HUD

The HUD (Head Unit Display). Here is example of the in-game HUD (appers at the top):

S:333 - This indicates your speed is 333mph. This figure will change constantly depending whether you are grabbing, diving, turning etc. You can change the unit in the options which would change it to kmph, default is mph.

A:16783f - This indicates your plane is at 16,783 Feet high. Again this figure will change constantly depending whether the nose of your plane is poiting up or down. This unit can also be changed to metres which is found in the options, default is feet.

T:100 - This indicates that your engine is as max speed. This can change between T40-T100, the higher the number, the faster you can go. If you stay on T40 for long enough (roughly 5-10seconds) the engine cuts out completely and goes too T:Off, indicating that your engine is off. Also with certain planes the speed can say T:WEP. This indicates that the plane is using "WEP", the explaination of this is later, in shorthand, it means your plane will go faster and be able to climb better!

D:0% - This indicates that your damage is 0%. Once another plane hits you, your Damage will increase accordingly. Once Damage becomes D:100, your plane is dead, and you have to wait till it crashes, once that happens, you will respawn.

R:0 - This indicates your rudder is 0. This should always be 0 unless you are applying rudder on the joystick or pressing it on the keyboard. If not, you should recaliberate your stick. Once rudder is applied, the 0 changes between -50 to +50 depending if you apply left or right rudder. Left and Right rudder cannot be used at the same time (if you press both buttons on the keyboard, one will over-write the other and it will say whichever you pressed first).

Flaps Up - This indicates that my flaps are up. This changes accordingly to when you use the different level of flaps.

Crashes: 0 - This shows how many times you have crashed your plane on the current session of flying.

Kills: 35 - This shows how many kills you have on the current session of flying.

Deaths: 4 - This shows how many deaths you have on the current session of flying.

To WCo: 26 - This indicates how many more ratio points you need to attain the next rank.

**** - These symbols are show up once you get 5 kills in a row (without dieing). So this indicates that this pilot has killed 20 - 24 enemy planes without dieing.

Ratio AI: 0 - This indicates how many AI points you have. AI points do not help towards rank, and you attain AI points by shooting buildings by the runways and destroying anti-aircraft guns.

B - A yellow B pops up next to the D:0% if you apply brakes

G - A red G pops up next to the D:0% if you apply your landing gear


Taking Off

To take off correctly in teams or a ffa runway, the first thing you need to do is put your throttle to the max. Once it's max, press Brakes (B), which starts the plane moving. Press the rudder in the direction you want to turn (Z for Left, X for right), this will turn your plane on the runway. Moving left/right with the joystick or pushing left/right on the keyboard does not move you on the runway. Once you are moving down the runway, watch your speed, once it hits over a 100mph, press down (on keyboard) or pull up (on joystick) to raise your plane off the runway. Once off the ground, immediately hit the Gear button, this takes a few seconds to full retract your gears.

Landing

To land correctly in teams or ffa, the first thing you need to do, is dive down to the runway you wish to land on. Once you are close to the runway, slow down your plane or use the min throttle command (shift+-) or adjust the throttle on the joystick. Also put on Gears (G) and Brakes (B). Once your speed drops below 130 mph, it should be safe to land. If you try to land with alot of speed, your plane will just crash.


Ranks

There are 9 different ranks to achieve in Airattack. Once at a certain level, it allows you to select the upgradeable planes. To start with, you can only fly the 8 basic planes. One you hit 20 to SqL, you are allowed to use the 8 upgraded planes. Even though the upgraded planes implies that they are better and in most cases they are, the downgrade planes do hold their own advantages!
Ranks go on Ratio points, not kills. Ratio points are Kills - 1/2 a death. For example 100 kills and 50 deaths gives you 75 ratio points. 100 - 25 (1/2 of 50) = 75. So with that in mind, here are the ranks:

• Respect other players and don't do anything to purposely ruin their enjoyment of the game
• Do not swear or use bad language in chat or in pilot tags
• Do not use or abuse others call signs/tags
• Do not abuse the functions of the launchpage
• No Runwaying - This means no shooting or ramming of planes on the ground - When the wheels of a plane have touched down on the runway, it is "safe" and must not be attacked.
• Sysops flying with [SYSOP] - tag are doing a job, do not try to engage or shoot them.

• No teaming in FFA ( don't work together to kill others, don't avoid killing 'mates' on purpose)
Do not shoot at other planes while you are on the runway (while parking or taxiing)
• No AA suicide on purpose

• Do not shoot members of your own nation in team arenas
• Keep sides balanced where possible

• The Rookie - arenas are there to allow new players to get to grips with the game without the pressure of the full arenas, therefore - No Players allowed with ranks above FLt unless giving instruction and they must do only that.

