Help with aerial combat: How?

[A. Reaper]

I find a nice tactic is actually letting enemy jet get behind you, and slow down and get behind him. If you can't do that, confuse him with random evasive maneuvers and then get behind him. Also, WW2 air tactics are a nice one to see, but, obviously, aren't quite up to date nor suited for video games.

[saXoni]

Originally Posted by A. Reaper

I find a nice tactic is actually letting enemy jet get behind you, and slow down and get behind him. If you can't do that, confuse him with random evasive maneuvers and then get behind him. Also, WW2 air tactics are a nice one to see, but, obviously, aren't quite up to date nor suited for video games.

You will most likely be dead before you manage to slow down and get behind him. If however you manage to do this, your opponent just needs to turn away from you, as you're too slow to keep up.

Confusing him with random evasive maneuvers isn't really something that works in this game either. The jets are relentless, which makes it extremely easy to follow the one you're chasing.

[Mellanbror]

I find a nice tactic is actually letting enemy jet get behind you, and slow down and get behind him

Well it worked for Tom Cruise in Top Gun

[Cassius]

Look for opponents often. If you see him early and turn early you can turn harder than him at which point you can reduce speed and attempt to get him in front of you. If he is any good he will catch up on it and reduce his speed to keep you locked but most dont. Once you have spotted an enemy fly in close and turn on the heatseeker with any luck even with flares deployed at least he burns up.
If you are being locked dont just circle and pop flares pop flares one way and then turn around and fly the other way.
Also get controls you can operate easily. I would recommend a combination of keyboard and joystick. At the press of a button you can change direction and with the joystick you can finetune your turn to use the cannon.

As a last resort get close to the ground, but you must be certain how close then turn your plane upsidedown fly straight down and just befor you hit the ground sideways, either you shake him off, he is that good and keeps up or slams into the ground. This works particularly well with a slower aircraft like the SU or A 10 against a faster jet. However if you have an redforce figher Jet in the air and all thats left is a slow bomber I would sit it out and wait for the fighter jet to spawn or take ground based AA instead. Not all bombers are slow so know your jets. The F-15 for example carries 8 laserguided bombs and is as fast and maneuvrable as the other fighter jets.

EDIT: Somebody posted a ground kill video on page 3 . Some pilot error was involved, but its bound to happen if you have your move panned out while he just follows you.

Originally Posted by Navo

[Spook]

3 year necro bump, way to go Cassius

Scissoring is key move in alot of situations, depends on the jet though. Does not work out on all. A good example how an inferior harrier outmoves my superior MIG the whole time