Scissoring can easily result in a stalemate. This can be broken by waiting until both aircraft are pointing away from each other, then rolling inverted and diving away. The dive regains the speed lost in the scissors, and can be followed by a steep climb, preferably into the sun.The main counter to the low speed yoyo is for the defender to wait until the attacker begins his pull-up from the bottom of the dive, then, easing his turn a trifle, he lifts his nose and rolls down into him. Much depends on the execution of the yoyo; if the attacker gets too low, or cuts too tightly across the circle, the defender can pull up and barrel down into him. Copying the yoyo can be used, to maintain the stalemate.This is a method of reversing course without causing undue horizontal displacement of the formation. It can be used to meet a threat developing from astern, or to turn in pursuit after a head-on engagement. Each fighter breaks hard inward, the high man going low and the low man high or, where the tightest possible turn is needed, both men pulling high. In either case the high man at the end of the turn will be furthest from the Sun. The cross-turn, or inward turnabout as it is sometimes known, has the advantage that the pilots can clear each other’s blind spots as they pass. The disadvantage is that they may briefly lose visual contact with each other. For a pair in combat spread to reverse their direction of flight by traditional means would be a long and cumbersome affair, with large lateral displacement. To reverse course through 180° the aircraft cross-turn exchanging positions.In the defensive split, the attackers have to choose between two targets. When they choose one they leave the other free as a potential threat to sandwich them. The defensive split is executed by a two-aircraft element in both horizontal and vertical planes. From the attacker’s point of view it is preferable to follow the high man. The fighter that has split upwards will lose energy faster than the low man. Provided that the attackers entered the fight witha surplus of energy, the high man represents their best chance of a kill. Furthermore it will take the low man longer to get back into a fight high above him than it will for the high man to drop down. Also, the low man has more difficulty in spotting a fight above him than does the high man looking down. From the defender’s point of view, the low man must be ready to pitch up into the fight as soon as it becomes clear that he is not menaced, while the high man must attempt to bring the fight down as quickly as possible to enable the low man to support him. Of course, it is possible that an attacker, faced with a defensive split, will break off and look for an easier victim, in which case the split has succeeded. The defensive split is used by a pair to divide the ^ attention of the attackers. The split is made in both the vertical and horizontal planes. Whichever one the attackers choose to follow leaves them liable to counterattack by the other.
