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In Pursuit: A Pilot's Guide to Online Air Combat
'In Pursuit' is a thorough anthology of all facets of the life of a fighter pilot. 'In Pursuit' covers, in detail, all of the positives and negatives, the things to do and the things not to do in order to become a 'Top Gun' as a fighter pilot.
- GenresMilitary Fiction
Paperback
First published October 2, 2006
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May 25, 2017
"Loaded like a freight train, flying like an aeroplane" -Guns N' Roses
"Into the distance a ribbon of black" -Pink Floyd
"Spread your love and fly" -Sugar Ray
"I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings, coming down is the hardest thing" -Tom Petty
"In a sky full of people, only some want to fly is that not crazy?" -Seal
"To me, there's nothin' freer than a bird, you know, just flyin'." -Ronnie Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd
"I'm looking for a new meditation. Still lookin' for a new way to fly" -Scott Weiland
"Take these broken wings, and learn to fly again, learn to love so free" -Mr. Mister
"I can fly higher than an eagle" -Bette Midler
"Make my way back home when I learn to fly" -Foo Fighters
"Jump into cockpit and start up the engines" -Iron Maiden
"Big ol' jet airliner, don't carry me too far away" -Steve Miller
"The drone of flying engines, is a song so wild and blue" -Joni Mitchell
"Music is my aeroplane" -Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Highway to the danger zone" -Kenny Loggins
"Starships are meant to fly" -Nikki Manaj
Flight...... ... .. .
Even prehistoric man was able to imitate the behavior of the birds he saw by spreading his arms in mimic flight, yet would still be chained to the ground with no means to defy gravity for thousands of years. And in our time today, many of us still take the ability to fly for granted, yet never learn how, much less even try on a computer game, should the need ever arise to take control of an aircraft in an emergency. http://gizmodo.com/watch-this-absurd-...
Remember, the head tilts back, the eyes look up. The head tilts forward, the eyes look...down. More on that later.
My copy was chock full of typos, but the info was solid gold. This book helped me understand the concept of energy fighting, breaking down the fundamentals of how a wing is flown, and the limitations of weight, engine power, aerodynamics, and of course, gravity. Energy fighting is basically the skill of trading potential energy for kinetic energy and vice versa. Like sand, you turn the hourglass over depending on what you need, altitude, or speed, and keep not a friendlies' wing joints in your gun sights. The last thing you want to do...in the middle of combat...is run out of both potential energy and kinetic energy and become a "sitting duck." So trade that kinetic energy back into potential energy by pulling out of the dive and back up into sufficient altitude, lest the enemy catch your wing joints in his gun sights in an easy "turkey shoot."
I'll be honest it's been awhile since I've read it, but I wanted to offer a tip that I remember not being covered in the book. I found flying backwards (as suggested) to be quite difficult, and I'll have to give it another go, but for me, what really opened the gates of heaven to simulated flying was when I started experimenting with flying straight up into the sky (a la Doug Masters, Iron Eagle "You gonna be a Pilot or an astronaut?" -Chappie Sinclair). Unless the engine of your prop plane is insanely powerful, more powerful than the force of gravity in the thinning air of the stratosphere, at some point, your "crate" is going to stall out after climbing vertically for too long. Thankfully, a computer simulator allows for death defying experimentation like flying straight against the force of gravity, and even respawns should the maneuver lead to a simulated death due to an unrecoverable stall. Even without the use of flaps, or ailerons, or rudder, or engine boost, at some point, if you do this enough times (point your nose up, 180 degrees perpendicular to the ground) and try to fight gravity, you will develop a sense of your planes energy fighting capabilities, and its limitations: combat performance.
