AV-8B Harrier II Combined Manual

15th MEU Realism Unit
VMA-513 “Flying Nightmares”
AV-8B Harrier II
Combined Manual
Edition: Date:
3rd August 8, 2010
1stLt T. “Wildfire” Morgan

Introduction to this manual
This manual serves as an introduction to powered flight, an introduction to

combat flight, and a simple pilot’s operating handbook for the McDonnell-
Douglas AV-8B Harrier II as simulated in .
This book is written to take someone with zero knowledge of Harrier
flying in , or flying in general, to a competent Harrier pilot for the VMA-
513 “Flying Nightmares.” A lot of the material in this book is specifically
written for flying in . As an example, stalls and spins manifest completely
differently in other video games (and in real life), and this book is not a
suitable reference for stall handling in any situation except in the Harrier in
.
This book should be studied progressively as you move through your
student pilot program. The order of chapters corresponds to the order of the
lessons you will receive. If at any point a term or acronym is referenced that
you do not understand, consult the Index of Terms on page 156.
You should have received an additional document along with this manual
containing printable quick-reference cards for use while flying. This book
references these cards periodically, so it’s good to keep them handy. Some
material in the cards is not covered in the book.
i
ii
List of changes
As new editions of this manual are released, this table will be updated with
the changes in each new revision.
Edition Date Changes

1st May 29, 2010 Initial revision
2nd June 4, 2010 Expanded air-to-ground and vertical
rd
3 August 8, 2010 Escort and dumb-bomb procedures
iii
iv
Contents
1 Aircraft Overview 1
The four forces of flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Control surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Additional components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Basic maneuvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Jet engine theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Harrier’s jet engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Avionics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2 Normal Procedures 19
Walk-around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Before taxi and taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Takeoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Visual navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Instrument navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Basic maneuvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Hover mode and thrust vectoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Landing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3 Emergency Procedures 37
Engine failure in flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Engine failure after takeoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Fuel leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Landing gear failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Stall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Bailout procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Survival and rescue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
v
vi CONTENTS
4 Formation Flying 43
Formation briefing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Formation taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Formation takeoffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Formation departure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Formation flight (station-keeping) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Formation approaches and landings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Formation emergencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Other procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5 Air-to-Air Combat 57
Basic fighter maneuvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Air combat maneuvering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Beyond-visual-range fights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Threat avoidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6 Air-to-Ground Combat 113

Attack geometries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Guided and unguided bombs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Non-precision delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7 Combat Procedures 119

Combat air patrols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Escort procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
8 LHD Operations 135

Taxiing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Takeoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Landings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
9 Communications and Procedures 141

Non-combat procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Combat procedures: Ingress and egress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Combat procedures: Air-to-ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Combat procedures: Air-to-air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
CONTENTS vii
10 Appendices 155
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Index of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
viii CONTENTS
List of Figures
1.1 Schematic 3-view of a Harrier II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 The four forces of flight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Laminar flow about a sphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Measuring angle of attack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 A stall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.6 Lift-induced drag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.7 The drag curve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.8 The three axes of rotation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.9 A turbofan jet engine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.10 The Rolls-Royce Pegasus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.11 Major elements of the Harrier cockpit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.12 The elements of the HUD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.13 The artificial horizon on the left MFD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.14 The horizontal situation indicator on the right MFD. . . . . . 16
1.15 The upper left overlay panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.16 Key to radar symbology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.17 The effect of bank on radar’s field of view. . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.18 Acquiring and locking a target. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1 An example HUD-only scan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.2 Turns about a point, 1 NMi radius. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3 Rectangular course with wind correction. . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.4 A left-hand traffic pattern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.5 The ideal landing glide slope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.6 Guide to PAPI symbols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.7 ILS steering cues on the HUD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1 Four-ship overhead break pattern entry. . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
ix
x LIST OF FIGURES
5.1 Angle-off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.2 Aspect angle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.3 The three pursuit courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.4 The problem with pure pursuit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.5 Lift vector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.6 Out-of-plane maneuvering and pursuit types. . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.7 Aspect and angle-off problems created by a bandit’s turn. . . 63
5.8 The problem with an immediate BFM turn. . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.9 Radial g. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.10 The tactical egg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.11 Inside and outside the turn circle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.12 A bandit denying his opponent turning room. . . . . . . . . . 69
5.13 The problem with yielding turning room in the vertical plane. 69
5.14 Entry window for the first BFM turn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.15 The high-speed yo-yo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.16 Yielding turning room by maneuvering out-of-plane. . . . . . . 75
5.17 Converting a defensive BFM into a head-on BFM. . . . . . . . 75
5.18 Taking advantage of an attacker’s vertical BFM entry. . . . . 76
5.19 The flat scissors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.20 Two flight path overshoots and a 3/9 line overshoot. . . . . . 77
5.21 A loaded reversal to force an overshoot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.22 An offensive fight with no escape window. . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.23 An offensive fight with an escape window. . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.24 An luffberry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.25 A proper lead turn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.26 A lead turn begun too early. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.27 Nose-high lead turn against a nose-low adversary. . . . . . . . 85
5.28 Nose-low slice into the bandit after head-on. . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.29 Vertical BFM entry after head-on pass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.30 Oblique and pure vertical turns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.31 A pirouette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.32 A one-circle fight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.33 A two-circle fight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.34 The problem with turning away after the pass. . . . . . . . . . 90
5.35 Check turn offensive ACM entry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.36 Straight-ahead extension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.37 Forming the bracket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.38 The early switch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
LIST OF FIGURES xi
5.39 The late switch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

5.40 The same-side break. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.41 The cross turn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.42 Asymmetric bandit, shown with a same-side break. . . . . . . 108
5.43 AAA employing aimed fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.44 AAA employing barrage fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
6.1 Dive-bombing run using FPM to aim bombs. . . . . . . . . . . 116
7.1 Two-element counterrotating CAP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

7.2 Two-element counteropposing CAPs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
7.3 Single-element beam CAP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
7.4 Corridor escort of slow-moving aircraft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
7.5 HAVCAP escort of slow-moving aircraft. . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.6 The ready position and escort position for a four-ship flight
in finger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
7.7 2-ship escort of a single aircraft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7.8 2-ship escort of a 2-ship flight in echelon right. . . . . . . . . . 129
7.9 2-ship escort of a 2-ship flight in trail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7.10 2-ship escort of a 2-ship flight line abreast. . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7.14 4-ship escort of a 4-ship flight in finger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Chapter 1
Aircraft Overview
Figure 1.1: Schematic 3-view of a Harrier II.
The four forces of flight

Flight is accomplished by balancing the four forces of flight (fig. 1.2). Each
of the four forces acts in opposition to another force.
1
2 CHAPTER 1. AIRCRAFT OVERVIEW
Lift
Drag Thrust
Weight
Figure 1.2: The four forces of flight.
Lift is produced when the airplane’s wings redirect air downwards, creat-
ing an equal and opposite force that pushes upwards.
Weight is the force created by gravity, which seeks to pull the airplane
back down towards the earth. It operates opposite lift.
Thrust is generated by the aircraft’s engines, and propels the airplane
forward.
Drag is generated by air molecules striking the forward surfaces of the
aircraft, and seeks to slow the aircraft down. It operates opposite thrust.
When the amount of lift produced is exactly equal to the aircraft’s weight,
the aircraft will neither gain nor lose altitude, but remain at whatever altitude
it is currently at. Likewise, when the amount of thrust produced is exactly
equal to the amount of drag, the aircraft will neither gain nor lose speed, but
remain at whatever velocity it is currently at.
Lift
Lift is generated when air moves over an airfoil. An airfoil is any surface
whose shape redirects wind downward. If you were to stick your hand out
a moving car’s window, and place it at a 45° angle, it would become an
airfoil, pushing oncoming air downward. And sure enough, you would feel
an upward force of lift on your hand.
Aside from an airfoil, lift depends on only one other phenomenon to occur:
laminar flow. Laminar flow occurs when the molecules of air moving across
the airfoil’s surface follow its contours (fig. 1.3). If these molecules “detach”
from the contours of the airfoil, the air becomes turbulent, creating eddies
and vortices that destroy lift. This phenomenon is called flow separation.
To understand why flow separation occurs, it’s important to understand
angle of attack. Imagine that a line is drawn from the middle of the leading
edge of the wing, to the very back of the wing where it tapers to a point. This
THE FOUR FORCES OF FLIGHT 3
Fd
Fg
Figure 1.3: Laminar flow about a sphere.
line is called the chord line. It can generally be described as the direction
the wing is pointing. What’s important to understand is that this is not
always the same as the angle of the relative wind. The difference between
the two is the angle of attack (fig. 1.4). If we return to the hand-out-of-the-
car-window example, your hand is tilted about 45° down, but the relative
wind is head-on, at 0°. Thus, your hand “wing” has an angle of attack of
45°.
α
Figure 1.4: Measuring angle of attack.
Angle of attack is a very important number, because it describes when

flow separation will occur. Every wing has a critical angle of attack. If the
wing is angled any further than this angle of attack, the amount that the air
is deflected is too much for laminar flow. After this point air can no longer
“cling” to the shape of the wing, and flow separation begins to occur.
Flow separation will start at the most inboard surface of the wing, and
progress outward as angle of attack is further increased beyond the critical
angle. Eventually, enough of the flow across the wing will be separated, and
the wing will no longer generate lift. When this happens, the wing stalls and
begins to fall (fig. 1.5).
6°, steady flow
15°, stall point, maximum lift

separation point
25°
relative
separated
wind
flow
Figure 1.5: The mechanics of a stall.
Weight
Weight is the force created by gravity’s effect on your airplane’s mass. As
the mass of the airplane decreases, its weight decreases. Weight is constant
in : Aircraft do not lose weight after consuming fuel or expending ord-
nance. Therefore, your aircraft will have the same lift and vertical thrust
performance at the end of your mission as it did upon takeoff.
Thrust
Thrust is generated by the engine and pushes the aircraft forward. In ,
the throttle controls thrust in one of two modes: analog or keyboard. Analog
thrust provides smooth power control from idle to maximum military power
through the use of an analog axis. Keyboard control provides three thrust
levels: decelerating, maintaining airspeed, and accelerating. The computer
manages the amount of thrust necessary to produce these three accelerations
for you.
If you choose to use analog throttle, you will be burdened with having to
constantly re-adjust your thrust to achieve a desired airspeed, but rewarded
with finer control over your aircraft’s movements. Analog throttle is very
important during close formation flying.
THE FOUR FORCES OF FLIGHT 5
Drag
Drag counteracts thrust, requiring engines to continuously generate power to
maintain a speed. You may note that when driving on the freeway, you need
to press the gas pedal down some to maintain your speed: This is because
drag is sapping some of your engine’s thrust. Likewise, some idle power is
necessary in order for your aircraft to maintain its airspeed.
Drag comes in two forms: parasite drag and lift-induced drag. Parasite
drag is caused by many phenomena, notably the friction between the air-
craft’s skin and air (skin friction drag) and the pressure of air molecules that
build up on the leading surfaces of the aircraft (form drag). Lift-induced
drag is caused because a wing is not always perfectly level, meaning the lift
it generates is not always straight up: There’s a rearward component to the
force of lift that works against thrust (fig. 1.6).
Induced Drag
Lift
Figure 1.6: Lift-induced drag.
Lift-induced drag is high at low speeds, where the higher angle of attack
creates a larger rearward component of lift. Parasite drag increases at higher
speeds, where the amount of air moving over the wing increases. Thus, there
is a medium between the two extremes where drag is minimized (fig. 1.7).
Drag
g
Li
ra
ag
To t a l d
ft-
du
dr
in
ce
te
d
dra ra
si
g Pa
Velocity
Figure 1.7: The drag curve shows the competing effects of the two kinds of
drag.
Control surfaces
You control your airplane through the use of control surfaces, which deflect
in the airstream to redirect air in different directions. The airplane has three
control surfaces that let it rotate in three dimensions (fig. 1.8).
Pitch Yaw Roll
Figure 1.8: The three axes of rotation.

ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS 7
Ailerons
Ailerons are small movable surfaces on the outboard edge of each of the
airplane’s wings. They deflect in opposite directions: When one is up, the
other one is down. They serve to roll the aircraft, rotating it about its
longitudinal axis.
Ailerons are deflected by moving the aircraft’s stick to the left or right.
Elevators
Elevators are a pair of movable surfaces on the aircraft’s horizontal tail.
They move in tandem: Both are up, or both are down. They serve to pitch
the aircraft, rotating it about its lateral axis.
Elevators are deflected by pushing or pulling the stick forward or back.
Rudder
The rudder is a single movable surface on the aircraft’s vertical tail. It serves
to yaw the aircraft, rotating it about its vertical axis.
The rudder is deflected by pushing on either the left or the right foot
pedal.
Additional components
Flaps
The Harrier has flaps on the inboard part of each wing. Flaps are extensions
that, when lowered, increase the surface area of the wing, providing additional
lift at the expense of additional drag. They are used to maintain lift at slow
airspeeds, primarily during takeoff and landing.
The Harrier’s flaps can be extended to either 10° or 40°. The 10° setting
should be used for takeoff and slow flight (like when in the landing pattern).
It should not be used above 300 KPH. The 40° setting should be used during
VTOL flight and on final approach to land. It should not be used above 200
KPH.
Speed brakes
The Harrier has aerodynamic speed brakes that, when deployed, increase
drag and serve to slow the aircraft down.
Landing gear
The Harrier has a tricycle gear configuration with a single, steerable nose
wheel and two main wheels further down the fuselage. In addition, two
smaller outrigger wheels can be found at the end of each wing. The mains
are the primary load-bearing landing gear and serve to support the weight
of the aircraft. The nose gear’s purpose is to provide directional steering on
the ground. The outrigger wheels prevent wingtip strikes when maneuvering
in very low VTOL flight.
Basic maneuvers
With the use of the three control surfaces, and power via the throttle, the
pilot can accomplish any maneuver a conventional aircraft is capable of. The
most basic maneuvers are described below.
Changing direction
Changing direction is accomplished by banking the aircraft with the use of
ailerons and rudder. If you were to bank your aircraft using only ailerons, you
would find your pitch changes as well: As you bank left or right, your nose
would pitch up unexpectedly. You would be performing an uncoordinated
turn. Uncoordinated turns are dangerous at low airspeeds, as they lead to
unintentional stalls.
Ideally, a bank would not have any element of pitch: The nose would
remain in the same place relative to the horizon as the airplane rotated.
To accomplish this, pilots use aileron and rudder in concert, performing a
coordinated turn. As left aileron is applied, an amount of left rudder is
also applied to keep the nose in the same location. Likewise, right aileron is
always accompanied by right rudder.
Fortunately for an pilot such as yourself, the simulator sports a fea-
ture called auto-coordination. If you switch to external view and watch the
empennage (tail portion of your aircraft) as you perform a turn, you will
JET ENGINE THEORY 9
notice the rudder moving even if you didn’t command rudder. That’s the
game ensuring your turns are coordinated.
This leaves you only to worry about the rudder in other situations, such
as lining up gun shots or performing advanced aerobatic maneuvers.
Changing altitude
A change of altitude is a two-step process in the Harrier: a change of power,
and a change of pitch. If you want to increase your altitude, you would pitch
the nose up to begin a climb. However, the climb will reduce your airspeed, so
to compensate, you increase power to maintain your desired airspeed. When
you have reached your desired altitude, you return the nose to the horizon
and decrease power to maintain airspeed.
Likewise, a descent is initiated by reducing power and letting the nose fall
(adding some forward pitch if necessary) while maintaining airspeed. When
the desired altitude is reached, the nose is returned to the horizon and power
is increased to maintain airspeed.
One of the marks of a professional pilot is a conscious control of airspeed
and altitude. The professional pilot does not merely accept whatever altitude,
airspeed, and heading his airplane chooses to give him: He decides upon a
desired airspeed, altitude, and heading beforehand, and works to attain and
maintain those parameters. It’s an important concept: You are the pilot;
you are flying the plane — not the other way around. You should be the one
choosing where the plane goes and how it gets there.
Jet engine theory

The AV-8B Harrier II is powered by a turbofan jet engine, which sets it
apart from older fighter jets, typically employing turbojets. To understand
the difference, let’s begin with an overview of how jet engines work.
Jet engines, like car engines, employ a four-stage power cycle: intake,
compression, ignition, and exhaust. The primary difference is that in a jet
engine, this is all performed in one long tube. Air flows into the front of the
tube (intake), is compressed by fast-spinning compressor blades (compres-
sion), mixed with fuel and ignited (ignition), and ejected out the back of the
tube (exhaust).
Figure 1.9: The mechanics of a turbofan jet engine.
Some of the power generated in the ignition stage is used to power the
compressor. The compressor fan spins at an extremely high speed. The fuel
is ignited by a continuous flame, protected from the fast flow of air by a
flame eddy. In real life, unusual airflow across the intake can extinguish the
flame, called a flameout, which results in a complete loss of power, requiring
a relight. Fortunately, in ,this does not occur, and only an unfortunate
missile or gun hit or a very negligent pilot can result in engine failure.
Now that the basic theory of jet engines is out of the way, on to turbojets
and turbofans. Turbojets are older, simpler jet engines; there is only one
direction for air to flow and that is through each of the four stages. Turbojets
are simpler, noisier, and less fuel efficient (except at supersonic airspeeds).
To build a turbofan engine, take a turbojet and wrap a shroud around it,
such that some of the air passes through the jet portion (called the core), and
some of it passes through the shroud (called the bypass). Add another, larger
compressor that fills both the core and the bypass (called the fan). Now you
need two shafts connected to the ignition stage: one to drive the high-pressure
compressor and one to drive the low-pressure compressor (fig. 1.9).
Turbofans are more efficient, because the low-pressure air passing through
the bypass works with the high-pressure air moving through the core to
generate thrust more efficiently. This also reduces exhaust speed, which
reduces engine noise. Turbofans are most efficient in subsonic flight (and the
Harrier is not capable of supersonic flight).
THE HARRIER’S JET ENGINE 11
The Harrier’s jet engine
Most jet engines are straight tubes, such that air never changes direction
between the intake and exhaust. The Harrier is one of few aircraft that
can change the direction the air is flowing, called thrust vectoring. The
terminus of the engine can be rotated anywhere between 0° (straight back)
and 98.5° (slightly forward of vertical) to produce both horizontal and vertical
thrust. By being able to produce its own vertical thrust, the Harrier does
not necessarily need lift from its wings to stay aloft. Thus, the Harrier can
remain in the air at speeds that would normally cause it to stall.
Figure 1.10: The Harrier’s jet engine, a Rolls-Royce F402-RR-408 Mk. 105
Pegasus.
Flying using vertical thrust is called hovering, and taking off or landing

under vertical thrust is called vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). We’ll
get into the procedures of VTOL flight in a later section.
In the real Harrier, a second lever next to the throttle is used to control
the direction of the thrust. The pilot must move it carefully to manage his
speed and lifting force as he transitions between vertical and forward flight.
In , this transition is managed for you. There is no manual control of
the thrust vector, only a two-way toggle between vertical and forward flight.
The details of this will be covered in a later section.
Avionics
Cockpit overview
While the real Harrier’s cockpit might seem an imposing wall of switches and
dials, in there are only a few functional elements. Figure 1.11 shows the
Harrier cockpit and highlights which areas are worth your attention.
Heads-up
display
Attitude Horizontal
indicator situation
indicator
Standby
instruments
Figure 1.11: Major elements of the Harrier cockpit.
The Harrier’s two multi-function displays (MFDs) in real life can display
a wide variety of information. In , the left display always shows an arti-
ficial horizon, and the right display always a horizontal situation indicator
(HSI).
Between and below the two multifunction displays are the analog instru-
ments, including an airspeed indicator (ASI) and another artificial horizon.
Below the artificial horizon is an analog altimeter, but it is unfortunately
obscured by the control stick, and generally useless.
Above the instrument panel is the heads-up display (HUD), consolidating
crucial information directly in line-of-sight of the pilot.
Heads-up display
The purpose of the HUD is two-fold: Firstly, it places critical information
in line-of-sight of the pilot, freeing him from looking down at his instrument
AVIONICS 13
panel during critical portions of flight, such as landing or combat. Secondly, it

uses visual symbology to augment the pilot’s view out the windshield: Boxes
drawn over targets, projected bullet trajectories, and other such information
represented visually and superimposed over the appropriate point in space.
The HUD uses holographic projection to ensure its symbols appear at the
same point in space regardless of the pilot’s head position.
The HUD in is a simplified version of the its real-life counterpart, but
it still contains many useful elements. The following picture shows the loca-
tion and appearance of these interface elements. Each of these is explained
in figure 1.12.
Heading indicator Vertical speed indicator

Pitch ladder Flight path marker
Waterline Altitude indicator
Airspeed indicator Gun cross
Currently selected weapon Gear position indicator
Weapon rounds remaining Flaps position indicator
Figure 1.12: The elements of the HUD.
The flight path marker (FPM) is a small circle with three spokes that
projects the direction your airplane is going. It essentially says, “If nothing
changes, this is where you will end up.”
This crucial data can help you derive a lot of important information about
what your aircraft is doing. As a basic example, the FPM can be compared
against the horizon line: If it rests below the horizon line, against the ground,
then your plane must be losing altitude (and would eventually impact the
ground without a control change). If it rests above the horizon line, in the
sky, then your plane is climbing.

The FPM is very useful when landing. Normally pilots must estimate
their approach path visually; with the FPM the job becomes almost trivial.
Simply adjust your throttle to place the FPM “right on the numbers,” where
you want the airplane to touch down, and you’ll hit the spot every time.
(We’ll get into landing more in a later section.)
The FPM becomes much less useful during VTOL flight, where the air-
plane’s trajectory is not straight ahead, so the FPM cannot be displayed
within the confines of the HUD. In this situation it will slip off-screen and
become invisible.
The waterline is a “W” shape along a horizontal line. It remains sta-
tionary in your HUD, and shows you where your airplane’s nose is pointed.
This is, of course, not always the same as the direction your aircraft is going,
hence why it’s not the same as the FPM. The vertical difference between the
waterline and the FPM is a good estimation of your angle of attack. Ex-
ample: If there are two pitch ladder rungs between your waterline and flight
path marker, your angle of attack is around 10°.
The pitch ladder is a series of horizontal lines running up and down the
HUD. The lines are placed in 5° increments above and below the horizon line
(labeled as 0°). If your waterline is aligned with the 10° ladder rung, then
you know your airplane is pitched 10° up.
Each of the pitch ladder “rungs” has two ticks on either edge that point
in the direction of the horizon. If you find yourself disoriented in an unusual
attitude, all you have to do is push or pull the stick in the direction of the
ticks to find the horizon. In addition, the rungs below the horizon are dashed,
so you can immediately determine if you are pointed towards the ground.
The airspeed tape is a tape on the right side of the HUD indicating your
current airspeed. The caret points to your airspeed in kilometers per hour
along the tape. The caret remains stationary; the tape will wind upward as
speed increases and downward as speed decreases.
The altitude tape is a tape along the left side of the HUD. It works like
the airspeed tape, but indicates altitude in meters above mean sea level
(MSL). This is the altitude according to air pressure, not according to your
distance from the ground. The altitude tape winds in the opposite direction
as the airspeed tape.
Above the altitude tape is the vertical speed indicator (VSI), which
indicates a climb or descent numerically in meters per minute divided by
ten. Thus, if descending at 120 meters per minute, the number “12” will
AVIONICS 15
appear.
The heading tape is a tape along the top of the HUD indicating true
heading. (The true heading is relative to true north, as opposed to magnetic
north.) The caret indicates the current heading.
The word GEAR will appear in the bottom-right of the HUD if your
landing gear is extended. The word FLAPS will appear if you have at least
one notch of flaps selected.
Along with these non-combat indicators, the HUD will include additional
symbology depending on the weapon you have chosen. Most of these symbols
are stylized gun crosses that let you estimate where your weapons will be
delivered, and are loosely based on the symbology of each weapon found in the
real Harrier’s HUD. A later section will cover weapons delivery procedures.
Artificial horizon
The left MFD displays the artificial horizon (fig. 1.13), used to orient the pilot
when flying without visual references. The artificial horizon is split into two
sections, a blue section representing the sky, and a brown one representing
the ground. These sections are split by a horizon line. This helps the pilot
easily visualize what the view out the window looks like.
Figure 1.13: The artificial horizon on the left MFD.
The artificial horizon has a pitch ladder like the HUD. The large, labeled
lines represent 10° increments and the smaller intermediate lines 5° incre-
ments. To read your pitch, find the line nearest the small black dot in the
center of the screen (representing your aircraft’s nose).
The artificial horizon also has a non-functional bank indicator and glide
slope indicator, both of which should be ignored.
Horizontal situation indicator

The right MFD displays a basic HSI (fig. 1.14), with a compass rose and
a caret indicating the aircraft’s current heading. The compass rose can be
useful to visualize different headings and their relationships to your aircraft.
Figure 1.14: The horizontal situation indicator on the right MFD.
The HSI also has a nonfunctional course deviation indicator and glide
slope indicator, both of which should be ignored.
Overlay
In addition to the information in the cockpit, has an overlay that aug-
ments your display. In the upper left-hand corner of the screen (fig. 1.15) is
your aircraft’s airspeed in kilometers per hour and altitude in meters above
ground level (AGL), displayed numerically. The speed will turn red when
the aircraft is approaching a stall.
Below that are visual indications of your aircraft’s damage and fuel quan-
tity.
The upper-center display is a compass heading tape (depicting true head-
ing) and below that is a visual depiction of the aircraft’s radar, which is
important enough that it deserves its own section (below).
The upper right-hand display shows the currently selected weapon and
the number of rounds or stores remaining.
AVIONICS 17
Figure 1.15: The upper left overlay panel.
Radar display
simplifies what are generally complicated radar displays, distilling a
bunch of functionality down into a little box in the upper-center of the screen.
The radar display is peppered with dots indicating radar contacts. A light
green box is drawn to indicate the current field of view; if a dot appears at
the upper-right-hand corner of the box, then look at the upper-right-hand
corner of your screen to see your contact.
Figure 1.16: Key to radar symbology.
The radar always points the same direction your head is facing: To scan
for targets to the left, look left. This isn’t always necessary, as the long strip
corresponds to a 360° field of view. The only time it is necessary is if your
aircraft is sharply banked: Your radar banks with your aircraft, so your 360°
field of view is now scanning a slice of the sky and ground (fig. 1.17). In
this situation, you should “keep your head on a swivel” and look around for
enemy contacts.
As new radar contacts appear in the distance, they will slowly fade in
on your radar display. They will be gray at first, and then turn to green
Figure 1.17: The effect of bank on radar’s field of view.
if identified as friendly or red if identified as enemy. Neutral contacts (or

unmanned vehicles) will remain gray.
As in real life, radar beams do not penetrate terrain, so if a mountain
stands between you and an enemy fighter plane, it will not appear on your
radar display. This can be used to your advantage, however, as the enemy
will not detect you until it crosses that mountain where you are presumably
lying in wait for the pounce.
Depending on which weapon you have selected, you may be able to target
certain radar contacts when they are close to the front of your aircraft. A
targeted contact will have a box around it.
When you acquire a target, a box will appear around it in both in the
radar and in the world, called the target designator box (TD box). This box
is drawn as part of your overlay. In addition, you will get distance information
and the target’s identity. Which targets you can acquire depends on which
weapon you have selected; for example, air-to-ground weapons will not target
aircraft.
Figure 1.18: Acquiring and locking a target.
Infantry on the ground can use a laser target designator to make new con-
tacts appear on your radar. For more information, see Guided and unguided
bombs, page 114.
Chapter 2
Normal Procedures
Walk-around
In , Harriers don’t generally suffer from the types of mechanical issues
that can crop up amongst their real-life counterparts when subjected to the
effects of weathering and combat. Even so, it’s important to perform a very
basic walk-around to make sure your airplane is airworthy.
• Check for damage. Damage is visually represented in rather

oddly as cratering on the airplane’s skin.
• Check for a full weapons loadout. Verify your Harrier has the
correct loadout and a full complement of all weapons for its loadout.
See the included booklet for more information on Harrier loadouts.
• Check the area around the Harrier for obstacles. Ensure that
you have a taxi route clear of personnel or equipment.
Before taxi and taxi

