What maneuvers can be employed to shake a jet from my six?

Question

Say I'm in a jet and start getting pinged by the machine gun fire of a jet directly behind me. He has me in his cockpit view and without some serious flying...I'm dead.

• What specific maneuvers make it difficult for the enemy pilot to follow, and would allow me to shake him?
• What specific maneuvers make it difficult for the enemy pilot to hit me even if he can follow?
• What, more generally, can I do to increase my chances of survival?

Answer 1

One of the easiest moves to do is:

• Brake hard (but not so hard that you stall)
• Roll left or right so that you're somewhere between 45-80 degrees off horizontal.
• Pitch upwards hard (if your flying controls are reversed, you'd be 'pulling back on the stick' at this point)
• Max the throttle and afterburners (making sure that the path forward is clear)

This will quickly take you out of an enemy pilot's field of vision. If you continue the slow turn, and they don't immediately chase you, you'll be in a good position to get around behind them. You can also do various rolls or loops, or combat maneuvers, but since this is a video game, realistically what you want to do is change your course frequently. Even small course changes can really hurt the accuracy of other players. Matching speed can also be tricky in dogfighting, so change your speed up frequently.

Also remember that their focus is going to be on you and your focus is on flying - so challenge their flying skill by flying low to the ground or near obstacles. They'll have to choose between trying to keep you in their sights and avoiding a crash.

Answer 2

If you're up against a skilled pilot, the only way you're going to shake them is to be extremely unpredictable.

This means rolling in weird directions and turning more than they expect etc.

The easiest way I've found to do this (apart from just slowing down and hoping they overshoot you) is to do the following:

Roll left, but keep rolling until you're vertical, but with your jet's top facing to the right (i.e. roll 270 degrees, so it's like you rolled 90 degrees right) then pitch downwards so that you start turning left. Since pitching down is much slower than pitching up, begin to roll left in the middle of your turn and pitch upwards into a loop. At the top of your loop pick a direction (left or right) and roll and turn that way.

If you do that properly and you haven't lost him yet then he's either too far behind you for you to be able to lose him, or he's a very very skilled pilot.

Another thing you can do if you have a good Anti-Air on your team is to fly towards your AA, but doing so not in a straight line (or they can easily shoot you). If you fly close enough to your AA, then they should be able to take out the jet that's chasing you, or the enemy jet will come off your tail in fear of dying.

Answer 3

Depends on altitude. If you are fairly high try a split-S. Google these maneuvers BTW. If you're close to the ground, hit your brakes hard. Pitch straight up. Once you get 90 degrees check your HUD for angle of attack. Barrel roll to left or right. That should get them off your tail and you should be able to get around behind them.

Answer 4

You could try entering a 'turning fight', depending on your aircraft vs enemy maneuverability. If you know that your plane can win a turning fight, try it.

Answer 5

You can make a half loop and then turn 90 degreed. Keep rolling in multiples of 90 degrees until you're about to hit the ground, then finish with a full loop.