FR_008

Reaper Report: December 8, 2002
Date Filed: 12/08/2002
Callsign: Wolfman
A/A Missile kills: 4
A/A Gun kills: 8
A/G Missile kills: 0
A-G Unguided Bomb Kills 0
A-G Guided Bomb Kills 0
A-G Gun Kills 0
Type of Mission 1v1 DACT
Flight Hours 0.9
Mid-Air Refueling 0
Airfield Landing 0
Off-Field Landing 0
Carrier Trap 0
Flight Report: 1) Flew with Sparky in F4 SP3.
2) Sparky was the bandit.
3) The flight lasted about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
4) We flew DACT, first F-15C v F-16C, in which Sparky experienced engine problems
with the Eagle, in that one of his engines was not working. Later, Sparky took an F/A-18C,
and I still flew the Viper. After a few engagements in this setup, we switched planes, which
means that I flew the Hornet and he flew the Viper for the next few merges.

5) When fighting against the Eagle, I used Viper's superior sustained turn rate to get inside
his turn radius for a missile or guns shot. Against the Hornet, I entered the fight fast, around
500 knots, and tried to stay above him. Sparky however did not go low and slow, he also
entered the fight fast, but to no avail, because the Viper turns better than the Hornet at these
speeds. When I switched to the Hornet, my speed at the merge was around 350 knots, and
I did get low and slow, using the high AoA advantage of the Hornet. I also did not try to
follow Sparky up, instead turned in the horizontal waiting for him to come down after me. He
managed to latch on to my tail a couple of times by going over the top while I had depleted my
energy on the first turn, but I was able to shake him off by slowing down and pulling back on the
stick while applying full rudder and roll input in the same direction, which the Viper cannot follow
(I need rudder pedals, control! ling the rudder with the Ant Elev knob is extremely clumsy,
not to say very unrealistic).