Originally posted by Glasses
I find it quite laughable people who mostly fly overly generrous flap extending aircraft cvall the LW plane pilots etc wussies well, if they turned in on a dime or had any type of stability and cohesion in their flight characteristics they might, might give a fight.
It's always been this way. People who only fly planes that manuever very well have real legitimate contempt for people who choose to fly planes that do not manuever as well. The reason is, as you stated in not so many words, planes that do not manuever very well prey on planes that do manuever well by NOT turning with them. Needless to say that is very fustrating for the manueverable plane, they are more or less at the mercy of the faster, yet less manueverable plane. Faster planes are practically invulnerable to slower planes if they do not turn with them, slower planes are always somewhat vulnerable to faster planes regardless of what they do.
However, the reverse is not true. A more manueverable plane cannot force a less manueverable but faster plane to turn with him or even engage him. The faster plane can just disengage/re-engage at will (of course being called timid in the process). This again evokes vehement contempt from the slow, manuevering plane. The Fw190 vs. the SPitXVI is a prime example of such a match-up. Never do you hear a Fw190 (insert favorite speed ride here) complaining that a more manueverable plane is using that manueverability to advantage (turning). But, constantly we hear people in very manueverable planes pissin' n' moanin' about faster planes using their speed to advantage.
The simple fact is not everyone wants to fly a SpitXVI or the like, thank God, enough do already. Alot of people 'get off' on flying and becoming proficient at the lesser used rides, there's a certain satisfaction in being good at something few if any other people are good at. Complaining about a faster, less manueverable plane like the Fw190 using speed and altitude to its advantage is rediculous, it's as rediculous as whining and complaining about a manueverable yet slower Spitfire using it's turnrate to its advantage (which I have never heard anyone do once, ever in 15 years).
There's a really simple rule of thumb here:
The more nimble the plane you fly the fewer planes there are that are going to want to turnfight/engage you. Therefore, the more you are going to get cherry picked, BnZ'd, gang-banged and run-down.So, if you want more turnfights or fights in general from LW planes or any other mediocre plane it's really simple. Fly a plane the typical LW pilot may feel he has a fighting chance to beat. I'll give you a free hint to get you started, it sure as hell isn't the La7 or Spitfire. Ironically, the more poorly the plane you fly manuevers the more 1 vs 1s you will get. In fact, you will get more fights period. Flying an uber-plane, especially an uber-manuevering plane, such as the Spit, P38, P51 or Niki, is the worst possible thing you could do if you are really looking for frequent, good, relatively even fights. So, if you 1 vs. 1 cowboys, always crowing about your superlative DA talent, are for real and not completely FoS as I strongly suspect some of you are, put the Spit, La7 etc. permanently in the garage, grab a mediocre manuevering plane and get your wet dream of being engaged by just about any plane you may happen to come across in the MA.
Zazen