*** Posted by Rapier ***
[Hi RUN
As you know every fighter has a perfect speed which allow the fighter to make the tightest turn. This speed(corner velocity)for the F16 is between 331-440
kts. And now my question:
When you chase a fighter asuming he is at 20000 ft, how do you manage the speed(corn.vel) ? Keeping the speed close to 440 ? I've said close to 440 kts because at 20000 ft the maximum G force is about 6 to keep the speed constant and at 330 kts is between 4-5 Gs. At 5000 ft you can maintain the speed around 440 at 8 Gs and 330 at 7 Gs.
My tactic is to use the max limit of the corner velocity at high altitudes and the min limit at low altitudes due to smaller turn radius.
Do you agree with my tactic?
The fight is in the horiz. plane .
Thanks John
TIGER ]

Hi Tiger,

About corner velocity. Try this in F4. Go to 480 Knt's and hit the overide switch and turn hard. The speed comes down but if you balance the throttle (440 - 450 knt's) correctly and master turning without dropping off too much speed you will be deadly when dogfighting. Remember a dogfight is not just on a horizontal plane so experiment until your comfortable with acheiving the best turn rate you can get without blacking out. Another important point Tiger when turning is to keep the F16 within 100 feet to give you an exellent turn radius. turning while pointing the nose up will loose you too much speed so compensate by pointing the nose down slightly and then regaining your normal 100 feet turning rule. You need to experiment with this Tiger until you know it by hart. This is only done by practicing this. This is explained in the manual and you will find later on when doing missions that what you have learned is useful

Regards

Rapier