What this is about
This guide is not a manoeuvre but a plan: how a group practises dogfighting without it turning into aimless flying around. Six exercises, a fixed order, a short debrief after each.
The situation
An org training evening. Different experience levels, different ships, limited time.
What the opponent does
In training the opponent is a partner with a task. He is not meant to win but to produce a situation – that is the difference between an exercise and a duel.
What you do
As the organiser:
- Announce beforehand which exercise is next and what the result should be.
- Form fixed pairs and swap after each exercise.
- Limit the time: six short exercises beat two long ones.
- One round after each exercise: one sentence per pilot, no argument.
- Take notes. Without notes the evening is gone by the next day.
As a participant: fly the exercise, not the duel. Anyone trying to win exercise 2 does not learn exercise 2.
Follow-up
After the evening there is a list: who is working on what. The next session starts from that list, not from a new idea. That is how one training evening becomes a training programme.
How the opponent answers
In a group there is no opponent disrupting the exercise – but there are pilots who would rather fly duels. That is what the last exercise is for: two against two, full commitment, as the finish.
What you need
Comparable ships, working comms and a place where the results end up. There is a ready-made template for the preparation in Mission Control: dogfight training.
Before the first group exercise everyone checks these functions – anyone hunting for them in training will hunt for them in an operation too.
| Game action | Default keyboard/mouse | Default joystick | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lock Target Under Reticle | not bound by default | not bound by default | single press |
| Cycle Lock - Hostiles - Forward | 5 | not bound by default | single press |
| Lock Selected Target | not bound by default | not bound by default | single press |
| Cycle Lock - Attackers - Forward | 4 | not bound by default | single press |
| Enable / Disable decoupled mode | C | not bound by default | toggle |
| Spacebrake | X | not bound by default | single press |
| Boost | Left Shift | Button 8 | hold |
| Decoy - Launch Burst (tap), Set and Launch Burst (hold) | H | Button 3 | hold |
| Noise - Deploy (Tap) | J | Button 5 | single press |
Game default binding, game version 4.10.0-hotfix (55227). If you rebound it yourself, your binding applies.
Anything marked “not bound by default” you have to bind yourself in the game settings – we do not guess a key.
HOTAS/HOSAS: the joystick column is the default binding of ONE stick. On two sticks you assign pitch, yaw, roll and lateral strafe yourself – which axis a manoeuvre needs is listed in the HOTAS / HOSAS section.
Typical mistakes
- Starting without a plan. Two hours of free flying is not training.
- Groups that are too large. Above eight pilots nobody sees what is happening.
- No debrief. Without the sentence afterwards nothing sticks.
- Different ships in comparison exercises. Then you are comparing ships, not pilots.
Exercise
- Goal
- Run a complete training evening at the end of which everyone knows what to work on.
- Preparation
- Four to eight pilots, identical or comparable ships, one organiser, two hours, open space without traffic.
- Task
- Fly the six exercises in this order: (1) turn comparison alone, (2) merge and lead turn in pairs, (3) rate versus radius, (4) forcing and avoiding an overshoot, (5) wingman roles, (6) two against two. After each exercise five minutes of debrief, one sentence per pilot.
- Success criterion
- At the end every pilot has written down one sentence about what he is working on – and the organiser has the list.
- Partner
- required
- Functions needed
- Lock Target Under Reticle
- Cycle Lock - Hostiles - Forward
- Lock Selected Target
- Cycle Lock - Attackers - Forward
- Enable / Disable decoupled mode
- Spacebrake
Next step
The preparation of such an evening – goal, participants, roles, ships, sequence, checklist, debrief – is available as a template in Mission Control: dogfight training.