Check six !

[SunTracker]

Alright, heres the situation.  You are in a F4U.  Somebody gives you a 'check six' call.  Looking back, you see a spitfire at d400.  Altitude is 2000 feet.

Normally I would give full left rudder and aileron, and perform a hard break, but I believe a spit would be able to 'cut the corner' and gain on a Corsair.

Whats the best maneuver here?

[Blooz]

I would hit WEP and nose down to the deck and escape. The Corsair is alot faster on the deck than the Spitfire. You'd need to jink a bit to avoid his cannon though at d400 but thats what I'd do.

[Dogsta04]

@d400, I figure unless it's me shooting at you, your already dead
and really how'd you let an enemy con get that close without seeing it?

it's all about S/A

[nopoop]

Hehe, at D400 ?? I'm usually dead in that situation.

Being it's a hog, I'd do the medium hard break, chop the throttle, with the addition of dropping the gear for a spit second to really put on the brakes, nose up and roll into him , and hope he overshoots so I can nail him coming out of the reverse.

Don't laugh, it works.

..well, not often, but when it does the balloons and the confettii drop..

Then comes the speech..

..and the advertising endorsments.

[Ghosth]

First off you need to work on your Situational awareness. You should never let him get there in the first place.

What you do NOW depends on closure speed, your/his speed/energy states. And at 400D you have like 1/5 of a second to decide what it is.

I'd probably start a nice easy low E loss barrel roll up & around to make yourself a hard target for a second.

After that you'll have a better idea if you can wep & outrun him,  try to force overshoot, or fake him out by going nose low, start to pull out say north, snap roll & pull out south.

[SlapShot]

Whats the best maneuver here?

If your really limber, bend over and kiss your arse goodbye ...

Seriously, if the guy in the Spit is even half-way decent, there is nothing you can do at D400 that is going to save you. You might be able to do something that will prolong the inevitable ...

nose down - He probably already has a ton of E or more than you so that really wont work.

break turn - The Spit will zoom up and high yo-yo right back onto your six with still more E than you.

jink - Will buy some time, but it only bleeds your E and really does nothing but make you look desparate.

Bottom line is ... your dead.

Like everyone else alluded to here ... they real trick is to not let anyone get that close without realizing it.

[jetb123]

Dont let a spit get in that kind of postion on you,but if he did your dead i love seeing f4u's trying to out turn a spit.

[bozon]

Originally posted by jetb123
i love seeing f4u's trying to out turn a spit.

if they are fast enough to pull into blackout they will out turn the spit.

Bozon

[Steve]

If he's d400 and you both are slow, get on the radio and tell mommy goodbye.  If the spit is closing fast you could throw everything into the slipstream(brakes, gear, lawnchairs) and go for the overshoot, while also  maneuvering out of his gun solution. (ala Nopoop)

If he goes past you and you don't get a solution your self, drop the nose and head off in a vector that would force him to reverse hard to trail you. Often it's not that the other guy couldn't run you down, it's that he is either too lazy or worried you have some calvary on the way.

*Edit:  Hot tip that most people do not use:  Often you can simply shove the stick full forward and cause the bad guy to miss completely.  Red outs come on much faster than black outs.  Also, if the spit is fast you are bound to have more elevator authority than him. He goes by... you have to decide whether to pull back up and take the trailing shot going away, or convert your  hard nose down into a split S for egress.  the Negative G stuff is something few people use.. simple but VERY effective.