© 1996, Darren Beyer

This version of Rocketman's on-line lecture from Air Warrior has been edited by Hammer (with Rocketman's permission!) for a smoother flow and easier reading.   All information was left intact and unchanged.

This write-up is the first part of a series on mastering the merge. We'll be talking about a co-E (or roughly co-E) merge. Co-alt is not as important as co-E when setting up for this merge. Energy is the important attribute.

The key to winning fights is to gain the advantage of the merge. The last thing you want to do is wait for your opponent to act then react to him. You must always be on the attack. Make him react to you. The best way to gain an advantage on the merge is to do a lead turn. To be able to do a lead turn, you need flight path separation. A quick explanation:

If you go head-on at someone and you pass within 50 feet, there is no real flight path separation. Let's say, however, you take one of those planes and move it 1000 yards to the right. Now there is 1000 yards of separation. If you both kept going in the same direction, your flight paths would always be 1000 yards apart like two parallel lines. This is flight path separation. Flight path separation allows the planes to turn into each other before passing. If one turns and the other doesn't, the one that turns can execute a lead turn and time his turn such that he can get on the tail of the other.

So, how do you convince the enemy to give you the 1000 yards? Usually, I fly off to one side or down, get the separation, and force him to turn into me. In a horizontal situation, if he knows what you're doing, he'll simply turn into you and negate the separation. This forces a head-on. The vertical is entirely different, however and I'll get into that in a second.

A lead turn is a lead turn, regardless of whether you are in an angles fighter or energy fighter. In fact, doing a lead turn in an energy fighter is the best way to get a shot off. The key to a lead turn is not to pull hard Gs until you need to. It's a low G lead until you pass him or go for the shot. You are gaining angles on him if you lead. The worst you'll get is a nose to nose.

You will rarely get horizontal lead turns on an opponent unless he's not paying attention. That's why I almost exclusively go for the vertical lead. The first two graphics will illustrate a vertical lead.

In a co-E merge for a vertical lead, the first step is to identify your opponent's plane and his energy state. At this point, you should hit WEP and get flight path separation by dropping below him.

If you start your descent first, you should be able to keep below him. If he dives, you dive more! But make sure when you pass that you are at least level. You do not want your nose down on the merge! If you get down first, then your opponent is always trying to catch up.

Now there are three things your opponent can do: go up, go down, or stay level..

You may find you have to begin your turn earlier than 1300 yards. It depends on what your opponent is doing and how much separation you have. I find 1300 works well when he dives on me as we'll see in this graphic:

Pull low G (3 - 4 range) in your vertical turn until you pass or need to convert for the shot. In this case, the opponent dove on us to take away flight path separation. What's good for us and bad for him is that we are going up and losing speed while he is going down and gaining speed. Our turn radius is getting smaller while his is getting larger. Our relative energy states stay pretty close, but we are out-turning him because we are trading speed for altitude and he is trading altitude for speed.

Now, if you are in a plane that bleeds energy such as a FW, Jug or Yak, you may find that you don't get the second shot opportunity shown above and you may be forced to split-S after the first, which isn't entirely bad. I find myself in this scenario more often than any other. In the arena, most people want to dive on you and even good pilots will need to take away the flight path separation so, if you are below them, you can still gain a little lead on them. I often get accused of head-ons at the first shot opportunity.

Sometimes the enemy sees you dive, rolls inverted, chops throttle and tries for the split-S T-Bone. As long as you begin your lead-turn first, the best he'll do is force a nose-to-nose, get stuck nose down on the merge (a definite no-no!) and be at a lower E-state. For the record, split-S on the merge is probably the worst maneuver you can do.

If you can get your opponent's nose down while yours is up, you'll win the fight. The reasoning is that you're dropping speed so have a better turn radius and rate. Your opponent is gaining speed and has a larger turn rate. Since he is pulling Gs, he is losing more E relative to you because at higher speeds you lose more energy to friction, etc. This is an important concept. I want to make sure everyone understands it before I go on. Most of my fights in the arena start this way. Most of my co-E fights that is. If you DO get caught nose down to enemy's nose up,  do a low g pullout (assuming you have enough alt)- extend and then zoom. Get away and try for another equal merge.

One more thing on this diagram. You may get caught at a slight energy disadvantage if you try a double Immelman like I've shown here, but what's good about getting that first shot is that you ping the guy in less than a revolution. It really gets them on the defensive.

Now we'll go on to the situation where the enemy stays level...

This is really a no-brainer. The diagram I show here would actually be a poorly executed lead turn, but I didn't want to redraw the whole thing. ; ) Not much to say here except that the only thing your opponent may do is a flat turn. If he does, then you roll while vertical to pull toward him. By definition, he will be showing you his six.

If your opponent goes up while you are down, you may have a problem but not if he loops up and over. If he loops, you should be able to follow him by hanging on the prop and using flaps. You will have a good position in this case, though a slight energy disadvantage. This is shown by the red line on the left and blue line on the right.

If your opponent goes into a zoom climb (red line on right), you can stop your vertical lead and extend (blue line on left). You would do this if you realize that he had a little more energy than you thought. He may be trying to zoom to force you into a rope. If I had good speed at this point, and he did too, I wouldn't loop. I'd extend and make him come back to me. If you are both fast enough, he won't be able to turn around quickly enough to get anywhere close to good position. Then you can extend and turn back for another merge.

If your opponent waits to zoom until you have looped over, you will be behind him and need to recognize what he is doing. Keep your speed up and wait for him to make a move then pull into him. The energy disparity will not be so great that he can gain too much on you. You pull low Gs until you convert. Therefore you are not giving up too much energy and if you start the fight with a little more energy than your opponent, you can follow him into this and he is in trouble. This makes it a very risky proposition on his part.