They are all keen flight simulator pilots; 'virtual' warriors who have found that you do not have to be one of the elite few in order to experience the thrill of flying a fast military jet in combat. In fact, you can do it while keeping your feet on the ground! Utilising the latest flight simulation software to turn their personal computers into jet fighters, these simulator pilots are able to connect their computers together in a network and fly in teams, wingtip to wingtip.

The Topgun championship is an annual event that involves clubs from around Australia and New Zealand. Over two days, clubs and individuals compete in five gruelling events. In the competition, pilots face vicious one-on-one dogfights, coordinate multi-plane intercepts in team vs team battles, and use their utmost cunning to guide their squadron to achieve mission goals in full-scale simulated wars. The competition tests their flying, combat and teamwork skills to the ultimate, and decides who will hold the coveted title of 'Top Gun' for the following year.

The air combat simulation clubs involved in the Topgun competition are very different from the typical 'computer games' club that you may encounter. The average age of club membership is around 30, mostly professionals and all dedicated military flying enthusiasts. The clubs focus on achieving the utmost in realism; seeking to reproduce the experience of flying modern military jets as accurately as is possible with available software and computer equipment.

The quality of the simulations demands many of the skills needed by real combat pilots, and as in real life, those skills can take years to develop. The dedication required for this, along with an obsession with accuracy and realism is what sets these clubs apart.

This year the championship was fought using Mindscape's Russian-developed Su-27 Flanker simulation; a military-grade simulation available off the shelf, and chosen for its fidelity, and for the remarkable flexibility that enabled it to be used for all five events.

The five events were designed to test the full spectrum of pilot skills, and consisted of:

The Topgun contest was a long, hard, battle. Closely contended, the outcome hung in the balance right up to the final event.

The first event was the 2v2 guns. Here each pair faced their opponents starting with a 40km separation. The pairs would then close in to gun range, about 1.5km or less, and begin a series of violent manoeuvres, as each tried to get a bead on their opponents. As they approached, teams would try different tactics in an attempt to establish an initial position of advantage.

Some would come in close together and concentrate their attack on a single opponent, seeking to down them before the remaining opponent could intervene. Others would establish a wide separation of altitude, making it harder for their opponents to keep track of both of them at once.

Once engaged, the fight becomes a dance of physics, where energy is life, to be hoarded and spent like a speculator on the stock market. To turn and engage your opponent, you must expend energy. If you lose too much energy you are at the mercy of your enemy, but spend too little and you will also die. It becomes a matter of fine judgement and split-second decisions.

At the end of the event, it was clear that the favourites, Dan "Buckshot" Rose of the 27th Williamtown Warlords and David "Killer" Morrison of the 62nd Fighting Falcons, were going to be the two to watch. In six fights, Dan and his wingman won 4, drew one and lost one, while Dave's pair won five fights and drew one. This left David in the lead at the end of the event with a stunning 19 points out of a possible 23, while Dan held 16.

A cluster of pilots around 10-13 points looked set to wrestle over the 3rd place. The second event was almost a mirror of the first, except that now each plane was loaded with a mixture of short and medium-range missiles, and they started 80km apart. The most powerful missiles could reach up to 60km, but each pilot only had a few to spare. Suddenly new tactics and new skills were required, and a new pair of pilots came to the fore to demonstrate their skills.

These battles were fought at long range, using radars and infra-red sensors to reach beyond the limits of human vision. Each pilot strove to find a position where they could send their 3.6m long missiles streaking towards their enemy at over 4500kph, and yet be able to evade the similar package of death that their opponent would be sending them in reply. Pilots sought to play upon the weaknesses and strengths of their sensors and weapons, dropping chaff bundles to create confusing radar returns, and exploiting the vulnerability of airborne pulse-doppler radars to 'notching' manoeuvres.

Tactics were complicated by missiles that required guidance from the aircraft's own radar system, meaning that the pilot could not turn away and evade after launching a missile.

Here the Williamtown Warlords demonstrated that they did indeed know their business (they are all Air Defence Officers with the RAAF). The team of Dean "Pato" Patterson and Paul "Pablo" Fournier of the 27th blitzed their opposition, with four victories and one draw out of six matches. Their team took the laurels in this event, with Dan Rose and Jim Kearney, also of the 27th, taking second place.

Although Dean scored the highest personal total from that event, 16.3 out of a possible 23, his earlier guns performance left him with a long way to go. David Morrison still held the lead with 31.7 points, but Dan Rose was now close on his heels with 29.0. Jim Kearney now held 3rd place with 26 points, with a cluster of pilots threatening him at around 20-23 points.

The final event on the first day of competition was the solo navigation and bombing event. This gruelling challenge required precision piloting and ground attack, flying a 40-minute course to hit each target precisely within a 10-second window, and with surface-to-air missiles lurking to pick off any pilot who strayed from the flight plan. This one separated the pilots from the fly boys!

Most of the course had to be flown at a speed of 900kph, a mere 40 metres above the ground. At this altitude, pilots had to be on the look out to dodge tall buildings and power lines! After heading out to sea and dodging an attack from an offshore cruiser, pilots had to turn inland and fly 75km to destroy a single artillery gun in the midst of a small village, at precisely 12:10:00, without damaging any of the surrounding buildings. After this easy warmup, the mission became tougher.

