Air to Air knife fights

[Mad dog]

I know I have only been here a little over a week, but one thing I noticed in the mission tonight:

If you are flying an F14 and you get into a knife fight with an L39 or a nimble Mig at low level and, you are at 220kts, you are going to have a really bad day.

A really good (not sure if it is best) corner speed for the tomcat is 350kts, if you are slower than that, you are not able to turn efficiently or tightly enough for a close in slapping fest. In this situation, especially against a smaller, less powerful jet, turn to force an overshoot and then light the cans and go vertical. The tomcat can get out of sight really easily and then come over the top to swoop down from above on the slower jet.

Knife fights are all about maintaining energy and using our jets advantages against the slower but more nimble bandits.

Please don't get me wrong, I am no expert and you guys have flown this bird way more than me, it was just something I noticed and thought was worth a mention.

[Mutley]

wellnoticed however ive taught the chaps over the course of around 2 mths that very thing using the cabilites of the enemy against them and the tricks of the 14 by the end of the training i ran every stick monkey was able to down a mig 29 in a knife fight using guns and or sidewinders. i will at sumstage when we get another stick monkey rerun the said training.

[john (scooby)]

max rate speed (apparantly corner speed is the wrong term even though that makes far more sense to me) for the cat is 300-330 knots, or 270-300 with flaps down (only tried that once and its brilliant but gamey).
yes the cat is very good in the vertical but the ai cheats when it comes to gravity (especially the mig 21!) so its not always advised.
by all means use yoyos to manage your position/energy though.
at 300 knots itl out turn pretty much any jet because it has ALOT of power and ALOT of lift, swing wing ftw