Auto-flaps, suck...wish they'd get rid of them and it's going to take getting used to them again because the spins they throw you in now are pretty much unrecoverable.
We've talked about this online before, but basically according to HT, the automatic retraction of flaps is there to enforce limits of flaps usage as stated in the pilots manuals of each planes.
Nobody seems to be sure what the realistic physical limit of flaps on the WW2 planes are - it is logical to assume that the pilots manuals have listed flap deployment speeds according to the "safety first" agenda, rather than its true limits. In real life, probably flaps could be deployed in higher speeds than in AH.
However, the problem with it is that there is no real way to implement how flaps are operated, reaches its limits, and then gets busted. Not to mention that in real life, generally the flaps were never considered as any kind of primary flight control to operate during a fight. Flaps are at best, a secondary flight surface used for limited, specific purposes in take-offs and landings, used as stability gear.
Ofcourse, some of the expert pilots did seem to have found out that in certain situations flaps can be of aid to combat - in slow speed maneuvering, stabilization of the plane, dumping E states for tighter turns, making emergency pull-outs and etc.. Walter Nowotny's account specifically mentions him using flaps as a means to gain momentarily tighter turn radius to achieve firing solution against the more nimble Soviet fighters with his 190, and many more simular cases of flap usage for all pilots of all countries.
But normally, flaps were never intended as combat equipment, and planes that were able to deploy flaps at higher speeds than usual tend to describe it specifically as a special, 'combat setting'. It remains a distinct advantages and traits to some of the planes.
....
Basically the logic behind the
"remove auto-retraction" argument, is in reality a
"let flaps be able to operate at higher speeds" argument.
Those who request it, especially the P-38 pilots of AH, take on the reason that at certain points of maneuvering the retraction of flaps destabilizes their plane(since retraction increases the stall speed). Thus, in essence, they want their planes to be able to hold its flap positions above the listed speeds in the pilots manual.
HT has clearly stated that according to his agenda, if the auto-retraction is removed the only thing remaining is immediate flap failure at the same level of speed the flaps would auto-retract.
That of course, would not be what the P-38 pilots want. Instead of auto-retraction when they fail to contain their speed under the maximum flap deployment speed, they want to see the flaps locked solid over the listed speed so that the plane maintains its advantages in speed inhibition(to prevent overshoots in close maneuvering) and stabilization(to keep the lowered stall speed intact).
However, to do that. AH must "assume" a certain generic point in flap failure - how much higher speed the flaps can maintain normal operation over the recommended/listed max speed for deployment. It's either that, or random failures which nobody wants to see.
That would seem fine and dandy at first, but since there's no way HT would grant such a waiver to only the P-38, it would apply to all other planes as well.
Suddenly, all the planes in AH will have higher flap deployment speeds than before, and ultimately, all the pilots would be utilizing this fact to their own profit - which would mean the air combat of AH would start to tear away from reality, as in flaps becoming a very important, primary control in maneuvering, which in real life was never the case, even for the 'experten'.
.....
In other words, in the long run it would actually hurt the P-38L, and most other US planes to even higher a degree, because one of their most distinctive traits in AH was that only they had the ability to utilize flaps as combat devices at higher speeds. The P-51s and P-47s have combat flaps deployable upto 400mph. The P-38L and the F4U starts popping flaps at much lower speed than that, but still way higher than most of the planes on AH.
I'm not an expert in any kind of US plane, but I believe that allows me to retain a much more objective view on the flap issue - since I'm only average, the distinct traits of US planes catch my immediate attention and allow me to compare with the LW planes I usually fly.
For me, one of the most impressive and envious advantages the US planes hold over my usual Messerschmitt or Fockewulf, is that despite none of the US planes are decisively better in maneuverabilty, they always seem to be able to gain an edge during maneuvering. Not because they can turn so well like a Spitfire, but because;
1) They can dump speed at a higher rate at high speed maneuvering(which lets them outturn 109s and 190s, even La-7s at speeds between 250~400mph)
and
2) greatly stabilize the planes at low speed maneuvering(between speed ranges of 150mph~250mph).
