Combat pointers and tips

[aachumbles]

I hope this might help a few pilots here .
If you are in a furball in a fighter.
Please use your Trim control .
It is activated using the NUM LOCK key and then the 7 and 1 keys.
This also applies if you are flying a course and you want to get the most from your air craft.
Gunnery . Short bursts only and try to make them count.
These are just two pointers I hope you are aware of .
I would like to like to add over the many years of flying CFS .Perhaps these simple two rules I have found are the most important.
If you have any pointers and tips please add them here so we can also try them if we are not aware of them .

[Minuteman]

~S~ Remember that an aircraft can stall at any speed...
When turning a P-51 tight...the wing will stall when your AOA is too great despite your forward speed. Drop a degree of flaps and she'll smooth right out....retract when you level out!

[smilo]

~S~All,
As most of you know, I like to change my keyboard settings. The Elevator and Rudder Trim are prime examples.
Since I never use my keyboard for Pitch and Yaw, and for that matter Roll, I now use the arrow keys to the left of the number pad for Elevator and Rudder Trim. They equate to 8 & 2 for elevator trim and 4 & 6 for rudder trim on the number pad. For me they are easily accessible and I don't have to worry about hitting a wrong number on the pad.
Another option would be to reprogram a couple of buttons on your joy stick. I have tried this, but have not gotten use to it yet.
I have also installed a trim readout gauge on my panel so I can tell at a glance what my elevator trim setting is. Very handy.

[Ed]

~S~ All,

I think this excerpt from Bud Anderson's story fits in here, as regards use of trim, and flaps. I learned from his story. His complete story is too big to post here..

" Any airplane with a single propeller produces torque. The more horsepower you have, the more the prop will pull you off to one side. The Mustangs I flew used a 12-cylinder Packard Merlin engine that displaced 1,649 cubic inches. That is 10 times the size of the engine that powers an Indy car. It developed power enough that you never applied full power sitting still on the ground because it would pull the plane's tail up off the runway and the propeller would chew up the concrete. With so much power, you were continually making minor adjustments on the controls to keep the Mustang and its wing-mounted guns pointed straight.

There were three little palm-sized wheels you had to keep fiddling with. They trimmed you up for hands-off level flight. One was for the little trim tab on the tail's rudder, the vertical slab which moves the plane left or right. Another adjusted the tab on the tail's horizontal elevators that raise or lower the nose and help reduce the force you had to apply for hard turning. The third was for aileron trim, to keep your wings level, although you didn't have to fuss much with that one. Your left hand was down there a lot if you were changing speeds, as in combat . . . while at the same time you were making minor adjustments with your feet on the rudder pedals and your hand on the stick. At first it was awkward. But, with experience, it was something you did without thinking, like driving a car and twirling the radio dial.

It's a little unnerving to think about how many things you have to deal with all at once to fly combat.

So the Messerschmitt is coming around again, climbing hard to his left, and I've had about enough of this. My angle is a little bit better this time. So I roll the dice. Instead of cobbing it like before and sailing on by him, I decide to turn hard left inside him, knowing that if I lose speed and don't make it I probably won't get home. I pull back on the throttle slightly, put down 10 degrees of flaps, and haul back on the stick just as hard as I can. And the nose begins coming up and around, slowly, slowly. . .

Hot d**n! I'm going to make it! I'm inside him, pulling my sights up to him. And the German pilot can see this. This time, it's the Messerschmitt that breaks away and goes zooming straight up, engine at maximum power, without much alternative. I come in with full power and follow him up, and the gap narrows swiftly. He is hanging by his prop, not quite vertically, and I am right there behind him, and it is terribly clear, having tested the theory less than a minute ago, that he is going to stall and fall away before I do.

I have him. He must know that I have him."

Take care,

Ed

[AAC_Maj_Bandit]

~S~ All,

Ed Might I suggest you register in our forum, A guest is a guest, But I think you are a bit more of a regular.

Just a thought.

Bandit

[smilo]

~S~
Great idea Bandit and well said!!
How about it Trapper?
There's always room for a tired old War Horse. I know that you still got some spunk in ya.

BTW Everyone, I have a link to the OB Site. The first screen shot is of ED and I would love to show it to you.
The problem is that the rest of the screenies and NOT PG-13. So I will not post the link here.

[trapper]

Ok guys/fellow pilots,.....you talked me into it;....although I don't know what good I can do.....since I can't fly anymore due to a medical condition. Smilo can tell you about it in private in the Officers lounge.