Before beginning your taxi, you should perform a few basic pre-taxi proce-
dures.
1. Ensure your weapons are safed. doesn’t have a master-arm

switch, so to compensate we expect pilots to keep their finger off the
trigger when their airplane is on the ground. Additionally, you should
19
20 CHAPTER 2. NORMAL PROCEDURES
have your cannon selected, as it will do a lot less damage than a 2,000-
pounder if accidentally fired.
2. Start the engine. Add forward throttle to begin the engine auto-start
procedure.
3. Clean up the airplane. Ensure your speed brakes are closed and
your flaps are up. Set auto-hover appropriately. Auto-hover is useful
for maneuvering in tight spaces, but should be turned off for normal
taxiing.
4. Ensure your lights are on. At nighttime, all aircraft must have their
lights on when operating on or near friendly airbases.
5. Ensure you have clearance to taxi. See Non-combat procedures,

page 141, for more information on airbase procedures.
Taxiing is accomplished on the ground by use of the rudder pedals, which

control a rotating nose wheel through a process known as nose-wheel steer-
ing (NWS). To begin moving forward, add a touch of power, then reduce
power to maintain a taxi speed.
Like birds, aircraft on the ground are awkward creatures. The Harrier
should be taxied with diligence and care, because it is not very maneuverable
on the ground. Be careful not to build up excess speed, as braking power
is very limited. Taxi slowly and smoothly from your parking spot to the
runway hold-short line.
If you need to maneuver in close quarters, turn auto-hover on. Your
aircraft will be able to turn almost on a point, though you will need about
an additional five to ten feet of clearance from your wings, nose, and tail to
complete a tight turn.
Takeoff
Takeoffs are normally performed into the wind, as the additional wind speed
generates more lift and gets the airplane off the ground more quickly.
TAKEOFF 21
Normal takeoff
After having received clearance to take the runway, select 10° of flap and
position your aircraft along the runway centerline. Smoothly apply full power
and use rudder to maintain the centerline. At about 150 KPH, rotate: Apply
some back pressure to the stick to attain a 10° nose up attitude. Hold it there
and let the airplane fly itself off the runway. (It will do so at around 190
KPH.) Do not apply too much back pressure or try to force the airplane off
the ground, or the tail will strike the asphalt (a tail strike).
Once you have verified you have a positive rate of climb (in other words,
your aircraft isn’t coming back to the ground), raise the landing gear. Raise
the flaps after passing 200 KPH.
Short-field takeoff
This takeoff procedure should be used when operating at short airstrips (less
than 2,000 feet).
Auto-hover should be turned on when taking the runway, and 40° of flaps
should be used. After turning on auto-hover, apply full power. The airplane
will begin to accelerate. At 60 KPH, apply back pressure to attain a 10° nose
up attitude. Hold it there and let the airplane begin lifting vertically. Once
clear of obstacles, pitch forward to attain level flight, turn off auto-hover,
and raise the landing gear. The airplane will begin accelerating. Raise one
notch of flaps at 100 KPH, and the other notch at 200 KPH. The airplane
will transition to normal flight around 175 KPH.
Unimproved field takeoff

When taking off at unimproved airfields, care should be used not to bump the
aircraft at high speeds, which will cause damage. A variation on the short-
field takeoff procedure is used to get the aircraft off the ground as quickly as
possible.
Apply full flaps but do not turn on auto-hover. Choose a takeoff direction
that is free of obstacles, on flat land, and pointed at least reasonably into
the wind. Apply full power and watch your airspeed. At around 50 KPH,
engage auto-hover and smoothly apply back pressure until the airplane leaves
the ground, being sure not to exceed 10° nose-up. Once airborne, push the
nose forward to establish a normal takeoff attitude. When the airplane is
safely off the ground and clear of obstacles, disengage auto-hover and raise
the gear. Raise one notch of flaps at 100 KPH, and the other notch at 200
KPH.
Visual navigation
In day, during clear weather, and at night with the use of night-vision goggles
(NVGs), pilots can use visual navigation (also known as pilotage) to proceed
enroute. Pilotage is navigation by use of local landmarks and terrain features.
To use pilotage, the pilot must either have a map handy (which we is available
in-game, and which you may even have available to you in printed format),
or must have a familiarity with the local area.
The trick to effective pilotage is recognizing when you’re lost. A pilot
who is navigating by pilotage and not lost is one who is finding prominent
landmarks on his map, then verifying by locating them out his window. The
lost pilot performs these steps in the reverse order: He is noticing landmarks
out his window then struggling to locate them on his map.
Instrument navigation
In cloudy or foggy weather, with low visibilities, or at night without the
use of NVGs, instrument navigation techniques must be used. In real life,
instrument navigation is performed under the complex and strenuous tenets
of instrument flight rules, using a variety of different techniques to fly and
navigate. In , this situation is a whole lot simpler.
Instrument flying involves two main components, knowing what your
aircraft is doing, and knowing where your aircraft is going.
The Scan: Knowing what your aircraft is doing

The core of instrument flying is the scan. The human brain is excellent at
taking a complete picture and using it to figure out individual parts: For
example, if I showed you a picture of an airplane against the horizon, you
could figure out its attitude information (pitch and bank) easily. The reverse
of this, taking individual parts and combining them to form a complete
picture, is more difficult for humans.
INSTRUMENT NAVIGATION 23
Thus we have the scan. When flying under instrument conditions, pilots
are always moving their eyes, jumping from instrument to instrument, col-
lecting individual bits of data. They use this information to form a complete
picture of what their aircraft is doing.
Fortunately, the Harrier II is blessed with a modern avionics suite includ-
ing a HUD and artificial horizon, making forming that picture very easy.
Most of the time your eyes will never need to leave the HUD. But diligence
is still required on the part of the pilot. The key to a good scan is choosing
what instruments to visit with your eyes, and how often to glance at them.
Every scan visits the FPM, and typically you do this in between every
other instrument, because it is so crucial to forming a picture of what the
airplane is doing. Glance at either the FPM on the HUD or the artificial
horizon on the MFD in between every other eye movement.
You should choose the other instruments of your scan based on what’s
important to you at your current phase of flight. During landing, for instance,
you should incorporate the airspeed and altitude tapes frequently, whereas
during cruise flight you should only check those tapes occasionally, instead
checking your radar for threats more frequently. Define a rhythm and stick
to it, remembering to visit the FPM in between each other instrument.
Figure 2.1: An example HUD-only scan.
Each time you visit an instrument, make sure it looks normal. If you
don’t like what you see, make a control surface deflection that works towards
fixing the problem, then move on to the next instrument. You shouldn’t
fixate on a single instrument while trying to correct a problem.
For example, let’s say you’re performing your scan and you notice your
airspeed is falling way too low. You should add power, and move on to the
next instrument in your scan. You can verify that your airspeed is increasing
once you’ve finished your scan and come back to the airspeed indicator.
If you instead fixate on the ASI, and stare at it as your airspeed increases
back to normal, you will miss important cues from other instruments, and
may lose control of your airplane without even knowing it.
Knowing where your aircraft is going
An important rule of aviation is as follows: Your first priority should

be to always fly the airplane. No single responsibility is more important
to you than maintaining positive control of your aircraft. If it takes all of
your concentration to fly the plane at some point in time, then you should
be doing nothing else.
With that in mind, you should move on to this next part of instrument
navigation only after you’ve mastered the previous section. If it’s taking all
your mental energy to continue keeping the aircraft under control, then do
not worry about navigating until things settle down.
If you have some energy to spare, though, you can implement techniques
of instrument navigation. In the real world there are a few, but in
there’s really just the map, compass, and GPS. As on the ground, the key
is to first locate yourself using the GPS, then take a bearing to your desired
destination, and then finally fly that bearing using the heading indicator.
Dead reckoning is the use of mathematical extrapolation to navigate
from point to point. Simply put, it involves a) knowing where you are right
now, b) choosing a ground speed and calculating how long it would take to
reach a certain point at that speed, and c) flying the correct heading for that
length of time.
Dead reckoning is the oldest way to navigate on instruments. The
universe is small, so properly calculating transit times is easy since the en-
tirety of Chernarus can be transited in a matter of minutes.
BASIC MANEUVERS 25
Basic maneuvers
Pilots learn and practice some simple maneuvers that are often used in avi-
ation. Proficiency in these maneuvers will help you be a better pilot in .
Turns about a point

This maneuver stresses making nice, round circles about a ground reference
point, in calm weather or strong winds. It comes up in practice in a variety
of situations: RESCAPs, holding patterns, battle damage assessment, etc.
First, locate your ground reference point then pick a distance that will be
the radius of your circle. Start your circle by picking a point on the ground
about that distance from the circle’s center, and fly to that point, placing
the circle’s center off your left or right wing.
Next, look at the ground and find a point 90° off from the center of
the circle, the same distance away. Estimate the distance using your own
judgment. Fly a round arc to that point, keeping the reference point off your
wing. Repeat these steps to “map out” your circle on the ground.
(approx. 1 NMi)
Ground reference
90°
(approx. 1 NMi)
Figure 2.2: Turns about a point, 1 NMi radius.
If you perform this maneuver in strong wind, you may notice you are
naturally increasing and decreasing your level of bank as you track about the
circle, compensating for the wind without having to think about it.
Rectangular course
This maneuver practices making square or rectangular boxes above the ground,
even when the wind would otherwise have you making parallelograms. This
maneuver is most obvious as the traffic pattern.
To make geometric rectangles accounting for wind, you will need to first
determine the direction the wind is coming from and its approximate speed.
You can do this on the ground before your flight.
With that in mind, estimate appropriate wind correction angles (WCAs)
for each leg of the rectangle. The wind correction angle is the angle off of
course you need to point your nose to keep your ground track in the correct
direction.
If you find for one leg the wind is coming strongly from your left, perhaps
almost perpendicular, you will need to point your nose far to the left of course
to maintain a straight track across the ground.
WIND
Figure 2.3: Rectangular course with wind correction.
As you fly each leg of the rectangle, look out the window to judge your
ground track. Make corrections to your WCA as necessary to maintain a
straight ground track. Take note of these new WCAs to maintain your rect-
angle, but be ready to adapt for changing wind conditions.
In addition to a WCA, you will also need to adjust the time you spend
on each leg. If the wind is behind you for a particular leg, you will be going
HOVER MODE AND THRUST VECTORING 27
faster during that leg and should therefore spend less time flying that leg.
Two more turns later will find you on the opposing leg, which, because it’s
an upwind leg, will take longer.
Slow flight
A final important maneuver to practice is minimum controllable airspeed
(MCA), otherwise known as slow flight. Your airplane will handle very dif-
ferently in slow flight, and it’s important that you be familiar with this flight
regime, so that you are not surprised by your airplane’s responses should you
inadvertently become slow in combat.
After attaining a safe altitude, reduce your airspeed until you can no
longer maintain altitude. Increase power slowly until you have just enough
thrust to maintain altitude. You should have a very nose-high attitude for
level flight. You are now in the MCA regime.
You can become comfortable in this regime by performing slow, shallow
banks, turning 90° left and right. Increase power slightly to maintain altitude
and airspeed, then use very shallow 10° banks for your turns. Make sure you
do not inadvertently fly out of slow flight — keep your airspeed just above
stalling speed.
Become familiar with your aircraft’s handling in slow flight, then practice
recovery. Increase power, and slowly lower the nose as airspeed increases
until you have achieved level flight at cruise speed.
Hover mode and thrust vectoring

The Harrier’s most unique feature is, of course, its thrust vectoring. The
thrust vectoring nozzles can be placed anywhere between 0° (aligned with the
horizon pointing rearward) through 98.5° (pointing downward and slightly
forward). In the real Harrier, the 98.5° position can be used to fly the plane
backwards while level should anyone desire to do so, but in game this scenario
is not possible. (You can still fly backwards by pitching back.)
Why is this not possible? Because manual control of the thrust vectors is
not allowed. implements thrust vectoring by means of an “auto-hover”
feature which, when engaged, controls the thrust vectors for you. There are
five different flight conditions that correspond to four different possible nozzle
positions:
Auto-hover off, on the ground: The nozzles will be at 0° for a normal

takeoff.
Auto-hover on, on the ground: The nozzles will be at the 55° position
to aid with a short takeoff.
Auto-hover off, airborne, below 150 KPH: The nozzles will continue
to be in the 55° position until 150 KPH, when they begin rotating
back to the 0° position for cruise flight. You will notice this transition
as a sharp increase in acceleration passing 150 KPH.
Auto-hover off, airborne, above 150 KPH: This is considered “cruise
flight” and the nozzles will be at 0°.
Auto-hover on, airborne, above 150 KPH: The nozzles will be at 98.5°
to assist with deceleration. You will find that full power quite unex-
pectedly produces a small deceleration, not acceleration.
Auto-hover on, airborne, below 150 KPH, approach: The nozzles will
be at the 90° position to prepare for a vertical landing. Whether or
not auto-hover is selected, the nozzles will rotate downward during
low-speed flight.
There are some subtle implications to this system — namely, contrary to

intuition, having auto-hover off does not guarantee that your nozzles will be
flush with the fuselage. As you can see, when under 150 KPH, the nozzles
will rotate to the takeoff position regardless of your auto-hover setting. If
you fail to notice your airspeed drop below the Harrier’s stalling speed, this
automatic feature will help delay the onset of the stall by providing you with
extra lift.
The real-life Harrier can take off vertically under light or no loads, but
alas, does not simulate a drop in weight as stores are released. Thus,
all Harriers in weigh as much as a fully loaded Harrier. This is why
the nozzles are auto-rotated to the 55° position when on the ground: You
wouldn’t be able to perform a vertical takeoff anyway, so the short takeoff
is the only option, and in a Harrier, that is performed with a 55° nozzle
position.
The other implication of this weight limitation is that an Harrier can
never gain altitude in a hover. Harriers lose altitude in a full-power hover at
a rate of approximately one meter per second. To gain altitude, you must
LANDING 29
gain airspeed until your wings produce lift again. At about 50 KPH, your
wings will generate enough lift to maintain altitude; thus, this is the slowest
that a Harrier can fly in level flight in . Pitching or banking will increase
the minimum necessary speed for maintaining altitude.
To enter a hover, reduce speed to around 200 KPH and drop a notch of
flaps. Engage auto-hover and continue reducing speed.
At speeds below about 100 KPH, drop the second notch of flaps. The
Harrier will slowly cease handling like an airplane and begin handling more
akin to a helicopter. Proper training requires time with this flight regime to
produce familiarity and comfort with hovering flight.
When in a hover, the stick controls the aircraft’s motion: Push the stick
forward to tilt the aircraft forward, generating forward motion. Likewise, tilt
it backwards to slow down and eventually generate reverse motion. Left and
right stick deflections generate left and right bank, creating left and right
motion.
The rudder pedals are used to control the heading: Applying left and
right rudder will rotate the Harrier to a new heading.
Power is used to control altitude. Reducing power increases the sink
rate; increasing power reduces it. When pitching or banking, power should
be increased slightly to avoid an increase in sink rate caused by directing
what was once purely downward thrust towards the side.
To exit a hover, disengage auto-hover and raise flaps to 10°. Maintain
your attitude as your airspeed increases — you may lose some altitude, but
do not pitch to the sky in a fruitless attempt to regain it. Be patient and
wait until you have enough airspeed for the climb. Passing 200 KPH, raise
the remaining flaps and resume normal flight.
You may be wondering how the elevators, rudder, and ailerons work in a
hover, as these control surfaces require air flowing over them to be effective.
The Harrier has small nozzles near each of these control surfaces that redirect
high-speed air from the engine over these control surfaces during hover mode.
This artificial airstream provides control authority at low airspeed.
Landing
Landing is often the most difficult part of flying, in the Harrier even more
so because of its vertical landing capability. Vertical landings are covered
in Short-field and vertical landings (page 35); in this section we will learn
normal landings.
The traffic pattern

Airplanes around an airport are sequenced using the traffic pattern (fig. 2.4).
Each runway has its own traffic pattern. Traffic patterns are either left-hand
or right-hand depending on which direction you make the turns in. Different
runways use different pattern altitudes (the altitude pilots are expected to
fly at when in that runway’s pattern) to ensure traffic does not conflict when
multiple runways are in use.
45° ENTRY
DOWNWIND
45° DEPARTURE
BASE CROSSWIND
STRAIGHT-OUT
DEPARTURE
RUNWAY
FINAL UPWIND
Figure 2.4: A left-hand traffic pattern.
Most of the time pilots enter either on the downwind leg, or on a 45°
entry as depicted in the previous figure. The upwind and crosswind legs are
usually only involved if a go-around is made.
Airports are the busiest places in the sky. It’s important to keep an eye
out for traffic at all times. Most of the time they will (hopefully) be acting
predictably, but it’s a combat environment and you should be prepared for
anything.
There’s a simple trick to detecting if traffic is a potential conflict: Watch
its motion across your field-of-view. If it is moving across your canopy glass,
it’s not a collision hazard. If it remains stationary in your field of view, it’s
time to start changing direction.
Normal landings
All landings begin with the pre-landing check. You should plan your descent
early, especially if flying at high altitude. Choose a comfortable descent
LANDING 31
rate and plan it so that you will be at pattern altitude when you reach
the airport’s airspace. The mark of an experienced pilot is one who flies
“by the numbers,” using mathematics and experience to perform his climbs
and descents, rather than just pointing the nose up or down and accepting
whatever climb or descent he receives.
During or after the descent, you should begin decelerating, reducing power
and using airbrakes if necessary. Reduce your airspeed to around 250 KPH,
add 10° of flaps, lower the landing gear, and enter the traffic pattern. Fly
the downwind leg of the pattern at 250 KPH. Give yourself a good margin
before beginning the base leg; the Harrier lands at a fast airspeed and you’ll
appreciate the extra time to set up your landing. Most pilots are taught
to begin descending when the runway numbers are abeam and to turn base
when they are 45° aft. For the Harrier I’d recommend turning base when
the runway is two kilometers out and holding off on the descent until final
approach.
Turn final to align with the runway and slow to 200 KPH. Drop your
remaining flaps. To make a good approach to the airport, you should “switch
your thinking” about your controls. Here’s the secret:
Use pitch to control airspeed. If you are too slow, pitch up. If
you are too fast, pitch down. You should fly the approach initially at 200
KPH, letting airspeed slowly decrease as you approach the airport, but never
reaching stall speed.
Use power to control sink rate. If the ground is coming up too
quickly, add power. If the airport is disappearing below you, reduce power.
This is typically opposite of what you’d expect, and you may find it
difficult at first, but with time and practice you will find that this is the key
to the perfect approach.
To ensure you land with as much runway ahead of you as possible, use the
FPM to aim your aircraft. Increase or decrease power to raise or lower the
FPM. Try to place it just short of the runway. (You will cover some distance
during the flare, discussed later, so you don’t have to place it square on the
numbers.) Don’t fixate on the FPM though — you also need to manage your
airspeed and glide slope.
The ideal approach is flown at a glide slope of 3.5° — you should be
losing about 60 meters of altitude for every kilometer of ground you cover
(fig. 2.5). Understanding whether you are too high or too low on approach
is a matter of familiarity with the sight picture, the view over the nose. In
time you will get a sense for how “squished” the runway should seem when
you are on a good approach. In the meantime, you can use some basic math
to calculate the ideal rate of descent: A glide slope of 3.5° means that at
200 KPH, you should be losing about 204 meters of altitude each minute, or
3.4 meters each second. Pilots who fly by the numbers use the descent rate
as an indicator of their glide slope, and aim for the perfect glide slope.
1 kilometer
90° glideslope
61 meters
Figure 2.5: The ideal landing glide slope.
The most crucial portion of landing is the flare. Because the Harrier’s
mains support the weight of the aircraft, they must be the landing gear that
touches the ground first. This is accomplished by transitioning from the
descent attitude (nose slightly low) to the landing attitude (nose up about
10°).
When your aircraft is only a few feet above the surface, pull back on the
stick to assume the landing attitude. (Do not pull back so far as to cause a
tail strike.) Reduce power to prevent from ballooning (climbing back into
the sky), and your aircraft should begin to sink in a nose-up attitude. Apply
a touch of power to prevent your aircraft from coming down too hard. It will
eventually settle on its mains.
Apply full airbrakes and reduce power to idle, and allow the nose wheel
to come down as the airplane slows. Because there are no wheel brakes in
, you will need a significant length of runway to slow the airplane down.
(I hope you touched down towards the start of the runway — there’s nothing
more useless than runway that’s behind you.) After all three wheels are on
the ground, engage auto-hover. Your thrust nozzles will rotate forward to
assist in deceleration.
If your aircraft begins to balloon, you have two options: try to salvage
the landing, or go around. Because of the long lengths of runway required to
land in , you almost always want to go around, as even if you do salvage
the landing, you may no longer have enough runway to stop.
If you still want to salvage your landing, pitch forward slightly to arrest
your climb, re-assume the landing attitude, reduce power, and allow the
LANDING 33
aircraft to settle again. If your aircraft begins to sink too rapidly, add a
touch of power to slow your descent.
If you are wise and choose to go around, immediately apply full power
while pitching the nose downward to assume a cruise attitude. When you’re
climbing and you’re sure you won’t hit the ground, raise your landing gear.
Watch your airspeed and control your climb. Raise your flaps as you pass
100 KPH and 200 KPH, then re-enter the traffic pattern and try again.
Assuming you’re on the ground and you managed to stop, hopefully with
some runway in front of you, taxi clear of the runway and obtain clearance
to taxi to parking. Taxi to your parking spot and perform the shutdown
checklist.
The PAPI
Larger airports will be equipped with a precision approach path indicator
(PAPI) to help ensure you are on the correct glide slope. The PAPI is a
horizontal line of four red or white lights. The color combination tells you
whether you are on glide slope. Two white and two red means you are on
glide slope. If there are more red lights, you are too low; more white lights,
and you are too high (fig. 2.6).
TOO LOW
SLIGHTLY LOW
CORRECT
APPROACH SLIGHTLY HIGH
ANGLE TOO HIGH
Figure 2.6: Guide to PAPI symbols.
Instrument landing system

The Harrier is equipped with an instrument landing system (ILS) that
provides steering cues to help you land the plane. This is most useful in
instrument conditions when you cannot see the runway, but can also help
you maintain the perfect glide slope even when flying visually.
The ILS is made up of three components: an airborne receiver (onboard
your Harrier), a ground-based transmitter (placed at certain runways), and
the steering cues on the HUD. In order to receive ILS steering cues, you
must be approaching a runway with an ILS transmitter, and your landing

gear must be down. In addition, ILS systems are one-directional only, so
approaching the opposite runway will not get you steering cues. As an ex-
ample, Utes Airport runway 09 has an ILS transmitter, but runway 27 does
not.
Figure 2.7 shows you the HUD symbology displayed during an ILS ap-
proach. Two bars appear on your HUD, one horizontal, one vertical. These
bars show you your deviation from the ILS glide slope.
Figure 2.7: ILS steering cues on the HUD.
The vertical bar is used to adjust your lineup. It will appear in the center
of the HUD (crossing through the watermark) if you are aligned with the
runway. If the bar is to the right of center, the runway is to your right, and
you should turn right to recapture the centerline. If the bar is to the left of
center, turn left to recapture the centerline. Once you have the centerline,
ensure your heading matches that of the runway (90° for runway 09, but be
sure to include a WCA) so that the bar will not drift away from center.
The horizontal bar is used to adjust your rate of descent. It will appear in
the middle of the HUD if you are descending on a 3.5° glide slope. If the bar
is below the middle, the glide slope is below you, and you should decrease
power to increase your rate of descent. If the bar is above the middle, the
glide slope is above you and you should increase power to decrease your rate
LANDING 35
of descent. If the bar is way above you, then you’re very low and could be
in danger of hitting the ground. Consider going around.
During the daytime the ILS is a handy for perfecting your approach, but
in low visibility (or at night without NVGs) you will rely on it to get you
safely on the ground. Use the ILS as a part of your scan like any other. The
ILS is very sensitive — if one of your steering bars drifts away from center,
small corrections should be used to bring it back. Over-correcting will cause
your steering bars to swing back and forth across your HUD.
Practice using the ILS in no-viz conditions. You will find it’s easier to
land with instruments if you start approach from a great distance, giving you
ample time to settle into the perfect approach path. With experience you
should be able to maintain a reasonable ILS approach using gentle correc-
tions.
Short-field and vertical landings

The Harrier’s vectored thrust makes vertical landings possible; namely, an
experienced Harrier pilot can land a Harrier exactly where he wants it parked.
In other words, the minimum runway length for a Harrier is 46 feet, 4 inches
(the length of a Harrier jet).
To begin, the pilot should slow the airplane down to around 200 KPH. At
this point, lower the landing gear and one notch of flaps, and engage auto-
hover. The nozzles will be in the fully forward position, 98.5°, helping to
further slow the airplane down. As airspeed decreases to around 100 KPH,
drop full flaps. The airplane will be transitioning into hover mode.
In hover mode, the Harrier cannot maintain altitude. You will notice
that it is always sinking at a minimum of about one meter per second (full
throttle and perfectly level). Pitching the airplane or reducing throttle can
drastically increase sink rates. This creates some interesting implications for
vertical landings:
You need enough altitude to make it to the landing spot. If you’re
losing about a meter of altitude per second, and you’re traveling forward at
thirty kilometers per hour (8.3 meters per second) towards a landing spot 600
meters away, you need at least 72 meters of altitude to make the landing spot
(and you’ll certainly need more than that as a safety margin). The proficient
pilot will “do the math” to ensure he has enough altitude to make his landing
spot plus a safety margin; the amateur pilot should carry excess altitude in
abundance, as it is very easy in the Harrier to dump copious amounts of
altitude quickly should you find yourself far too high.

