Air Combat Maneuvering
Flight Procedures
DEFENSIVE COUNTERS TO HIGH/LOW YO-YO’S
To counter high and low yo-yo’s from an attacking bandit, maintain an out-of-phase state with the
bandit’s maneuvers to deny the bandit a firing solution. Remember, that both high and low yo-yo
maneuvers present the attacker with many opportunities to make mistakes. Recognize—or better yet
anticipate—these mistakes and exploit the negative aspects of each maneuver, turning them to your
advantage.
On your defensive flights, you set up as the defensive aircraft either with the bandit on a low angle-off
perch or following the break turn exercise. At the bandit’s low reversal or the Fox-2 call in the break
turn exercise, execute a hard or break turn by placing your lift vector on (or slightly below) the bandit
(Figure 21), increasing AOT and closure rate. Deciding whether to execute a hard or a break turn
depends on how close the bandit is to a firing solution. Save the break turn for when he is about to
bring his nose to bear. To get your lift vector on or slightly below the bandit with an initial nose-low
move, overbank slightly while maintaining g to redirect the lift vector down. Maintain the nose-low
hard turn until the bandit’s nose is committed into the vertical. Once the bandit’s nose is committed
up, unload the aircraft to 5-10 units AOA to optimize acceleration and separation. Continue unloading
until the bandit commits nose-low, but prior to his nose becoming a threat. Any increased separation
allows you more room for turning, creating additional angles to force an overshoot. If you execute a
break turn and if you have any hope of regaining energy, you will have to lower your nose significantly
and lose a significant amount of altitude.
2
2
1
3
3
2
1
1
Attacker
1
3
Defender
3
2
Figure 21: DEFENSIVE COUNTER TO THE LOW YO-YO
Page 35
(10-98) Original
Previous Page
