Another combat situation which can arise is a stalemate in either a tail chase or a turning match. To break the stalemate, a low-speed yoyo is used. This is based on the age-old concept of trading height for speed. If a pursuer finds that he is unable to close to within shooting range in straight flight, he can gain extra speed in a shallow dive. This will allow him to close the horizontal distance and takes him into his opponent’s blind spot at six o’clock low. When a suitable position and overtaking speed have been attained, the pursuer can pull up and attack. The counter? Keep a good lookout behind! The most widely used variant of the low speed yoyo is used in a turning fight to break a stalemate caused by lack of overtake. Dropping his nose to the inside of the turn, the pursuer can cut across the circle.A pair of fighters can carry out the “offensive split” maneuver in a variety of ways. In one version the nearest man is in combat spread, drawing the attention of the bandits, while his partner (hopefully unobserved) sneaks around the back either high or low, depending on relative altitudes at the start of the encounter. For example, referring back to the eyeball/shooter attack, when the lookout gains visual contact and clears the shooter to fire at the far bogey. The lookout will be visible to the enemy at much the same time, and the bandit will almost certainly react by turning towards him. The shooter, still low, still hopefully undetected, can swing across behind his leader, then reverse into a hard climbing turn which should bring him out into a good attacking position. There are many variations of the offensive split. Here the leader visually identifies bandits, who turn towards him. Meanwhile his No. 2 has crossed under unobserved to pull up hard from underneath for a belly shot.The off-set head-on pass may be used by the pilot of an extremely maneuverable fighter. Faced with a head-on attack, he can offset to one side to give himself space in which to use his superior turning ability.