Go-arounds should be performed very early. In between the time
at which you decide to go around and the time that level cruise flight is
obtained, your aircraft could lose up to 50 meters of altitude. Because of
this it’s very important to “stay ahead of the airplane” — think about not
just what the airplane is doing now, but what it will be doing five minutes
from now. If you have reason to believe your approach could turn sour now
or in the future, begin a go-around while you still have altitude to spare.
Vertical landings in the Harrier involve coming to a hover nearby the
landing target, then slowly letting the Harrier descend until it is about 10-20
meters above the ground. At this point the Harrier slides into the airspace
just above the landing spot, then settles onto the ground. You should cut
engine power to idle the moment your wheels touch the ground to ensure
your Harrier does not roll off into other vehicles or obstacles. (Remember
the nozzles rotate to the 55° position the moment you touch down.)
Accurate vertical landings require practice to obtain and more practice
to maintain, and should be part of your regimen. Like with all else in flying,
gentle corrections are key.
If you need to go around, immediately disengage auto-hover and reduce
flaps to 10°. You will begin accelerating forward. Resist the urge to pitch
towards the sky: Keep your nose pointed forward and ensure your airspeed
is increasing. Your sink rate will decrease and you will eventually begin a
climb. When that happens, raise the landing gear. Passing 200 KPH, raise
the remaining flaps and resume normal flight.
You will need some clearance above the ground in order to perform a
go-around. If you are too low for a go-around, eject.
Chapter 3
Emergency Procedures
does not have a sophisticated damage modeling system. There’s a limited

number of things that can go wrong with your jet — most of the time, it will
simply explode, and you’ll be dead. So, consider yourself lucky if you find
yourself needing these procedures.
Engine failure in flight

There’s not a whole lot in that can cause an engine to fail; exploding
missiles will generally kill the pilot. Guns can damage or destroy your engine,
and there’s always fuel starvation, but there isn’t much else to blame when
your engine fails (except maybe a USB driver issue).
Dealing with any engine failure is a three-step process, best remembered
as “A-B-C.” The mnemonic will help ensure you perform the most important
steps first, before doing anything else.
1. A is for Airspeed. The very first thing you must always do is attain
VG , the best-glide speed. In the Harrier this is 220 KPH. Reach this
speed by either pitching up or down. This speed will allow you to glide
the longest distance before reaching the ground, giving you the greatest
number of options for landing spots and the longest time to plan your
landing.
2. B is for Best Field. Once you’ve attained VG , begin searching the

ground below you for suitable landing spots. If an airport is within
gliding distance, excellent. Otherwise, find an open field large enough
37
38 CHAPTER 3. EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
to land on. Some considerations include a) wind direction — you always

want to land into the wind, as it will shorten your landing distance,
b) terrain type — rougher terrain is more likely to damage or destroy
your aircraft, c) proximity to the enemy — obviously getting captured
is a real buzz kill after a successful emergency landing, and d) distance
— never stretch a glide for a more distant landing spot when there is
a suitable one right underneath you. It’s better to accept a less-than-
perfect landing spot you know you can reach, than to try to stretch a
glide to a better spot and end up hitting the trees.
3. C is for Checklist. This is last for a reason — only once you’re at VG
and gliding towards your landing spot is it time to start the emergency
checklist. In real life there’s a number of reasons why an engine could
fail and therefore the checklist can get long, but in there’s only
so much you can do. Verify that your throttle is forward, your speed
brakes are closed, and auto-hover is off.
When performing an emergency landing without power, it’s important
to watch your airspeed. The only way you can gain airspeed in a glider is
to trade in altitude, so if you’re low and slow, you’re out of options. Keep
your airspeed at VG for the descent, then Vref (landing airspeed, 200 KPH)
when you are near the ground. Lowering flaps before landing will help, but
don’t lower gear or flaps too early — they will increase your descent rate
and may spoil your chance of making a good emergency landing. Only lower
gear and flaps when “landing is assured” — when you know you’re going to
be touching down.
If at any point you feel like a hard impact or an impact with trees or
other structures is likely, eject.
Engine failure after takeoff

An engine failure immediately or shortly after takeoff is a very critical emer-
gency. You do not have enough time to refer to a checklist, so you must
commit the steps to memory. There are only two things to do if your engine
fails on takeoff.
1. Attain best-glide speed. Like with any other engine failure, captur-
ing VG is your first priority. You may have to lower the nose to reach
VG .
FUEL LEAK 39
2. Land straight ahead. Do not attempt to turn around and land on

the airport. If you’re high enough or fast enough that you could make
a 180° successfully without striking the ground first, then you’re out
of the takeoff and into the climb phase anyway, and you’re reading the
wrong section. Find a spot no more than 30° off from the center of
your nose and prepare to land. The ideal emergency landing may be
impossible. If there is no suitable terrain for an emergency landing
straight ahead, eject.
Fuel leak
Aside from bursting into flames, a fuel leak is about the only other damage
your aircraft can sustain from battle. For this reason, the pre- and post-
combat checks involve checking your fuel state for leaks. If you discover you
do have a fuel leak, it’s a simple checklist.
1. Assess the severity of the leak. Take some time to determine

how fast you are leaking fuel, and estimate how much time you have
remaining before you need to land.
2. Based on the severity, choose a landing point. If you’re sure

you can make it back to home plate, return to base normally. If your
fuel leak is more severe, get as close to friendly territory as you can,
then either perform an emergency landing or eject. Remember that
maneuvering in auto-hover burns through fuel, so you may not be able
to make a short-field landing.
Landing gear failure

Landing too hard or over-speeding the landing gear can cause it to fail to
retract. Fortunately, the structural integrity of the gear can never be com-
promised, so as long as it’s stuck in the down position, you can still land.
You should land as soon as practical if you experience a stuck landing gear.
Stall
The proficient pilot pays attention to his airspeed and never unwittingly
approaches a stall. We all make mistakes, however, and should you find
yourself at the cusp of a stall, a simple recovery procedure should return you
to normal flight.
1. Full throttle. Increase to maximum military power.
2. Level the wings. You should still have enough control authority to
level your wings. If you do not, engage auto-hover to force airflow over
your ailerons, then roll the airplane level.
3. Pitch down. Push the nose forward below the horizon and begin
gaining airspeed.
4. Resume normal flight. Watch your airspeed. Once you’ve regained

cruising speed, resume normal flight.
You will lose some altitude during the stall recovery. This is why it’s an
excellent idea to be very mindful of your airspeed when flying low to the
ground (especially when you are turning final approach, flying at low speed
and low altitude).
Bailout procedures
In vanilla , the pilot can egress the aircraft during flight. A parachute
will automatically deploy and the pilot can float to the ground. You must
have sufficient altitude to perform the bailout. A.C.E. 2 improves realism by
providing the pilot with a zero-zero ejection seat, that can extricate the pilot
from his airplane safely even at zero knots airspeed and zero feet of altitude.
The first step to successful ejection is making the decision to eject. An
ejection should be performed if a) salvaging the airplane is no longer possible,
or b) attempting to salvage the airplane creates undue risk for the pilot.
Another way to put this: Airplanes are expensive, so save it if you can, but
pilots are more valuable, so egress the plane if you need to.
As an example, you should in general attempt an emergency landing if
you suffer an engine failure. If, however, attempting to land the plane creates
SURVIVAL AND RESCUE 41
excess risk to you, the pilot (say there are trees or cows or buildings in the
way), then hit the silk.
After ejecting, it’s important to assess your surroundings and choose a
landing site. If you packed a steerable parachute, you can steer it with the
mouse and keyboard just like an airborne infantryman. The four things you
want to avoid when choosing a landing site are power lines, water, trees,
and the enemy.
Try to determine the wind direction and land into the wind if possible. If
you can, turn 90° away from your direction of travel just before landing. Upon
touching the ground your parachute will be automatically disconnected.
Survival and rescue

Whether you bailed out or successfully landed your aircraft, the threat isn’t
over yet. You need to survive long enough to be rescued.
Remember that you will be carrying the standard pilot loadout (see the
included booklet), so get your rifle out. The first thing you will want to
do is secure the area and ensure there are no hostiles nearby. Once you’re
sure you’re not in any danger, move away from the aircraft or its wreckage.
Aircraft are a beacon for enemy troops looking to capture you.
Communicate with your detachment commander and relay your approx-
imate position if allowed. In real life, outgoing communications can compro-
mise your location and are strictly disallowed after bailing out, though your
teammates may contact you. This may be simulated in some missions — be
sure you know whether you should be exercising outgoing comm silence.
Try to generally move towards friendly territory, but your first priority
is to stay hidden. If you are making it easy for friendlies to spot you, then
you are making it easy for enemies to spot you too. If you suspect that the
enemy is hunting you, keep moving.
You will have smoke at your disposal to relay your position, but do not
be too eager to deploy it. When you sight a friendly vehicle, ensure that it
and you are free of potential threats before deploying smoke. It is better to
remain hidden and delay your rescue for a safer time, than to give up your
position early and get shot.
In real life, a pilot rescue is not friendly. Rescue personnel want to ensure
they are not taking back an enemy who killed the downed pilot and stole
his clothes, so he will be treated as potentially hostile until his identity is
confirmed. This may be simulated in some of your missions. If so, expect to

be approached at gunpoint, handcuffed, and forced to lie prone until you are
proven to be an American soldier.
Chapter 4
Formation Flying
Formation briefing
A formation flight begins with the preflight briefing. A formation lead is

responsible for ensuring that all members of the formation are completely
briefed on the flight. The lead should cover the following elements: Who is
in what position, what type of takeoff will be performed, what formations
will be used for each phase of the flight, where the marshal point is (discussed
later), what the “bingo” state is, the step-down (discussed later), and any
other pertinent information.
Bingo fuel is a pre-briefed amount of fuel after which the flight should
return home. The lead should choose a fuel state that allows each aircraft
enough time to safely return to base with enough fuel remaining to deal with
emergencies, runway closures, etc.
If at some point during the flight one of your wingmen has to pipe up
over the radio and ask a question, it means you didn’t adequately pre-brief
your flight.
A flight is four aircraft, split up into two elements of two aircraft each.
Aircraft #1 is the flight lead and lead of the first element. Number two is
his wingman. Number three is the lead of the second element, and #4 is his
wingman. A flight is usually tasked with one goal, and having two elements
means they can each deal with two different situations while leaving every
pilot with a wingman.
43
44 CHAPTER 4. FORMATION FLYING
Formation taxi
It may seem odd that there is a chapter dedicated to taxiing in formation,
since lining up jets along a taxiway is something we do every day, formation
flight or not. But there is a saying among formation pilots: You are in
formation from startup to shutdown. What this means is that you
should have the “formation mentality” from before you step into your aircraft
until after you’ve shut down your engines.
What is the “formation mentality?” It’s thinking like a cohesive unit.
If you are a flight lead, formation mentality means thinking for the group,
taking responsibility for your wingmen, and guiding and controlling the flight.
If you are a wingman, formation mentality means understanding that you
are not a lone hotshot pilot, and taking all your cues from your flight lead.
A good wingman doesn’t blink his eyes unless his flight lead does so first.
So where does this come in for the taxi? Remember that a formation
flight begins before entering the airplane. The team should be looking to the
flight lead and enter their aircraft when he does. When in the cockpit, they
should maintain eye contact with the lead and look for the cue to start their
engines.
In real life, hand signals are preferred over radio communication because
a quiet formation helps the lead deal with radio communication. In , the
cockpit canopy closes when the engine is started, so that will suffice as a cue
to spool up your engines.
Wingmen should not enter the taxiway until the lead has done so, and
they should do so smoothly and evenly in the correct order. Keep a firm foot
on your rudders and drive sharp like an airshow crowd is watching.
It may seem silly to focus on this ballet on the ground, but these exercises
sharpen your mind for the formation flight, where the techniques practiced
here really do matter. Also, it makes you look good to the ground-pounders.
Formation takeoffs
A formation takeoff is very similar to a normal takeoff with only a few addi-
tions. Entire flights may take off in formation in fancy demonstration teams,
but here in the Marines, formation takeoffs are generally limited to two air-
craft at a time, a lead and his wingman.
The formation takeoff begins with the flight lead at the hold-short line
FORMATION TAKEOFFS 45
and his wingman behind him. After the lead requests and receives clearance
for a formation takeoff, he takes the runway on the right side of the centerline,
moving forward one airplane length. The wingman should follow behind and
take the runway on the left side and to the rear of the flight lead.
The lead may opt to take the left side of the runway to place the wingman
downwind (in a crosswind takeoff) or to keep the sun out of the wingman’s
eyes.
After the aircraft are positioned on the runway, both pilots perform checks
of their own aircraft and crosschecks of the other aircraft. The wingman
will start by first performing his pre-takeoff check, then conducting a visual
inspection of the lead’s aircraft to ensure a) the flaps are at 10°, and b) the
nozzle position is correct for the type of takeoff to be performed.
In real life a “thumbs-up” signal indicates that the wingman is ready to
go, but in you’ll have to say that you’re ready over Vent. Since formation
flights are all about brevity, you won’t be filling up airwaves by blathering on
your full callsign like “Nightmare 103.” If you are the second ship of the flight,
preface your call with “2.” So when you’re ready, simply say, “2’s ready.”
When the lead hears that, and once he has finished his pre-takeoff check-
list and his crosscheck, he will announce, “1’s ready, go buster” and then
begin his takeoff. Lead should use slightly less than full power to allow wing
to maintain his formation position during the takeoff roll. The wingman will
smoothly apply full power and perform his takeoff alongside and behind lead.
If the wingman should inadvertently blow past the lead during takeoff,
lead should announce, “2, take lead” and the wingman should lead the takeoff
roll. Once the flight is clear of hazards, lead should be returned.
If you need to abort your takeoff, remember to fly the plane first. Begin
braking, get control of your aircraft, and only then announce “aborting”
over the radio (of course, prefacing it with your position number; e.g., “2,
aborting”). If you are wing and you see your lead begin braking, continue
with your takeoff and enter the traffic pattern to await further orders from
your lead. This is the one time you should not do exactly as your flight lead
does.
If you are lead and you need to abort your entire section, call “abort,
abort, abort.” Both lead and wingman should begin braking, with wingman
careful not to pass lead, and both aircraft careful to remain on either side of
the runway.
Formation departure
Flight lead (“1”) and his wingman (“2”) will depart first. If it is a four-ship
flight, the element lead (“3”) and his wingman (“4”) should receive formation
takeoff clearance next. Meanwhile, the lead element should proceed to a pre-
briefed marshal point where the lead will enter a gentle turn and await the
second element, or along a pre-briefed heading at a slow speed to await a
rejoin from the second element.
The second element’s lead should visually locate the lead element and
maneuver his element into formation. Once that’s accomplished, the second
element lead need only announce, “3’s saddled.” (Remember that formation
communication is very brief.) With that communication, the flight lead
should then proceed en route.
Formation flight (station-keeping)

It’s said there is only one thing a flight lead wants to hear from his wingman,
and that’s his number. If you are a wingman, you can acknowledge your
lead’s commands by simply stating your position:
“2, go trail.”
“2.”
The flight lead will handle all communications for the flight; the only thing
the wingman needs to say are acknowledgements like those above, unless of
course he is having some kind of emergency, or notices enemy aircraft slipping
into the six-o’clock position.
All formation flights should be conducted at staggered altitudes, what is
called step-down. The flight and section leads should be at the pre-briefed
altitude, and their wingman should be a set number of meters below them.
This distance should be pre-briefed, and should typically be between five and
ten meters.
Responsibilities of the wingman

Though flying wing is the most technically challenging, the wingman has
the least to worry about. A wingman need only concern himself with the
following:
FORMATION FLIGHT (STATION-KEEPING) 47
• Find and maintain your position relative to the lead. Profes-

sional formation pilots memorize a sight picture that, when accom-
plished, indicates they are in the correct formation position. For exam-
ple, you may find that when in the correct #2 position in a finger four
formation, the left wing Sidewinder rail lines up exactly with the en-
gine air inlet. You should use this as a guide to maintaining formation
position.
• Be constantly applying corrective movements. If you are not

nudging at least one of your controls (stick, pedals, throttle), you are
slipping out of formation. You should be constantly moving your con-
trols to maintain formation. Nudging your controls (even when you
don’t need to) also helps prevent pilot-induced oscillation (PIO), the
unintentional bobbing up and down that sometimes ruins formation
flying.
• Be master of your aircraft. You are still pilot-in-command of your

aircraft, if not of the flight. You should be mindful of your aircraft
and its position and be prepared to deal with any in-flight condition or
emergency that might occur. Your flight lead does not see your dials,
only you do, so it’s your job to watch them.
• Never pass the lead. Inexperienced formation fliers will shoot past
the lead occasionally, then retard the throttle and look back over their
shoulder, trying to fall back into formation. This should never hap-
pen in an experienced formation flight. If you find yourself about to
pass the lead, break away and exit formation. First turn, dive, or
climb away from the formation flight in the safest possible direction,
then announce, (e.g.) “2, breaking off to rejoin,” then await further
instructions from lead while maintaining a safe distance. Lead should
eventually help you regain sight (at which point you say, “2, visual”),
and clear you to rejoin formation, at which point you can do so.
• Be mindful of your fuel state. Lead will periodically initiate fuel

checks but you are pilot-in-command of your aircraft. Regularly glance
at your fuel gauge and announce to lead if you reach bingo fuel.
• Be a “thinking” wingman. A good wingman does nothing unless

his lead does it first, and a great wingman thinks ahead, predicting in
advance what his lead is likely to do. Don’t just fixate on your sight
picture; keep up some situational awareness (SA) so you know about
the state of the flight. You should know when your flight is getting
close to the airport, and be prepared to transition to an echelon right
formation. As few as possible of your lead’s commands should come as
a surprise.
• Don’t speak unless necessary. Lead needs clear comms to perform

flight duties.
• Clear lead’s six. Keep your eye out for enemy aircraft sneaking up
on lead.
Responsibilities of the flight lead

The flight lead is responsible for both his aircraft and all the others of the
flight. He performs all the normal duties of the flight: navigation, communi-
cation, planning, etc. He is also the tactical master, which we will get into
in Air combat maneuvering, page 91.
• Be mindful of and responsible for the flight. Keep occasional

watch on your wingman to maintain a picture of what they are doing.
Handle all the tasks of the flight Look for traffic, communicate over the
radio, navigate the flight, watch for the enemy, etc.
• Fly smoothly and predictably. Make small and smooth corrections.

Hold pre-briefed airspeeds, altitudes, and headings. Never accept a
parameter arbitrarily.
• Announce your intentions. Inform your wingmen of the speeds,

altitudes, and headings you assume. If you are planning to perform a
maneuver such as a turn or climb, announce your intention and give
your wingmen time to prepare. Say, (e.g.) “2 flow two five zero,” wait
a second or two, then begin a turn to 250°.
• Always use the right formation. Never choose a formation arbi-

trarily. Each formation has its own tactical advantages, and you should
choose the correct formation for the tactical situation.
FORMATION FLIGHT (STATION-KEEPING) 49
• Allow “sucked” wingmen the opportunity to rejoin formation.

A wingman is sucked if he is falling behind or drifting away from the
lead. (If he is inching too close, he is acute.) If the wingman’s aircraft
cannot generate sufficient power to rejoin the formation, the lead should
slow the formation flight down and allow the sucked wingman to drift
back into position.
• Make periodic fuel checks. To begin a fuel check, say “fuel check.”
Each airplane will then check its fuel in sequence. An example:
“Nightmares, fuel check.”
“2, sixty percent.”
“3, seventy percent.”
“4, forty percent.”
The flight lead should initiate fuel checks before each major phase of
the flight (cruise, fence, descent, landing) and whenever else he deems
necessary.
Lead change
If the lead wishes to give up flight leadership to his wingman, he should indi-
cate over the radio, (e.g.) “2, take lead.” The wingman should acknowledge
with, “2, taking lead” (one of the rare times that just “2” would not suffice,
as a lead change is important and should be confirmed). Then, the wingman
should perform the following steps:
1. Bank outward to establish lateral distance between himself and the

lead, then stabilize.
2. Throttle back and pitch down to establish vertical distance between

himself and the lead, then stabilize without increasing throttle.
3. Allow the airplane to sink behind the lead, then increase power and
stabilize.
4. Initiate a cross-under maneuver. Gently bank and assume a position

on the opposite side of the lead, then stabilize.
5. Climb and accelerate to assume the lead’s position relative to the new
number-two aircraft.
6. The moment the wingman moves ahead of flight lead, he should say,
“2 has lead,” and commence the duties of the flight lead. To prevent
confusion, the callsign numbers will be the same. (The flight lead is
still called “2.”)
In order to ensure that the flight is not leaderless at any point, the original
flight lead will remain flight lead until the very moment that the wingman has
passed in front of flight lead. Until that point, authority and responsibility
for the flight remains with the original lead.
Formation approaches and landings

Airplanes are never landed in formation like a formation takeoff, but they
can be landed in very quick succession to effect rapid recovery of a large flight
without tying up an airport.
You have learned the standard rectangular traffic pattern as part of your
contact-stage flight training. Formation landings use a different pattern,
known as the overhead break.
The overhead break begins with the initial, which is an approach to the
airport at an altitude above pattern altitude (typically about 100 meters
above). The initial can be flown from any direction to the airport. During
the initial the flight lead is visually scanning and analyzing the traffic pattern
to prepare for his entry. He is also in contact with the tower (or the other
traffic, for uncontrolled airports) to coordinate his entry. The initial is flown
at cruise speed; no deceleration is made.
The initial is always flown in the echelon right formation (for reasons that
will become obvious to those paying attention in a bit). It is the responsibility
of the flight lead to transition the flight to an echelon right formation during
or before the initial.
The initial completes when the lead takes the flight to a position directly
above the runway on which the flight will be landing, 100 meters above
pattern altitude (or at any other pre-briefed altitude), and heading in the
downwind direction. At this point the flight begins the break.
The break starts with the lead announcing, “1, kissing off.” After saying
this he will commence a sharp 180° turn in a direction that takes him away
FORMATION APPROACHES AND LANDINGS 51
from the rest of the flight, losing both airspeed and altitude during the turn.
A correctly performed break will result in the aircraft on the downwind leg,
at the correct position and altitude, at suitable pattern airspeed.
While lead is performing his break, the number-two aircraft exits the
“formation scan” and begins a quick traffic scan, preparing for his break.
After three seconds (or five seconds in reduced visibility or nighttime), the
wingman will say, “2, kissing off” and begin his own break, identical to that
of the lead’s.
Number three and number four follow in sequence, the end result being
the four aircraft sequenced into the flow of traffic in the correct order.
Figure 4.1: Four-ship overhead break pattern entry.
At night time or in conditions of reduced visibility, the time between

breaks is increased. Typically in these scenarios, five seconds is given between
each flight member’s break.
Once you have completed your break and are established on the down-
wind, perform your pre-landing checks and prepare to land. The flight lead
should land either to the left or the right of the centerline, and each aircraft
thereafter should alternate which side of the runway to land on. This helps
avoid pileups if one aircraft suffers a problem on landing. After landing, the
flight lead should taxi past the hold-short line and give sufficient room for
the rest of the flight to do the same.
Once the flight is on the ground and off the runway, they should formation-
taxi to their parking spot.
Formation emergencies
The first rule of formation emergencies is that the bleeder is the leader.
This means that if you have an emergency while in formation, you should
request (and should be given) the lead position. If your emergency makes
it impractical to continue formation flying (e.g., engine failure, massive fuel
leak), exit the formation safely and deal with the emergency solo. If you have
a less critical emergency (slow fuel leak, lots of damage, etc.), request lead.
Lead changes in an emergency should be performed such that the “bleeder”
has to do the least maneuvering. If the #2 aircraft is to the right of the
leader, the easiest solution is to just make the right side the lead side.
“1, 2 has heavy damage, request lead on the right.”
“2, you have lead on the right.”
“2 has lead on the right.”
At this point the #1 aircraft only has to decelerate to be in the correct
position for the new lead, and the #2 aircraft does no maneuvering.
After the damaged aircraft has lead, the remaining aircraft should assume
the chase position. This is an imprecise position, roughly well behind, below,
and to the side of the leader. The best chase position accomplishes the
following:
• Allows the leader a wide berth. Don’t get in the way of the
leader in case he needs to maneuver abruptly (or accidentally). Stay
far enough way to avoid being a distraction to the leader.
• Allows the wing a clear view of the path ahead. The wing
should assist the leader by looking for traffic and keeping up situational
awareness.
Responsibilities of the lead “bleeder”

The responsibilities of the lead during an emergency formation are as follows:
• Fly the airplane. Keep the airplane under control at all times.
• Address the problem. Plan a course of action to address the problem

or get on the ground.
FORMATION EMERGENCIES 53
• Delegate to the wingman. Your wingman is an asset that can help

you in many ways: reading checklists, navigating, looking for traffic,
communicating with personnel, etc. Save energy and prevent fatigue
by delegating non-critical tasks to him.
Responsibilities of the wingman

There is only one responsibility for the wingman during an emergency, and
it is as follows:
• Shut up. A good wingman, in an emergency, will not speak unless
spoken to. The “over-helpful” wingman that volunteers his help vocally
will only serve to distract the lead. Each pilot in the unit is competent
and can be trusted to manage the problem without you volunteering
your help. Do not speak unless absolutely necessary for safety reasons.
The best wingman flies a solid chase pattern, keeps an eye out for flight
safety issues (clouds, traffic, the enemy) and ensures the lead is executing
a smart game plan. If there’s a safety issue, speak up, but otherwise hang
back, keep quiet, and give lead a chance to use his training to deal with the
problem.
Emergency formation landing

Landing an emergency formation is done identically to that of a normal
formation landing with only a few variations.
A normal formation approach is used with a standard initial. The lead
will begin his break when he is comfortable, but rather than waiting, the
wingman will continue to maintain the chase position during the lead’s break,
and will follow in that position for the turn to final. (If there is a second
element, the second element will remain clear of the traffic pattern until lead
and his wing are safely on the ground.)
The wingman should be available during the approach to assist the lead
with airspeeds, altitudes, etc. (but should not speak up unless spoken to).
It is important to match the lead’s parameters as closely as is safe so you
can provide a second pair of eyes to ensure the lead is not entering an unsafe
situation (airspeed dropping, etc.).
During short final, when the lead aircraft is comfortable that he will safely
make it onto the runway, he can wave off the wingman, at which point the
wingman commences a go-around safely away from the lead’s glide slope. If
the lead is too distracted to issue the wave-off order, you should wave off
when reaching 100 meters AGL.
During the wave-off, wing should keep an eye out for traffic and execute
a good go-around procedure. He should then re-enter the standard traffic
pattern and land at his discretion, along with the second element.
Other procedures
Lost-sight/instrument procedures
A formation flight should never intentionally enter instrument meteorolog-
ical conditions, weather where flight must be done on instruments without
visual reference. If done so unintentionally, these procedures should be fol-
lowed.
If lead enters instrument conditions but wing can still maintain sight of
lead, lead should:
1. Begin an instrument scan.
2. Fly straight and level.
3. Determine if a turn can be made to exit IMC in short time. If so,

announce and then execute the turn using not more than 15° of bank.
If not, clear wing to exit formation and then deal with the situation
accordingly.
If wing loses sight of lead within IMC, wing should:
1. Begin an instrument scan.
2. Announce “2 is blind.”
3. If straight and level, turn 30° away from lead. If in a turn, see below.
4. Stop any climb or descent.
5. Await further instructions from lead.

