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Simulated Future
By Nigel DoyleI am flying the number 3 slot of this 4-ship flight, so I have the responsibility of making sure I stay in formation with the lead aircraft while maintaining a close watch on my wingman. A guy whom I have flown with before, so I know that he can handle the Viper.
The AWACS channel comes alive; again human controlled, and proceeds to call out all possible known AA threats along our flight route. I am still amazed that as each enemy contact is called out it is most probably another human player trying to shoot down our aircraft or bomb one of our bases. Voice comms come alive as each package starts to enter enemy airspace, so far we have been lucky no serious threats have encroached along our pre-designated route.
As we pass into enemy airspace the flight lead calls "Fence In" so we all set our weapons and radar as it looks like the fun is about to begin. Things started to happen very quickly, too quickly in fact. No sooner had I split up from the flight lead to attack my target at low level, than my wingman calls SA-7 launch from the east.
I could not get high because that would have exposed we to a greater threat so I decided to get down in the weeds while dumping flares like they were going out of fashion. The valley started to fork, so I went left towards the target, this partially masked me from the following SA-7 only for me to hear another call from my wingman indicating another launch. This time it was really close, so close in fact that by the time I started to dump more flares and manoeuvre, it was too late. A loud thump and the eyebrow warning lights told me all I needed to know.
I hit eject, while giving a May Day call on the guard channel. My wingman also gives my location to the AWACS. By the time I hit the ground I had tuned into the SAR frequency so that I could hear when there was a helicopter inbound. By now, my view and motions had changed to a first person perspective, with a "Quake" like view and HUD showing me that I had a .45 handgun.