has one of the easiest

to control spins available in the game. It <I>will</I> spin a

fair amount, but it's trivially easy to recover and often,

unfortunately, gives the Ki pilot a hidden advantage by gaining

angles in the spin (unfortunate because it destroys the realism

of the simulation).

If all engagements were below 20K, the Ki would be a superplane.

Luckily they aren't, so it's merely formidable, with a couple of

drawbacks. While the plane itself is a high speed aircraft, at

the upper end of the speed range it becomes dangerous to fly --

above 400IAS or so pulling significant Gs will pop the wings

right off, which makes it difficult at times to keep up with

gyrating P51s or F4Us that can full-G at 500IAS. Also at higher

speeds it looses some of it's already average roll rate, and of

course to get to those higher speeds you are basically required

to dive, since it doesn't accelerate well at all.

Because of it's unusual mix of talents Ki's can be used in many

different ways, but they generally fail as a straight BnZ plane

due to limited climb and zoom potential. Many Ki pilots love to

use them to hunt down BnZ'ers with its great speed, diving in on

a fight slightly lower and catching a P51 or F4U extending out.

Others simply use it as a straightforward stallfighter, and a Ki

vs. Hellcat matchup is probably the most interesting in the

game, as the planes are very closely matched but with different

strengths.

THE REPUBLIC P-47D THUNDERBOLT

The "Jug" (short for Juggernaut) was built in the later part of

the war as a multi-purpose fighter. Numerous production

difficulties arose in creating this mammoth aircraft, and when it

did appear it took some time before tactics evolved to meet its

capabilities.

Weighing almost half as much as some of the bombers it escorted,

the P47 was built around the famous Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18

cylinder engine that served in so many U.S. planes. While it

was fast, carried ample armament, and was incredibly tough, the

Jug was initially met with little enthusiasm. It would be fair

to say the RAF hated it -- it was dramatically different from

most of their designs and didn't fit most engagement tactics of

the time.

Eventually the Jug found a home as the premier ground-attack

fighter of the war. It could carry a wide array of weapons and

was the terror of retreating armor columns, trains, and the like.

With the addition of an external fuel tank P47s could easily

range to target and back with their bombers, and several

squadrons (notably the famed 56th) rang up impressive air to air

success with the plane some thought would never fight against the

sleek designs it often countered.

The Thunderbolt in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Speed -- it doesn't accelerate or dive well, but a Jug with head

of steam above 20K or so is difficult or impossible to catch.

Above 29K it can out pace even the P51.

Tough -- The sturdiest fighter in AW, it takes a lot of ammo to

down a P47D

Lethality -- With 8 .50s the Jug can deliver a hard punch.

Weaknesses:

Turning -- Basically, the Jug can't. Several bombers can out

turn a Jug easily.

Climb -- Even an R2800 can't make 20,000lbs soar into the clear

blue sky

E-Bleed -- If you <EM>do</EM> attempt to turn a P47, it will

loose speed like you just dropped anchor.

Compression -- At a little over 300IAS the Jug turns into a very

large, fast brick.

Take off checklist:

Where: The Jug can lift off any European field, and any

ground-based Pacific field. For a fun some time try various fuel

configurations taking off carriers off-line.

Field: Rear fields, with plenty of clear space to climb, unless

you have an unusual sense of humor.

Fuel: The Thunderbolt has excellent fuel endurance. Regardless,

there is no substantial advantage from running with low fuel

loads as in some turn fighters, so 50% is fine for most missions.

Bombs: P47s can carry two bombs in AW (in real life the P47 had a

payload capacity well above most fighters save the P38).

However, it's a fairly lousy dive bomber, as it often will

compress and lawn dart the adventurous bomber, and has no air

brakes to help when the stick stops responding.

Simply put, the Jug is a terrible fighter in AW. This often

annoys players used to its rather high reputation in real life;

and there's considerable debate as to why the AW environment

hurts this machine in particular. Many anecdotal accounts don't

agree with the AW experience; but it's possible these are

reflections of limits in the AW flight model (Shaw postulated for

instance that the Jug's much talked about roll ability might be

under G-load; in AW fighters can roll the same regardless of

current load).

As a final insult, the P47 in Air Warrior is given a reduced ammo

load from its historical capacity, although this will likely be

changed in future version. This means that not only is it extra

difficult to get in firing position with a Jug, but when you do

you'd better make sure your shots count, because you get only a

few.
The only way to fight with the P47 effectively is to use a

conservative, boom and zoom type approach. Turning for any

period of time is sure death, so speed is required to carry you

away from the target before any lumbering maneuvers are

attempted. This is not to say that the Jug can't get kills; just

that it has a fairly limited number of tactics and those

available have to be executed particularly well to succeed.

It's often useful to use Jugs in pairs or more; the extra numbers

provide the advantage required to press the attack consistently

against the better fighters of the arena. Thunderbolts draw out

fairly predictable reactions from other players -- once they see

a Jug, groups of enemy will flock to it in search of the easy

kill and will often remain unusually fixated when in pursuit.

Lone enemies with other things to think about will often

completely ignore Jugs, especially co-alt or lower ones, since

they don't qualify as a threat. Being aggressive in these

situations or exploiting them can result in interesting and

hate-filled exchanges, always a worth while pursuit in the AW

arena.

There are almost no "tricks" to flying the Jug. It doesn't spin

very easily, but recovery can be an adventure. Multi position

flaps are available but can't be deployed until barely above

stall speed; they are useful only for going over the top of
loops. Leaving flaps down any amount is asking for nasty

compression. An amusing tidbit is that dropping gear produces

almost unnoticeable difference in performance (except at high

speeds of course), rather like dangling a kite out the back of an

18 wheeler. The Jug also happens to be the most difficult to

land plane in AW, as getting it down below the required 150IAS

leaves the plane hanging on the edge of a stall, and last second

attempts at corrections are ignored as it barrels into the

runway.

Whereas historically in AW the Jug was the chosen ride of only a

few unusual loners, currently several players use it quite often

and with good effect, as they understand and work around its

limitations using boom and zoom, wingman, and the element of

surprise (a Jug attacked me?) approaches. Jug kills are the

result of luck or solid tactics; since few people are blessed

with consistent luck, if you can score repeated kills in a Jug

you're doing something right.

THE NORTH AMERICAN P-51D MUSTANG

The P51 is the most famous of the American "big three" from WWII:

those being the P47, P38, and P51. It seems ironic that this

fighter is so closely associated with American air power in the

second world war; as it's design specifications and requirements

were driven entirely by the RAF in the form of an order from the

British Purchasing Commission. If it hadn't been for the

outstanding performance of this fighter it might have existed

simply as an American export to England; but after test figures

came through the US was compelled to start using the P51 along

side the P38 and P47 designs they had already committed to.

The P51 owes its rightful place as one of the best fighters in

WWII to some innovative design and a small piece of luck. The

design was in the low drag airframe and laminar flow wings, which

allowed for some truly staggering at the time top end speed, and

the luck was a British decision early on it's history to attempt

to mount a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in place of the original

Allison supplied in Mustang Is. The resultant Mustang I/Merlin

combination provided such astounding performance it basically

replaced any plans to use Allison variants; instead the U.S.

began supplying Packard-built Merlins in P51 frames.

A saying came about in WWII that describes the Mustang well: "The

Mustang won't do what a Spitfire does, but it does it over

Berlin". P51s had a staggering amount of fuel capacity hidden in

their sleek lines, and with the addition of disposable external

fuel tanks could range upwards of 2,000 miles -- full operational

distance for most bombers. They weren't the best turning planes

in the air, but by the time they were widely in use pilots
understood that turning was a very limited performance

characteristic in combat -- what was required of newer fighters

was speed. And the P51 had it in droves; it was faster than

almost everything in the air, climbed reasonably well, and

suffered much less high speed maneuverability loss than most of

its opponents, due to the wing design. When it came to high

speed fights the P51 was very much in its element -- it had flaps

specifically designed to deploy at almost any speed, an airframe

with tolerances that reached into high G range, good dive

acceleration, and steady horsepower even at very high altitude.

The P51D in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Speed -- Highest top end speed, decent acceleration, better

maneuverability at high speed. Able to sustain high speeds

longer than any other plane.

Roll rate -- Good roll rate, especially above 300kts

Flaps -- able to deploy one notch of flaps to good effect at

medium speeds (250 kts or so).

Weaknesses:
Average sustained turn ability -- Better than a FW, but

stallfighters chew it up.

Poor Climb rate -- With the 109, Spitfire, F4 and F6F clearly

superior

Take off checklist:

Where: The P51 is available from any land field in Europe or the

Pacific.

Field: Due to it's mediocre climb and average turning ability,

the 51 is not well suited to low alt engagements, especially when

outnumbered. However it requires only a few K of alt to be able

to out run anything in the arena -- so experienced 51 drivers

only avoid fields that are immediately capped.

Fuel: The 51 has good fuel endurance, and it does feel the

effects of large fuel loads fairly drastically. Normal load outs

are to about 50%, with more used for escort missions.

Bombs: Two bombs, and the P51 is the best dive bomber in the

game.
Mustangs have a bad reputation in Air Warrior, one which their

nickname illustrates well -- "Runstang". A P51 in almost all

circumstances has one option his enemy does not -- he can leave,

because the P51 is in Air Warrior as it was in real life, the

fastest plane around. It needs a little time to work up to that

speed (it can't accelerate like a Spit for instance) but once it

gets above 325kts or so its in home turf. A panicked P51 pilot

with alt can simply point the plane in a steep dive and reach

speeds no other plane can touch (easily into the 500kts range).

The other thing that can be aggravating about pursuing a Mustang

is that they HOLD that speed incredibly well. P51s can do level

extensions at well past 300kts and maintain it; most planes can't

go above 300kts without a dive or WEP. In gentle zooms the 51 is

incredible; it's possible to dive from 10K, make a pass at speeds

that no one can match, and then climb out slowly to almost

original alt and cruising speeds.

It's too bad that so many P51 pilots are excessive runners, as

the plane is perfectly capable of fighting in many circumstances

that the average P51 pilot will avoid. It has a good roll rate

and at medium speeds (225-250) is very dangerous with its high

speed flaps (the 51 can drop one notch even in this speed range

and not compress). More experienced P51 pilots can be seen

"dogfighting" it quite well, but it's a deceptive kind of

engagement, as they deliberately keep the speeds higher than most

turn fights and use their high speed turning speed as a surprise

factor. Even the best P51 fliers are in serious trouble if they

regularly drop below 175kts in a turn fight, as around 150kts it

is a very poor turner and will get eaten alive by true

stallfighters. Mustangs can, however, out turn FWs providing the

FW pilot doesn't constantly spin when compromised. The P51

itself has an unforgiving spin, probably one of the more

difficult in the game.

Like the FW, a P51 is a dangerous (read: does not have to run)

plane as long as it is provided a cushion of alt to work with.

It's a simple fact that a 51 with 8K or so of alt can reach

speeds no other plane can save other 51s. As long as that option

is kept open it's unnecessary to run at the sight of a

higher/better plane. In fact, many 51 pilots make the mistake of

running TOO EARLY and depending on their speed too much. When a

P51 extends away, especially if it dives somewhat, it is

expressing its one advantage fairly early on. If the

stallfighter/higher plane has enough alt that it can dive and

match pace with the superior speed of the Mustang, than when the

stallfighter catches up the P51 pilot has blown his one

advantage. Given a choice in these circumstance I usually wait

right below the diving opponent, making him blow his energy

advantage to get to me, <I>then</I> I pull a basic evasive and

use the P51s speed to get away.

An interest AW tidbit is that P51 is basically a reference plane

for all others; it has by definition standard lethality and

toughness, since other planes are judged relative to it.

THE SPITFIRE MARK IX E

The Spitfire is possibly the most famous combat aircraft of all

time, and certainly one of the most recognizable. Combined with

the Hawker Hurricane it was part of the pivotal effort by the

British to repel the formidable German Luftwaffe in the "Battle

of Britain", the legendary fight between the British and German

air forces, where the Spitfire gained its initial reputation as a

solid dogfighter.

Due to its unusual at the time planform elliptical wings, the

Spitfire when coupled with a powerful engine source exhibits both

excellent handling and speed, characteristics vital to air

combat. In its various incarnations (it was produced throughout

the war for the British) the Spitfire was steadily refined into

perhaps the best all-around fighter of the war.

The Spitfire in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Turning ability -- can out turn or turn with every other fighter

Speed -- Top end speed is average, but accelerates quickly and

dives well

Lethality -- short on ammo, but initial punch is very powerful

Climb -- second best climb rate in European plane set

Retains energy -- Spits hold their energy very well

Weaknesses:

Low ammo load -- often the Spit will run dry after only one or

two kills

Control -- The strengths of the Spit can be used against a

careless pilot, as described below

High speed maneuverability -- At speeds >300 IAS the Spit gets

mushy and rolls slowly

Toughness -- The Spit doesn't take many hits to destroy

Take off checklist:

Where: The Spit is only available in Europe, but can launch from

any plane field. If the strategic feature in Air Warrior bombing

is EVER fixed again Spits are very likely candidates to be

"denied" by closing aircraft factories and the like.

Field: The Spit can go from just about any field, due to its

great climb ability. It is the best all around plane to take

when hostiles are in the immediate vicinity, as it can get up

quickly, climb to alt, and isn't substantially compromised at low

alt fighting.

Fuel: 15-30% when combat is close, up to 50% for general

missions.

Bombs: Spit can only carry one, but it's a fine dive bomber

Spitfires are often referred to by old timers as "one kill

wonders". In three words this fairly summarizes the strengths

and weaknesses of the machine: it has just about every strength

in the book, making it a wonder, but carries an anemic ammo load,

making it a "short kill" plane.

Despite its reputation the Spit can be a difficult beast to

master, and beginning Air Warriors often wonder how they can die

so often in a plane that is so good. The answer of course is

that more experienced pilots exploit the bad points of the Spit

to kill them.

If there's one key feature to flying the Spit well, it's the

THROTTLE. In a flat turn situation, Spit pilots who leave the

throttle walled at 100% are asking for trouble. The Spit holds

energy so well and bleeds speed so slowly in prolonged turns that

it will continue to move much faster in those turns than other

planes -- resulting in a wide turn radius for the Spit and a

potentially much smaller turn radius for the slow plane (I'm

going to explain this concept in another page that I haven't done

yet, so you'll just have to think about it for now).

The response to this weakness is to use the throttle to control

your speed in turns against others. If you in a Spit are

tracking an opposing plane through a primarily flat, horizontal

turn and you've already gone 180 degrees, and it looks like he is

going to keep turning -- you should immediately think about

reducing your speed to a target of 150 IAS or so (slightly slower

as you get more used to the Spit). At 150 IAS and 4-5 Gs a

Spitfire will out turn everything in Europe short of another

Spit. Practicing this off line will help; take up Spitfires

(against drones or not, doesn't really matter) and see how well

you can hold the edge of turns at 150kts. You should pull enough

Gs to make the stall light flicker but not allow the stall horn

to go off.

Flaps will help a Spit over the top of loops but generally are

not useful for straight turns. Rather than flaps you should be

adjusting throttle to maintain turns -- when going too slow,

increase to WEP, when going too fast drop it back. You'll find

the Spit responds very poorly to flaps at >150 IAS and becomes

unmanageable at speeds >225 IAS. A Spit can easily loop at

speeds well below 150IAS using flaps, and will stay in controlled

flight at speeds as low as 60kts even when being slightly pulled.

There is no specific maneuver that the Spit excels in -- it's so

good that literally the entire book of tactics are available

should you choose to use them. Despite this most Spit fights,

particularly against other Spits, eventually work their way to a

simple test of flat turns. So you'd better be proficient at flat

turns. A more interesting albeit complex way of fighting in the

Spit is to use it as a close proximity energy fighter; tactics

that apply here are rope-a-dope and the like.

The other major problem many Spit fliers encounter is black outs.

Since it pulls so well at almost any speed it is easy to exceed

the artificial 6G limit imposed by the Air Warrior blackout

system. The only way around this is practice. Again offline

will do fine; the typical drill is to take a Spit up to 10K feet,

record a small piece of film, then put the plane into slow nose

down turns of about 10-20 degrees below the horizon. Keep

pulling until the G meter reads right at 6G; then try to keep the

G-meter constant by increasing your dive angle to keep the speed

high. After you've depleted your 10K alt, replay the film you

took at the beginning, and then take over the control while

playing the film (saving you the trouble of climbing), and

practice again. You should be able to pull right at 6Gs almost

by feel if you do this enough times. The next step after that is

to school yourself not to pull too harshly at merge with the Spit

when engaged -- remember, instead of just yanking the stick full,

CHOP THROTTLE and THEN yank the stick -- but only to 6Gs.

THE YAKOLEV YAK 9D

The Yak-9 was introduced in 1942 and late that year supplanted

the Yak-1 and Yak-7 as the primary fighter for Russia; it was

produced in large numbers for the entire war. The 9D variant was

a "long range" fighter capable of distances of up to 840 miles

(for comparison, North American P51s could range up to 2000 miles

with drop tanks) and saw service from 1943 onward.