It might not happen the very first time, and it might also take 100+ more tries, or even 101+ more tries, but once you internalize the feeling in your body (in your guts really, this is sometimes called "body knowledge" because it takes muscle memory to develop) and it becomes an instinct, again, perhaps more in your body than your mind, you are now ready to take energy fighting to its full potential. The irony here is that you might be sitting in a chair, yet still be able to internalize the information in your body as "feel" and sitting there in your chair, you might feel like your are screaming straight down vertical into the earth, only to pull up at the last minute, trading all of your altitude (or potential energy) into kinetic energy, and speeding away into safety.
The other idea is to do just the opposite, as in, point your nose 180 degrees straight down towards the ground and practice recovering level flight before its too late (thank god for simulators), and of course, any combinations of angles in between. Get that "feel" inside your gut, of your aircraft zooming beyond its normal top speed, and the sluggish response of the ailerons that resist your touch against the rush of the wind, before its too late.
When I took my first flight lesson in a Cessna single engine propellor plane, I was amazed at how light the aircraft was. My flight instructor physically jockeyed the plane with his bare hands from the blocks. Okay, yeah I was a little disappointed that the chairs in the cockpit were not quite so plush, but at least my seat wasn't as hard as a stone. Pilot and copilots share a very cozy space inside that Spartan cockpit. Since we were taking off later in the day, with the sun sliding down the sky, the temperatures between the air and the ground were starting to contrast to greater degree creating gusts of wind that would blow our little plane almost sideways when taking off. I was astounded at the sound of the engine, which might very well have been robbed from a lawn mower, pulling the plane along and eventually to greater heights.
Very quickly, the trees surrounding the perimeter of the airfield, once towering, fell away to what looked like they belonged to a model train set after takeoff. From my reading, and mayhaps more importantly from my gut instinct, I knew my plane would not be able to climb up to the same altitude as my girlfriend's plane-whose plane had taxied ahead of us in the que-anytime soon. Why? Because her flight instructor got the jump on us with a slightly steeper angle immediately after takeoff. Just a few degrees steeper after takeoff translated to a much higher altitude than we had achieved in the same timespan.
With the aircraft so light, and the engine sounding barely adequate, you are not going to be able to fight gravity and climb at such a steep angle. Period. Needless to say, I did not chance the possibility of stalling out by pulling back on the yoke and trying to climb 1000 feet in the span of less than 30 seconds. I think we climbed to about 2,500 feet over the course of 10-15 minutes. From there we performed chandelles and lazy 8's before my instructor gave me a *Wink!* and proceeded to...shut...the...engine......offff.................We floated...there...for a few seconds...............before the stall buzzer started to sound: stall! Stall!! STALL!!!!
I willed myself to relax as our inertia slowed to nearly a dead stop like a roller coaster at the apex of a 1,500 foot stomach clenching drop it was just about to perform. I focused on my breathing and let my flight instructor do some of his "pilot shit" by RESTARTING THE ENGINE! and proceeding to trade altitude, for speed. It was an exhilarating experience anyone would benefit to have: the ultimate roller coaster.
But tell me who would not want to learn how to fly? Especially as a perk when they play computer games, and without worry about having to "Step on the ball!"
To get more technicalized...If you are playing FPS games anyways, why not learn how to fly at the same time for free? The answer is simple: Inverted Y-Axis, yet the majority of titles do not default the controls to "Inverted Y-Axis." This means that when you pull back the mouse (and notice that the motion of the mouse actually goes towards your body, not "down" and not "up" when you push it away to move the cursor up on the screen) the cursor moves down. When you want the cursor to move up on the screen, you are pushing the mouse away from your body, not necessarily "up" and contrary to how the yoke works.
This is how the yoke works: it emulates the motion of your own cabeza, boyon! The head moves back, the eyes look up. The head moves forward, the eyes look down (convenient when pulling high G's in a dogfight). With "Inverted Y-Axis" your mouse now acts as the yoke and mimics your body: push the mouse forward and the plane dives down. Pull the mouse back and the plane will start to lift, and climb upwards to greater heights.
But many FPS games do NOT default the Y-Axis to inverted controls, and this is such an easy fix, yet by now the vast majority of gamers are hooked on what they have been raised on: non-inverted y-axis.
