[Draft] Aircraft Maneuvering (Updated 20080913)

You see there're some drafts in this blog.
But never mind. I, for now, would rather post many drafts than post a few finished ones.
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This article is to be concomitant with the article describing dogfight.

To control -not to be controlled- aircrafts, you have to know the variety of their movement.
In this BattleField 1942, the most difficult factor, damage by gravity, is not simulated. Therefore things that should be complicated sometimes appear rather simple.

Anyhow, what I'd like to show you in this article is videos uploaded to YouTube. Every video is to be short but long enough to see a feature. Hope you'll find something new.

1. Standard Position
This term might not tell you what exactly it is. However this is the thing which should be regarded as basic of basic. Yes, this is just horizontal flight.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XLGSF0xhTM

2. Roll
Roll, or spin.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFD_SHwDO0U
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aileron_roll
2.1 Barrel Roll
Similar to Roll. The most remarkable difference between Roll and Barrel Roll is the change in the axis of your plane. Roll is an important feature of aircraft maneuvering, but it is easy for an enemy plane to shoot down your plane while your plane is Rolling since the axis of your plane doesn't change while you're doing it. In that case, the enemy plane just needs to shoot at the direction of the axis of your plane. To avoid getting shot down in this way, you may perhaps use Barrel Roll unconsciously. While you are doing Barrel Roll, the axis of your plane changes constantly and this certainly makes enemy pilots have less chance to shoot down your plane in a short time. But I've found Barrel Roll even more effective as a means to evade shoots from the ground, like from an APC or a tank. One certain thing is that you'd better not rely too much on this technique.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMMLylJ7DxI
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_roll

3. Loop
Loop. The circle your plane would draw in the sky can't be a perfect circle because of the simulated gravity (it should be an ellipse which is vertically long).
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzcdW_GhJVY

4. Immelmann Turn
A technique on dogfight.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4aUxzL_mnI
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immelmann_turn
4.1 Immelmann Usage On Ground Strafing
Most certainly, you sometimes fail in destroying ground objects in a single stroke of strafe. In this case, a trick using Immelmann Turn might help you give the survived ground objects the second wave of strafe in a quick motion. As you can see in the following video, after missing the objects, you must fly straightly for a few seconds since Immelmann Turn itself takes a certain distance horizontally to turn back. If you don't take this action, you would fly over the objects vainly and miss them again. You can choose at which point of the stroke you get back to the Stanard Position, but my recommendation is at the point when you finish strafing, since it's hard to aim at objects while getting back to the position. But note that you might get hit by those AA guns while turning IF THERE'S ANY OF THEM AROUND. So the absolute condition to do this should be "there's no active enemy anti air weapon around".
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2r8-YR-MpQ


5. Split S
Another technique on dogfight. Immenmann turn is used to go up and change the direction, Split S is used to go down and change the direction. Split S is slightly more dangerous than Immelmann turn, especially when you haven't got enough altitude.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt7qmIq5v6A
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_S


Let me continue this later on (again this cliche!).