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Fight's On! The origins of TOPGUN and dogfights back in the day/future prospects

Banjo33

AV-8 Type
pilot
Can't watch the video, my video card stinks. But, I'm in ACM 101 now and could picture it as jarhead explained it. Who arranges for these encounters and how often do you get the opportunity?
 

mmx1

Woof!
pilot
Contributor
When the pilot's got his hand up on the handle, does he let go of the stick or does he have his left hand on the stick?
 

A4sForever

BTDT OLD GUY
pilot
Contributor
mmx1 said:
When the pilot's got his hand up on the handle, does he let go of the stick or does he have his left hand on the stick?

A simple answer from a simple man:

I can't speak for this driver or this engagement, but when the opponent is on the "wrong" side of your cockpit and you are turning, grunting, straining, and twisting around to see him, keep him in sight, and/or see where he is going --- sometimes you have to switch hands on the stick to keep the high "g" turn going....

The PCL (power control lever) or whatever they call it today might be full forward at MRT --- and you leave it there --- while you switch "stick hands" to grab onto the canopy bow handle or something else with your right hand and pull/push yourself further around. Does that make sense ???

topgun54.jpg
planecluoud15pz.jpg


Kind of takes that option away with a side-stick controller on one side panel console instead of a stick between your legs..... ???
 

Banjo33

AV-8 Type
pilot
Kind of takes that option away with a side-stick controller on one side panel console instead of a stick between your legs..... ???

Good point, never thought of that before! With that in mind, how would an F-16 pilot turn to look over his shoulder anyway, aren't they pretty much laying on their back's in the cockpit? Guess they never thought they'd be defensive often enough to warrant it...?
 

Fly Navy

...Great Job!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
jboomer said:
Good point, never thought of that before! With that in mind, how would an F-16 pilot turn to look over his shoulder anyway, aren't they pretty much laying on their back's in the cockpit? Guess they never thought they'd be defensive often enough to warrant it...?

Not sure a 30 degree recline qualifies as on your back :icon_tong
 

mmx1

Woof!
pilot
Contributor
jboomer said:
Good point, never thought of that before! With that in mind, how would an F-16 pilot turn to look over his shoulder anyway, aren't they pretty much laying on their back's in the cockpit? Guess they never thought they'd be defensive often enough to warrant it...?

Nor does the F-16 have those mirrors on the front bows (though I believe they have them mounted in the cockpit.
 

Fly Navy

...Great Job!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
To all the actual fighter/attack guys/students: Is it strange using the mirrors to find the bad guy when manuevering defensively? I'm no where near ACM yet, so I wouldn't know.
 

jarhead

UAL CA; retired hinge
pilot
A4sForever said:
The Air Force never seems to learn -- if they do, it's the "hard way". My solution to the F-16 was always to get him slow --- and they usually did --- he was mine. If he wouldn't, I would try to extend and start over :) . Eventually he would fall to the seduction of the close-in rolling/turning fight. I could usually count on that and out-sicissor, rolling or horizontal, an F-16 or an F-15 to death. This isn't the first time I have seen the Air Force take a fine fighter and employ unsound tactics or fly the other guys' fight. Were you to witness what I saw over the years as a participant and an observer, they have been doing it ever since Vietnam.

Thanks for the forum "debrief", I appreciate it. .... based on what I could see (my very limited view ) you are spot on. The only thing I might (emphasis: "might" -- no g-suit here) have tried as the Hornet driver would have been to go higher/earlier (@45 deg is not very nose-hi to my way of thinking) and end it sooner. Just me .... A-4's and F-4's usually thought of 45 as the "minimum" for a hi yo-yo, but then we did not have the thrust-to-weight nor the pitch authority that these two fine birds do. Plus, I really used rudders to maximum effectiveness --- the A-4 could snap-roll/180 reverse direction (kind of hard to describe without being there) faster than anything I've ever seen with max rudder input(s) on top of a vertical move. God, I love talking about this stuff .... it's been years .....
i was the guy flying in that video, and it was the fourth time i had ever fought an F-16 (two more times since then) and only one of those guys used the vertical, and he was a former Navy F/A-18 pilot. somewhere along the lines they started to believe 9G's across the horizon will win everytime. it's comical, especially to hear them in the debrief if it was their first time fighting a Hornet. as much fun as it is bashing the AF, i'm gonna stop ... a poorly flown Hornet can schwacked just as easy. you are spot on though about getting them into the flats (i think you referred to it as horizontal scissors) or the rolling scissors. a war story, when i was fighting that former squid F/A-18 pilot turned F-16 pilot, i got him into a Flat scissors ... i started working aft of him (higher AOA ability than the F-16) & he started climbing & flushing out in front of me ... about the time i was setting up for a shot, the dude took it over the top; he was around 180 knots. it was eye-watering ... guess ya had to be there. F-16's have a lot of power, especially when slicked off.