To take Mr. Kylander's radical tip of practicing flying whilst looking backwards one step further I offer you this: worry not about your limitation with one or the other. Instead practice flying with both inverted y-axis and non-inverted y-axis controls and master both as needed.
And finally practice flying against gravity, with different planes to develop your "feel" and instinct of the planes capabilities. This was how I developed my "feel" of how all of the different planes handle with their different respective characteristics. Some are light as a feather, allowing for agile maneuvers within a limited altitude (fighters due to their smaller, lighter engines with less horse power, The Japanese Zero is a classic example due to its extreme light weight), while others fly like a box of doorknobs (heavy bombers), and are simply unable to fly straight up 180 degrees perpendicularly against the ground at all. A few are able still to fly against gravity longer than one would expect with their powerful twin turbo prop engines (attack aircraft) at the cost of sluggish maneuverability and larger turning radius. The point is, with so many different variables, every plane handles differently but there is always one thing in common, the force of gravity, and the pilot's need to go to the bathroom.
And finally here is a scale I offer to you in the aim of helping you (and me when I reread this review now and then) develop greater sensitivity to the major components of flying: Engine Thrust vs. Wing Lift. Repeat: develop greater sensitivity.
*And if you think something is out of place, please feel free to correct me.
I get "shot down" hopefully I'll learn.
Highest Thrust/Least Wing Lift:
Rocket/Space shuttle (100% thrust, 0% wing lift)
Fighter Jet
Heavy Bomber or Fighter Jet? Which would have a greater chance of gliding?
Commercial Airliner
Turbo Prop Plane
Cessna
Hang Glider/Kite
Highest Lift/Least Thrust
So notice how the rocket might not have any wings, and uses only pure thrust to counteract the force of gravity. Fighter Jets may as well have the same thrust potential as a rocket, but due to their role in intercepting other aircraft (and weapons payload), still have need for wings for their agility. Heavy bombers may have wings with larger surface area, but may or may not be able to generate more or less lift per square feet of wing than their fighter jet counter parts. The larger wingspan may or may not exist, not to necessarily generate more lift, but instead, to be able to carry more engines necessary to generate the thrust needed to carry their enormous weight. The thrust generated by the extra engines allows for less reliance on the lift of the wing when carrying literally tons of ordinance, never mind the weight of the entire plane (and the extra engines).
At the other end of the scale you have propellor planes, whose engines may yet still be powerful, but generate less thrust than that of a jet engine and require more lift from a wing with greater surface area to assist the aircraft in stable flight. And finally hang gliders who's lift is generated purely from the surface area of the wing (and makes me wonder if those little pocket sized handheld personal fans might actually be able to affect the in-flight performance characteristics: see Ace Ventura Pet Detective, near the ending Ace uses the fan to propel him on the rubber raft).
On a personal level, I was once humbled by a fellow elementary student who beat me in a contest of whose paper airplane could fly the farthest, because hey, I thought I was the best. As someone who considered themselves an expert from all that time spent in elementary after school programs with other children playing all kinds of games and folding countless paper airplanes, I thought for sure my design would be unbeatable. After all, it was a design passed down to me by an older student and one time...to detour off onto a tangent...One time on the blacktop in the after school day program most of the children were playing dodgeball and I had joined them, but none would throw a ball to me. So I complained to Mrs. C that none of the other kids were sharing. Mrs. C came over and raised a big fuss and before you know it, all of the kids on the other team were throwing all the balls to me, but this was not what I wanted either. I felt embarrassed by the over attention that was fabricated by fear of repercussions, and guilty that no one else on my team were getting any of the kickballs so I bailed. Splitski. Abandoned not the ship, but the game of dodgeball of whose balance I had crushed and sought refuge somewhere else.
