A. INTRODUCTION:
It seems simple enough: Turn until you are on your opponent's tail, then
blast away with guns until he goes down in flames. Yet when you lock horns
with a MiG or Sabre in MiG Alley, and you crank the difficulty level up
to ACE or HERO, dogfighting can become an exercise in frustration as your
opponent repeatedly eats your lunch. Certainly, the planes and their weapons
systems in the early 50s were pretty simple affairs. A low thrust jet
engine, swept wings and a pack of large caliber guns, supported by a simple
but adequate gunsight. But those same, simple components also made the
dogfighting a complex affair. It can take a long time to get on an opponent's
tail, and staying there long enough to put enough lead into him is a challenge.
Fly-by-wire and digital flight controls weren't even a dream in some engineer's
mind, so if you ham-fisted the controls, your jet would happily spin into
the dirt. You pull for all you're worth and point at the bandit, only
to watch him zoom to an altitude you can't reach, then swoop down on you
like a hawk on a field mouse. As violent as high-"g" dogfighting may be,
it is a patient man's game. If you want to become a successful dogfighter,
you have to learn that it's all about energy.
Although having the plane with the tightest turn is nice, the planes that
have been most successful in air combat are the ones that, while possessing
an qualifying level of maneuver ability, have the best energy addition
rates (note: this is one reason why bi-planes did not fare well against
monoplanes in WW II, and why the Me-262 was so feared in combat). With
a high-energy plane, you can quickly and easily add energy to your jet
(thrust), or convert it to Potential or Kinetic at the drop of a hat.
In a dogfight, the plane with the superior energy state defines the conduct
of the fight, and is usually occupies the offensive role. With a superior
energy state, the higher energy fighter can operate from an energy sanctuary
of either speed or altitude, and determine when combat takes place. This
fighter will usually be able to initiate gun attacks at his discretion
and use his energy sanctuary to deny his opponent the ability to do the
same. As the attack takes place, the lower energy fighter is forced to
bleed energy rapidly with defensive maneuvering, which further exacerbates
its energy deficit. So like I said, in guns-only dogfighting its all about
energy, and who's got the most at any given time. MiG Alley shows me that
today's weapons systems mask or alter the premises behind the "old-fashioned"
dogfighting arena. When I fly BFM in Falcon 4.0, I still worry about the
energy levels of myself and my opponent. But with today's all-aspect,
guided missiles, the goal mutates towards placing my opponent into a missile
envelope as quickly as possible. I may make a huge energy excursion to
do so, but I know that my missile will do most of the work as it carries
its warhead to the target. Meanwhile, the high thrust-to-weight ratio
of my digital-fuel-controlled, afterburning engine will allow me to quickly
gain back the energy I spent getting that shot off. As I tried my hand
at BFM in MiG Alley, I found that some of my reactions and habits from
modern day BFM had little value in the days of the Sabre and MiG-15 -
in fact, they sometimes caused me to lose badly.
B. DOGFIGHTING CONCEPTS:
Before we get into a discussion of dogfighting, we need to establish the
language of dogfighting. The following defines some of the concepts used
to discuss dogfight technique:
Plane-of-Motion: The plane in space made by your turning circle. In-Plane
maneuvering means that your plane-of-motion and the bandit's POM are the
same or nearly so. Out-of-Plane means that your POM is vastly different
than that of your opponent. The plane of maneuver can be vertical, horizontal,
or some oblique angle.
Phase: The type of maneuver you are scribing in the sky. When we talk
about being "in-phase" with a bandit, we mean that we are matching his
maneuvers; ie, he is in an climbing left turn and so are we. Out of phase
means that in the same situation we might be in a diving right turn. A
flat scissors is an example of out-of-phase maneuvering.
Turn RATE: The number of degrees that your nose moves per second during
a turn. In general, the faster you go, the better your turn rate. Turn
rate is generally proportional to G available
Turn RADIUS: The physical radius of your turn circle. In general, the
slower you are , the tighter your turn radius. Turn radius is generally
inversely proportional to G available.
One-Circle Fight: The turn circles of you and the bandit together form
a single circle in the sky. Usually this means that after a merge, you
turned right and the bandit turned left (fig). You are out of phase with
the bandit, and the advantaged fighter will be the one with the tighter
turn RADIUS.
