AB — Afterburner.
ACM — Air Combat Maneuvering.
ACT — Air Combat Tactics.
AI — Airborne Intercept.
Angels — Altitude expressed in thousands of feet. For example, “Angels 20” means an altitude of 20,000 feet.
Angle-off — The difference in degrees between your aircraft’s heading and a bandit’s heading. Also known as Heading Crossing Angle or HCA.
Armour Star hands — Big meaty, clumsy hands. Usually apt to oversteer or improperly fly an aircraft.
Aspect angle — The number of degrees from the tail of the target to your aircraft.
Attack geometry — The path that an offensive fighter takes as he converges on a bandit.
Bar — A sweep of a radar beam.
Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM) — This describes how aircraft maneuver against each other in one-versus-one air combat.
Belly check — A procedure to check out what’s below you by doing a 180° roll and looking where your underside was.
Boresight mode — A radar mode where the radar beam is fixed straight out the aircraft’s nose. Whatever comes into its beam first is automatically locked.
Butterfly setup — A combat training entry wherein two fighters start abreast of each other and then turn 45° away from each other. After reaching a distance of four miles, the two fighters turn back to each other for a head-on pass.
BVR — Beyond visual range.
Corner velocity — The airspeed where an aircraft has the quickest turn rate with the smallest turn radius.
Crawl back up in the cockpit — At times, the pilot may experience a phenomenon called “task saturation,” where too many things are going on at once. The pilot may then “fall behind” in his ability to keep up with his aircraft’s actions. He’ll then need to mentally crawl back up in the cockpit to regain complete control of his bird.
Dissimilar Air Combat Tactics (DACT) — An air combat engagement with multiple planes on each side, where each side’s aircraft are of different characteristics (e.g., F-16s vs. F-14s).
Drag — A maneuver to 60° or less of aspect.
Energy — In BFM, it is an aircraft’s maneuvering potential.
Enhanced Envelope Gun Sight (EEGS) — A new gun sight for the F-16 and F-15 aircraft. One of its most prominent features is the funnel.
Escape window — A pilot’s safe path out of a fight. It represents the chance of safely separating from the fight.
Flight path marker — A three-pronged marker in the F-16’s HUD that displays changes in the F-16’s flight direction.
Food fight — A heated multi-plane dogfight.
Fox 2 — A radio call from a friendly aircraft announcing that he is firing an AIM-9P Sidewinder missile.
G force — Gravitational force. Each G is equivalent to one times the force of gravity.
GCI — Ground control intercept.
Gun cross — A cross on the F-16 HUD that represents the departure line for M61A1 cannon rounds.
Heading crossing angle (HCA) — The difference in degrees between your aircraft’s heading and a bandit’s heading. Also known as angle-off.
HEI — High explosive incendiary. The type of ammunition the F-16’s M61A1 cannon fires.
High alpha — High angle of attack.
High yo-yo — A classic fighter maneuver performed out of plane.
Highway style — A head-on flyby side to side, as if passing each other on a highway.
HUD — Head-Up Display.
Hurt locker — In trouble.
ILS — Instrument Landing System. The function of the ILS is to assist the pilot in landing the F-16.
IP — Instructor pilot.
IR — Infrared.
Jink — A violent back-and-forth maneuver designed to throw off an enemy aircraft.
Kinetic energy — The velocity at which an aircraft is traveling.
Knock it off- Stop the engagement. Used as a command in training exercises to stop the current air combat fight.
L-l maneuver- Straining maneuvers for countering G forces with the windpipe closed (glottal).
Lag pursuit — A pursuit course where you point your aircraft’s nose behind a bandit. This course is primarily used when approaching a bandit.
Lead pursuit — A pursuit course where you point your aircraft’s nose in front of a bandit. This course is used when you want to fire your guns at the bandit.
Lead turn — An attempt to decrease angle-off before crossing a bandit’s 3/9 line. It is accomplished by judging a bandit’s heading and pulling hard Gs into him without overshooting.
Level turn — A horizontal turn that reduces your airspeed at high G while turning into your opponent. It does not have as fast a turn rate as a slice, but does allow you to keep a visual on the bandit.
Lift vector — An imaginary arrow (vector) that is projected from the top of the jet perpendicular to the aircraft’s wings. At high G, an aircraft moves along its lift vector.
Lufbery — A 1V1 one-circle fight where each fighter is chasing the other’s tail. Usually, the first person to make a mistake or leave the fight loses. Named after the World War I American ace Raoul Lufbery.
M-l maneuver — Straining maneuvers for countering G forces with the windpipe open (grunting).
Mach — The speed of sound (760 feet/second at sea level).
Magellan Act — To get lost and just roam around.
Magic move — A maneuver or tactic that will always work in any situation. This is a fallacy because there are never any magic moves in air combat.
Merge — The point where the opposing fighters pass each other.
Military power — 100% throttle, not entering an afterburner stage.
Missile engagement zone — An area around a bandit (modified by high G) where you can effectively fire a missile.
Mud Hen — An F-15E fitted for air-to-ground delivery of weapons.
Offensive perch setup — A BFM training setup where a fighter starts in front of another at the same elevation.
One-circle fight — A 1V1 fight where two fighters come at each other head-on and both make opposite direction turns (that is, one turns left and the other turns right). This brings both fighters turning into each other completing a circle.
Out of plane — When an aircraft does evasive maneuvers in a non-horizontal plane of movement.
Overshoot — Flying your aircraft in a manner that causes you to either fly in front of your target (a 3/9 overshoot) or way behind your target (a flight path overshoot).
Perch — A position behind the bandit from which an attack can be launched.
Positional geometry — How to determine your combat position in relation to your enemy. It consists of three elements: angle-off, range and aspect angle.
Potential energy — Stored energy that can be converted to kinetic energy. The higher the altitude, the more potential energy you have. You can always convert potential energy for speed.