A'ighty, so now I've decided to write up a few common sense rules . . . Commandments . . . for aerial zoids.

The Commandments of Flight

Thou Shalt Not Break the Sound Barrier
You don't need to, unless you're running away. When a zoid passes the sound barrier, it receives damage. It receives even more damage when the aerodynamics of the zoid are compromised by things such as external modifications and damage.

Thou Shalt Not Accelerate at an Undue Rate
A rule broken by Ryu Cloud oh so many times, accelerating too fast will result in a pilot blackout, which would mean the zoid has to take over flying.
And zoids just suck at flying.
As a standard rule of thumb, to not accelerate more than one Mach in twelve seconds.

Thou Shalt Not Barrel Roll at Supersonic Speed
Just don't do it. You ever use a centrifuge in science class? Yeah. Just don't barrel roll at supersonic speeds. You might just wind up splattered all over your cockpit. Not to mention you're pretty darn likely to lose your wings, too.
As another standard rule of thumb, do not pull advanced maneuvers at speeds exceeding Mach 1.5.

Thou Shalt Not React Faster Than a Thought
Amazingly enough, your pilot is a friggin' human, and nobody this side of God has precognitive abilities. Therefore, you do not react any faster than a normal, real-life human being. This puts an effective limit on the reaction speed of a zoid, and makes the really maneuverable zoids bitches.

The Terminology of Flight

Juking
When an aircraft jukes, it is turning from side to side whilst flying in a mostly straight line. This is to throw off missile locks by making the thrusters hard targets to catch in the crosshairs long enough.

Strafing
When a Geno Saurer does this, it is hovering sideways. When an aerial zoid does this, it is buzzing the opponents - flying low to the ground and gunning it up - whilst flying in a reasonably straight line. Forwards. Flying forwards in a reasonably straight line. Have I stressed this enough? Otherwise known as "making a strafing run," it's good if you want to be sure you get a piece of the badguy.

Immelman Turn
When you want to reverse direction, you use an Immelman. How tight you make this turn depends entirely upon your speed and your zoid's ability to move. It's performed as a half-loop, except when you're upside down at the apex of the loop, you roll about your axis to level out. You know that thing the Millenium Falcon did at the end of The Empire Strikes Back to pick up Luke from the weathervane? That's an Immelman.
- Immelmans can be "stacked" to gain a ton of altitude at the expense of time. Just pull one Immelman after another and you'll stay at the same place relative to the ground while gaining altitude. Due to the shape of this maneuver, it's sometimes known as the "S-turn." Not to be confused with the "Split-S."

Split S Turn
A reverse Immelman. Push the stick down and do a reverse half-loop, then level out when you're at the trough of it. This one requires a lot of altitude unless your Zoid's able to hover in place or fly extremely slow. Even still, best attempted with a ton of altitude. Great way to shake a bandit.

Vertical Reverse
This is one of my favorites, simply because it looks rather spiffy. And it takes skill. You climb up at as sharp an attitude as you can go without stalling, then you turn around and dive. You dive very, very fast. All but the heaviest of zoids would be able to pull this'n off well.

Reverse Throttle Hop
Okay, this one is my favorite. You use this maneuver when an enemy is chasing you. You slam the airbrakes and kill the thrusters and tip the nose up a bit. This causes you to drop a little bit, allowing the enemy to pass and conveniently placing you in the advantageous situation he was in a few moments ago. Go watch Top Gun and observe this in action.

Hammerhead
No, not the Zoid, this is the name of a tried-and-true aerial maneuver. It's sort of like an abbreviated Vertical Reverse, but it's tricky to pull off because it's dependent on you stalling. Pull up and go upwards on inertia alone, then once you're on your last dregs of momentum, "fall" off to either side as you're stalling in midair. This one's best left to those who know exactly what they're doing, with a lot of altitude. Heavier aerials are actually a little better at this, since they're easier to stall out. This one's great for confusing the hell outta your enemy, since he'll probably overshoot and end up a few klicks away. Be warned, it takes a little while.

More to come . . .