One F5 vs two Mig-29 dogfight, the Hollywood flick that ended weirdly

Hi guys, I had a mesmerizing 12 minutes dogfight yesterday that felt like a Hollywood movie. But that ole thing ended weirdly, bringing a question to this forum.

Everything started when my wingman and I, flying F-5 Tigers, crossed the path of two Russian Mig-29 and got engaged in a hair raising dogfight. We were all fighting with guns only, no missiles in that one. Within a minute or so, my wingman got pulverized away by the powerful bogey’s 30mm canon, leaving me alone to deal with the two bandits. One F5 down. At that point, I knew I was in for a tough fight.

Even though I was behind one of them when my wingman exploded out of the sky, I could not close up enough on that Mig-29 to get a firing position. We were all maneuvering in the mountainous area of the Caucasus region, having to deal with canyons and high peaks, so few seconds after my wingman death, I was still pursuing that Mig-29 while his wingman was taking position behind me! I had to act fast.

I was lucky enough to tail that Mig-29 to the point where he had to do a dangerous maneuver that splat him face first in one of the mountains wall. One Mig-29 down. But at this point, his wingman was seriously threatening my ass right behind me. I quickly started to play a tight yoyo game for few minutes, not able to shake him off me.

My hair rose on my arm when I saw tracers passing by me while hearing the TUMP-TUMP-TUMP of bullet hitting my fairing. I quickly realized that one of my aileron got blasted away, limiting my maneuverability significantly. But my trusty F5 did not want to give up and I was still in the fight.

This is where things got funny. Few seconds after that hit, that Mig-29 passed so close behind me during one of the yoyo turn that I got scared that he would chop my tail off. I decided to do a TOP GUN trap …. CLOSED THROTTLE – AIR BRAKE – FULL FLAP …. Guess what … I exploded in laugh while he passed in front of me, seeing him struggling to slow down to stay behind.:lol:

It was now my turn to be in his six and he started to loop vertically on me. Looks like Mig-29 climb rate is better than the F5 … I could not keep up with it. But I would stay in his six, but slowly pulling away.

This is where thing got weird, bringing me to my question.

After few vertical loops, I felt that I would never reach it. Then suddenly … like his wife would call him to go get some milk … he just gave up and started to run away in a straight line, not even at full airspeed. I was like … “WHAT THE HELL:doh:” … lined up behind me and pulverized him with my two 20mm canon.

Second Mig-29 down … F5 wins.

Guys, why he gave up? It was a AI aircraft, so the only thing I would think of is because he could have been bingo fuel (it was a long fight). I was very low in fuel at that point. Or maybe because the AI disengage when the fight are too long? Any idea?

I have the track of that flight and intend doing a youtube clip out of it, it is quite a looker fight!

He was out of fuel.

It's just DCS AI. Don't expect logical actions from it.