So I thought I'd have a go in a scythe

Hope your onboard screens don't go blank when you launch, so you can actually monitor your altitude. Happens far too often, even on Galaxies and Libs.

That is very true, but it's pretty clear he is not thinking of that as that makes you move right, but not turn right.

You have to roll right, then pitch up.

Here are some basic tips:

1. You will need to watch tutorials for basic maneuvers. Most important is the "reverse manuever." This is absolutely crucial, since, while the move itself is basic, it ends up forming the basis for nearly every other ESF manuever.

2. Keybindings: pitch up/down to side mouse buttons. "Exit vehicles" to something you won't hit on accident (I reccomment the ~/` key.)Bind something to "analouge thrust." It's basically just holding down the slow down key, but it's useful for new pilots when first learning the reverse manuever. "Weapon 1" to mouse-scroll-up, and "weapon 2" to mouse scroll down. This lets you reliably switch between ESF weapons.

3. Flying top speed under tree cover in VR is an excellent (and fun) way to learn to fly. It won't help for dogfighting, but it will help for groundpouding and manuevering away from ground fire.

4. To begin with, stick with groundpounding. the scythe PPA cheap, at only 100 certs, and probably won't be nerfed for another few months or so (until infantry get around to complaining about it.) You learn precision control over your craft, as well as reinforce the basic hovering manuevers in a less risky environment.

5. Avoid engaging libs directly. If they try to run, and have no walker, just ping them to death from afar. If they come towards your, or have a walker, run like hell: they're experienced, well certed, and will nuke your craft.

6. Avoid crewed galaxies with walkers. A solo gal with no gunners isn't a threat, but a gal with walkers will tear you apart.

7. valkyries are cert pinatas, even if you have an AI nosegun.

8. Nosegun/AB tanks/fire suppresion/NAR/Hover frame is considered to be the best "honorable" frame. If you're immune to rage tells, replace AB tanks with a lockon of your choice, as they're far better in every way.

9. Skyguards are terrifying. Learn their noise, and learn to stay the hell away. This also goes to for sunderer or even MBT walkers.

10. rangers are a nonissue, make quick darting passes and you'll be fine.

11. G2A locks predict your movement, so a properly timed dive can send them crashing into the ground long before they reach you.

12. Spot everything. Learn to recognize Airsperg outfit tags (on emerald it's C150, QRY, GALM, N, 0AK and PREY, although some of these outfits are defunct) and avoid them.

13. Do not, I repeat, do not engage multiple ESF's at once.

14. Sensitivity: as a new flyer, you probably want this reasonably low. try .25-.4.

15. Use yaw to speed up turns, but don't rely on it for aiming.

I'll add to this:
16. Dual-AA MAX will wreck your entire existence. If there's a lot of ESF hanging around a spawn point, expect at least one MAX to wise up and start aiming for the sky. And it only takes one...

17. An ungunned Galaxy may not be a huge threat--at range. If he sees you, though, he'll do some pretty epic maneuvers with the aerial version of a whale to try to ram you out of the sky. That Galaxy can shrug you off like a fly, too, and you'll be as insignificant against his armor.

Flying is PAINFUL. Be prepared for gods know how many planes you'll crash. I still crash planes today and I'm an experienced Lib and ESF pilot - then again I derp because it's hilarious.

Weird as it sounds, if you want to learn ESF, start with the Scythe. It's the easiest to 'learn' the basics and will hold its own against other ESFs. Unless you just want to farm with PPA (which is nowhere near as easy as it sounds).

Upgrade to Mozzie after that, you'll have a little more sideways manuverabilty, a little more speed, more firepower with pods.

Finally you've got the Reaver, which is a about as close as a flying brick with a rocket engine attached. Its by far my favourite to fly, but much harder to use. The Air Hammer is one of the funnest weapons in this game because THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!!!!

And well.. if you check my sig, the Reaver's nice flat base is pretty damn useful in my line of work

As a completely unexperienced pilot I have a question: Wouldn't be Scythe better for that? It's flat and wider than other two ESF so you'd mow down more infantry at once

Anyway - great tips guys. I'll remember it when (if?) I start to pilot an ESF in a distant future.

You make it sound complicated...

It really isn't.

I crashed like... 4-5 times?... learning the controls. Took a long time to get better, and I still have a lot more to get better with...

but it doesn't really feel all that unintuitive to me TBQFH.

Banshee TTK is a lot faster than LPPA TTK mostly due to RoF and Velocity.

TTK is everything when every second of exposure to enemy AA is critical.

If there's no AA and you can just hover spam, then, and only then, is PPA "better" but then not really since you have to lift up and away a lot, and even a default nosegun can wrack kills in this environment. (Actually default noseguns are quite good if you're accurate)

We're going to talk about statistics? Try out a Mosquito in VR with Banshee equipped. Watch the rounds spray all over the place beyond 50m. Take a bet that TTK is a mathematical construct that assumes a theoretical Banshee equipped on a theoretical Mosquito, targeting a theoretical, stationary target, with all possible confounds ignored or unaccounted for, is an actual representation of an actual Banshee on an actual Mosquito against actual targets, with confounds loose in the wilds of actual gameplay.

It's really not.

In actual live gameplay the Banshee has been consistently outperforming the other two AI ESF guns. You are assuming that, because it is hard for you, it is also hard for eveyone, which doesn't seem to be the case.

And you're assuming that someone who disagrees is bad at this game. You know what they say about assuming.

I never made such an assumption. You're the one that assumed that as well

am i'm the only one who got into the game, spawned an aircraft, started controlling it and thought:
HOLY ****!!! This is easy

likr seriously? did you never play arcade flying games? did you never play space flight simulators?
seriously play some X3 and learn to play (not rebirth, only Terran conflict/albion prelude)

I use to fly a ton and wasn't pro at all, but kind of decent. One of the main things I thought was hard wasn't so much flying as much as it was knowing where to fly. It's so easy to go from a friendly into an extremely hostile zone in just a few seconds. Knowing when to return back/which direction to turn towards was always tough.

At this point I just lol and do a quick Google search.

GG, sir.

A2G is the easiest thing you can do with an aircraft. A2A takes lots of time and effort. A2G is easy. The skills required are:

1.) Being able to hover / fly in a straight line
2.) Being able to aim at slow moving targets
3.) Not being an idiot with tunnel vision

#3 is where most people fail.

Not being greedy?

Same here, flying in PS2 just feels natural to me. Unfortunately few people have this ability.

I really dont think he meant to insult you. He made a factually correct statement: it does not only outperform the other AI nose guns in theoretical TTK in the range most AI attacks from the air happen from, but also in actual statistics in virtually every aspect: KPU, KPH, SPH, AI, AA, AV. And not by a small margin.
If you find yourself doing bad when using it it is not necessarily the weapon's fault. It might as well be just a bad region to use it in, or bad usage of it.