The PR Airman's Guide

[gclark03]

The PR Airman's Guide

The PR Pilot's Ten Commandments
As a licensed operator of rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft, I, a Project Reality airman, hold full responsibility for my equipment, my life, the lives of my allies, and the deaths of my enemies. I pledge to protect my equipment and my comrades to the best of my ability, and always to fly sensibly and carefully. As an airman, I implore you, comrade, to abide by the following commandments:
1) I am an aircraft Pilot, with the solemn duty of using the abilities vested in me by the powers above to assist my nation's cause.
2) Do not have any other Pilots before me.
3) You shall not make for yourself an idol of I, or any other Pilot, for that matter.
4) Remember the JDAM and keep it holy.
5) Honor your Father, the Pilot.
6) You shall not murder effectively without a skilled Pilot, such as I.
7) You shall not commit treason against your Pilot by destroying his runway, shooting him in the face, stealing his wife or otherwise. Doing so could be dangerous to one's health.
8 ) You shall not steal aircraft from your fellow Pilot!
9) You shall not bear false witness against your fellow Pilot.
10) You shall not covet a fellow Pilot's aircraft, nor shall you covet a fellow Pilot's wife. (Especially the latter.)
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(Fixed-Wing Aircraft Guide)
Part One: Technique (Local server training)

The Training Environment

If you haven't already, go ahead and download Rhino's Kashan Training Map. Even if you, like me, never actually get the map working, the changes to the Python files are invaluable for a pilot learning the ropes. Once this is done, load up either Kashan 64 AAS or the training map, make yourself Squad Leader, and get a Pilot kit.

Before you do anything, go to your options and set your minimap transparency to 50 or 60 percent. This is invaluable when you're flying at altitudes above 1km. Next, make a local server ('Multiplayer' tab -> Create Local) BEFORE flying online! I cannot stress this enough, folks - if you train online, you WILL crash, and people WILL laugh/rant. This is a small online community, far too small for the kind of anonymity you might have found in vanilla BF2, so keep your name in good standing. Once your local server is up, along with the Kashan Training map, jump into one of the American jets, as I find them easier to fly than the equivalent Soviet hardware. Also, stay away from the experimental stuff laying around, as it won't help you learn how to fly fixed-wing.

A personal tip - place a move marker on the bomber sitting on the runway. This is useful when you're on your final landing approach.

---DISREGARD FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH if you can get into the Kashan Training Map---

If you cannot get the training map running, and you notice that there are no aircraft, don't fret! Either make yourself some tea/coffee, watch TV, or practice with the Grenadier kit - I've become a skilled Grenadier while waiting the 20m for the jets to appear. Otherwise, play around with the helicopters after 5 minutes, make some fake passenger drops or whatever you please. Keep yourself occupied; otherwise, you'll naturally give up and lose all that valuable jet training there is to be had on Kashan.




Taxiing and Takeoff

The first thing you will notice is that the throttle does not work instantly, nor do any of the plane's controls. Like helicopters, jets have a warm-up time before the controls are released to the player. (Look carefully, and you will even see the aircraft tip forward a bit when this happens!) When you have control, DO NOT push the throttle to full - if you do, you will shoot forward and crash into whatever is in front of you! This only applies to aircraft parked in hangars with an indirect angle to the runway, so anything parked directly on the runway will be able to take off without taxiing.

Now that you have control, press your down arrow key or pull back on the mouse/joystick to taxi forward. Steering with the A and D keys, make your way onto the runway and back up to a point just behind the vertical white lines painted on the runway. You can do this by pressing the up arrow, remembering to reverse the steering controls as in any wheeled vehicle, and pressing C for your rear-view camera. When you're aligned with the white line painted along the runway, hold W to bring the throttle to 100%. In a few seconds, you will be thrown forward at considerable speed - takeoff.

Use the afterburners (Shift key) for a bit of extra speed taking off. Pull up as soon as possible, and you should clear the runway and start gaining altitude. If you've made it this far, congratulations - but you're not done yet.

