Avoiding B&Z
Chapter 7.7 from How to Fly and Fight in Air Warrior
by Brooke P. Anderson

 

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So, some guy with a load of altitude on you is bouncing you repeatedly. What do you do? Well, obviously, when he is close to you, you want to evade, but what's the overall strategy? There are two techniques that I like: going high and going low.

Going high involves eating into the enemy's altitude advantage. So, whenever the enemy is jockeying around above you, out of guns range, you should be climbing. However, keep your airspeed up so that you can evade when he makes his pass. You should have enough airspeed in order to pull 5-6 g's in your plane (175-225 knots depending on the plane). Or you can be more daring, do a harder climb at a lower speed, and do a nose-low turn as your evasive when the enemy does his gunnery pass. Go back into your climb in the direction of the enemy as soon as he is past you. You want to climb toward the enemy -- you want him to have to maneuver to get anything better than a head-to-head shot. At some point, especially if your plane climbs better than his, you will get to his altitude, and then you can press the fight instead of being on the defensive.

Going low involves going right to the deck. Do this when the enemy's plane climbs better than yours or when you don't think you can eat into his altitude advantage. Diving on someone when that someone is on the deck is very dicey (due to speed and angle) -- the enemy will have to dive down, level out, and approach you levelly. After the enemy does his pass, turn gently (not to waste energy) toward him so that his next pass will have to be head-to-head (and you can jink to avoid). Try for 50 ft. if you can -- that leaves the enemy with very little room for any pullout if he's not careful how he approaches. If the enemy wastes a lot of energy in going after you while you are low and if you judge that now you can eat into his altitude advantage, you can switch to the "going high" approach now.