OTHER PROCEDURES 55
Lead should determine if it is practical to exit IMC and regroup the

formation, or otherwise cancel the formation and deal with the situation
accordingly.
If sight is lost during a formation turn, the outside aircraft (whether wing
or lead) should roll wings level and continue straight, and the inside aircraft
should continue the turn for another 30° of heading change, then roll wings
level and continue straight.
Blind procedures
If the wingman should lose sight of the leader during visual conditions, he
should immediately call, “2 is blind.” At this point the leader should attempt
to regain visual contact with the wingman. If the leader sees the wingman,
he should call out a clock position that the wingman can use to locate the
leader. (“2, 1, I’m at your 2 o’clock.”) The wingman should not rejoin at this
point, but announce when he has regained visual contact with the lead. (“2
visual.”) Wing should then wait for further instructions from the leader to
begin the rejoin.
If wing cannot regain visual contact with the lead, then lead should call,
“1 blind” and each aircraft should do the following:
Lead: Clear the area (ensure there is no traffic nearby), then climb 50 meters
above the current altitude. Proceed to the pre-briefed marshal point
(or provide a different marshal point) where the formation can be re-
established.
Wing: Clear the area, then descend 50 meters below the current altitude.
Proceed to the pre-briefed marshal point (or another point provided by
the flight lead) and await instructions to rejoin formation.
Chapter 5
Air-to-Air Combat
Basic fighter maneuvers

A lesson in air-to-air combat begins with basic fighter maneuvers (BFM),
where pilots learn the maneuvers they can perform to place their aircraft
where they want it relative to their enemy. It’s important to understand
that dogfighting is not a game of chess, where each pilot chooses maneuvers
from a catalog and implements them. It is more fluid and organic; you are
not thinking about what maneuvers to perform, you are thinking about the
relationship between you and your opponent and how you can exploit it to
your advantage. However, studying these maneuvers will help make you
comfortable with operating your aircraft in a three-dimensional battle arena.
To put it another way, pilots do not think about using these maneuvers
when dogfighting; these maneuvers emerge naturally as pilots improvise to
place themselves in a position to fire.
Positional geometry
There are three things a pilot must understand in order to interpret and
describe the positional relationship between himself and his enemy.
Angle-off is the difference in degrees between your heading and the ban-
dit’s (fig. 5.1). This angle provides information about the relative fuselage
alignment between the pilot’s jet and the bandit’s. For example, if the angle-
off between you and a bandit were 0°, you would be on a parallel heading
with the bandit, and the two fuselages would be aligned. If the angle-off were
90°, your fuselage would be perpendicular to the bandit’s.
57
58 CHAPTER 5. AIR-TO-AIR COMBAT
Bandit Bandit
Angle-off = 0° Angle-off = 90°
90°
Figure 5.1: Angle-off.
Angle-off is a measure of how much further a bandit has to go until he’s

“saddled” in your six o-clock. If his angle-off is 0°, he’s dead on your six and
you have a problem. If his angle-off is 90°, he’s got 90° of angles to close
before he’s on your six. The goal in a turning fight is to “close angles” and
reduce angle-off until you’re on your enemy’s six.
Range is the distance between your jet and the bandit. Range is displayed
on your overlay in meters, except in A.C.E. 2.
Aspect is the number of degrees measured from the tail of a target to
your aircraft. In other words, it’s the direction a target is facing relative
to your jet. It does not depend on the direction you are facing. Note that
the aspect stays the same regardless of which way your aircraft is heading
(fig. 5.2).
Aspect angle is important because it describes whether your opponent is
capable of shooting you or not. If your target has an aspect angle of 0° (cold
aspect), his nose is pointed directly away from you and he is not a threat. If
his aspect is 180° (hot aspect), his nose is pointed directly at you and can
shoot you.
A target with an aspect between 0° and 90° (left or right) is said to be
beaming. (“My target is beaming left.”) These targets are generally heading
away from you and to a side. A target with an aspect angle between 0° and
90° is said to be flanking. These targets are generally heading towards you
and to a side.
Angle-off is a problem we try to solve in air combat (closing angles), but
aspect is something to be aware of. You can’t change your enemy’s aspect —
BASIC FIGHTER MANEUVERS 59
180° R
90° L 90° R
45° Right aspect
0° R
45° Right aspect
Same aspect, different headings
Figure 5.2: Aspect angle.
if he’s pointed at you there’s not a lot you can do to force him to point away
from you — but you need to know when your enemy is hot aspect because
that’s when you start defensive maneuvers. On the other hand, angle-off
is something you can have control over, and having control over it wins air
battles.
Attack geometry
Attack geometry describes the path that the offensive fighter takes as he
converges on the bandit. When you start an attack on the bandit, there are
three distinct paths or pursuit courses you can follow (fig. 5.3).
Lag pursuit has your nose behind the bandit’s tail and is used primarily
on the approach to the bandit. It’s used to increase range between you and
the bandit, and stay on his tail if he maneuvers in different directions. What
you cannot do in lag pursuit is fire guns or missiles — your nose is behind
the enemy, so your bullets will never hit him. To fire guns, you must move
up to a different pursuit, which means you must be able to out-turn your
enemy. If your enemy can out-turn you, he can force you stay in lag pursuit,
never allowing you get your shot off.
Pure pursuit has your nose pointed directly at the enemy. Most inex-
perienced pilots fly pure pursuits because it feels natural to point the nose
at the thing you want to blow up. Unfortunately, maintaining a pure pur-
suit course will lead to an overshoot (fig. 5.4), which we will get into later.
Lag
Pure
Lead
Figure 5.3: The three pursuit courses.
For this reason, the only time you should fly a pure pursuit course is to fire
missiles at your enemy.
rse
it cou
ursu
ure p
P
Figure 5.4: The problem with pure pursuit.
Lead pursuit has your nose leading the enemy and is as important as lag
pursuit in combat maneuvering. A lead pursuit closes distance between you
and the enemy (you “cut the corners” of the turn), and as any good rifleman
knows, you must lead a moving target to hit it, so it’s used for gunshots.
Knowing when to switch from lag to lead to make the kill is critical — too
early and you will overshoot; too late and you delay the kill, giving him more
time to find a weakness in your offense.
The FPM on your HUD (see Heads-up display, page 12) can help you
maintain the correct pursuit course. Treat it as your nose for the sake of
discussion — if you want to lead your target, place the FPM ahead of it; to
lag it, let the FPM slip behind.
This only works if you and your target are turning in the same plane. The
plane is the surface that you “draw a circle on” when you turn. If you and
your attacker are in the same plane, you can stay on his tail and choose your
pursuit type. If the two of you are in different planes (say, he’s maneuvering
parallel to the horizon and you’re making vertical turns) you will only meet
briefly as your turns intersect. Out-of-plane maneuvering complicates things
for the attacker, making it harder to get guns shots.
If your opponent is maneuvering out of plane, confounding your ability
to follow him, you can still determine what pursuit type you are using with
your lift vector. Your lift vector is an imaginary line extending upward from
your aircraft perpendicular to the wings (fig. 5.5). It’s significant because
it’s the direction in which the airplane can most rapidly change its heading.
There’s no faster way to change heading in an aircraft than by pulling back
on the stick.
Li
ft
Ve
Lift Vector
cto
r
Figure 5.5: Lift vector.
If an attacker pulls out of plane from a bandit, his pursuit course is then
determined by where his lift vector is taking him. When the attacker pulls
out of plane, he is, by definition, flying a lag pursuit. As he pulls back into
the bandit, he may be flying lag, pure, or lead pursuit, depending on the
fight’s geometry.
In figure 5.6 we see an attacker pull out-of-plane to change the attack
geometry of the fight. When the attacker first rolls to make the out-of-
plane maneuver (position A), he is in lag pursuit. He continues to be in lag
pursuit as he remains out of plane in position B. At position C, the top of
the maneuver, he places his lift vector on the opponent and initiates a pull
back down into the defender. Since his lift vector is directly on the opponent,
he is flying a pure pursuit. In position D he is lining up for the kill, back in

plane and with his nose on the enemy: a pure pursuit.
B
A
C
D
A D
Figure 5.6: Out-of-plane maneuvering and pursuit types.
Where to position the nose is very important when a pilot attacks an

enemy. The use of attack geometry will be explained later in detail, and
we will talk in specific terms about where to place the jet in relationship
to the bandit. For now, just make sure you understand how to interpret
and describe your relationship to your opponent and the geometry of your
pursuit.
Offensive BFM
The ultimate goal of offensive BFM is to kill the bandit in the minimum
amount of time. In order to accomplish this goal, the fighter pilot must
understand basic offensive maneuvering. It is helpful to think of offensive
BFM as a series of fluid rolls, turns, and accelerations. Some of the maneuvers
in offensive BFM have names, but this is not an airshow with a routine. The
modern day fighter pilot thinks in terms of driving his jet into the control
position from an offensive setup, rather than executing a series of moves and
counters like a game of chess.
It may seem obvious, but the primary reason that you need offensive BFM
techniques is to counter a bandit’s turn. When you are behind a bandit who is
flying straight and level, it’s a simple matter to control your airspeed with the
throttle and fly behind him. When the bandit turns, however, things change
dramatically. A turning bandit will immediately create BFM problems.
In order to stay in weapons parameters and in control of the bandit, you

must stay at his 6-o’clock. To do this, you must maintain control of angle-
off, range, and aspect. Figure 5.7 shows how a bandit’s turn will change the
angular relationship between the offensive and defensive fighter. To control
the “angles” and stay at his six, the offensive fighter must also turn his jet.
Figure 5.8 shows why an immediate turn by the offensive fighter will not
work. If the offensive fighter goes into a turn to match the defensive fighter,
he will just end up right in the enemy’s gunsights, because the centers of the
two turn circles are offset.
Figure 5.7: Aspect and angle-off problems created by a bandit’s turn.
Figure 5.8: The problem with an immediate BFM turn.
Driving straight will obviously not work either — a turn of some sort is
the solution to these BFM problems of angle-off, aspect, and range caused
by the bandit’s defensive turn. The problem is two-fold: how to turn and
when to turn. Let’s first look at the mechanics of turns.
BFM has a lot to do with turns. It is important to understand several
concepts about turns in order to be successful at BFM. These include con-
cepts of energy, turn radius, turn rate, corner velocity, and vertical turns.
When you turn a jet, you feel an additional force pushing you in your
seat, called g-force. The more g in your turn, the faster your nose goes
around the turn. Understanding the implications of g-forces is an important
part of BFM.
Energy is also an integral part of BFM. Fighters have two kinds of energy:
kinetic and potential. Kinetic energy is simply the speed your jet is travel-
ing. Potential energy is “stored” energy that can be converted into airspeed.
Aircraft store potential energy as altitude: If you are at high altitude, you
can always dive down and trade that altitude for more airspeed, so you have
high potential energy. Remember that if you have altitude, you can always
trade it for speed, and if you have speed, you can always trade it for altitude,
storing it away as potential energy.
You can also spend your energy on nose position. Any time you maneuver
or turn a fighter, it “costs” energy. Unlike climbing and accelerating, when
you turn a jet at high g, you lose that energy for good. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that your opponent is also spending energy to turn and
defend himself.
The other good news is you’re not dogfighting in gliders: You have a very
powerful jet engine that can create additional energy for you to spend on
airspeed, altitude, or turning.
The two most important characteristics of turns are radius and rate. Turn
radius is simply a measure of how tight your jet is turning: If your jet could
paint a circle on the ground as it turns, the radius of that circle (the distance
from the edge to the center) is the turn radius.
If you happen to remember some high school physics, you’ll know that
turn radius grows exponentially with velocity. What this means is that if
you double your velocity, your turn radius will increase by four times.
Turn radius is important, but only as a stepping-stone to understanding
turn rate. Turn rate is how fast your airplane moves around that circle
you’re drawing in the sky (think revolutions per minute). To put it in terms
more applicable to dogfighting, turn rate is how fast you can drag your nose
across the horizon to get it on your enemy. As you will see later, it’s rate,
not radius, that decides battles.
Turn rate increases with increasing g. The harder you pull, the faster you
can rate your nose around the sky. However, you can only increase g to a
certain point — either you will black out or your wings will fall off. If you’re
pulling at maximum g, further increasing velocity will only serve to decrease
your turn rate (since your radius will go up). However, if you slow down too
much, you will no longer be able to pull maximum g, and your turn rate will
go down again. Your wings need more air to generate more lift and more g,
so slowing down too much won’t work.
What I’m getting at here is there’s a “sweet spot” — not so fast that your
turn radius grows, and not so slow that you can’t pull at maximum g. Every
aircraft has an optimum speed for maximizing turn rate, called the corner
speed. In the Harrier, it’s about 420 KPH. If you fly this speed and pull as
many gs as you and the airplane can manage, you can know for sure you are
rating your nose around as fast as you possibly can.
As I said before, pulling too much g will result in damage to your aircraft,
but before that happens, you will succumb to gravity-induced loss of con-
sciousness (GLOC). As you pull more g, your heart cannot pump as much
blood to your brain and eyes. This results in tunnel vision which narrows
as g increases, restricting your field of view. Eventually, you will pass out
due to lack of oxygen to your brain. While GLOCed, you will be unable to
control your jet. Assuming your jet doesn’t hit the earth during GLOC, you
will eventually regain consciousness.
GLOC will not occur in unless you are turning with at least 500
KPH of airspeed. As this is well above corner speed, turning at corner speed
assures you that (among its other advantages) you will never GLOC.
You can manage your airspeed in a fight with four tools: your throttle,
drag devices such as flaps and airbrakes, your pitch attitude (how high or
low you are pointing; in other words, how you are using the force of gravity),
and g-forces (as increasing gs bleeds off airspeed).
No modern fighter can remain level with the horizon and remain at corner
velocity while pulling maximum g. Your high-g turn will bleed off speed and
your turn rate will start to decrease. You’ll need to use the tools above to
manage your airspeed. It’s also very important to start your fight at or near
corner speed, because your first turn is almost always the most important.
Fighter pilots should think in terms of both turn rate and radius. A
fighter with a superior rate can outmaneuver a fighter with a slower rate but
a tighter radius. Fighter pilots have a simple, two-word saying: Rate kills.
The ability to rate your nose is the primary means of employing weapons
(guns and missiles). A bandit may be able to turn on a quarter, but if you
can rate your nose around faster and get him in your gun sights first, the
fight is over. Remember that the goal is to point your gun at the enemy, not
put on an airshow at his 12-o’clock.
In battle pilots must padlock on an enemy, stare at him to make sure
they don’t lose visual contact. You move your head and eyes to track the
bandit at all times. Lose sight, lose fight. You may choose to glance
briefly at your six or at your instruments to keep up SA, but if you look back
and see only sky, you’re as good as dead.
Many pilots fly as if the enemy is their only point of reference. All turns,
climbs, maneuvers, etc. are judged in terms of the enemy. He is the horizon,
so to speak, the center of the world about which you rotate. This is a good
strategy that helps free you from thinking about the battle two-dimensionally,
but it suffers one major flaw: Gravity is a tool to be used for or against you.
If you pull your nose level across the horizon in a boring horizontal plane
dogfight, it is neither working for nor against you. If, however, you switch
things up and pull the nose above or below the horizon, gravity becomes a
player.
The force of g on your aircraft during one of these non-horizontal turns
is now made up of two components: the normal force of gravity, pulling you
earthward, and radial g. Radial g is the centripetal force that acts like gravity
in any turn. If you pull a 5-g turn level on the horizon, you will feel five gs
pushing you into your seat. If, however, you pull a constant 5-g vertical turn,
your aircraft must generate different amounts of g in each part of the turn.
At the top of the turn, upside down, your aircraft must be pulling six gs in
order for you to feel five, as one of those gs simply cancels out the downward
force of gravity. Likewise, at the bottom of the turn, right-side up, your
airplane need only pull four gs, as gravity is providing the extra g for you
(fig. 5.9).
Radial g does not describe what you “feel” in the cockpit, since you feel
a constant 5-g pull throughout the maneuver. It describes what the airplane
is pulling, and more importantly: It describes the g forces that matter when
it comes to turn rate. Think about it: At the top of that arc, the airplane is
pulling six radial gs, yet you’re only feeling five. You essentially get an extra
g “for free” that you can use to tighten up the turn and increase turn rate.
Thus, the top of a vertical loop is where you can rate your nose the fastest
— assuming you still have enough energy to reach corner speed when you
get there.
6.0 GR
5.7 GR 5.7 GR
5.0 GR
4.3 GR
4.0 GR 4.0 GR
Figure 5.9: Radial g.
Each turning plane is differently affected by the force of gravity, which

gives each plane its own shape. If you were to imagine the circles (or ellipses)
generated by a turn in each plane, stacked together, it would form an egg
shape, what’s called the “tactical egg” (fig. 5.10). The shell of the egg is a
max-rate turn in a certain plane.
Figure 5.10: The tactical egg.
When a bandit turns his jet, he creates BFM problems for you. To solve
these problems, you need to turn your jet. In order to turn your jet and
solve these problems, you need turning room. Turning room is the offset or
distance from the bandit. There are three basic types of turning room: lateral
(or horizontal) turning room, vertical turning room, and a combination of

these two.
In order to understand the concept of turning room, you must first un-
derstand turn circles. Turn circles are simply the paths that a fighter cuts
through the sky when it turns. The concept of turn circles is critical because,
in order to turn and solve BFM problems created by the bandit, you must
first drive your jet inside the bandit’s turn circle (fig. 5.11).
Inside
turn circle
Outside
turn circle
Figure 5.11: Inside and outside the turn circle.
Here’s how turn circles and turning room are related: A bandit turns his
jet to defend against your attack. You need to get displacement from the
bandit in the horizontal or vertical, so you can stay behind him, turn with
him, and not overshoot. If you try to get displacement while you are still
outside his turn circle, the bandit can get around the turn and meet you
nearly head-on. This means the bandit can turn and take away your turning
room.
Look at figure 5.12 — at the first position we have the bandit on a right
45° aspect. He begins a turn to the right, and we’re outside his turn circle.
We also begin a turn to the right in an attempt to gain lateral displacement.
He is able to completely reverse direction and meet us head on, all before we
ever even join the turning fight. He has denied us our turning room.
This situation is even worse in the vertical. In figure 5.13 we are per-
forming a classic maneuver, the high yo-yo. The high yo-yo is great for
getting displacement from your enemy without sacrificing your precious en-
ergy, but it’s a lethal mistake when performed outside the enemy’s turning
circle. We change planes and gain altitude, then reverse to attack on the
Figure 5.12: A bandit denying his opponent turning room.
descent. Meanwhile the enemy, who has his entire turn circle at his disposal,
is able to reverse direction and point his nose at us without passing us. Now
we’re at a huge disadvantage: We’re gaining speed so our turn rate is going
to be lower; he’s at the top of his climb with his best turn rate at his disposal.
Figure 5.13: The problem with yielding turning room in the vertical plane.
Any maneuvering you do outside the bandit’s turn circle will only delay
you from getting inside his turn circle. You must be inside his turn circle in
order to turn and solve BFM problems.
The whole reason you are burning jet fuel is simple: to get into weapons
parameters and take the shot. The problem is that you will only be in
missile parameters for very short periods of time, usually during the merge
— missiles can’t deal with the high rates of a turning fight, and will miss
their targets. If you both survive the merge, the last step of a good offensive
BFM will always be a guns kill.
So the fight is on, and the bandit turns. The first question you need to
answer is, “am I inside our outside his turn circle?” To know the answer,
watch the bandit’s turn, and more specifically — watch his nose. If the
bandit’s turn rate is revealing more and more of his nose, such that eventually
he will be pointed at you, you are outside his turn circle. If you can turn
with him before he gets his nose around and pointed at you, you’re on the
inside and ready to fight.
If you are outside your opponent’s turn circle at the start of the fight,
you are not in an offensive BFM fight. You are in a head on BFM fight and
should be reading a different section. (Not that you should be reading this
while dogfighting…)
Once your opponent starts his turn, he starts creating BFM problems for
you. Assuming you’re inside his circle, you need to solve them with your own
turn. Don’t turn to early (remember figure 5.8?) — remember that the best
pursuit to use when chasing a bandit is a lag pursuit.
The best way to begin a lag pursuit is to fly to where your enemy was
when he started his turn. This is your entry window and where you should
start your turn. It gets you behind the enemy and sets you up for a lag
pursuit (which, as you remember, is the best pursuit for preparing for the
kill). In figure 5.14, the friendly pilot drove to the entry window and began
a lag pursuit. This gave him horizontal turning room that his enemy can’t
take away.
You will have to estimate where the bandit was when he started his turn,
in order to guess your entry window. You’re usually ready to start your turn
when the bandit is 30° off your nose. You want to be at corner velocity when
you reach your entry window. Too fast or too slow and you won’t be able to
rate your nose as fast as your opponent, and you’ll be stuck in lag pursuit,
unable to take a shot.
Once both of you are established in the turn, start pulling for all you’re
worth. Hold corner velocity and pull as many gs as your Harrier will allow.
As you come around the corner, keep your nose in lag. If you see your nose
drifting forward towards pure pursuit, ease up on the g a bit. You want to
Entry window
Figure 5.14: Entry window for the first BFM turn.
wait for the right moment to take the kill. Close distance, get within a few
hundred meters of your enemy, and then switch to lead pursuit and take the
shot.
When you’ve switched to lead pursuit for your guns shot, your throttle
controls your overtake. If you’re in close with the bandit, with your angle-off
less than 45° and your nose in lead, the position of your throttle controls
your closure. Use it to match your target’s speed once you’re “saddled in
for the kill.” In most cases, this will require constant throttle adjustments to
prevent an overshoot.
In addition to banging your throttle against both stops, you can maneuver
out-of-plane to control your airspeed. If a throttle reduction and speed brakes
aren’t slowing you down fast enough, roll out to a different plane of motion
and pull. Hold this lag pursuit for a few seconds, then ease off the g and
watch your enemy. When he starts to move forward on your canopy, pull back
into him. Pull your lift vector out in front of him (a lead pursuit) as you pull
down. You will have performed the high-speed yo-yo (fig. 5.15), temporarily
trading speed for altitude to increase range and prevent the overshoot.
In order to take a successful tracking guns shot, you must meet all of the
following conditions:
• You must be in range. The Harrier’s cannon is not normally effective

outside of 500 meters, and even outside of 200 meters is very difficult
to aim perfectly.
Figure 5.15: The high-speed yo-yo.
• You must be in lead pursuit. Every rifleman knows you must lead
a moving target to hit it; the same is true in the air. For most gunshots,
bullet time-of-flight is one-half to 1.5 seconds. If you fire directly at
the aircraft, he will be far ahead of your bullets by the time they reach
him.
• You must be in plane. If you are maneuvering out-of-plane with

your bandit, you will not be able to lead him — to lead him is to turn
slightly ahead of him, which necessitates being in plane. Shots taken
out-of-plane are snapshots, quick, one-off shots taken with the hope
that some lucky bullet will find its mark.
The overlay has a helpful feature to assist you in properly leading

your shots: If you have your target acquired, the TD box will change to
the “locked” symbol (box plus circle) when you are properly leading (review
figure 1.18). You may have to lead or lag a bit to “sniff out” the locked
symbol, but once you got it, you know you’ve got the proper amount of lead.
Light ’em up.
Your Harrier’s GAU-12 is boresighted for a very tight pattern. You can
have either a highly concentrated burst that completely misses the target or a
very lethal burst that vaporizes it. It just depends on the quality of your aim.
Air-to-air situations are dynamic, and targets under attack will normally jink
violently to stay alive. A jink is a short, random, and unpredictable out-of-
plane turn. It’s the last defense against a guns kill. Targets under fire will
jink in every direction, making it difficult to track them perfectly. The only
way to overcome this problem is to strive for an inaccurate hit. You can do
this by opening fire while tracking the gun cross across an area of the sky
ahead of the bandit, such that the bullets land in multiple spots around him,
anywhere the enemy might jink. Rather than aiming directly at him only to
have him jink out of the way of your stream of lead, he will jink directly into
it (if luck is on your side).
Defensive BFM
The sad secret of dogfighting is this: If you fly the perfect defensive BFM,
and your opponent flies the perfect offensive BFM, you’re still going to die.
There is no defensive strategy that can get you on the offensive. The best
you can do in flying defensively is to prolong your death. The trick is, if
you prolong it enough, eventually your enemy will make a mistake. Once he
does, you have a chance to capitalize on it and turn the tables.
Defensive BFM is characterized by difficult, high-g combat, flown while
looking out the back of the jet to keep eyes on the enemy. Since most pilots
don’t do their best creative thinking while looking over their shoulder under
high gs, it’s best to have a game plan in mind before discovering a bandit at
your six.
The fundamentals of defensive BFM are simple: Create BFM problems
for the bandit, and when he maneuvers, try to counter to buy time and
survive a little longer. The longer you live, the more likely he’ll make a
mistake you can exploit. If he doesn’t make a mistake, he will drive into gun
parameters, and it’s time to use your guns defense.
The first step to a successful defensive BFM is detecting that you are,
or are about to be, under attack. The vast, vast majority of air-to-air kills
had no idea what hit them. In you have your radar and your eyes, and
if you use those to detect the enemy before he opens fire, you have secured
your greatest chance of surviving the battle.
Whether or not you see your attacker, you must adhere to a fundamental
rule of air combat: Fight the most immediate threat. This will help with
confusing situations where you do not have the complete tactical picture.
Fight the threat that is in the best position to kill you.
If there’s an enemy at your six and he fires a missile, the enemy is no longer
the biggest threat in the arena. The missile is now the primary threat, so you
must fight the missile. And there is no threat warning system in (and
only a very basic one in A.C.E. 2), so the only way you’ll know if there’s a
missile is if you see it — yet another good reason to keep your eyes on your
enemy.
In vanilla (no A.C.E. 2) there are no chaff or flares, so your defense
against the missile is terrain. If you can put a tree or a mountain or anything
between you and that missile before it reaches you, you can defeat the missile.
Your other option is to create turning problems for the missile by putting
it on your 3/9 line (the line going from your 3-o’clock to your 9-o’clock).
This forces the missile to do the most turning to hit you, and may cause it
to overextend and miss its target. It’s not likely, but it’s not like you have
much else at your disposal.
You can tell if a missile will miss you using the same techniques as traffic
avoidance taught earlier: If you see the missile moving across your field of
view, it’s going to miss you. If it’s remaining stationary against your cockpit
glass, you’ve got a problem.
The best defense against missiles in is to simply never let them be
fired. If you see your enemy first, you can have first-missile advantage, and
you can blow it out of the sky before it gets one off the rail. Barring that,
the other good strategy is to pounce on your opponents inside guns range.
Stay low and mask yourself with terrain, and by the time the enemy sees you
it will be too late for missiles.
So let’s say there’s no missile to fight — you can fight the bandit now.
You are still defensive, however, so you must be creating BFM problems for
him. The defensive turn should be the quickest, tightest turn you can make.
There are obvious BFM reasons for doing a high-g turn, but in multiplayer
there are psychological reasons as well. An 8-g turn into a bandit tells him
he’s going to have to fight you to kill you — dogfighting is grueling work,
even for the attacker. A 4-g turn into him tells him that you are Little Bo
Peep who has somehow managed to find and take off in an attack jet.
As you know, you need to be at corner speed to make your quickest,
tightest turn. As you start a defensive turn into the bandit, you should
place your lift vector directly on him. This will give the bandit the most
angle-off and aspect problems to solve. You will also deny him turning room
by keeping your lift vector directly on his jet. It’s easy to see why turning
with your lift vector off-bandit gives him turning room. In figure 5.16, the
defender places his lift vector below the horizon and away from the bandit
while doing his defensive turn. The attacker stays level and gains turning
room above the defender without having to work for it.
Turning
room
Figure 5.16: A defender yielding turning room to his attacker by maneuvering