as for going vertical, yea, more nose up would have decreased the time to kill, since the F-16 was just arcing around the horizon. Hornets have a pretty high bleed rate so i didn't want to sell all of my airspeed at the first merge because i was expecting him to do something other than what he did, at least match me nose high. we use rudders at slow speed also for rudder reversals & "pirouettes" ... the Hornet is pretty quick doing it also, especially at high alphas, and with the new FCS PROM, the risk of departing the jets is almost nil.

jboomer said:
Can't watch the video, my video card stinks. But, I'm in ACM 101 now and could picture it as jarhead explained it. Who arranges for these encounters and how often do you get the opportunity?
squadron's S-3/Ops will arrange it, then when you are on the schedule to fly, you call those guys up & coordinate/phone brief.

mmx1 said:
When the pilot's got his hand up on the handle, does he let go of the stick or does he have his left hand on the stick?
it's been answered by A4, though FlyingFortress's answer was pretty funny.

jboomer said:
Good point, never thought of that before! With that in mind, how would an F-16 pilot turn to look over his shoulder anyway, aren't they pretty much laying on their back's in the cockpit? Guess they never thought they'd be defensive often enough to warrant it...?
i asked those dudes the same question, with a side-stick, how they look over their right shoulder ... they basically said they don't switch hands and that the recline helps.

Fly Navy said:
To all the actual fighter/attack guys/students: Is it strange using the mirrors to find the bad guy when manuevering defensively? I'm no where near ACM yet, so I wouldn't know.
at least for me, about the only thing those mirrors are good for is watch my wingman as he is joining up on me to ensure he isn't gonna hit me, or if we are flying in the goo, i can glance up from my HUD and see him "sucking LAU" (flying parade) and hasn't gotten lost in the clouds . i don't use them in BFM, it's easier just to look back.

S/F
 

RHPF

Active Member
pilot
Contributor
I noticed the computer screens were 'reseting' it appears, any insight as to what was going on? Very interesting video...
 

FlyingFortress

Flying turd
RHPF said:
I noticed the computer screens were 'reseting' it appears, any insight as to what was going on? Very interesting video...


I could be wrong, but I think the video cam just gives it that effect due to framerate. I see it in all other cockpit videos. Kind of like how a computer monitor looks weird on video.
 

Fly Navy

...Great Job!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
RHPF said:
I noticed the computer screens were 'reseting' it appears, any insight as to what was going on? Very interesting video...

Shutter speed (frame rate).
 

HeyJoe

Fly Navy! ...or USMC
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Will there even be a merge?

With latest generation radar and AMRAAM as well as SA derived from Link 16, many pundits are saying that there will never be a merge (or WVR fight for that matter) so SRMs like AIM-9X and are not needed nor is much emphasis on BFM or DACT.

We have been at this juncture before in beginning of 60s when F-4 was introduced with no gun and AIM-7 Sparrows as primary weapon. ACM was in disfavor then as it was thought the "dogfight" was dead. We found out differently over the skies of North Viet Nam. As a result, 4th generation fighters had greater emphasis on traits that enhanced ACM performance (better thrust-to-weight, bubble canopies, better dogfight missiles and guns and improved ACM radar modes).

This topic popped up in another thread recently and got some immediate traffic....we're talking merge with a potential threat now (MiG-29 or Su-27 variant NOT Hornet versus Hornet variant or bemoaning departure of the Tomcat). You're the CO, are you going to spend your precious OPTAR on fuel guzzling BFM/DACT training or.......
In other words, do you believe there may be merges in the future?
 
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