 |
Bob 'Mongo' McCurty
|
|
As usual when I describe a new form of FRP, I'm going to have to be
creative in describing the experience. A play script seems necessary
this time around. The cast of characters are...
Bob "Mongo" McCurty. Safety pilot of the lead plane. He's a
former Marine attack plane pilot, who flew A4s and A7s among other
aircraft before joining Sky Warriors. According to Grumpy, he is a
"typical dumb Marine."
Bob "Dead Meat" Fink. A typical NPC strawman. His function is
to get shot down by the player character hero, yours truly. Alas, he
had delusions of grandeur, based purely on having paid as much money
as I for taking part in this adventure. He actually though he was the
hero, and tried to attack me!
Jeff "Grumpy" Kanarich. One of Disney's Seven Dwarves. Flew an
A10 for the Air Force during Desert Storm, and various other
unimportant aircraft. (According to Mongo, any plane flown by the Air
Force but not the Marines is an unimportant aircraft.) Sky Warriors
employee and safety pilot for the Hero of the day...
Voice Bob "Dead Eye" Butler. Unfortunately, Dead Eye came
under a bad case of split personality on this trip. I had the severe
misfortune of having studied air to air combat, but had never flown
an aircraft before. Also, I hadn't checked my mailbox the day before
the flight, and thus did not read Sky Warrior's pamphlet on how to
shoot down other T34s. As a result, I went in trying to combine
assorted conflicting bits of advice from several different sources.
Thus, the Bob Butler Flight by Committee Committee was formed...
Hellcats. This is a nice flight simulator for WW II Pacific
Front air combat, written by Graphic Simulations. The Hellcats aspect
of my persona is an excellent stick and rudder man, assuming gravity
doesn't do anything strange, and the control stick doesn't fight
back. The Hellcat persona's tactics are also flawed by the fact that
the Hellcat can out turn all simulated opponents. All one has to do
to win in Hellcats is turn real hard inside any bandits. Alas, the
two T34s flown by Sky Warriors are identical...
Sky Warriors. Before we took off, we were briefed in one
defensive maneuver, the hard turn, and one offensive maneuver, the
High Yo Yo. Before the free form dogfight we practiced said
maneuvers, and took some target practice at each other. Interestingly
enough, the High Yo Yo is the proper offensive counter to the hard
turn, which is the most basic defensive maneuver. The result is
"Fixed Script Gaming," as the offensive and defensive aircraft take
turns executing the only moves they know.
(As regular readers of the The Wild Hunt well know, I hate Fixed
Scripts. The objective of any creative gamer is to break the Fixed
Script. The real solution to the Fixed Script problem in dogfighting
is to return to Sky Warriors for their second, third, and fourth
lectures on shooting down other T34s. At each lecture they teach a
few more maneuvers, and drill them before each set of fights. By the
fourth trip, there ought to be no Fixed Script problem at all. Alas,
this review was written before checking my mailbox, and reviewing the
outlines for lessons two, three and four. It thus records my Hellcat
persona's desire to break script.)
The Art of the Kill. This is a book and video
combination published by Spectrum Holobyte as a companion to their
F-16 Falcon flight simulator. It teaches the basics of one on one
fighter combat using a limited number of principles. The most
important ones follow. Figure out where the bad guy is going to be.
Roll your aircraft until your lift vector points towards where the
bandit will be. (The lift vector is an imaginary line that points
straight up relative to the aircraft. It is the direction the nose of
the plane will move when you pull back on the stick, which is the
only direction the nose can be turned in any hurry.) After pointing
the lift vector towards the bandit's future, pull back on the stick
to move the nose towards the bad guy. While turning, preserve your
speed. Turning bleeds off speed. The ideal turning speed of an F-16
is 450 knots, which is roughly twice the red line do not exceed speed
of Sky Warrior's T-34s. To be able to turn into your opponent
effectively in an F16, one has to dive or use afterburner to get as
close as possible to 450 knots, or at least closer to 450 than one's
opponent.
Interestingly, the Art of the Kill directly contradicts the Sky
Warriors approach in a couple of areas. The Sky Warriors teach move
and counter move. See a hard turn? Do a High Yo Yo. Art Kill says
this approach is dated and obsolete. One must know the principles and
be fluid, as in combat one does not execute precise maneuvers or
scripted counters. On the other hand, Art Kill assumes the student
has infinite flight simulator time available, while the Sky Warriors
have two hours to brief pilots with zero flight time for real planes.
This time limit does effect teaching styles.
The Art of the Kill also suggests avoiding High Yo Yos, the first
offensive maneuver taught by Sky Warriors. F4 Phantoms used to do
High Yo Yos. F16s are "more maneuverable" and can get on the tail of
an enemy who tries a High Yo Yo. I had two great questions resulting
from combining Art Kill and Sky Warriors. Why do F4s and T34s do Yo
Yos, while F16s do not? Also, what is the best turning speed of the
T34?
 |
Haze Grey and Sky Blue... A T34 Mentor with the Air Force / Sky
Warriors paint scheme.
Sky Warriors uses a "SW" tail letter flash, rather than "HM".
Photo from Paul Nann's
Military
Aviation Photo Gallery
Meanwhile, both Art Kill and Sky Warriors ignored the major lesson
of Hellcats. As Pappy Boyington puts it, never fight fair. Always
cheat. Know a maneuver that your plane can do, that the other plane
can't. When in trouble, execute that maneuver and the bad guy is off
your tail. For a Hellcat evading a Zero in my simulator, that
maneuver is a continuous turn. For a Hellcat avoiding a Frank, you
must climb while making the continuous turn. For a Zero avoiding a
Hellcat, the maneuver is a tight loop. For a Frank evading a Hellcat,
fly straight and level. The Frank is a faster plane. For a T34
evading a T34, the important breakout maneuver is determined
by...
Stomach. This is the most important organ in the human body
when a novice attempts dogfighting. It's function is to decide
whether breakfast should remain inside the pilot, or whether it
should be distributed through out the T34's cockpit. (Well, other
pilots have fewer troubles with their stomach, and might instead have
grey out problems as their blood is pulled from their brains by G
force. Other pilots are just too timid on their first flight to bank
the plane 80 degrees and go for three or four G turns. Some have none
of these problems, so the aircraft is the performance limit. My
limit, however, was the gut.) Stomach is thus the arch rival of
Hellcats. If Dead Eye's stomach is stronger than Dead Meat's stomach,
the Hellcat persona's tight turn tactics work perfectly. If on the
other hand Dead Eye's stomach allows Dead Meat's plane to turn
tighter, sing doom and play taps.
While Stomach is the major player among the Dead Eye Committee's
organs, minor bit parts are played by Hands, Feet, Eyes, Voice, and
Brains. In the following dialogue, only Mongo, Grumpy and Voice are
speaking aloud. The other members of the Flight Committee are holding
an intense but silent inner debate. We pick up the action about a
minute into the first dogfight. Dead Meat is (alas) on Dead Eye's
tail...
|
|
