Lead Turns
by Shark Bait

Lead turns are to be considered the primary, basic offensive move. In any offensive Air Combat Maneuvering (ACM), one must get around the curve before the bogie does if one is to get angles on him. This could easily be accomplished with a superior turn rate, brought about from any number of factors, or it can less easily be accomplished by starting the turn or curve before the bogie does, thus gaining angles while bogie is still flying straight.

Hmm, a little complicated. Lead turns are funny to explain, but real simple in reality. Consider a practice example....................................................

A --------> <----------- D
Plane A Plane D.  Plane A(ttacker) has lead turn in mind. Plane D(efender) is a dweeb.

A----\                 <-----------D
          \
           --------->
Plane A dives, to get separation Plane Dweeb keep flying straight.

                   <-----\
                              \
A-----\      <--------)------------B
            \                 /
             ----------/
Plane A pulls up before bogie passes, and is over as bogie passes under.

(BD note, before is when you see him in forward/up view, or even the top of forward view)

        /-----\
     _/          \
<-----------)------------B
                  /
A\---------/
.Plane A Pulls in behind plane B, who gets shot down. Very Simple! See! Of course it's not that simple.

First I'd like to talk about the move itself, then talk about the pros of the move, then the cons. The move breaks about 4 basic parts.

a: check speed. b: gain separation. c: lead turn. d: Acquire bogie.

A lead turn is going to require a certain amount of speed, depending on what you are trying to do, or what kind of lead turn you have in mind. There is no minimum speed, because you could be diving when you do it. Don't need much speed then. What you do need is as much or more speed than bogie. This is not an absolute rule, but close enough. In general, high entry speed is better in Lead turns.

Next you need to gain separation. This _is_ important. The better you gain the correct amount of separation, the better the effect. Notice in the example above, the attacker dives a bit first. This is not to gain speed, but to gain separation. If you fly straight at bogie, then turn before he passes, when you get turned around, you will be too far separated from the bogie, and if he just keeps flying straight, by the time you get in line, he's too far away! You want to get offset from the line of flight of the bogie so that when you finish your lead turn, you are already back in line, or close to it. Then you will get your shot opportunity.

Next comes the actual lead turn. Its called a turn cause its a turn. its called a lead turn, because you are trying to turn before he gets to you, so as to "lead" him. In the previous example I would have started turning when he showed about 800-1000 yards in front of me, assuming speeds over 250 kts. In the previous examples case, turning meant puling up and over. During this phase is the time to be cool. A steady 5 Gee turn will yield the best results. Turn too soft, and you go flying on past him. Turn to hard and you'll black out, loose too much speed, etc. You're gonna loose speed in the move anyway, you should strive to be careful to have enough to work with after turning. Black out is bad at any time.

Last, not least, get the guns pointed in his direction, and let em have it. You should have had your view pointed at bogie at all times. Loosing view of bogie in a close in fight is always tough, doubly so in an attacking offensive move. You must always be ready to drop or change your plans depending on bogies reaction, or equally important, press the attack when you've got the advantage. I've thrown great moves on flyers only to motivate them into blasting me out of the sky in response. These days, no one is going to sit still in an engagement, so keep the view on bogie and keep bringing him into front!

Hopefully by now you have a basic idea what I'm talking about. while all this may seem simple, it is the most obvious and common cause of trouble in the case where a flyer does not feel he is getting his share of kills. I've seen case and case again in training where a person comes and complains he cannot get angles on anyone. Take him up and you'll find that he is typically entering the fight with a raging angry head on pass. In this case he would be flying exactly the path of Plane Dweeb in the example. Never has any training class benefited from lead turns as much as when AWTA got its first batch of New Users who came blasting in making head on passes. However, lead turns are not as simple as a first move. They must be used constantly in any attacking phase of a fight. Even if you both make passes, turn around and come back for another pass, lead turn instead of making another pass. If you fight your way down to slow speeds and find yourself coming head to head with bogie, twist and turn get some separation for a lead turn. Those "slow in the middle of a fight" lead turns can be the most effective.

The flip sides of the move are both obvious and not. One can and does burn a lot of speed for positional advantage. If you don't get your advantage, you've lost your speed too. Lead turns can be susceptible to zoom moves, were a bogie comes at you, but with more speed than you know, and just before the pass zooms up. The lead turn can leave you under him without any air speed. Keep your eyes on him and you can spot the move easily and convert to E fighting yourself. More subtly, they can be predictable, or thrown too early, can be a real easy target for a skilled player, as you come out in front of him instead of behind him. Even more subtly, in the example, you must realize that you expose your belly to a snap shot if you pull up right in front of him. It is rare that a lead turn leaves you completely stranded, and thus is an obvious (possibly to its detriment) opening move. As the fight progresses, you have to do something "more" than bogie, if your gonna win, and when you see yourself coming at bogie, think lead instead of head! The moral of the story is, DONT JUST FLY STRAIGHT AT HIM! Timing is everything here. Head on shots may get you some hits, and even some kills, but they will work against you as often as for you. Get away from him a bit, ie get some separation, and then beat him to his own turn. That's a lead turn!

SB