Awareness are similar in some ways, but yet different in other ways. However they are both "EQUALLY IMPORTANT",
one without the other, is like trying to drive a car with no gas. So in other words Situation Assessment and Situation
Awareness goes hand in hand with one another. In this section we will discuss Situation Awareness. As in the discussion
of Situation Asssessment, I will refer to Situation Awareness as "(SAw)".
Some have supposed and said that SAw is some form of inherent skill that can not be learned. I don't think that kind of reasoning is totally true. Where some may have a natural gift that makes SAw easier for them, SAw can be learned by "Developing good flying habits, lots of Practice and by gaining experience in the Furball and COOP Missions". If you don't take part in any on-line fights you will never learn or get the practice or the experience. Sure you might get your butt handed to you for a while, thats just part of the learning experience, as long as you lern from your mistakes.
Pilots use SAw not only to track and make sense of the of their immediate surroundings in Air Combat, but also to make important tactial flying decisions. These decisions are often of a split second variety life or death. Good SAw is much like a Veteren Football Quarterback "READING" a defense. Not only must he assess at one sweep the activity of up to a dozen or so players at once, he must instantly assess the data to make desisions that will decide succes or failure for him and his team. It is much the same in Air Combat.
SAw can be broken down into several parts. The basic tenant of spotting, identifying your nearby planes is what I simiply call "Vision". That may not be text definition, but it suits that part of SAw well. There is also non visual aids
to SAw and then the evaluation function of SAw which I call "Savvy", others call it "The Ace Factor". That might be a bit grandiose, but SAw does separate pilots.
SAw and SAs (Situation Assessment) are probably the two most important skills in any multi-player Sims like IL2 or any other Air Combat Flight Sims. SAw means you have to "size up" the situation tactically and evaluate all threats and factors. Giving a furball a once over instead of diving right into the fray is a good way to do that. Also that once over lets you look for planes not directly furballing that may be in the area. These "lose ends" could be a bigger threat to you than the furballers you are about to bounce.
The furballers below you are no threat to you directly provided thay are at a lower E-staes. It's the other guys flying into join the fun that are your primary concerns from a defensive point of view. Once you have tied up this area and list the area as "no threats" you can bounce with a clear conscience.
Note on developing SAw: Most beginners have trouble developing SAw in multi-player evironment. Most of their experience has probably been flying off line where SAw skills wasn't as important or really required, or from going one on one with just one person. Dueling (one on one) provides SAw in only limited areas. It teaches SAw sparing except for view management and Energy assessment etc...
Lets talk a bit more on "vision". Not to coin a phrase or create more ACM (Air Combat Manuver) jargon, but it is the best thing I could come up with to discribe the simplest parts of SAw. Vision is the constaant awareness of planes in the area. Their relative postion in relation to your plane, their speed and directional heading. Vision is not just use of the POV hat switch, but the perception and analysis of all Saw information to make tacticaal decisions.
The core of Vision is establishing view disciple. That is: learn your views! Whatever system you use, learn it inside out and backwards. Learn to do it in your sleep and while you on the Can! Real pilots can turn thier heads, but we have to use the POV hat switch, keyboards and who knows what else to get our views. If you have the TrackIR then you are in good shape, still however you still have to learn good ASw.
View discipline is simply learning to scan views regularly every 15 seconds or less, ( I always have the habit to scan every 5 seconds if possible) continually cycling through views all the time might not be a bad ideal! even in a clear sky. I will be covering how and why SAw "fails in a later part, but first thing that should be hammered into any pilots head is "SCAN","SCAN","SCAN" and when you get tired of doing it, do it anyway. Because when you stop, you will soon find your self floating down in a chute or going down in flames.
The second thing that is a priority is Blind Spots. IL2FB/AEP/PF has a good view system if you use it right. There is no
"CHEATER" radar ( like in M$ Combat Sims) to check your blind stops. Remember that your low 6 is the dead zone,
there are ways to keep from getting blown away by a guy sneaking into your blind stop. Be sure to clear your six by turning slightly, about 45 degrees first one way and then the other way. Also helps a lot not to maintain a straight flight path, that really invites a blind side gun run. Also it helps to dip your wings 45 dregrees to the left and right sides and point your nose down a little so you can view anything that might be below your 10 or 11 o'clock low and your 1 or 2 o'clock low, they can be a blind stop if yoy don't keep a watch on them also.
We all have heard or seen in the movies where a pilot tells the the new pilot not to fly straight and level in a Combat zone, ( if you seen the movie "The Battle Of Britain" were the Squadron Leader told his friend after he was shot down,
"How many times did I tell you not to fly straight and level in a Combat Zone for more then 30 seconds)"! I will add to this, in any Air Combat Flight Sims, no matter if its IL2FB/AEP/PF, Combat Flight Sim 3 or any others, my rule of thumb is never fly straight or level in a Combat Zone any longer then 5 seconds, if you do you are dead.
