So, how rugged is the La-7, really?

[Widewing]

Last evening I was enjoying a sortie in the Ki-61, having forgotten how much fun this little fighter can be.

After a series of fights from A109 down to A126 (AKDesert map), I found myself near A126 low on ammo and only had about 30% of my fuel remaining. So, I decided to head back to A109 and land my kills before I burned too much fuel.

About 5 miles north of A126 I spot a squadie flying a Goon for the capture. I passed above him at 6k. Seconds later, I peek over my shoulder and spot an La-7 at 5.8k headed towards the Goon. Alerting my sqaudie, I quickly reverse and head down in an effort to cut off the La-7. Glancing at the ammo counter, I see that I have 27 rounds of MG ammo remaining. Cannon rounds were long since gone. What the hell I thought, I can harrass the La-7 if nothing else.

Unfortunately, the Kawasaki is too slow to help, the Goon gets clobbered. However, I have plenty of E now and I begin the chase of the now fleeing Lavochkin. I close to within 800 yards, not nearly close enough to shoot, much less do any damage with 27 rounds....

Then things changed for the better, the La-7 jocky decides to head towards A126 where a half-dozen Rooks are circling the capped field. I follow, the range having opened to about 1k. Picking out a P-51, the La-7 maneuvers to get a shot. The Mustang driver evades by turning hard right and the Lavochkin follows. This was my opportunity and I cut across their turn and drop in 400 yards behind the La-7. Pulling a little lead I fire the last of my MG ammunition.

Yikes! Just like that, the elevators flutter off and the Lavochkin floats down and explodes. 27 rounds! I can't begin to add up how many times I've poured a ton of lead into La-7s only to have them fly away as if nothing happened.

I suppose this serves to remind us that a few well or fortuitously placed hits are sufficient to kill anything (except it seems a Wildcat ,which makes the La-7 seem like a paper kite in comparison). Lucky shot? You bet, but it still counted.

My regards,

Widewing

[GRUNHERZ]

Maybe he was allready damaged?  But you are right wildcats are by far the toughest plane in AH...

[Blooz]

Not luck. You knew you had only a few rounds left and needed to get in a good shot to make them count. You did good.

I've found my shooting has improved along that line by not flying the big American planes. Having fewer rounds makes you take the extra time to get in tight and make it count.

And speaking of tough planes.....how 'bout that 109G10 eh? Dang thing is built like a battleship. No wonder you guys like it so much. All this time I thought they were made of aluminum and come to find they are made of hardened armor plate steel from Krupp.

Well, back to the front.

Salute

[Rutilant]

Tougher than the IL2?

[NOD2000]

if i remember right part of the La-7 is Balsa..........wtf do you expect its wood

[Kweassa]

Besides P-38s, La-7s are the only fighter planes I've seen survive a MK108 hit.

[Mini D]

La-7 ranks as medium in my book.  Sometimes real easy... other times somewhat difficult.  The Yak-9U, on the other hand, IS one of the toughest planes in the arena.  Of course, the P-47, F4u and F6F rank in the top 4.

MiniD

[moot]

I do know I've run into some of them surviving one or two snapshots by 152, and I was positive there was at least 1 108 among the hits on at least one of the snaps.

It's happened 5-6 times, and once only, I saw an apparent fuel leak; no way to find out if it was just a damage-less smoke or the real deal.

Either way, it's pretty unpredictable in my experience, as they react anyway from braking up quickly, to withstanding pretty heavy beatings [pic of russian running in snow like headless chicken in Pine Barrens episode] ; tho most likely they'd fall apart at the next damages.

[Glasses]

Well I remember almost a year ago I had a real nice frightening dogfight with some guys named Phyaeena or something like that. We had a dfight last over 5 minutes and more than once a raked his kite end over end with all the guns of my D9 the only thing I got was a smoking engine me thinking he was dead started my departure when I saw him turn back accelerate to me and get shot down.

Quickly after I saw him making a ditch saying he had run out of fuel . Yup La7s can take damage

[scJazz]

Wierd you should mention this...

The other day I caught an LA7 in essentially the same conditions. I was flying a YAK9U and was down to 40 some odd rounds of ammo. Caught the LA7 looking the other way locked onto his 6 he spotted and went evasive but ran out of E. Had the shot, fired MGs and whack! Elevators came off and he fluttered to the Earth for the sudden stop at the end.

Is is something about the elevators I wonder?

[Innominate]

I've tested durability on fighters.  Of all of the single engined fighters, differences in actual toughness(in terms of hits taken) are almost nil.  The exception is the a6m2 which will burn easily, but can take signifcantly more hits before it goes down.

The twin-engined fighters like the p38 and 110 take more damage than the smaller fighters, at the expese of al arger planform.

All single-engine fighters have sickeningly weak tail sections(it only takes 5 .50 mg rounds to take the tail off of any of them).  The mosquito is notable in that its the only fighter with a tail tough enough to take more than 5-6 .50 rounds.

The smaller planes(i.e.f4f) seem tougher because they can take as much damage as bigger planes(i.e. f4u/f6f), while being a smaller target.

Virtually all 'toughness' claims on these boards, and in game, are based purely on anecdotal evidence.  Most planes can survive a 30mm hit to a non-critical point.  5-6 rounds from a .50MG to the right location will kill most fighters.

[MaddDog]

i got a question, ive noticed when flying the 109s with gondolas the 20mms seem less powerful, takes much more hits to knock and enemy down for me, now ill take off the gondolas and just use the single 20mm and get kills much quicker, is there a difference in power from these guns?

[Innominate]

Originally posted by MaddDog
i got a question, ive noticed when flying the 109s with gondolas the 20mms seem less powerful, takes much more hits to knock and enemy down for me, now ill take off the gondolas and just use the single 20mm and get kills much quicker, is there a difference in power from these guns?

No but the gondolas will hurt your turning ability, making it tougher to track targets.

[Glasses]

I've read that most pilot preffered to be hit in the tail rather than any other part of the aircraft mainly because there wasn't anything vital back there except the control cables of course. BUt the density of that structure is so thin and small compared to the whole aircraft damage suffered would have been minimal.

Though II've read some accounts on P-47 high speed dive trials where pilots who exceeded the stress limit their tail section came off completely.

[Ack-Ack]

La7 doesn't seem very rugged.  Usually only takes a burst of the P-38's guns to take off a wing or tail section.


ack-ack