Two-Circle Fight: The turn circles of you and the bandit together form
two connected circles in the sky. After the merge, you and the bandit
both turned across each other's tails (ie, both jets are in a right or
left turn). You are in-phase with the bandit, and the advantaged fighter
will be the one with a better turn RATE. (fig). An important note is that
if you are in a tracking gun solution on the MiG, you are also in 2-cirlce
with the MiG (both jets are turning right or left).
C. MIG ALLEY DOGFIGHT TECHNIQUES: With everyone speaking the same language
of dogfighting, lets discuss some of the basic dogfight techniques that
get put into use in MiG Alley:
LOSE SIGHT, LOSE THE FIGHT: Use the padlock function to maintain a tally
on your target. I have programmed into my HOTAS the PADLOCK (F1), PADLOCK
CLOSEST (CTRL F1), CYCLE NEXT PADLOCK (Shift F1) and PADLOCK ENEMY LEAD
(Alt F1), as well as the sticky keys for front view (Home) and rear view
(End). The sticky keys help me maintain my orientation of the jet and
let me "check six" every now and again.
LATERAL SEPARATION: In the dogfight arena, you are either offensive (in
a position to kill your opponent when he cannot do the same to you); defensive
(in a position to be killed without the ability to do the same to your
opponent); or neutral (neither/both in a position to kill). If you are
defensive or neutral, then your goal should be to make each merge (closest
point of approach) you have with a bandit as close as possible. In this
way you prevent the bandit from gaining angular advantage on you at the
pass. If you find yourself offensive on a bandit, try to preserve any
lateral separation between yourself and the bandit. This separation is
also called "turning room," and a hard pull, converting that distance
into angles, will allow you to convert more quickly to your opponent's
six o'clock. When neutral and approaching a merge where there is lateral
separation between you and the bandit, it becomes a jump-ball as to who
will take possession of that turning room. Usually the jet with the most
energy available at that moment will take the turning room and turn it
into angles against his opponent. (Hint: When there is turning room up
for grabs - take it.)
ENERGY MANAGEMENT: It's all about energy - without it, you cannot convert
on your opponent. With an energy level less than your opponent, you are
meat on the table. Energy comes in three forms: The engine (chemical),
altitude (potential) and airspeed (kinetic). The jet with the relative
energy advantage is the one driving the fight. Pulling too hard too soon
will bleed your energy and put you on the defensive pretty quickly.
"TIME-TO-KILL": The time it takes you to kill a bandit is critical to
survival, since maintaining offensive position makes you increasingly
predictable and vulnerable to the bandit's buddies. Since jets bleed energy
like stuck pigs in a dogfight (even today's jets), the fight by nature
trades altitude (potential energy) for airspeed (kinetic energy). When
you get slow and are behind a MiG, try digging inside his turn circle,
scooping down then pulling up and pointing your nose toward at a point
in space where the MiG WILL soon be at. Then just straight-line to him
(conserving energy until in gun range) until he flies in front of you.
LEAD TURN AT THE MERGE: Approaching a 1-circle merge with a MiG, or if
approaching a MiG in one of those slashing "scissors" type weaves that
I often find the MiG doing, climb to create some vertical turning room
at the next pass. As the pass occurs (MiG has a high line-of-sight rate
in the windscreen), roll down hard into the MiG with moderate aft stick,
lateral stick towards the bandit, and full rudder into the bandit. The
result will be a barrel roll that drops you off behind and below the MiG.
You should feel like you are going to ram him (don't worry, you won't
if you time it right). The result is a rolling turn that drops you off
right on his six and just below him (you just converted the altitude difference
into turning room). We call it a lead turn, sometimes a barrel-roll attack.
AVOIDING SPINS: If you are turning under heavy buffet and the jet starts
to "hint" that it wants to go in another direction, release back pressure
in the stick. As an old test pilot I know once said, "the jet goes where
it wants to. If you want it to turn left and it starts wanting to turn
right, you ain't gonna win the argument." As soon as you sense a departure,
shove the stick full forward, eliminate any lateral inputs and release
the rudder pedals. If you catch it quick, you won't spin and can resume
turning immediately.
GUNNERY: Such a simple aerial weapon can be so hard to use. But really
there are only three things to solve for in aerial gunnery: Lead, Range
and Plane-of-Motion.