This was in Kindergarten, 28 years ago, so I'm having difficulty remembering if it was the same day, but I remember being on my own on the grass with a game of dodgeball ongoing on the black top nearby. I cast my paper airplane with the classic fold-back, pocket belly, blunt nose design, and I swear it must have been some kind of divine intervention for my paper airplane caught a wind current and just...hovered...floating...it just hovered there in mid air long enough to dazzle me (and you!), long enough for me to break away from my fascination, and call the attention of the other children. Some kind of miracle, or just a lucky breeze? Well it was the same design that I would use in the contest.
So back to the story, a few years later, I figured the contest of whose paper airplane could fly the farthest was in the bag. But in this case, it was pure force, if not by a Jedi knight, nor pilot, that won the contest rather than slick design. The "price was right" for this winner, a talented baseball player who once crushed a baseball out of the park during practice with his weight still only on his back foot (had he brought his full Jedi force to bear by shifting his weight when he swung...well...he hit plenty of home runs enough as it was) who had folded a dart design and used sheer muscle to propel his paper airplane across the lobby...and out the door. More power to him, no pun intended.
In fact, now that I recall, one time during practice, I was messing around with a new "submarine throw" I had heard about where your throwing hand comes not over the top and down, but to the side and under to propel the ball forward. Well, wouldn't you know it, right when I start boasting about how this new throw may be more accurate my throw goes awry and hits one of the coaches (his stepdad? or caretaker?) right in the calf muscle! Ouch! I mean, a direct hit in the meat of the muscle, I remember because he started swearing in pain and hopping up and down and when he turns to look to see who threw it-looks right at me-but then B says that he was the one who did it and took one for the team. he he I hope he's not stuck in life, still bagging groceries, unless of course thats what he wants to do which is okay...someone rope him into video games...but I digress.
It may have been "rather elementary" but these perspectives of gravity, and force versus lift, shed light for me on the potential for one to glide and perform a makeshift landing, god forbid, should any or all of the engines fail. Why not try to understand how an aircraft is able to perform with different throttle settings, including 0 throttle? In the aforementioned contest, the pointed dart design may have achieved greater distance (maximum "throttle"), but was it actually generating any lift? Case in point: would it be able to fly if thrown at a slower velocity (less "throttle")? In contrast, some designs may not travel very fast or very far, but may have greater hang time due to the fact that they can generate more lift. Unless I am mistaken I would not expect anything heavier than a turbo prop plane to be able to glide in for a nice smooth makeshift landing due to plane's reliance on its engines for thrust more than its wings for lift, unless the pilot was able to yank back on the yoke and jam all available flaps, maybe hard kick the tail rudder but without rolling over to grab as much wind and air time by flaring the aircraft before impact. Helicopter pilots are supposedly trained in autorotation techniques by immediately lowering the collective. In the same manner, if you pull back on the yoke at too high of an altitude, you are going to stall out, and one thing I've learned from simulators is that stall means loss of control of the aircraft. So go ahead and lower the yoke, initially trading altitude for speed, but more importantly maintaining control of the aircraft. It's too bad you can't land in World of Warplanes because it seems like so much fun. Again, I'm not an expert but it seems to me you want to glide in and stall out at the last possible second before flopping down onto solid ground.
^ This may be the reason why a Cessna propellor plane does not need anything stronger than "a lawn mower" engine, because just like a hang glider, it is light enough that it can generate enough lift to be able to glide, glide, sail, glide, and finally touchdown on tires, to land safely...once again.
"Mamma I'm bent to flyyyyyyyy" -Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, Todd & Brent
^ If that lyric references paper airplanes, then, Well Done, sir!
