Air Combat Maneuvering
Flight Procedures
If the bandit times his pull to lead well, or never initiates a position of deep lag, continue your pull, but
come out of heavy buffet. Manage your knots wisely, varying the pull as necessary to hold the nose off.
Expect him to initiate a low yo-yo if he’s unable to outrate you in-plane. Don’t allow him to use out-of-
plane nose low without a counter. This will mean an equal amount of nose-low pull from you and
perhaps a maximum instantaneous turn to generate angles. If the bandit presses the attack (and you
live through it), you might have a reversal option.
If the bandit goes immediately to pure or lead pursuit following the “fight’s on,” trade your energy for
angles to maximize the potential overshoot. If he solves for a valid gunshot, you must react! Perform a
guns defense to break the plane of motion but get right back to lift vector on if he discontinues the
attack. There may well be a reversible overshoot here, possibly one with a vertical component. Revers-
ing would launch you into either a climbing one-circle fight or a roller, either of which is much preferable
to your current predicament.
BREAK TURN EXERCISE DEFENSE
The purpose of the defensive break turn exercise is to practice defensive maneuvering against a long-
range missile shot and a guns firing solution. There is no difference between this and the exercise you
read about in the offensive section except that you are the defensive aircraft. As shown in Figure 25,
the section is in combat spread with the simulated bandit attacking from your 6 between the section, and
spotted by the lead (instructor).
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
DASHED LI NES REPRESENT SI MULATED BANDI T
Figure 25: BREAK TURN EXERCISE DEFENSIVE
When directed to “break right/left,” maximally perform your aircraft. Your lead will direct you to ease the
pull, simulating the missile’s defeat. Your first priority now is to put the lead at your aft visibility limit to
maximize the extension without losing sight! As soon as you have the lead at 5:30 or 6:30, aggressively
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