What you can see here is some Air Combat Manoeuvring (ACM).  We are manoeuvring the aircraft trying to gain an advantageous position.  At close range this is behind the other aircraft (bandit) so that I can employ the gun.  At slightly greater ranges (but still within eye sight) it would simply be to point at the bandit to employ a heat seeking missile.  In the Typhoon / F22 raptor you don't need to point at the bandit - you have a helmet mounted sight with which you just look to aim.  At long range (beyond visual range - BVR) you would use a radar to detect the bandit and shoot a homing missile.

What we are practicing here is a situation where we have got very close to each other - in fact we are abeam each other.  We are going to fly a spiral around each other - the paths each aircraft flies would look like a DNA double helix if you plotted it in 3D.  This called a 'rolling scissors'.  What each pilot must achieve is to make the least down range (down the double helix) travel compared to the other aircraft whilst still maintaining his 'lift vector' behind the other aircraft.  The lift vector is the direction of the lift force generated by the aircraft - for all intensive purposes it points out of the top of the aircraft. If you can force the other aircraft down the double helix relative to you - you are winning and eventually you will be able to point at him and shoot.

Unfortunately it is never that easy.  Gravity make a mockery of our perfect double helix.  If I am upside down gravity is assisting my lift and I turn quicker. If I am the right side up gravity is reducing my lift and my turn rate is slower.  This has the effect of making the double helix ( if looked from end on) egg shaped.  A large curve at the bottom a smaller curve at the top.

If you are observant you will notice that (although the above is a good technical description of the rolling scissors) I’m not flying the aircraft as described above.  The student in the other aircraft  is not flying his aircraft very well.  He is keeping the lift vector too far behind me when he is going up - his vector should be pointing at me, which would mean you can see the aircraft planform - see the upper surface of his wings.  You can see his aircraft side on instead.  I am desperately trying not to let him fly further down the helix than me and I am trying hold the fight neutral - to give the instructor with him time to correct his technique.  What you may notice me doing is that when I am wings level I stop turning and rolling - effectively letting him win - to give his instructor that time.  

This video last 2 minutes.  A rolling scissors can last 5 minutes whilst try to teach the correct technique.

The camera is helmet mounted and even with the wide FOV I can only just keep him inside that FOV some of the time.  It probably would have helped if I could have pointed the camera up a little more -   The downside of this wide FOV is that the other aircraft looks quite small - actually most of the time we are within 1000 - 1500 feet of each other.  A lot of our visual ACM is done at slightly greater ranges - 2000 to 6000 feet (one third of a nautical mile to a mile) and it is very difficult to see any detail at that range with the camera.  That said I did manage to use this video to debrief the student on this exercise.  For the the ACM at the greater ranges there is little to be gained by using video as shown here because the learning points are all about visualising what each aircraft is doing relative to each other.  That is best done with an Rangeless Airborne Instrumented Debriefing System (RAIDS) that records what your aircraft is doing and can, with the data from the other aircraft, reconstruct your fights in 3D on a ground debriefing station.

The effect of this is that you tend to look like your winning over the top of the manoeuvre and losing when you turn at the bottom.  To counter this you may see in the video that I'm not actually keeping the other aircraft directly above me / pointing my lift vector at him.  The jagged lines in the top of the canopy are lines of miniature detonating cord which we use to shatter the canopy when (if) we eject.  We call them the 'tramlines' and we use them to visually assess where our lift vector is pointing.  What I am actually doing is (to counter the effects of gravity) is putting my lift vector in front of his aircraft when I am nose low - this stops my nose getting too low and my turn rate getting even bigger.  And when I am going nose high I put it behind him again to pull to his line astern position (his 6 o'clock).  This is seen as: as his aircraft appears to climb through the horizon I put my lift vector behind him.  As he appears to descend through the horizon I put my lift vector in front of him.

This file is nearly 22Mb and is not streamed. It will take a little while to load