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Eiger was as green as they come, therefore his gains have been the most accelerated. The first order of business was assessment of his skills and experiences, and we immediately summed up that spatial relationships were giving him a bad time. He would turn and lose his target and get disorientated. So I gave him my compass drill so that he would keep his bearings at all times. This took some off line flying, and just some experience. After we got over this bump, it was onto simple gunnery and energy fighting. He wanted to fly the Hawg in the worst way, and the only way to fly that is with speed. So I would take up a B-17 and do gentle banks and let him drop on me with speed. If ever he walked in his shot by slowing down and dropping level with me, I would juke and jink and punish that kind of set up. Within two sessions, he had the complete concept down and was racking up some impressive kills and gun passes. After that I would grab a Zero, and he and another pilot would grab Hawgs, and they would get 5k alt on me and attack. We would do a two-on-one setup to teach them energy fighting. I was not allowed to climb except when they made a mistake in order to let them know what was going on. I would use only MG and no cannon. It was a great lesson for him. He began to realize that his need to see me after his gun pass was killing him. After that he trusted his spatial picture and energy state, and could intelligently walk away from me without looking. Bingo! That was a big day for Eiger. :)
When I began flying WarBirds, I first practiced offline as many do, learning the basic flight manuevers along with landings and take-offs. As I became proficient in the essentials, I decided to try the Main Arena. I quickly found myself getting shot down, no matter what I tried! Frustrated, I knew I needed help, especially since I was in love with an energy fighter, the F4U Corsair. I wanted to learn Boom and Zoom tactics. Reading lectures proved helpful, but they could only provide a theoretical foundation. I turned to the Training Arena as a place to gain practical, hands-on experience. I wrote to the WarBirds Trainers and received an immediate response from several of them. I was invited and encouraged to participate in a training session. After my first lesson (which has turned into an on-going education), I was duly impressed! The instructors were friendly, helpful and extremely knowledgable, with patience to rival a saint's! These attributes have been key ingredients to my positive development as a WarBirds pilot. The Training Arena became a place where my mistakes were not only forgiven, but corrected. The cliché that "Knowledge is Power" best describes what the fledgling pilot carries away from the WarBirds flight school experience. I encourage all "Newbies" to invest in training - it's money well spent.
Tod Gunter
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