I dunno, dummies like you and I went from nothing to tail chase in less than 100hrs. Would it probably cost a ton? Sure...but there's people that would pay it.
We were also pre-screened, and the folks the Navy teaches BFM to are pre-screened on top of that, and the instructors have fleet experience and BFM quals.
Also, I know nothing about BFM, but is it necessary to do "high aspect?" Can a piston engined prop with low Ps really do "high aspect?" I'd imagine it would be more like WWI dogfighting but that might still be enough to make it something different.
Sure it can. All you have to (theoretically) be able to do to do HABFM is show up to a neutral merge, i.e. 180 out from the other guy's flight path. That's what "high-aspect" means. Now in a prop trainer, which has a very bad T:W ratio, there's probably a limited amount of things you can actually DO post-merge, most of which probably involve going downhill rather rapidly, though admittedly I never had a chance to try.
Point is, though, tail chase with an IP in the trunk is one thing. Getting a solo civilian to a level of proficiency where they can fly formation out to the area and back, fly tac form to set up a set and stay in the area,
safely execute BFM sets (let's not even worry about who shoots who),
safely rejoin after the knock-it-off (when you hook a stan check, it's always admin buffoonery that bites you), and RTB is something else.
Questions that need instantaneous
safe answers would be things like:
- "I'm at the top of a rolling scissors with my fangs out, but do I have the altitude to press it without busting the hard deck, or do I need to convert to the flats? Can I even do that in a prop job with a ton of P-factor?"
- "I've got a hershey-bar wing that can load up Gs faster than any fighter, but it's hot, I'm sweaty, and I have no G-suit. Can I hack this turn, or am I going to G-LOC in 5 seconds and wake up to Lead screaming, no ejection seat, and the ground in my face?"
- "Lead's on my ass; I need to break turn NOW. But I'm screaming downhill. Can I do this and not over-G the aircraft, even with a hershey-bar wing that can load up Gs faster than any fighter?"
- "Dammit, I've almost got this SOB dead to rights, but what's that out of the corner of my eye? Is that an interloper? Do I need to call KIO?"
- "I heard the KIO call, but where the hell is lead, and how do I do an unknown-airspeed rendezvous and rejoin on him?"
Of course you can teach these things. If you couldn't, Kingsville and Meridian would run out of students. But where do you draw the line between a retired O-5 TOPGUN grad getting beer money and amusement while being way overqualified to teach that stuff to civilian fat cats, and Jesse Joe Bubba's Dogfightin' Skool? You're teaching people to fly their aircraft in an area of the flight envelope where dumb mistakes can go really, really sideways really quickly.