I was a Spitfire fan. The constant hate for an aircraft I loved was wearing. After years hearing of how much the Spitfire sucked in reality and all sorts of other BS like ****fire, dweebfire, ect it was either leave sims or find something else.
I've always liked the RAF. It is cheesy tripe, but the whole "Few" standing alone against tyranny of the worst sort when everybody expected them to crumple and yet holding against the odds, securing a future for freedom captured my imagination years ago. I guess that is part of my irritation towards those like MANDOBLE and Barbi/Isegrim is that they spew such hate at something I see as a symbol of the defiance of freedom and democracy against tyranny and evil.
Maybe I just don't want to admit that my symbol wasn't very good as anything other than a symbol. That it, in fact, was a mediocre fighting aircraft that was always trailing it's counterparts in the Luftwaffe, always second or third best.
USAAF and USN stuff just never grabbed me that way. It just seemed more mechanical, like a small cog in a vast, unstoppable machine. There is just little romaticism in the concept of inevitable triumph. I like some us aircraft such as the P-38 and B-17, but have been totally OD'd on the fawning we get here in the US for the P-51.
The Germans were, well, the tyrants trying to snuff out freedom. It is hard for me to get enthusistic for their aircraft. I do like the Fw190A and Bf109G, but I can't fly them for any length of time. They're just neat and great machines, they don't inspire my imagination.
The Japanese I am a little for forgiving of because while they also fought for tyranny and enslavement, they weren't nearly so systematic or industrially evil as the Germans, Nor did they have the strong cultural history saying that "what they were doing was evil incarnate and thet they should really, really stop now" like the German's Christian traditions. However, Japanese aircraft, with a few exceptions, are ugly as sin. The A6M series are easy to look at, as is the Ki-46 (at least some of them), the Ki-61, Ki-84 and J2M are not bad, but other than that only the French and Italians managed to produce uglier aircraft. Like with the US and Germans they just don't hold my attention.
Russian and Italian aircraft just aren't my cup of tea.
Which means that when I left the Spitfire I really had to find another RAF aircraft that might work. I liked the Mossie's versatility and underdog backgroud. An aircraft that wasn't wanted that was actually one of the best in the world. I like the FB.Mk VI because of all Mosquitos, it was the single most versatile version. It was fast, manuverable and delivered precision blows to some of the most reprehensible elements of Nazi Germany. It could strike anywhere in the Reich and was the envy of the Germans. It was fast, tough, very well armed, carried a heavy load of ordinance and was as manuverable as a fighter (a variable term, I know).
However, in sims the only part that is apparent is the "very well armed" bit. Other than that it is slow, fragile, clumsy and carries little ordinance. Even in "historical" settings it gets hacked out of the sky in droves. Why the RAF kept ordering more of them is anything but apparent as it seems to have all the survivability that the Fairy Battle did in the Battle of France. Yet the RAF did order them, and in the post war kept it in production at a greater rate than the Spitfire.
It is a tough fighter to stick with when every other concurrent European aircraft seems to be so much better.
Heck, even the pathetic Bf110 is nearly universally seen as superior to the Mosquito in AH. That kind of stings my pro-RAF ego as it seems that whatever the RAF had, the consensus is that the German's had better. Even to the point of holding the much maligned Bf110 as better than the celebrated Mosquito.
Don't really know where to go from here. Hurries are too slow and Tiffies aren't my thing .
At the 2001 Con I recall one of the featured speakers, Jack, seeing me flying the Mossie and saying that he had flown a Mosquito once. He didn't recall much except that it was fast. He also recalled a mission in which his Spitfire Mk IX squadron was tasked with escorting Mosquitos. He said it was the stupidest mission he recalled flying as they had to have the engines at full throttle just to keep up with the cruising Mossies.
