Author Topic: Dora Powered-Down? (Read 670 times)

Oddball-CAF · « **on:** May 14, 2005, 12:57:01 PM »

Gents,
Had an interesting encounter with an La7 this morning, and it got me to thinking that HTC had done either one of two things; cut down the speed of the Dora on the deck, or increased that of the La7.
I had been attacking a flight of JU88s which had an La7 trailing behind them, a bit low and about 4K back. It took me three passes to kill all three of the 88s, but I sustained no damage, and by the time I'd finished, the 88s which had taken me into a bit of a dive, had gotten me down to 4000 feet, from the initial 10,000.
Now, the La7 is about D1000 off my six and looks to be closing on me as I'd bled myself a bit doing some necessary high-G turns to finish the 88s. I took my Dora down to the deck and watched as the La7 followed. Initially on the deck, distance was 1500 yards, but he was closing a bit. I kicked on the WEP and the distance held steady at D1000 for a full two to three minutes.
At the end of that time, and I was still WEP'd and totally level and making NO maneuvers, the La7 closed to 800, then a minute later...600, then 30 seconds later 400.
I didn't even bother maneuvering as I was fascinated completely by this new FM change.
My initial plan was to work myself into a bit of extension before
tangling with the La7. The Dora was always faster, but just by a hair. Now it seems it has been "tinkered" with a bit, since the La7 is now capable of running one down. Thus, the only non-perked planes in the arena capable of outpacing a La7 are the Tempest and the German jets.
This isn't a whine, though I detest the fact that La7s aren't perked. I'm merely curious if other people have noted any changes in FM with the Doras as well.
Regards,
Oddball
Cactus Air Force

IK3 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 14, 2005, 01:07:40 PM »

FYI La-7 is a VERY short range interceptor... and designed to run down any LW fighter.

of course La-7 will gain on you as la-7's fuel supply dwindles to a mililiter...

Waffle · « **Reply #2 on:** May 14, 2005, 02:22:08 PM »

Straight from the horses mouth - no FM changes.

Urchin · « **Reply #3 on:** May 14, 2005, 02:26:34 PM »

As far as I know, the Dora has always been ~5 mph slower on the deck than the La-7. It accelerates slower to, so it is tough to get away from one.

Krusty · « **Reply #4 on:** May 14, 2005, 03:06:53 PM »

Centerline bomb/DT rack also adds 5mph slow-down (even if you drop the thing on that rack), since the new models came out.

GScholz · « **Reply #5 on:** May 14, 2005, 03:41:56 PM »

Dora has never been faster than the La-7 on the deck. Dora= 375 mph. La-7= 380 mph.

Now with droptank/bomb rack: Dora= 369 mph.

Widewing · « **Reply #6 on:** May 14, 2005, 06:16:25 PM »

Next time, rather than trying to run on the deck, ease into a high-speed climb. 2,000 fpm works well. Initially, the La-7 will close slightly. At 3k, the La-7 will be 1 or 2 mph faster. By 5k it's even. By 10k you are pulling away. You can level off at 10k. At this alt, the Dora accelerates faster and is about 10 mph faster, max speed.

A high-speed climb all but eliminates the Lavochkin's low level speed advantage.

All of this assumes that you were at least Co-E when the chase began.

My regards,

Widewing

MANDO · « **Reply #7 on:** May 14, 2005, 06:49:01 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by GScholz
Dora has never been faster than the La-7 on the deck. Dora= 375 mph. La-7= 380 mph.

Now with droptank/bomb rack: Dora= 369 mph.

Funny

point is that FW docs (posted here several times) shows MW50 190D9 WITH ETC rack doing 377 mph at sea level. Now AH D9 with ETC does only 368 mph, and that after more than half a sector run. Bah. who cares any more ...

Kweassa · « **Reply #8 on:** May 14, 2005, 07:46:50 PM »

I'm also thinking what Krusty said.

Odd's an experienced pilot and I don't think he'd mistake E states that easily. If the Dora decided to run away at the right timing, even a La-7 might not catch it so easily(at least, until the Dora makes it to safety of home base perimeters).

If the La-7 steadily caught up with the D-9 at a noticeable rate, then it has to be the drag from the bombrack, which is reported by testers to chop off about 5~8mph from the top speed.

GRUNHERZ · « **Reply #9 on:** May 14, 2005, 07:48:54 PM »

The D9 is slower with the DT rack on, this was changed in a recent patch.

However it seems that the original D9 speed in AH allready accounted for the DT rack. So the currewnt D9 may indeed be too slow.

Another problem that existst is the amount of speed D9 loses with DT rack. Apparently it loses the most speed of any AH Fw190 with DT rack even though in RL it had by far the most aerodynamic DT rack of any FW fighter - it was a new version that appeared on D9.

It could use looking into.

Oddball-CAF · « **Reply #10 on:** May 15, 2005, 07:40:14 AM »

Next time, rather than trying to run on the deck, ease into a high-speed climb. 2,000 fpm works well.

Widewing, et al
That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Thank you.
And yes, guys, I -did- have a centerline drop tank to begin with, so perhaps that is what made the difference if this has now been modelled. To you guys who brought that to my attention, my sincere thanks.

Regards,
Oddball
Cactus Air Force

bj229r · « **Reply #11 on:** May 15, 2005, 08:27:20 PM »

I used to fly the 'Flying Radiator' a lot, and even back to AH1, L-gay was a few mph faster on deck...go figger, big sloppy radial engine out front is faster than streamlined D9;