HOW TO FLY

During Mission Load Screens, hold the Device in the position you want to set for level flight in order to properly calibrate the accelerometer.

TO PITCH DOWN (DIVE) AND PITCH UP (CLIMB), tip the device forward and back. If this feels backwards to you, go to the Main Menu and select Options and turn off Invert Y-Axis.

TO ROLL, tip the device right and left. Notice that this doesn’t make your aircraft turn. Turning requires a combination of rolling and pitching.

TO BANK, first roll in the direction you want to travel, and then pitch up. For example: To bank right, first tip your device to roll until your right wing is pointing to the ground, then level it again to stop rolling. Now tip your device to pitch "up" to pitch in the direction you wanted to turn initially. Using a combination of rolls and pitches to bank will quickly become natural with practice.

TO YAW, press and hold one of the arrows in the lower right or left corners of the screen. This engages the rudder and turns your aircraft without rolling, but this turns the aircraft slowly compared to banking.

TO CHANGE SPEED, touch the middle of the screen to make the throttle bar appear. Drag your finger up or down to the new throttle setting you want, and let go. The plane will accelerate or decelerate to that speed.

TO BOOST (AFTERBURNERS), press and hold the Afterburners arrow just below the right-hand wing of your aircraft. Afterburners only work for a short time and then need to recharge before you can use them again.

TO CHANGE THE SENSITIVITY OF YOUR CONTROLS, go to the Main Menu and move the slider to change how quickly your aircraft responds to your control.

HOW TO FIND AND LOCK ON TO ENEMIES

TO TRACK ENEMIES, follow the red arrow near the center of the screen. It points in the direction you should turn to face the currently targeted enemy (one enemy will always be targeted). When the enemy is in your forward view, the arrow disappears and the target has red brackets around it. Other enemies on the forward view have yellow brackets around them. You can also use your radar screen to see where your enemies are.

TO FIND ENEMIES ON RADAR, look for arrowhead icons on the radar in the upper right of your screen. The arrows show the location of each enemy (you are in the center), the direction they are facing, and whether they are above or below you: solid arrows mean higher, empty arrows mean lower.

TO SWITCH ENEMIES, tap the Picture–in–Picture of the targeted enemy that’s in the upper left corner of the screen. (Be careful not to press on the PiP for too long, as this will switch to an advanced enemy–tracking camera mode. To leave this mode, press and hold the PiP again, or use the camera icon to the upper right of the screen to choose the camera you want.)

TO LOCK ON TO A TARGET, maneuver until the target with the red brackets is visible in front of you. After a moment, a crosshair will appear and you will hear beeping – your aircraft is acquiring a target lock. (If this doesn’t happen, it means the target is too far away to get a lock – you’ll need to get closer.) When the crosshair sticks to the brackets and the beeping changes to a solid tone, you’ve "got tone" which means you have a solid missile lock.

HOW TO SHOOT

TO FIRE A MISSILE, tap the missile icon on the right side of the screen. You can generally fire two quickly, but it takes a few seconds for another missile to drop into launch position. What you do next depends on the type of missile.

TO FOLLOW YOUR MISSILE WITH "MISSILE-CAM" press the missile icon to fire but keep your finger pressed down for as long as you want to watch Missile-Cam.

TO HIT WITH A SEMI–ACTIVE GUIDED MISSILE. Once you obtain a missile lock you need to continue to keep the target within the blue dotted circle on the screen – in order to illuminate it with radar for the missile to hone in on. If you fail to keep the target in front of you, you will lose tone and the missile will lose its lock and fail to hit.

TO HIT USING AN INFRARED–SEEKING MISSILE. Once you obtain a missile lock you’ve already done all you can do. The missile is fire–and–forget, so it tracks the target on its own. These missiles make it easier to hit your target, but they you have to be closer to get a lock.

TO SWITCH BETWEEN MISSILE TYPES, press the Missile Toggle just below the left-hand wing of your aircraft. If you see the blue dotted circle, you have armed semi-active guided missiles; if you see no circle, you have armed infrared-guided missiles.

TO FIRE THE NOSE CANNON, manually steer to put a target in the center of the screen, and press minigun icon on the left side of the screen. There is some auto-aiming assistance, but bullets are not guided and must be manually aimed.

HOW TO AVOID GETTING SHOT

TO AVOID MISSILES, turn sharply to shake your pursuer or to turn faster than missiles can follow, causing them to lose lock. Your screen tells you whether enemies have a lock on you or whether you have an incoming missile.

TO DEFEAT MISSILES, you can also dispense countermeasures. Shake your device vigorously to throw chaff and flares to defeat an incoming missile. Use only as a last resort because the number of countermeasures packages you have is limited, displayed as a number of Flares just under the Target PiP to the upper left of the screen.

HOW TO COMPETE

TO DOGFIGHT OTHER PILOTS, choose Competitions from the Main Menu, choose a plane, and then decide what kind of competition you want...

TO QUICKLY FIGHT A SINGLE OPPONENT, choose Quick Match 1 vs. 1, and you will be matched with a pilot of similar ranking (based on how successfully you have fought in the past) and the dogfight will begin.

TO QUICKLY TEAM UP AND FIGHT TWO OPPONENTS, choose Quick Match 2 vs. 2, and you will be matched with a wingman and two opponents of similar ranking and the dogfight will begin. Your radar will never target your wingman, and he will appear blue on your radar. If you get shot down before your wingman, you will then follow your wingman with a ghost camera for the duration of the match.

TO FIGHT PILOTS YOU KNOW, one of you must Create a Room, give it a name, and those who want to join need to Join the Room and type in the same name. You'll want to agree upon a name beforehand.

TACTICS

USE YOUR THROTTLE AND AFTERBURNERS. Speed changes are important for acting unpredictably and confounding your enemy. And the faster you fly, the slower your turns, so slowing down suddenly can help you turn around and get a bead on your enemy.

USE THE RIGHT MISSILE. When you are at long range, switch to semi–active guided missiles. These have a longer lock range and it’s easier to keep the enemy illuminated at a distance When you get close up in a fur ball, switch to the infrared–seeking missiles to eliminate the need to keep a target in your sights. Remember that just because you get a target lock doesn’t mean an automatic hit – evasive flying can shake off even locked on missiles.

USE YAW TO FINE TUNE YOUR AIM. If a target is just off to the left or right, don’t roll and bank, just yaw with your rudder to bring the target front and center.

DON’T WORRY WHICH WAY IS UP. Time spent aligning with the ground is time wasted. Just get your enemy in your sights any way you can.

BREAK OUT OF FUR BALLS. If you are circling around and around your enemy, a sudden change of speed and direction can give you an advantage of surprise and the ability to get your enemy out in front. But be careful, leaving a dogfight spiral is risky, but often necessary to win.

MISCELLANEOUS

TO CHANGE THE CAMERA VIEW, tap the camera icon to the top right of center on the screen. There are multiple views, including in and out of the cockpit. There are also advanced views that can be disorienting at first, but once understood and mastered, can be very powerful, especially against multiple bogeys. Try them all to get a feel for the advantages and disadvantages of each.

CONCLUSION

REMEMBER, war is coming soon, and if you want to survive and thrive, you need all the skill you can get. Fleet Air Superiority Training is your best bet to get in fighting shape when the time comes to take to the skies for real and defend what’s yours!