jex

As a fighter pilot, it is important that you understand some fundamentals about flying. This document discusses the Energy State and how important it can be to both air-air engagements and air-ground. I want to keep this explanation relatively straightforward so not to bog anyone down. I may write a more detailed explanation at a later date. Suffice to say this explanation will endeavour to give the pilot a good, basic understanding of what energy is.

Energy

So what is the energy state? In layman’s terms, energy equals either height or speed (or both). A plane that is slow and low would be considered having a low energy state. A plane flying high and fast has a high energy state. But a plane flying slow and high could be regarded has having a higher energy state than a plane flying low and fast. This is because the slow, high plane can convert height into speed.

So if you have energy, what bleeds it? Gravity and drag. Well that’s not entirely true because gravity can give you energy (if you’re high) and sap it if you’re low, trying to gain height. Drag on the other hand happens whenever you turn the aircraft. In combat situations, you’ll be turning fairly hard and pulling G’s bleeds energy.

Take two planes flying towards each other. One plane is doing 400 knots; the other is doing 600 knots. Now as they pass they both do a break turn to try and get on the other’s tail. The faster plane doesn’t turn as well because it’s going faster, and as it pulls hard in the turn, looses the energy it had. The better bet may be to turn that energy into height and to do the turn in the vertical (i.e. a loop). Now you have converted your excess speed into height (meaning your opponent now has to point upwards to get a shot at you, loosing energy) and you actually turn better when you are using gravity to assist your turns.

In Practice

This is a substantial theory to learn and as such you would need to read up. It’s not that hard and the more you know, the better a pilot you will be. In air-air engagements having available energy at your disposal whilst whittling down your opponents is a good thing and here’s a war story of my own to highlight this.

Now I am by no means the best pilot there is and this is probably my finest air-air victory ever. What this story highlights is my understanding of energy followed up with a good plan and then a victory. It’s interesting to note that had I not hit my opponent on my first dive, I was completely safe. My dive gave me extra speed with which to extend from my barely moving prey and I could set up for another pass.

In America’s Army if you go “low and slow, you’ll get a go!” In falcon though, if you go in slow, you’ll blow (up). Here we have SAM and AAA threats to worry about. Just because our CAP flight has cleared the area of enemy fighters, it doesn’t mean we are safe. For this reason it is important that we start our attack run with energy to spare. Going in fast will give us more options against ground fire than if we go in slow. So make sure you make each pass with as high an energy state as you can.

One thing to remember though is that too much energy can kill you. If you approach your target at full afterburner doing 800 knots, don’t be surprised when you can’t pull out of that dive bomb run.

Energy is something to think about but it isn’t necessary to bog yourself down with it. This is a very simplified explanation to give you an idea of what energy is and how important it can be. There are much more detailed documents on the web (try this excellent one over at Sim HQ - http://www.simhq.com/_air/air_011a.html), and I am no means a master at this myself. Just try to appreciate your energy when you get into difficult situations and you may find it helps you out one day.

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Jex