L-39 BFM, One circle

Watched it on the laptop......much better.

Agreed with Hacker on the 2 circle assumption. It can always go either way from a neutral merge. There are times when it is advantageous to do one flow over another, but you can't control what the other guy does post merge. I had an interesting set with an Eagle where I came into the merge supersonic, saw him try to set 2 circle, reversed, and pulled right to the limiter to go 1 circle. By all means, that merge "felt" like it would go 2 circle given both of our energy states, but I wanted to see what he would do. We ended up in a very fast (relatively speaking) 1 circle flow, and much to my surprise, instead of exploiting his T/W advantage and going vertical, he sold it all a merge or two later and committed to a (by then) slow 1 circle radius fight on the deck. I think the lesson is that being reactive in a fight is often detrimental to success. Rather than aggressively countering my gameplan, he simply reacted and allowed me to pigeonhole him into a corner that he didn't want to be in........slow high AoA radius fight on the deck with a Hornet is no place for an Eagle driver to live. That was a really cool set, not really because I got lucky and became offensive, but because it was one of my first experiences fighting a dissimilar aircraft and it taught me a lot about the big picture of high aspect BFM......much more so than just fighting another Hornet.
 
Hacker15e said:
What a dummy. Never, never, never, NEVER, never, NEVER get into a slow fight with a Hornet!!
Click to expand...

From the debrief, it sounded like he had never fought a Hornet before. He was a patch wearer and must have presumably heard the above advice before, but I think he just got greedy, or got scared when he saw my nose moving. For ryan's edumacation, should he fly AF fighters one day soonish, the Hornet's nose authority is pretty unreal, especially at low speed. If you go into the fight knowing only one thing, it should be that you never get into the flats with a Hornet. You might survive a roller, provided your opponent is not being really aggressive with his nose, but in that case you need to re-define VERY quickly before you are on the deck, out of airspeed, and out of options. I can literally fly around at 48 kts indicated all day long if you let me bleed you down that much. Biggest take-away is that you need to know what kind of fight you can win, what kind of fight puts your opponent at a disadvantage, and then every counter you make should work towards that goal.
 
MikeD said:
Id love to try a slow fight with a Hornet in my former mount......would be interesting.
Click to expand...

That might just be the one counter-point to my statements above.....at least if you are referring to the Hog. I think a guns only fight with an A-10 would be pretty entertaining. I'll say one thing though, I would not be getting slow, and I would not be doing anything in the same plane as you :)
 
///AMG said:
That might just be the one counter-point to my statements above.....at least if you are referring to the Hog. I think a guns only fight with an A-10 would be pretty entertaining. I'll say one thing though, I would not be getting slow, and I would not be doing anything in the same plane as you :)
Click to expand...

Gun fight only, both planes clean.

Would be very interesting......
 
Speaking of which, there is actually a certain brand of dry erase pen that is to be used for said whiteboard brief/debrief. I can't remember if it was the same in the VT's, but everyone has the same pens here. NSAWC has thought of it all.....
 
///AMG said:
Speaking of which, there is actually a certain brand of dry erase pen that is to be used for said whiteboard brief/debrief. I can't remember if it was the same in the VT's, but everyone has the same pens here. NSAWC has thought of it all.....
Click to expand...

Expo originals, square tipped. No mini Expos, no Expo 2s with bullet tip.
 
Speaking of this, I met "Snort" this afternoon after work. Seemed like a real nice guy, came over and chatted with us after he saw us peering around one of the MIG-17's. Really cool to see the inside of the -17. Very nice fleet of jets they had. More impressive was his description of Draken. That is going to be incredible if it pans out.
 
///AMG said:
Speaking of this, I met "Snort" this afternoon after work. Seemed like a real nice guy, came over and chatted with us after he saw us peering around one of the MIG-17's. Really cool to see the inside of the -17. Very nice fleet of jets they had. More impressive was his description of Draken. That is going to be incredible if it pans out.
Click to expand...

Checked out a Drakken at Chino, Ca. Interesting looking bird.
 
Very cool looking, though I was speaking of the company in this case. I think they are just getting started, but they have 8 A-4K's (former NZ), 3 A-4L's, 5 L-39's, 9 MB-339's, and (wait for it).....28 MIG-21BIS. According to him, they will be full up at the merge as well.
 
///AMG said:
Very cool looking, though I was speaking of the company in this case. I think they are just getting started, but they have 8 A-4K's (former NZ), 3 A-4L's, 5 L-39's, 9 MB-339's, and (wait for it).....28 MIG-21BIS. According to him, they will be full up at the merge as well.
Click to expand...

Was trying to get out there, but couldn't swing it with the AF. Great group of guys to fly with though. Did Snort ever tell you how he became "Snort"? If you haven't, you'll have to hear it from him over some beers.
 
No, in fact I probably would have never known who he was, had someone else not introduced him. Like a real aviator, he was too busy chatting about flying and answering our questions about flying the MIG. He just said, "hi, I'm Dale Snodgrass".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top