Low Speed Yoyo

Another combat situation which can arise is a stalemate in either a tail chase or turning match. To break the stalemate, a low-speed yoyo is used. This is based on the age-old concept of trading height for speed. If the pursuer finds that he is unable to close to within shooting range in straight flight, he can gain extra speed in a shallow dive. This will allow him to close the horizontal distance and takes him into his opponent's blind spot at six o'clock low. When a suitable position and overtaking speed can be attained, the pursuer can pull up and attack. The counter? Keep a good lookout behind!

More often, the low-speed yoyo is uded to break a stalemate in a turning fight. Tha attacker drops his nose to the inside od the turn, then cuts low across the circle before pulling up towards his opponent's six o'clock. The gain is often marginal, but repeating the process nibbles off a few degrees of angle each time, due to maneuvreing in the vertical plane. The pull-up should be started when a position of about 30 degrees angle-off is reached. It is important that the angle of cut-off is correct or the attacker will arrive in a fly-through situation with too much angle-off as he approaches the targetr. If this happens then he must endeavour to pull up into a high-speed yoyo.

Defence against the low-speed yoyo takes two forms. The first is to copy the maneuvre while remainingin phase with the attacker. This maintains the stalemate. The secound counter is more psitive, The defendeing turn into his opponent.

If the attacking pilot has tried to lead the defender by too much or dived too low by being greedy, the defender can also pull up and barrel down onto the attacker.

Other pages I've made

My main page Aircraft pages Main Maneuvres page Pairs Maneuvres page The Break The Scissors The High G Barrel Roll Jinking The Spiral Dive The Vertical Rolling Scissors The Slpit S The High-Speed Yoyo The Rollaway Lag Pursuit The Barrel Roll Attack Some Skills needed for Air Combat Pilots