As with many Soviet fighters the Yak-9 is often vastly underrated

in Western literature -- in point of fact it was a very capable

counter for the German BF109G it most often fought and by many

accounts was able to out fight the German plane on a level

playing field. More importantly it was much better engineered

for the frigid, harsh conditions of the Soviet front, as with

many Russian war products it featured a simplicity that allowed

easy maintenance and operation compared to the much more complex

German designs. A descendant of the Yakolev line, the Yak-3, was

probably the best fighter made during the war -- offered a choice

of any Allied plane to fly, the Normandie-Niemen group selected

the Yak3 and scored the last 99 of their 273 victories in the

war.

The one major disadvantage of the Yak-9 line was speed; it was

slower in level flight than most aircraft it encountered.

Initially this was a serious drawback against a seasoned

Luftwaffe capable of fully exploiting the weakness, but later in

the war increasing numbers on the Soviet side and better

experience among their fliers dealt with the problem.

The Yak-9 in Air Warrior

Strengths:
Turns -- The Yak is capable of maintaining a very small turn

radius. Properly flown only a Spit can compete with it in this

regard.

Weaknesses:

Slow -- The Yak is terribly slow, only slightly faster than a

Zeke. It doesn't accelerate well and it doesn't dive to high

speeds -- plus it will rip wings off at high speeds when under

high G-load.

Ammo -- It might as well be shooting green peas. Three kill

missions in a Yak are the mark of careful ammo conservation.

Climb -- A poor climber

Fuel -- Basically equivalent to the 109 in this regard. The Yak

has a small gas tank compared to some of it's opponents and has

very limited range.

Compression -- Yaks get very sluggish at higher speeds.

Take off checklist:

Where: The Yak is an ETO only plane.

Field: Yaks don't climb well, nor do they particularly benefit

from altitude. In fact a Yak is completely out of it's element

above 20K so there isn't much point in taking it there. Might as

well take it up from a field close to the action and only climb

slightly -- running away in a Yak is basically impossible, so

you'd better be ready to fight.

Fuel: Yaks have tiny fuel tanks and seem to require 5% to get to

the end of the runway. Fuel loads of below 20% are pointless;

flying even 2-3 sectors with combat requires 50% or more.

Bombs: 1 bomb available.

On paper it would seem the Yak is the junk heap of Air Warrior.

In practice though an experienced Yak pilot will get more kills

and more easily than a Jug pilot for instance; however, the Yak

pilot may not make it home to talk about it. As it is in real

life this plane is much maligned in AW and has grown a reputation

of being flyable only by a select few -- the truth being that

only a select few have bothered to find out you can get quick

kills in it.

Essentially all "Yak attacks" revolve around it's turn ability

coupled with a huge e-bleed characteristic. Slamming a Yak into

a 6G turn at 250kts is like hitting airborne salt water taffy --

the plane instantly sheds speed at an alarming rate as it comes

around. It so happens that this is almost the opposite

characteristic of the better stallfighters of the European arena,

the Spit and 109. In turns they will tend to keep their speed

fairly well, and as a result make much wider radius turns.

Flying a Yak in turn fights is like flying an F6F with the air

brakes on 100% of the time. The trick to it is to visualize a

time to commit to that one heavy turn that will bring you into

firing position. Unfortunately a mistake at this point will

leave you relatively helpless against a plane that without doubt

is faster, can climb better, is tougher, and has better lethality

than you do.

Luckily the Yak has several weapons at low speed to help it out

of tough spots. First, it has two-stage flaps and responds well

to both settings -- 50% flaps and 75-100IAS in a carefully

managed turn will yield a very small radius. 100% flaps can be

used at the top of loops or even going under with Split-S

maneuvers. Also, the Yak rolls fairly well at low speeds.

Finally, it's a very forgiving plane about stalls -- they can be

recovered easily and quickly when they occur. It's important to

note however that even at these edges of execution an aware and

capable Spit flier for instance (with a reasonable fuel load) can

out perform the Yak in all respects. 109s have a hard time in
flat turns but can easily switch into climbing turns where the

Yak is absolutely terrible. Most other planes will (at least

should) simply run away.

Ideally you should try to set up Yak engagements so you have just

enough alt to supply you speed to jump a faster opponent and get

him to commit to a turn. At that point the Yaks bleed

characteristics should put you in firing position; if this

doesn't happen quickly (within a turn or two) you've probably

lost the window of opportunity and should think about regaining

speed again, unless you're completely committed to the turn fight

in which case you should try to get it going slow where the Yak

is better matched.

THE MITSUBISHI A6M5A ZERO-SEN

The Zero was the emerging standard fighter for the Japanese at

the beginning of their Pacific campaign; it was fairly new

(having first flown in 1939) but not so new the U.S. didn't know

about it -- it had seen action in China and elsewhere long before

it was used against the Americans. Even so American armed forces

severely underestimated the A6M and that mistake caused

considerable problems -- it's primary opponents in the early war,

the F4F Wildcat, the P40, and the lamentable P39, were heavily

outclassed by the Zero.

The wide disparity in plane ability forced a quick adoption of

new air to air tactics by the American pilots; the famous "Thatch

weave" for instance, which was effective but required two to one

engagement odds, close wingman contact, and was fairly risky even

so. More commonly Americans took to a simple philosophy echoed

by pilot biographies throughout the era; engage with alt, engage

with numbers, and when compromised immediately dive to safety (a

singular weakness of the Zero was high speed diving).

This confused the Japanese, who by and large considered air

combat almost an art form which matched the wits and ability of

one pilot against another. This was mirrored in the very design

of the Zero; it was at the time the ultimate "dogfight" style

plane, exhibiting superb turning capability, good range, and

excellent power -- at the price of durability, low offensive

armament, and very limited payload or bombing options. If

American pilots had attempted to engage the Japanese on a level

playing field, so to speak, they would have been slaughtered,

both by the superior design and better training at the onset of

the war the Japanese enjoyed.

Unfortunately for the Japanese the features they designed their

premier fighter for were quickly obsolete in the air war. Having

demonstrated the validity of their new tactics in combat, the

U.S. armed forces began making planes to better utilize them,

and training their pilots extremely well in how to do it.

Against a supreme turning plane the U.S. answered with several

planes that had common core design features: they were fast, they

were heavily armed, they were heavily armored, and they performed

well at high altitudes. Against the likes of well flown P38, F6F

or F4U, the Zero was hopelessly outclassed, but by the time that

was evident to all concerned it was too late to displace it as

the number one fighter for Japan. When asked after the war which

plane he fly in WW2 combat if he had a choice of any, Sabaro

Sakai, one of the leading Japanese aces of WW2, said he would

pick a P51. The pilots of the Zero understood what they needed

was a faster, tougher plane, but the design that produced such

outstanding early war results was no longer able to give them

that four years later.

The Zero in Air Warrior

Strengths:

Turning -- The essential capability of the Zero. It can out turn

every other plane.

Weaknesses:
Speed -- A huge flaw, the Zero is by far the slowest fighter in

the Pac. Any decent pilot with a few K of alt can avoid a Zeke

with speed.

Climb -- Almost as significant as speed, the climb ability of the

Zero is awful. This means the F4 or F6 for instance can separate

in two ways -- vertically by climbing, or horizontally by walling

the throttle.

Weak -- The Zero had a wooden frame and as little metal as

possible to decrease its weight. Armament was added later but it

was never enough. The weakest fighter in the Pacific, it can rip

wings easily at speeds >300kts.

Take off checklist:

Where: Any Pacific aircraft field

Field: The Zeke isn't a good choice for rear fields because it

takes too long to get to the action and large amounts of alt

advantage are mostly wasted. It is however a great plane for

field defense or fields close to the action in general.

Fuel: With such a light weight and large fuel capacity, the Zero

can go quite a way on it's tank. Fuel endurance is excellent and

you can generally get by with 30% for most missions (or even

less).

Bombs: One bomb, but the Zeke is a terrible dive bomber.

The Zero has definite appeal as a turn fighter because of it's

phenomenal turn rate, but it quickly runs out of tricks after

that. The basic problem with Zekes is that by themselves,

they're more or less worthless against aware opponents. Any

other fighter can pick a way to simply run away from a Zeke if

one shows up alone. This is why I often refer to Zero's as

"assist killers" -- they can get a kill, but usually the reason

they do is the opponent was forced into close quarters with the

Zero by another plane. Once that point is reached, it's simply

the application of an overwhelming turn advantage to kill the

opponent.

There's no inherent problem with this, it just means that when

flying a Zeke you will be best utilized with another fighter of

different type, preferably a fast climber like the F4. If you

plan to go solo, plan to be frustrated. Any other plane that

perceives you at an E advantage and within range to do something

about it can and will simply leave, and you should expect nothing

less. One way to combat this is to keep your speed as high as

possible in general flight; holding at a steady 250kts or so when

approaching for instance, instead of climbing which will put you

at <150kts (do your climbing before engaging). Some players

won't be expecting a Zeke to go that fast and won't deal with it

properly, possibly allowing you to close into range that forces

them to evade -- at which point you can throw your speed away in

turns, since the Zero will win that fight sooner or later.

Keep in mind while trying these type of tactics that the Zeke is

a very poor high speed plane; it rolls slowly and of course can

rip wings above 300-325 or so. You will have to be careful to

use gentle, easy turns to keep your speed up because in any heavy

turn the Zeke bleeds speed terribly.

It's more important than normal in a Zero to be aware of your

loop ability and not get going so slow you can't Immel or at

least get nose up. The reason for this is obvious; other planes

are going to use their superior climb rate on you whenever

possible and thus you'll often have to deal with planes "on top"

that absolutely want to stay there. Your best hope against them

is to hoard your speed and try to catch them close enough above

that you can zoom up and hit them, or possibly lead turn them as

they come in (which is very dangerous, so practice it a lot if

that's what you want to do).

Probably the most fun in a Zeke is fighting another Zeke. It's

here that the plane is in its element and you can experiment with

things like partial flaps (which work very well at low speeds)

and the amazingly slow speeds that Zeros can perform some

maneuvers.

---- APPENDIX: HISTORICAL SCENARIOS ----

Historical scenarios are, in my opinion, the most exciting

activity in Air Warrior. To give you an idea what scenarios are

like, the following is a detailed description of the last

scenario I played in: the Saga of the 5th Air Force, Part 2, a

scenario constructed by Try Harder that was played over a

three-week period in March, 1996 on GEnie. There have been many

notable scenarios, many run by Doktor Gonzo, who has a Web page:

"http://www.cris.com/~Msmiller/AW/".

Scenarios start with a write-up, which is a description of how

the scenario will work, what the sides will be like, what the

objectives are, what the rules of engagement are, and which

planes will be available.

After the write-up is posted, people sign up, including

volunteers for commanding officer (CO) for each side. CO's are
usually responsible for assigning people to various other

positions and for developing the battle strategies. Other

positions include executive officer (XO) who helps the CO with

developing strategies and with directing the aircraft in battle;

logistics officer (LO) who makes flight assignments and might

appoint squadron leaders and flight leaders; and the bomber-group

leader (BGL) who is in charge of the bombers, bomber flight

assignments, and directing the bombers in battle.

Once all of the personnel are assigned, the CO and XO (and often

others who are interested) plan out a strategy for the first

mission. Several days before the first mission, the orders are

sent out to everyone.

On the day of the battle, people show up half and hour or so

before takeoff, any last-minute flight assignments or other

adjustments are made, and people wait those tense minutes before

takeoff. Finally, the launch order is given, and the fight is

on. It's always a rush to see all of those planes taking off and

forming up, the radio chattering with messages as the squadrons

sort themselves out and head out on their missions.

The battles generally last 1-2 hours, and afterward everyone

meets in conference rooms to report to their squadron leaders.

Damage assessments are taken and delivered to the XO or CO, who

then reports to the person running the scenario.

Before the next mission, people write up mission debriefings,

giving them to the CO so that he can more precisely tell how

various parts of the battle went and so that others can read of

the exploits. Then the command staff sits down and plans the

strategy for mission #2.

So, now that you know the process, the following will give you

the details for Saga of the 5th AF, Part 2. The following

contains the write-up, the list of participants for the Japanese

side, the pre-mission orders from the CO, the orders for mission

#1, and some actual debriefings from mission #1.

WRITE-UP

... October 12th, 1942 ...

"This is the BBC, Sydney...

Japanese forces this week launched the heaviest

air raids yet against allied airfields in New

Guinea. Allied losses are said to be very high.

To add to the bad news coming from New Guinea,

General Kenney, Commander of the American 5th

Air Force, said today that Lt. General moggy,

commanding the Allied Air Forces in New Guinea,

was shot down over the recently captured

Japanese airfield at Buna. He was the leading

Ace in New Guinea at the time.

General MacArthur released a statement today in

which he said that the air losses were so severe

that Allied forces in northern New Guinea could

no longer be supported. The American airfield

at Buna and the RAAF airfield at Milne Bay have

both been lost to Japanese Army forces. All

Allied forces are being mobilized to protect the

facilities at Port Moresby, the last Allied

foothold in New Guinea.

An aide said that General MacArthur told General

Kenney 'Save Australia! If the Japanese manage

to invade, the entire South and Southwest Pacific

Areas could be lost.'

The new commander of the American 5th Air Force

in New Guinea has a large and difficult job

before him..."
... October 23rd, 1942 ...

"This is the BBC, Sydney...

As the Japanese continue their daily attacks

against the Allied installations surrounding

Port Moresby, the outlook for our forces

holding that strategically important city is

described as grim.

Today Japanese forces are reported to have

completed the airfield at Kokoda. This places

Japanese aircraft within 20 miles of the

outlying fields defending Port Moresby.

There is a bright spot in today's news.

Lt. General moggy, commander of the American

5th Air Force, returned to Port Moresby

today with an Australian Army unit retreating

from Kokoda. General moggy, thought lost in

combat over Japanese held Buna, was able bail

out behind the Australian lines southwest of

that village. He was found by an allied

patrol and was able to return with them over

 the Owens-Stanley Mountains as they retreated

from the vastly superior Japanese forces

moving in from the north.

Perhaps this spot of good news indicates that

the allies' luck is about to change..."

The 5th Air Force Saga

Chapter 2

"Save Australia!"

INTRODUCTION

The situation is becoming desparate. Although it appeared that

the Japanese had finally been stopped with the capture of Buna,

the victory was short lived. The Japanese regrouped their forces

and struck back with a fury and precision that is a testament to

the abilities of their commander.

The equipment is tired, but the men are willing. And as a bright

spot, the new P-38 Lightings have finally arrived and are being

readied for combat. They are not yet arriving in large numbers,
but the pilots say that it is an amazing airplane.

Also, Washington has detailed a Task Force containing the

aircraft carrier Enterprise to the theater. With Australia too

far away for fighters to be based there, and Port Moresby under

constant attack, this moving airfield was the answer.

However, the Japanese have not been idle either. Despite the

success of the Zeros and Bettys that have served so well, here

are new enemy aircraft on the way as well. Planes that have been

given codenames such as "Oscar" and "Nick", as well as others of

which the allies may know nothing, are said to be on their way to

the area.

OVERVIEW

This scenario will be a 6-mission, 2-stage event based on the

conflict in New Guinea between the USAAF 5th Air Force and the

Imperial Japanese Air Force. This scenario is the next chapter

in a story which began with chapter 1, and which will form an

on-going story.

The first chapter of this story was based, as much as was

possible within the constraints of AirWarrior, on the historical

situation in July and August of 1942. This scenario, or chapter,

has been formed by the results and performance of the AirWarriors

participating in the preceeding chapter. As a result, the story

line has departed from history in terms of the locations of

battles and the forces involved. However, the availability of new

aircraft types and other factors are still affected by the

historical timeline.

The standard AirWarrior scores (points gained for shooting down

aircraft or bombing targets) will not be used in this scenario.

However, a record will be kept of consecutive victories and/or

bombing missions for each player. This record will be cleared

each time a player is shot down or crashes. It is hoped that

players will continue to sign up for succeeding chapters in the

story and continue to build their kill and mission lists.

Eventually, skilled and lucky players may build records to rival

those of the aces and heros of the historical campaign.

This scenario will be held using the Real Time Pacific terrain.

The following is a list of airfields available for each side and

their historical counterparts (N66, N65, and N64 represent the

airfields around Port Moresby):

5th AF IJA

============== ==============
N66 Berry (12 mile) C61 Lae

N65 Wards C63 Salamaua

N64 Jackson (7 mile) N70 Kokoda

A61 Mareeba, Australia C67 Buna

A67 \

A68 - Possible Enterprise locations

A69 /

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The mission of the Imperial Japanese Air Force is to eliminate

the Allied presence in New Guinea by capturing the Port Moresby

airfields.

The mission of the 5th Air Force is to protect Port Moresby.

Additionally, the 5th Air Force has been given the mission to

capture and hold Kokoda, sealing the pass through the

Owens-Stanley Mountains.

AVAILABLE FORCES

IMPERIAL JAPANESE ARMY AIR FORCE

Commanding Officer: Brooke

Aircraft

--------

Field: Buna (C67)

12 A6M5a Zeros

Field: Lae (C61)

2 HQ Flight (any of below, plus Tess [JAAF version of C-47])

18 25th Koku Sentai G4M Bettys

8 Ki-45 Nicks (A-26Bs)

8 A6M5a Zeros

Field: Salamaua (C63)

16 A6M5a Zeros

8 Ki-43 Oscars (Bf-109Fs)

Field: Kokoda (N70)

12 A6M5a Zeros

Targets: American airfields. Shipping and industrial targets in

sector 3,3, which represents Port Moresby itself, and sector

1,2/1,3. Convoys and other shipping as appropriate.

