How To Live & Die in the Virtual Sky Review - By Ken "KC23" Cook
"How to Live and Die in the Virtual Sky" is a book created to teach the fundamentals
of basic fighter maneuvers (BFM). It is a beautifully illustrated,
192-page spiral bound book that covers much more than just the
basics. How does it stack up against other books on the subject?
Read on.
It is impossible to do a BFM book review without comparing it
to what has long since been regarded as the Bible of air combat,
Robert Shaw's "Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering". If
you took a poll of 100 hardcore virtual combat pilots and asked
them what book is the best book to learn basic fighter maneuvers
just about a 100% would tell you Shaw's book. If you asked that
same group of a 100 hardcore pilots when is a good time to use
the "Inside Out" maneuver and what disadvantages might you face
as a result, you would probably see 33% suddenly excuse themselves
to go defrag their hard disk, 32% would remember that their
DX drivers needed updating and still 32% more would feel the
need to quickly go and do a fresh install of Falcon 4 for that
LAN meet they might be going to. The only ones brave enough
left to answer the question correctly would probably be Dan
Crenshaw, Robert Shaw and Pete Bonanni. Point being, that reading
Shaw's book is a lot like the little boy who asked his dad how
to throw a curve ball and got a three hour physics lesson. Why
oh why hasn't somebody written an easy to understand book about
BFM?
Dan "Crash" Crenshaw has finally written that book. "How to Live and Die
in the Virtual Sky" fills that very wide chasm between Shaw's book and
the typical few pages of each flight sim manual dedicated to the subject
of BFM.
Dan seems to grasp just when to go into a deep, full explanation of things
and when to be brief. A perfect example of this is his very first chapter
on the "Basics of Flight Dynamics". By far the most boring aspect of learning
the basics and he mercifully devotes only a little over 5 short pages
on the subject. On the other hand he writes an entire 17-page chapter
just on Head on BFM alone. This chapter, by its self is worth the price
of admission and the manual being spiral bound makes it easy to keep open
for quick reference right before you head off into that leader board competition
you've been so nervous about.
There are so many highlights it is hard to pick out just a few. Lead turn,
corner velocity, reversals and how to take advantage of "Radial "G's are
outstanding and easy to understand. So is the description of a one circle
Vs two circle dogfight.
Included is a very complete chapter on wingman tactics. Bracket, Single
Side Offset, Inside Out and Drag maneuvers are outlined along with their
advantages, disadvantages and counter moves. Each of these subjects are
nicely illustrated with easy to understand explanations.
My only complaint is the lack of an index and a bit of a jet sim bias,
but once you've read the book it isn't too hard to find what you are looking
for.
The subjects of each chapter are as follows:
Basics of Flight Dynamics
Fundamentals of BFM
Offensive BFM
Defensive BFM
Head On BFM
BVR BFM
Wingman Tactics
ACM
Appendices
A: NATO Phonetic Alphabet
B: Dictionary
C: Air to Air Weapons Specifications
D: Bibliography
Dan has published this book himself to keep the price down. So for less
than the price of the average hint book, you can have a complete spiral
bound BFM reference manual at your fingertips that is chalked full of
priceless information that will never become outdated.
