When I talk to people about air combat tactics, one of the most common topics of discussion seems to be the notion of "reversals". What are they, when should I do them, and how are they implemented in Air Sup? Let's take these questions on one at a time and see what we can learn. Before I begin, though, I would like to apologize for the lack of diagrams to illustrate my points, the issue is full again, but look for some great ones in #11. First of all, a reversal is a change in the direction of a turn or other steady maneuver which has been in progress for some time (if the maneuver is momentary, the change in direction becomes a "jink"). Anytime you go from turning left to turning right, you've technically executed a reversal. There are variants which you often read about. If you are turning right and then execute a barrel roll to face left, that makes a "rolling reversal". In the 2nd Edition rules, it is now possible under special circumstances to go from vertical climbing flight to vertical diving flight in one turn. This constitutes a "vertical reversal". You may have been performing these maneuvers for quite some time without realizing it. In fact, I've noticed that most Air Sup gamers reverse quite readilyoften resulting in their quick demise! This brings us to the second question: when do we reverse? The most conservative answer is "never", but you wont shoot down many planes that way. Remember that, in general, it's harder for your opponent to get into a good firing position if you continue to turn in the same direction you've been turning in all along. A reversal should be made when the defender has defeated the attacker's initial pass and can now mount the offensive. The easiest position to recognize that calls for a reversal is the overshoot. Suppose you're cruising along at about speed 4.0 when some bandit drops out of the sun from your 8 o'clock position with the burners glowing, going about speed 6.5. You know enough to break into the attack, so you roll about 90 degrees left and pull the stick back until your eyes bulge. Assuming your tactic has worked and you aren't full of cannon holes, what do you do now? If you want to be conservative, you keep pulling to the left until you get around on your attacker. Get out your Air Sup game and see what happen when equally matched planes play this game. If they both keep turning the same way (left) at the same rate of turn, the slow aircraft will turn on a tighter circle than the fast one and eventually get around behind him. But that is dull, boring, and basically Canadian. If your opponent crosses your tail significantly faster than you, he has overshot. If you're wise to this condition you reverse your turn, rolling hard right to try and get behind the bogey right away. It's an aggressive move---and like most aggressive moves can get you into trouble. You must never reverse if your opponent is slower than you, or if he can turn on a tighter circle! If you reverse under these conditions, you make it trivial for the bad guy to gun you to death, because you will pop out in front of him. The best way to get a feel for this is to take out the game and try some passes. Play with the attacker's initial speed, initial range, and power ratio (F-16s are dangerous to reverse on, even if they are going faster; they can sustain some mighty impressive maneuvers). You'll find that you can develop a feel for the correct timing rather quickly, and that's bound to improve your flying the very next time you play. Keep your head up! Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 10 Back to Air Power List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1990 by J.D. Webster This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com