A/N: Also titled 'Coordination'. I'm late in posting this, sorry. I try to write and post each chapter the same day as my lesson, but I had a lesson the day after the last one, and I wanted a break to let chapter 9 digest. Well, it was mainly perfecting coordination, which isn't that interesting by itself, unless it's jazzed up with a fight! Also, Falling Leaf (a continuous stall, recover, stall, recover technique where one keeps holding the stick back) makes an appearance even though it was in the last lesson. Really, I just wanted to showcase how all the different forces and moves work together while flying. Enjoy!
Normally, when the A-Team had air support, it made them unbeatable.
It was true in any battle or war. You could have the best tanks and soldiers, but it all meant jack when they were being bombed out of existence by a superior air force.
So Hannibal, wherever applicable, found a way to get Murdock as their eyes in the sky. Bullets, missiles, or bombs were much easier to utilize from above. He normally wielded them on their enemies unchallenged.
Until today. Mind you, while they had been in a few helicopter chases (all of which Murdock won) it was much rarer to be in an airplane race, much less a full-on dogfight. But apparently one of the drug leader's men was an ex-military pilot or something, because he was putting serious heat on Murdock's tail.
Murdock grunted and pulled back on the stick, pulling the retro-fitted bird up in a climbing turn. "Please don't stall, please don't stall," he chanted. He glanced over his right shoulder and saw the militarized Piper Seneca mirroring his move, but rolling out of the turn smoothly left to get closer.
He thought fast. Left aileron and rudder- roll out of the turn so you can maneuver in case you need to run away. He increased his power to gain altitude and get above his rival. The Piper Seneca was at full throttle, too, and rose quickly. They were level, and ready to collide.
Then Murdock got an idea.
Thinking fast, he pointed his bird up further and cut the throttle to idle. She wobbled, stalled, and dropped her nose straight down.
Murdock did not correct it.
He kept holding the stick back as they dropped through the sky. The Piper Seneca and its bullets soared overhead. Murdock glimpsed it off his left wingtip as his plane corrected rose up out of the stall. Not waiting to continue the Falling Leaf, he released the back pressure and applied full throttle as he set off to catch the enemy aircraft.
It turned to bear back down on him.
Murdock gritted his teeth. It was higher, and had the advantage. There were a couple pings on the steel plating and he quickly shoved the stick right and stamped on the rudder. He also pulled back, slightly, changing the pitch so that this bird could regain some altitude.
He flew straight on towards the Piper Seneca, but in no way made it an easy target. It looked like a cross between a high-altitude scooch and a Dutch Roll. His feet and hands worked in tandem. It all controlled the airplane's left, right, up, down, pitch, and yaw. Stick, rudders, throttle, trim; elevators, wings, props, rudder and stabilizers.
It was all a complex dance.
It got him what he wanted. He pulled off a barrel roll in B.A.'s flying machine which got him on the other side of the Piper Seneca, perfectly lined up. He let loose the mounted guns and ripped through her engines. It would force the pilot to land, but if he had any brains he wouldn't crash.
Murdock grinned. He turned back towards the showdown on the ground and readied his 'baseball bombs'. Just another day in the life.