5th AIR FORCE

Commanding Officer: moggy

Aircraft

--------

Field: Berry (12 mile), Port Moresby (N66)

12 9th Fighter Squadron, 49th FG P-40s (Yak-9D)

Field: Wards, Port Moresby (N65)

6 39th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group P-40s (Yak-9D)

Field: Jackson (7 miles), Port Moresby (N64)

2 HQ Flight (P-40, A-20, plus C-47s)

6 39th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group P-38s

4 89th Attack Squadron, 3rd Attack Group A-20s (Mosquitos)

Field: Mareeba, Australia (C61)

3 63rd Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group B-17s

6 90th Squadron, 3rd Attack Group B-25s

Field: USS Enterprise (A67, A68, or A69)

12 VF-501 P-40 SeaHawks [a little known variant] (Yak-9D)

Targets: Japanese airfields. Shipping and industrial targets in

sectors 5,7 and 4,9. Convoys and other shipping as appropriate.

MOVEMENT RESTRICTIONS

All aircraft must stay on the map.

The center of sector row 6 cannot be crossed below 12,000 feet

except over the N70 island (the Kokoda pass). This represents

the natural barrier of the Owens-Stanley mountains. The rule is

meant to add historical flavor and to prevent low level raids

from proceeding directly from Port Moresby to Buna/Salamaua and

vice versa. As a historical note, players may notice that this

is very close to the ceiling given to the A-20s below.

Historically, there were times when the A-20s could not be sent

on a mission because they could not climb high enough to cross

the mountains with the required combat load.

In the first chapter, we had a few complaints of planes diving

"into the mountains" to escape pursuit. As a whole, all players

were very good about the mountain range rule. Please everyone

just keep in mind that when you are in a furball, or even just

real busy, a pilot just may not be able to avoid a mountain that
he or she cannot visually see. The spirit of this rule is to

force planes taking of from Salamaua, Buna, Berry, Wards and

Jackson to climb to 12+k before proceeding to attack.

NOTE: This does _NOT_ affect the planes at Kokoda, nor attacks

against that installation.

Rather than use the huge Oceana terrain, I decided to keep things

close and fast. However, this places Lae and Mareeba MUCH closer

to the action than they should be, so there are a couple of

special rules for aircraft based there.

- Aircraft based at Lae (C61) must fly north to the center of

sector 10,4 and then either east or west to the center of column

5 or 3 before turning south and proceeding with their mission.

- Aircraft based at Mareeba (A61) must fly south to the center

of sector 2,1 and then east to the center of sector 4,1 before

turning north.

Aircraft attacking these targets may fly directly to them, after

meeting any other flight path requirements.

Aircraft returning to bases there, may also fly directly to them,

after meeting any other flight path requirements.

 ALTITUDE RESTRICTIONS

Unless otherwise noted, all aircraft have a maximum ceiling of

30,000 feet.

The B-17s have a maximum ceiling of 25,000 feet.

Japanese Bettys must level bomb land targets from above 5000

feet. Bettys may attack ships at any altitude below their

ceiling.

The A-20's must attack from below 1000 feet. The A-20s have a

maximum ceiling of 14,000 feet.

All other aircraft may attack from any altitude below their

ceiling.

SPECIAL BOMBER RULES

GENERAL

Bombers must fly in flights of at least 3 (or fewer, if less than

3 bombers of a particular type are flying). The aircraft in each

flight must stay within icon range of each other. This rule

serves two purposes. First, it prevents the bombers from getting

spread out all over the map and therefore becoming almost

impossible to intercept. Second, it mimics the tight, defensive,

formations in which the bombers historically flew.

An exception to the above flight rules is the A-20s. A-20s may

split up when within 1/4 sector of their target to attack from

different directions. The surviving A-20s must rejoin into the

icon range or less formation before egressing more than 1/4

sector from their target.

Multiple flights may be joined into larger groups.

At any time a Commanding Officer may elect to fully crew his

bombers by taking pilots from the fighter forces and assigning

them as gunners. Also, if any unassigned alternates are

available for a given mission, they may be assigned as gunners on

bombers.

Pilots and crews of aircraft destroyed may be used as gunners in

bombers flying missions later in the frame.

Bombers landing at fields other than Lae (C61) and Mareeba (A61)
are considered to have made emergency landings and will not

receive full scores. Also, those aircraft will not be available

for the next frame. See the B-25 exception, below.

5th AIR FORCE

If the Mareeba B-25s are used, then they MUST stop at 7 mile to

refuel before continuing to their target. They did not have

sufficient range to attack from Australiua. Use the refueling

rules below. NOTE: B-25s may re-arm bombs at 7-mile (N64)

provided the bomb supply there is ample to re-arm ALL planes in

the flight. B-25s which re-arm at 7-mile will NOT receive their

full strike points until they return safely to Mareeba (A61),

although they will receive some strike points for landing at

7-mile.

GAME SETTINGS

1. Real-time is ON.

2. Radar is OFF.

3. Sector counters are ON IN FRIENDLY TERRITORY for EVERYONE.

4. Tower Warnings are ON.

5. All realism effects except engine over-rev are ON.

6. Gunnery range is 650 yards.

7. Visual ranges will be:

Bomber: 10k visual, 6k icon

Fighter: 8k visual, 3.5k icon

8. The Randomizer will be ON.

9. ALL flak batteries will be operational. See additional Flak

rules, below.

10. Airfields will require 16 bombs to destroy the runway. All

buildings and the runway must be destroyed to count as destroying

the airfield.

11. Mission Aborts: any mission may be aborted at any time by

the CO or his designated staff. However, the FRAME will run 120

minutes regardless.

CASUALTIES AND ATTRITION

Casualty minutes will be assessed using a base of 5 MINUTES (see

below).

Attrition does not affect the HQ squadrons nor the Combat Air

Patrols (see Special Rules Below).

Casualty minutes from deaths affect ALLIED FIGHTERS ONLY.

Casualty minutes for the Japanese come from American attacks on

their airfields. A "casualty" is considered to have occurred to

a Japanese squadron when a medium bomber equivalent successfully

drops on their field. A "medium bomber equivalent" consists of 3

A-20s or 1 B-25. A B-17 counts as 2 "medium bomber equivalents."

Attrition for the Japanese affects the squadron based at the

airfield which was attacked. A penalty of 1:30 will be assessed

for each "casualty" the field suffers. Attrition for the

Japanese will be cleared after each mission which the attrition

affects. For example, if the Japanese are delayed 3 minutes in

mission 2, and no Japanese airfields are successfully attacked

during mission 2, then the Japanese will have no delay for

mission 3.
 SPECIAL RULES

The Ki-45 Nick (Toryu or Dragon Killer to the IJAAF) was a fine

twin engined fighter/attack aircraft. In New Guinea they were

often used in anti-shipping roles. The Ki-45s (A-26Bs) may carry

up to 2 bombs and a single gunner besides the pilot.

Fighters may carry bombs. Fighters may NOT attack runways or

industrial targets. Fighters may attack ships. Fighters may

also attack fuel supplies, ammunition dumps, maintenance

facilities, etc. at airfields.

The frame will last 120 minutes, or until one side has no planes

left flying.

Players which are shot down or crash or are lost over enemy

territory are considered dead for the rest of the mission and may

not fly as pilot of an aircraft. However, you may still fly as a

gunner in a bomber, or man anti-aircraft defenses at an airfield.

When you "die" when you are flying as a pilot, your kill/mission

record will be cleared.

Players who successfully ditch in friendly territory are not

considered dead. However, you CANNOT rejoin the battle as a

pilot, only as a gunner or to man anti-aircraft defenses.

People who get dumped from the host are not counted as dead. If

you get dumped, make sure to tell the CM or ACM so as soon as you

return. Depending on the situation, it may be possible for you

to rejoin the battle.

The American CO has a severe shortage of aircraft. Attrition

effects will be HALVED at the end of Stage 1, NOT cleared. This

makes bringing your damaged aircraft home VERY important.

The Fog of War. CO's will only get enemy loss reports from their

own pilots. The CM will not inform them of the enemy's status.

To destroy an airfield, you must destroy all the associated

buildings as well as the runway.

Airfields which are destroyed will be closed for the rest

mission. Any aircraft which were to land at that airfield must

land at an alternate. If no bases remain, then all aircraft must

ditch. If you crash you are considered dead and will count in

the attrition effects.

Airfields are captured the same way they are captured in the

arena.
Each side may have a Combat Air Patrol of 4 aircraft. These may

launch from any airfield and any squadron. However all CAP

aircraft for a particular frame MUST come from the same squadron.

CAP flights must fly in AT LEAST pairs. Flying as a pair means

staying within visual range of each other.

Any field captured may be recaptured by the enemy. Whoever owns

an airfield at the end of a frame may move any fighter squadron

AS AN ENTIRE UNIT to that field. Bomber squadrons (except the

A-20s) may not deploy to a captured field. The A-20s may only

deploy to 7 mile (N64).

If the Americans run out of any type of aircraft, they may be

replaced with P-40s.

REFUELS/REARMS

Re-arms and refuels are allowed for all aircraft.

Strike aircraft must land at their takeoff airfield and check in

with the CM or ACM before taking off again. (See the B-25

exception in the bomber rules.)

Strike aircraft which do not land at their home airfields are

considered to have made an emergency landing. Bombers which make

emergency landings will not be available for the next frame.

Fighter/bombers which do not land at their takeoff field may not

re-arm with bombs. However, they may refuel and rearm as normal

fighters.

After checking in, all types must wait 10 minutes before

replaning. This represents the time required to refuel/rearm

your plane.

ALL strike aircraft must rearm as squadrons or flights. The 10

minute waiting period does not start until the last surviving

member of the flight has checked in.

THE ENTERPRISE

Before each frame, the American CO will notify the CM which

position the Enterprise will be using. The Enterprise, and its

planes, will be based here the rest of the frame. If the

Enterprise is sunk, those aircraft may be redeployed to any land

base.
Japanese scouts _may_ find the Enterprise within a frame. If

they do, the CM will announce the position of the Big E on IJAAF

channel 2. If the scouts have not found the carrier by T+90,

then they will not find it during that frame. The Japanese CO

also has the option of launching an attack against any of the

possible positions at any time. However, if the wrong position

is hit the no points at all are scored and the mission was

wasted.

The "scouts" will be handled by the CM, and no players need fly

this mission. There is a chance that the Enterprise will see the

"scouts" that found them. If so, the CM will announce on US

channel 2 that the Enterprise has been found.

SUPPLIES

Supplies are very important for both sides at this stage. Both

forces are stretched almost to their limit. The Americans can

only receive supplies by sea. The Japanese receive most of their

supplies by sea, but receive replacement aircraft and some other

supplies by air. The airborne supplies cannot be cut off.

The Americans will start with 250 bombs available. The Japanese

will start with 500. The Japanese will receive 50 bombs per

frame by air. In random frames, supply convoys will be at sea to

replenish the Americans, the Japanese, or both. Each ship in a

convoy will carry 20 bombs. Ships not sunk during the frame will

deliver their bombs to the appropriate side.

Each CO will be given the convoy schedule for his team before the

first frame.

The stockpiles may be affected by attacking the industrial

targets, or the shipping around the central atoll and the Kokoda

island and in harbor in sectors 3,3 and 5,7. For the industrial

targets, 5 bombs will be lost for each bomb dropped on target.

Each ship sunk will cost the enemy 10 bombs from their stockpile.

Also 25 bombs will be lost for each ammo dump and/or maintenance

shed destroyed at an airfield.

The 5th Air Force starts chapter 2 with 10 P-38s, 5 B-17s, and 18

A-20s. Each supply convoy that reaches port will bring 4 P-38s, 4

A-20s, and 1 B-17. If the convoy is attacked, these numbers will

be adjusted downward based on the amount of damage the convoy

receives. Washington may also send General Kenney (commanding

the 5th Air Force) more aircraft via ferry flights at odd

intervals, but the war is going poorly everywhere and these

flights are unsure.

 FLAK

Each airfield may deploy up to 4 Flakpanzers and 4 Jeeps at any

one time for additional anti-aircraft defenses. These may be

manned by active pilots, or by "dead" pilots.

When a Flakpanzer is killed, it is out of action for 45 minutes.

The person(s) manning the Flakpanzer must report to the CM/ACM in

gen 1 before moving on to other duties. This is because it takes

45 minutes for maintenance crews to repair the damaged

anti-aircraft installation.

When a jeep is killed, the person manning the jeep must report to

the CM/ACM in gen 1. They may then immediately return and go out

in the jeep again, provided the field has not reached its limit

of 4. This is because each side has scads of infantry available

to man machine guns.

MISSION SCORING

Scoring is based on the performance of strike aircraft. Points

are awarded for getting the strike aircraft to drop on their

targets AND for getting back alive. NO POINTS will be awarded

for strike aircraft which do not attack their target, nor come
within ICON range of the enemy.

The victory index will be based on the differential between the

two scores, with the side with the greater score being the

victor.

MISSION POINTS

+1 Per fighter/A-20/Ki-45 which drops on target.*

+2 Per medium bomber (B-25, Betty) which drops on target.*

+3 Per B-17 which drops on target.*

+1 Per strike aircraft which lands without dropping on target.

+1 Per strike aircraft which lands at an emergency field after

dropping on target.*

+2 Per strike aircraft which lands after dropping on target.*

+5 Per airfield destroyed.

+10 Per airfield captured.

+20 To the Japanese if the Enterprise is sunk.

+20 To the 5af Air Force if they own Kokoda at the end of the

last frame.

+10 To the Japanese each for holding Wards, 12-mile, and/or

7-mile at the end of the last frame.

(*"Drop on target" means land >50% of bomb capacity on target.)

VICTORY INDEX

Differential Result

------------ ------

<6 Draw

< 11 Marginal Victory

< 21 Substantial Victory

> 30 Decisive Victory

Scores will NOT be announced at the end of each mission. At the

end of the first stage, each team will be given an idea of how

they are doing. This will be in a form similar to "it is very

close", "the Japanese are ahead", etc. The final victory status

will be announced at the end of stage 2.

 TAKE OFF PROCEDURE

T+0 CAP and HQ flights for both sides and Lae/Mareeba bombers

cleared to take off.

T+5 All other aircraft cleared to take off.

FIGHT IS ON

CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT NOTES

Some things that may be different from other AirWarrior

scenarios:

There will be a built in hold at T-5 minutes until start. At

this time we will make sure that the sides are balanced and that

each CO is ready to proceed. Also at this time, I will make a

Campaign Manager briefing using the /announce command to cover

any last minute rule changes, general reminders, etc. Command

staff for each side should have their briefings complete by this

time so I don't get accused of interrupting them. 8-)

It is my intent that these holds be as short as possible,

hopefully just long enough for the CM briefing. I am hoping that

by the Command Staffs knowing this hold is coming, they can be a

little more relaxed in knowing that they will for sure have time

to get their sides counted up and ready to go before launch.

When the hold period is over, the count will resume at T-5

minutes. The rosters will be disabled at this time as well.

This should give each side ample time to assign planes and/or

gunners without the other team being able to look at the roster

and see what they are facing.

There will be a 10 minute warning before the End Log. This

should give everyone ample time to finish their fights and/or get

their planes safely on the ground.

Final Note:

Since I have no idea how many people will sign up for the

scenario, the numbers of aircraft for each side is a desired

goal. The number of aircraft available to each side will be

modified to match the actual number of signups. No matter how

many aircraft fly, the ratios of each type of aircraft will be

maintained.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
* * * end scenario description * * *

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ROSTER OF PLAYERS

JAPANESE

Availability

Handle Plane Pref SWSWSW

===========================================================================

<<< Headquarters Flight >>>

Brooke CO XXXXXX

AirShark XO XXXXXX

<<< 1st Lae Sentai, Ki-43 (Bf-109) >>>

Moose-san Oscar, Nick XXXXXX

ThreadNeck Oscar, Betty XXXXXX

Sturmer Oscar XXXXXX

Banzai Oscar XXXXXX

Drum Oscar XXXXXX

Night Train Oscar XXXXXX

Dactyl Oscar XXXXXX

Biff Tarkiss Oscar XXXXXX

 <<< 2nd Lae Sentai, A6M5a >>>

Coasty XXXXXX

VBall Zeke XXXXXX

TapeWorm Oscar XXXXXX

wheelin XXXXXX

Modo XXXXXX

bodhi XXXXXX

* Rogue XXXXXX

* Santo XXXXXX

Pops XXXXX

* FeedBack AXAXAX

Furis Zeke, Oscar X X X

Jedi X X X

TWanger X X X

ShaDow XX X X

moses X X X

Doom X X X

Stefan-san Zeke X X

<<< 3rd Lae Sentai, Ki-45 (Nick) (A-26) >>>

BlackPanther Nick XXXXXX

ShaPPer XXXXXX
 Razor XXXXXX

floor XXXXXX

* Blackhawk (#1934) XXXXXX

ShotGun X X X

* Kaz X X X

Tex A-20 AAAAAA

<<< 25th Koku Sentai (Lae) >>>

Meercat Betty XXXXXX

Splatter Betty XXXXXX

Deathbunny Betty XXXXXX

Damned Big T XXXXXX

ZAPPA XXXXXX

* melon XXXXXX

* Bloody Viking XXXXXX

* Psyco XXXXXX

* KOO XXXXXX

* JasHook XXXXXX

Nug X X X

<<< Salamaua Sentai, A6M5a >>>

SCD*DOGZ* Zeke XXXXXX

FullRigor Zeke XXXXXX

 DoublTap Zeke XXXXXX

AIRDOG XXXXXX

* Reaper XXXXXX

* Wildcat XX X X

* Dasdman X X X

Milkman Zeke X X X

Newbie Zeke X X X

Vicious X X X

Bundy X X X

Vortex AAAAAA

Spellbound Zeke AAAAAA

Shamrock ? ? ? ?