out-of-plane.
Next you must determine if your defensive turn is working. If the bandit
is being forced forward from the 6-o’clock position to your 3/9 line, then the
turn is working. A bandit that starts outside your turn circle will be forced
in front of your 3/9 line if you perform the turn correctly. In figure 5.17,
the defender turns with his lift vector on the bandit and forces the bandit in
front of his 3/9 line.
Figure 5.17: A defensive turn outside the turning circle can force a head-on.
Your turn is working if your enemy is being forced forward towards your
nose. Keep in mind that he can still shoot you — if he puts his nose in
lead as you drive him forward with your defensive turn, be ready to start
jinking. Always watch your bandit’s nose and look for the lead pursuit. If he
sets up for the shot, defend by breaking out-of-plane. You can force him to
overshoot, a tactically advantageous situation that will be discussed later.
Your strategy should be the same inside and outside the turn circle. Pull
your best defensive turn, then wait and see what he does. If the bandit starts
to close your turn circle, he is a serious threat, and your best defensive turn
may not force him forward. If the bandit is serious about staying in the fight
and killing you, he must fly a lag pursuit to get to the entry window you
created with your turn. If you see your bandit start inside your circle and
begin his lag, you are in for the long turning fight. The best course of action
is to continue your corner-speed turn and try to force him to remain in lag
as long as possible. If you cannot out-turn him and he switches to lead for
the kill, get ready for guns defense.
The bandit may choose to initiate the fight in the vertical, gaining vertical
turning room. This is a poor offensive strategy because it also affords you
plenty of turning room, so you can take advantage of the situation. Keep
the hard turn coming with your lift vector directly above him, and watch
him. If he pulls back down for the lag position, he’s realized his mistake and
fixed it, and you’re back to the grueling turning fight. If he keeps his nose
high, you can neutralize his advantage. Figure 5.18 shows a defender turning
the corner and taking the vertical to pass the bandit at high angles, with
opportunity for a guns shot.
Figure 5.18: Taking advantage of an attacker’s vertical BFM entry.
When the position is neutralized, with both of you able to put your lift
vector on your opponent, you will end up in a scissors (fig. 5.19). The scissors
occurs when two fighters are line-abreast with neither holding an angles or
energy advantage. They both pull for each other’s 6-o’clock position and
as they pass, roll around and pull again. If they unload (temporarily stop
pulling) to make the reversal, it’s a flat scissors. If they keep the g on the jet
throughout the maneuver, it’s a rolling scissors. In either case, the scissors
is usually won by the fighter than can slow down most quickly.
Figure 5.19: The flat scissors.
Now, let’s talk about overshoots. An overshoot occurs when the enemy
misjudges his speed and crosses your flight path. There are two types of
overshoots, the flight path ovrshoot and the 3/9 line overshoot. A 3/9 line
overshoot is always tactically significant, while a flight path overshoot may
or may not be.
Figure 5.20 shows a 3/9 line overshoot (C) and two flight path overshoots
(A and B). Aircraft A slightly overshoots the friendly’s flight path; this is not
tactically significant as attempting to exploit this advantage will most likely
leave you vulnerable. Aircraft B, on the other hand, overshoots the friendly’s
flight path with a wide enough range that he may end up line-abreast or out
in front of the friendly if he tries to reverse. Aircraft C is obviously in big
trouble because he has blundered past the friendly’s 3/9 line. All overshoots
are not created equal.
B
A
Figure 5.20: Two flight path overshoots and a 3/9 line overshoot.
When you predict a bandit may overshoot, note the range, angle-off, and
the line-of-sight rate of the bandit (how fast he is moving relative to your
cockpit glass). As a rule of thumb, the greater the range when he overshoots
and the slower the line-of-sight rate, the less chance you have of forcing him
out in front of your 3/9 line with a reversal.
When a bandit overshoots, there are basically two ways to reverse your
turn and take advantage of it. If you see the bandit is going to overshoot with
a high line-of-sight rate, you should perform an unloaded reversal. Release
the g (stop pulling), roll the aircraft to position your lift vector directly on
the bandit, and resume pulling maximum g directly at him. You should only
use this reversal when you are sure the bandit will overshoot. This reversal
does not “force” the bandit out in front of you; it gets the nose on the bandit
quickly when he does overshoot.
The other type of reversal, a loaded reversal, should be used with caution.
To execute a loaded reversal, keep the gs on the jet as you roll toward the
bandit. You use this reversal to “force” a bandit that is about to overshoot
into the overshoot (fig. 5.21).
Figure 5.21: A loaded reversal to force an overshoot.
The reason for caution is: If you execute the loaded reversal and the
bandit doesn’t overshoot, you now have a bad guy in your chili at close range,
and you lost all the maneuvering airspeed you had. Look at figure 5.21: A
loaded reversal essentially “stops your aircraft in the sky” so your partner
can overshoot, and if it doesn’t work, you’re in trouble. For this reason, let’s
go over a the overshoot rule of thumb:
When in doubt about a bandit’s overshoot, don’t reverse. It’s

best to reverse when a bandit is overshooting your flight path close in with a
high line-of-sight rate. If he’s further out, it’s best not to reverse. The bandit
has too much room to correct his overshoot and maintain a 3/9 advantage
on you.
So you’ve flown the perfect defense, and your enemy has flown the perfect
offense. You know what this means, right? It means he’s lining up for the
guns kill. (Ain’t it a shame?) There are two types of gun shots: The high
line-of-sight rate snapshot and the stabilized tracking shot.
When a bandit is closing with a high line-of-sight rate on your jet with his
nose in lead, think snapshot. Snapshots are “luck shots” that are not usually
the result of perfect offensive BFM, but they can still kill you. To defend
against a snapshot, break out of plane. The only tough part is judging when
to make your move. It is better to be too soon rather than too late. If you
go early, the bandit can correct, but you can always jink out of plane again.
If you jink too late, you’re going to be kissing bullets.
Defending against tracking shots is harder because the bandit is not pass-
ing quickly through your plane as he does in a snapshot. In a tracking shot,
the bandit is in a stable position on your six holding his nose in the proper
alignment for the shot. He will take multiple bursts at you. For this reason,
you will have to make multiple out-of-plane jinks to keep from getting shot.
The key to guns defense is to make sudden jinks at least 70° out of plane.
Keep your eyes on the bandit, and before he gets established in this new
plane, jink again.
The snake is a kind of jinking maneuver. When you see the bandit pulling
his nose into lead, you unload rapidly, roll 180°, and reverse your turn. Hold
this course and make the bandit pull his nose back into lead. If the bandit
reduces power to stay behind you, he will lose turning rate and may end up
getting stuck in lag. If his nose gets stuck in leg, keep turning with your lift
vector above the horizon.
If the bandit has the energy to move his nose back into lead, unload again
and roll 180° to reverse your turn again. This time, reduce power to bait him
into an overshoot. As the bandit repositions into lead pursuit, unload and
roll 180° again and reduce power further. If you have lived this long, you
should be forcing and overshoot. Any time you see that the bandit is going
to overshoot, command full power, set your wings level, and pull maximum
g. This will help him fly out in front of your 3/9 line.
This isn’t a magic defense — there are no magic defenses. If your bandit
knows what he’s doing, he’ll still be able to gun you, snake or no snake. It
might work against a “plumber” though, and every trick counts at this stage
of the fight.
Head-on BFM
A head-on BFM fight requires more maneuvering than any other fight dis-
cussed thus far. As you approach an enemy head-on, you have two options:
You can separate, or you can stay and fight. The biggest decision you must
make when in the head-on pass is fight or flight: Whether to get anchored in
a turning fight or bug out. If you enter a fight with a bandit from head-on,
you will use up both energy and time. Energy is needed to maneuver, and
time can be used against you by yet another bandit who may find your fight
and get in on you for a shot. If you take too much time, you may be winning
the fight you started with one bandit, but losing a fight with a second bandit
you don’t see.
There are plenty of reasons to blow through the bandit and separate.
There are also plenty of times when you have to turn and fight. Before
plunging into head-on BFM, you need to understand the concept of the
escape window.
The fighter pilot enters a fight to shoot down the enemy and survive long
enough for the next fight. As you enter a fight, you must be aware of your
position in regards to your escape window. The escape window represents
your safe path out of the fight. The window expands and contracts based
on both the geometry of the fight and your energy. If you jump a single
bandit that doesn’t see you, your escape window is huge. You can leave the
fight any time. If, however, the bandit picks up a tally on you and starts a
defensive turn, the window starts to shrink. As it shrinks, the probability of
getting out of the fight safely goes down. At some point in a tight turning
fight, the window closes completely.
Refer to figure 5.22: The left side shows an offensive BFM setup with
the attacking fighter inside the bandit’s turn circle at low angle-off. In this
engagement, the attacker’s escape window is closed. If you were to attempt
an escape, you’d be in the situation shown on the right side: At low angle-off,
inside the bandit’s turn circle, the attacker cannot get out of the fight. If he
tries to leave, the bandit just reverses his turn and enjoys a prime shooting
position.
Likewise, the escape window for the enemy is definitely closed too. Don’t
Figure 5.22: An offensive fight with no escape window.
try to dive out of a fight with a closed window; you’ll only get hosed in the
attempt.
Let’s look at another offensive BFM setup (fig. 5.23). The attacker on
the left diagram has an open escape window. If he takes that window, the
situation on the right side develops. When you are outside the bandit’s turn
circle, you can get your nose into lead pursuit early enough in the fight to
pass the bandit with high angle-off and high speed. You also force the bandit
to turn back 180° to put his nose on you after already turning 180° to meet
you with high angles. Since the bandit is now slow, your escape window will
be open throughout the engagement.
If, however, the attacker chose to drive into lag pursuit and then turned
aggressively to put his nose on the bandit, his escape window would close,
as he is now well within the bandit’s turn circle. He has made the conscious
choice to commit to this battle until someone’s jet explodes.
Figure 5.24 shows what pilots call a “luffberry,” a gritty turning fight
where no fighter can escape, and one of the two aircraft must be shot down
before it ends. If you leave this fight, you die. The only way to exit is to
win.
Do not conclude from this lesson that the purpose of air combat is to fly
around and keep your escape window open. If you really want to be safe, you
should stay on the ground, holding hands with sweet Marie. If you are going
}
A
B
D
Out of range for

missile shot
C
C
E
D
B
Figure 5.23: An offensive fight with an escape window.
Figure 5.24: An luffberry.

to strap on a Harrier, you will have to hang it out at some point in order
to kill the enemy. As you enter the fight, however, you should be aware of
what your escape window is doing, so you know when you have the option
to disengage, and more importantly, when you don’t.
So what affects your escape window? Assuming everyone in the fight
can see the other guy (an assumption that is seldom correct), the following
factors drive the position of your escape window:
• Your range from the bandit. The greater the range, the more
“open” the window.
• Your energy relative to the bandit. The greater your energy, the
more “open” your escape window.
• Your combined angle-off and aspect with the bandit. A head-on

pass gives you the best chance for an open escape window.
As you enter a head-on fight, your escape window is usually open. Think
carefully before you turn and slam it shut.
Another important component to a head-on pass is the lead turn. A
lead turn is an attempt to decrease angle-off prior to passing the bandit’s
3/9 line. Lead turns can be used anywhere, but they are most important
in head-on BFM. They are the most energy-efficient way to BFM. Stated
more directly: If one fighter lead turns and the other fighter does not, the
lead-turning fighter will win.
As you approach a bandit head-on, watch his line-of-sight rate. In a head-
on approach, it will be relatively stationary in your canopy. As you get closer,
the bandit will start to move aft on your canopy. There is a place in space
and time, just as you pass the bandit, where your closure speed (the speed
at which the two of you are coming together) will swap from high positive to
high negative numbers. It is at this point that the bandit is starting to get
behind you, and it is at this point that you start your lead turn.
The best way to judge when to start the turn is to watch the bandit’s
line-of-sight rate. When it starts to increase rapidly, begin your turn. This
spot is usually around 30° off your nose.
Figure 5.25 shows a friendly beginning his lead turn against a head-on
attacker. Lead turns are usually done at maximum g. When you lead turn,
you are closing your escape window and committing yourself to the fight.
Lead turns can be initiated from all aspects and angles-off, but you need to
predict the flight path of the bandit and take care not to fly out in front of
him while doing your turn. If you initiate your turn too soon, you’ll get a
situation like figure 5.26.
A
B B
Figure 5.25: A proper lead turn.
Figure 5.26: A lead turn begun too early.
There is a situation where a lead turn can be used to dominate an enemy:

The nose-high-to-nose-low pass. “Nose-high” and “nose-low” refer to the
position of the aircraft’s nose relative to the horizon. When you are nose-high
and passing a nose-low bandit, it’s time to do a big lead turn at maximum g.
You will have the benefit of using the extra radial g in the vertical turn, and
the bandit will be fighting gravity. Whether you blunder into this situation
accidentally or cleverly maneuver to obtain it, you should be able to use a
lead turn to gain an immediate 3/9 line advantage. In figure 5.27 the enemy
is nose-high and uses his smaller turning radius to his advantage, with a lead
turn that puts him right on our tail.
The lead turn is such a potent maneuver you can bet it will be used
against you as well. The best way to negate the effects of a bandit’s lead
turn is with a lead turn of your own. If you and your identical twin are both
B
A
A
Lead turn begun at A
Figure 5.27: Nose-high lead turn against a nose-low adversary.
flying identical Harriers and you each perform a lead turn into the other,
you cancel each other’s turns out and enter a luffberry. If, however, you are
in a Harrier and your adversary is in a Su-27 Flanker, and you both begin
lead turns, you’re going to come out on the enemy’s six. Your Harrier can
out-turn the Flanker.
As you approach the bandit head-on, your first thought should be, “How
can I get this over with quickly?” No one likes a prolonged dogfight. Shoot
a missile if you can, and don’t forget your guns. In most head-ons, you will
have to sacrifice a good BFM position to get your guns in position for the
pass, so it’s not advisable to line up for a guns shot. If you’ve decided to
separate and not engage, however, you have the option of the head-on guns
pass. Consider that he might have also made the same decision, leading to
a game of chicken and a high collision potential.
But let’s say you’re committed to killing him, not separating, so you forgo
the guns shot and prepare yourself for BFM turning. Your options are to
turn level, to turn nose-low, and to go into the vertical. (You could do a
few fancier things, like a pitch-back or a split-S, but if you see these types of
moves after a head-on pass, it normally indicates your opponent is an airshow
pilot who accidentally flew into a dogfight.)
Before deciding which maneuver to execute, keep in mind this rule: Head-
on fights are never won, they are only lost. Head-on fights require a
lot of maneuvering, so the odds are high that one of you will make a mistake
and “lose.” The biggest mistake (and easiest) you can make during head-on
BFM is to lose sight of the bandit. You can’t fight what you can’t see, so
take a quick second to make sure you remember where that ejection handle
is. Some other common mistakes are insufficient g during the turn, poor
airspeed control, bad lift vector control, and a failure to properly lead the
turn.
Now let’s talk about each of the entry options I listed below.
The nose-low turn: The quickest way to get your nose around on the
bandit is by initiating a lead turn slice into the bandit (fig. 5.28). Start an
immediate 8-g lead turn into the bandit with your nose about 10° below the
horizon when the line-of-sight rate starts to increase. By pulling around with
your nose low, you gain the use of gravity, which will preserve your corner
speed and increase your turn rate.
Figure 5.28: Nose-low slice into the bandit after head-on.
Your Harrier can out-turn most of the opponents you will meet in ,
so a big lead turn with a nose-low attitude will easily get you angles on the
enemy with plenty of energy remaining for the next turn. The disadvantage of
the slice is it places the bandit at your deep six and out of sight momentarily.
This isn’t a huge disadvantage if you’re watching his track and know where
to look for him out the other side of your ejection seat. He should be slightly
above the horizon and approaching your 12-o’clock as you complete 180° of
turn.
The level turn: Another good option after the pass is the level turn.
It doesn’t get your nose around as fast as the slice, but it gives you the
advantage of maintaining visual contact with your enemy through the entire
turn. You perform the level turn the same way as you do the slice, except
you drag your nose straight across the horizon. Along with slowing down
your turn rate, the level turn will slow your airspeed more than the slice
does. Don’t forget to lead the turn when you execute this maneuver.
The vertical: The remaining option is to pull straight up into the verti-
cal (fig. 5.29). This is a special case move since the Harrier doesn’t perform
as well in a vertical fight as it does in a turning fight. You may want to use
the vertical if the sun is directly overhead and you want to use it to force
your enemy to lose sight of you momentarily. (Note that this only works
for human opponents.) You can usually tell when he loses sight because he
begins doing turns and banks trying to find you again. His lift vector will
probably not be pointing at you as he flails around looking for you.
Figure 5.29: Vertical BFM entry after head-on pass.
There is another advantage to forcing the vertical fight: You will have the
widest part of the canopy to look through, so it’s easiest to maintain visual
lock. The big disadvantage is your poor turn rate as you fight gravity on the
pull-up. At the top, of course, you have gravity helping to tighten your turn
rate, but by then the bandit will have used your slower turn to gain angles
on you and will be in a good position for a missile shot. As a general rule,
you probably don’t want to go into the vertical as your first move.
If you do choose the vertical, though, you should start a wings-level pull
100 KPH above corner speed immediately after the pass. As you start your
pull, you will bleed off speed like sweat off a pig. If you level your wings and
pull pure vertical, you will gain huge vertical displacement from your enemy,
as opposed to an oblique vertical pull (fig. 5.30).
Once you get your pitch at 90°, rotate your lift vector using bank until
it is pointing right at him (pirouetting, fig. 5.31). Once you have your lift
vector on him, resume pulling. If he sees you, he will pull up into you. At
this point you will be on the receiving end of the nose-high-to-nose-low lead
Pure vertical turn Oblique turn
Figure 5.30: Oblique and pure vertical turns.
turn. Counter by starting a lead turn of your own, then continue around in
a level turn to put your lift vector on the bandit.
Figure 5.31: A pirouette.
The above strategy gives you a vertical entry to what becomes a horizontal
turning fight. If, however, you want to force a continued vertical fight, turn
straight up again instead and do not wait until you get past corner speed.
When you have cruise speed and are passing the bandit, pull into the vertical.
If you delay your pull, the bandit will gain angles on you. Once you get to
the vertical, repeat the pirouette and pull. You know the tables are turning
when the bandit no longer pulls his nose up into you. It’s a sign he is out of
energy. You now own the turning room above the bandit and can use it to
convert on him.
Remember, if you are committed to going vertical, roll wings-level and
make your initial pull straight up. Then roll to find the bandit and pull
to him. Do not go into the oblique, or you will give the bandit turning
room. Vietnam fighter pilots said, “you meet a better class of people in
the vertical.” It requires skill, but if you can’t win the horizontal fight, the
vertical can make you a lethal adversary.
All of these options can result in either a one- or two-circle fight. If both
fighters start a lead turn, the fight will go two-circle (fig. 5.33). If one of the
fighters turns away, the fight goes one-circle (fig. 5.32).
Figure 5.32: A one-circle fight.
Keep in mind that both you and the bandit can force a one- or two-circle
fight. A pilot should understand the characteristics of both of these fights.
Most head-on passes result in two-circle fights, for a simple reason: Usually,
fighters lead turns into each other to use the turning room available in an
attempt to reduce angle-off. If you are offset from the bandit and turn away,
you are not using the turning room available, and worse, you are letting him
use it (fig. 5.34).
Two-circle fights have another advantage for an aircraft with a high turn
rate and an all-aspect heat missile like the Sidewinder: You can get your nose
around fast enough to get a missile shot at the bandit. A one-circle fight is
far too tight for a heater shot after the pass; in fact, that’s the principle
reason for choosing a one-circle fight. If you are worried about kissing an
Figure 5.33: A two-circle fight.
Turning room
yielded
Figure 5.34: The problem with turning away after the pass.
AIR COMBAT MANEUVERING 91
enemy’s missile, you should deny him that opportunity by taking the fight
one-circle.
Once you have chosen which fight you want, don’t reverse it. If you
wanted a two-circle fight but the bandit turns away from you, opting for the
one-circle fight, just keep turning. Unloading to reverse your turn just gives
him a bunch of angles to use against you.
Air combat maneuvering

Our next lesson is in air combat maneuvering (ACM), which is the study
of how to employ teams of aircraft to gain tactical advantages in air combat.
You know all about how to maneuver in a one-on-one situation, but what
happens to all this great BFM when you have your buddy on your wing at
the merge? Is he going to accurately predict every maneuver you’ll make?
Probably not. That’s what ACM is all about.
The objective of ACM is threefold: know how to maneuver as the sup-
porting fighter, learn the roles of the engaged and supporting fighters in a
visual fight, and develop enhanced situational awareness for the element.
Communications
The key to coordinating with your wingman is effective communication.
There are two types of communications you will use in a fight: directive
and descriptive. Each has its place in a fight.
Directive calls are orders. There are times your buddy will see a threat
you don’t, and vice versa. Things happen pretty quickly in a mach-0.8 jet
with mach-3 missiles in the air. If you see a missile on your wingman, you
want to call (for example) “break right” immediately, and save the “missile
inbound at your 5-o’clock” for later.
Directive calls are prefaced with the receiver’s call sign: “102, jink now.”
Keep your eye on the receiver to make sure he’s doing as ordered; if not,
retransmit your order. You can give directives in a battle regardless of rank.
If you tell your squadron lead to “break right,” he should break right. Con-
versely, never think you’re too good to be told when to jink.
Descriptive calls tell the flight what’s going on with you or your area.
Most descriptive calls are informing your flight of new bandits in the area.
They are given in the bearing-range-altitude-aspect (BRAA) format. Exam-

ple: “Nightmares, Frogfoots 2 o’clock, 3 klicks, high, hot.” That call tells you
there are an unknown number of Su-25’s to your right and above you, heading
straight for you, and you’ve got a matter of seconds before the merge.
Sometimes you will find the word “continue” appended to a BRAA call.
It simply means “what you’re doing right now is fine” — you use it if you
notice your wingman’s current BFM happens to be appropriate for the new
situation.
Directive and descriptive calls can be combined: “101, break right [pause
to ensure he does] bandit at your deep six, danger close.” Some of the BRAA
data is left out of this call because it’s not necessary (you can assume a
dangerous bandit at your six is pointing right at you, no need to say “hot”).
More information, including the types of radio calls you will see and use in
combat, can be found in Combat procedures: air-to-air, page 152. A complete
list of brevity codes can be found in the included booklet.
The Contract
The contract between you and your wing is signed and paid in blood before
you even step into the jet. The key here is to know exactly what your job is
at any point in the fight. If lead is engaged with a bandit, you are not free
to hunt for ground targets. You in fact are bound to assist him.
Formation integrity and flight discipline are the keys to surviving the
modern air fight. Formation integrity allows the flight to maneuver synergis-
tically to defeat a bandit’s attack or prosecute the kill. The engaged fighter
does his best BFM to kill the bandit while the supporting fighter maneuvers
for the kill shot or supports the engaged fighter based on pre-briefed criteria.
This is why it is key to have a flight lead/wingman relationship before
the flight. Lead makes the tactical decisions before the fight starts, but he
knows what the contract was before he took off. That means he knows what
you’re going to do. Lead may have an air-to-ground (A/G) loadout and may
have pre-briefed that if the flight is jumped, wing automatically volunteers
to be the engaged fighter while lead supports. It all depends on the strategic
situation of each battle.
In offensive BFM against one bandit, there can be only one engaged
fighter that the bandit is maneuvering against at a time. When defensive,
the bandit picks who the engaged fighter is, and he can only pick one. You
can’t effectively track two targets at a time, and you can’t maneuver your
jet against two targets and be effective against both.
The engaged fighter is the guy the bandit has chosen to maneuver
against. You can try to bait him into choosing the fighter you want, but
he has the ultimate choice. The engaged fighter has the following duties:
• Show off his best BFM. The engaged fighter should use all his BFM
training to fly offense when possible, and negate the enemy’s offense
when not. He should strive to make the battle as short as possible.
• Get out of the way when his wingman can shoot. He should
clear the supporting fighter to engage if the supporting fighter is in a
better position to shoot. This requires communication, as the engaged
fighter cannot tally both the bandit and his wingman constantly.
• Keep his buddy informed. He should be communicative while in

combat so his buddy can assist him with tactical decision-making.
The supporting fighter has multiple roles to play in a dogfight. You have
to divide your attention between a lot of different duties while your wing is
in the thick of it. The supporting fighter should:
• Maintain as much visual as possible. The supporting fighter

should not padlock like the engaged fighter, but should try to keep
a good eye on where his wing and the enemy are, without sacrificing
his situational awareness.
• Maintain deconfliction. A mid-air collision is an excellent way to

make your enemy very happy. You should be communicative of your
position and work to deconflict your flight path with your wingman’s
and the enemy’s.
• Sanitize the area. While your wingman is padlocked, he’s going to

lose SA. The supporting fighter should be scanning for new players in
the battle. He should also be checking his own six periodically.
• Stay clear of the fight, but stay available. A good supporting

fighter both stays out of his wingman’s way (and lets him conduct the
BFM), but also keeps a good entry window open in case he needs to
dive in and join the furball.
• Employ weapons when he can safely. If by pure luck the ban-