"You don't need a ticket to fly with me, I'm free" -Ozzy Osbourne
"Fly on, little wing" -Jimi Hendrix
"Into the distance a ribbon of black" -Pink Floyd
"Spread your love and fly" -Sugar Ray
"I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings, coming down is the hardest thing" -Tom Petty
"In a sky full of people, only some want to fly is that not crazy?" -Seal
"To me, there's nothin' freer than a bird, you know, just flyin'." -Ronnie Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd
"I'm looking for a new meditation. Still lookin' for a new way to fly" -Scott Weiland
"Take these broken wings, and learn to fly again, learn to love so free" -Mr. Mister
"I can fly higher than an eagle" -Bette Midler
"Make my way back home when I learn to fly" -Foo Fighters
"Jump into cockpit and start up the engines" -Iron Maiden
"Big ol' jet airliner, don't carry me too far away" -Steve Miller
"The drone of flying engines, is a song so wild and blue" -Joni Mitchell
"Music is my aeroplane" -Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Highway to the danger zone" -Kenny Loggins
"Starships are meant to fly" -Nikki Manaj
Flight...... ... .. .
Even prehistoric man was able to imitate the behavior of the birds he saw by spreading his arms in mimic flight, yet would still be chained to the ground with no means to defy gravity for thousands of years. And in our time today, many of us still take the ability to fly for granted, yet never learn how, much less even try on a computer game, should the need ever arise to take control of an aircraft in an emergency. http://gizmodo.com/watch-this-absurd-...
Remember, the head tilts back, the eyes look up. The head tilts forward, the eyes look...down. More on that later.
My copy was chock full of typos, but the info was solid gold. This book helped me understand the concept of energy fighting, breaking down the fundamentals of how a wing is flown, and the limitations of weight, engine power, aerodynamics, and of course, gravity. Energy fighting is basically the skill of trading potential energy for kinetic energy and vice versa. Like sand, you turn the hourglass over depending on what you need, altitude, or speed, and keep not a friendlies' wing joints in your gun sights. The last thing you want to do...in the middle of combat...is run out of both potential energy and kinetic energy and become a "sitting duck." So trade that kinetic energy back into potential energy by pulling out of the dive and back up into sufficient altitude, lest the enemy catch your wing joints in his gun sights in an easy "turkey shoot."
I'll be honest it's been awhile since I've read it, but I wanted to offer a tip that I remember not being covered in the book. I found flying backwards (as suggested) to be quite difficult, and I'll have to give it another go, but for me, what really opened the gates of heaven to simulated flying was when I started experimenting with flying straight up into the sky (a la Doug Masters, Iron Eagle "You gonna be a Pilot or an astronaut?" -Chappie Sinclair). Unless the engine of your prop plane is insanely powerful, more powerful than the force of gravity in the thinning air of the stratosphere, at some point, your "crate" is going to stall out after climbing vertically for too long. Thankfully, a computer simulator allows for death defying experimentation like flying straight against the force of gravity, and even respawns should the maneuver lead to a simulated death due to an unrecoverable stall. Even without the use of flaps, or ailerons, or rudder, or engine boost, at some point, if you do this enough times (point your nose up, 180 degrees perpendicular to the ground) and try to fight gravity, you will develop a sense of your planes energy fighting capabilities, and its limitations: combat performance.
It might not happen the very first time, and it might also take 100+ more tries, or even 101+ more tries, but once you internalize the feeling in your body (in your guts really, this is sometimes called "body knowledge" because it takes muscle memory to develop) and it becomes an instinct, again, perhaps more in your body than your mind, you are now ready to take energy fighting to its full potential. The irony here is that you might be sitting in a chair, yet still be able to internalize the information in your body as "feel" and sitting there in your chair, you might feel like your are screaming straight down vertical into the earth, only to pull up at the last minute, trading all of your altitude (or potential energy) into kinetic energy, and speeding away into safety.
The other idea is to do just the opposite, as in, point your nose 180 degrees straight down towards the ground and practice recovering level flight before its too late (thank god for simulators), and of course, any combinations of angles in between. Get that "feel" inside your gut, of your aircraft zooming beyond its normal top speed, and the sluggish response of the ailerons that resist your touch against the rush of the wind, before its too late.
