PAPA DOC'S GUIDE TO DYING IN AN UPRIGHT POSITION IN FLANKER

So you listened to the Religious Fanatics otherwise known as Flanker
Pilots and purchased Su-27 Flanker....the best Jet Combat Simulator.
Now your discovering that your not fond of dying and that you prefer
staying in one piece rather than disintegrating into small bits of
Hair, Teeth and Eyeballs. Well lets see what we can do to help you
stay alive. After all you've been such a shit hot pilot in other sims
and the thought that some lowly MiG-23 can flame you at will is
disturbing your sleep and causing you to beat your dog.

First off understand if you don't already that the reason we are
called the faithful is that we do several things differently. First
off we actually read manuals....oh my...second we don't stop there. We
search out great reference books such as Fighter Combat by Robert Shaw
and Art of the Kill by Pete Bonanni and we study them on vacation and
in the head. The tactics you read about in those books work
wonderfully in Flanker like in no other sim. We dream about BFM....we
lust for tense BVR fights...the best thing to do for the Fanatics is
to saddle up 1vs many or 1 vs a Slava....we get a kick out of
Challenging SB-300 Sam sites guns only. This sim is about challenge
and about learning and getting better....everyone continues to get
better at this sim and no one is a master. So the first lesson is get
a hold of as much material as you can about the sim and understand
it....The unofficial FAQ is a wonderful place to start and I will post
the address of that wonderful piece of reference material at the
end...Redshift deserves much praise and thanks for this....Assemble
this material and start learning...keep it close at hand while flying
and use the pause button at will. YOU WILL NOT BE A KILLER FOR A
BIT....adjust to this fact, get over it and learn. Its a blast
challenging yourself and knowing that the sim isn't cheating its just
you sucking we all suck from time to time cause practice is the only
thing that keeps you from sucking. No practice and you die simple as
that...how do you know the sim isn't cheating...well record it. Ok
enough of that bullshit. On to the good stuff (I HOPE).....<G>

One of the first things you should do to avoid dying like a miserable
dog is adjust your ability to sustain damage. Go to options--->Skills
& Survivability--->set it to HIGH...now your not invulnerable but you
will be a lot harder to kill. This only affects you. Also buy Flanker
1.5 as this has the option to recover from death...which means that
when Mr.Nasty MiG-23 puts some cannon shells up your butt you get a
brand new plane. Fur shame though allowing a MiG-23 to kill you. Don't
be ashamed to use this as its better to learn than to be
frustrated...you will turn it off when you get better but now flight
time is most important.

Now lets calibrate your stick. This is quite important and if done
incorrectly will lead to sorrow and death. The key word is
gently....whenever you calibrate a stick in any sim gently is the
keyword...go banging it off the stops and you will have a badly
calibrated stick...death and destruction will follow and you richly
deserve it. This is how I calibrate my stick in both Win95 and
Flanker. For the record I currently use all Thrustmaster (love the
sticks) X-Fighter Stick (copy of the old FCS with a better and thicker
handle and gear driven), WCS mk2 and RCS. In Win95 I select 3axis 4
button stick....I also use a generic adv file as my Flanker adv gives
Win95 fits. I calibrate slowly only moving the stick around once or at
most twice to the full extent of the travel...very important...failure
to do so results in jumpy sticks...I calibrate the rest moving slowly
and hit apply. Now Im ready to calibrate in Flanker. Load up the adv
file...and again move slowly and gently to the extreme extent of the
sticks travel...lest I forget when adjusting the throttle in flanker
realize that you move it to the first indent and press minimum on the
throttle calibration, then move it to the second indent and press
maximum throttle. Failure to do this correctly will lead to abnormal
idle power and lack of Afterburner. Not good in a big fighter like
this...as a side note I used to use an ACM card but I have since
switched to using my Soundblaster16pnp Joystick port...weird I know
but my stick hardly ever drifts and I don't have to recalibrate all
the time. Im very very anal about my stick calibration so much so that
I fly with the joystick movement indicator on my screen at all times
when in flight, so I know when I have problems, more on that later. On
my 166 the SB card Joystick port works better...Im puzzled but wont
argue with success.

Ok now you supposedly have your stick working well. Go up in a free
flight and find out...press ctrl-j and watch the joystick indicator.
If the circle moves jumpily or doesn't move to the end of the lines in
all four planes (meaning the center of the circle isn't over the end
of the line) then you have a problem. Either re-calibrate or check
hardware. As I said before get in the habit of flying with it on all
the time....it will help in much much more than joystick
calibration...more on that later.

Now we are flying...first off decide how patient you are...the more
patient the less frustrating time you will have in Flanker. The less
patient and well...obviously your the type who enjoys dying. The way I
learned about Flanker was to not even attempt the missions that come
with flanker...to be honest they are extremely difficult and should be
considered at least High School Material...sorry but your in First
grade right now. We ALL started there so there is no shame. So I made
my own missions...and not all of them were combat missions. I had
basically three different types of missions for the first month or
so....the start off on the runway Aerobatic mission, the Start out by
the Power line mission and the 1vs2 guns only mission. In all of these
practices one of the most important lessons is that smoothness is the
key to flying the Su to its fullest potential...violence on the stick
will kill you either by causing a premature loss of energy or by
causing you to become disorientated. SMOOTHLY is a very important
quality.