? ?

<<< Kokoda Sentai, A6M5a >>>

SkyVon Zeke XXXXXX

Pulse Zeke XXXXXX

Malice Zeke XXXXXX

Tempest Zeke XXXXXX

Pirate Zeke XXXXXX

Moo Zeke XXXXXX

Jigsaw P-38, B-17 XXXXXX

Woebird XX X X

* AC X X X
PRE-MISSION ORDERS

TO: All pilots of the IJAAF, New Guinea

SUBJECT: MANDATORY TRAINING EXERCISES

FROM: Command staff, IJAAF, New Guinea

Brooke, Commanding Officer

AirShark, Executive and Logistics Officer

Splatt, Bomber Group Leader

Pilots of the IJAAF, we will soon be launching wide-ranging

assaults against US positions in New Guinea as we push toward

Australia. Intelligence reports that the USS Enterprise is in

the area and that US forces are being supplied almost exclusively

via naval convoy. Also, we have some indication of the location

of enemy anti-aircraft positions. As a result, our fighters will

often be equiped with bombs and be given antishipping or

ground-attack assignments as well as air-to-air combat duties.

So, in addition having the usual high level of air-to-air combat

proficiency, fighter pilots should make sure that they are

proficient in divebombing. Nick pilots should practice

divebombing, level bombing, and break turns (described below).

Betty pilots should practice break turns and level bombing. The

following training should be completed prior to March 9th.

(For this scenario, Oscars are modelled by Bf109s. Nicks are

modelled by A-26's. P-40's are modelled by Yaks. Zeros and

Bettys are already available in Air Warrior.)

SURVIVING COMPRESSIBILITY

If you are flying a Betty, do not get into compressiblity --

diving straight at the ground until your wings rip off will not

please your bomber group leader. If you are flying a Nick, you

can dive for extended periods, just make sure that you don't pull

more than 5 g's, as your wings come off at 6 g's. If you are in

a fighter, be careful of how many g's you pull coming out of

compressiblity -- practice the following. Nick pilots must be

the most careful of all coming out of compressibility.

Take your plane (armed with one bomb if you are in a fighter or 2

bombs if you in a Nick) up to 25k ft. altitude. Turn on your

gun camera. Fly around for at least 5 minutes. Turn off your

gun camera and remember to save the film. Now you have a film

that you can jump into (take control of) in which your plane is

already at 25k.

Practice diving into and out of compressiblity (where your plane

it buffeting and the controls are almost ineffective). Dive

straight down until you are in compressiblity. Pull all the way

back on the stick, then chop throttle. Observe how your wings

rip off as soon as you come out of compressiblity, due to

excessive g's. (At least this will be the case with the Zero --

I'm not sure whether the Oscar will come apart or not. Try it

and see.) Now do the same thing, but pull back on the stick only

far enough to generate 3 g's or so. As soon as you come out of

compressiblity, immediately relax back pressure on your stick,

pulling no more than 6 g's. Notice that your wings did not rip

off.

Nick pilots must be even more careful about coming out of

compressiblity -- don't even pull enough to get to 3 g's in

compressiblity. Please practice it.

DIVE BOMBING

For pilots of all but the Betty, jump into the film you made from

the compressiblity practice and go divebomb a small ship.

Practice divebombing so that you can come down onto the target

vertically, in a steep dive, horizontally at low altitude and

high speed, from various altitudes, and from various approaches.

You will probably be doing a fair amount of bombing in this

battle -- make sure that you are good at it. Note that, under

some conditions (prolonged steep dives) , you might need to chop

your throttle to maintain control of your aircraft.

For the Betty, practice normal bombing. For the Nick, practice

normal bombing and divebombing.

BOMBERS AND BREAK TURNS

If you are flying a Betty or a Nick and an enemy fighter is

gaining on you, ready to start a firing pass, one of the most

effective defensive maneuvers is the nose-low break turn. To do

this, you start the break turn when the enemy is approximately

2500 yards to your rear. You turn hard either left or right,

keeping the nose below the horizon and pulling 5 g's. Practice

this maneuver. Practice chopping throttle during the maneuver if

you are flying at more than about 150 knots IAS.

DIVING AWAY IN THE NICK

The Nick is very fast in a dive and picks up speed rapidly. If

you have some room, you might be able to dive away from the P-40

and even accelerate away in a dive under some circumstances from

the P-38. Don't be afraid to try diving away if the enemy is not

closing quickly. You can always chop throttle and initiate a

nose-low break turn if he closes.

NICKS AND FLAPS

NICK PILOTS -- IMPORTANT -- Be aware that, if you have one or

more notches of flaps deployed, diving can cause you to exceed

the speed below which you can control the pitch of your aircraft.

If you are going to dive, make sure you don't have flaps

deployed. If you experience a nose-down movement that you can't

counter by pulling back on the stick, CENTER YOUR STICK and then

retract flaps immediately. If you don't center your stick before

retracting flaps, you will generate more than 6 g's when the

flaps are retracted, and your wings will rip off. Practice

putting in one notch of flaps then diving until your aircraft

starts to pitch down uncontrollably. Practice recovering from

the situation.

-- Brooke, CO, IJAAF

(brooke@genie.geis.com)

TO: All IJAAF pilots

FROM: Command Staff, IJAAF, New Guinea

INTRODUCTION

This document contains general information that will be

applicable to all missions flown. Read this material in advance

of your first mission.

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE

Before you fly in a mission, make sure that you have read the

rules for the scenario, the mission orders, and that you have a

map. In addition, have a piece of paper and a pencil ready to

write down briefing information (such as bomber assignments).

Show up at least 20 minutes before takeoff time (T-20).

Alternates will be given available planes at T-20; so if you

don't show up by then, you risk losing your plane.

If you are not scheduled to fly but would like to fly, please

show up as an alternate. Go to C-land HQ and await assignment.

Report enemy sightings on channel 2. Use your squadron channel

for most other information.

After the mission, go to your briefing room so that you can

report kills and deaths to your squadron leader. Post-mission

intelligence will be important for us to figure out attrition.

Know which flight you are in and wait for my or your flight

leader's direct order to take off. Do not take off based on TH's
announcements.

NAMING CONVENTIONS FOR FLIGHTS

The Bettys will be divided into two groups, BG1 and BG2. The

Nicks will be in one flight, NI1 flight. The Oscars will be in

two flights, OS1 and OS2. The Zeros at Buna will be in two

flights, BU1 and BU2. The Zeros at Salamaua will be in SA1 and

SA2. The Zeros at Kokoda will be in KO1 and KO2. Know your

flight's name -- I will use it during the mission to send orders.

CARRYING BOMBS

Zeros should keep their bombs even in dogfights. If you do find

that a P-40 or P-38 is staying with you in a prolonged turn and

coming around for a shot on your tail, you may jettison your

bomb, but this should rarely happen. The Zero, under most

circumstances, should be able with a bomb still to outturn the

enemy planes.

Oscars can jettison their bombs if they get into a turning fight.

Keep in mind, though, that you should not be getting into

prolonged turning fights -- we will need you to chase down

enemies and get them to turn for the Zeros. Oscars will need to

keep up their speed and energy.

Nicks and Bettys should keep their bombs even if attacked.

AMMO LOADS

Ammo loads here are realistic -- half of what they are in the

regular AW area. Zeros have a VERY low ammo load. Do not waste

ammo on headon shots or snap shots. (You should avoid headon

shots anyway as the Zero is so fragile.) Wait until you are

saddled up on an enemy and well within firing range before you

fire. Oscars don't have a huge amount of ammo either, but they

do not have to be quite as frugal. Nicks have a huge ammo load

and can take almost any shot of opportunity.

EVASIVE TACTICS FOR BOMBERS

If an enemy is closing on you, when he is at about 2500 yards, do

a hard, 5 g, nose-low turn toward him. Don't rip your wings off

by pulling more than 6 g's -- watch those g's. Making it a

nose-low as opposed to a level turn is important -- you will be

much harder to hit in a nose-low turn.

Nicks can also try diving away from enemies, but if the enemy

closes, chop your throttle and do a hard nose-low turn.

COMPRESSIBLITY

Bettys should never get into compressiblity.

Nicks can go into compressiblity but must be VERY careful about

pulling g's while coming out of compressiblity. Do not pull many

g's at all if you are close to coming out of compressiblity or

you will rip your wings off.

Zeros can dive into compressiblity and can pull up to 3 g's at

the transition of coming out of compressiblity. If you pull all

the way back on the stick and come out of compressibility, you

will rip your wings off.

Oscars are more robust than Zeros, but be careful -- you might be

able to rip your wings off, too. There is no need to pull more

than 3 g's in compressiblity anyway -- that's about the limit of

what you can pull, and pulling back more on the stick gains you

little.

MAPS

You should have a printed map for this battle. You can obtain

them in either of two places and in either of two formats. Maps

are available on GEnie in the MPGRT library and on the Internet

via anonymous ftp from alumni.caltech.edu in the directory

/pub/brooke. The files are called "rtpacpcx.zip" (for the PCX

format map) and "newrtpac.gif" (for the GIF format map).

The maps in these files do not have sector numbers -- you will

have to add the numbers to the rows and columns. Columns are

numbered across the bottom of the map starting from the left with

0 and ending at the right with 8. Rows are numbered across the

left side of the map starting at the bottom with 1 and ending

with 10 at the top. Sectors are numbered using the (x, y)

coordinate system.

Write the names next to the appropriate airfields (Lae, Salamaua,

Berry, Jackson, etc.). I will refer to the names usually as

opposed to the field numbers.

RADIO PROCEDURE

Each flight will be given a radio channel to tune to. Tune to

that channel right after takeoff. Use that channel for all

communication except for communication with the bombers or with

other flights, in which case you'd use the apostrophe key to

communicate on channel 2 (unless you are in a bomber). Bombers

will use the slash key to communicate and will always be on

channel 2.
Enemy sightings should be announced on channel 2, giving sector,

location within a sector, number of enemies, type of enemies, and

(if possible, given the situation) altitude and heading of

enemies. For example:

*5965: 4 yak in 5,5 nw hd ne 25k

would mean that 4 P-40's (Yaks) are in sector (5, 5), northwest

corner, heading NE at 25k ft. altitude.

IF YOU ARE SHOT DOWN

Get in a Flakpanzer (or, if no FP's are available, a jeep) and

protect, in the following order of preference: Kokoda, Salamaua,

Buna (if possible), and Lae. Listen on channel 2 for calls of

gunners needed for any bombers rearming -- you may be called into

service as a gunner, too.

ADDENDUM TO GENERAL ORDERS

FROM: Command Staff, IJAAF, New Guinea

NAMING CONVENTIONS FOR FLIGHTS

The Zeros based at Lae will join into two flights, LA1 and LA2.
RADIO PROCEDURES

Enemy sightings should be announced on channel 2, giving sector,

location within a sector, number of enemies, type of enemies, and

(if possible, given the situation) altitude and heading of

enemies. For example:

*5965: 4 yak in 5,5 nw hd ne 25k

would mean that 4 P-40's (Yaks) are in sector (5, 5), northwest

corner, heading NE at 25k ft. altitude.

FIGHTER TACTICS

If you are in a Zero, you should not be persuing enemy fighters

that have two or more Zeros already in persuit ahead of you. Do

not bunch up on enemy fighters. Do not blow your altitude

chasing an enemy fighter that is already being sufficiently

chased. Beward of chasing enemy planes into enemy ack.

If you are in an Oscar, you may chase any enemy plane that looks

like it is successfully running away from our Zeros, regardless

of the number of Zeros already chasing. Do not chase a plane

that already has an Oscar following it, though, unless it is a US

bomber (especially a B-17).

ANOTHER ADDENDUM TO GENERAL ORDERS

FROM: Command Staff, IJAAF, New Guinea

ALL PILOTS

As soon as you are shot down, go do antiaircraft and

antiparatroop action at any field that still has room for

Flakpanzers or Jeeps. Pick a field in the following order of

preference: Kokoda, Salamaua, Buna (if possible), and Lae. Take

your vehicle off the runway at least a little (if possible). Do

not bunch up -- spread out around the area so that you can shoot

at paratroopers that might be dropped away from the field a bit

(i.e., out of the range of your guns if you are still right next

to the field). BEWARE OF PARATROOP DROPS BY C-47'S, expecially

at Kokoda. I want some FP's and Jeeps spread around that field

to shoot such paratroopers.

Later in the mission, if we need gunners for bombers, a call will

go out on channel 2, so you won't miss out if you are manning a

Jeep or FP. Just make sure you are tuned to channel 2. You don't

have to wait in the conference room of Lae for gunning duty.

Divebombers, do not divebomb Flakpanzers unless otherwise

ordered.

Betty and Nick pilots, if you are rearming and if you need

gunners, give a call on channel 2 several minutes before you are

ready to take off. You will most likely get the gunners you

need.

GUNNERS

Be aware that the gunners of a Betty do not get much ammo. Be

conservative.

Gunners in Nicks (A-26's) probably don't need to be conservative.

BOMBERS

Once you have bombed an area, do not stick around -- run like

hell back to base. Hanging around, even to lend support for

bombers not yet clear of the area, is not your job and is more

likely to get you shot down. The Betty is fragile, not

particularly fast, is worth 2 points if it gets back to base, and

can be rearmed and flown again if it gets back to base.

-- Brooke, CO, IJAAF

MISSION ORDERS

MISSION #1: LET'S KILL BERRY

TAKEOFF TIME: 4 PM EASTERN TIME, MARCH 9TH, 1996

FROM: Command Staff, IJAAF, New Guinea

INTRODUCTION

The default mission is to destroy the Berry airfield. Divebombers

will take out the ack and the support buildings, then clear a way

for the bombers. The Bettys will come in to close the field and

to destroy any remaining buildings. More detailed mission orders

follow.

Keep in mind that this mission will probably have a large portion

of in-flight mission orders. For example, if we spot the

Enterprise or a US supply convoy, we may have divebombers go hit

either of those targets, but we won't know that until the mission

is underway. This scenario will be a lot more active and less

pre-planned. Timing of the strikes may change drastically if

depending on US resistance, but the targets will hopefully remain

the same.

EVERYONE
The ack at the central atol (Wards, Berry, Jackson) is very

strong. We will try to kill the ack at Berry early on, but

beware following enemy planes into the ack at Wards and Jackson.

BG1

Brief at Lae, which is your takeoff field. Take off, tune to

channel 2, and climb N to the center of sector (4, 10), then W to

the center of sector (3, 10), then 150 degrees to sector (4, 8).

Do a patrol there in a racetrack pattern, climbing to 30k ft.

altitude. Tell me the disposition of enemy counters that you can

see, and stay out of reach of enemy planes, even if you have to

leave the assigned sector. Use the counters to stay out of

trouble.

When you are cleared to head to target, you will fly SE to column

5, then head S down column 5 until you are east of Berry. Then

you will turn west, bomb the runway, and run north back to land

at Lae. You may descend from 30k during your route, converting

altitude to speed. Your Bomb-Group Leader will give you more

specific instructions on altitude management. I suggest you stay

as high as possible during approach.

Your BGL will announce fuel load before takeoff.

BG2

Brief at Lae, which is your takeoff field. Take off, tune to

channel 2, and climb N to the center of sector (4, 10), then W to

the center of sector (3, 10), then 225 degrees to sector (1, 8).

Do a patrol there in a racetrack pattern, climbing to 30k ft.

altitude. Tell me the disposition of enemy counters that you can

see, and stay out of reach of enemy planes, even if you have to

leave the assigned sector. Use the counters to stay out of

trouble.

When you are cleared to head to target, you will fly to Salamaua,

then head S down column 5 until you are east of Berry. Then you

will turn west, bomb the runway, and run north back to land at

Lae. You may descend from 30k during your route, converting

altitude to speed. Your Bomb-Group Leader will give you more

specific instructions on altitude management. I suggest that you

stay as high as possible during approach.

You may be repositioned during the mission -- the above route is

the default.

Your BGL will announce fuel load before takeoff.

NI1
Brief at C:69, but take off from Lae. TAKE 2 BOMBS ONLY! Take

off, tune to channel 2, climb at 1k fpm N to the center of sector

(4, 10), then E to the center of sector (5, 10), then 192 degrees

to Berry. Level off at 13k ft. altitude -- I want you to get to

Berry as quickly as possible. Your job is to kill the ack at

Berry (which is on the north side of the field, at the center).

Send in one Nick at a time if the area is hot while the others

stay out of trouble. If you have bombs remaining after taking

care of the ack at Berry, I may have you try the same thing at

Wards. If not, you will bomb any standing structures at Berry.