When I took my first flight lesson in a Cessna single engine propellor plane, I was amazed at how light the aircraft was. My flight instructor physically jockeyed the plane with his bare hands from the blocks. Okay, yeah I was a little disappointed that the chairs in the cockpit were not quite so plush, but at least my seat wasn't as hard as a stone. Pilot and copilots share a very cozy space inside that Spartan cockpit. Since we were taking off later in the day, with the sun sliding down the sky, the temperatures between the air and the ground were starting to contrast to greater degree creating gusts of wind that would blow our little plane almost sideways when taking off. I was astounded at the sound of the engine, which might very well have been robbed from a lawn mower, pulling the plane along and eventually to greater heights.
Very quickly, the trees surrounding the perimeter of the airfield, once towering, fell away to what looked like they belonged to a model train set after takeoff. From my reading, and mayhaps more importantly from my gut instinct, I knew my plane would not be able to climb up to the same altitude as my girlfriend's plane-whose plane had taxied ahead of us in the que-anytime soon. Why? Because her flight instructor got the jump on us with a slightly steeper angle immediately after takeoff. Just a few degrees steeper after takeoff translated to a much higher altitude than we had achieved in the same timespan.
With the aircraft so light, and the engine sounding barely adequate, you are not going to be able to fight gravity and climb at such a steep angle. Period. Needless to say, I did not chance the possibility of stalling out by pulling back on the yoke and trying to climb 1000 feet in the span of less than 30 seconds. I think we climbed to about 2,500 feet over the course of 10-15 minutes. From there we performed chandelles and lazy 8's before my instructor gave me a *Wink!* and proceeded to...shut...the...engine......offff.................We floated...there...for a few seconds...............before the stall buzzer started to sound: stall! Stall!! STALL!!!!
I willed myself to relax as our inertia slowed to nearly a dead stop like a roller coaster at the apex of a 1,500 foot stomach clenching drop it was just about to perform. I focused on my breathing and let my flight instructor do some of his "pilot shit" by RESTARTING THE ENGINE! and proceeding to trade altitude, for speed. It was an exhilarating experience anyone would benefit to have: the ultimate roller coaster.
But tell me who would not want to learn how to fly? Especially as a perk when they play computer games, and without worry about having to "Step on the ball!"
To get more technicalized...If you are playing FPS games anyways, why not learn how to fly at the same time for free? The answer is simple: Inverted Y-Axis, yet the majority of titles do not default the controls to "Inverted Y-Axis." This means that when you pull back the mouse (and notice that the motion of the mouse actually goes towards your body, not "down" and not "up" when you push it away to move the cursor up on the screen) the cursor moves down. When you want the cursor to move up on the screen, you are pushing the mouse away from your body, not necessarily "up" and contrary to how the yoke works.
This is how the yoke works: it emulates the motion of your own cabeza, boyon! The head moves back, the eyes look up. The head moves forward, the eyes look down (convenient when pulling high G's in a dogfight). With "Inverted Y-Axis" your mouse now acts as the yoke and mimics your body: push the mouse forward and the plane dives down. Pull the mouse back and the plane will start to lift, and climb upwards to greater heights.
But many FPS games do NOT default the Y-Axis to inverted controls, and this is such an easy fix, yet by now the vast majority of gamers are hooked on what they have been raised on: non-inverted y-axis.
To take Mr. Kylander's radical tip of practicing flying whilst looking backwards one step further I offer you this: worry not about your limitation with one or the other. Instead practice flying with both inverted y-axis and non-inverted y-axis controls and master both as needed.
And finally practice flying against gravity, with different planes to develop your "feel" and instinct of the planes capabilities. This was how I developed my "feel" of how all of the different planes handle with their different respective characteristics. Some are light as a feather, allowing for agile maneuvers within a limited altitude (fighters due to their smaller, lighter engines with less horse power, The Japanese Zero is a classic example due to its extreme light weight), while others fly like a box of doorknobs (heavy bombers), and are simply unable to fly straight up 180 degrees perpendicularly against the ground at all. A few are able still to fly against gravity longer than one would expect with their powerful twin turbo prop engines (attack aircraft) at the cost of sluggish maneuverability and larger turning radius. The point is, with so many different variables, every plane handles differently but there is always one thing in common, the force of gravity, and the pilot's need to go to the bathroom.
