low altitude dog fighting tactics

i made a fun little low altitude mission over Vegas with 4 enemy MIG29s and me in an f15, to practice dog fighting skills.

i find my self doing so many high G turns to locate and avoid enemies, that even at full after-burn, i end up crawling around at stall speed.

i wonder, where are the best resources for learning good technique in this kind of situation?

i realize, in real life dog fights don't usually take place at a couple of thousand feet AGL, but i like that kind of flying, more exiting, so wondering how to improve.

Hi Steve,

There's no real way around this, you just have to find the capabilities of your aircraft and stick to them by practising time and time again. There are several videos on YouTube of competent pilots dogfighting, but there's no substitute for you being in the aircraft.

There's a lot of science to dogfighting, but you've hit the nail on the head - pull back too hard on the stick and you lose speed. If you have fuel tanks loaded then you ought to jettison these at the earliest opportunity to reduce the drag on your aircraft, which will in turn help you make the most of your power output. Try to out-think your enemy rather than out-turn them, especially where 29's are concerned! You might want to consider starting with 1v1, then 1v2 and slowly crank up - 1v4 is an adventure even for experienced pilots.

Good luck.

Like Ashilta said, its better to maintain a good cornerspeed, that just yank the stick, and turn into the enemy.

Low altitude dogfight, should be avoided, as the energy you spendt turning, ought to be stored in altitude, or at least be in the bank,"attack from above" to be used, so you dont blend out..

No altitude = no potential energy.

i made a fun little low altitude mission over Vegas with 4 enemy MIG29s and me in an f15, to practice dog fighting skills.

 

i find my self doing so many high G turns to locate and avoid enemies, that even at full after-burn, i end up crawling around at stall speed.

 

i wonder, where are the best resources for learning good technique in this kind of situation?

 

i realize, in real life dog fights don't usually take place at a couple of thousand feet AGL, but i like that kind of flying, more exiting, so wondering how to improve.

If you bleed your speed back then lower the nose and unload, build up speed and then back into it. Most dogfights at low level will result in the AI climbing at some point with F-15C best min speed is 250kts anything below that will wind up a stall if vertical. You can chance a kill in a climb as the Migs are vulnerable in that position but then so is your aircraft so make it a quick kill and then drop the nose and build up speed.:thumbup: