BFM 101 - Types of fight

This series will cover the essentials of Defensive BFM that you need to survive a dogfight in DCS World. In this video I look at the two basic BFM flows; one-circle and two-circle, and give a little more in-depth review of the principle of misaligned turn circles. This is the final fundamentals video before I move on to talk specifically about offensive BFM, and then defensive BFM.
Remember that I'm not a fighter pilot, I'm simply using what experience of aviation that I do have to interpret much of the material available online, for folks that may have a harder time contextualising it.
Chapters
0:00 Intro and caveats
0:53 Aim of the video
2:35 One-Circle flow
4:32 Two-Circle flow
5:36 Aircraft suitability
6:24 Misaligned Turn Circles
7:22 Conclusion
By the end of this video you should be able to:
- Understand the difference between the two basic BFM flows.
- Understand how each flow suits different approaches from different types of aircraft.
- Understand the importance of geometry in resolving basic BFM problems.

[@Uselessnoobcow]

Am clearly late to this series but thank the algorithm I’ve found this! Best resource I’ve found after 1000hrs of DCS

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Glad you found it! And glad you found it useful!

[@Nickk278]

This series is amazing! Just bought the f16 and trying to learn BFM these videos are the best! Thanks

[@55th-Mirage]

Absolutely keep these up, they are the best most informative video's on BFM out there. I'm planning on using your missions to practice and later practicing with my squadron as well. I'm hoping at some point you'll do ACM 2V1 and 2v2 video's as well. This is the first time I've ever commented on a KZbin video. I usually don't make my opinion known. Keep up the good work!

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Thanks for watching Chris and especially thanks for your comment. ACM will come... eventually! ~Tyro

[@caseyw216]

Watching this series for the 5th or sixth time. Absolutely love this series. If I could stay out of Helios long enough to build good habits I wouldn’t have to watch these as often. 😂 I learn something “new” every time I watch these. Mostly commenting to help the channel out. Thanks again for this great series.

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Really appreciate that. This type of content, rooted in doctrine, is hard to get out to the virtual combat simulation community sometimes. Tyro is hoping to pick up the series again soon.

[@MileHighClub.]

@@AIRWARFAREGROUPthat would be awesome! Thanks for the vid!

[@toastie1488]

Absolutely awesome tutorials. Thank you for this & your time. Much appreciated.

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

TYRO is a professional when it comes to Instructing...thanks for the feedback!

[@Qwonk]

I'm new to DCS and all this series was super helpful. Thanks!

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Glad I could help you out Qwonk! ~Tyro

[@madaxe606]

Great stuff and super helpful for a beginner! Something that might also assist new players is a breakdown of specific airframes available in DCS, and which ones fit better into one regime vs another. The idea being that a rank beginner has more of an idea what their preferred fighters’s strengths and weaknesses are. I realize that that information is often available elsewhere, but it’s not always a simple answer for some aircraft, and the WHY it’s one, and not the other is sometimes very unclear. Anyways, awesome stuff and incredibly helpful. I really enjoy the scientific approach and the presentation is first-rate. Thank you for sharing!

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Yeah this is something that has been requested a lot, and I’ll look into how to do it. However there are infinite variables including but not limited to pilot skill; loadout; tactical situation; mission etc, that all alter how you might choose to fight an opponent. Manoeuvrability and performance is only one small piece of the puzzle. As you say, it’s far from a simple answer and as always the best method of learning is practice and making mistakes. ~Tyro

[@Howdy762]

again, thanks for the short course in BFM! Very well made!

[@michaelfriscia8166]

These videos are the best instructional aid I have found on the internet yet. Thank you for taking the time.

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Thanks Michael, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and share with a friend this Ad-Free DCS World resource.

[@Pricklyhedgehog72]

Awesome explanation as always.