When you have dropped your bombs, if you have the altitude, run

N; if not, run toward Kokoda. Get clear of enemy persuit, climb

to 30k, and rejoin each other at Salamaua for a CAP. You will

then be B-17 hunters. I want to time your arrival at Berry to

coincide with the huge fighter strike that is headed there.

Your BGL will announce fuel load before takeoff.

KO1 AND KO2

Brief at Kokoda, your takeoff field. Load 100% fuel and one

bomb. KO1, tune 101. KO2, tune 102. Climb in a 1-sector radius

of Kokoda, doing a CAP. Wait for flights from Buna and Salamaua

to arrive. You will then be part of a huge stike on Berry. Wait

for the call to proceed. Once at Berry, wait for the call to

bomb. KO1 will hit the fuel tanks at the NE end of the runway.

KO2 will hit the control tower at the SE end of the runway. If

your target is destroyed already, hit whatever else is standing.

If there is nothing else standing, hit the northernmost ship

docked near Berry. After your divebombing run, climb in the

vacinity of Berry and await further instructions.

BU1 AND BU2

Brief at Buna, your takeoff field. Load 100% fuel and one bomb.

BU1, tune 201. BU2, tune 202. Climb at 1k fpm toward Kokoda.

Once at Kokoda, you will then be part of a huge stike on Berry.

Wait for the call to proceed. Once at Berry, wait for the call

to bomb. Your divebombing target is the building on the N side

of the midpoint of the runway (not the fuel tanks). If it is

destroyed, hit whatever else is standing. If there is nothing

else standing, hit the northernmost ship docked near Berry. After

your divebombing run, climb in the vacinity of Berry and await

further instructions.

SA1 AND SA2

Brief at Salamaua, your takeoff field. Load 100% fuel and one

bomb. SA1, tune 301. SA2, tune 302. Climb at 1k fpm toward
Kokoda. Once at Kokoda, climb hard in a 1-sector radius doing a

CAP. You will wait for flights from Buna to arrive and will then

be part of a huge stike on Berry. Wait for the call to proceed.

Once at Berry, wait for the call to bomb. Your divebombing

target is the building on the S side of the midpoint of the

runway (not the tower). If it is destroyed, hit whatever else is

standing. If nothing else is standing at Berry, hit the

northernmost ship docked near Berry. After your divebombing run,

climb in the vacinity of Berry and await further instructions.

OS1 AND OS2

Brief at Salamaua, your takeoff field. Load 100% fuel and one

bomb. OS1, tune 401. OS2, tune 402. Climb at 1k fpm toward

Kokoda. Once at Kokoda, climb hard in a 1-sector radius doing a

CAP. You will wait for flights from Buna to arrive and will then

be part of a huge stike on Berry. Wait for the call to proceed.

Your purposes are (1) to chase down P-40's and cause them to turn

so that the Zeros can kill them; (2) to make sure that P-38's

don't maul our Zeros; and (3) to intercept B-17's at high

altitude. If you can keep your bombs while doing that, fine. If

not, jettison them. For the most part, you will follow around

swarms of Zeros, staying fast and high. You are not to engage in

prolonged turning fights if you don't have to. If the enemy is

turning, he is tasty meat for the Zeros. You might get called
away from swarms of Zeros if we locate any B-17's. You also will

probably need to refuel at some point during the mission. I will

keep an eye on your situation. You will divebomb if we manage to

severely attrit the US forces before two hours are up.

-- Brooke, CO, IJAAF

ADDENDUM TO ORDERS, MISSION #1

FROM: Command Staff, IJAAF, New Guinea

ORDERS FOR LA1 AND LA2

Brief at C:69, along with NI1. Take off from Lae with 100% fuel

and a bomb loaded. Escort NI1 as best you can. (The Zero is

slower than the Nick -- you will probably be trailing the Nicks

until they pause to send one Nick at a time in on ack positions.)

At Berry, do not drop your bombs unless specifically ordered to

do so. If you escort Nicks to Wards or Jackson, after the Nicks

destroy the ack, destroy the maintenance or supply building there

(or both, if you have enough bombs and are not harassed by

enemies). Continue to escort NI1 as it leaves the target area

and heads either north or (more likely) to the Kokoda pass.

DEBRIEFINGS
MISSION #1 DEBRIEF

BROOKE, 5965, CO

STRATEGIC DEBRIEF

It appeared that the US launched an early strike at Kokoda. The

strike seemed to be handled by KO, BU, and part of SA squadron.

There were also US planes near Salamaua, and the other part of SA

and perhaps some of LA dealt with that. Meanwhile, the rest of

LA stayed S of Lae to it; BG1 and BG2 acted as AWACS planes and

stayed out of trouble; and NI1 went toward Berry.

All of our airspace was eventually mostly cleared. After Kokoda

was cleared out, all fighters at Kokoda and with bombs headed for

Berry to bomb the hell out of the buildings there. Fighters

without bombs were ordered to stay on CAP at Kokoda. LA stayed S

of Lae for support.

A fight ensued over Berry, but the buildings there were

obliterated in divebomb attacks. NI1 was able to go in to bomb

targets, too, although it had to fight its way in or out.

Then, the US sent in some P-40's at about 20k north toward Lae.

They were dealt with by a few Zeros from LA. Well behind the

P-40's, the US sent in at least 2 B-17's, which flew near Kokoda

on their way toward Salamaua. They were intercepted near

Salamaua and shot down. I'm not sure if the B-17's were able to

cause much damage at Salamaua.

After the B-17's were dealt with, our airspace was soon again

mostly clear of enemy planes. When the airspace over Berry was

also cleared out, BG1 was sent in. BG1 encountered some enemy

planes on ingress to target but several bombers were able to get

through to bomb the runway. 2 bombers were able to get away from

Berry, fly N, and land at Lae.

BG1's strike on Berry apparently acted as a magnet for much of

the US fighter cover over the central atol, for once the IJAAF

fighters cleaned up the area, there didn't seem to be many US

fighters left. When the area was again clear, BG2 was called in

for a strike on Berry. BG2 was able to bomb the target and land

at Lae with perhaps only one bomber lost.

During the attacks by BG1 and BG2, the US sent first a wave of

B-25's and later a wave of A-20's to hit Kokoda. Fortunately,

the ack at Kokoda was still active. Among the ack, the FP's, the

jeeps, and the few fighters over Kokoda, most of the US bombers

were taken care of, but some did get away. The US managed to

destroy the fuel tanks at Kokoda but not the much more vital

supply and maintenance buildings.

By this time, the US seemed to be fairly heavily attritted -- or

perhaps they had a substantial CAP over the Enterprise. Either

way, our surviving bombers were able to rearm and go out on a

second strike. The target this time was Jackson. At least one

of our fighter squadrons was able to rearm with bombs and go

hammer the buildings at Jackson in advance of the bombers.

BG1, with its surviving 1-2 bombers, hit buildings at Jackson.

About 5-10 minutes later, BG2, which was mostly intact, bombed

the runway. The bombers ran to Kokoda to land, which they were

not quite able to do before time was called.

Overall, I think that we did very, very well in this first

battle. We landed a huge number of bombs on Berry and Jackson,

destroying the maintenance and supply buildings at both

airstrips. I am confident that we completely destroyed Berry.

Jackson's airstrip might have barely escaped destruction -- we'll

see on Monday when a more accurate damage assessment comes in.

We did well, but I would like especially to congratulate the

bomber pilots, so many of whom got to and from targets in two

separate missions. Congratulations also to KO squadron, which

despite heavy losses, dropped an estimated 14 bombs on targets,

had several fighters return to base after bombing, and shot down
6 enemy planes.

PERSONAL DEBRIEF

I took off from Lae in a Zero loaded with one bomb. When the

call of incursions over Salamaua came in, I flew S with LA

squadron to protect against a possible strike at Lae. When that

didn't materialize, I hung around Lae, keeping an eye on

counters.

At one point, I saw some enemy counters coming through our

defenses and heading N toward Lae. They were about 10-20 miles S

of Lae at that point. I put out a call on the radio and

intercepted. It turned out to be three P-40's at 20k, heading N

toward Lae. I did a half-hearted run on the leader causing him

to veer away from his northerly heading. I harassed the second

in line and then noticed another Zero or two joining the fray. At

that point, I broke off as the P-40's were not much of a threat

to Lae or to our bombers, which were elsewhere. I stayed on the

lookout for US bombers, meandering in the area between Lae and

Salamaua.

Shortly thereafter, the call came in of B-17's near Salamaua. I

flew to intercept and found 2 B-17's and one P-38. They were in

trail at about 20k-25k being harassed by a couple of IJAAF

fighters. I put out a call on the radio, rolled over, and dove

onto the lead bomber's 6. I held my fire until I was at about 600

yards and then opened up. I held the trigger down until I passed

the bomber and saw many hits at close range. The bomber was now

in a break turn. I had a lot of speed on it, and as I passed, I

pulled up into a steep climbing turn. At this point, I don't

think that I had been hit by the gunners yet, so I looped over

and came in again on the bomber as it continued its tight turn.

Again I fired all the way to range zero and noticed strikes. This

time, I did get hit. Another of the IJAAF fighters was tangling

with the bomber now, too, I think, and the bomber was leaving a

nice trail of smoke. I did a high yo yo and came in again on its

6. I opened up at 600 yards, closed to about 400 yards, seeing

strikes all over the bomber. Unfortunately, I was taking hits,

too, and my plane soon exploded, ending my participation as a

pilot in the battle.

After that, I sat for a long time in a Flakpanzer at Kokoda. I

saw a couple of B-25's attack. One of them managed to hit the

maintenance building but not to destroy it. I fired at the

B-25's as they came in. At least one of them was shot down by

the ack, perhaps assisted by the other FP's and Jeeps in the

area. I sat for a while longer, and an A-20 or two showed up.

At least one of those was shot down by a fighter in the area.

By this time, BG2 was reloaded and ready to go, so I hopped in

Meercat's Betty as upper gunner. BG1 was in front of us by about

20-30 miles and hit Jackson first, bombing the remaining

buildings. By the time BG2 was 30 miles or so from Jackson,

confirmation came in that all of the buildings at Jackson were

destroyed, so BG2 was ordered to bomb the runway. Meer and BG2

hustled south at 20k, high enough to avoid ack, the FP's, and the

many US fighters milling around at low altitude near Jackson.

Jackson had an IJAAF CAP over it. There were some calls of high

P-38's and P-40's in the area, but they were either driven or

lured off. By the time BG2 got there, the area was clear. BG2

plastered the runway and then ran for Kokoda to land.

-- Brooke, CO

--

BPsan Debrief <NI1> Frame 1

Took off with AS, Snapper and Tneck in our Nicks from Lae. As I

was rolling some trigger happy guy behind me :) started shooting

me. I lost my #2 engine but somehow managed to land and replaned

after reporting to TH.

Took off again and caught up with AS and Snapper...Tneck was

dumped and a sector behind us. As we crossed the Owen Stanley

range, AS dumped and me and Snap continued. I was giving Tneck

our position when 3 Yak's got behind me and dove. I broke when

they were 2500 yards back and put out a warning message to

Snap...but as I watched in rearview all 3 yaks jumped him. He was

killed shortly after.

Another Yak dove on me as I headed back North. We passed under a

flight of zekes (Lae) but they kept heading to berry. Finally one

zeke saw me and cleared my tail. The Yak and zeke mixed it up and

I tried a couple passes on the yak with no hits. The yak then ran

toward C:63 and I chased him.

The ack at 63 started up and the the guy decided to dive back S

to Berry. He must have forgotten about those 12k mountains in Row

6 since he flew right through them at 4k. I decided to get some

alt, cross the mountains and then blast Berry with my 2 eggs.

As I approached Berry I saw a high flight of zekes. I also saw at

least 3 p38's and 4 Yak's.... The zekes never even saw them or

maybe were running away. I put out 2 messages to the flight about

Yak's tracking them.

I took a quick look out rearview and nearly crapped as I saw 4

Yak's and 1 p38 on my six...I chopped throttle and did a nose low
turning dive but still took a couple pings. I dove N but was at

1000 ft and not wanting to smash into the mountains I turned 90

and headed for the Kokoda pass.

I had 4 zekes and 1 p38 all all chasing me...lucky the nick is

fairly fast. I was about 1 minute out from Kokoda when the P38

finally ran me down...I started doing some rolling corners to

throw off his aim...but he still hit me 5 times. I thought I was

ded when Crow came in and clear my tail...whew! I flew over our

FP's at the Kokoda pass and headed north for alt.

I turned 270 and headed back East to get alt to cross the

mountains again. I saw 4 planes heading N to C:63 I was praying

they'd be friendly but no it was another P38 and 3 Yak. I managed

to turn S and they must have missed me since they continued N. I

came into 66 and level bombed the maint shed there.

I decided to get some alt with Furis escorting me, both heading

to Kokoda and then revving back. We passed over 66 at 30k and

headed for a look around the atoll. Me and Furis scouted 64 but

we could see nothing from that alt. I was ordered to replane and

bomb 64 by Brooke.

I replaned at 61 and took off with FR gunning and formed with BG2

as they hit 64. I was ordered to hit the tower but for some
reason(too high?) the norden never showed any buildings. So

rolled over and divebombed. As I screamed in from 20k I saw the

craters all over 64 and about 5 yaks and 3-4 FP's all milling

below. I dropped 2 eggs right on the maint shack and egressed to

Kokoda. I was had just landed when endlog was called. Another 30

seconds and I'd have made it into the hangar :(

BPsan !!

--

Debrief mission #1 - Oscars.

Took off with all eight Oscars carrying bombs. Dactyl got

promoted as I stepped up to be group leader. Found out my WCS

had lost it's settings and did not work at all. Tried

frantically to remember all the keystrokes <G>. Got to 70,

circling, per orders. Then a large group of p38s arrived, and

they had at least 5k on us. Fight ensued. I totally lost sight

of everyone and lost control of the group. Was chasing a P38

southeast, when we overflew a mossy coming north! Broke off the

P38 and engaged the mossy.

Fired 90% of my load against him from inside of 400. He must

have been on his last ping, but he didn't die. (I did get 128
points :( ) Broke off, and Bodhi and I RTB'd to C63. He had

smoked the P38 in the fite, again, no kills.

Bodhi and I replaned and headed to N66. The rest of the Oscars

were fighting around N70, mainly. I engaged a few Yaks and P38s

vicinity of 66 but broke off to try to protect the buffs in the

area. Finally headed down to 64. Bodhi died in the ack. I

_tried_ to stay away from ack, but after about 3 inconclusive

fights, I got pulled in a little close to 64. I took two ack

hits and immediately died.

The Oscars killed 3 buffs and 3 fighters, for 4 losses, two of

which were USELESS deaths to the ack at 64. I prepare to

disembowel myself upon Moose's return :)

-Sturmamoto

--

SA1 Mission 1 Debrief

First off, I'm a little pissed cuz FR, Pop, and I were only ones

to stick around and give a debrief for SAL flt. I had to do a

/sco on all the people in our flt just to see who droped their

bombs.
Now to what I goofed up on. First off with the 109s squadron at

Sal it was hard to figure out who was in what flt. I suggest that

Sal flt or the 109s meet at C68 to brief and take a roll call. At

-5 min we go to 63 and wait until cleared for TO.

Upon being cleared for flt SA1 and SA2 took off and headed N for

some alt. That was against orders, sorry Brooke and AS. We got

some alt and turned toward Kokada. Saw enma ctrs, on dar, in sec

4,7. Reported it and was told to cap Sal. We did, climbing and

lookin all the time. Spotted a couple of P40s higher. They did

not engage, so they musta been scouts. When cleared off cap at

Sal we hdg to KO. Once at KO we circled until cleared in to

Berry. During this time SA1 and SA2 got seperated. :( SA1 went to

Berry at 26k and we all dropped on maint bldg. We ended up being

cap at Berry. SA2 came in dropped and beat feet back to KO. I

should have taken SA1 with ya FR.<G> Oh well, anyways we got

engaged by 2 38s and 3 P40s(I think). I had alt on the 1 38 and

was at 500 away an closing when Ketchup, in the other 38 got on

my 6 and kilt me. There were no pings, just a BOOM! and red

screen of course. FR assumed command of Sal flt then, so we'll

have to see what he writes for a debrief. <G> DT took over as FL

for SA1.

This is my first time as a GL, so if you see me making any goofs

or have any ideas, please speak up.<G>

I had a blast btw, even tho I got shot by that turncoat

Ketch.<VBG>

SCD*DOGZ*<GL/FL SA1>

4147

--

I apologize to the most humble servants of the Emperor, as the

following is a lengthy overflow of excited words from a scenario

virgin now without a cherry!

From the Grave of TapeWorm <LA1> 2nd Lae Sentai

DeBriefing of Frame 1: Lets Take Berry

Orders: LA1 and LA2 to escort NI1 to target and back. Vball GL/FL

LA1, Rogue FL LA2.

Active duty: LA1 - Vball,TapeWorm,Bug, Wheelin, Enforcer; LA2 -

Rogue, Modo, Furis, Jedi. Brooke

Santo was on stand down (due to improper version of Mac Software

guys ya need v.3.28. or something like that??) I did not

personally account for Pop's whereabouts. (was he there, just

quiet?)

