P-51D defensive!

[Pony6]

need help with defensive in the pony.  Would appreciate anyone out there that can give suggestions or manuvers mostly against turn fighters.

thanks in advance

[funkedup]

Well the Mustang has enough performance that you can dictate the fight against all but a few planes.  So if you are defensive then you need to rethink tactics or increase situtational awareness.

If they are shooting at you and you have some speed to get away, use your good roll rate.  Roll and pull slightly, roll the other way and pull, etc.

But your best bet against a turn fighter is to put your nose down.  Make one sharp maneuver and dive away.  If you try to out turn them and go offensive right away you will die.

If you are out of altitude and options, or you are fighting a faster low level plane (Typhoon, Tempest, La-7, Fw 190D-9) then you have to dance.  See the discussion of scissors and rolling scissors in this forum.

If you get really desperate and end up in a turning fight, remember to use your flaps.  1 or 2 notches (10 or 20 degrees) will give you a decent turning circle.  But you are still not going to out turn a Spit or La-7 unless you are very light on fuel.

[Blue Mako]

In the pony speed is life.  The P51s are among the poorest accelerating planes in the game but flown correctly are among the fastest.

If you are defensive (as funked said) you are likely flying the pony wrong.  Try to avoid getting into fights when you are low energy.  If you do get bounced, barrel rolls are the best maneuver to use as you will not bleed as much E as in a break turn.

When defensive always think "extend!".  Try to set up a turn that wil allow you to extend away from the attacking fighter as early into the fight as possible.  To do this you will need to stay fast so refer to the first paragraph.

----------------
Sgt BLUEmako
412th FS "Braunco Mustangs"

[Yeager]

Yup...stay fast, stay high and most importantly, stay behind your opponent.

If you have to get Pony defensive in AH your in big trouble.

Best defensive move depends on many things, your altitude above the ground, the number of LA7s behind you etc etc.....

Last dicth effort for me is to pull sharply up and left when the enemy is within 700 yrds either dumping alt for speed 180 degrees against my previous heading or working over above and around for a possible reversal.  4 times out of 10 I dont survive defensively in the 51.

Y

[Spatula]

I cant add much more to what the others have said, but for one thing:
The pony is a force of its own above 15k, at that alt the next gear on the supercharger kicks in and its a monster. Between 10.5 and 14.5 your WEP is all but useless, so best to save it for when you are either higher or lower. Between 5 and 10k pony is a good plane, but under 10k it doesnt have a speed advantage over the la7, so, your best off watching your alt, and trying not to get too low  

Keep ya speed well up, and dont do sustained flat turns, if you can help it.

As for a defensive move, i prefer flat sissors or barrell rolls, at 2/3 (or less throttle) and hope they overshoot - only works if they have a speed advantage over you and are not too clever.

[gavor]

I've only just begun to explore the greatness that is the pony (its the first plane ive been able to make consistent kills with) but my tactic if i get caught low and defensive is to roll fast and pull slightly. When the con begins to turn and bleed some E, dive and level out for some speed followed by a  sharp pull up. Most planes cant follow the pony up. If they try they stall and if they dont they overshoot. Either way you gain potential E to dive on them or run away.

Its worked for me 90% of the time, the other 10% i get a nice view as i float to the ground.

[Pony6]

thanks for the info guys, seem to be doin a lil better when i get jumped now