• Do not spawn kill (in FFA)
• Do not shoot planes that have just taken off
• If you see two planes very far away (in ffa) generally you shouldn't fly out there just to ruin their fight!
• If someone says "AFK" (away from keyboard) do not follow and shoot their plane!

Squads

In the Airattack game, individuals have grouped together to form Squads. Each squad has a unique name and tag to distinguish them. For example, it is common for a squad tag to have its squad ID before the pilots name, e.g, [TEMPESTS]Rocky. [TEMPESTS] being the name of squad, and the pilot name being Rocky.

Squads can provide training, but the major advantages of being in a squad, is being able to participate in leagues and competitions! A squad can enter a league which is hosted by the UK/GE/US community, where all the multi-national squads compete to win! Joining a squad also brings a new perspective on the game. If your use to flying alone, whether it be in ffa or even in teams, a squad brings a new feel to teams. With a wingman by your side, makes you feel alot safer, and makes you alot more dangerous to others!
The current list of squads can be found here.
To join a squad, your best chances will be posting on the forums of the community sites stating that you'd like to be part of a squad.
The community forums are located:

UK Forums
GE Forums
US Forums
ANZAAC Forums


2) Plane Basics Plane Basics

There are 16 different planes within the game, and 4 different camps. All the planes have advantages and disadvantages. I

GB Camp

Spitfire 9:
Spitfire 9 is probably the best starting plane any new pilot can pick. The spitfire 9 is probably the fastest turning plane in the game, has good guns and is very nimble. The main drawback of the spitfire 9 is it's speed. After a couple of turns, the spitfire 9 looses speed very quickly, which mean in long fights, the enemy can counter the spitfires 9 superior turning ability with a simple loop as the spitfire 9 would not be able to folloW!
They kye to flying the spitfire 9 is to keep as much speed as possible and try end the fights nice and quick. The spitfire 9 has has better guns then its upgrade, it has 2 cannons and 4 machine guns. With the same range as the spitfire 14 also, the only thing that really seperates these two planes are the speed, which as you progress in the game will learn that speed is very important, and understand thats the reason that people choose to fly spitfire 14's over the 9's.

Spitfire 14:
Spitfire 14 is one of the best, if not the best plane in the game. It's the second fastest, and sometimes fastest depending on the altitude (covered later). Spit 14 is one of the most nimble planes, and is the second best turner in the game. Spit 9 (the downgrade) is slightly better at turning then the Spit 14. However, the Spit 14 should beat the Spit 9 in a dogfight, why? Because intially the Spit 9 has the advantage, but after a few turns, the Spit 9 loses too much speed, whereas the Spit 14 does not. My advice is not to go for the hits on the first turn with a Spit 9, because 9/10 (depending on pilot) you will lose!
The key to the Spitfire 14, is to keep speed. My approx speed to maintin is 300 +. This i feel allows the Spit to pull off one of many evades to counter an enemy plane.
The Spitfire 14 has 4 guns. 2 Cannons and 2 Machine guns. The Cannons do 12% (10.9% on the 109K4 due to armor) implying 9 shots = death, giving the Spitfire theoretically the joint second best set of guns. The machine guns damage range is 1-4%. For this damage range, i'm not quite sure why it does 1-4%, nit Renfield has stated this is due to impact of the shells, which may be true.
Spitefire has a range of 2200 (671 metres). This however only applies to the cannon. Therefore, hitting another plane at 2200feet away gurantees you've hit them with a cannon. Machine guns have a slightly less range, i think 2100feet (640 metres). The bullets are also slightly different colour, the cannons are Dark Green and the machine guns are Light Green.
The Spitfire has 3 Flaps settings. Personally i only ever use Flaps up (for speed) and Flaps down (for turning). I've heard some people use takeoff for looping, but later on you will read i'm dead against looping unless you know you have speed advantage!
Rudder, this should be used on and off with turning. One pointer to remember, don't hold it down all the time, a) it will reduce your speed, b) it eventually will make your nose drop.

Hurricane IIA:
The old Hurricane, is probably the worst plane in the game! It's not only the slowest, it has the joint weakest guns! The Hurricane IIA can turn very well, however, after a few passes it has no energy left, and with it's 4 Machine guns (1-4%) (no cannons), it will take alot of shots to actually kill an enemy! Also considering the range of the Hurricane IIA is 1100 feet, I advise avoiding this plane altogether!