Upon takeoff, we tuned 501,502 and joined up on Vball.

Unfortunately, our orders were late in arriving to my desk

(company adjutant - promoted to pilot cause I read the orders and

did not have time to walk them to Vball-sama so he told me to hop

in the nearest Zeke and brief him in the air)

So, we turned west following BG1 and BG2 instead of east to

follow NI1. I was ill prepared and suffering MASSIVE CONFUSION,

I have never seen so many friendly counters in one place before.

What a rush, my heart was pounding and I broke into an excited

sweat. Oh my God, where is our flight of bombers?!!?

On two, I see "NI1 turning 192 " and I realize we should have

gone east, I was so busy trying to stay in formation (hard skill

for adjutant turned pilot) I missed that little fact. OkOk its

not so bad, we race south still formed up nicely on Vball. It

gets even better when we get a call from Brooke "Lae zekes

released from bomber escort duty, stay on station at alt. and

cover Lae - enemy B17 spotted heading your way. Over" Vball

acknowledges and we are all relieved. Orbiting a while, LA2

splits from LA1.

Bug, Wheelin, Enforcer, TapeWorm procede south, south-east toward

Salamaua. Bug gets separated. Enforcer separates. Wheelin and I

respond to a call to head west on report of possible bogies

there. From the grave, Bug's ghost tells me that he proceeded to

Salamaua, scouted, turned west due to same report of bogies, was

checking map (looking at coffee stain from breakfast on said map)

when... PING. I will defer to Bug for his report on the matter,

but you get the idea.

Wheelin and I intercept P-38 and 2 P-40's 5k lower than us and

make run on them, (prolly the same ones Brooke spoke about in his

debriefing) but they break off and head south (we had crossed

Stanley - Owens by this time and were near Berry (12mile). Enemy

never got closer to me than 1500 yards. (heart pounding for

adjutant lemme tell ya, it is a far sight from my typewritter)

We proceed to strike Berry - I successfully dropped on the Tower

with my one bomb and climbed out west. Woefully, I found myself

now alone and somewhat at a loss for what to do. I made an

uneventful pass on two more P-40's that were not interested in me

and just dove away.

They seem to fly in pairs, but all P-38s I encountered were

alone...
I then found a low 38 alone at 5k nnw Wards so I aggressively

dove to my doom. But I jump ahead of the story now. He was

smart but aggressive as well and we made a first pass no shots

fired and no pings felt. I anticipated his pull up and so went

vertical. We leveled out at 8k and he flat turned with me. I

had 50% fuel and no bomb by this time. When I got to within 1200

yards, he broke for the ocean. Now, two low P-40's were watchin

as I followed my prey right between them. Uh oh. Gets hairy from

here....38 turns with me and I go vertical, but forced to break

away as P40 on my 6 1000 yds. I turn over on his 6, but he too

fast pulls away. Next guy passes me and for half minute I keep

switching targets just as they pull up past me. Manage to

squeeze off a few rounds as I learn to anticipate their passes.

No pings though - I am an adjutant.... Two more P-40=92s are

comming 5000 yards from Wards, so I say screw this and head for

the deck and promptly compress. SUCKS, but remember hearing

pilots in training saying watch for the pullout - so I don't rip

wings, just level out at 1000 feet and run right into ack field

at Ward. Doh! they persue but I can breathe. Wind up jinking

and juking over bridge and get nice view of salivating flak

panzie drivers just out of reach. (How come none of those guys

augered. It works in all the training films I have seen hehe)

Anyway, Stinger claimed my kill and he had two other pelts at

that time T+90min.

Bug, Floor, I and Jasukua (aka JasHook) participated in second

Betty run on Jackson (7mile) however, there was No Joy (term for

noncontact with enemy).

RECOMMENDATION: Furis <LA2> deserves special attention and

public congratulations for finding NI1 and personally escorting

Black Panther through his mission. WELL DONE.

APPOLOGIES: to Nick bomb group for blown assignment. IT WILL

NOT HAPPEN AGAIN as long as I have time to properly prepare. I

now know what to expect and was simply overwhelmed with the chaos

and confusion. However, I am indeed addicted and anxiously await

Frame 2.

TapeWorm <LA1>

2nd Lae Sentai adjutant (who finds Piloting a bit more

exhilarating)

--

Since I did't have a chance to debrief at 70, here it is,

short and soo sweet. Think I hit ship tied up at Berry on first

flight. RTB. Think I hit little building at SE end of strip at

64 on second flight. The joint was jumpin and took one hit from

small arms. Subsequently engaged yak S of 64 (6687). He augered.

Frame terminated shortly afterward. ?? Can we reduce fuel load

for second flight?

Woebird

--

KO/GL Debrief

At pre-flight debrief orders were ammended so that all flights

were tuned to the same CH to facilitate comms between both

flights.

KO1 and KO2 took off from KO as scheduled and proceeded to gain

alt/CAP 70 until we got the go ahead for our strike at Berry. We

didnt have to wait long over KO before we spotted P-40/38's above

us (have gotten mixed reports as to what there alt actually was),

due to their alt advantage it was difficult to engage. Acft from

both KO1 and KO2 got seperated as they continued to track the

higher bogeys when calls came from members of both flights

calling out mossies below (again, Ive gotten conflicting reports

as to what alt they came in on 70), those in vis range of the

mossie proceeded to intercept while others went to regroup at 70.

By then we had been joined on the N by members of other Sentai's

(Sal I believe).
After 70 had been cleared we continued on to Berry as ordered

with all my remaining hvy acft (14 total). As we approached our

target we got the call of bogeys hi just S of Berry we pressed on

at 20K until sure that target was clear for our strike. Once we

arrived both flights attacked their assigned target, many good

hits and even a visual confirmation of a building being destroyed

were reported.

After the srike both flts fanned out in diffrent directions as

they proceeded to regain alt. I called for a regroup over Berry

for both flights as we continued to climb to our CAP alt (20+K).

Throught out our CAP we encountered and egaged several P-40/38's

(difficult to estimate enemy numbers) at diffrent altitudes,

during this period KO Sentai scored several kill. We re-grou at

Berry and continued our CAP of the area, unfortunately during our

fights with the enemy we lost about 1/2 of the Sentai. (I have a

feeling that some of those got picked off as they were alone in

one of our "fanned out" periods).

We returned to KO to re-arm/fuel (lower fuel load), and then

continued on to Jackson with 6 hvy acft (approx. 35 min to

end-game), once we arrived at Jackson we went ahead on our strike

on Jackson sructures/rway and took a CAP roll over it imediately

after. During this time we again score several kills, and pursued
several enemy acft from the area. We also had 3 P-40's low over

Jackson attempting to lure us low into thier ack. I lost at least

2 acft to ack here. We continued to cap for the incoming buff

strike and gave them escort on their egress to KO.

All in all it was a fun and succesful mission for KO sentai,

unfortunately with very heavy loses, I hope that with a little

more common sense and some ideas I have some of those deaths can

be avoided in the next frame.

-Malice #2334

GL/FL1 Kokoda Sentai

P.S. - Sorry if i was somewhat long winded :P this is my first

de-brief

--

2nd Salamaua Sentai

Dactyl, #2476 OS2(FL temp)

At T-30, I joined my fellow Oscar jockeys at Salamaua. I settled

into my chair, positioned my map just so and took a sip of

freshly made coffee. Due to Moose's absence, Sturmer informed me

that he had promoted me to OS2 Flight Leader. Fortunately, my

wife was home and heard the loud 'fahWUMP!' as my body hit the

floor. She came running downstairs with a bucket of water and

revived me in time for take-off.

We arrived over Kokoda and were circling at 25k or so when the

first wave of P-38s arrived. "All hell broke loose" does not

begin to describe the ensuing pandamonium. The messages were

FLYING by with virtually no hope of communication outside our own

flight channel. I believe the US strategy is to make a fast pass

and then dive in hopes our planes will follow and end up at low

altitude clearing the higher air for bombers. Virtually every US

plane dove after the intial engagement. For the most part, our

flight didn't bite and stayed high. When the B-17s arrived, they

were escorted by only one P-38 and were apparently not gunned,(I

was never pinged). I brought down one 17 and Biff Tarkiss killed

another.

We replaned at Salamaua and returned to Kokoda but all was quiet.

Brooke ordered us to Jackson for a bombing strike on the

maintence building. The rest of the frame was spent over the

atoll. Shag killed a Yak near Berry. All and all, a very good

day.

Dactyl, OS2
--

Well is spit of a little disorganization, my flight

stayed together pretty good. We took off Salamaua and circled

northeast for alt. We revved and went straight south to Kokoda

for cap. When we were almost there, the call came out the there

was an enemy flight coming into Salamaua. There were very few

friendly markers in the sector at that point, so I turned flight

around and climbed north. Sure enough we encountered three high

yakas and two or three p38s. They weren't interested in coming

down to fight and just zoomed away back towards Berry.

We then returned to Kokoda for regroup with Sal 1 flight.

From there we attacked Berry. Berry was minimally defended with

only a few FPs and a token effort by a couple of P38s. I chased

one of them east towards Kokoda where he met his doom. (I think

Crow got him). My flight was pressing the attack at Berry so I

re-joined.

Dove in on Berry and got very stupid. Dropped on an FP

instead of building, thinking it was ack. Flight regrouped and

rtb'd at Salamaua. I think I lost one pilot on an augered

landing. (Practice makes perfect I guess...)

 We waited the obligatory 10min, and rearmed with bombs

for attack on Jackson/ Port Moresby . We were joined by Dactyl,

who seemed to have lost his command. We attacked Jackson putting

ordinance on the maintenance shack. At that point, there were

only a yak and a P38 circling low at the field. We egressed east

after bomb run and re-gained alt. We then went back to Jackson

for some tactical. At first there were only that Yak and P38.

All of a sudden there were 3-5 yaks and at least 3 P38s. I think

they were circling high to the south east and dove in as soon as

the "bait" at Jackson was taken.

We got chewed up and I died. Came up as gunner for BP on

uneventful run on Jackson again and ran like hell to Kokoda.

Endlog called 10 seconds from touchdown on tarmac.

We need better coordination in SAL group and with other

flights we're assigned to link up with. This was not that big a

problem this time, cause target objectives were reached. But I

don't think the enemy is gonna be as hapless in frame 2 . We

should be ready for a fight.

stevep1@primenet.com

--
Mission #1 Debrief - BG1

Personal debrief: After launching and loitering in 4,8 we were

called in to hit 66 from the east. BG1 decended from 30K to 20K

for the bomb-run. We were attacked over 66 by 2 Yaks and a -38

(?). I was heads down and took 2 pings and saw a yak fly thru

the bombsite before realizing we were under attack. Dropped and

recovered at 61. Waited around for a bit and collected gunners.

Big T and I then launched and flew to 64 where we attacked

buildings. I droppped on the Maint. and Ammo buildings and was

heading N when Big T called that he was going around again.

Being gunned, I rev'd to lend moral support and draw fire from

him on the bomb-run. Died after the tail ran out of ammo.

25th Koku Sentai awards ZAPPA a shiney new samurai sword for

getting a total of 3702 pts for Frame 1 WTG ZAP!

Splatt |!

--

Mission Debriefing for Bomber Group 2

BG2 - Meercat, Koo, Zappa, JasHuku

We took of from Lae and proceeded on a HDG of 330 to the center

of sector 3,10. We then turn to a heading of 225 and proceeded to

our holding position in sector 1,8. We made at least 5-6

circuits around 1,8 until we were released to proceed to target.

After getting the go ahead, Meercat had to put the plane on

autopilot while he went and hung out the side to relieve himself

8). We proceeded to Sal and then turned to a hdg of 180. We

then turned to a heading of 270 and proceeded to drop all 16

bombs on the runway at Berry. We egressed to the North and all

landed safely back at Lae. We then waited for the planes to be

refueled and reloaded with bombs. With the CO as my gunner, BG2

then lifted for a strike against Jackson. We headed towards

target and as we were closing we got the 10 minute warning. We

managed to get bombs dropped on the runway at Jackson and

proceeded to egress to Kokoda for landing. Time was called as

all four of the BG2 bombers were in the final approach to landing

8(

What I would like to suggest is a possible cutback on the holding

times and let us get to the first target with more than 25-30

minutes left in the frame.

Meercat-san <<< 25th Koku Sentai (Lae) >>>

---- APPENDIX: RECOMMENDED BOOKS AND MOVIES ----

FIGHTER COMBAT: TACTICS AND MANEUVERING, by Robert L. Shaw

(Naval Institute Press). This is "the Bible" of ACM and contains

lots of information applicable to Air Warrior. If you can't find

it at a bookstore, you can probably order it directly from Naval

Institute Press, in Annapolis, Maryland.

-- Brooke

TOP GUNS, edited by Joe Foss and Matthew Brennan (Pocket Star

Books). Each chapter was written by a different ace. The book

covers from WWI through the Vietnam war. This is one of my

favorites, full of excellent stories of air combat, by all types

of pilots flying various types of fighters.

-- Brooke

ZEMKE'S WOLFPACK, by Hub Zemke with Roger A. Freeman (Pocket

Books). This is the story of Hub Zemke and the 56th Fighter

Group (which included several other famous aces), which fought

over Europe. Through most of his combat career, Zemke flew

P-47's. He had brief duty in P-38's, and then more in P-51's.

-- Brooke
BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP, by Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (Bantam Books).

This is the story of Pappy Boyington, from his days with the

Flying Tigers in China, through his days as a Marine fighter

pilot, to his emancipation from a Japanese war prison. Boyington

flew P-40's in China and F4U's in the Pacific.

-- Brooke

THUNDERBOLT!, by Robert S. Johnson with Martin Caidin (Bantam

Books). This is the story of Robert Johnson, ace with the 56th

Fighter Group. He mostly flew P-47's. This book contains some

amazing tales of the ruggedness of that fighter.

-- Brooke

TO FLY AND FIGHT: MEMOIRS OF A TRIPLE ACE, by Col. Clarence E.

"Bud" Anderson with Joseph P. Hamelin (Bantam Books). This is

about Bud Anderson, who flew P-51's in Europe. It also talks

about his postwar work as a test pilot.

-- Brooke

FORK-TAILED DEVIL: THE P-38, by Martin Caidin (Bantam Books).

This book about the P-38 has some very interesting tales about

the plane.

-- Brooke
MIDWAY. This is a movie about the battle of Midway and the

events leading up to it and is a very well-crafted film.

-- Brooke

MEMPHIS BELL. This is a movie about Memphis Bell, a famous B-17

bomber from WWII. It has some good air-combat footage in it.

-- Brooke

12 O'CLOCK HIGH. This is a movie about a bomber squadron in

WWII. It's a classic.

-- Brooke

THE GREAT BOOK OF WORLD WAR II AIRPLANES. This tome describes in

detail (history, use in combat, performance, etc.) various WWII

aircraft. It contains great pictures and lots of interesting

information.

-- Brooke

JANE'S FIGHTING AIRCRAFT OF WORLD WAR II. This book is not as

good as THE GREAT BOOK, but it covers more planes and is cheaper

and easier to get a hold of.

-- Brooke

CELLULOID WINGS: THE IMPACT OF MOVIES ON AVIATION, by Paul H.

Farmer (Tab Books). ISBN 0-8306-2374-4. Here's one of my

favorites. It's a nice history of the subject, but the most

useful items are two appendices, one of which lists movies

alphabetically, and details all the airplane types that were used

in it -- and which planes were masquerading as something else!

The other appendix lists each plane by type, detailing all the

movies that plane was in. I love old movies and refer to this

book often.

-- Axeman

SPITFIRE ON MY TAIL. Read "Spitfire on my tail" if you can get

it. Boy, does this guy rip on Galland! Very interesting if it's

true . . . and for some reason, I believe him.

-- Axeman

THE LOCKHEED P-38 LIGHTNING, by Warren M. Bodie. (Published by

Warren M. Bodie, ISBN 0-9629359-0-5, Widewing Publications, Post

Office Box 238, Hiawassee, Georgia 30546-0238.) Twist's favorite

book on the P-38.

-- Twist

---- APPENDIX: HISTORY OF AIR WARRIOR ----

Air Warrior started as a program written by Kelton Flynn back

when he was working on his Ph.D. (in nuclear engineering or

physics, as I recall). It didn't bear much resemblance to the

Air Warrior of today -- you'd type in maneuvers for your plane;

your opponent would type in maneuvers for his plane; the computer

would crunch some numbers and come up with new plane positions;

and so on. It was played over terminals on the school's

mainframe. Kelton got a lot more interested in this and decided

after graduation (along with one of his pals -- I think it was

John Taylor) to found a company to produce a multi-player flight

sim. So Kesmai was formed, and Air Warrior was conceived.

Kesmai started out with all of a couple of employees.

To implement Air Warrior, Kesmai hooked up with GEnie, a new

on-line service at the time. Air Warrior came out in 1987 and

was the first multi-player combat flight simulator (at least

outside of the military). Back then it cost $10 or $12 per hour

to play and was available only for Macintoshes. That was in the

days when Macs had the little nine-inch black-and-white screens

and no joysticks. Still, I remember what a blast it was to find

such a thing in those days: an honest-to-God multi-player combat

flight sim!