First off learn how to take off and land this is required stuff, kind
of hard to complete missions if you cant land eh..? Now the cool thing
about learning this is that you can use the padlock on the runway to
start to get some clue about what padlock is relating to you VIA the
mini HUD. The mini HUD is extremely difficult for some to understand
and extremely easy for others...I was lucky and it was easy for me.
But the Pilot that I could never equal in 1vsMany Guns Gary Lloyd had
a bear of a time understanding what was happening. So use the padlock
while practicing touch and goes to begin to understand how it works.
Don't worry I will go extensively into Padlock later on. Im not going
to talk about landing speeds and such since that can be found in
reference materials and if you are really serious about learning this
sim you should be reading. Don't consider yourself proficient until
you can land on the numbers. This begins to teach you how to handle
the jet.

The next lesson is learning how to barrel roll the power lines. You
are beginning to understand that controlling your jet is moderately
important eh..? Not only that but learning how to do that is a lot of
fun. Trust me Im from the government and Im here to help...he he.
Anyway all the while try and develop a feel for the jet...listen to
the sounds. At first they sound primitive but if you listen closely
enough you will get a better picture of whats happening. Also its very
important to learn to be comfortable flying at low level. You must
understand that the Su-27 is not a stealthy plane..fly it high in the
clouds and you will get smoked. So learn to fly in the weeds. When you
can successfully barrel-roll consider yourself to be graduated from
third grade.

Now of course all this time you should be trying to learn Basic
Fighter Maneuvers...or BFM. It really helps if you have some books
about this and while Fighter Combat is much more thorough Art of the
Kill might be more approachable to you. You must know the what and how
of the following maneuvers....and you must be able to do them fluidly.
After which the hard part of integrating them into combat comes into
play. The maneuvers are the, Slice nose 10 to 20 degree's below the
horizon pulling hard across the horizon...the YoYo a maneuver that
trades energy for altitude to prevent overshoots in some
circumstances, the immeleman a half loop upwards, the oblique
immeleman, split-S a half loop downwards...on the split-S its
extremely valuable to learn whats the lowest height you can execute
the maneuver from in case your trying to shake a human from your
posterior. If your really patient...you can do these maneuvers while
your alone in the sky so that you can execute them without the
distraction of being killed. And as an advanced practice...move the
view upwards and full back and execute them using the MINI
HUD...because trust me more often than not you will not be looking at
your HUD in the middle of a fight. If your like me I tend to be
looking out the side a lot...<VBG> Or worse the very far back with the
view scrolled up and back as far as it goes.

Ok now we are to the fun part...going against 2 F-15's guns only. Make
yourself a mission with the F-15's at 5k co-altitude nose
on....intercept guns only. First a couple of thoughts about the AI. A
bug/feature of the simulation is that the AI never runs out of ammo
and is not affected by his fuel load. This can be seen in a mission
where 2 separate AI's are given two radically different fuel loads and
they both essentially do the same thing. Also the AI primarily fights
in the vertical. Though I have been part of some excellent horizontal
fighting reminding me very much of Human H2H fighting...you will more
likely find him in the verticle. As well as a general rule don't
follow one Bandit too long or his buddy will assuredly saddle you up
and smoke you. A general rule is not more than two changes of
direction before you start getting nervous....you do have mirrors
selected don't you...? If not stop and go and select them....they work
wonders for SA. Also the AI will not turn into you when they are armed
guns only until you turn into them....

So now we have two angry semi stupid F-15's off our nose. Great day
isn't it....the goal here is to kill them before they kill you.
Simple. Going into the merge, select the joystick indicator, select
Flaps, Helmet Mounted Sight (targeting circle), EOS (infrared/laser),
setup your speed to around 900km/h, and press the grey * to padlock
the enemy. Lock the bandit up to get info on him. What your looking
for is the speed of the enemy given by the Laser range finder....get
used to using this information because in general, fights are a series
of merges...unless your really cunning and put the enemy on your
six...<VBG> Keep in mind that using the Radar will give you speeds at
a much longer range but that its sort of a bad habit to do so if you
have any plans of fighting H2H with humans. Cause of the warning he
will get when locked up by radar...but since the AI knows your there
anyway you can use the radar.....just don't get used to it...hehe. Now
you know the speeds...what do you do with it...umm maybe later we can
get into that...for now just get used to getting this info.


Here they come...uh oh they look really pissed. Shit hell bug
out...hehe. Nah lets go kill them. At this time you have several
choices that will work...but I recommend turning into the horizontal
to avoid losing padlock, immelemans work nicely but increase the
chance of losing the tally on the bandit. Remember that if the bandit
is out of sight for more than 10 seconds you lose padlock....lose
sight lose the fight. So as they pass you drop your nose around 10
degree's below the horizon and bank to 90degree's into the bandits and
pull hard...yes hard. At a speed of 900km/h you can afford to make a
smoking first turn...your speed will bleed into a good range for
further maneuvering and you will have gained significantly on the
badguys....as you come around your padlock will reacquire the bandit
you padlocked. Another decision awaits you....which bandit to go
after....? Its hard to predict where they will go but a general rule I
have is to follow the bandit going up or the higher bandit...since the
one going down is moving himself from the immediate fight. So if the
padlock is not on the one going up press the tilde key to switch the
padlock to the bogey of interest. Now lock him up and select guns, to
get the gun sight pipper...I almost always use this in guns fights.
The funnel is used for snap shots where there isn't enough time to go
thru the process of locking up and selecting guns. As well I fire from
the padlock....always.