I was just going thru my old file folders and finding stuff that may be of use for you.

Smilo, good friend, if I could figure out how to add an avatar, then I will post it. I might even use that OB pix you mention as its just plain funny..

But on the serious side.....before XP I used a SW FFB stick that with its 8 buttons plus a 'shift' button, gave me access to a total of 16 functions.

Four of those where for 'trim'....which was in constant use in combat.

Learning to program it in CFS was confusing; and it took a couple or more trys before I got it to register by button pushes.

I don't seem to see a FAQ menu. Is there one?

Anyway, that's enough for me now. I'm getting tired now.

Take care, and ~S~ all; and Thank you for your warm welcome.

Trapper
PS - and how can I forget about you Hubbabubba, and our flights together; which can be seen in the SOH CFS forum under "Just flying". I think that that was the last time I could fly. Thanks buddy.

[trapper]

Per Humbles request that started this thread, I have found text that describes a maneuver I often used. But before I get into it, I must say that knowing how to use aileron trim is very important to me in a 'sim' flight, as when I get hit in the wings [yes, I get hit at times - I'm not perfect] I can dive down to the deck like a wounded duck and keep my wings level; and do side-slips when some bandit is trying to finish me off. He usually ends up in the dirt because of his enthusiasm or some squadron buddy takes him out.

That is the only time I had to use keyboard buttons, besides for left and right brakes. All other things were accomplished via joystick buttons.

What follows is also a surprise maneuver, that also includes use of trim and side slipping. I learned it while flying Jane's WWII Fighters.

Violent Maneuvering:

The key to successfully avoiding a tailing attack is to be as unpredictable as possible. The more you thrash your aircraft around, the harder it is for your opponent to train his weapons on you. Try combining maneuvers-for example, a loop interrupted by a break turn, or a quick break turn after any maneuver.

Make sure that whatever you do, you have enough altitude to do it in, and that you aren't flying into more trouble. There's nothing more dis-heartening than successfully shaking an attacker with a series of jinks followed up with a a split-S, only to find yourself staring down the sights of an approaching enemy wing.

Perhaps one of the best-known violent maneuvers belonged to Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. A believer in the the hit-and-run slash attack, he avoiding dogfighting if at all possible. In the few times that he did find an enemy chasing him with a stern attack from behind, he would wait coolly and wait for his opponent to commit to an attack. When that happened, Hartmann would throw his stick forward full force and drop down into an uninverted, negative-G loop. This drew him below the attacker's line of sight and placed him in a near-weightless state [most CFS flights do not use G's so no problem there]. Most pilots were completely taken aback by this bold maneuver and failed to follow.

An American pilot by the name of "Killer" Caldwell took Hartman's concept one step further, adding rudder to kick his aircraft to one side and throttle to speed up the uninverted loop. This last move coined the phrase "stuffing it all into one corner".

Peter Brothers used a highly unconventional and subtle method to fool his would-be attackers. He purposely trimmed his aircraft so that it flew with constant side slip, figuring that opponents would misjudge his direction of flight. [This works well in CFS]. Brothers felt that his slightly crabbing aircraft gave him a subtle advantage in battle. The trick succeeded so in its own right, evident in his 16 victories in battle.

Offered for whatever its worth. I got a lot of moves I've learned over the years that I can tell you about, if you're not bored by now.

I imply no 'newbie' preaching to the choir but just in response to the purpose of this thread.

Please tell me when to stop because I can talk on for hours about battles-past and maneuvers.

Also, all of the above means you have lost or have no wingman. I say again....no wingman.

Find a pilot who wants to fly wingman and practice practice practice together. You will be unbeatable.

Take care, and ~S~

Trapper [and yes, I was a real trapper for the Commonwealth of Virginia]

[AAC_Maj_Bandit]

~S~ Trapper, And Welcome...anytime you feel the urge to ramble.....PLEASE DO, I enjoyed your memo, ALOT Now as a Bomber pilot, I can't do those moves, But I have seen them (or some of them) done in recent years.

Thanks for the Info and feel free to stop by anytime and post your comments.

Bandit


Thanks to smilo, I thought I recognized that name (Trapper) from the OB's

[trapper]

Today's trivia question about trim.

Which way, up or down, does the trim tab move on the elevator when trimming up?

[Baseketboll]

Down!

[trapper]

Rog BBoll

[Baseketboll]

am i the only one? or your image does not show

[smilo]

you're not the only one, it does not show.