That first version of Air Warrior was pretty rough by today's

standards. The frame rate was low (perhaps a handful of frames

per second, depending on which type of computer you had), rough

black-and-white graphics, bullets that flew on laser-beam

straight paths, and wacky bugs (like being able to climb to the

stratosphere as long as your plane was climbing while inverted).

But there was nothing else like it out there. Keep in mind that

Air Warrior was out only a handful of years after the original

Flight Simulator by Bruce Artwick of SubLogic, when the best

PC-based flight sims in the world didn't have much more than Air

Warrior in the way of graphics and had no multi-player component

at all. For people like me -- raving WWII aviation enthusiasts

-- this was a dream come true.

As the years chugged on, the Air-Warrior program was refined

(adding more realistic gunnery and getting rid of flight-dynamics

bugs), and the program was ported to the Atari and Amiga

computers. Of course, folks at Kesmai knew that they were

missing a big market in the PC and announced their plans for a

DOS-based EGA version for the PC. Jeez, did that ever start the

comments flowing on GEnie's Air-Warrior message boards. Lots of

people were concerned that the PC folks would swarm into the

arenas, flooding the arenas to overflowing with dweebs who didn't

know how to fly. There would go the neighborhood. Maybe it was

a little like that at first (not as much challenge for the old

folks), but then the PC folks learned the ropes just like

everyone else had, and the game had more participants, which

added to the fun.

Scenarios were also introduced into the mix of fun. Pioneered by

guys like Doktor Gonzo (or "Dok"), these were battles set up with

definite objectives and resources. To me, playing in a

historical scenario gave the same feeling I got when reading

about real WWII air combat. To me, scenarios seemed like a whole

new level of fun in Air Warrior.

But then came the "stagnant" years. Kesmai continued to make

minor refinements, but some people had been asking for more

realism or more features for a long time, and Kesmai wasn't

giving much feedback. Previously, Kesmai had given lots of

feedback and had talked to the players a lot about proposed

improvements and new versions. Without the feedback, a lot of us

figured that Air Warrior was stagnating, that Kesmai was more

interested in producing other games that perhaps brought in more

money. A lot of the old timers thought that this was the

beginning of the end for Air Warrior, the start of a slow decline

into obscurity.

What we didn't know was that Kesmai was working on a vastly

improved version, the SVGA version for DOS. Besides much higher

resolution and better graphics, it would have most of the realism

features that had asked for over the years: stalls, spins,

blackouts, etc. There would be accompanying changes in the

on-line arenas. Kesmai hadn't talked about it at all, though,

because they were tired of the players constantly asking, "When

will it be out? You said it would be out in two weeks. It's

past two weeks, so when will it be out, huh? When?" That gets

old very fast during a development process.

So, to the surprise of many, Kesmai came out with the new SVGA

version, which fairly closely resembled the versions available

today. The Mac version was updated, too. About that time, the

Atari ST and Amiga were declining into obscurity, and Kesmai

dropped their support for those platforms. SVGA Air Warrior,

with its up-to-date features, generated some interest from the

retail market, and Kesmai entered into a deal to market it in

stores. Unfortunately, that petered out due (it seemed to me) to

poor distribution on the part of the distribution company (not

Kesmai) and to a game that was not tailored to the ham-fisted "I

want eye candy" arcade-game crowd (which seems larger than the

rabid "I want realism" WWII air-combat-enthusiast crowd).

However, this blip on the retail market might have contributed to

Air Warrior being noticed by a Japanese company. The company

invested a bit in Air Warrior, paying for the addition of artwork

and data sets for some of the Japanese planes. At any rate,

things were back to humming along in Air Warrior.

The Air-Warrior Training Academy started sometime around 1993 or

1994. A bunch of the veteran players, knowing how steep the

learning curve was for Air Warrior, wanted to help new players

get up to speed more quickly. Also, Kesmai entered into deals

with two other on-line services -- Delphi and CRIS -- to offer

Air Warrior. Players liked this because it introduced some price

competition into the mix. GEnie had already dropped its on-line

charges from $10-$12/hour to $6/hour. Now, with the extra

competition, it went to something like $3/hour. I think that

Kesmai was finally starting to make some money, too, because it

hired a lot more people, many of them from the ranks of avid

Air-Warrior players.

So, the Training Academy was up and running. Air Warrior was

running on GEnie, Delphi, and CRIS. Scenarios were humming

along. The cost for Air Warrior declined to $2/hour and less.

Things were great. And then, in 1996, they got even better,

although in an erratic way. Kesmai made a deal with CompuServe,

America Online, and Earthlink to offer Air Warrior on their

services; and GEnie, long the most popular spot for Air Warrior,

pretty much went belly up (due, in my opinion, to very poor

management and to being far behind the technology curve).

Overall, Kesmai now had a much larger market because of the size

of America Online and CompuServe, but for a couple of reasons,

there was a lot of disruption in late 1996 and early 1997.

First, the demise of GEnie as THE place for Air Warrior caused a

scattering of the Air-Warrior community and a momentary halt in

scenarios and the Training Academy. It was sad to see all of the

old timers scattering to the winds, and some seemed to drift off

altogether during this time of change. (Sniff, sniff.) There

was even another Air-Warrior-like product out there: ICI's

WarBirds, written in part by Air-Warrior veterans HiTech,

Caligula, and Pyro. This drew off some Air-Warrior players, too,

but competition is a very good thing for us consumers. Second,

Kesmai rapidly developed successive new versions of Air Warrior

that, because of improvements, were incompatible with other

versions; and Kesmai dropped some of the older versions. During

1996, they released Air Warrior for Windows, Air Warrior for

Windows 95, and a corresponding beta version for the Macintosh.

In January, 1997, they dropped support for SVGA Air Warrior and

the SVGA-style Mac version. In late February, 1997, they

released Air Warrior II for Windows 95.

The incompatibilities lead to a fragmentation of the Air-Warrior

universe. The current situation is that there are four separate

sets of arenas: one set for Air Warrior II on Delphi, Earthlink,

and CompuServe; one for Air Warrior for Windows on Delphi,

Earthlink, and CompuServe; one for Air Warrior for Windows on

America Online; and one for the beta version of Air Warrior for

the Mac. Thus, users on Delphi, Earthlink, and CompuServe who

use Air Warrior II can play together in a scenario; but people

using Air Warrior for Windows, Air Warrior for the Mac, or

playing on America Online can't participate in the same scenario

since their arenas are separate.

Still, despite such fragmentation, the future of Air Warrior

looks brighter than ever mainly because popularity is higher than

ever. I think that Kesmai is finally starting to make a decent

amount of money from Air Warrior -- and more money encourages

more development. Air Warrior II is out and selling in stores;

the Air-Warrior Training Academy is getting back up to speed; war

nights are up and running; and I hear rumors of more frequent

scenarios. I hope that a new Air-Warrior community will form

around the "alt.games.air-warrior" newsgroup, where people can

participate no matter which arenas they fly in.

So, after writing all of this, after having thought back to those

days a decade ago when first I took to Air Warrior's virtual

skies, I am left with many thoughts. Three stand out: first,

that Air Warrior has progressed so far over the years; second,

that compared to the old days, Air Warrior is so cheap to play;

and third, that if it had been this way back in 1987, I never

would have graduated.

-- Brooke
---- APPENDIX: BIOGRAPHIES OF CONTRIBUTORS ----

BROOKE P. ANDERSON

e-mail: brooke@alumni.caltech.edu

AW handle: Brooke

Yeah, my handle is mighty imaginative, isn't it? I first played

Air Warrior in 1987, when it started. I was just trying out this

unheard-of game -- "Air Warrior . . . a multi-player flight

simulator? Wow!" I didn't care about handles -- I just picked

my first name and took off. Then, once I started to develop a

reputation, I didn't want to change my handle. Reputations were

a lot more a focus in those days, as the Air-Warrior community

was perhaps more fanatical. (We were paying something like

$10-$12/hour to play in those days -- that sort of culled out the

more reasonable folks.)

Probably part of the reason for my participating in producing

this manual has to do with the old days. Back then, not only

weren't there any helpful manuals around, but other pilots rarely

would tell you ANYTHING about how to fly and fight. It took a

long time before I found someone who would give me pointers like
"don't take 100% fuel as it really hurts turn rate," or "try

flaps in a dogfight," or "a P-51 can't out-dogfight a Spitfire";

and I learned a lot by trial and error.

I still loved the game -- I wanted Kesmai to make a lot of money

so that Air Warrior would thrive -- but I could see how only very

motivated people would get into it. Also, there were a lot of us

who enjoyed the game and the Air-Warrior community enough that we

wanted to add to it. Working on this manual was a way for me to

do so.

Anyway, back in 1987 as a graduate student, I knew that I would

get hooked on Air Warrior if I continued to play, and yet I

didn't have the money to spend. So, I stopped playing. But a

year or two later, I became a volunteer sysop on GEnie (I ran

some writers' workshops) and got free access to everything,

including Air Warrior. I played A LOT then, from the late 1980's

perhaps up to about 1990 or 1991.

I started out in Spitfires, working to master angles fighting.

Then, I started to lament the fact that almost everyone flew

Spitfires in those days (i.e., the lack of diversity) and started

flying P-51's exclusively. The P-51 was my favorite plane as a

lad, and the only other folks flying them much were Fencer's

Warhawks. But especially in the days when the Air-Warrior

program had no stalls, spins, blackouts, etc., being successful

in a P-51 required a different style of fighting, namely B&Z. At

one point, some other old timers (Dok, Airmigan, and maybe Anvil,

V, and Wildthing -- I forget who else) and I formed a squadron

devoted to avoiding both stallfighting and the use of Spitfires.

We were the mighty Werepigeons -- but, alas, we didn't stay

together long. By then, none of us played often enough anymore

to keep up the cohesiveness of the squad.

I had gotten hooked on scenarios after playing in one for the

first time (Indian Ocean, run by Dok), but scenarios didn't run

very frequently. When the Air-Warrior Training Academy started,

I became an instructor, and most of my flying time was spent in

that and in scenarios, which started to run more frequently. I

was a CO in Imphal Plain, Sicily '43, Munda Weekend, and Saga of

the 5th AF, parts 1 and 2; and I participated in other capacities

in Indian Ocean, Battle of Germany, and Kursk III.

One of the things I like these days about Air Warrior is that it

does seem so realistic in its flight dynamics. I have never

flown a WWII fighter, but I have flown at Air Combat USA, a place

where you go up in Marchettis (the low-end NATO fighter trainer,

a two-place prop plane) and have dogfights one on one. This was

due to the generosity of J-Wolff, another Air-Warrior player, who

took me along. To me, the combats seemed very similar to the way
they feel and develop in Air Warrior, and the feel of the

Marchetti reminded me a lot of the P-51 in Air Warrior. There

was the same buffeting, the same feel to the roll response (no

goofy over-rolling supposedly due to roll inertia), the same feel

in a stallfight, the same feel for many things -- except for the

physical sensation of G's, of course, and except for the fact

that it's actually easier to look around from an Air-Warrior

cockpit than it is from a real cockpit. If history is any

indication, I think that Air Warrior will have an evermore

realistic flight model as time goes on. I'm all for it.

So, what am I in real life (other than an Air-Warrior nut)? Most

of my life has been spent in school (BS in Nuclear Engineering

from the University of Michigan in 1985; MS in Applied Physics

from the California Institute of Technology in 1987; and Ph.D. in

Computation and Neural Systems, also from Caltech, in 1993).

After graduation, my business partner and I founded Acacia

Research Corporation to do money management with computer models.

We ended up doing that as well as venture-capital investing, and

the company went public in the process (NASDAQ symbol "ACRI"). I

am currently a director and Vice President of Research and

Development, and I'm a director for a couple of the companies we

helped start. My hobbies (other than Air Warrior) include war

gaming and role-playing gaming; reading science fiction and

fantasy; watching BABYLON 5 and THE SIMPSONS; occasional writing

of amateurish science fiction and fantasy; rollerblading; and ice

hockey (I still play for the Caltech hockey club). One of these

days, I might even get off my ass and continue the flying lessons

I never completed ("Wrong-way Anderson," they used to call me).

-- Brooke

JIM SHAFER

e-mail: EyeBLS@aol.com

AW handle: Eyeballs

I've been interested in flying since I was a kid. Finally got my

private license in 1967. Commercial, Multi-engine, Instrument,

Glider, and CFI followed over the next few years. Have flown

many different types of real aircraft including the Pitts special

and a biz jet. Have done "bush" flying into Indian reservations

in Arizona as well as shooting the ILS into SFO tucked between

two airline jets.

I have been a fan of flight sims from the early 8-bit days. Flew

almost all of them. Then I got a modem (spring, '92) and

immediately started flying AW on GEnie. Haven't been serious

about another flight sim since. Took awhile to figure AW out

mainly cause I was flying with a mouse. Had tutoring from Voss,

Brooke, and others. Finally got to enroll in AWTA in the fall.

Had been out of town too much over the summer to take a 7-week

course. Was "assistant" trainer for Bug. Graduated with

honors. <G>.

Stayed in the pack beneath the gods but above the unwashed. Have

flown in nearly all the scenarios without distinction or

dishonor. But with tons of excitement. One mission in a Pacific

scenario resulted in two kills as I took on >12 zeros that were

chasing a B25. Sounds better than it was. The zeros were

fixated on the B25, and I just motored up behind them. Those

that didn't break off the pursuit died.

Started as AWTA instructor back on GEnie a couple of years ago.

Now on AOL. Find it is a real charge to take new users and give

them their first few clues to AW. Goes back to teaching days in

real life.

I fly with the Turkey Hams squadron. This almost-5-year-old

squadron now consists mostly of multiyear veterans that have

formed an association off-line as well as in the arena. It is

worth noting that nearly all of them are instructors now.

In real life, I am an ophthalmologist in practice in Phoenix. I

keep busy with computer graphics, animations, video, etc. I am

also a model railroader and have a little bit of Colorado narrow

gauge in the 10-by-20 foot train room. Since my youngest is

graduating college in June, I will be able to afford to fly

again. I am building an acrobatic, 2-seat monoplane. Painted

in desert camouflage, it might look a bit like a 109. Should be

ready to fly mid summer of '97.

-- Eyeballs

KEVIN HIGGINS

e-mail: kato@southwind.net

AW handle: Kato

If I had to pick an epitaph to describe myself and the way that I

live life, I'd have to select, "A Jack of All Trades, and an

Adventurer At Heart." I grew up with a passion for reading, and

I've been more places, fought in more wars, explored more worlds,

and vanquished more villains than the most unbelievable of

heroes. Of course, most of that swashbuckling thrill was the

benefit of an extra- ordinary imagination, fueled by talented

writers, and happened while safely ensconced in the comfort of a

Lazy-boy recliner.

Lest I be accused of couch-potatoism, though, let me say in my

defense that I have shown some of that lust for excitement in

real life.
I grew up as a Navy brat. We moved about every 12-18 months, on

the average. I had a great childhood and matured within a very

tightly knit family. In other words, my youth was about as

colorful as a freshly painted apartment wall.

After effortlessly excelling at high school scholastic

challenges, I spent an unproductive and unsatisfying couple of

years in college, then joined the military. I qualified for the

most intellectually demanding jobs they offered. So I chose

Infantry. I figured: if you're going to be a soldier, why go into

a job where your glory days are spent as a REMF?

During the course of that indoctrination I seemed to manage the

difference between fantasy adventure and the real thing; while a

newly trained member of the Warrior caste I managed to get

selected for Officer Candidate School. Over the following nine

years, I led men in training for desert warfare, fought countless

force-on-force mechanized (mock) battles with the best desert

combat force the US Army has (OPFOR), and developed

teams of soldiers whose daily focus was honing themselves for the

mission of closing with and destroying the enemy. After a

gloriously fun company command, during which I took 123 men to

Saudi and brought them all home safely, I decided that after ten

years of heavy duty gruntdom, I was getting weary. Spending

around 200 days each year in the field, doing continuous

operations in a tactical environment, was getting hard on my

knees and my easygoing personality. I left the military as a

Captain and entered the commercial sector. In other words, I

became a silly-vilian.

My early experiences in the commercial sector make dull reading.

Now, however, I'm doing a job I love. I've made the transition

from combat arms soldier to... computer hacker! I work as a

Field Automation Analyst, which is kind of like being a System

Administrator without all the hassles. Computers have always

been a passion of mine, and I'm finally happy to be doing the

sort of things at work that I enjoy doing at home in my spare

time.

But I won't be doing this forever. Like many people, I hope one

day to write successfully. That desire is always in my

background looking over my shoulder, and I picture it as a living

entity with my Grandfather's face. His name was Leslie

Charteris, and he wrote a series called, "The Saint." One day I

hope to be at least 1/50th as published as he was. I have had a

short short (story) published, and received an advance on an epic

fantasy I cowrote with an Army buddy. Unfortunately, the

publisher that sent us the advance went out of business, so our

book is not on the shelves yet, but we keep trying.

By the time you read this, I will have started on my next book--

one which will combine my military experiences with the visionary

science fiction that has always fueled my Walter Mitty-esque

dreams.