Hurricane IIC:
Hurricane is the slowest plane in the game, and honestly i find a waste of time. It's an okay for Free For All, but with its lack of speed, your really at a major disadvantage. The Hurricane however has only cannons. It has 4 cannons with the same impact and reach of the Spitfire 14. 2200Feet range and 12% damage impact.
The Hurricane is a really good turn fighter plane, however as i mentioned above with the Spitfire 9, speed is key for a long fight. After a few passes, the Hurricane has limited speed leaving it open to counters that the Hurricane will not be able to counter.

GE Camp

BF109-G6:
Out of the two lower German planes, this is probably the weaker of the two, unlike the upgraded versions. This is mainly due to the guns, like the K4, the G6 has 1 cannon and 2 machine guns, however, the damage of the cannon is significantly lower. The G6 cannon damage is 10% (depending on which plane it hits). The G6 does still grab quite well, but without it's deadly guns, the G6 does not cut it.
However, the G6 is a nice starter plane for learning a more tactical approach to the game. It's alot a user to climb very quickly, dive down shoot, and re-climb. This is a deadly tactic in the K4, which can be learnt in the G6, and when you do get to the upgraded K4, you'll notice a big difference on how many shot's it takes to kill someone!

BF109-K4:
This is the most favoured GE plane in the game due to its excellent alt climbing ability and damage ability. It's known as the "K4" and is a favourite plane of many. The K4 has 2 machine guns and 1 cannon. The machine guns again range from 1-4% however the cannon can hit for a wopping 30-33% (depending on the plane it hits).
The K4 is a strong looper, and has the ability to turn quite well and is a good stall fighting plane. However, the Spitfire is a better turning plane, therefore the K4 employs a tactic known as "Boom and Zoom (BnZ for short)". This is where the K4 dives down, shoots, then pulls back up away from the enemy planes. It can do this because if the enemy plane follows the K4 up, the enemy plane will stall before the K4, meaning the K4 is no harm whatsoever.
The K4 has a range of 1700 feet. Which is far shorter then the Spitfire, but alot more potent.

FW190-A8:
The old A8 is probably used more then the upgrade. This is due to the guns. Unlike it's upgrade who only has 2 cannons and 2 machine guns, the A8 has 4 Cannons (10%) and 2 Machine guns (1-4%). It is slightly slower, however as the D9 is not the fastest plane to start with, the loss of speed is worth it to gain in the gun department. The climb rate of the A8 is rather sluggish, and is probably kept best at lower level alts. This is a good plane for starters in FFA, due to the deadly guns and twisting the A8 (which twists very fast) provides a simple evade tactic which can be useful!

FW190-D9:
This is the second GE plane, which is rarely used. It does not climb as good or shoot as good as its brother 109K4. It however has 2 cannons and 2 machine guns. Cannon ranges from 9-10.9%, and again the machine guns 1-4%. The only one good thing about the FW 190 is that it can twist like the wind, which is good for avoiding getting hit. However i recommend this plane is just avoided.

US Camp

P-51B Mustang:
The old P-51, is very similar to the upgraded plane. The major difference is the speed. It is slightly slower the the P-51D, however it has the same guns as the P-51D. This is a good plane for a learner, if they are trying to learn hit and run tactics. With the P-51B, still being pretty fast, it allows for someone to strike an enemy plane, and then run away to avoid dieing. If this tactic can be learnt in the P-51B, you will be deadly in the P-51D!

P-51D Mustang:
The P-51 is also known as the "Pony". It's the quickest plane in the game at certain altitudes. It's known to referred as a "pea shooter" also due to it's guns. The Pony has no cannons, but has 6 machine guns. Again there damage ranges from 1-4%, however the worst factor is that the Pony only has a range of 1600feet.
The Pony employs a tactic called "hit and run". This is where you hit someone, extend away, get above come back and repeat till you finish your kill. The Pony is no good at turn fighting, so i advise staying clear of getting tangled up n dogfighting.
The Pony has 4 Settings for Flaps. My advise is to use no flaps or possibly 1/3 depending on the situation.

P-38L Lightning:
The old P-38, is again probably one of the worst planes in the game. It has the same guns as it's upgrade, however is slower! The one thing that the P-38 will gain you is longer time in the air as it takes longer to shoot down. So for a new plane, if your trying to practice aiming and you keep getting shot down, try this plane. It will give you a few seconds extra long to live, however, it will take a few extra seconds to kill someone!

P-38J Lightning:
This plane is also known as a "Bus". It's very chunky plane is really slow, but has high armor. It has 3 machine guns and 1 cannon. The cannon produces a 10% hit and the machine guns do 1-4% damage. With the high armor, my advice is steer clear of head to heading this plane, and just turn it. My advice is steer clear of ever using this plane though unless needed.

