A question that might sound wierd

[Aubrey]

I have been flying the FM2 a lot lately. I like the plane it is slow but responsive. It dives well and turns well.


Last night I was able to put together some nice merges and move in on 2 planes I knew could not turn as well as mine a  109 and 51. I had all the advatgaes they had just blown thier E by climbing and they tried to outturn me during the chase.  

My question is this during the  turn battle I was exploring the edges of the blackout, Now I know I was bleeding E, but is this always a bad thing? Esp when a plane you know  cannot out turn you is turning and if you do not bleed E  you will have a wider arc.

Or is this a tactic to use on occasion as long as it does not turn into a habit?

[JB73]

riding the blackout edge (tunnel vision) i would say is done by 75% of the pilots in here

i know in almost every decent fight i am in tunnel vision 3 or 4 times... and my squaddies are the same AFAIK.


i use the look up front while in a hard turn to keep track of the con.

[MOSQ]

Aubrey,
If you are going fast enough to be in the tunnel, then you have no turn advantage vs a 51 who is at the same speed. You have to remember that all planes are limited by the 6G blackout. If you and your opponent are both going 275 MPH, and both pulling 6G's, you're both turning the same size and rate of circle. Neither plane has a turn advantage at 6G's.

It's when you get slower where your FM-2 can pull a max of 3 Gs that you have the advantage, because if the most your FM-2 can pull is 3G's, then the 51 probably can't pull more than 2.25 or 2.5G's. You will out turn him.

The quick answer is, you both have to get slower than about 225 MPH for the FM-2 to have a turn advantage.