Another good choice was choosing a medium altitude to initiate the attack. Without the higher altitude, there was no possibility of escape when attacked; I'd end up low and trapped. My decision to attack only when I had an open egress window was equally critical. Previously, I egressed the target straight into the oncoming enemy. That's not healthy.

Also note that on a strike mission, it is possible to use your flight members as cover while you take on the target. This turned out to be a very good decision. To keep them from attacking the target, all you have to do is bug the interceptors and order ALL of them, element and wing, to attack the AIR targets. This is a good tactic for any 4 ship flight without an escort. Hold your own wing man back to cover you personally.

Who makes the attack? For single, very high value targets such as this SEAD mission, it's better to do it yourself. Basically, the decision as to whether you assign your wings, or yourself, should depend on how much cover you need. On targets of lesser importance, and especially where few, if any, intercepts are involved, it usually works out better to send your wings in first while you fly cover and then do the clean up, if necessary.

Don't delay decisions to attack or flee. While it may only be fifteen seconds, the advantage can be lost during the wait. Time is precious. If you are uncertain about what to do, the correct decision is to abort.

Good decisions are based on experience; experience is gained by repeating the same missions until what works is thoroughly understood. Ultimately, if a pilot practices a variety of missions at least three times such as we have done here, he will learn how to make fast, intuitive decisions, as well as improve his mission planning.

There is no time for sightseeing when flying the route. I now notice that my attention was previously scattered instead of being fixed on the never-ending search for the enemy. It's very easy to become distracted. There is only one time to relax, and that is in the debriefing room.

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Another critical and stupid error in prior missions was to get impatient and advance the speed to 2X prior to IP, allowing the enemy to get the jump on me because I couldn't react fast enough to turn time advance off. In the time it took me to react, I could easily lose 15 seconds and 5 miles, enough to kill me.

The same applies to the failure to be constantly monitoring the horizons in all directions, and with all available means, including listening to the radio using the bullseye and AWACS. You are at an acute disadvantage if you don't know how to monitor COMMS. It is difficult to learn because you have to train yourself to visualize enemy positions using reported bearings and distances. Learning to visualize the battlefield dramatically improves your survival rate, though it will also cause more frequent abortion of missions.

Hopefully you will be able to profit from my little exercise here. There isn't only one right way to run a mission, but at the same time your responses must be appropriate to the circumstances. Initially, I had my doubts about the caliber of the Falcon 4 campaign and some of its modeling. Those doubts have now been put to rest. This is one amazing piece of work that will certainly keep me entertained for a long time to come.

The degree of difficulty of this sim can be daunting, even to a mid-level player, yet alone a novice. Just like a real world jet jockey, a lot of practice and training is required to create a competent pilot. With time and a little persistence, eventually the jet jockey's tricks of the trade will be revealed.

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