Wingman: The Ace Factor

Here follows an excerpt from my recently published book, “Wingman – the virtual pilot’s companion to team combat”. The book offers a bit of historical background, hard-won insights and graphic examples of how loners, gaggles and consummate team-players do combat in the online skies. If you are into online air combat, or know someone who is, this book is for you. Or him. Or her. 

What separates the ace team from the humdrum? As we have seen, fighting as a team is not exactly rocket science, to the contrary, it is hardly more than a case of being aware and of doing things appropriately and according to common sense. Yet the overwhelming majority of pilots fail to hook up in teams and most of those who do invariably break up at the first whiff of trouble. It seems incongruous that pilots can even fail to make a level turn or fail to meet an apparent and immediately mortal threat with an adequate response, yet this is precisely what happens every time in just about every mission. Perhaps wingmanship is a dark art after all.

You and your wingman Joe have risen a cut above the rest. You have learned to master your rides, you have learned to trust each other, and you have found and practiced the templates of procedure and manoeuvre that provides security and opportunity in any given situation. You have acquired a heightened sense of awareness to the minute differences of position and energies and vectors that spells advantage or disadvantage. Together you have explored the many various alternatives to handling a specific challenge and have amassed a joint experience that by itself yields an almost automatic advantage in almost any encounter with the enemy. In short, you have learned control: of greed, of reflexive behaviour, of instinct and of your lesser selves. Gone is the fear of supposedly superior opponents, gone is the uncertainty and the apprehension that plagued you in the beginning, gone is the hamfistedness and the timidity. You are truly dancing and life is good. Yet, there is plenty to learn still.

Honour Bound

Next in line for publishing is “Wingman – The virtual pilot’s companion to team combat”. It’s been on the back burner for quite some time but I hope to finally put it on the market THIS year.

Here’s a short excerpt:

The fighting wingpair is an indivisible entity. It is brought together by the realization that no man is an island, that a single pilot is but a victim-to-be, regardless of his proficiency. It is also brought together by that peculiar human bond that manifests itself when two people goes through a struggle together, and prevail. This buddy-buddy relationship is most important for the fighting wing, for without it there is little apart from one’s general sense of duty to intervene when the going gets tough and the partner is looking imminent extinction in the eye. While it may seem out of place to invest a virtual relationship with such lofty sentiments, it is nevertheless true that even in the online world, friendships matter. Similarly, if a wingpair exhibits animosity or indifference it is very likely to shatter at the first instant. One simply has to be friends with one’s wingman, and show respect, affection and consideration. Honour binds online as well as it does in the real world.

In the online world it is easy to become an ace and wipe out five, eight, twelve bandits in a single mission, but it is extremely difficult to stay alive through a campaign that may comprise hundreds of sorties, which kind of lessens the glow. The online sky is extremely hostile: you are virtually assured of encountering the enemy on every mission, and multiple times in the same mission. In fact, there is such an abundance of targets that no single pilot can handle them on his own. In this environment teamwork should thrive, yet the contrary is apparent, which is confusing and illogical – what is the joy in finding yourself burning or dangling from a brolly at the close of every sortie? For those happy few who go to the trouble of winging up and doing battle with a measure of discipline and expertise, however, there is no end to the enjoyment that can be had. Make no mistake, online air combat is about having fun and the uninitiated may forgive us for finding pleasure in destruction. It is just a game.