Zig-zzagging and clearing those blind stops is very important, especially when flying alone. Just changing your flight path once every 10 seconds on principle is a good habit to get into.
Once you have learned "Vision", then we move on to the more mental parts of what I call "Savvy". I do want to mention though that there are Non Visual aids to SAw such as Raio,Radar,Maps, Threat Arrows etc.... While Radar is not a factor in IL2 (Thank God for that) the Radio and Threat Arrows are. Having a Squadron Memeber radio enemy heading and postion is a factor in SAw, you may have more tactical information to base decisions on, so you are ahead of the game. I will also cover how these factors can hurt SAw later on.
Once you have master the mostly non mental aspect of SAw we move on to the mental aspect. There is more to SAw than simply checking views all the time. Good SAw involves Threat Assessment. In a Furball or a COOP situation, I prioritize the enemy at verious "threat levels" and then deal with them accordingly. What this means is that tactical decisions (that part of SAw) are based on a good ground work of "vision".
Assessing the threat level is done by gathering in as much data as possible. Vector/altitude assessments, that is, knowning where a guy is headed and what altitude he is at. Assessing the enemy is not always a strictly eyeball thing. It involves making a judgement on the planes recent activities, and what it plans to do in the near future. All this knownledge is necessary in order to assess the threat level any particular plane represents.
if you are looking at say five planes... all enemy in a furball or COOP MIssion. The guys below you and slow are low threats. Thats a subjective judgment and could be wrong, the guy you think was doing a 150, could be doing 500! He could zoom right up on you and kill you! Bad SAw, tough luck should have guessed better. But for the most part you could write off the three guys low and slow. The next guy is about co-alltitude, but turning with a Squadron Mate of yours. Again, this one is a low threat. He is busy elsewhere. Then you assess#5. He is co-altitude, but in a steep climb toward your Squadron Mate. He is the biggest threat, but if he picking you as his target, then he iwould be even a bigger
threat!
There are more factors that help assess what's going on. Good SAw involves in getting into the other guys head to some
extent. First you have to assess if the Enemy has "attack potential". That is: is he in a position to attack you and your
poor plane. Then you have to see if he has "intent to attack". A guy in attack position is not necessarily a threat if he is
involved elsewhere, but once you have been targeted than that guy gets bumped up real fast in threat priority. Base your decision to attack on what level of threat you are yourself under. If threats are at an acceptably low level, you can attack with impunity. If threats are high then its a judgment call. The decision to attack is then a calculated risk.
A major SAw factor that separates the ACE from the Tryo is the "Ability to Sucessfully Get into the othe guys Head".
Try to judge and Evaluate Enemy SAw Level! That is: is the guy ready to fend off your attack? Is he aslepp?
The two major factors I use when judging if to attack is the Energy level of all nearby enemy/threats and when I see a factor that would lead to a drop in enemy SAw (like he is attacking aanother plane). Thats when I attack. A guy who isn't paying attention to you is the easiest kill. More on that and SAw failure below.
The judgment as to enemy vector, speed, SAw level and energy are subjective. That subjective as in big fudge fctor! Often you guess wrong on one or more of the factors you are judging. Not to worry..even the best pilots get shot down.
Thats what happens when SAw judgment fails. To correctly assess these factors what good SAw is all about. That is of couse is how Situation Awareness affects Engagement Strategy.
The Importance of Reassessment: Reassessing SAw is important. When you judge one guy to be "low and slow"..no threat, don't just ignore him for the rest of the combat...make sure to check him out again soon, in fact as often as practical in multi-plane environment. Things change quickly in Air Combat! Also, if you made an error in your first
judgment than that quick reassessment may keep that first mistake from being a fatal one! Reassessment is especially important in furballs. Take time out, even in a nasty furball, to reassess the big tactical picture. Keep an ounce of energy in reserve and if things have turned sour, you can still extend out. Not reassessing battle changes is a big reason people don't make it out of furballs alive.
There are billion reason why SAw goes south and you die like a newbie! Laziness, boredom and forget view discipline all
contribute to short sortie times! If you find yourself just nodding off and you haven't check views in 5-15 seconds, an alarm should go off! If you are just flying straight and level dat.dat.dat dat...dat...dat you are dead!
Checking views constantly is good, but 15 seconds of no-look should set off an "ALARM CLOCK". That's just a rough guess to warn you that you are slipping away into LOU LOU land. Another reason SAw fails is what is called Assumption of Warning. This is: I am with my Squadron/Group, there 10-20 guys around me all looking around. They will warn me if something happens, I don't need to check my views! Don't Assume Warning from any one ever, also you must remember you are part of that Group/Squadron and your Squadron/Group is also counting on you to do you part/job in checking views.
