Hey everyone. I recently started writing a new guide. Instead of talking about a specific aircraft I decided I would try to write something useful for all fighter pilots. And do one about BFM, something that’s hard to find good but accesible info on. Part of the guide is already hidden somewhere on the forums and I’ve already received very valuable feedback. It’s still a hard topic to write about.
I also said I’d try to make some training missions revolving around them. So here is the first one, although not exactly BFM.
Pillar of Flames: Turn rate and Turn radius trainer.
At the foundation of many maneuvers lies turning. The ability to turn is more an aircraft handling skill than a part of maneuvering. There are a few things to consider. think of things like corner speed. The minimum speed you can still get good or full maneuvering capabilities (pulling G’s) from. Your turn radius is also important, a pilot who can turn tighter than someone else might be able to cut into that guy’s corner. Rate of turn is also another important thing. How fast can you go through a circle and bring weapons to bear? A pilot might get a tighter turn radius if he is slower, but if it takes him a minute to go around the corner, was it worth it?
In my guide I described how doing a flat turn (turning without gaining or losing altitude) is not a great choice. But at some times, you may find yourself close to the deck, with few other options and a bandit at the opposite end of the circle. Will you be able to pull of your ideal turn? Or will you perhaps pull to hard on the stick and not be able to sustain your turn and end up running out of energy and options?
These are some of the desired learning objectives I had in mind when designing this training mission.
How it works
You will spawn a couple of seconds worth of flying time away from waypoint 1. About 2 seconds into the mission the pillar of flames (flares and illumination bombs) will spawn. When reaching waypoint 1, start your turn! You’re initially set up for 1400m diameter turn, feel free to pull tighter. The mission sets you up for a left hand turn but feel free to do a right hand turn if you so wish to train it. In order to best fly a circle around it, try to keep the pillar in a fixed spot as seen from the cockpit if possible. Sometimes the codes get stuck during training. This happens if you fly outside the maximum area the system will try to check your turn radius (4000m). The system should try to reset if it doesn’t detect any output for 5 seconds so just keep flying!
When the system says turn radius what I really mean is the diameter of the circle of your turn, not the actual radius of that circle
Youtube video of the mission.
F-15 for DCS
DCS: Mirage 2000
I’ll happily make this mission available for other aircraft per request! Don’t forget you can also use Tacview to show your turn radius and turn rate. To do so. Turn on TRT and TRD for selected objects.
Thanks for playing! Feedback welcome