Pitch Back

Situation: You're attacking your opponent head-on with at least 500 knots of airspeed.

Maneuver:

• You're in a head-on pass (1).
• Pull up into a loop maneuver (2).
• At the top of the loop, keep the stick pulled back (3).
• When you're heading straight toward the ground, start to turn toward the enemy while pulling out of the dive (4).
• Instead of finishing the loop heading in your original direction, you've turned on the way down and should finish in a hard turn behind your opponent (5).

Note: This kind of maneuver is called an out-of-plane maneuver—you're maneuvering in the vertical plane while your opponent is in a flat turn.

(figure)

This maneuver looks tricky—and it is. Pull back hard on the stick, loop, and then turn behind the target if it's there.

Return to: Starfighter Combat - Offensive Maneuvers