The next Saw failure is what is called "Clear Sky Syndrome". That is, there no enemy around, lets just climb and fly around straight and level, and chat,, there goes the kill/death ratio, it's about to down a notch. Many Saw failures are linked to weakness in human nature and happens to even the most experience pilots all the time. "Catching" yourself doing this is the first attemp at staying alive.
Another failure is Take-Off Blindness. Vultures do exist out there guys, never assume a take off is clear. Never trust flak or the tripleA to check your six for you. There are plenty of newbies out there that is more then willing to trade their plane foe yours 1-1, by diving through murderous Triple A and flak to get a "Vulch Kill". Be smart, check your six before take-off. If the field is covered by swarms of enemy planes, take off some where else, or be ready to to fight as soon as you hit the fly button. Also remember that some IL2FB/AEP/PF servers allow "Vulching" while others don't. ( Also remember it is not a question if Vulching is Honorable or not, Just ask the real Pilots of WW2, they did it and don't feel sorry or Dishonor about it. They say WAR is WAR and you do what you must to Destory the Enemy").
Then there is another big SAw problem: Input Overload. This means that there is simply too much data/information coming in too fast to process effectivly. For example: Sam in a 30 plane furball. He knows exactly what each plane is doing? I don't think so, No Way! Thats overload of SAw. You re losing track of things. I have a little warning bell that goes off (some times) in a furball that tells me I have lost tactical control of the situation. Thats when it is time to with draw from the Combat Zone and regroup, or take three deep breaths and carry on.
Of couse knowing your SAw is blown is actually good SAw in a way. If the situation is critical, you can simply grit your teeth and fly on, or you can withdraw from the Combat Zone and regroup, and then reengage dealing with a carefully prioritized threat list as best as you can. In a big furball, you have to be practical. Try to shrink the level of input data you have to deal with. Ok, I am worried about these three close guys. Sometimes you have to blow off the other 15 lesser threats and hope for the best. Of couse that's a calculated risk, but then Combat flying is full of these risk you must take.
The good pilots knows that trying to watch everything is hopeless when there are numerous planes all around you. Some people have used a bubble as an analogy in a big furball. I will deliberately shrink that bubble to only the really high threats. This is not really ideal choice, but often the best one can do.
Another major cause of SAw failure is Target Fixation. This is concentrating on your easy kill at the expense of all other SAw isssues. Belive it or not, it is when you have just decided to attack or attacking, that is actually when you, yourself are most likely to be most vulnerable. I try to use that offensively in my engagement strategy. I make it a big habit of targeting planes which have just begun to attack. Like I said get into the guys head, assess his SAw level. If its poor, you got him where you want him, but also don't forget, that someone else there is doing the same thing and it could be you. Remember this more Pilots are shot down because of Target Fixation, don't be one of them. I know we all get that ole Target Fixation and lose our sense of SAw and forget ot reassess the big picture
We all get locked into the furball and into the Target Fixation and do not assess change is a big SAw problem. On the funnier side, from the IL2/FB/AEP/PF or any other Combat Flight Sims perspective, we also have the infamous Typing Death which I am sure we all know about!!!
Formation Flying also can at times be a negative impact on SAw. Maintaining formation can cut into SAw something fiercely. Be aware of this. when you are flying in formation of planes, particularly, if you are in the infamous (Tail End Charlie ( that was the tail of the formation who was historically most vulnerable to attack).
Also SAw is affected by large formation of planes. While flying in a Squadron/Group has its advantages, it usually negates any attempts at gaining the element of surprise which is a hugh factor in air combat. Howevr this depands on what your Squadron/Group is doing, say as if in a COOP Mission, then each and every Squadron/Group member must remember that his Squadron Mates is excepting each other to do their job in maintaining Good SAw.
The Lone Wolf/John Wayne or Hot Dogger also has SAw implications. While flying alone makes SAw discipline vital, in many ways makes the plane more effective since its easier to gain surprise. It's easy to hide one plane. One plane is not usually seen as a hugh threat, while 10 always are.
Remember everyone suffers SAw failure, the key to improvement is to identify the problem. Then simply remind oneself that constant work and practice is needed to maintain Good SAW. If your eyes or brain rest for more 10 seconds in a combat zone, you are losing SAw and that often has FATAL RESULTS!
Now you can see that Situation Assessment (SAs) and Situation Awareness (SAw) are in some ways alike, but still quite different. Yet they are as EQUALLY IMPORTANT, for they both go HAND IN HAND with each other.
