If you have a choice of two enemies, always shoot the one who seems to be leading/know what he is doing if he is unaware of you specifically - otherwise kill the one that isn't aggressively manoeuvring against you, then bug out. Twiddling around in small circles looks nice, but is guaranteed to attract lots more aircraft, all of whom are likely to be gunning for the one who 'isn't manoeuvring aggressively against them'... being 'fixed' in space and everyone's obvious choice is a bad idea

Once you are clubbing seals, you might as well do it from in close.

Every time I've been killed online it's been very close and personal.

The long shot that hits is just a fluke....or the result of flying a very nice, coordinated, predictable turn on my part.

And never, ever hammerhead or Immelman when an enemy is behind you.

...I would even go so far as to change this to read: "...when an enemy is around you"


Those BnZers make great targets when they're in the middle of a Hammerhead type maneuver.

Very true, and it's noticeable that this is often how Wolf-13 will pick up his kills.

I've watched him pretty carefully and he applies a very consistent approach with co-alt or near-alt enemy aircraft.

First he'll go into a flat turn. If you follow, he'll keep chasing you around and around until you've lost airspeed and can't easily disengage. Then it's simply a case of putting his Albatros on your six - pretty easy.

If you don't follow into the turn and take the fight vertical, he'll turn into your attacks and start some well-timed, very aggressive nose-up attacks as you begin hammerhead-type turns on him. He can land very accurate shots from about 100-250m below, vertically; VERY well timed usually.

If you don't provide him with a high target turning hard and instead do fast, boom/zoom/extend attacks and get well out of range, he'll often disengage as you extend away, as that kill becomes much harder to earn.

I reckon air gunnery is a lot like golf (I don't play, to many nasty 70's flash backs).

I think it's a good analogy because a lot of people can understand and relate to it and it involves many of the same factors.

However good you are (mere mortal) you just know that if you tee'd off against the likes of Tiger Woods, you're stuffed, he's so far removed he could be from a different planet. However good you are, it's only when you play against these God like beings that you appreciate for all you're skill it just not even in the same league.

So there you are on the putting green, playing for a million dollars, You can place you're ball anywhere on the green but obviously the closer you get to the hole the further you have to walk, the longer it takes to place you're ball and take you're shot. If you play against a pro, he might just place the ball down at the edge of the green and take his shot straight off, but then even Tiger might miss. If you're a normal person, you're going to try and get as close as possible to the hole, the trouble is the longer you take the more opportunity Tiger has, the more nervous you become the more rushed you're final shot etc etc. The further you are from the hole the more you have to take other factors into account, wind, slope, distance, spin etc etc. Now add in the factor that your opponent is playing on a different green that you can only just glance at behind you, you're only advantage is that you've got a couple of mates also trying to get a ball into the hole.

So like I say, I reckon air to air gunnery is just like golf.