Newbies, Man Your Planes!
This thread is open, and I would like to ask anyone with experience to add their two cents.
If you are new to AH and combat flight sims, you may be experimenting with different planes, trying to find a ride that you can get kills in. This thread, along with it's responses (I hope) will help you choose a plane that you can get kills in, right away. To select a plane, it is important to know how it stacks up to the competition, and how different advantages and disadvantages effect beginning fighter pilots.
Any fighter in the AH inventory (except perhaps the C-202) if flown properly, can be an effective and deadly weapon against any opponent. They all have their own advantages and disadvantages. I recommend choosing one fighter that you fly on a regular basis. It is important at this point to understand some of the basic characteristics of fighters.
Fighters can be classified either as energy fighters, angle fighters, or a little of both.
An energy fighter is typically fast, dives well and handles well at high speed. Its basic method of killing is to zoom in with rapid closure, blast the enemy, and zoom out (boom and zoom, or B&Z). Its defense is its ability to run or dive away from the enemy if it loses the advantage. Its weakness is poor turning ability at low and medium speeds. It gets its name because it attains and stores more kinetic (speed) and/or potential (altitude) energy than its opponent.
An angles fighter typically turns well at low and medium speeds. Its basic method of killing is to get behind the enemy and to follow it until it has a good shot that will destroy the enemy plane. Its defense is its ability to out turn or out maneuver the enemy. Its weakness is that it typically cannot outrun, out-dive or out-climb the enemy. It gets its name because it gets better turning angles than its opponent.
In my opinion, angles fighters are a better choice for new pilots for the following reasons.
1. New pilots tend to fly slow, a slow energy fighter is typically a sitting duck and can be hard to fly at slow speeds.
2. New pilots tend to fly low, a low energy fighter also is typically a sitting duck.
3. New pilots tend to try to follow every type of enemy plane that they see. If they do this in a angles fighter, they stand a fair chance of getting him. If they try to follow a enemy angles fighter with energy fighter, they will most likely get "out angled", and die.
4. New pilots tend to need a lot of shooting time to kill an enemy plane. In an energy fighter, while using energy tactics, you often have very little time to get lined up for the kill before you have overshot the enemy. In a angles fighter you can ride behind him for quite awhile. You get a lot of chances to shoot and learn gunnery.
5. When an enemy attacks you, the instinctive thing to do is to turn to shake him off. Angles fighters do this well. New pilots are also often less aware that they are in a bad situation until it is too late to run away- the basic energy fighter defense.
6. Energy fighters generally are more reliant on an altitude and speed advantage. This takes quite a bit of time. Angles fighters stand a fair chance of shooting down enemy planes as soon as they are airborne. It can be very frustrating to spend 15 or 20 minutes climbing in a energy fighter, only to get shot down in the first few seconds of combat. In a angles fighter, you can take off from a base that is under light attack and get into a scrap in very little time. You may get shot down a lot more, but you will also get a lot more dogfight time, and kills per hour.
In my opinion, the best angles fighters are the N1K, A6M, and the Spitfire. These three planes are what I recommend for newbies (I also fly them a lot myself). *I haven't flown the C-205, or the Yak much, please add to this thread if you think they are good angles fighters.
When I switched over from Warbirds to Aces High on its opening day, I experimented with several planes and finally settled on the N1K as my main ride. It will turn with anything except the Zero (A6M), has 4 very deadly cannons, a lot of ammo and is reasonably fast. I Flew the N1K during the beta tours. I found myself frustrated, however, with my Hit % and I often ripped the wings off of the N1K. A scrap with an enemy spit usually went about same as a scrap with another N1K.
I then switched to the Spit-IX. My hit % went way up and my wings stayed on. In my opinion, the Spit is a more stable gun platform (It's steady when you are trying to shoot). It also seem to hold together better in high speed, high Gee turns. The spit has two hard hitting canons, but not a lot of rounds. Spray and Pray gunnery will often run you out of ammo before you ever get a kill.
I have been flying the A6M Zero a lot lately. The Zero is the ideal plane for base defense. It can fight as soon as it gets into the air because it turns well at low speeds. Other planes often require too much time to get up to turn speed, they end up getting shot down on take-off (vulched). The biggest problem with the Zero is that its top speed is very limited. If enemy planes keep their speed up, they stay in control of the fight when facing a Zero. The Zero is also a relatively weak aircraft, it takes less hits to knock one down. The Zero also compresses easily. If you use it to dive on a fast enemy (350-400+MPH) to match his speed, he will likely be able to out turn you while both of your speeds remain high. The Zero has cannon, but they fire at a slow rate, this means that the enemy can often fly through your line-of-fire without taking a fatal hit. You often have to be able to hold your guns on the enemy for a second or two to kill him.
I recommend choosing one fighter that you fly on a regular basis, and make it an angles fighter. By flying one plane, your skills will develop much faster because you will learn just how far you can push that one plane. After you get the basics of dogfighting and gunnery, and are staying alive long enough to get a few kills, try out some of the B&Z planes and expand your skills and abilities.
Eskimo
