How do you actually fly? No theory.

I've had a love/hate affair with the aircraft in this game since release. Right now, I'm completely lost as to what you're even supposed to do with aircraft. I've watched countless hours of tutorials, and talked to 1-2 helpful people in game (who are few and far between on ANY subject, much less air...), but I'm at a loss.

Every time I bring an ESF out, it's the same story. As soon as I get within render distance of a battle, the lock-on siren blare and if I don't immediately turn around the combination of burster max fire, flak guns and lock-on G2A and A2A missiles put my life expectancy at around 1-2 seconds. Even with flares...it ups that to maybe 1.5-3s... 1-2 burster MAX alone rip me in half in about 3seconds... Now that lock ons have been buffed, I can't even try to fly behind cover either.

Tried flying liberators, but as soon as you get within firing range of anything, it's the same story, except it takes MAYBE double the TTK, but since it's so much slower and a bigger target, it doesn't matter, you're still a flaming wreck before you can realistically do anything about it.

Haven't really tried galaxies...

I've tried coming in alongside friendlies, from an angle away from friendlies, into a nearly deserted area to try to farm stragglers, anything...nothing works. All it takes is 1-2 enemies to see you and swap to an HA or MAX and you're finished.

Even worse is it's almost impossible to get any good practice in as a pilot since the damn things die so fast anytime you get near combat you end up waiting 10+ minutes just to have another go at it...you seldom get any kills... it's frustrating.

I fully regret the small amount of certs I've put towards aircraft, because at current they seem almost entirely useless...maybe if I spent several thousand more certs into them, they'd become somewhat decent, but to be honest I haven't really seen aircraft on the friendly OR enemy side doing anything worth paying certs for recently.

So, for thos of you that DO fly - why? And what do you do, and how did you get good enough at it to make it work, given how hard practicing is??

When I fly I don't beeline towards areas with multiple platoons where you're going to run into flak and lockons.

I try to find good pilots in the sky and have a decent dogfight. I fly for the dogfights, not for farming ground. It's still fun.

Air is pretty broken right now and the developers are showing no intention of fixing it, at best they remain blissfully ignorant towards the issue at worst they're intentionally limiting the effectiveness of air to appease the narrow minded infantry only player base. My advice you need at least composite armor 3 to survive any flak at all, unfortunately it ain't cheap.

Also fly high, at the flight ceiling, swoop down on battles or squads and run! <------ this is pretty much the only valid tactic in game currently.

Best of luck
-Forefront0fFear

If I see flak, or hear lockons, I spiral and dive to the ground. Then I juke through whatever obstacles I can. If it was a lone source, I begin to hunt it. If it was bulk flak, I get the message that I'm not allowed to fly there and (here's the tricky part) I don't fly there. I look for better targets. Problem sorted!

With the lattice system, every battle has multiple platoons and un-flyable levels of AA.
Ironically, I spend most of my Liberator time dogfighting as well, for the above reason. If you're low enough to render infantry, flak and lockons will kill you. If you A2G from high altitude, even if your aim is dead on (very difficult with slow Dalton velocity) the engineers can out-repair the damage since they aren't hurt by the explosion. At best, the Liberator functions as an AA platform and a distraction.

When I fly, I abandon my craft and use my drift jets and C4 to drop on unsuspecting tanks to 1-shot them.

As if anyone would bother using flying pieces of paper to fight when it's better to use them as disposable taxis to initiate cheese tactics.

i have no issues flying

if i get a locked on i hit flares
if im getting hit with bursters/flak i afterburn out and come back to kill the bursters/flak
if i see vehicles then i kill them
if i see infantry then i kill them
if i see aircraft then i kill them

its pretty simple really

If you were in the same outfit as I am, I would train you how to be a good pilot. But you're not, so I can't. I still want to help other pilots improve their skills. I feel really bad shooting down other fighters who can't even put up a good fight. I've even let a few live because they weren't worthy opponents, and I don't want to drive players away from the game.

Anyways, here are some old videos of me (I'm a better pilot now, and win almost every dogfight). Maybe by watching what I do, you could learn a few tricks?

For me flying isn't viable during prime time. I play infantry prime time and only fly during off hours. I usually stay at the highest level around 950 m and look at the map which shows 1-2 enemies detected or 12-24 enemies detected. I first check out the 1-2 enemies detected bases to see if there is a single tank or sundy there or a lonely ESF parked or hovering there. Then I swoop down on anything I see and quickly kill it and fly high again. Then I move on to attack an area with 12-24 enemies and check if there is any air there first. If 1 ESF is there I check if I can kill it quickly, if yes then I swoop down on it. If no, then I wait till that ESF hovers or comes out a little towards our territories. If 2 ESFs are there, then I wait for one of them to hover or park so I can quickly kill it and run out quickly towards our friendly zone. If the other ESF chases me, I try to lead it to our allies territory before turning back on it to try to kill it. Or if I'm low on health then I just try not to fight it and run for my life to a friendly zone where ESF stops chasing me.
If attacking a base and you see 3 enemy ESFs, then you better stay away unless you are an elite pilot.