In the meantime, I enjoy computer gaming--a job designing games

might be the only thing that could be as rewarding as writing

great fiction. Should you be interested in reading about the kind

of gaming experience I'm burning to create, I refer you to my web

page, at: http://members.aol.com/senseikato

When not hacking on Unix systems at work, I really enjoy

concentrating on health and fitness, working out both in the gym

and in the dojo. Despite my doctor's arguments to the contrary, I

maintain that if you play hard enough, you can eat anything you

want. I'm a dedicated carnivore, but I have a feeling that one of

these days that doctor is gonna force me onto a pure celery diet.

<sigh> With luck, medical science will soon progress to the point

where we humans can eat like the scavengers nature designed us to

be and STILL live long and happy lives. (screw that cure for

cancer--figure out a way to let me eat my cheeseburgers!)

I run, but it's a forced habit, and I mostly hit the road because

it feels so good AFTERWARDS!). Mostly I do it to stay in

condition for the things I feel everybody needs to do at least

once in their life (if not regularly): bungi jump, skydive, scuba

dive, go white water rafting and hang-gliding. I still have the

latter two left to do. May the spirit of adventure never leave

my breathing body.

Zheesh, did you really want to know all this about me?

I'm Mensa's token moron, having made it in by the skin of my

cortex, with the lowest possible qualifying score. <g> I'm

fiercely competitive (in a good-natured fashion), but mostly for

individual challenges; I generally sustain no interest in team

sports.

I've been flying Air Warrior since about 1990 or 1991 or so. I

enjoy training people in the fundamentals of Air Combat and find

it as rewarding as smashing someone in a tough game of chess. I

especially love it when a student can come back and clean my

clock. <g>

-- Kato

JIM EGGLESTON

e-mail: Chickje@.cris.com

AW handle: Chick
I started flying Air Warrior in 1993, at that time Cris, Genie

and Delphi were the providers. I was lucky enough to log in,

find the training arena and run into the Damned squad during a

practice flight. I was given the best advice that night: "Get

into the AWTA." At that time it cost $75.00 for the class, and

it has been one of the best expenditures I ever made. I did have

some advantage as I have a couple of thousand hours of logged

time in fixed wing and rotorcraft. However, the AWTA teaches

what you need in Air Warrior. After a year of attending training

sessions and generally making a pain of myself, Damned JD asked

me to join the Damned. I fly in C-land with the Damned but on

occasion do slip over into B-land to fly with friends there.

(Yes, the Damned do have friends -- some of them anyway.)

I was an instructor with Stymy for the weekly training sessions

on the DOS Air Warrior and was left in charge when the move was

started to the Windows version. After the transition was made, I

was moved over to AOL, where I now reside in Full-Realism

Training. I think that attending the Air Warrior Training

Academy is perhaps the best time that a true Air Warrior can

spend. (That and remembering: keep 'em in the up front view and

pull up.)

-- Chick
DENNIS

e-mail: bug@concentric.net

AW handle: Bug

I stumbled into Air Warrior shortly after getting my account on

GEnie in (blush) late 1989. I flew my trusty Amiga around with

the mouse and got killed. A lot . . . Eventually I moved out of

dweeb-ness to the status of Pretty Good, where I've been stuck

since! But that was good enough for me to conduct classes in the

AWTA -- and I'm proud to say that some of my students have gone

on to become Trainers and top aces themselves. . . .

I work at NBC, where I produce, write and edit promos for the

other shows on NBC -- you know, "Must See TV" and all that . . .

Married to a slender beauty with a great tolerance for my gaming

silliness.

-- Bug

RICHARD LAWRENCE

e-mail: rich@kesmai.com

AW handle: Twist

[Twist didn't send in a biography, but I thought that readers

should know that he is one of the best pilots in the game -- very

deadly in his steed of choice, the FW 190. I should know -- in

scenarios, I've had the pleasure of trying to defend bomber

formations against him and his merry band of interceptors.

-- Brooke]

TERRY WELDON

e-mail: specter777@aol.com

AW handle: Specter

[Specter didn't send in a biography.]

---- APPENDIX: THE PREVIOUS INTRODUCTION ----

The following is the introduction that I wrote for the

Air-Warrior Training-Academy version of this manual. I include

it here for amusement and in case the Academy gets up to speed

again.

Welcome to the Air-Warrior Training Academy. The goal of the

Academy is quite straightforward: to take you, the still unformed

and malleable clay of cadethood, and to mold you into an aerial

killing machine, one that will prowl the skies of Air Warrior and
rain down death and destruction upon your enemies, be they in the

air, on the ground, or on the sea. This goal is straightforward,

but it is not easily achieved. To do so, two things must happen.

First, the expert instructors of the Academy must impart a

portion of their expert knowledge to you. Second, you must

develop the skill necessary to use that knowledge. More than

anything else, it will take a lot of practice on your part. This

cannot be overemphasized. Air Warrior is a very realistic game,

and the nuances of aerial combat cannot be learned without a

great deal of practice and experience. Fortunately, this

practice is usually a lot of fun -- and if you practice enough,

you won't even once be asked to polish the Academy toilets with

your toothbrush.

As a further motivation to succeed, keep in mind that, if you do

become a deadly killing machine, feared and respected throughout

Air Warrior's azure skies, it is a great source of pride to your

instructor, who can then claim that he taught you everything that

you know. It would be nice to tell you conversely that, if you

do not progress past bumbling ineptitude, it is a source of great

humiliation to your instructor, an indication of miserable

failure on his part. The truth of the matter is that your

instructor will in that case deny all blame, claiming that,

despite his formidable educational technique, you were

untrainable and would have been best employed in the mess tent
piloting a potato peeler. However, let us dwell on the positive.

The Academy will teach you to fly with all of the realism

settings for Air Warrior enabled: spins, blackouts, redouts,

stalls, etc. Keep them on when you practice, too. If this does

not appeal to you then you are probably operating under the

delusion that Air Warrior is only a game. The Air-Warrior

community is a collection of military-aviation enthusiasts,

people who wish they could have been fighter pilots, and in a few

cases, people who already are fighter pilots. (It might also

have a large number of misfits who would be in prison if it

weren't for the healthy release provided by games like Air

Warrior, but that's beside the point.) When they shoot someone

down, they want it to say something about their piloting skill.

They want the fights to feel like what, all of their lives,

they've read about in accounts of real aerial combat.

Without realism, you might as well play Super Space-weenie

Shoot-'em-up (TM) v3.51. "Hey, I just shot down Darth Vader!

Cool! I am one sierra hotel space-fighter jock!" you say? Who

cares? But take up a Warhawk and find the heavily escorted

Japanese bomber stream at 15k, heading south to hit Milne Bay in

the Air-Warrior scenario "Saga of the 5th Air Force." Get out a

quick message -- "Many buffs 1 sect n milne 15k. In in in." --

and dive in through a cloud of angry Zeros, every one piloted by

a real person burning with the desire to shoot YOU down. Pick

out a Betty and come screaming in for the shot. Stay on her as

her pilot spots you and cranks into a hard break turn to the

right. Watch those g's -- with so many Zeros around, you're dead

if you black out. Feel the tension build as you pull some lead

to get your shot -- you know those angry Zeros are only moments

away from firing on you. Line up quickly and expertly, not

missing the chance even though you're closing now at a big angle

and 300 knots. Hold down the trigger. Watch the tracers arc out

toward your prey. Watch the strikes all over the bomber as you

pour on the shells. Watch the debris stream away and the Betty

explode a moment later. Then slam your stick hard to the right,

going instantly into an evasive -- you don't need to look back to

know what's right on your tail firing right now. Click in

war-emergency power. Barrel roll right, diving hard for the

deck. Jink the whole way down, evading the angry Zeros, which

are trying so desperately to kill you. Jink. Roll. Use your

speed to get away with your life -- barely. Now you're talking.

There is a lot to Air Warrior, and the purpose of the Academy is

to get you into the thick of it as quickly as possible. Before

each session of the Academy (by "session," I mean the on-line

portion, where you interact with the instructor), you should read

the assigned portions of this manual and do the assigned off-line

exercises. At the beginning of each session, you will be able to

ask questions of your instructor. These questions usually

concern the reading material or the off-line exercises but may

stray to more esoteric issues such as why Air-Warrior pilots are

vastly superior to and more powerful than the uninformed masses

who fly unrealistic, watered-down flight-simulation games made

for sissies. Next, after all of the questions are answered and

after some amount of other pontification, the instructor will

take you and your fellow classmates up into the virtual skies of

Air Warrior and, among other things, teach you how to kill each

other and how to destroy everything in sight.

The instructors are well qualified to explain such issues. They

are a group of volunteers, pulled from the ranks of Air Warrior

because of their flying skill and their ability to teach. You

will be taught by some of the finest, most-experienced pilots in

the game. They are also the ones who have collaborated to

produce this manual. (As you read the following chapters, note

that the collaboration is the reason for the inconsistency in

writing style, not insanity of the author -- although sanity of

all instructors is not guaranteed.)

Now, having trudged patiently through this long-winded

introduction, you must be eager to get to the meat, your mind

hungry for any tidbit that will help you to become the deadly

aerial killing machine that you were meant to be. Or there's a

potato peeler with your name on it. Which is it going to be?

-- Brooke

---- APPENDIX: GETTING STARTED IN AIR WARRIOR ----

by Brooke

Air Warrior is an on-line multiplayer combat flight simulator

from Kesmai. To many, it is a lot more than a game. For WWII

aviation enthusiasts like me, it is a dream come true. Even on

its most superficial level -- taking off, heading for the action,

mixing it up in dogfights against other live opponents -- it is a

blast. However, there can be a lot more to it. There is a sense

of community in Air Warrior, and it's fun to build a reputation

based on your flying skill or style. There are also war nights

and historical scenarios where the action involves definite

missions and objectives. For me, playing in historical scenarios

gives a similar feeling to reading about real WWII aerial combat

and missions. Multiplayer action is a whole new level of fun

beyond stand-alone play; and for me, historical scenarios are a

whole new level of fun beyond normal multiplayer action.

To play, you need the front-end software for Air Warrior. The

front-end software runs on your computer, doing the flight

simulation and connecting via modem to a host computer. The host

manages and distributes the data coming from the on-line players.

There are hosts available from America Online, Delphi,

CompuServe, and Earthlink; and to play in the multiplayer arenas

(except as discussed below for the Mac beta version), you need an

account on one of these on-line services. The costs to play

depend on the service -- see the "Prices for On-line Services"

appendix for more information.

There are two types of front-end software available: free

versions and a boxed version with lots of extra features. The

boxed version, Air Warrior II, is for Windows 95 and is available

in stores for $40-$50. It has multiplayer functionality plus,

among other features, a much larger variety of aircraft to fly,

an off-line mission builder, and the ability to play

head-to-head. The head-to-head feature allows you to play

against one (and only one) other opponent without connecting to

one of the above-mentioned on-line servies -- you can instead

connect to the other person modem to modem, over the Internet, or

over a LAN. The off-line mission builder provides for off-line

gaming and practice. As of the writing of this manual, America

Online is not set up to use Air Warrior II. Delphi, Earthlink,

and CompuServe are (or will be shortly).

The free versions (Air Warrior for Windows, Air Warrior for

Windows 95, and Air Warrior for the Macintosh) have basic

functionality for multiplayer on-line play but no head-to-head or

off-line mission-building features. The Mac version is available

from Kesmai's Web page at "http://www.kesmai.com/" and is free to

play while it is in beta testing. As for Air Warrior for Windows

and Air Warrior for Windows 95, for information on how to obtain

them and how to get on-line, go to Kesmai's Web page at

"http://www.kesmai.com/" or contact one of the on-line services

mentioned in the "Prices for On-line Services" appendix.

Setting up the software is usually pretty easy. If you bought

Air Warrior II, you just install it and follow the instructions.

For the free versions, you need to get the basic program (which

will be in a self-extracting archive); and you'll probably want

to get the optional artwork for the various planes. Artwork

comes in three resolutions: 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768. In

my opinion, the 640x480 artwork looks almost as good as the

others, so if you have a slower machine and want the

lower-resolution artwork, you won't be missing out much. If the

frame rate is low (i.e., the motion of the world isn't smooth as

you fly), try turning off some of the features such as horizon

shading, plane shapes, ground detail, etc.; and if things are

really bad, fly in one of the lower-detail modes when fighting

(pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on the keyboard selects the view

detail). Before you fly for the first time, make sure that you

set up your joystick in whatever control panel you have for your

operating system AND that you set up the joystick again in Air

Warrior by going into the "settings" area. You must calibrate it

in both places that first time.

Aerial combat is a complicated business to learn. Therefore, in

the early 1990's, in an effort to help new players get up to

speed quickly, a group of Air-Warrior veterans formed the

Air-Warrior Training Academy (AWTA). There are two parts to

AWTA: formal classes and informal training.

Informal training is open to whoever shows up, and it consists of

on-line instruction on any topic that the students want to learn.

Possibly in addition to other times, it runs in both the

full-realism and relaxed-realism training arenas on Wednesday

nights from 9-11 PM Eastern time on all of the on-line services.

If you have questions regarding the sessions on America Online,

send e-mail to Chick at "jre@bellsouth.net". If you have

questions regarding the sessions on Delphi, CompuServe,

Earthlink, and possibly CRIS, send e-mail to BMac at

"johnmcnamee@worldnet.att.net". Instructors who participate in

these Wednesday-night sessions include (among others) Chick,

BMac, Sty, Snowman, Holmes, Shaky Stick, Bug, StuB, SharkBait,

Black Panther, and Slug.

As of the writing of this manual, formal classes are not yet up

and running again since the expansion of Air Warrior to other

on-line services and the resulting reorganization of AWTA. We

hope that they will be up and running soon, though. This part of

AWTA involves enrolling in a class that meets once per week, for

a few hours per week, for seven weeks. Classes contain about 3-5

students. The students are instructed on-line in all aspects of

Air Warrior, with most emphasis placed, of course, on

aerial-combat techniques; and there are off-line exercises and

reading assignments. The goal is to help students increase their

combat skills as much as possible within that seven weeks and to

produce pilots who are skilled in all aspects of the game. This

manual is the main text for the classes.

There is also a Usenet newsgroup devoted to Air Warrior:

"alt.games.air-warrior". If you have questions about the game,

AWTA, historical scenarios, war nights, etc., that is a good

place to post questions.

---- PRICES FOR ON-LINE SERVICES ----

To play Air Warrior, you need access to one of the Air-Warrior

hosts. For that (unless you are running the Mac beta version of

the front-end software -- see the "Getting Started in Air

Warrior" appendix), you need an account on one of the following

on-line services. There are often two pricing schemes: one if

you use the on-line service's dial-in modem lines to connect and

another if you already have an Internet service provider (ISP)

and use the Internet to connect to the on-line service. This

second option (use another ISP to connect) can be used by players

in countries that don't have cheap dial-in access directly to the

on-line services.

America Online (AOL) is one of the cheapest ways to play Air

Warrior. An account costs $20/month, or if you connect through

another ISP, only $10/month. For that price, you can play an

unlimited amount of Air Warrior for no extra fee. Currently, Air

Warrior II is unfortunately not available on AOL, so you'll be

using only Air Warrior for Windows. AOL's Web page is at

"http://www.aol.com/", and its phone number in the US is

800-827-6364.

CompuServe has both Air Warrior II and Air Warrior for Windows

available. An account costs $25/month, which covers 20 hours of

play per month. There is an additional charge of $1.95/hour for

each hour past that initial 20 hours per month. The cost
includes access via CompuServe's dial-in lines -- it is not

cheaper if you already have an ISP. CompuServe's Web page is at

"http://www.compuserve.com/", and its phone number in the US is

800-848-8995.

Earthlink has Air Warrior II and Air Warrior for Windows

available. An account costs $20/month, or if you connect through

another ISP, there is no base cost. To play Air Warrior, there

is an additional cost of $1.75/hour. Earthlink's Web page is at

"http://www.earthlink.net/", and its phone number in the US is

800-395-8425.

Delphi has Air Warrior II and Air Warrior for Windows available.

An account costs $24/month or, if you connect through another

ISP, $7/month. To play Air Warrior, there is an additional

charge of $1.80/hour. Delphi's Web page is at

"http://www.delphi.com/", and its phone number in the US is

800-695-4005.

---- USUAL LEGAL STUFF ----

Air Warrior (R)

is a registered trademark of Kesmai Corporation.

(C) 1996-97 Kesmai Corporation. All rights reserved.

Registered in US and Japan

Air Warrior Training Academy (TM)

is a trademark of Kesmai Corporation.

(C) 1996-97 Kesmai Corporation. All rights reserved.

Trademark pending registration

ARIES (R)

is a registered trademark of Kesmai Corporation.

(C) 1996-97 Kesmai Corporation. All rights reserved.

Registered

Kesmai (TM)

is a trademark Kesmai Corporation.

(C) 1996-97 Kesmai Corporation. All rights reserved.

Pending registration

Flight Simulator, Microsoft, and Windows (TM)

are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

America Online, Delphi, CompuServe, Earthlink, CRIS, GEnie, ICI,

and WarBirds are probably trademarks of their respective

corporations.
Void where prohibited by law. If condition persists, consult

physician. No user-serviceable parts inside. No other warranty

expressed or implied. Any resemblance to real persons, living or

dead, is purely coincidental. Use only as directed. Extended

use may cause drowsiness. All models over 18 years of age.

Freshest if eaten before date on carton. No animals were harmed

in the production of this manual.