dit stumbles into your weapons engagement zone (WEZ) and your
wingman is safely clear, by all means take the shot. This is not a
situation you should be trying to set up (you have more important
responsibilities above), but don’t deny yourself an opportunity to end
the fight early if you can. Some battles may have more specific rules of
engagement (ROEs) specified by the flight lead that may restrict you
from employing ordnance as a supporting fighter. You should pre-brief
these scenarios in advance.
• Engage other bandits if they appear. No one flies alone; if your
wingman gets sucked into a defensive fight, you can almost be sure
there’s another one out there for you. Be communicative and keep
your wingman informed; don’t just disappear off the face of the earth
to chase some sweet Frogfoot tail.
• Keep an eye out for escape windows and fuel states. Your
wingman should be watching for his own escape windows but another
pair of eyes doesn’t hurt. In addition, he may get so busy he forgets
to watch his fuel state. If you are flying close to bingo, make sure he’s
ready to leave when he needs to.
The supporting fighter in many ways has a harder job than the engaged
fighter. The only thing the engaged fighter needs to do is turn to save his
life; the supporting fighter manages all other aspects of the battle.
Note that there is no mention of “flight lead” in the previous discussion.
When the battle’s on, who’s lead doesn’t matter as much as who’s engaged
and who’s supporting. The engaged fighter gets first say as to how the battle
proceeds because he’s in the thick of it. You can’t call your enemy over the
radio and explain that you’re flight lead and therefore you should be the one
to be engaged.
If the bandit has the first move, he’ll get to choose whom to engage and
you have to live with his choice. If, however, you’re lucky enough to have
first tally, your element can pick who gets to engage. Normally, element lead
will choose the man with better angles, though it may be based on other
pre-briefed factors, like differing loadouts.
As I just said, in a defensive fight, the bandit chooses his target. But if
the fight is offensive, but the engaged fighter cannot convert his BFM to a
kill, the element has the option of a positive exchange of role, where the
engaged and supporting fighters switch jobs. The engaged fighter should call
for the exchange when
• he feels he can no longer achieve the kill in good time,
• he loses sight of the bandit,
• he cannot convert his energy state to a killing shot, or
• the supporting fighter tells him he has a perfect shot.
Be careful with that last bullet point: We all saw Top Gun, and Maverick
always “had the shot.” You’re not Maverick. If you tell the engaged fighter
you have the shot, you better be able to turn the bandit into smoke and
flames the moment the engaged fighter rolls out of the turn.
If the engaged fighter is lucky enough to have a skilled supporting fighter
with him, he’ll know that the supporting fighter is keeping a window open for
himself and can enter the fight on favorable terms when he’s needed. Over
comms, you may hear something like this:
“104 is engaged, bandit 2-o’clock, 2 miles, low.” Nightmare 104 is letting
his buddy know where he managed to get into a fight.
“103 has tally, visual, out east.” Nightmare 103 is letting 104 know that
he sees the enemy (“tally”), he sees 104 (“visual”), and is maneuvering away
from the battle (“out”) eastward to hang back and provide support.
“104 is neutral.” 104 is letting 103 know he’s in a stagnated luffberry
fight.
“103 is committing, 15 seconds.” 103 is telling 104 he’s going to enter the
fight in about 15 seconds. Roles have not switched yet — 104 hasn’t cleared
103 to take the engaged fighter role from him.
“103 is in from the southeast, high, tally, visual.” 103 has entered the
battle (“in”) above and to the southeast of the bandit, and can see both the
enemy (“tally”) and 104 (“visual”).
“104 is blind, continue.” 104 doesn’t see 103 (“blind”), but doesn’t want
to give up his engaged fighter role yet. He tells 103 to keep maneuvering for
the shot (“continue”) but remain in the supporting fighter role.
“103 has the shot, 4-o’clock high, come-off left.” 103 has the target in
his WEZ, coming in from 104’s back right and above (“4-o’clock high”) and
wants 103 to break left and clear the area for his shot (“come-off left”).
(Usually “has the shot” is replaced with a pre-briefed code word in the real
world; in this will probably not be the case.)
“103, 104, continue.” 104’s telling 103, “stay in position for the kill but
give me a chance to kill him first,” or in other words, “tough luck, this guy
is mine.”
“103 has the shot, 4-o’clock level, come-off left.” In other words, “let me
at ’im!”
“104 blind, off left, press.” Finally, 104 gives the go-ahead (“press”). 104
follows 103’s deconfliction instructions (“off left”) and reminds 103 that he
doesn’t see 104 (“blind”).
“103 is engaged.” The role switch is complete. 103 is now free to take the
shot.
“104 has visual, out north.” Free of padlocking the bandit, 104 can now
keep eyes on 103 (“visual”) and is egressing the battle to the north to provide
support (“out north”).
“103, fox two.” 103 fires an AIM-9 Sidewinder.
“103, splash.” The bandit is a smoking hole in the sky.
“104, 103, rejoin, egress northwest.” The fight is over. Nightmare 103
tells 104 to rejoin him on his wing and head northwest away from the battle.
Nightmare 103 is in command of the element.
“103, 104, visual.” 103 sees 104 and is moving to rejoin formation.
It should be clear how important clear, unambiguous communication is
during a role-switch in offensive combat.
Offensive ACM
A great deal of offensive ACM is what the supporting fighter does as opposed
to the engaged fighter. Naturally the engaged fighter is going to be BFMing
for all he’s worth, so it’s the supporting fighter that has to work in concert
to make the plan successful. As the saying goes, “no matter how many kills
you got, if you come home without your wingman, you’ve lost.”
It’s imperative that roles in the fight get established immediately. Flight
lead should say his intentions and get the ball rolling right away.
“101, engaged, nose, 3 miles.” Nightmare 101 spotted a target three miles
dead ahead and has chosen to be the engaged fighter. Or, alternatively:
“102, 101, cleared to engage, nose 3 miles, press.” Nightmare 101 tells
102 he is cleared to engage a target three miles ahead, and that he should be
the engaged fighter (“press”).
Now the engaged fighter needs to plan his merge and begin BFMing, while
keeping the supporting fighter appraised of his tactical situation (offensive,
neutral, defensive). The supporting fighter, however, has a lot of new re-
sponsibilities on his plate. He should blow through the merge and extend as
quickly as possible, as it will help him sanitize the area right at the beginning
of the fight.
If you are the supporting fighter, never place yourself in a position where
the bandit could get a shot off at you, even a snapshot. It’s more difficult
than you might think to keep it this way. Some other areas to avoid as
supporting fighter are directly above the fight, directly below the fight, or
within missile WEZ of the enemy.
Why? If you’re above or below the flight, you have to keep your attention
on the fight and can’t sanitize and do all the other duties you need to. If
you are within missile range, all the bandit has to do is lob a missile at you
and force you to fight the missile. Your role as support fighter has effectively
been negated.
So, let’s say you’re in an offensive ACM situation: It’s you and your
wingman, and you’re on an unsuspecting bandit’s six. You give him the
engaged fighter role and you take support. Before you get off your shot, the
bandit breaks and begins the BFM dance. What do you do now, as support?
That depends on which direction the bandit breaks. If he breaks away
from you, it’s easy. Just check off him a bit (turn away from him 30° or so),
then begin a maximum-g turn back towards the fight. Your buddy will have
started his lag pursuit turn by now and you’ll be away from the furball but
in a good position to enter if you need to (fig. 5.35).
If the bandit breaks towards you, you have three choices you should choose
from depending on the situation and the plan. You can extend straight ahead,
lag the fight, or pull the bracket.
Extending straight ahead means aiming for the head-on pass. Ma-
neuver to pass the bandit with very high aspect, then after the pass, extend
until you reach a position of advantage (fig. 5.36). While your bandit is
spending all his energy turning with your wingman, you’ve unloaded and
are building knots during the extend, waiting to turn at the right moment.
You’ll be turning in the opposite direction of the fight, though, making an
entry challenging.
Lagging the fight is more difficult but gives you different advantages.
It’s easily countered and so should only be used on an unskilled opponent.
Essentially you watch what your wingman does, and copy him, repeating his
2
2
3
2
Figure 5.35: Offensive ACM after the bandit breaks away from the supporting
fighter.
Figure 5.36: Straight-ahead extension.

turn starting from the same entry point behind him. Once you’re established
in a “lag pursuit” of your wingman, you split plane the fight in the opposite
direction. You’ll end up turning in the same direction as the fight (ready for
a co-flow entry, discussed later), and you’ll clear your wing’s six visually as
you turn. Resist the temptation to stay with the turn and “be a part of the
fight.” Your job is to get on the outside and provide support.
To bracket the fight, you perform the same maneuver as if the bandit
had broken away from you. Check turn away from the fight, and reverse,
but this time, you’ll also want to go vertical to get your separation. As the
bandit’s nose rotates through you (you’ll see his apparent turn rate get a lot
faster), you are on the outside and and ready to be support (fig. 5.37). You’ll
be in a good place for an opportunity shot or a role exchange if necessary.
You must add the vertical element to the check turn. If you roll away level,
then as the bandit comes around the turn and puts his nose on you, you’ll
be in-plane and he can take the shot.
1 2
2
3
Figure 5.37: Forming the bracket.
Keep in mind that these breaks only cover the first turn of the fight.
Whatever you do, remember that you are responsible for deconfliction (in
other words, don’t run into your engaged fighter).
The best place to put the fight is at your 10- or 2-o’clock, depending on
the direction of the break. Keep your speed around corner and keep sight
of the whole fight. You can do this by turning to keep the fight visual,
then leveling for a bit, and so on. Always keep your energy up (watch your
airspeed!), and keep your eye on entry and exit routes so you’re ready if your
wingman calls for you.
As you make circles around the fight, remember to keep the area sanitized;
stay frosty and scan for additional enemies. You want to be out of missile
range of the fight horizontally and about 500 meters above or below the fight.
This way you claim plenty of turning room for yourself should you need it
and you have an ideal position to keep the battlefield sanitary.
You should never let the bandit’s 3/9 line get behind you. This should
be easy since he’s not turning for you, he’s worrying about your wingman.
It could happen inadvertently without you noticing, however. If necessary,
however, break turn into the fight to hold your advantageous entry position.
Whether by desperation, confusion, or (in the case of the computer)
quirky artificial intelligence, the bandit may occasionally abandon his pursuit
of the engaged fighter and go after you. If you’re watching his nose you’ll
know this well in advance; you’ll see him lagging you and preparing to lead
his shot. This would be a very poor move on his part tactically, because
you’ve kept your speed up and kept your turning room, giving you all the
options in the world to pick your engagement. Begin BFMing to deny him
his WEZ and let your wingman take the shot.
Eventually as support fighter you will be called in to make the shot.
Perhaps the engaged fighter can’t get better than neutral BFM, or worse,
he’s hopelessly defensive. Time to enter the fight and take care of the source
of his problems.
There are two kinds of entries, a move in the vertical or a move outside
the bandit’s turn circle. If you choose to enter from outside the turn circle,
you will enter either with the flow of the flight (co-flow) or in the opposite
direction of their turns (counter-flow).
Vertical entries are easy; just point your lift vector at the bandit and
pull yourself into him, then take the shot (once you’re cleared), or just be
ready to switch roles. You’ll be coming down on him from the vertical with
more energy than your enemy, so don’t squander your advantage. If you’re
unfortunately below the furball when you enter, it’s more difficult since your
buddy and his opponent are probably already turning each other down to
the earth and that’s denying you turning room. Vertical entries are quick
and must be timed accurately to work.
If you choose a turn circle entry, you will have several options to make
your co-planar entry. If you’re turning with the fight (co-flow), you will be
able to keep the bandit ahead of your 3/9 line and be prepared to line up for
the shot. If you’re making a counter-flow entry, the bandit will cross through
your WEZ periodically, but it will be quick. In a co-flow entry you can use
your energy advantage (you kept the energy advantage, right?) to get closure
on the bandit and get him in your WEZ quickly.
No matter the entry, stay in lag. The only reason to go to lead is to take
the shot, and you’re not the engaged fighter yet. Wait until you’re cleared
before you switch to lead.
As you hunt for entries, remember to sanitize and check your six, all the
way up to the moment you’re called in and cleared in. Be thinking about
your WEZ and fight geometry, but let the engaged fighter have the fight up
till he clears you in. Once cleared, convert your entry to an offensive BFM
engagement as discussed earlier. A counter-flow entry is a lot like a two-circle
BFM fight: You need a lot of energy to turn it into a kill. You also have
a lot more shot opportunities as you and the bandit repeatedly cross paths;
don’t waste them.
Aside from being cleared to switch roles, the only other time you should
be firing as supporting fighter should be to take opportunity shots. There
are two times you are allowed to take the opportunity shot: if the engaged
fighter requests it, or if his survival depends on it. Survival could mean
either the engaged fighter has gone defensive and it’s a race against time, or
it could mean the overall tactical situation just changed. (For example, four
new bandits showed up, so you have to take this guy out now and get out
before they arrive. In that case, staying clear and letting your wingman do
his job is less important than getting the enemy blown up before his buddies
arrive.)
You need four things in order to take the opportunity shot:
• You must have the bandit in your WEZ.
• Your wingman must not be in the path of your missile or guns.
• Your wingman is not so close to the bandit as to create a collision

hazard after weapons impact.
• You will not enter your wingman’s control zone (CZ) to shoot. The
control zone is the space between his nose and the bandit’s tail; it’s
airspace he has complete control over.
Remember, when deciding to take an opportunity shot, you have to make

sure the engaged fighter is clear of your fire, and you have to make sure you’re
cleared to take the shot.
With the bandit in flames, the pilot with the highest SA should direct the
egress. This is normally the supporting fighter but it could be the engaged
fighter if the supporting fighter got the kill shot as an opportunity. Egress
the area in the safest possible direction and start rebuilding your SA. Both
pilots should regain visual of each other and the flight lead should redress
the formation (paying attention to the possibility that his wing might have
lost a lot of speed in the fight) and continue the egress with a healthy dose
of check-six.
If you need to leave the fight before the bandit dies (say, a fuel emergency
or a higher priority tactical issue), the engaged fighter decides when to end
the fight. He chooses his escape window, and the supporting fighter follows
suit once the engaged fighter disengages. If your enemy is human, a lot of
times he will bug out too (better to live and fight another day), but if he is
computer-controlled or bloodthirsty he may pursue. The supporting fighter
should present himself as easy prey, while the engaged fighter prepares for
the opportunity shot. If the engaged fighter misses his shot, the bandit may
engage the supporting fighter (forcing a role switch), and the BFMing may
begin anew. It’s impossible to disengage a sufficiently determined bandit;
you may have to simply kill him.
Defensive ACM
Now we’ll deal with the reverse situation: You and your wingman are in
formation when one of you notices a bandit on your six. Noticing your
enemy before he fires is the first and most important step, and an appropriate
formation can help with that. (Obviously, if all your guys are in trail, all the
responsibility falls to the one poor bloke in the back.)
Each formation will have different areas of coverage for each pilot where
he should keep his eyes. An appropriate visual scan will help prevent your
formation from getting pounced from any direction.
There are four things to think about in a defensive ACM situation: bandit
detection, threat negation, flight integrity and mutual support, and weapons
employment. When a flight is defensive the obvious concern is survival,
negating the bandit’s initial attack. The flight should have pre-rehearsed
contact drills that will be discussed next. These maneuvers are by nature
defensive BFM turns. Once the initial attack is negated with these turns, the
flight must then concern itself with either killing the bandit or separating.
The engaged fighter must determine that he is engaged and begin defensive
BFM.
If separation and egress cannot be achieved, the bandit needs to be sand-
wiched and killed. Here is where role definition is critical: The bandit of
course determines who is engaged and who is support, but if bullets start
flying at your six and neither of you sees the enemy, it’s impossible to tell
who’s targeted. The lead will have to act quickly and establish roles and tac-
tics. Deconfliction is accomplished through practice: You know how these
maneuvers work and you know what to do.
Once the bandit is located, it’s time to split the element either laterally
or vertically. Increase airspeed and perform either a break turn or hard
turn into the bandit. Use a break turn if the bandit is inside your WEZ;
otherwise use a hard turn to maintain your energy. If you’re flight lead and
you’re unsure, call a break turn; it’s better to be safe than sorry and creates
the most BFM problems for the bandit. The key here is to defend yourself
and not give the bandit an easy shot on your wingman. Use your best BFM
and know that your buddy is out there, but don’t count on him to save the
day (he may be fighting a missile).
The initial move in defensive ACM is the key to survival. These moves
need to be part of the contract that both flight members know by heart —
practice. The goal is to keep your cone of vulnerability (a.k.a. your tail)
away from the bandit. The main principles are easy:
• Use split-pane maneuvers; never maneuver in the same plane as your

wingman.
• The pilot who is engaged should simultaneously do his best break turn
into the bandit and direct the flight to turn left or right.
• The supporting fighter should perform the break turn as called, attempt
to acquire tally and visual (enemy and friendly contact), and be ready
to employ ordnance if an opportunity shot is available.
Remember that by definition the engaged fighter is defensive, so you’re

free to fire opportunity shots if the situation warrants. (Remember the rules
of opportunity shots, however.)
Depending on where your bandit shows up, there are maneuvers you can
use to maintain your two-ship advantage against him. These maneuvers
depend on when and where you detect the bandit. There is no hard rule
or formula (as in all of air combat) that tells you when to do what. These
maneuvers should be practiced and used when the time is “right.”
If a bandit shows up in your six and presses his initial attack against the
newly crowned engaged fighter, the sandwich may become possible. This
is almost always limited to those times when the bandit is unaware of the
supporting fighter or simply not reacting to him. As the engaged fighter does
his break turn, the supporter can delay a moment to let the bandit commit to
his own turn, and then begin his turn. The engaged fighter pulls the bandit
into his WEZ and the supporting fighter is placed outside the turn but ready
to employ weapons with the element of surprise.
The switch comes in two varieties, early and late. It’s available when
the enemy is aware of both Harriers in your flight. Switching must be com-
municated as soon as possible so that roles can be established. Both switches
accomplish the same thing; the only difference is the location of the bandit.
If he’s in the engaged fighter’s turn circle, then it’s a late switch (fig. 5.39).
Outside the turn circle, an early switch is possible (fig. 5.38).
2
1 1
Figure 5.38: The early switch.
An early switch allows the engaged fighter to start a constant-rate turn

2 2
1 1
Figure 5.39: The late switch.
defense or an extension, depending on the bandit’s BFM. This allows him to

back off that turn to preserve energy and keep a tally on the bandit all while
keeping his tail rotated away from the bandit. All the while, the supporting
fighter is maneuvering for an entry into the fight or the opportunity shot.
A late switch gives the supporting fighter the chance for a high-aspect
pass at the bandit and may even give the flight an opportunity to extend,
again, depending on the bandit’s BFM. If the extension opportunity is there,
the supporting fighter needs to communicate that fact to the engaged fighter
so he can make a tactical decision. This decision will be based on the ord-
nance carried by the bandit — whether being chased down by a missile is a
possibility.
When the bandit’s intentions cannot clearly be judged, the same-side
break and cross turn become options. The idea behind these maneuvers is
to deny the bandit a shot, create BFM problems, force the bandit to pick a
fighter, and maximize your offensive potential.
The same-side break (fig. 5.40) is preferred if the bandit is outside your
WEZ or outside your turn-circle. (“Your” means either you or your wing-
man.) Its advantages are:
• Aircraft #1 maintains tally throughout the turn.

• The bandit must either pick one fighter or blow through.

• He no longer enjoys the same offensive potential against both fighters.
• Each fighter has isolated the threat on the same side of their aircraft.
• There are no deconfliction issues.
• The supporting fighter can keep rotating his nose back into the bandit
while the engaged fighter does his BFM.
Figure 5.40: The same-side break.
There are disadvantages though: Airplane #2 may lose tally as the bandit
gets pulled through his deep six, and the bandit has a snapshot opportunity
at airplane #2 as he starts his turn.
The cross turn (fig. 5.41) is not the best maneuver but is effective if the
bandit is detected inside your turn circle where he can maximize his offensive
capability on his fighter of choice. This maneuver has many disadvantages
but can be used to “fluster” the bandit into committing himself to a turning
engagement with one Harrier. Your flight’s abilities here are minimized, but
if you have superior equipment or superior ROE, it can be used.
The advantages are:
• Each fighter maximizes the BFM problem for the bandit.

• Neither fighter has his tail to the bandit.
Figure 5.41: The cross turn.

• Both fighters can easily maintain a tally during the turn.
The drawbacks, however, are numerous:
• The bandit isn’t forced to commit against either fighter; his commit
decision can be delayed until he is deeper in the turn circle.
• He can meet one fighter at high aspect.
• Who is engaged/support is not clear until the bandit commits, which

can be late in the fight.
• If all three aircraft maneuver in the same plane, collision risk is high.
• Mutual support is difficult to achieve after the maneuver is over.
• Communication is more difficult because the bandit is on opposite sides

of each aircraft. (“My right or your right?!”)
All of these maneuvers assume the bandit was deep six to your flight at
detection. If the bandit is asymmetric (fig. 5.42), the solutions remain the
same, but the identification of who is engaged is easier to realize; typically the
fighter more close to the bandit’s nose is the engaged. If the bandit foolishly
chooses the aircraft with more angle-off, your BFM problems become much
easier, and the kill is soon to come.
Figure 5.42: Asymmetric bandit, shown with a same-side break.

BEYOND-VISUAL-RANGE FIGHTS 109
Re-entry into the fight is the responsibility of the supporting fighter. As

in the offensive ACM, the support has maintained visual on the fight and
is maneuvering all the time for an entry. When defensive, the need to clear
the engaged fighter’s six is gone, because he’s defensive. Because of that, the
supporting fighter can loiter closer to the fight. As support, keep an eye on
the fight and see how it develops. If it drags into a scissors, be prepared to
enter the scissors, but don’t get dragged down to the same slow speeds as
your wingman. Your goal is to be available to employ weapons and to keep
your eyes open for an escape window. If you see an open window, inform
your wingman, but let him choose not to take it if he doesn’t want to.
As support there is no difference in entry strategy in a defensive ACM
situation: You are always offensive as support, even in defensive fights. Pick
a co-flow, counter-flow, or vertical entry and maneuver as practiced.
Beyond-visual-range fights
The beyond-visual-range (BVR) fight is the missiles fight. In the real world,
missiles can be employed against an enemy dozens, even hundreds of miles
away, completely changing the battlefield. In , for better or worse, pilots
are only provided short-range Sidewinders. These missiles can still be used
before the enemy is seen, though, so we’ll go over a little strategy.
If you need, review the Defensive BFM section on page 73. There’s a
paragraph on how to defeat an incoming missile. A fighter that is trying to
defeat a missile is generally incapable of firing his own missiles. Therefore, in
BVR combat, the airplane that gets off the first missile has a huge advantage.
Even missiles with a low hope of hitting their target can be effective: If
your enemy sees a trail of white smoke coming his way, chances are he will
maneuver to fight it, so even if you can’t fire a missile to hit your enemy, you
can fire one to deny him his missile shots.
As discussed earlier, the best way to avoid being hit by a missile is to never
allow the enemy to fire one: Hide behind terrain, pounce from behind, or fire
your missile first. The Harrier’s CAS loadout includes only two Sidewinders,
so use your missiles sparingly. If you and your wingman both have missiles,
it is imperative that the flight lead coordinate the use of missiles so that they
are not wasted. He should designate a shooter and a cover. The shooter is
responsible for firing missiles against the target, and the cover watches the
engagement and prepares for the merge. The cover should not fire missiles
unless the shooter wants to switch roles.
Threat avoidance
There are three threats to aircraft in : enemy aircraft, surface-to-air
missiles and anti-aircraft artillery. How to deal with enemy aircraft was
discussed for the last million pages or so, so we won’t go over that here.
Instead, we’ll talk about ground-based threats.
Surface-to-air missiles
Surface-to-air missiles come in a variety of shapes and sizes in real life,
but about the only ones you will encounter in are also among the most
deadly: man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). MANPADS are
shoulder-launched, heat-seeking missiles that can be carried and fired by a
single soldier. They are critically lethal because aircraft flying high above
the battlefield cannot spot or track a single man, or even a fireteam.
MANPADS have two major handicaps: Their range and terrain. MAN-
PADS cannot fly very far, so you can usually stay high enough or far enough
from suspected enemy troops that they will not pose a problem. And if you
must stray into MANPADS territory, the fact that they are ground based
makes it easy to place terrain between you and a missile.
Even still, you should be cautious and alert for MANPADS launches
during and after any ground attack run you make. Turn sharply after making
your attack and try to put terrain between you and the target.
Anti-aircraft artillery
Anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) is wheeled or tracked guns designed to fire
rounds upward into the air. AAA can employ one of two basic firing strate-
gies.
If there are only one or a few targets, AAA will generally employ an
aimed-fire strategy (fig. 5.43). Each AAA emplacement will be precisely
aimed at its target with the intent to hit that target. This is the only
strategy that the AI in employs. It’s effective against a few targets, but
with multiple aircraft in the sky the AAA can be overwhelmed and incapable
of firing against all of them.
THREAT AVOIDANCE 111
Figure 5.43: AAA employing aimed fire.
If there are multiple targets in the sky, or there is a high-value block of

airspace the AAA needs to protect, they may choose a barrage-fire strategy
(fig. 5.44). In this strategy, AAA fills a certain part of the sky with continuous
fire. Aircraft flying into that area risk being raked with gunfire. It’s effective
at denying aircraft the use of airspace but leaves other parts of the sky
completely undefended and available for aircraft to use when attacking or
circumventing the AAA.
Figure 5.44: AAA employing barrage fire.