Now if the bogey is going up you must be careful...one of the most
common mistakes is to try to go to lead pursuit too early in a
vertical fight with the AI. Don't succumb to the temptation. This
causes many to believe that the AI has some sort of magical ability in
the verticle...trust me they die just fine in the verticle. This is
not to say that they don't have an advantage, they do but its not that
big a deal and is easily countered by good flying. So you have decided
to go after the bandit going up...if you try to go pure or lead
pursuit (pure pursuit means nose pointed at him, lead pursuit means
nose pointed ahead of him) right away you will lose more energy than
him and you will be one of those wondering where they stuck the Rocket
Boosters in the Bandits. Patience is the key you probably don't have
the range for a shot yet so why pull so hard....match his wing
position, and make a wider radius turn than him going up. Say keep him
near the top of your HUD so that your nose points behind his
jet....LAG Pursuit. Let your speed build up...watch your joystick
indicator to make sure your not pulling too hard...even backing of a
smidgen will boost your energy and will allow you to gather this
supposed superman up. The one hard fast rule is that pulling hard in
Flanker all the time is a good way to ride your parachute. As you
watch the range diminish start watching the speeds as well....how is
yours in relation to his...are you gaining...?

If so when in range pull into lead for a shot. Do this by placing the
gun cross over the aiming reticule and leading by just a bit....this
will take practice. The smoothness you've practiced before in your
exercises will help tremendously....jerking the stick around is for
the other stick, not your joystick. Good marksmanship is a skill that
not many have and the ones who do have it are extremely hard to beat
H2H.

So now lets assume that you killed the bad guy...his buddy is really
pissed now and has probably recovered enough to be just about on your
six.....what to do what to do. Jeez get a grip. Kill the sumbitch.
First off you must gain tally on the bandit. Well while you were
chasing the other guy did you take any notice of the wingman...if not
start to try. The more information you have the better your
Situational Awareness SA will be of the battlefield. SA is almost
everything, umm it might be more than that but you do have to fly the
plane...so it can't be everything. Get used to building a 3
dimensional picture of the battlefield. Update it by any means
possible...shadows, glimpses in the mirrors, fleeting glances and more
Im sure I don't remember. This will enable you to make a good decision
on which way to turn to find the wingman. If all is lost, there are a
couple of things you could try. One immediately go up into an
immeleman if you have the energy (over 600km/h)....scrolling the view
all the way back. Move the view from side to side while pressing the
padlock key...occasionally the padlock will lock onto the bandit that
you don't see but that is in your field of view (FOV)...or you will
just see him and frantically press the padlock key to gain tally. Or
you can turn in the horizontal...much more risky but workable...while
doing much the same thing with the view...except your primary focus
will be over your shoulder going up and down. Remember to not pull to
hard to either gain some energy or to conserve energy to engage the
bandit...when you do gain tally. Ok after gaining tally you kill
him...right...? But what if you manage by your considerable skills to
place him on your six....hehehe.

So now the bandit is firmly on your six and your checking your will.
What do you do...one of two items may save you. First the bandit will
warn you before he fires by locking you up on Radar...when that
happens expect a tracers to be streaming soon. Be Happy at least your
gonna know where he is at last. If the tracers come from in front of
you turn into the source and treat the merge like any other
merge....your neutral again. If the tracers come from behind you and
you have some speed...immediately start rolling the jet while going to
full Afterburner, retract the flaps and extend.....quick like a bunny
rabbit..unloading the jet gently by going down is a great way to build
speed quickly.

But if you've managed to demonstrate your slow flying abilities to the
bandit then its time for a maneuver that probably wont work but is
worth a try...a violent out of plane maneuver.Keep in mind that this
will only work if the bandit is close behind. But don't just go
anywhere...look at where the bandit is...try and go opposite..then
immediately reverse your turn and slow down some more..to attempt to
force the bandit out in front of you....usually though the bandit will
in this situation have a better reaction than most Humans and instead
of trying to following you will pull up and let you lose more energy
then re-engage. Sometimes just a hard turn will be enough..but the
most important thing is go hard.

Ok this is enough for now...Im tired and I feel like Im getting to be
a rambling kind of guy...better stop. I plan on continuing this and adding a lot about
how to make the view system and padlock your best friend. Hope you
have enjoyed this bit and that it helps you to be a killer.

PAPA DOC
Pink Flamingo Flanker Pilot...<G>

Some thoughts on the above...in joystick calibration ...if you are
having jumpy joysticks and you have Direct X5 going...disable poll
with interrupts. Doing that seems to smooth it out.