In this manouver the roll rate isnt THAT important. You can do it successfully with lesser roll rate as well. Personally I find rudder and flaps more important in this case then the actuall roll rate.
Meaning when comparing this manouver in a say F4U (good roll) vs a Spit (not so good roll) its more the small rudder and no combat flaps that frustrates me on the spit.
Though I have one reversal manouver that is very similar to this one where the roll rate is extreamly important.
What I do in that manouver is I start a left hand turn, to make the enemy go for a lead turn shot, then I pull upp into a barrell roll. At the top I instead of streaching the barrell roll like I do in the above manouver I tighten it. This way when Im at the top Im facing 90 degrees to the direction of the roll. I pull a split S and I end up behind the enemy if he over commited to the lead turn.
If he didnt over commit and this is very common vs 38 pilots. He will try to follow you upp through it but due to the horrible roll rate he will not be able to tighten his barrell roll enough and you will be behind him inside the barrellroll. He will still be facing nose up and you got a great shot at him.
Generally the barrellroll manouvers are obviously helped by a good roll rate but there are other situations where rollrate excells even more.
Example of these sitations is in vertical manouvers. When you are in a E fight against a enemy you can adjust your vertical manouvers very quickly with good roll rate. This gives you a huge advantage when it comes to utilizing the angles of the fight.
Another example obviously is scissors. But scissors is a panic before death situation so I rather use the roll rate before that.
Anyways the more vertical there is in the fight the more you can utilize a good roll rate.
Tex