SU Camp

La-5:
The La-5, is not flown much. It is one of the weaker downgraded planes. It may have only cannons which do 10% damage, but it only has two of them! Even though the range will be slightly longer then the A8's, it still makes the A8 the deadliest plane, as two cannons will not kill a plane within that 200 feet window. Therefore, i'd advise waiting till you get the upgrades to test the La, and use the La-7, which by far is a more deadlier plane, faster and a better climber!

La-7:
La-7 is notoriously known for its guns. It has 3 cannons which ranage from 9-10% depending on plane. It has the longest gun range also with 2300feet, which means its a heavy hitter. It can loop and turn pretty well below 15k. However, once the La-7 is hit, it becomes very sluggish. The climb rate for the La-7 at low alts is also very impressive. It nearly keeps up with the K4 till about 10k. But as mentioned the SU planes are not built for high altitude situations.

Yak-9:
Like it's upgrade, the yak-9 is very nimble. But like the La-5, the Yak-9 is a complete downgrade of the Yak-3. Unlike some other nations, the downgrades of the SU camp are not worth flying untill the upgrades are hit. The yak-9 provides only 1 cannon and 1 machine gun, making it probably the worst shooter in the game, along with being slower as it's upgrade, the only benefit that comes from the downgrade is that is has slightly better armour, which after the drawbacks is just not good enough.

Yak-3:
Yak-3 is known as a "paper plane". It has the lowest armor in the game. However, its the fastest looper in the game due to being so light.
The yak is however really slow. This is the only reason i do not fly this plane much. The guns are pretty weak also, it has 2 machine guns and 1 cannon only. The cannon produces a 10% hit and the machine guns 1-4%. With the Spit being faster, better firepower its chosen above the yak. Don't be fooled though, in a 1v1 situation the yak is pretty nifty, but like its fellow brother. Once hit, it becomes sluggish.

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3) Flaps and Rudder Flaps and Rudder

Flaps and Rudder are widely used on all planes to give extra turning capability. However, Flaps and Rudder can easily be used wrong and prove to be costly in a close fight.

Flaps
For most planes, (Hurricane, La, Yak, K4, 190) their are only two options for flaps. Flaps up and Flaps Down.
Flaps up are ther default position and should be kept like that at all times unless your in a fight. Flaps up provides maximum speed capability. This will stop your plane being an easy target, as speed is key in this game, especially for evading purposes.
Flaps down provide the plane with better turning capabilities, however it comes with a price. Once flaps are down, the speed of the plane does decrease. However, the advantage of the turning ability flaps provide, the drawback is dismissed and flaps make a major difference in turning.
Also note, that some of the planes above have different acceleration speeds. For example, Hurricane and Yak have slow acceleration, La has medium and the K4 has fast acceleration.

For the other planes, such as Spitfire, Mustang and Hurricane P-38J, these all have different combination of flap levels.
Spitfire has three options, Flaps up, Flaps Takeoff and Flaps Landing. For the spitfire, i advise using Flaps up while grabbing and chasing and always using flaps landing for fights and loops. Flaps down provide the best turning capability for the spit, and should be utilised. However, there has been comments made that on Spitfire loops, it's best to use flaps takeoff at the top of the loop and then put back to flaps landing after, but i will leave that to personal preference, if theres a different, its a very small one.
Mustang has four options, Flaps up, Flaps 1/3, Flaps 2/3, Flaps Full. The Mustand as discussed above it's best advantage is it's speed. I advise to use no flaps or at the most 1/3. In case you need to extend a way because your loosing, if you have Flaps Full or Flaps 2/3 on, it may mean you cannot get away in time.
P38J (Bus) has 3 flap options, Flaps up, Flaps 1/4, Flaps Full. This plane is quite slow but built like a tank, so you need to use Flaps Full for the full turning capability as there is no chance you can extend away if in trouble, so your need flaps on to try outurn your enemy.

Rudder
Rudder is also key in fighting enemy planes. Rudder gives you the option to turn in tighter also, but again at the loss of speed. The Key thing to remember, if your turning left, use left rudder, if your turning right, use right rudder.
Rudder however should not be held down for long periods of time due to the loss in speed. Alot of planes will notice you slow down too much and just perform a loop, which you cannot follow due to low in speed. A tip would be to use it for a couple of seconds then let it go, or tap it on and off. However, the amount of rudder used really depends on the situation. For example, in a tight turn, you would use alot of rudder, in a loop you would use none, however in a circular kind of turn, your need to use rudder on the tighter parts of the turn, but let go of rudder at certain points to re-gain speed, otherwise your end up dipping the nose to re-gain speed which shouldn't happen.

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4) Gun Ranges