1. LEAD: Getting the bullets out onto a fast-moving target at range. You
see, if you just put the bore-line of the gun barrels on a MiG at 1000ft
range and squeezed the trigger, you'd miss every time, because by the
time the bullets got there, the MiG would be long gone. If you ever tried
to squirt a running friend with a garden hose, you know how to lead a
target in aerial gunnery. The gunsight in MiG alley does a lot of this
lead computation for you. The radar-ranging gunsight detects a target
in front of your nose, and ranges it in. The simple computer predicts
the path of your bullets and shows you a pipper that indicates the position
of your bullets when at the detected target's range. So the pipper is
a "death dot," right? Well, no. The computer was slow to calculate, and
so any time you move or twitch your jet, the pipper will not be accurate.
Also, in many instances you must mentally insert even more lead than the
computer is depicting. My personal lead technique is to place the pipper
dot just in front of the nose of my target and let it slowly work back
onto the target's fuselage.
2. RANGE: A .50 cal bullet is really hauling the mail when it leaves the
barrel of your machine gun. It can be moving on the order of 2,000 ft/sec.
But as it moves through the air, it quickly decelerates. And when firing
at a target that is moving away from you at 700ft/sec, the bullet can
get so slow that by the time it reaches its target it does not possess
enough energy to damage the MiG. So once again energy is the key to success.
In MiG Alley, I like to snap a few bursts off when the MiG looks like
a stick figure in my windscreen, just to keep him turning hard and bleeding
energy. But the kill shot for me occurs when he transitions from a gray
MiG to a silver MiG with stars on his wings. Then the bullets have two
big factors in their favor: A lot of kinetic energy as described above,
and the energy of numbers - that is, a high density of bullets in the
same piece of sky. You see, as you shoot, the jet and even the individual
gun barrels shake. And the bullets are not all perfectly manufactured.
The result is what we call bullet dispersion - like the dispersion of
shotgun pellets on a target, the farther the target's range, the more
dispersed your bullet pattern will be. The MiG's size doesn't physically
change, so the farther your shot range the fewer bullets will actually
strike the target, and that means less total energy on target and so once
again, ENERGY IS EVERYTHING.
3. PLANE-OF-MOTION: It seems obvious, but the bullets only hit the target
when their path crosses the target's path. In order to have your bullet
stream stay on target, it must be moving in the same plane-of-motion as
the target. Then the two paths are almost overlapping and it becomes easier
to put a lot of bullets into the target in one burst. This is why when
its time to go for the kill, you need to transition to a two-circle, in-plane
fight with the MiG. To do that you need an energy advantage over the MiG
and again, ENERGY IS EVERYTHING.
AMMO CONSERVATION: You may have noticed that the .50 cal armament of the
Sabre is a little anemic in the kinetic energy department. Sometimes it
seems like you have to pitch a tent behind the MiG and spend a few days
hammering away to get him smoking. You can kill with the .50s, but you
need to get as many bullets on target as you can with each burst. Be disciplined
with your gunfire. Use short, controlled bursts until you are sure you
are "on" in regards to Lead, Range and Plane-of-Motion. Then go for a
longer burst to hammer the target. Use short, disciplined bursts to keep
the MiG intimidated and damaged. When at around 500' (just making out
stars) get the pipper smoothly on and HAMMER him with a steady, long burst.
SNAP-SHOT GUNNERY: While maneuvering out-of-plane in anticipation of that
2-circle transition for the perfect tracking gun shot from astern, look
for quick "snap shot" opportunities during hi-aspect merges with the bandit.
Watch the bandit, and try to project his flight path in your mind. Then
place your gun pipper in his line of flight and float towards that point.
As the MiG approaches your pipper, pull the trigger and hold it down until
he reaches it. Then let go of the trigger. You should get a few hits that
help to degrade his performance and make him easier to stalk for the kill.
D. GENERAL DOGFIGHTING TIPS: Here are some good do's and don'ts for dogfighting
in MiG Alley:
Don't work a sustained, in-plane, 2-circle fight against a neutral MiG.
On Ace and Hero he will out-rate and out energy you every time. Gradually
the MiG will work his way above and behind you and you will be extremely
defensive in a big hurry.
In the Sabre, work 1-circle, out-of-plane and use the vertical, keeping
the pressure on the MiG so he cannot use his superior energy addition
and turn rate. In the game I find that the most comparable turning performance
between the two jets is found in a one-circle fight, since the MiG and
Sabre have somewhat similar turn radii.
