Guys,
Maybe the perceived 'problem' comes from an entirely different reason than suspected (although other pilots like AckAck comment that he feels nothing different with the P-38s).
I remember an explanation by Hitech that was on the old Aces High webpage. He was explaining on some difficulties in modelling the planes on a "1:1 scale" in maneuvering tendencies.
He said that the real Spitfire would stall when achieving something like 20 degrees of elevator deflection, and when this is modelled on a 1:1 scale in the game, the AH Spits would be stalling all over when our game joystick was just half-way deflected. IIRC, it was because real life pilots maneuvered with a totally different stick-feel and force/resistance to our joysticks. Therefore, the ratio between the elevator input and stick deflection in the game, would have to be augmented somewhat arbitrarily, so the plane would reach stall AoA when the joystick was almost pulled back to the max.
Perhaps, the new P-38s have some problems in that very aspect?
Many P-38 pilots say the new AH P-38 is very unstable and stalls out easily during turns. Others say that they don't feel anything different. If both parties are telling the truth, then maybe it's because the people who feel no differences are more accustomed to fine-controlling the P-38 with less stick pull, so they can manage it more easily, but the people who are having problems with it may habitually pull the stick a lot harder than the P-38 can take.
What I mean by this, is perhaps the stick-to-elevator-deflection ratio on the AH P-38 may be much more larger than other AH planes... so most of AH planes might stall out when the pilot pulls maybe about 3/4 th of the stick, but the P-38 is set up differently/wrong or something, so the elevator deflection reaches stalling AoA a lot faster than other aircraft, maybe something like only 1/2 of stickpull and the elevator is already deflected too much.
If this be the case, then regardless of the individual pilot skill, a pilot may be led to think that the plane is much unstable - since habitual bias is a very strong temptation. Everybody knows how different planes react differently even with the same amount of stickpull in the game, but in most cases those differences are clearly manageable and adaptable. But perhaps, the P-38 stick/elevator scale is off radically (than compared to other planes), so pilots who usually don't have any problems flying different types of planes, might suddenly have big problems in not "pulling the stick too much" when they fly the P-38.
One evidence of this, might be how OLtos had no problems with the stall limiter engaged. As everyone knows, the SL keeps the plane a certain margin away from the critical AoA - elevator deflection is forcibly halted by the buffer set by SL, so a pilot is forbidden to enter stalling AoA. OLtos is a good pilot, so I'm sure he wouldn't need to use the SL in any other plane, no matter how "tricky" the plane is. But if he needed to use the SL in the P-38, then that would mean that something's wrong with the amount of stickpull in the P-38. If OLtos would habitually pull a certain amount of stick in all the other planes, and they'd react under his control, but if that same amount would always cause over-deflection in case of the P-38, then clearly he would be led to think that the P-38 is modelled wrong, when in reality, the FM concerning how the plane flies could be right (but the stick/elevator scale might be too high).
Therefore, this theory would explain why people say different things about the recent AH P-38s. Maybe both of the parties are right.
The solution, in that case, would probably be adjusting the stick scale for the P-38 only, so it uses only about 50% of elev. deflection with the same amount of stick pull than compared to the settings other planes are using. Then the 'stick authority' would be dulled, and people would be able to pull the stick around at the same levels of other aircraft without stalling the P-38.
Just a guess.