Cruising

The primary mistake of the novice pilot, as well as the primary joy of those pesky AA units on the ground, is flying too low. The ceiling for AA missiles and the view distance for machine-gun AA is about 1km (a reading of 1000 on the altimeter at the right of the aircraft HUD, just to be sure you know), so set your cruising altitude to 1500m to be safe. At these altitudes, your speed should be something around 1800 in the American fighter, but speed is insignificant for the time being. Right now, your primary concern is orientation.

Once you're at the right altitude, don't bank using the mouse/joystick, as you'll probably bleed altitude doing so. The A and D keys work well enough, unless you're in contact with another aircraft and doing some serious maneuvering.

I trust that your 'M' map transparency is higher than default. That said, hit M to keep yourself oriented, because it is surprisingly easy to lose the ground and your objective if you're not careful. Never keep the M map open when you're below cloud level - it's just too distracting - but always keep it up when you're cruising above 1km.

The 'Parabolic Attack Trajectory'

The above title is as it sounds - the basic Parabolic Attack Trajectory. In plain English, this is a 'nose-dive' from high altitude that allows you to strike at high speed and use that momentum to swing right back into the clouds and out of AA range.

This tactic is of little use in a fighter, as your guns are worthless against most ground targets and it's too hard to get a good shot anyway, but it can be devastating as an A10 pilot. Anyone would think to swoop down from high altitude to attack in the Thunderbird/Su-25, but many forget to swoop back up after they've made their move. Staying too low puts you at risk of hitting the ground or other objects, especially if you've started pulling up too late.

In the A10/Su-25, sustain fire with the autocannon until it overheats - no sooner. I've seen plenty a good attack approach ruined by a pilot firing his cannon sparingly. This is what the people pay federal taxes for - use every bullet, it's your job.

Many pilots enjoy executing a 'linear attack trajectory', e.g. coming down at their target at a 180 degree angle and pulling up at the last second. This can be useful with JDAMs, but only if one starts at 2-2.5km and pulls up immediately after the bomb is released near 1km. If done correctly, the airplane hardly breaks the clouds. However, if strafing ground targets in an A10, you do not have the maneuverability to pull back up once you hit terminal velocity and you have fired your weapons for that run.

The 'One-Piece' Landing

If you've survived this long, congratulations - we're now in the home stretch. If you've had enough fun toying around in the air, follow that move marker I had you make earlier. If you have to, gain some altitude and quickly place a marker roughly where the bomber spawns on the runway.

When this is done, move all the way in the direction the runway is facing (north for MEC, south for US) and hit S. Depending on the aircraft, the recommended approach speed will be different; the MiG series requires the highest speeds, while the American jets maintain lift at a lower speed. Regardless, loop around to face the runway once you hit the corner of the map (come back into bounds if you have to) and maintain your speed somewhere between 900 and 1000. As soon as you see the end of the runway, hold S and carefully approach, remembering where your landing gear is relative to the cockpit. You should start to fall out of the sky just as you cross the ending sandbag wall of the runway.

If you bounce, do not try to get back into the air unless you bounce while moving at speeds above 600km/h. Anything lower and you will not be able to get back into the air - the best option is to try again. Chances are, you will stabilize on the runway and start rolling, losing speed along the way. If the bomber is at the end of the runway or you're going a bit too fast to stop in time, turn off the runway and into the open space near the spawn bunker - you should stop in this space. Otherwise, you are dead.

You've made it! If it bothers you to see planes just sitting around all over the place, taxi your plane back into its starting position, get out, and admire your work - getting your aircraft back to terra firma alive is an achievement.
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Part Two: Advanced Maneuvers

Loop-bombing

One of my favorite strategies in the bomber aircraft is loop-bombing. To clarify, loop-bombing is simply performing your standard attack run, but continuing to pitch up until you flip, turning upright, and diving back down at a 180 degree angle for another run.

Yes, I recommended that you avoid 180-degree attack runs, but this one is safer because of the extra speed you gained performing the flip and turn. If you do it correctly, you never even come close to hitting the ground, and you get a good one or two seconds to identify and engage your ground target.

A variation on this technique involves performing your first run and flipping into the air, but going back down without first turning your aircraft upright. This way, you can strafe and use the aircraft's natural, upright position to level yourself faster. The only disadvantage is that you lose some of the accuracy of the other method, because your momentum will force you up somewhat, especially in the A10, and target acquisition will become slightly harder.