Chapter 6
Air-to-Ground Combat
Attack geometries
When a pilot rolls in for an air-to-ground kill, he has a number of different
attack geometries available at his disposal, depending on the ordnance he is
employing. These tactics are especially suitable for guns and missiles, but
are applicable to bombs as well.
If there is a significant air threat above him, or if there is the threat of
surface-based missiles (MANPADS), the pilot can opt for a low-profile attack.
This attack is flown near to the surface and at high speed. The pilot follows
terrain until he has a tally on his target, opens fire, and passes, returning
into the protection of terrain.
Low-profile attacks enjoy protection afforded by terrain, but suffer from
low visibility and high concentration. You generally won’t be able to see your
target until your clear that last ridge, which is often very close. You’ll only
have a few seconds to line up your shot and take it. Finally, profiles that are
“in the weeds” low are wholly unsuitable for bombs, as the unlucky pilot will
discover his Mk. 82 does not discriminate between himself and his enemy.
A high-profile attack employs a lot of vertical room. The inbound leg of
the attack begins at a high altitude with the nose deep below the horizon.
The pilot picks up airspeed quickly as he lines up his shot, then pulls away
for another go. High-profile attacks afford the pilot much more time to set
up his shot, meaning fewer passes before the target is destroyed. Of course,
the flip side is the enemy can see you longer, and if he has air defenses, he
has more time to employ them. In addition, the high-profile attack is more
113
114 CHAPTER 6. AIR-TO-GROUND COMBAT
prone to pilot error. You have to be willing to break off your attack and
start your pull early; you’re carrying a lot of momentum and you need time
to get your velocity vector above the ground. Too many virtual pilots have
cratered themselves because they thought they could hold out for “just a
second longer” to get off that perfect guns shot.
In practice you will choose an appropriate profile somewhere between the
two extremes, balancing target visibility with your own visibility. In addition,
your attacks should never be in the same plane. You can always tell a rookie
because he pulls straight up after he attacks, rolls level for a half Cuban-8,
and goes again. These painfully predictable attack profiles make him easy
prey for anti-air.
You should be rolling in for your attack on different planes each time, to
force the AAA gunners to set up their sights each time. After your attack,
you should roll out on an oblique plane, never pure vertical. You always have
to steady your nose to take the shot, so you’re a sitting duck for part of the
attack. Make yourself a difficult target to hit for the rest of it.
If you are dropping bombs, you have another option: the loft attack.
Lofting a bomb is a “pop-up” maneuver; you start low, then pitch back and
release the bomb. The vertical element you gave it will increase its range.
Real-life attack jets have very helpful symbology to assist the pilot in timing
his loft perfectly, but here in you’ll use a little guesswork. With practice
you should be able to loft bombs reasonably well for an area effect.
Lofting is a standoff maneuver: The bomb goes further than it would have
in a flat run, meaning you can stay further out of harm’s way. In addition,
the low-high-low profile of the attack keeps you in the bushes and away from
harm longer.
Guided and unguided bombs

The Harrier carries two kinds of bombs, unguided Mk. 82 500-pounders, and
guided GBU-12 2,000-pounders. The simplistic weapons modeling of
does not distinguish from them terribly well, but there are still a few key
differences.
Both bombs can “lock” and track a target in . To release a bomb
onto a specific target, switch to your bombs, lock it up, wait until you see
the release cue (the circumscribed circle), and then pickle. Unless you are
out of the bomb’s WEZ (defined by how far it can glide from the moment of
NON-PRECISION DELIVERY 115
release until it hits the earth), you should hit the target. You know you’re
in the WEZ when you see the release cue; even the “unguided” bombs will
guide to a target in as long as it’s within the WEZ.
Because of this, the higher you are, the further you can be when you
drop your bomb. At very high altitudes the bombs become excellent standoff
weapons, keeping you far out of harm’s way. Once the bomb is off the rails,
you are free to maneuver as you please.
There is only one succinct difference that separates the GBU-12 from the
Mk. 82 (other than their yields): laser target designation. Ground targets
can use a laser-marker to designate targets, which are then transmitted to
your aircraft. You are then able to launch bombs against targets you cannot
lock on radar.
When a teammate laser-designates a target, it will appear on your HUD
as a red dot. If you’re in a “target-rich environment” there will already be
plenty of red dots, so you’ll have to make sure you select the right one. Laser
targets tend to be bright red radar returns that appear all of a sudden around
the time the FAC calls “target lazed.” Generally the forward air controller
will provide a bearing or grid reference to help you verify you have the right
target acquired. In addition, the TD box will be labeled with the words
“Laser target” if target identification is enabled on the server.
Make sure you have your GBUs selected, then acquire the laser target.
Fly until you see the circle, then release and head back. All bombs in
are fire-and-forget.
Non-precision delivery
You may occasionally be asked to deliver unguided bombs onto a target you
cannot lock on radar. Though the HUD symbology for a Mk. 82 may look like
CCIP, it is not. A non-precision bomb delivery in requires classic, World
War II-style guesswork. You will need to practice non-precision deliveries to
get a feel for how the bombs glide at different airspeeds and altitudes to time
your release.
Non-precision deliveries are almost always done as low-level, straight
(non-loft) profiles to simplify the pilot’s estimation and improve accuracy.
Bear in mind that at 400 KPH, you must be at least 100 meters above the
ground to avoid fragmentary damage from your own bomb in a straight-and-
level delivery. This puts a lower limit on the delivery altitude.
If you have access to the airspace above the target area, you can improve
your accuracy with a dive bombing attack. Dive bombing is only an effective
strategy when there aren’t a significant number of air defenses; if there are
many MANPADs around the target area, popping up and exposing your hot
jet engine against the sky provides a perfect opportunity for a surface-to-air
missile.
Assuming, however, it’s safe to make a pop-up dive-bombing attack, you
can place bombs accurately on target using the following procedure (dia-
grammed in fig. 6.1):
Figure 6.1: Dive-bombing run using FPM to aim bombs.
Approach the target level at the altitude of your choice and an airspeed
around corner. When your slant range (the distance between you and the
target diagonally, not over the ground) is about one to two kilometers, begin
a high-g pullup maneuver to a 40° to 60° angle of pitch.
Once you are pitched towards the sky, roll 180°. Locate your target out
the top of your canopy. Continue climbing and moving towards the target
until it’s about 20° off your lift vector. At that point, begin a high-g pull
over the top into your target. Pull through inverted and continue to pull
your nose into your target until it’s pointed straight down. If you timed it
right, you should be directly over the target when your nose is pure vertical.
When established in the dive, reduce throttle and maneuver your FPM
until it’s directly on the target. When the FPM is stable, pickle your bomb.
After your bombs are away, rotate the aircraft to point the lift vector in your
NON-PRECISION DELIVERY 117
desired egress direction, then pull to wings level and egress.

Chapter 7
Combat Procedures
Combat air patrols

Combat air patrols are rotating flight paths flown to sanitize an area of
enemy aircraft. Aircraft in a combat air patrol are responsible for detecting
and engaging enemy aircraft and protecting other aircraft or ground forces
from air attacks.
Combat air patrols can be both offensive or defensive in nature. An
offensive combat air patrol might be a CAP over the target area to clear the
airspace of enemy aircraft prior to a strike. A defensive CAP might be one
over the LHD when an inbound attack on the LHD is likely or imminent.
Because aircraft orbit a point when CAPping, each CAP has its hot and
cold legs. Aircraft on the hot leg have their nose pointed towards the known
or likely direction of the threat, and aircraft on the cold leg are vulnerable.
To mitigate this, CAPs are often set up to be counterrotating or counterop-
posing.
A counterrotating CAP has two elements positioned such that when one
is hot, the other is cold, and vice versa. Typically this is accomplished with
a four-ship flight, with the two elements on opposite sides of each other in
the CAP at all times (fig. 7.1).
Counteropposing CAPs are two separate CAPs whose aircraft are timed
such that one is on the hot leg when the other is on the cold leg (fig. 7.2).
Note that both counterrotating and counteropposing CAPs need at least a
four-ship flight, unless flight lead feels like leaving an aircraft out on his own
in a CAP with no wingman.
119
120 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT PROCEDURES
Figure 7.1: Two-element counterrotating CAP.
Figure 7.2: Two-element counteropposing CAPs.

COMBAT AIR PATROLS 121
Counteropposing CAPs spread friendly aircraft over a larger area, de-

creasing mutual support but also decreasing response time for threats that
are spread over a large airspace.
If the mission only has two aircraft, or flight lead doesn’t want the risk
of a cold leg, there is always the beam CAP. A beam CAP is oriented
perpendicular to the direction of the threat, such that neither leg is hot nor
cold (fig. 7.3). The disadvantage of course is that the enemy will likely not
appear head-on, so pilots must always be looking out the left or right side of
their aircraft for threats.
Figure 7.3: Single-element beam CAP.
Although CAPs can be set up around friendly vehicles, CAPs differ from
escorts in a few key areas: CAP aircraft are given greater discretion in pros-
ecuting enemy targets. CAP aircraft are free to leave the CAP for enemy
threats, either with intent to engage or merely to posture in an attempt to
ward them off. Escort aircraft are a last line of defense, and must remain
with their friendlies if at all possible: If the escorts break off to engage a
threat, then the friendlies are left unescorted.
CAPs have different names depending on the purpose of the CAP:
TARCAP: Short for “target combat air patrol.” TARCAPs are flown over
or near a target area to prevent enemy aircraft from interfering with
a strike or ground operation in the area. In high-threat situations
TARCAPs are usually short; aircraft remain in the CAP only as long
as necessary to ensure the safety of friendly troops or vehicles.
BARCAP: Short for “barrier combat air patrol.” BARCAPs are flown ad-
jacent to a tactically significant barrier or line, such as a forward line
of troops. As another example, an airbase might be directly next to a
tall ridge line that enemy aircraft could use to mask their approach. A
TARCAP would be set up below the level of the ridge line so that if
enemy aircraft did breach the ridge, friendly CAP aircraft could pounce
on them before the strike.
RESCAP: Short for “rescue combat air patrol.” RESCAPs are set up after
a friendly pilot ejects from, or crash-lands, his aircraft. Unlike other
CAPs, RESCAPs are not planned in advance, but set up ad-hoc purely
in reaction to a friendly bailout. The RESCAP protects the downed
pilot and his SAR team from enemy fighters.
HAVCAP: Short for “high asset value combat air patrol.” HAVCAPs are
flown in defense of high-value aircraft that are not able to defend them-
selves against enemy fighters.
CAP/Strike A CAP mission with secondary strike objectives; aircraft in

such missions are free to engage enemy air as flight lead sees fit.
Strike/CAP A strike mission with secondary CAP objectives; aircraft in

such missions may only engage enemy aircraft if threatened. Typically
such missions involve the striking aircraft providing their own egress
CAP after ordnance has been delivered.
Escort procedures
Some missions will have us escorting unarmed transport or utility aircraft in
hostile airspace. In order to ensure firstly that we do not interfere with the
operations of these aircraft, and secondly that we provide good tactical visual
coverage of their formation, there are an established, standard set of escort
procedures. Escort procedures are broadly different depending on whether
the flight is escorting slow-movers (helicopters, piston aircraft) or fast-movers
(other jets).
ESCORT PROCEDURES 123
Escorting Slow-movers
Because it is both dangerous and tactically unwise to fly the Harrier continu-
ously at slower airspeeds, escorts of slow-moving aircraft (such as the UH-1Y
Venom) are done like CAPs. These escort CAPs are always done well above
the slow-movers to maintain airspace superiority above the other flight and
to improve the effectiveness of radar and visual coverage.
There are two different CAPs used when escorting slow-movers, and the
decision between them depends on the tactical needs of the mission.
The corridor escort
The corridor escort is used when airspace superiority is established for much
of the flight path of the slow-movers. It’s a wide CAP that covers most or all
of the flight path (fig. 7.4), allowing the CAP to maintain airspace superiority
along the entire flight path. The CAP should be flown such that the slow-
movers are given wide berth but you can still maintain visual with them
(1,000 to 3,000 meters lateral spacing from their flight path).
The previous figure shows a counterrotating corridor escort covering the
entire flight path of the Sea Knights. The corridor CAP can sometimes be
modified to suit the tactical situation. For example, if the target area poses
a high threat for fighter aircraft (e.g., lots of SAM sites), the CAP may not
extend all the way to the AO. Likewise, the CAP may not extend all the way
to the LHD/FOB if there is no need for escort in friendly territory.
The HAVCAP escort
If airspace superiority is not established, or if it is necessary to maintain

visual contact with the other flight for the entirety of the mission, flight lead
may opt to use a HAVCAP escort instead (fig. 7.5). The CAP continues
to maintain a one- to three-kilometer distance from the target at all times,
following them into and out of the AO. This minimizes exposure for the
escort flight, and can ward off attacks in the airspace around the helicopters
without requiring total air superiority. It’s also more effective for smaller
escort flights which would otherwise be spread out too thin.
1 - 3 km
Figure 7.4: Corridor escort of slow-moving aircraft.

Figure 7.5: HAVCAP escort of slow-moving aircraft.

Escorting fast-movers
With fast-moving aircraft such as the MV-22 Osprey we have the ability to
fly in formation with our friendlies. In order to safely fly in formation with
dissimilar aircraft, it is important to establish procedures that reduce the
risk of collision while maximizing mutual support.
The first step when approaching the escortee is to take the ready position.
The ready position is a position far behind and to the left of the escortee
flight (fig. 7.6). The escort flight establishes themselves in the ready position,
and then the escort flight lead contacts the escortee flight lead:
“Red Dragons, Nightmares are ready to take escort position.”
“Nightmares, Red Dragons, cleared to take escort position.”
“Nightmares taking escort position.”
With clearance obtained, the flight moves from the ready position to
the escort position. The transition from ready position to escort position is
done such that no aircraft crosses in front an escortee aircraft, no aircraft
crosses between two escortee aircraft, and no wingman overtakes his lead.
(See fig. 7.6).
1 Ready position 2 Escort position
3
4
Figure 7.6: The ready position and escort position for a four-ship flight in
finger.
Note that in the transition from ready to escort position, each wingman
continues to fly formation with his lead. #2 continues to fly on the left of
#1 throughout the maneuver, and #4 on the right of #3. Wingmen do
not fly in formation with the escortees — they fly in formation
with their lead. Only the flight and element leads fly in formation with
the escortees.
Escort aircraft maintain a comfortably wide margin from the escortees.
The goal is not to fly in “airshow formation” with your friendly pals —
you want to give them a wide berth to conduct their own mission with your
support but not interference. Stay at least 500 meters away from the escorted
aircraft.
All of the escort positions detailed below are derived from the same basic
principles. These principles are as follows:
• No aircraft are placed in the “no-fly zones.” There are two places
that no escort aircraft should be in front an escortee, or in between two
escortees. If an aircraft is in front of an escortee, he can’t clear his
escortee’s six, nor remain out of his escortee’s way. If an aircraft is
between two escortees, he is interfering with their formation flying.
• The formation provides 360° security. Aircraft are outside the

formation in each direction, leaving no part of the sky unscanned.
• Escorts choose escortees symmetrically. If a four-ship flight of

Harriers is escorting a four-ship flight of Ospreys, the #1 Harrier escorts
the #1 Osprey, the #2 Harrier the #2 Osprey, and so on. If a four-
ship flight of Harriers escorts a 2-ship flight of Ospreys, the #1 escorts
the lead Osprey and #2 the wingman, leaving the second element in
tactical trail. If a two-ship flight of Harriers escorts a four-ship flight
of Ospreys, #1 escorts the first element and #2 escorts the second
element. This helps avoid confusion if one of the escortee elements
needs to strip in response to an emergency.
• Wingmen can still check their lead’s six. Wingmen are placed
such that they can clear both their lead’s six and their escortee’s six.
• Aircraft are on alternate sides to maximize coverage. For the

purpose of consistency, we generally put the first element to the left of
the escortees and the second element to the right.
Some typical escort formations are demonstrated in the following pages.

Note that in some of the procedures, the #2 or #4 wingman will have to
shackle (switch sides) with his lead in order to be in the correct position. In
these situations, the wingman should perform a normal cross-under maneuver
in the process of transitioning to escort position.
Remember that scales in these diagrams are compressed; the escort flight
should be maintaining around 500 meters distance from the escortees.
2-ship escort of a 1-ship, 3-ship, or 4-ship flight
Figure 7.7: 2-ship escort of a single aircraft.
When two aircraft escort either one aircraft or more than two, the simplest
strategy is to fly behind and to the left of the escortee flight, with wing on
the right of lead. Lead is responsible for scanning the airspace ahead to the
right, and wing is responsible for scanning behind and to the left (fig. 7.7).
2-ship escort of 2-ship flight

In two-ship escorts of two-ship flights, lead is responsible for maintaining
position relative to the escortee flight, and scanning the airspace ahead and
to the right of the flight visually. The wingman is responsible for checking
the formation’s six and scanning the airspace to the left.
4-ship escort of a 2-ship flight

You may notice that the four-ship escorts of two-ship flights look exactly the
same as the two-ship escorts of two-ship flights, save for only one difference:
the second element, far behind and to the right of the escort flight.
Whenever there are more elements in the escort flight than in the escortee
flight, the additional elements hang back about one to two kilometers and
provide tactical overwatch. #4 should fly a nice formation with element lead,
but element lead is free to fall back to a good overwatch distance.
Figure 7.8: 2-ship escort of a 2-ship flight in echelon right.
Figure 7.9: 2-ship escort of a 2-ship flight in trail.
1 2
Figure 7.10: 2-ship escort of a 2-ship flight line abreast.


It is important for element lead to remember that in an escort flight (as

opposed to a CAP flight) he is not free to engage targets at will. Even though
he is far separated from his escortees, he is still bound to those aircraft except
as a final measure of defense.
4-ship escort of 4-ship flight

With four escort aircraft the focus for these flights is mutual support. Leads
are scanning to the front and often to either side; wingmen often get lateral
scanning duties and clear their leads’, and the formation’s six o’clock.
In the event that there are only three escort aircraft instead of four, these
formations can be adapted by dropping the #3 position. You should never
drop the #4 position, as this position is often responsible for clearing the
formation’s six. (Note that if flight lead drops the #3 position from the
line-abreast formation, fig. 7.17, he will need to ensure that the aircraft in
the #4 position additionally picks up the lateral-right scanning duties.)
In the event that there are only three aircraft to escort, formation po-
sitions remain unchanged. Remember that wingmen fly in formation with
their lead, not with the escortee aircraft, so no wingman should be confused
as to his formation position.
1 2
2
3 4
Figure 7.14: 4-ship escort of a 4-ship flight in finger.

1 2 4 3

Chapter 8
LHD Operations
The 15th MEU operates off of the U.S.S. Fallujah, LHD-9, a Wasp-class

amphibious assault ship (landing helicopter dock type). Unless the MEU
has managed to secure an airbase, you can expect all of your takeoffs and
landings to be from this ship, so it’s important to get comfortable with it.
Taxiing
The LHD is the very definition of confined space. Along with (typically four
to six) Harriers, you will be sharing the deck with a handful of helicopters
and a few giant V-22’s. And until we get a separate boat for the ground
combat element (GCE), expect them to be scurrying about the deck too.
It’s critical that you do not move an inch unless cleared to do so. You’ve
got a nice, long space to takeoff on the LHD but many other aircraft, vehicles,
and people are using it too. The air combat element commanding officer
(ACE CO) will be in charge of managing the deck. If the deck is “green,” it
means people have been cleared out of the way for your takeoff. If it’s “red,”
it means there are people or obstructions in the takeoff path and you should
not be taking off.
Remember to use auto-hover to maneuver in close quarters on the LHD,
but don’t try to “bite off more than you can chew.” If you can’t get your
ass completely out of the way, don’t worry too much about it. There’s tow
vehicles if it’s a problem; just let your CO know and he’ll call for a tow.
Fortunately, when you are cleared to taxi, it will usually just be a matter
of pulling your jet out past the flight line (the yellow and white line that is
135
136 CHAPTER 8. LHD OPERATIONS
used to segregate departing and landing aircraft from the things they could
hit or suck into an intake). Once cleared to taxi, position and hold past the
flight line and prepare for your takeoff.
Takeoff
Contrary to what you might believe, takeoffs on the LHD are usually not
short-field. Unless specifically instructed otherwise, do not use auto-hover
for the takeoff, as it increases the collision risk to other aircraft and people
on the deck if something goes wrong.
Don’t worry about takeoff distance; you don’t have to have your tail
feathers hanging off the back of the deck in order to take off. Generally, if
you are aft of the giant “9,” you’ve got enough room for your takeoff. Simply
apply 10° of flap and full throttle like a normal takeoff. By the time your
wheels slip off the end of the deck, you should have enough speed to raise
both gear and flaps and begin your on-course turn.
The one thing you can’t do on an LHD is abort your takeoff. Aircraft in
can accelerate like a bat out of Hell but they brake like it’s Fighter Jets
on Ice. If you need to abort a takeoff, there’s only one simple rule: don’t.
You will end up in the drink, guaranteed. Take off, re-enter the pattern, and
land; or, if that’s not a possibility, eject.
The LHD’s airspace extends for about 1 klick in any direction from the
boat. If you are within that airspace you are under the direction of “PriFly”
(fancy LHD term for the control tower) and should do as he says until you’re
clear of his area of operations. If there is no controller for this particular
LHD, however, it should be treated as an uncontrolled airfield in accordance
with the procedures in Taxi and takeoff: Uncontrolled airfields, page 144.
Approaches
Flights approach the LHD through a procedure called marshaling. A flight
marshals at a briefed location, where they orbit and await clearance to ap-
proach the LHD. Flights marshal in a stack, with each airplane 500 meters
above the previous. The #4 aircraft is at the lowest altitude, #3 above him,
and so on, with #1 at the highest altitude.
Number four is the first to be cleared into the LHD. When an aircraft
LANDINGS 137
is cleared to approach the LHD, he is released from formation and free to

perform his LHD approach solo. When he does so, each airplane still in
the stack vacates his assigned altitude and drops 500 meters, in a procedure
called “popping the stack.” Thus, if a flight marshals at 500 meters (with the
#1 aircraft at 2,000 meters), and #4 is cleared in, #3 will take #4’s altitude,
and #1 will now be at 1,500 meters.
If the LHD is uncontrolled, the flight leader will conduct the marshaling.
He will specify a location for the flight to orbit and an altitude to orbit at.
The altitude he specifies is the base altitude, the one #4 orbits at. He will
also clear each member of the flight out of the stack, giving them permission
to exit formation and approach the LHD. At that point flight members should
begin announcing intentions over the aviation net.
If the LHD is controlled, PriFly will specify the marshal point and will
clear each airplane out of the stack.
Landings
So we’ve got our normal rectangular traffic pattern, our overhead break for
formation approaches, and now we’ve got the LHD, and you can bet it has its
own traffic pattern. In the real world pilots use the so-called “delta pattern”
to fly to their spots (or the “alpha pattern” if they’re still carrying live
ordnance), but here in we keep it a little simpler.
The landing pattern is a two-break (two-turn) pattern designed to keep
you clear of helicopters and departing traffic. In order to keep you clear of
helicopters, you’ll be flying the pattern at a different altitude and airspeed.
What altitude and airspeed the jets and the choppers should use will be
briefed to you, but in the absence of other information, assume you’re to
fly the pattern at 300 meters. The pattern is flown using right turns (a
right-hand traffic pattern).
The first break is the overhead break. This is a 180° turn from the upwind
to the downwind. You start your initial overhead the LHD, above pattern
altitude, and perform your overhead break to the right. The break should
see you losing airspeed and altitude until you end up on downwind, off the
starboard side of the LHD.
Drop your gear and 10° of flaps, fly past the LHD for approximately 400-
500 meters, then commence your landing break. This is a level 180° turn
that has you at the same altitude, on final approach, and at an airspeed slow
enough to drop your remaining flaps and engage auto-hover. A perfect final
approach will have you heading to the ocean just over the port side of the
LHD (you’ll swing in over the deck later).
Now is a crucial moment — you need to determine when to engage auto-
hover. Remember that a Harrier can never gain altitude in a climb. If you
engage auto-hover too early you may not have enough altitude to make it
back to the deck. You will need enough altitude to make it to the deck (some
20 meters above the ocean) plus an extra 15 or so meters for maneuvering
(which we’ll get into later). Experienced pilots should be able to gently
descend their way to the deck like they were rolling down a hill. Novices
should play it safe and come in too high; you can dump altitude like an old
girlfriend in the Harrier.
So you’ve engaged auto-hover and you’re heading to the ocean off port.
Excellent. You should be gradually losing both altitude and airspeed as you
approach the deck. If you time it right, you should be moving about 30 KPH
when you’re 100-200 meters from the edge of the deck, and about 40 meters
above the ocean. Keep sliding on in.
Begin a stationary hover once you’re parallel with the flight deck, abaft
the superstructure — don’t slip too far forward, you only get the back third
of the deck to land on. Stabilize your aircraft in the hover, and then add
the smallest touch of bank to slide it over above the deck. You delay your
hover over the deck until the last minute in case something goes wrong —
better that you just fall into the ocean than hit the flight deck and turn an
emergency into a catastrophe.
Once you’re over the deck and lined up with the centerline, stop your
lateral motion with another slight bank, and hold full throttle. You want to
come down on the deck lightly, so unless you’re hanging a hundred meters
above it, just keep the throttle in and let the jet inch its way down to the
surface.
The touchdown’s the other tricky part. Remember that those nozzles are
going to rotate the moment your tires kiss the asphalt, so you need to cut
your engines fast. Snap the throttle back to idle before your airplane careens
forward into some poor Huey or something.
Safely on the ground, you are now free to (attempt) to taxi to your spot
(or just ask for a tow).
LANDINGS 139
Rearm and refuel

To rearm and refuel your Harrier, pull forward until you are abeam the “9”
or so. There’s a rearm/refuel script trigger there, and you should see your
damage and fuel bars start replenishing. After that’s complete you still have
enough deck ahead of you to take off and rejoin the fight.
Go-arounds
As mentioned in the vertical landing overview, go-arounds are tricky beasts
in a hovering Harrier. The key is to stay at least 10 seconds ahead of
the airplane. That means don’t just think about what the plane is doing
now, look ahead and predict 10 seconds into the future. Once you start
the go-around, it can take 10 seconds (or even more) before the airplane is
gaining altitude again. If you discover you need to go around by the time
you need to go around, it’s already 10 seconds too late. You must predict in
advance when it’s likely or even possible that you may need to go around. If
you suspect you will need to, don’t risk it. It’s a busy flight deck so there’s
no tolerance for error; go around.
Assuming you perform the go-around procedure with no mistakes, you
will lose at least 40 meters of altitude before your aircraft begins climbing
again. Thus, if you decide you cannot land with less than 40 meters of
altitude above the deck, your only option is to bank away from the LHD and
eject.
The go-around procedure from a hover is the same as that from a con-
ventional landing, as printed in your checklist. But there’s one more thing
to worry about when going around for an LHD landing. The moment you
have enough airspeed to safely do so, bank away from the LHD. All of
this section is about preserving the safety of those on the deck. If there were
a way to land airplanes on the LHD without actually getting them near the
boat, that’d be great, but for now we just try to minimize the risk window.
Get your 23,000-pound, bomb-carrying, gas-guzzling machine the hell away
from the LHD the moment you can.
Chapter 9
Communications and
Procedures
The phraseology and procedures discussed in this channel apply to single

aircraft or to flight leads of formation flights. For procedures and phraseology
applicable to wingmen, see Formation Flying, page 43.
Non-combat procedures
Airports come in two varieties: controlled and uncontrolled. Controlled air-
fields are airfields in controlled airspace, airspace under the control of a con-
trolling agency (a control tower or air liaison officer). Aircraft must request
and receive clearance before performing actions within controlled airspace.
Uncontrolled airfields are airfields in uncontrolled airspace. Pilots do not
need clearance to operate in this airspace, but are expected to regularly an-
nounce their intentions to assist other pilots in avoiding a collision. They
are also expected to be vigilant in listening for and looking for other pilots.
Pilots are not required to follow the instructions of a controlling agency
until they confirm those instructions. Pilots always have the option of saying
“unable” to any instruction, but once they read back an instruction, they are
required to abide by it unless a safety condition exists.
Remember that in formation flights, only the flight lead will be commu-
nicating with the controlling agency. The lead should announce the number
of people in the flight the first time he contacts the controlling agency or the
first time he announces at uncontrolled airspace: “Tower, Nightmare 101,
141
142 CHAPTER 9. COMMUNICATIONS AND PROCEDURES
flight of 2, …”
Taxi and takeoff: Controlled airfields

When operating at a controlled airfield, you will be dealing with the con-
trolling agency. You must have clearance from the controlling agency before
you can move your jet in any way. Note that the control tower is only con-
cerned with aircraft movement: Things like starting your jet do not require
clearance from tower.
The first clearance you must obtain is a clearance to taxi to your runway.
The controlling agency will generally assign you a runway, although you can
typically request one:
“Phoenix tower, Nightmare 102, taxi runway 15.” Nightmare 102 is re-
questing taxi permission, and is additionally asking for runway 15 if he can
get it.
“Nightmare 102, Phoenix tower, runway 15 inactive, taxi runway 33.”
Tower gives 102 permission to taxi to runway 33. Permission is not given
to taxi to runway 15. Tower is not obligated to give you any reason as to
why you don’t get to taxi to runway 15. They could just say “Nightmare
102, Phoenix tower, taxi runway 33,” so you have to listen carefully; don’t
just assume that once you hear the word “taxi” you are cleared to taxi to
whatever runway you asked for.
“102, taxi 15.” You should always restate orders given to you for confir-
mation.
If you are given permission to taxi to a runway, you do not have permission
to enter that runway. You must taxi to the hold-short line, or if there is no
such line, just short of the runway. No part of your aircraft should ever enter
the runway until you are cleared.
Once you are waiting at the hold short line, the controlling agency may
issue your next clearance. If not, you can gently remind them: “Tower, 102,
ready for takeoff.” At this point, you will receive one of three instructions:
• “102, tower, hold short.” You are not cleared to enter the runway.
Remain at the hold-short line and wait for further instructions.
• “102, tower, position and hold, 33.” You are cleared to enter the runway
but not take off. You should position your aircraft on the runway cen-
terline, ready to depart, and perform your pre-takeoff checklist. Don’t
take off until you hear:
NON-COMBAT PROCEDURES 143
• “102, tower, cleared for takeoff, 33.” You are cleared for takeoff. Note
that the runway is given as an extra measure of assurance that you are
taking off on the correct runway.
Remember to readback tower’s instructions: “102, cleared for takeoff, 33.”