Gain as much altitude advantage as possible before committing on the MiG.
Lead turn with rudder at the merge - take the turning room.
When maneuvering to get on a MiG's tail, work "out-of-plane" or outside
the MiG's plane-of-motion (horizontal/vertical or vertical/horizontal).
Once generally behind him (about a 60deg cone off his tail), you start
to work in-plane with him. If he's looping, you are in the vertical; if
he's turning, you're in the horizontal. Remember that if you cannot close
the range to a turning MiG, do a low yo-yo: stick that nose down about
-30deg, then scoop around and point to the MiG's future position.
Keep sight, maintain SA on the other bandits with the padlock keys and
sticky keys.
Conserve your energy state until needed for a defensive reaction or to
make a kill shot. It's okay to make a big energy excursion to kill the
bandit, but remember how hard it will be to get that energy back if you
miss your shot. If taking the shot means doing something foolish is required
to get your energy back, think twice about your attack - it might be your
last. If you are closing rapidly on your target, try converting some kinetic
energy into potential energy - climb above to slow down, then ease the
pipper back on from above.
The roll rate advantage lies with the Sabre. If you are being fired upon,
roll 90deg and start another pull. As the MiG starts his roll to get back
in your plane-of-motion, roll the opposite way and pull again. It is possible
to hold off a Hero MiG indefinitely with this technique.
If you find yourself defensive with your opponent, remember that ENERGY
IS EVERYTHING. If you are defensive, you have probably let your energy
level drop below your opponent's. Do not give up. There are ways to tip
the energy scale back into your favor. Keep the turn on to force your
attacker to bleed more energy. Try to force him to overshoot your turning
circle. If he does, get slower and try to force a flat scissors, or take
your jet uphill and look for an out-of-plane 1-circle fight, vertical
turning room and a lead turn. If you must, a pull into the vertical all
the way down to 90 knots and a rudder turn at the top may flush your opponent
out in front of you. Remember I said energy advantage - its relative energy
that counts, not absolute energy level. Force your opponent to give up
his energy in an attempt to stay behind you.
If you are defensive, look for opportunities to squeak a little energy
back on the jet. If your opponent takes his nose off of you, stick your
nose down for some knots. Remember that once defensive in a Sabre vs a
MiG-15 on Hero, discretion may be the better part of valor and bugging
out may be your best option. If so, stay low and keep the jet moving slightly
to throw off the attacker's aim. If he gives up, pitch back into him with
a climbing turn.
The AI in MA tends to give up early in the steep climb. You can exploit
this by taking your jet to around 90 knots, then using full rudder to
get your nose back down.
E. HOW-TO ON DOGFIGHTING THE SABRE IN MIG ALLEY: Now that we have discussed
the basics of dogfighting in MiG Alley, let's put it all too the test
by refining our dogfight skills with these two "Quick Mission" scenarios:
SINGLE MISSION / One on One
F-86E (1) (10,000ft) Vs MiG-15 (1) (10,000FT) (ACE or HERO) At the start
of the dogfight, drop your wing tanks (Ctrl F), start your gun camera
(V), and padlock the bandit (F1) immediately. Your goal is to try to get
as much potential energy (height) built as your bandit will allow. That
height will depend on where he starts from and how many angles he has
on you. Since the MiG holds the advantage in turn rate, turn radius and
energy addition, just turning on a neutral MiG will probably not buy you
much in the long run. My personal gameplan in the One on One is to drive
an out-of-plane, 1-circle fight until I get enough turning room at a merge
to lead-turn the MiG and transition to an in-plane 2-circle fight, with
an energy advantage for the gun shot. Knowing that the MiG is actually
a superior BFM platform on paper, I concentrate on at least damaging the
MiG on the first shot opportunity so as to keep the fight in my favor
for the rest of the day.
While in my climb, I note the direction of turn for my MiG opponent, then
turn so as to induce one-circle flow with my Sabre stacked above the MiG's
turn circle. I keep the turn at just under buffet onset and look to have
a merge with as much altitude advantage as possible. If the MiG has been
turning hard into me to take out the angles, he won't have the energy
to snap up into me and therefore the turning room I built with my climb
belongs exclusively to me.