Never hover more than 1.5 sec when you are killing an infantry or tanks because it's really easy for an ESF with vortek to kill you in one clip within 1.5 sec.
Never go into an area that shows 48+ enemies detected. You can stay on its edges to see if a bad pilot strays out of that area and hovers and you can kill it without entering that area.


Practice flying maneuvers in VR Training. You need to learn how to do a 180 degree turn as fast as you can. That will help you the most in dogfights. Check out some youtube videos on barrel rollt turn and reverse maneuver.

Flying isn't a good idea right now unless you're one the few pilots who like to pick off lone targets, join a winning battle and spawn camp, as well as stay away from big fights (aka "good" pilots). Wait till they nerf AA, it's the only way

This doesn't really help OP.

FLying used to be my absolute favorite part of the game.
My of my missions were escort for gal drops, intercepting enemy ESF and once deployed if air was clear I'd provide radar support for the ground as well as recon roads and follow-on bases for the unit leader. Most times I'd actively look for enemy air taking ground as opportunities presented themselves--most often just running with main gun, extra afterburners and racer frame.

Things have changed though. The busters and striker spam keep me completely away from TR airspace. Near VS can still be fun where honest ESF to ESF still happen.

They need to remove ESF rocketpods while at the same time make ESF immune to ground-based AA. ESFs are meant to fight air and get killed by air, not ground.

ESFs are bad because of Rocket Pods.... Basically, pods were way too powerful, so G2A got largely buffed, and now ESFs die super fast.

I would like to see pods removed, and all G2A reduced by 25-50% in effectiveness.

Simply put, if you hover over a tile and it is any more than 1-12, don't bother going there, and those will be hit or miss.

First thing before you pull a plain, check the map.
Set your waypoint to a "enemy squads" maximium target. If your new to flying better go for "1 - 12 enemies". Fly to your waypoint and see how much AA there is. If nobody shoots you, you have ca. 4 - 5 minutes to make some kills. When the first flak hits your plain, fly to a save zone, restock and repair, open the map and look for the next small fight.

Don't worry, the way they're going to do it is if you want to help your group fight ground in esf/lib you have to be inside an area slightly larger than a bio lab hugging those new buffed up bursters.

I actually have done this already. I can execute the reverse manuever pretty flawlessly, and I was working on the barrel-roll turn, but sadly, neither save you from >2-3 lockons and/or burster/flak spam. And it also feels like that is the only thing you can really practice in the VR Training Zone, since there are no real moving targets or resistance to battle against.

My MAIN problem isn't the raw mechanics of flying, I mean clearly I could improve there, anyone can, but my MAIN problem is the realistic logistics of flying. How do I get from the spawn point, to a decent fight area, actually find targets and kill them, without randomly dying to 1-2 seconds burster fire when some random MAX happens to look up?

As someone else already pointed out, this post doesn't really answer any questions. Flares only seem to save you from 1-2 lockons, so if there's enemy ESF with A2A missiles, or more than a couple HA with lock-ons, it only gives you a few extra seconds to live...unless there's MAXs hitting you, in which case, you're still dead. The only question I could have asked this might have answered would have been "Hey, could you show me an example of a useless post that only serves to toot one's own horn?", and even then it does that poorly, as you don't really provide any impressive content, like the guy that posted a video.

To THAT guy (@Rubius), thanks! Hopefully I can make out some of how you're doing the bits I don't 'get'.

To anyone who actually flies successfully on a regular basis: is there any point to flying an ESF/Lib until/unless you spend the 1080-1330 certs for Rockets or Missiles and one of non-default nose guns (+the flares & vec stealth I already bought)? Or at least 1200 to upgrade all the guns on a lib? I.e: are the default weapons on the ESF/Lib worth wielding?

Starting to wonder if you really are a pilot.

Well, Air has never been weaker than it currently is now post release. That much is a fact

Though a few pointers that I have.

1, Try the waters. Fly over an area at a reasonably safe altitude and see how many lock ons/flak & enemy pilots there are.
2. Travel with the pack. Many friendly ESFs is good. They keep you safe from threats, and it is easier to kill enemies together. Just don't crash into them.
3. Avoid enemy pilots if by yourself. 1vs1 dog fights are very risky(depending on your skill and ESF), and you should avoid it unless: 1, you get the jump, or 2. You know the enemy is a crap pilot. Otherwise, flee towards the nearest friendly ESF swarm/Flak&Lock On nest when you suspect an enemy ESF is gunning for you.

I don't really bother with dog-fights nowadays.

It is much easier to lure 2-3 enemy pilots over a friendly flak nest and see them all burn xD

Maybe he is in theory? xD