Originally Posted by diginagain
Gaz ED, from the point of view of the evading helicopter, it's difficult to see how a fast-mover is going to visually acquire, track and engage a slow, but moving target. One evasive manouevre is to run at max chat towards the attacking aircraft, staying low down so he has to continually lower his nose to keep sight of you.
This is often weather dependent. Did a number of techniques in Bos and FI - best plan is to sit high above and drop the nose to loose off a 9L or Asraam from 6k'. Next best is to strafe using the same profile. Radar missiles require a bit more work to be successful, due to the way they acquire the target.
If the weather is bad, then the old 'racetrack' technique will always provide one FJ visual with said helo but you run the risk of collecting a bunch of lead from the side door of the target or from the nose cannon of an AH
Visually acquiring helos is tricky, but actually not prohibitively difficult. Radars work too - they don't all just look at the vector of the target and some modes can take into account the rotor blades travelling at a great range of speeds from the centre to the tip ....
ps. Max chat in most helos is prob somewhere around 150kts .. that means you move 2.5nm per min. Given the fact that most FJ intercepts take place at 20nm/min, a helos travel is hardly unpredictable. And they tend to stick to valleys too.
pps. Despite all the above, they're not the easiest of targets to engage successfully, but it is a matter of coordination and discipline. And occasionally some godlike radar work.