As the merge occurs, I stomp full bottom rudder and roll full stick into
the MiG. The result will be a buffeting, barrel-rolling pull towards the
MiG's extended six o'clock, dropping me off below and behind the MiG,
who is probably climbing by now. From back here, you are in-phase with
the MiG and need to go back to an energy conserving gameplan. Relax the
pull out of buffet and sloooowly pull up to place the pipper in front
of the MiG, then let him fly into your stream of bullets. The trick here
is to be smooth. The smoother you are, the more hits you can get per burst.
The MiG will usually react to the hits by tucking under and rolling into
a dive, trying to extend away for knots. That's good for you, since his
dive buys you free potential energy as he flushes out beneath you. Chase
the MiG downhill and you are in the only real "sweet spot" the Sabre possessed
against the MiG-15 - the dive. As the MiG bottoms out of his dive, let
him have it again. The MiG will zoom climb, usually getting rather slow
at the top. As he tops out, hammer him again, then pull off gently above
and behind him for another guns pass as he falls off.
If the MiG ever starts to get away from you, switch back to the out-of-plane,
1-circle gameplan. Tuck underneath the turn, scoop out the bottom and
zoom above the MiG as much as possible. It may be necessary to take the
climb all the way to 90 knots, then hold full rudder and push the jet's
nose back down to the MiG. Be patient, and keep working out-of-plane until
the MiG shows you some turning room for a transition to an same-plane-of-motion
fight as mentioned above.
Watch the attached Gun Camera Replays to see what I am talking about.
Using the padlock feature in Replay (Enter) will help keep the relative
positions in perspective.
SINGLE MISSION / DOGFIGHT 1: NO ADVANTAGE F-86E (4) (30,000ft) Vs MiG-15
(4) (30,000ft) (ACE)
As above, at the start of the dogfight, drop your wing tanks (Ctrl F),
start your gun camera (V). In a multi-plane fight, all things being equal
I choose the high MiGs first. I will eventually wind up low anyway and
climbing back into a high fight takes a long, long time. Remember that
once you pick out a target to attack, you are executing a 1 v 1 on that
MiG until you need to switch targets. The rules of 1 v 1 maneuvering still
apply. As you merge, padlock the bandit with the most lateral separation
to you as your initial target. As you merge with the MiGs, however, come
out of padlock and squirt some bullets at the MiG closest to you. Maybe
now your wingmen can kill him more easily.
As in the one-on-one fight, start your nose-hi, out-of-plane one circle
BFM gameplan on your selected target. Watch his flight path, and cycle
the padlock to see where his friends are. If you will go belly-up to another
MiG that is close to you, switch targets to this other MiG. Do not feel
that you must focus on the first MiG you padlock and disregard the other
MiGs. Doing that will get you killed very quickly by the MiG you don't
see or react to. I like to quickly cycle my padlock around when across
the circle from my target, to see where everyone else is in relation to
me. Getting shot in the belly a few times can make you paranoid like that.
When attacking, do not be reluctant to break off your attack on a MiG
if his buddy is approaching behind you. Switch targets before you are
totally defensive.
Conserve your ammo. Take short, disciplined shots that are in-range. When
your pipper is solidly on, hammer the MiG until he explodes. If your aim
starts to float, switch back to short, chopping bursts. The best I have
ever done on one ammo load is 3 MiGs and one damage. Once a kill is achieved,
unload the jet (reduce G to +0.5) and go full throttle in a straight line.
The goal is to get maximum kinetic energy on the jet before the next fight.
Cycle padlocks starting with "padlock closest enemy" to find your next
target. Engage.
Watch my gun camera replays to see these principles applied. (see link
below to download replays)
A WORD ABOUT THE MIG-15: The MiG-15 is actually a higher performance dogfighter
than the F-86. It was a harder aircraft to fly to its limits, but held
better performance numbers than the F-86. And it had better energy addition.
The poor gunsight and slow-firing cannons can be offset in the game with
disciplined fire and patient use of energy principles. The same techniques
apply as above, but remember that the MiG could not out-dive the Sabre.
Because of the better turn performance, acceleration and punch of the
MiG, you may find dogfighting an easier affair in the MiG than in the
Sabre. That should make you aware of just how impressive the performance
of our USAF Sabre pilots was, given that they typically fought out-numbered
against the MiG and at an altitude disadvantage. Think of just how much
worse things could have been had the MiG force enjoyed a pilot cadre with
higher average skill.
Note: Ian has put some replays together to help show his dogfighting
techniques. Download and unzip into your Mig Alley Video directory. Click
HERE to download them.
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