Note that your readback includes the exact words cleared for takeoff and the
runway number. This helps tower ensure you didn’t mishear them and are
going to plow your jet into traffic.
Tower may occasionally want to know what kind of departure you would
like, or may assign a departure to you. Departure types can be a simple
heading (“depart heading 250”) or one of the following:
• Straight-out departure: Depart in the same heading as the runway.
• (Left or right) crosswind departure: Make a 90° turn left or right after
takeoff, and then depart.
• (Left or right) downwind departure: Make a 180° turn left or right

after takeoff, and then depart.
• High-performance departure: A nearly vertical full-power climb to an

altitude above the airport’s airspace, followed by an on-course turn of
your choosing. Great for demonstrating to the other pilots why we fly
Harriers.
• Remain in the pattern: Continue flying the traffic pattern. Only used
for pilots practicing patternwork.
You may request one of these departures before you get your takeoff
clearance: “Tower, 102, ready for takeoff, straight-out departure.” Tower
may or may not approve it, so listen for your takeoff clearance: “102, tower,
cleared for takeoff, 33, straight-out departure approved.”
Tower may also assign you a departure for traffic avoidance: “102, tower,
cleared for takeoff, 33, make left downwind departure, remain east of Vybor.”
Note that this takeoff clearance includes both a departure type and some
additional instructions. You should read back all of these instructions.
Once you’ve completed your departure, the only thing remaining is to
inform the controlling agency once you’ve left their airspace:
“Phoenix Tower, 102, leaving your airspace.”
“102, roger.”
Taxi and takeoff: Uncontrolled airfields

All communications at uncontrolled airfields start and end with the airport
name. This is to ensure everyone listening in is aware of what airport you
are referring to.
At uncontrolled airfields it is the pilot’s responsibility to ensure he will
not conflict with other traffic when taxiing and taking off. For this reason you
should be both talking and listening. You should announce your intentions
when beginning your taxi and when beginning your takeoff:
“Utes traffic, Nightmare 102 taxiing runway 27, Utes.” You only have to
announce where you’re taxiing; after that it’s up to you to make sure you
don’t taxi your aircraft into anyone else. Given that you fly a plane capable
of attaining 400 miles per hour, it shouldn’t be hard for you to keep from
hitting someone on the ground when taxiing at 10 miles per hour, right?
Once you get to your runway, you should first look and listen for
other traffic. Make a 360-degree visual sweep of the airport, and check the
final approach path, to make sure it is clear. When you are sure you can
take the runway:
“Utes traffic, Nightmare 102 taking runway 27, left downwind departure,
Utes.” Announce the runway again, and tell people how you will be departing.
Then take the runway and make your takeoff.
Traffic notifications: Controlled airspace

In controlled airspace you may be given traffic notifications. This is a cour-
tesy service that the controlling agency can provide to you, workload per-
mitting. If you receive a traffic notification, it will contain some or all of
the following information, typically in this order: clock direction, range, alti-
tude, type, and additional information. Additional information is usually its
heading (so you know where it’s trending in your line of sight), but it could
also be other information (such as “has you in sight” when the other traffic
knows about you). Example callouts:
“102, traffic 2-o’clock, 500 meters, Huey, moving westbound.”
“102, traffic 12-o’clock, 800 meters, unknown type, high performance
aerobatics.”
You are expected to search for the traffic (though not to the exclusion of
critical duties such as flying the plane) and report when you have it in sight:
“102, traffic in sight.”
If you do not immediately see the traffic, at least tell them you heard
them and are looking for it:
“102, looking for traffic.”
If you cannot find the traffic and it gets close to you, you may be issued
a traffic alert. It’s very similar to a traffic callout, except includes the words
“traffic alert” and also has a suggested deconfliction maneuver:
“102, traffic alert, traffic 12-o’clock, suggest 20° left turn.”
Tower may also opt to make it an order.
“102, traffic alert, traffic 12-o’clock, check left 20°.”
If they do this, you must read back the order and comply. “102, check
left 20°.” Finally, they may issue a conditional order and give you one more
chance to sight the target:
“102, traffic alert, traffic 12-o’clock, if not in sight turn left 20°.” In this
case you should inform them if you opt to make the 20° turn (“turning left
20°”), or immediately respond “traffic in sight” if you can gain visual quickly.
Landing: Controlled airfields

The first thing you say to an airport’s controlling agency is your intention to
land: “inbound to land.” You should also provide your altitude and a cardinal
direction that you’re coming from or a landmark that you’re over that you’re
coming from to help them sequence traffic.
You cannot enter the airspace of a controlled airport until you have estab-
lished two-way communications with its controlling agency. In other words,
you must contact them, and they must respond to you by name. Example:
“Phoenix tower, Nightmare 102, inbound to land from the northwest,
300.”
“Nightmare 102, Phoenix tower, roger, climb to 400, continue inbound.”
Because you were referred to by name, you are cleared to enter the tower’s
airspace. You were also given additional instructions telling you to climb and
continue inbound.
Here’s another example:
“Phoenix tower, Nightmare 102, over Kamislovo 500, inbound to land.”
“Nightmare 102, standby.” You weren’t given any specific instructions
but you were referred to by name, so you can still enter the airspace. Just
continue your present course and expect instructions shortly.
So if tower doesn’t want you to enter their airspace, how will they refer
to you? Generally as “aircraft calling tower” or “last aircraft calling” or
something like that. Example:

“Phoenix tower, Nightmare 102, inbound from the southwest, 1000.”
“Aircraft calling tower, standby.” You were not referred to by name, so
you should begin turning away from the airspace. Orbit an area away from
the airspace and try again later. (Perhaps they’re too busy for you at the
moment.)
As you approach the airport, you may be given additional instructions
before you hear “cleared to land.” You should always read back these instruc-
tions. You may be told to take specific headings, speeds, or altitudes:
• “102, tower, turn left 150.”
• “102, tower, descend to 200.”
• “102, tower, do not exceed 200 KPH.”
You may also be told to report when at certain locations, to help tower
keep track of your position. Generally tower will ask you to report when
you’re at a critical location; for example, they may ask you to report when
on downwind midfield (halfway across the runway), so they can issue you
your landing clearance. Examples:
• “102, tower, report downwind midfield.”
• “102, tower, report when over Vybor.”
• “102, tower, report turning base.”
Tower can clear you to land as early as they want, and if it’s not a busy
day, you may have your landing clearance before you even see the airport. If
it is busy, you may not get it until you’re making your base turn. You should
make your base and final turns even if you don’t have landing clearance. If
you’re on final without clearance, don’t land! Remind the tower you’re on
final: “Tower, 102, on final.” Hopefully they’ll give it to you, and if they
don’t, just go around: “Tower, 102, going around.”
You must hear the words cleared to land before you have your landing
clearance. The clearance will be for a runway; you may not land on any other
runway. You can receive a clearance for multiple runways in an emergency:
“Tower, 102, declaring an emergency, on fumes.”
“102, cleared to land, any runway.”
If there are multiple aircraft landing, you may be cleared to land in se-
quence:
“102, tower, cleared to land, 33, number 2 after the Osprey.”
You should treat this as both a landing clearance and a traffic notification.
So, first, confirm your landing clearance (again, make sure you say “cleared
to land” and include the runway):
“102, cleared to land, 33, number 2.”
Then, begin searching for the Osprey traffic and report when in sight.
Obviously, your landing clearance is not available until the Osprey has landed
and cleared the runway.
If the aircraft ahead of you is a slow mover, you may be asked to “extend
your downwind.” This simply means to fly further on downwind than usual.
It’s to give you spacing from the guy ahead of you and give him time to clear
the runway before your rocket ship comes barreling back to earth.
Tower may also tell you “I’ll call your base.” You should continue on
downwind until tower tells you to turn base.
When you say, “inbound for landing,” it’s assumed you want a full-stop
landing. You are expected to taxi off the runway after you land. You can
request another kind of landing if you want by asking for it any time af-
terwards. If approved, you can perform the landing. Some other kinds of
landings:
• Touch-and-go: Touch wheels to the runway, then depart.
• Stop-and-go: Come to a complete stop on the runway, then depart.

Probably difficult for a Harrier.
• Low approach: Descend to, but do not land on, the runway, then go
around.
• Short approach: A landing made directly from the downwind, without

a base and final turn. Typically used in training when simulating an
engine failure during the downwind leg. Tower may sometimes request
that you make a short approach if there is another aircraft on long final
waiting for you to land.
• Multiples: Multiple landings on one runway before departing. Typi-

cally done on alternating sides of the centerline. Also probably difficult
for a Harrier.
Tower will then give you your approval:

“Tower, 102, request low approach 15.”
“102, cleared low approach 15.”
“102, cleared low approach 15.”
If you ask for a touch-and-go or stop-and-go, you may receive “cleared for
the option.” The “option” in this case is the option to do any of the following:
full-stop landing, stop-and-go, or touch-and-go.
No matter what type of landing you are cleared to make, you always have
the option to go around for safety reasons. If you do go around, you should
first fly the plane and then, when you can, inform tower of your decision
to go around:
“Tower, 102 going around.”
“Roger 102.”
Landing: Uncontrolled airfields

Approaching an uncontrolled airfield safely requires frequent callouts of your
position and intentions. You should make first contact when you are within
1 klick or so of the airfield, or when you are out of controlled airspace. You
should announce your callsign, position, altitude, and intentions. You can
also ask for “traffic advisories,” which will let other pilots at the airport know
you’re interested in pertinent information:
“Utes traffic, Nightmare 101, 1 klick southeast, 1,000, inbound to land,
traffic advisories, Utes.”
If you are operating at the airport and hear a request for traffic advisories,
you can give the pilot any information you feel is pertinent: current weather,
active runway, traffic pattern direction (left or right), etc.:
“Nightmare 101, Utes is using right traffic runway 27.”
“101, roger, thanks.”
A typical approach to an uncontrolled airfield is performed as follows:
1. Approach the airport at 300 meters above pattern altitude.
2. When directly over the airport, call out your position, altitude, in-
tended direction of flight (for step 3), and intended runway and land-
ing type: “Utes traffic, Nightmare 101 over the airfield, 800, heading
southbound to enter a left 45 for runway 27, full-stop, Utes.”
3. Head away from the field in the direction of the downwind leg of the
runway. For instance, if using left traffic for runway 27, you would want
to head south.
4. Once you’re a comfortable distance away, begin a descending turn away

from the base leg to enter a 45° pattern entry (fig. 2.4, “45° entry”).
You should be at pattern altitude when the turn completes.
5. Merge into downwind traffic, being careful not to cut anyone off. An-
nounce when you are on the downwind: “Utes traffic, Nightmare 101,
left downwind 27, Utes.”
6. Make your base and final turns, announcing each turn: “Utes traffic,
Nightmare 101, final 27, touch-and-go, Utes.” As a courtesy, remind
everyone what kind of landing you’re going to make when you announce
on final.
Note that you should announce every turn you make in the traffic pattern,
unless the frequency is busy, in which case only announce the important turns
(always final, and any time you are worried about other traffic). It’s advisable
to announce your turns just before you make the turn; that way, if anyone
else is looking for you, they have the broad side of your turning aircraft to
look for, not its slender profile.
Remember to be listening and looking for other traffic. It’s important
not to be a chatterbox, but to also parse and understand what other pilots
are saying.
After you’ve completed your landing and taxied clear of the runway, an-
nounce that the runway is clear for the next person: “Utes traffic, Nightmare
101 clear of 27, Utes.” If you are making a touch-and-go or otherwise con-
tinuing to fly after the landing, announce your upwind leg after you takeoff:
“Utes traffic, Nightmare 101, upwind 27, Utes.” You should also announce
any go-arounds.
You should vary the number of radio calls you make depending on how
busy the airwaves are. At a minimum, however, you should always announce
when on final, when taking a runway for takeoff, and when going around.
Unlike at controlled airfields, where all comms revolve around aircraft
movement, all comms at and around uncontrolled airfields revolve around a
runway; the primary purpose of these announcements is to keep two planes
from being on the runway at the same time (unless they’re in formation).
It’s not necessary to announce your taxi to your parking destination, just
say when the runway is clear.
Combat procedures: Ingress and egress

When establishing new headings, altitudes, or airspeeds, the lead pilot should
announce the new parameters:
“Nightmares, reference 270, 800 meters, 350 KPH.”
(Lead should then hear each member of the flight call out in sequence as
they confirm: “2” — “3” — “4.”) You may also hear the word flow used if
just a heading is specified:
“Nightmare 102, flow 150.” — “2.”
In addition, a check is a non-high-performance turn to a new heading,
typically relative to the current heading:
“102, 101, check 20 left.” — “2.”
At this point Nightmare 102 would make a 30°-bank turn to 20° left of his
current heading. (If you wanted Nightmare 102 to make a high-performance
turn, you’d say “break,” discussed below.) You can also say just “check
right” if you want your wing to make a right turn without specifying any
new heading:
“101, 102, acute right.” Nightmare 102 is telling 101 that he is overtaking
him on the right side and will pass him (a formation no-no).
“102, 101, check right.” Nightmare 101 wants 102 to turn right and break
off formation.
“2.”
When the flight is rejoining formation, its members can call “tied” when
they have the lead on radar, “visual” when they have visual on the lead, and
“saddled” when they are in position in formation:
“Nightmares, rejoin, echelon left.”
“2, tied.” — “2, visual, saddled.”
The fence is pilot slang for the forward line of troops (FLOT), the line
demarcating friendly from enemy territory. When “crossing the fence” lead
should call a fence check:
“Nightmares, fence in.” After receiving this command all flight elements
should perform their fence-in checklist, ensuring their aircraft is ready for
combat.
COMBAT PROCEDURES: AIR-TO-GROUND 151
The lead pilot should also periodically initiate ops checks before and
after contact with the enemy:
“102, ops check.” Nightmare 102 would now run his ops checklist, ensuring
he has enough fuel and weapons for another enemy encounter. He could
respond with just “2” if he’s good to go, “2, winchester” if he’s out of ammo,
or “2, bingo” if he’s hit the pre-briefed low fuel state.
Combat procedures: Air-to-ground

When initiating your air-to-ground attacks, you should call “in.” In general
flight members will know what you’re attacking, since it should be part of
the tasked mission, but if you’re taking a target-of-opportunity you should
call it out:
“102, in, Shilka northwest of the airport.”
If you’re not flight lead and you make this call, you should not release
until you have weapons clearance. If you don’t have clearance, lead should,
after hearing this call, call either “cleared hot” or “skip it” depending on
whether he wants you to release your weapons. If you don’t hear anything,
you can remind him that you are looking for permission to fire:
“101, 102, hound dog.” You’re requesting weapons free, to which lead
might respond:
“102, 101, weapons free.” You’re now free to fire at will. Lead may also
specify different ROEs, such as weapons tight (do not fire unless fired upon),
and weapons hold (do not fire, period).
If your attack profile mimics a traffic pattern (which they often do), use
the same terminology. When making your turns, you can call “base” and
“final:”
“101, on left base for baker” (where “baker” is a target code name).
Typically you only call “base” and “final,” as the other legs are unneces-
sary in an attack run.
When you release a weapon you can call out the release if there are any
interested parties. (For instance, the air liaison officer may want to know
when you are weapons away.) If dropping Mk. 82’s, call “bombs away.” If
firing rockets, call “rockets.” If firing your cannon, call “guns.” And if dropping
a laser-guided bomb, call “Paveway.”
After you’ve completed your attack, you should call “off” and the direc-
tion you’re making your egress. You should also indicate whether or not you
actually released any ordnance. (You might have opted not to release due to
bad geometry, potential friendlies, etc.) Example:
“102 off hot to the south.” Nightmare 102 has released ordnance and is
turning southbound away from the target.
“101 off dry northeast.” Nightmare 101 did not release ordnance and is
turning northeast from the target. He would then call “in” again after he’s
ready for his next attack run.
If you need to make visual confirmation of your ground targets, you should
call “tally” when you’ve visually confirmed your target.
Combat procedures: Air-to-air

Much of air combat procedures was covered in Air combat maneuvering,
page 91, and in Formation Flying on page 43. This section focuses primarily
on the phraseology you should use when coordinating air attacks.
If you make radar contact on an enemy, call “contact” and provide infor-
mation in BRAA format (as much information as you know):
“101, contact braa 270 2 klicks, level.”
A bogie is an unknown aircraft. A bandit is a known threat, and a
friendly is a known ally. Lead can instruct a flight element to “engage” a
bandit, which implies clearance to shoot. Lead could also instruct a flight
element to “ID” a bogie.
Once you have visual contact with the enemy, you can call “tally:”
“101, tally bandit, Frogfoot.” 101 is also providing visual identification
confirmation.
If, however, you did not have visual contact with an enemy, you can call
“no joy:”
“102, 101, engage Frogfoot 2-o’clock low.”
“2, no joy.”
The words “visual” and “blind” are used to indicate when you do or do
not have visual contact with a flight member:
“2, in, visual, tally.” Wing sees both lead and his bandit and is moving
to engage.
If lead wanted to bracket the merge, he might say:
“102, 101, check 30 right, bracket.” Wing would then turn 30° right and
bracket the incoming enemy target.
COMBAT PROCEDURES: AIR-TO-AIR 153
If you are turning towards an air target (presumably with intention to

attack), call “in” and provide a bearing:
“102, in from the northwest.”
Likewise, if you’re turning away from a target, call “out.”
If you find yourself on the defensive, call “defending.” Lead may be able
to coordinate some assistance.
“102 defending, Flanker 2 klicks northwest.” At this range it can be as-
sumed that 102 is defending against a missile threat.
If you spot an enemy on your wingman’s tail, you can call a break turn,
an immediate high-performance turn away from a threat. Any flight member
can call a break turn in an emergency:
“101, break right! Bandit at your 7-o’clock!” Note that the break order
comes first, then a pause, then the information that 101 needs to find the
threat.
If you fire an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile, you should call “Fox two.” If you
spot a missile inbound, definitely call it out. At least say “Missile inbound”
and try to determine its target if you can:
“102, missile inbound, break right!”
If you spot a SAM launch, you can call that out as well:
“101, SAM launch bearing 225, defending.” This call is augmented by
the phrase “defending,” indicating that Nightmare 101 knows the missile is
headed for him.
There are many colorful ways to indicate that you are hit and/or ejecting;
if nothing else, you can keep it simple:
“102 ejecting, grid 150-95.” The grid reference will help the air liaison
officer coordinate RESCAP and rescue.
Chapter 10
Appendices
This reference should have come with a booklet containing printable quick-
reference of important facts referenced throughout this manual.
References
Pete “Boomer” Bonnani Air National Guard pilot and BFM instructor,
from his contributions to the Falcon 3.0 and 4.0 manual and official
strategy guide.
NATOPS A1-AV8BB-NFM-000 NATOPS Flight Manual, AV-8B Har-

rier II
NATOPS A1-AV8BB-NFM-400 NATOPS Flight Manual and Perfor-

mance Charts, AV-8B Harrier II
NAVAIR 00-80T-106 NATOPS LHA/LHD Procedures
JP 3-09.3 Joint Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Close Air Support
CNATRA P-357 Flight Training Instruction, Primary Formation, T-34C;

Naval Air Training Command, NAS Corpus Christi, TX
155
156 CHAPTER 10. APPENDICES
Index of Terms
VG , 37 break (landing pattern), 50

Vref , 38 BVR, 109
g-force, 64
3/9 line, 74 CAP, 119
chase position, 52
AAA, 110 chord line, 3
above ground level, 16 closure speed, 83
ACM, 91 co-flow, 100
acute, 49 cold aspect, 58
AGL, 16 combat air patrol, 119
aileron, 7 control surface, 6
air combat maneuvering, 91 control zone, 101
airspeed indicator, 12 controlled airfield, 141
airspeed tape, 14 controlling agency, 141
altimeter, 12 coordinated turn, 8
altitude tape, 14 corner speed, 65
amphibious assault ship, 135 corridor escort, 123
angle of attack, 2 counter-flow, 100
angle-off, 57 counteropposing, 119
anti-aircraft artillery, 110 counterrotating, 119
artificial horizon, 12 cover, 109
ASI, 12 critical angle of attack, 3
aspect, 58 cross-under, 49
crosswind departure, 143
balloon, 32
dead reckoning, 24
bandit, 152 deconflict, 93
basic fighter maneuvers, 57 downwind departure, 143
beam CAP, 121 drag, 2
beaming, 58
best-glide speed, 37 element, 43
beyond-visual-range, 109 elevator, 7
BFM, 57 empennage, 8
bingo, 43 energy, 64
bogie, 152 engaged fighter, 93
BRAA, 92 entry window, 70
INDEX OF TERMS 157
escape window, 80 jink, 72
fence, 150 lag pursuit, 59

fence check, 150 laminar flow, 2
flanking, 58 lead pursuit, 60
flaps, 7 lead turn, 83
flare, 32 lift, 2
flight, 43 lift vector, 61
flight line, 135 lift-induced drag, 5
flight path marker, 13 line-of-sight rate, 77
FLOT, 150 loaded reversal, 78
flow separation, 2 low approach, 147
forward line of troops, 150
FPM, 13 MADPADS, 110
friendly, 152 mains, 8
full-stop landing, 147 man-portable air defense system, 110
marshal point, 46
glide slope, 31 marshaling, 136
GLOC, 65 MCA, 27
go-around, 32 mean sea level, 14
gravity-induced loss of conscious- MFD, 12
ness, 65 military power, 4
minimum controllable airspeed, 27
HAVCAP escort, 123 MSL, 14
heading tape, 15 multi-function display, 12
heads-up display, 12 multiples, 147
high-performance departure, 143
hold-short line, 142 nose-wheel steering, 20
horizontal situation indicator, 12 NWS, 20
hot aspect, 58
HSI, 12 opportunity shot, 101
HUD, 12 ops check, 151
overhead break, 50
ILS, 33 overshoot, 77
IMC, 54
initial, 50 padlock, 66
instrument landing system, 33 PAPI, 33
instrument meteorological conditions, parasite drag, 5
54 pattern altitude, 30
158 CHAPTER 10. APPENDICES
pilot-induced oscillation, 47 tail strike, 21

pilotage, 22 target designator box, 18
PIO, 47 TD box, 18
pirouette, 87 the scan, 22
pitch ladder, 14 thrust, 2
plane (BFM), 61 touch-and-go, 147
positive exchange of role, 94 tracking shot, 79
precision approach path indicator, traffic pattern, 30
33 true heading, 15
pure pursuit, 59 turbofan, 9
turn circle, 68
radial g, 66 turn radius, 64
range, 58 turn rate, 64
rate of descent, 32 turning room, 67
ready position, 126
relative wind, 3 uncontrolled airfield, 141
remain in the pattern, 143 uncontrolled airspace, 141
rotate, 21 uncoordinated turn, 8
rudder, 7 unload, 76
unloaded reversal, 78
SA, 48
vertical speed indicator, 14
SAM, 110
vertical takeoff and landing, 11
scissors, 76
VSI, 14
shooter, 109
VTOL, 11
short approach, 147
sight picture, 31 waterline, 14
situational awareness, 48 wave off, 53
slant range, 116 WCA, 26
snake, the, 79 weapons engagement zone, 94
snapshot, 72 weight, 2
speed brakes, 8 WEZ, 94
stall, 4 wind correction angle, 26
step-down, 46
stop-and-go, 147 yo-yo, 71
straight-out departure, 143
sucked, 49
supporting fighter, 93
surface-to-air missile, 110

AV-8B Harrier II Combined Manual

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15th MEU Realism Unit

VMA-513 “Flying Nightmares”

1stLt T. “Wildﬁre” Morgan

This manual serves as an introduction to powered ﬂight, an introduction to

Edition Date Changes

6 Air-to-Ground Combat 113

7 Combat Procedures 119

8 LHD Operations 135

9 Communications and Procedures 141

1.1 Schematic 3-view of a Harrier II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2.1 An example HUD-only scan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4.1 Four-ship overhead break pattern entry. . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

5.39 The late switch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

6.1 Dive-bombing run using FPM to aim bombs. . . . . . . . . . . 116

7.1 Two-element counterrotating CAP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Figure 1.1: Schematic 3-view of a Harrier II.

The four forces of ﬂight

Figure 1.2: The four forces of ﬂight.

Figure 1.3: Laminar ﬂow about a sphere.

Angle of attack is a very important number, because it describes when

15°, stall point, maximum lift

Figure 1.5: The mechanics of a stall.

Figure 1.6: Lift-induced drag.

Pitch Yaw Roll

Figure 1.8: The three axes of rotation.

Jet engine theory

Figure 1.9: The mechanics of a turbofan jet engine.

The Harrier’s jet engine

Flying using vertical thrust is called hovering, and taking oﬀ or landing

Figure 1.11: Major elements of the Harrier cockpit.

panel during critical portions of ﬂight, such as landing or combat. Secondly, it

Heading indicator Vertical speed indicator

Figure 1.12: The elements of the HUD.

sky, then your plane is climbing.

Figure 1.13: The artiﬁcial horizon on the left MFD.

Horizontal situation indicator

Figure 1.14: The horizontal situation indicator on the right MFD.

Figure 1.15: The upper left overlay panel.

Figure 1.16: Key to radar symbology.

Figure 1.17: The eﬀect of bank on radar’s ﬁeld of view.

if identiﬁed as friendly or red if identiﬁed as enemy. Neutral contacts (or

Figure 1.18: Acquiring and locking a target.

• Check for damage. Damage is visually represented in rather

Before taxi and taxi

1. Ensure your weapons are safed. doesn’t have a master-arm

5. Ensure you have clearance to taxi. See Non-combat procedures,

Taxiing is accomplished on the ground by use of the rudder pedals, which

Unimproved ﬁeld takeoﬀ

The Scan: Knowing what your aircraft is doing

Figure 2.1: An example HUD-only scan.

Knowing where your aircraft is going

An important rule of aviation is as follows: Your ﬁrst priority should

Turns about a point

Figure 2.2: Turns about a point, 1 NMi radius.

Figure 2.3: Rectangular course with wind correction.

Hover mode and thrust vectoring

Auto-hover oﬀ, on the ground: The nozzles will be at 0° for a normal

There are some subtle implications to this system — namely, contrary to

The traﬃc pattern

Figure 2.4: A left-hand traﬃc pattern.

Figure 2.5: The ideal landing glide slope.

Figure 2.6: Guide to PAPI symbols.

Instrument landing system

must be approaching a runway with an ILS transmitter, and your landing