Great article and it gives me another excuse to plug Dawn of Aces.
I enjoy close formation flying which, as Andy mentions, is in some ways more
difficult online. The visual cues are less useful. The throttle sensitivity and drag modeling make small corrections difficult. My xUSN wingy told me this, I don't fly real formation. We fly formation aerobatics in DoA which seems to be the easiest online flight sim to hold position in. It's also the only one where his Mac can fly with my PC, along with Warbirds of course. Here's a link if anybody is interested. We call it a competition but it's not strict like real aerobatics.
It's more a combination airshow and barnstorming, depending on who's flying.
http://www.dawnofaces.org/events/aero_comp/index.htm Btw I also think guns ACM is more fun when the fight stays close enough to enjoy the graphical details of the aircraft as it tends to do in WW1 sims.
As for tactical formation, I wish more sim pilots would follow the example of real pilots and learn basic aerobatics, formation flying, and ACM beyond 1v1 before they fly in combat. Most are like the guy that posted recently, "I just want to shoot at something." Oops, that sounds like me when I started.
Tactical formation flying adds a lot to the fun factor as well as the success rate so maybe it will catch on. Offensive teamwork seems more popular online since the knowledgable pilots are less likely to be targets but sometimes it's fun to start from the disadvantage.
As an example, I was flying near a guy when we were threatened by higher faster a/c. I had time to suggest we fly line abreast and keep the nearest bandit bracketed on our 6. When the bandit took the bait the targeted a/c jinked while the other took the shot. We were out numbered by higher a/c but they didn't coordinate their attacks and we survived numerous passes while they took damage until they decided to look for easier targets.
I'm still hoping to see a low group of a/c stop milling about when threatened by a higher group and form into a classic Lufbery, after all it is a WW1 sim, but I guess I'll have to wait until the wheel turns a bit more.
--)-FLS----
Musketeers.org