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Page 6

MarkShot's STK/EAW Guide
By Mark "MarkShot" Kratzer

Table Of Contents

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Recovering from Spins
Once again, it is better to avoid spins than recover from them. Although I have seen some players who use spins as a defensive measure, I do not recommend it. I believe if you have such fine control of your aircraft, then it behooves you to maintain control and outmaneuver your opponent.

Here is what you need to do in order to recover from a spin:

1. Chop the throttle and center the stick.
   
2. Look at the horizon and note the direction which the nose is spinning in.
   
3. Apply full rudder against the direction of the spin and full aileron into the direction of the spin.
   
4. Wait until the rotation comes to halt and quickly center all controls. If you wait too long, then you will induce another spin.
   
5. Apply full throttle and keep the nose below the horizon momentarily.
   
6. Gently begin to apply control inputs. If you are too sudden, then you will spin again.
   
7. Immediately begin some evasive maneuver (Split-S, or break turn, or horizontal scissors), since your opponent is most likely lining you up for a shot.
   
8. Regain padlock of your opponent and figure out what you should do next.
   

There are some players who after recovering will immediately fake a spin for two reasons:

• Buy time to determine what his proper strategy should be.
  
• Sometimes the non-spinning player who is making a guns run will be sloppy and sail straight by his target without breaking and climbing. The assumption by the non-spinning player is that he can safely overshoot, because the spinning player is out of control. Then, the spinning player performing the fake spin will quickly straighten out and shoot the overshooting non-spinning player in the back.
  

Turning Well
Beyond spins, the next most important skill which a new player can learn is how to achieve maximum turn performance. I will assume that the player is familiar with the concept of corner speed. If not, my own simple definition follows.

Corner is the speed at which an aircraft can maintain its best turn. The best turn is the tightest turn (smallest radius) at the maximum degrees/second. This is important, since if you are turning at corner and your opponent is not, then you will be turning inside him. This will ultimately yield a rear quarter shot.

In order to turn well, you need to simply:

• Know what corner speed is for your aircraft and hold it if you can.
  
• Deploy your flaps.
  

The tricks you need to be aware of here are:

• You want to avoid reaching corner speed by chopping the throttle. Energy lost cannot be regained in the middle of a fight.
  
• The right way to get to corner speed is to turn into the vertical (climb) to slow your plane. This will also allow you to drop your flaps. This should be around 200mph or so.
  
• If you are in a diving situation, you must retract your flaps beyond 250mph. Otherwise, they will become damaged.
  
• When you are in a turning fight and your opponent straightens out (without climbing) for any extended period of time, retract your flaps. Flaps act as a brake. By retracting them, you can regain some speed (building up your energy).
  

A final comment about flaps: Some people drop them to climb. I have not studied this situation, but I believe you loose more than you gain when you do this.


Nose-to-nose Guns
I generally prefer to avoid nose-to-nose guns situations. At best, you are simply rolling the dice to see who will survive. I prefer to take my shots from my opponent's rear quarter. At worst, your opponent is simply better at this than you. I will cover later how such situations can be avoided.

In any case, you definitely want to avoid nose-to-nose engagements with dissimilar planes when your opponent is flying a more heavily armored plane in terms of firepower and ability to sustain damage.

Gunnery (Taking the Shot)

In this section, I address a number of issues which relate to gunnery in EAW.


Range
The best range to take a shot is about 200-500'. Beyond 500', the chances of scoring hits diminish and the impact of small nose movements are magnified. There is nothing inherently wrong with shots from less than 200'. However I have the following problems with shooting from that close and closer.

• If you can be that close, then you should have already opened fire as you are already in the target's lethality envelope.
  
• To get that close, you may have too much closure on the target. This puts you in jeopardy of an overshoot or collision.
  
• At very close ranges, it is hard to maintain your position on your opponent. Remember that you may often be reacting to his abrupt movements. The distance compensates for your less than instantaneous response time.
  
• Lining up for the shot may require very substantial movements of your nose given the large angle involved due to the short range.
  

 
 

 

© This STK/EAW Guide is Copyright 2000 Mark Kratzer. All Rights Reserved.

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