WWII - Air Combat Training.

[Black-Witch]

EDITED.

This coming Sunday we will commence "Dogfight Training".

A great starting point, for anyone who's going to attend, is the set of video's Duke posted in the # general topic in the 19 Squadron Discord.

In the short term we will focus on the "lead Turn" in a 1 on 1 "Duel" setup flying against our historical enemy the Bf109, once we can demonstrate that we will move onto 2 on 1 and 2 on 2 manoeuvres and tactics.

The reason to be able to perform the Lead turn is that will form the basis of the style of fighting the Spitfire should use against the Bf109, and Fw190, both offensively and defensively.

There are 2 styles of fighting, once aircraft are in visual range and down to guns only, "Energy" and "Angles". Also described as "Boom n Zoom" and "turn-fighting".

In WWI the majority of fights were proper "dogfights", fast turning fights often at very close range, this started to evolve once planes like the S.E.5A came along, they were faster, stable in a dive and able to zoom climb. This style was used again the Spanish Civil war by the Germans when they started using the Bf109, this was also the time the "Pair" and "Finger Four" were evolved, a practice still in use today.

Planes can have "tendency" to perform one style better than the other but this is not fixed and either method can be used depending on relative energy states and wether you are operating alone or, hopefully, as part of a pair.

In the "Energy" fight the pilot doesn't want to make any manoeuvres that drain energy too much, so never does horizontal turns, never turns hard "for the shot" and prefers to use the vertical. Ideally they begin fights with an altitude advantage. To get the kill is hard though as having a higher speed than your target means very short shooting opportunities and passing very close to your prey, patience can be a virtue, but don't take too long as another enemy may appear while you're busy.

The "Angles" fight is also an energy management fight but it requires avoiding those high speed passes, using the lead turn for example, so requires separation at each pass and using your better turn rate/radius to try and get into the rear quarter of your enemy so as to either get a snapshot and/or panic them into turning, once they begin turning your chances of the kill go up.

So, we will use the 109 as our enemy Sunday night to practice the lead turn, keeping separation at the pass also keeps you out of the way of his 30mm nose gun too!
The best lead turn in an "equal energy" state is to do a 0G nose low shallow dive, this does many things, it builds your speed up, it keeps the enemy in view, and it might make him loose sight of you and as said before, his gun isn't pointing at you.

Practice getting that lead turn done at the right time and you will appear on his 6 close enough to fire, and see how the fight develops. If you miss and he holds his nerve and just zooms away, don't chase him as you will run out of energy before him and be floundering about as he comes back down. Instead, manage your energy and prepare for his next pass and plan for another lead turn.

In testing today, and chatting with the ever knowledgeable Gizzy, it seems the new G modelling in game affects the Spitfire thus, you will get a "shuddering" when pulling G and getting close to a stall or accelerated stall, if this happens just ease off the stick until the juddering stops, it is more frequent when your speed gets down towards 180mph IAS.

Mastering both of these styles/skills is important though! especially once we train to work as a pair, the energy fight can be the preferred method, especially against a single enemy. We will cover different methods of working as a pair, Welded Wing, Double attack and Loose Deuce.

Ideally, have Tacview enabled to get the most out of the debriefing.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have

Tally Bally Ho!

[Duke]

Should be in but only have the Dora if switching to enemy for some of it

[Black-Witch]

Hi Duke,

We will prolly stick with Spitfire and AI enemy 109's.

Unless you want to show your Dora skills

[John Schmid]

Count me in.
Salute Moose

[Chris]

Great training pre-amble Lee, Thanks mate....


Welcome to the 19th Moose,

[John Schmid]

Hi Chris
Thank you for letting me join. I look forward to meeting everyone and making cannon fodder of some 109's.
Salute Moose