Energy Management

ENERGY MANAGEMENT – The currency of air combat Don't let the enemy trick you into pulling up or turning until you lose your speed. Major Thomas B. "Tommy" McGuire, USAAF Energy management is the most basic element of air combat. With no energy you die, plain and simple. Many new pilots, especially those coming from Relaxed Realism, think air combat is just about angles. Yank the stick right back to get the nose angled towards the enemy and fire. What actually happens is that just as they get the angle, they lose it as they reach stall speed. The enemy with a surplus of energy uses it by climbing above them and with no way of following him they are left wallowing about at stall speed as he comes back down to kill them. First off, a little bit of very basic physics so you know what we are talking about when we say energy, or 'E'. Energy cannot be created or destroyed; only converted. When we push the throttle forward in our aircraft we convert the stored energy in our fuel into speed, which is kinetic energy. When we climb the aircraft we gain altitude and lose speed, as some of the kinetic energy is converted into potential energy. Potential energy put simply is the potential to dive and regain speed in exchange for height. Having energy gives us options; we can have lots of kinetic energy (low and fast) or lots of potential energy (high and slow). Obviously if we have both (high and fast) then we have many more options. Energy management is all about building a store of energy and using it wisely. As you perform manoeuvres you will expend some of your energy. If you expend it all you will have no options left and an enemy who still has energy can more or less pick you off at will. For instance you are flying at 10,000 feet (10k) and a good speed, you have a good store of energy. You pick up a bomber on the deck and dive in on him, converting your potential energy (height) into kinetic energy (speed). You make your first pass and knock a few bits off him, but overshoot due to your excessive speed. You perform a hard break turn to get back onto his tail (remember a break turn bleeds off speed, therefore expending energy) and to avoid another overshoot you chop the throttle. You kill the bomber, well done, but you are now low and slow with no energy reserve whatsoever. Your only option now is to convert some of the energy in your fuel into speed (kinetic) or altitude (potential). Both of these take time. So until you can do that, you are at the mercy of any enemy that comes by with height or speed (energy), which gives them the option to boom and zoom you repeatedly, (See below for a simplistic description of boom and zoom) until you either spin into the ground from constantly trying to meet him head on, or get shot down because you can't turn into him. So how do you avoid this situation…you learn to manage your energy. In this instance if there are no other enemies within a sector or two then you can afford to squander your energy, once the bomber is dead you can climb the aircraft back up to altitude, slowly rebuilding your energy reserve. If there are enemies about then you have to make a decision. How important is this bomber? If it is not important and there are a lot of enemies about you should consider ignoring him and instead concentrate your attack on the enemy fighters, preferably the highest enemy, as he is the biggest threat (he has the most potential energy). If the bomber is important (he is about to sink your carrier) then you may have no option but to attack him. Then you must attack him in the most economical, energy saving way. Dive in on him in a shallow dive, this avoids a sharp pull up at the end of the dive (which will bleed off energy), take your shot and follow it up with a gentle climb (converting your newly acquired speed back into height), repeat until the bomber is dead. (Very basically this is a boom and zoom attack). This method takes a bit more time (remember patience?) but at the end of the engagement you will still have speed or height left, you will still have some energy and you will still have some options. Energy management is vital whatever your style of fighting and whatever your type of aircraft. Whether you fly the ragged edge in a stall fight or boom and zoom the vertical, you still need to be aware of your energy reserve and just as importantly you need to be aware of the enemy's energy reserve. As I said at the beginning, it's the most basic element of air combat.