Evasion and Counter-Attacking

When you find yourself against an enemy fighter, no matter what airplane you are flying, use the following steps to evade and engage:
1) Fly into your target. (If you have to, cut throttle power for a tighter turn.) This will usually result in the other pilot flying past you, giving you time to follow the steps below before he can turn around and make a second pass.
2) Gain altitude, flip the aircraft in the direction of the enemy aircraft, and use the CTRL key to observe. Most pilots will simply fly back and try to kill you, expecting that you have kept flying forward, which would theoretically give them a clean kill.
3) As soon as you see the enemy fighter, pitch down, without rolling the plane upright, and loop back up. If you are lucky, you should be able to get a quick shot/missile in, and perhaps kill the enemy pilot.
4) Bank out and gain more altitude, then flip back over to get a larger FOV. Repeat steps 1-4 as necessary until you can safely disengage.

If you absolutely must evade without engaging the enemy aircraft, I recommend using the same maneuvers, slowly luring the enemy fighter toward allied AA. If you have the flying skill and there is no threat of enemy anti-aircraft on the ground, fly extremely low (~20 feet), using land obstacles to keep the enemy on his toes, but don't get reckless.

Crash-Landing

If your plane is smoking and the runway is destroyed, it really is possible to land without a runway, as long as the land you choose is flat enough. Carry out the landing as usual, but take special care to keep the nose of the plane up, so that the wheels take the force of any terrain bumps. If done correctly, you will be able to stop your aircraft without exploding, set down a signal grenade, and call for helicopter evacuation (if your team is organized enough).

(More advanced maneuvers are in the works, pending on community contributions.)
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Part Three - Tools of the Trade
Bomber: The ground attack aircraft of conventional armed forces. The bomber is a bit slower than the fighter because of its payload, but its maneuverability is not severely limited by its awesome firepower. It can take quite a few blows compared to the average aircraft, but remember: titanium bathtub or not, this is an aircraft, and any damage can screw with the avionics to the point where you have to bail or die.

As with any aircraft, you are a 'phantom', moving below the clouds only to kill a specific target before flying back up. This way, only an enemy fighter has any superiority over you - and when that fighter appears, you want to evade. You have a chance with your missiles and the cannon, but you are just too slow in a bomber to do much good against a competent fighter pilot.

Fighter: The air superiority craft. A fighter has the maneuverability and the weaponry to destroy any other aircraft and engage ground targets, though the latter is difficult without laser guidance from the ground. The fighter is only as effective as its pilot; the cannon is only really effective against lightly armored targets or buildings, the missiles are a gamble at best, and speed/maneuverability are meaningless without the training to take advantage of them.

Worse, the hapless fighter is a prime target for AA, as a fighter is the only air vehicle with the specific goal of destroying other aircraft - a goal that leaves that team without air support for at least 20 minutes. Therefore, you are the primary target of the enemy, sometimes more important than a bomber.

Interceptor (not in mainstream game): The fastest and most maneuverable of any fixed-wing aircraft. I have nominally included the F-35/original Harrier, though neither plane is complete enough to make an appearance in a .7 map. They are only available, sadly, on the Kashan Desert training map.

Interceptors have no air-to-ground capability beyond the mounted cannon, but it is exceptionally fast; it is the only aircraft capable of traveling at 1900 km/h near sea level. Also, this may be because the PR aircraft 'evolutions' were never applied to the interceptors, but they are extremely maneuverable, to the point where a small breeze could steer them in a certain direction. Any fighter simply has no chance against an interceptor, although the slightest AA fire will make mince meat out of an interceptor's avionics, or even its pilot.

[Cascyth]

gj! i like the decalogue
thanks

as of map transparency - setting it to 20%-30% (heli transport) allows you to comfortably fly with map overlay

[gclark03]

Part II is mostly complete (if you have any contributions, speak up), and Part III is on the way.

[DeePsix]

Gclark, thank you for taking the time to put this together! You're work is appreciated - especially as I try to learn how to fly!

[gclark03]

Added a section about the aircraft archetypes. Still working on pictures, so hold tight.