Manoeuvres and dogfight

Hi,

Is there any document, guide or tutorial related to dogfight manoeuvres for the F-5 (or in general)?

Thanks!

there are many sites / pages that describe this and you will get different answers from everyone. my advice is do a quick search for ideas and practice 1v1 starting with a low skill AI and work your wayup. another thing i have done is do 1v2. you have to pay attention to your target and also someone behind you making you the target. i started out and still play WW2 sims and obviously BFM is all there is.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_fighter_maneuvers

For general advice and if you want to go into lots of detail, the Holy Bible is Robert Shaw's "Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering". You can buy it on Amazon and even get it as a pdf online.

Thank you, I got the book in pdf format. I will search for more specific information related to DCS. Is it useful to record the flight and replay it for learning? Is there's any tactical view during the replay?

Several years ago I flee many hours in Falcon 4.0, now I have returned with DCS, choosing the F-5 as training fighter. Maybe I am losing my time and I should jump to F-18 (or future F-16)?

Tacview is the tool you are looking for. 1 mont free eval iirc.

I have just tested that tool and it is really fantastic

Thank you, I got the book in pdf format. I will search for more specific information related to DCS. Is it useful to record the flight and replay it for learning? Is there's any tactical view during the replay?

 

Several years ago I flee many hours in Falcon 4.0, now I have returned with DCS, choosing the F-5 as training fighter. Maybe I am losing my time and I should jump to F-18 (or future F-16)?

Pick whatever plane you like best. That said, the F-5 is an excellent aircraft to learn dogfighting because managing your energy is extremely important in it. It's also a great module all around.

Pick whatever plane you like best. That said, the F-5 is an excellent aircraft to learn dogfighting because managing your energy is extremely important in it. It's also a great module all around.

And do you recommend the training campaign for the F-5?

It's ok, but not amazing imo. The main things that leave it down are a) the absurd AI flight models (I personally edited the files to bring the AI skill from Excellent to Good, it makes quite a difference), b) managing to get through the fits while having enough fuel to get back to Nellis and c) there's no actual discussion of BFM, they just say "ok go fight these aircraf".

It's ok, but not amazing imo. The main things that leave it down are a) the absurd AI flight models (I personally edited the files to bring the AI skill from Excellent to Good, it makes quite a difference), b) managing to get through the fits while having enough fuel to get back to Nellis and c) there's no actual discussion of BFM, they just say "ok go fight these aircraf".

I have just finally gotten around to playing the BFM campaign. The first combat mission is against three F-5Es, one at a time. The ideal result is that you defeat all three of them. But you aren't going to win without afterburner, and you can't use afterburner too much without running out of fuel. The AI accelerates incredibly fast. If you start at his speed and altitude, he will bleed your energy and/or he will get behind you. I can get into his rear hemisphere and stay there, but there isn't sufficient fuel/time to close for a decent shot. So, I as far as I can tell, the only way to win is to hit them in the initial head-on pass, or get lucky with a high crossing rate shot. So, I agree on your points: the AI flight model allows a pilot in an equal aircraft to literally fly rings around you, and there simply isn't enough fuel to even begin to fight against such opponents with afterburner engaged for most of the fight.

So, I agree that editing the files to bring the AI skill down a notch or two is probably the way to go. I have been too stubborn trying to find a "legit" way to win to do so. Aside from the impossible to kill AI aces, I like this campaign. It gives you the opportunity to learn what it is like to operate aircraft around Nellis for Red Flag training. The missions won't penalize you for breaking the takeoff/departure/transit/return/landing rules, but they do provide adequate documentation and instructions to do so realistically and correctly if you are so inclined. I have been focusing on learning to fly the waypoints visually rather than relying 100% on the kneeboard maps with plotted position updates.

The F-5E is one of my favorite aircraft in the game: steam gauges, ok radar, simple procedures, and handles really well aside from being underpowered. I couldn't imagine a better supersonic jet fighter as an introduction to jet air combat and DCS World.

Guys, as someone who has hardly ever touched ME, I need some basic advice. Can you tell me the basic steps to change the AI skill level in say, the 1st BFM practice mission?

I load it into ME but cannot see how to access the 'enemy' planes.

Thanks.

For payware campaigns it's even more tricky because the files have some type of encryption that prevents you from making changes in the mission editor. What I did was open the .miz file with winrar, export the "mission" file, open it with a text editor (Notepad ++), change the difficulty setting in it (you need to look for the callsign of the opponents and edit the "skill" setting by hand, change "Excellent" to "Good" or "Average"), saved the new text file, and put it back in the .miz archive. It's a pain but it was the only way to make the F-5s beatable.

Regarding the AI flight models, after looking at plenty of Tacview tracks it's easy to see that at higher settings the AI cheats. In the F-5 mission for example I have seen plenty of situations where we are both at the same airspeed and altitude, pulling the same g, and while my jet is losing airspeed (and matching the performance in the NATOPS manual) an Excellent AI is not. This does not happen when the AI is set to Average or Good (but on the flip side, if you have a rough idea of what you're doing it becomes really easy to win then). That's really what persuaded me to just edit the missions - it's useless to try to beat them "fair and square" when the FM you are up against is so ridiculous.

For payware campaigns it's even more tricky because the files have some type of encryption that prevents you from making changes in the mission editor. What I did was open the .miz file with winrar, export the "mission" file, open it with a text editor (Notepad ++), change the difficulty setting in it (you need to look for the callsign of the opponents and edit the "skill" setting by hand, change "Excellent" to "Good" or "Average"), saved the new text file, and put it back in the .miz archive. It's a pain but it was the only way to make the F-5s beatable.

Thanks, that worked! However, I still find the AI annoying. Once you manoeuvre yourself well, all they seem to do is a series of loops up and down until you show a chink of weakness. Then, they are on you instantly and shoot you down with their first volley of shots!

This is why I generally prefer ground pounding to a2a combat in DCS.

Yep same. They do that regardless of difficulty setting, with the difference that at average/good they are easy to catch and do not break the laws of physics, while on excellent they just keep going and going forever without you being able to do anything about it.

And do you recommend the training campaign for the F-5?

This one has all you need for F-5

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=230124

Many thanks for the campaign, I will try it.