And finally here is a scale I offer to you in the aim of helping you (and me when I reread this review now and then) develop greater sensitivity to the major components of flying: Engine Thrust vs. Wing Lift. Repeat: develop greater sensitivity.
*And if you think something is out of place, please feel free to correct me.
I get "shot down" hopefully I'll learn.
Highest Thrust/Least Wing Lift:
Rocket/Space shuttle (100% thrust, 0% wing lift)
Fighter Jet
Heavy Bomber or Fighter Jet? Which would have a greater chance of gliding?
Commercial Airliner
Turbo Prop Plane
Cessna
Hang Glider/Kite
Highest Lift/Least Thrust
So notice how the rocket might not have any wings, and uses only pure thrust to counteract the force of gravity. Fighter Jets may as well have the same thrust potential as a rocket, but due to their role in intercepting other aircraft (and weapons payload), still have need for wings for their agility. Heavy bombers may have wings with larger surface area, but may or may not be able to generate more or less lift per square feet of wing than their fighter jet counter parts. The larger wingspan may or may not exist, not to necessarily generate more lift, but instead, to be able to carry more engines necessary to generate the thrust needed to carry their enormous weight. The thrust generated by the extra engines allows for less reliance on the lift of the wing when carrying literally tons of ordinance, never mind the weight of the entire plane (and the extra engines).
At the other end of the scale you have propellor planes, whose engines may yet still be powerful, but generate less thrust than that of a jet engine and require more lift from a wing with greater surface area to assist the aircraft in stable flight. And finally hang gliders who's lift is generated purely from the surface area of the wing (and makes me wonder if those little pocket sized handheld personal fans might actually be able to affect the in-flight performance characteristics: see Ace Ventura Pet Detective, near the ending Ace uses the fan to propel him on the rubber raft).
On a personal level, I was once humbled by a fellow elementary student who beat me in a contest of whose paper airplane could fly the farthest, because hey, I thought I was the best. As someone who considered themselves an expert from all that time spent in elementary after school programs with other children playing all kinds of games and folding countless paper airplanes, I thought for sure my design would be unbeatable. After all, it was a design passed down to me by an older student and one time...to detour off onto a tangent...One time on the blacktop in the after school day program most of the children were playing dodgeball and I had joined them, but none would throw a ball to me. So I complained to Mrs. C that none of the other kids were sharing. Mrs. C came over and raised a big fuss and before you know it, all of the kids on the other team were throwing all the balls to me, but this was not what I wanted either. I felt embarrassed by the over attention that was fabricated by fear of repercussions, and guilty that no one else on my team were getting any of the kickballs so I bailed. Splitski. Abandoned not the ship, but the game of dodgeball of whose balance I had crushed and sought refuge somewhere else.
This was in Kindergarten, 28 years ago, so I'm having difficulty remembering if it was the same day, but I remember being on my own on the grass with a game of dodgeball ongoing on the black top nearby. I cast my paper airplane with the classic fold-back, pocket belly, blunt nose design, and I swear it must have been some kind of divine intervention for my paper airplane caught a wind current and just...hovered...floating...it just hovered there in mid air long enough to dazzle me (and you!), long enough for me to break away from my fascination, and call the attention of the other children. Some kind of miracle, or just a lucky breeze? Well it was the same design that I would use in the contest.
So back to the story, a few years later, I figured the contest of whose paper airplane could fly the farthest was in the bag. But in this case, it was pure force, if not by a Jedi knight, nor pilot, that won the contest rather than slick design. The "price was right" for this winner, a talented baseball player who once crushed a baseball out of the park during practice with his weight still only on his back foot (had he brought his full Jedi force to bear by shifting his weight when he swung...well...he hit plenty of home runs enough as it was) who had folded a dart design and used sheer muscle to propel his paper airplane across the lobby...and out the door. More power to him, no pun intended.