This time the gold went to Michael "Loophole" Barnes of the 62nd, with 18.9 points out of a possible 20 (he was a few seconds off on a couple of targets, and fired only eight rounds at the gunnery target instead of the required ten). Dan Rose showed that he had not forgotten any of his navigation skills, and collected 17.85 points. David Morrison only managed a disappointing performance with 14.6 points

With this upset, Dan Rose took the lead with 46.9 points. David was hot on his heels with 46.3 points. Michael now leapt to third position with 42.3. The rest of the pack had started to drop back, with a gap of 10 points to the next closest contender. The second day started with 4 vs 4 battles, again using a mix of short and medium-range missiles. However, instead of being a rehash of the previous day's 2vs2 fights, the presence of an extra pair of pilots on each side introduced a whole new depth of strategy. Here we really started seeing some classical air combat tactics coming out; manoeuvres which come with evocative labels such as 'brackets', 'drag & bait', 'single-sided offsets', 'weaves', 'postholes', 'vertical splits' and a host of others as each side strove to catch the other at a disadvantage. The fights were viscous, and it was rare to see more than one survivor emerge. Even as they spiralled down in flames, pilots were struggling to get off one final shot to aid their comrades.

Not surprisingly, the skill of the Williamtown Warlords once again showed through, and they took the prize for this event handily. Of the three matches in the event, they won two and drew one, including a 4-nil victory! This boosted Dan's score to 62.4, but David had not been idle and held 59.6. Michael Barnes still clung to third place with 55.3, but Dean Paterson with 46.8 was starting to look threatening.

62nd Fighting Falcons

With only 2.8 points between the leaders, and slightly more than 20 points up for grabs in the final event, it was clearly still anyone's game.

The final event was a test of practical application - using your skills in a simulated combat environment. For this event a mission had been especially created by the 74th Amazon Ghosts squadron in Brazil. In it a flight of four had to scramble to intercept an incoming strike flight and its escorts, and prevent them from destroying a set of vital bridges. Apart from a rough location, nothing else was known about the strength and nature of the enemy. Once in the air the flight had to rely on its skill and experience to assess the situation and react correctly.

Once in the air, pilots discovered a flight of Tu-95 'Bear' heavy bombers approaching, with an escorting pair of MiG-29 fighters lurking within the formation. To complicate matters, a pair of enemy Su-27 interceptors was rapidly approaching from off to one side.

This sort of thing was the 62nd Fighting Falcon's meat and drink. Using well-practised tactics they engaged and destroyed the escorts and interceptors. By the time they turned their attentions to the bombers they found that cruise missiles had already been launched against the bridges! Rapidly dividing their forces, one attacked the bombers to prevent them launching further, while two more chased down and destroyed the slow-moving cruise missiles. The fourth member of their flight was limping home with a badly damaged aircraft, having been mauled by the enemy fighters.

In the end they lost only one pilot, who crashed while attempting to land a badly damaged plane with only one engine and no instruments. David Morrison returned with some significant holes in his aircraft from the attentions of the bomber's tail gunners, but landed safely - out of missiles, he had been pressing his attack hard in order to boost his personal score. The bridges suffered only slight damage, and the team gained a total of 13 points. The Williamtown Warlords did not fare as well in this event, and the resultant boost to the scores brought the final result to:

3rd: Dan "Buckshot" Rose: 27th Williamtown Warlords with 70.6 points
2nd: Michael "Loophole" Barnes: 62nd Fighting Falcons with 75.3 points
The 1998 Australian Topgun: David "Killer" Morrison: 62nd Fighting Falcons with 75.6 points

David Morrison was presented with the magnificent Topgun trophy, which features a hand-made Su-27 Flanker model from the Sukhoi factory in Russia, and which was donated by Jim Mackonochie of Mindscape UK.

The 27th Williamtown Warlords carried off the prize for the best club, with a landslide victory on the club points table.

A final feature of the award presentations was the announcement of the winners of the International Flanker Aerobatics Challenge. This competition, held during the run up to the Topgun, was for the best two-man aerobatics display from around the world. Competing pairs submitted recordings of ten-minute displays of their own design. In this contest it was Marcelo Tocci Moreira and Andrew Strauss of the Brazilian 74th Amazon Ghosts squadron who took the prize, and their display was replayed to the waiting audience.

Conclusion

This years Topgun competition proved to be a great success. The largest Topgun competition so far run in Australia, it provided an opportunity for air combat enthusiasts to meet, share ideas and test their skills. All of the attendees agreed that they had an immensely good time. The facilities kindly donated by the Australian Army at the School of Military Engineering at Moorebank were first class, including projection screens, whiteboards and plenty of space.

Of the events, the 4 vs 4 Missiles fight was considered by all to be the best, offering as it did scope for employing subtle and realistic tactics. However, the most enjoyable flying of the meeting was felt to be the 16-plane mission flown as a non-scoring event on the Saturday afternoon. People found this massed cooperative mission was the highlight of the competition - that despite the rivalries it was when we all flew together as a team that we had the most fun. Our thanks goes to Scott Boswell of the 89th NZ TFW for preparing that mission for us.

The next event on the Australian air combat simulations clubs' agenda will be the display at the 1999 International Airshow in Melbourne in February - watch out for the 62nd Fighting Falcons stand down there. This will be followed by a mid-year LAN meeting to conduct cooperative missions over a two-day war, and finally the 1999 Topgun around August-September!

Contact Information

For more information on the Australian Topgun Competition, or to get in contact with your local squadron, you can call Michael Barnes of the 62nd Fighting Falcons Club, in Australia on (07) 3303 3148 (wk) or (07) 3201 1256 (hm), email Michael Barnes

A special thanks must go to Michael Barnes whose vision and ideas culminated in the Topgun 98. Next on the list is Allen Pawley for organising the wonderful venue for the competion. We would like to thank The Australian Army for provision of the venue. For organising and publicity we would like to thank Emiliano Molina for his wonderful work.

We also like to thank all the people who donated the missions for the event: Scott Boswell, David Morrison and Marcelo Tocci Moriera. For donating the Topgun trophy a special thank has to go to Jim Mackonochie from Mindscape. And last but not least we would like to give a very special thanks to all the participant and spectators who've made this event so successful.