[@ArktikosAdventures]

Fantastic video series for sure. Now, that being said, I find it hard to grasp that a pilot/simmer can analyze, process then react to every change in an opponents tactics including identify said aircraft type, stores config, estimated gross weight then calculate a solution based on information literally flying at you at mach "crazy-fast". It seems one could easily confuse one scenario/tactic with another simply by being restricted to a cockpit with limited visibility. I think maybe practicing until it becomes instinctual is key but that can become a problem as well as. Didn't Maverick say it best "You don't have time to think up there, if you think, you're dead." Cheers!

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Maverick only said that because it was in the script. ;^} Juice here - This is why we train, study our aircraft’s capabilities as well as the enemy’s, look at visual cues for energy states, and debrief every training mission. I used to consider myself a decent sim-combat pilot, but since training with Tyro and our small group, I’ve become a better aerial tactician within the world of DCS combat and surprisingly well able to recognize the cues while maintaining better SA. Training 95% for the 5% Combat has worked for me.

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

SA is king. You won’t win a fight with it, but you will lose because you don’t. And it comes from a lot of places; eyes, ears, pod, radar, off board, briefings, prep, practice, Intel... etc. More videos coming on these topics in the future but you have absolutely nailed it Arktikos - it is hard, and a lot of it is based on probability and worst-case. ~Tyro

[@SPFLDAngler]

It took me way too long to find these. KZbin search is severely lacking as I literally searched BFM and they weren't in the results. Only found them through recommended videos on the right of other videos.

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Please spread the word :)

[@Duggi_yt]

Is it true that while turning as soon we get our lift downwards the more efficiently we turn?

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

If your lift vector is below the horizon then you are partially aligning the gravity vector with your lift vector. This means that you are able to develop more G for a given airspeed.

[@Duggi_yt]

@@AIRWARFAREGROUP so basically it can be used as an advantage to turn quickly

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Sometimes. On other occasions it might result in you giving up turning room above you.

[@hitstick567]

How do you deal with misaligned circles?

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

You want misalignment as it will help you achieve a solution. However if misalignment is too great, a check and extend back into the bandit TC will be required. ~Tyro

[@MitjaBonca]

I downloaded the mission you got there, but it just doesn`t appear while I want to load it. Might be corrupt file? Can you upload it ones again? Thank you.

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

I think there is no mission associated with this video. Which file are you having trouble with?

[@MitjaBonca]

@@AIRWARFAREGROUP Sorry, meant to post it in your video No.3, which is about Pursuit. Will write it down there. Somehow video doesn`t get synhronized with comments occsionally.

[@jaduke]

@@MitjaBonca could be that you don't have the Nevada terrain, I believe it requires that map

[@willianwillian20032]

Never seen someone taking half of the video for the intro

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Intro and disclaimer less than a minute out of 8.5 minutes. ~Juice

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

Thank you for bearing with it. Most of it is things that I have to say. I understand that the Grim Reapers have longer videos but less intro. Might be more to your taste. ~Tyro

[@acr08807]

You really don't need a minute-long disclaimer.

[@AIRWARFAREGROUP]

;^)

[@michaelfriscia8166]

The reason he puts the disclaimer in there is because there's always somebody who thinks they know better or has some counter argument. The internet is full of people trying to prove they're smarter than other people by presenting some gotcha one off unicorn exception that disproves the rule situation whereby hypothetically if monkeys flew out of the back end of a jet engine with AK-47s and frag grenades blah blah blah I'm right you're wrong because in this one situation type of thing and frankly he doesn't want to have to deal with 10,000 emails to have to explain to the special snowflakes that nothing here is absolute in every possible hypothetical instances and instead is intended to teach the vast majority of people and get them started on the road to understanding the fundamentals of the topic of discussion. So unfortunately until all the ego Maniacs trying to validate their existence learned that it's not a pissing contest and even if you're right about this one thing it doesn't make you cooler than this guy unfortunately he does have to have the disclaimer........ That or get the 10,000 emails.