E management in a hog often comes down to flap management. In other words if you don't need them at this point, pull them in and get as much speed as possible. They deploy fast enough to get them back where they were in a hurry if needed. Also if you are low on E and your oppenent allows you to get your nose slightly down without getting you in a worse position, do so. For example lets say you get on the bandits 6 but are slightly out of guns range (say 800) and he goes into a gentle climb (knowing he has a better climbing plane). Don't directly follow him, he will simply bleed you of all your E and drop on your head. Just fly straight and pull all your flaps in to gain as much speed as possible (remember you have a better zoom climb then most), sometimes you may have to dive a little bit then level as to not let them get too far away and lose all your advantage. When he breaks back into you, you'll have enough speed to use the verticle. If you climbed the whole way trying to keep up you'll probably stall and will be dead meat. Now gaining enough E in a stall fight to pull something in the verticle is a bit trickier, mostly due to the proximity of the ground. You are looking for any time you can pull just a little flap in and keep a turn just a little bit straighter, or get your nose down below theirs picking up a little more speed then they have. A hog is so bad at picking up E that you have to constantly be thinking of how to gain it. I rarely ever take a hog up with a capped field, for the reason that it won't pick up E fast enough to fight anything over my head. In this case I'll often WEP off the field in my 109 G2 "the cow" get out of dodge before they see me, and come back in at about 10k. Why a 109G2 for this, it does two things very well a hog doesn't, climb and acceleration. Meaning the G2 picks up E real quick and easy. When flying a hog in a dogfight keep this question in your head "Do I need this much flap right now?"
BigRat
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