In fact, now that I recall, one time during practice, I was messing around with a new "submarine throw" I had heard about where your throwing hand comes not over the top and down, but to the side and under to propel the ball forward. Well, wouldn't you know it, right when I start boasting about how this new throw may be more accurate my throw goes awry and hits one of the coaches (his stepdad? or caretaker?) right in the calf muscle! Ouch! I mean, a direct hit in the meat of the muscle, I remember because he started swearing in pain and hopping up and down and when he turns to look to see who threw it-looks right at me-but then B says that he was the one who did it and took one for the team. he he I hope he's not stuck in life, still bagging groceries, unless of course thats what he wants to do which is okay...someone rope him into video games...but I digress.
It may have been "rather elementary" but these perspectives of gravity, and force versus lift, shed light for me on the potential for one to glide and perform a makeshift landing, god forbid, should any or all of the engines fail. Why not try to understand how an aircraft is able to perform with different throttle settings, including 0 throttle? In the aforementioned contest, the pointed dart design may have achieved greater distance (maximum "throttle"), but was it actually generating any lift? Case in point: would it be able to fly if thrown at a slower velocity (less "throttle")? In contrast, some designs may not travel very fast or very far, but may have greater hang time due to the fact that they can generate more lift. Unless I am mistaken I would not expect anything heavier than a turbo prop plane to be able to glide in for a nice smooth makeshift landing due to plane's reliance on its engines for thrust more than its wings for lift, unless the pilot was able to yank back on the yoke and jam all available flaps, maybe hard kick the tail rudder but without rolling over to grab as much wind and air time by flaring the aircraft before impact. Helicopter pilots are supposedly trained in autorotation techniques by immediately lowering the collective. In the same manner, if you pull back on the yoke at too high of an altitude, you are going to stall out, and one thing I've learned from simulators is that stall means loss of control of the aircraft. So go ahead and lower the yoke, initially trading altitude for speed, but more importantly maintaining control of the aircraft. It's too bad you can't land in World of Warplanes because it seems like so much fun. Again, I'm not an expert but it seems to me you want to glide in and stall out at the last possible second before flopping down onto solid ground.
^ This may be the reason why a Cessna propellor plane does not need anything stronger than "a lawn mower" engine, because just like a hang glider, it is light enough that it can generate enough lift to be able to glide, glide, sail, glide, and finally touchdown on tires, to land safely...once again.
"Mamma I'm bent to flyyyyyyyy" -Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, Todd & Brent
^ If that lyric references paper airplanes, then, Well Done, sir!
"You don't need a ticket to fly with me, I'm free" -Ozzy Osbourne
"Fly on, little wing" -Jimi Hendrix
December 24, 2019
Essential for any virtual pilot. Fly together, check your six. Everything else is icing.
May 20, 2008
Outstanding - one of the best books I've found yet on the art of playing combat flight simulator games. Well organized, clear, lots of illustrations and references, a good list of further suggested readings, and the author does the best job I've seen of making complex ideas easy to grasp and of making dry material intriguing and often funny. If you fly military flight sims, especially ones focused on the era of propeller-engined fighters, this is a book you should have.
February 18, 2009
This is the ultimate resource for any serious WW2 combat simmer. Kylander goes into great detail about fighter combat techniques, team tactics, communications and a lot more. Every virtual online squadron should read this than trying to reinvent the wheel themselves. Our online squadron utilizes many of the lessons from this book. It should be noted that the free pdf is available at: http://web.comhem.se/~u85627360/
August 21, 2014
As an avid combat flight simmer this book is exactly What Is needed to right and survive in the virtual World. If you are new to combate flight sima, or you are an old hand looking for new tricks. Then this is the book you are looking for.
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