I've stated this in some other thread, but the most fearful fact about US planes when I'm facing them in a Messerschmitt, is that they can pull off a radical change of nose angle during low-speed, rolling scissors which the 109 cannot follow.
As I saddle up behind them they attempt to pull rolling scissors. If I fail to bring them down before they start that move, I have no choice but to try and follow it(unless I just cowardly zoom and accelerate away). For the first few rolls and scissors I can follow. but when the speed of both planes drop down at the critical "200mph line", the US planes rolls over high, starts popping out flaps, kicks rudders and whip their noses over into my plane. This is something no 109 can follow, much less a 190.
To counter that I must also follow it upwards, and initiate a slower roll so I can get out of the way of their guns, keep the enemy in front of me, and keep saddled up behind them - except at that critical "200mph line", my 109 cannot pull into them, because the AoA is too high while my speed is too low. That is the decisive moment where the ability of being able to use flaps while the other plane cannot, shines out like a beacon. I need to use flaps to follow my enemy, but I cannot use them because my speed is still at the 200mph borderline!
That critical moment I have met time again, against many expert US plane pilots - I've been outturned and outmaneuvered even in much more nimble Bf109F-4, fighting against a F4U corsair by that move. I've been decsively outturned in a slow, low-alt, pure sustained turning contest against P-51Ds in a Bf109G-10, G-6, and even a G-2. I've been outmaneuvered by P-47s in a much nimbler Bf109.
Were the other planes to be able to pop flaps out open at higher speeds, it would seriously hurt the US planes as their relative advantage is immediately lost. I can't say it would be everytime, but certainly in many cases a 109 or a 190 would be able to follow a P-38 in slow-speed maneuvering, where it could not have currently.
I look very highly upon IL-2/FB, but the one serious drawback they have, is they've taken the 'realistic approach' to flaps, and ironically, have made the fights more or less unrealistic as a whole.
The way IL-2/FB depicts their flaps is probably what the AH P-38 pilots would want.. But because of that, all the planes there can use full flaps and gears at least 20~30mph higher than it could in AH. Overshoot maneuvers are incredibly harder to pull off than compared to AH, because when somebody senses an overshoot coming they can simply pop full flaps out and actutate the insta-air break mode.
Everyone, including all kinds of 'dweebs' and 'n00bs' are aware of this fact, and the exploitation of flap usage during combat is so high, that usage of flaps during maneuvering has embedded itself as a mandatory lesson to be learnt when fighting.
In AH, using flaps means that we go into extreme low speed maneuvering. It takes skill and careful management to drop into such low speeds to fight. And only after we reach so low speeds, we begin to use flaps carefully, to squeeze out every possible drop of ACM possible in our planes. The US planes of AH maintain a huge and characteristic advantage over other planes of other airforces of the world.
In IL-2/FB, the flaps and gears in combat, are mandatory for all planes. They are one-touch air brakes/stability devices simply turned on/off. The only real discipline required is to not use full flaps(landing settings) over something like 350km/h(roughly about 218mph, and it's IAS, not even TAS!!) - combat or take-off settings can be used at much higher speeds and maintained that way.
Ofcourse, IL-2/FB doesn't have auto-retract. But for that piece of 'realism' the air combat has paid the price of 'unrealism'. The Messerchmitts of AH have reduced elevator authority at speeds over 300mph - over such speeds a US plane will outturn any 109. Well in FB, I simply chop throttle and pop out combat flap settings at those speeds - simple to use, simple to follow. I'd doubt any real-life pilot would feel so comfortable disregarding the warnings plane makers have issued during combat in such a manner.. where failure of a plane equipment could mean life or death.
So I must comment,
"becareful what you wish for".
