Welcome to the world of AH!!
A few tips.
1. WEP, War Emergency Power default mapped to "P". It will overheat your engine but does give it a boost.
2. Read
http://www.netaces.org it has all the info you need about learnign to fly a war bird. Read up on the planes by reading Soda´s plane evaluation. Find a plane you understand how it should be flown and stick with it. Plane jumping is bad for both gunnery and flying skills. Each gun has its own ballistics and each plane its own characteristics.
3. Learn to understand the concept of energy.
In short.
Energy is the sum of altitude and speed.
Hence you can transform your current energy into speed by giving up altitude and into altitude by giving up speed.
If you dive you transform altitude into speed. If you climb you transform speed into altitude.
By accellerating in level flight you only build up very little energy as you dont build up any altitude.
When you flat turn you nothing but burn energy. Your energy state will be significantly lower after the turn as you have lost alot of speed.
If you instead do a immelman (half loop with half roll at the top) you reverse 180 degree just as with the flat turn but you climb in the manouver so you transform speed into altitude. Hence you dont burn nearly as much energy.
Part of the reason that you feel slowest could be that you flat turn in all your reversals. Hence burn a ton of E while the other pilots conserve theirs.
4. Learn to deal with higher targets.
One of the most common death reasons for noob pilots is that they climb directly at higher targets. DONT EVER do that unless you KNOW that you have more E then the enemy.
If you do this you will stall and fall out of the climb which leaves you hanging like a cherry on a branch waiting to be picked.
Instead when you see a higher target near you extend AWAY from him and when you have about 3k distance start climbing. If he comes for you, watch him and as he is 1.5k behind you break hard left or right. He is comming from up high he will be fast and have a very wide turn rate. He wount hit you, most of the time. Once your turned extend away from him again and climb. Eventually you will be co alt with him. This doesnt mean that you have the same energy state. As you just came out of a climb you will need time to rebuild speed. Do so and then consider attacking him. NOT before you have completed this should consider attacking a higher target.
5. PATIENCE
Beeing patient is what its all about. Point 4 is the situation where you need it the most but you should always be patient when flying. Especially when dealing with high targets but also when flying to battle. You should never fly into a battle without building E first. Always climb.
If a base you wana defend is under heavy attack. Be patient pick the closest base and fly to the base you wana defend. Dont up from it or you will be picked off while you are trying to either takeoff or build some E.
Good luck and see you in the skies.
Tex
