The Hammerhead, The P38L, & You. :)

[Damionte]

Heya folks,

Thanks again to all those I've met in and out of game who have been generous with thier time and knowledge. Picking your brains has been a huge help.

I've got a new question for you all.

When are the proper times to perform the hammerhead maneuver. I understand there's probably not a hard and fast rule for when to use it, but am looking for a few examples where the hammerhead would be the preferred or proper maneuver. For either offense or defense.

Also I am a P38L driver so if you have insght on that plane in particular in the hammer I would appreciate it. For instance would any particular opponent be more sucseptable to the move in the P38?

Thanks in advance.

[Benny Moore]

I've flown P-38 exclusively in various games and simulators for about five years, and I've never once executed a proper hammerhead in combat.  Instead, I do a sort of hammerhead on the pitch axis instead of the yaw axis, simply pulling back on the stick instead of giving hard rudder in one direction.  It's more effective and a lot easier to do.  It's best to do this at the top of a hard climb, but you shouldn't be doing that at all in the P-38 unless you've got a great energy advantage over your opponent.  The P-38 climbs best at a shallow angle, no more than thirty degrees.  Again, only do a steep climb if you've got an extra couple of hundred miles per hour or a few thousand feet over your opponent.  And that's when my sort of hammerhead comes in handy.

[Rocket]

I use a hammerhead/flop at the top of a vertical climb when I know I have more E than my opponent.  If I can get him to follow me up in the vertical about 800-600 out about the time he starts to wallow abit I use the maneuver to reverse and put guns on him as he stalls.  Reverse too soon you are dead, too late and he points down and accels out and away.  

S!
Rocket

[Murdr]

Yes, when referring to a hammerhead in the same sentence with a P38 usually it is talking about the pitch axis nose down flop unique to the 38's zero net torque stall characteristics.  (as opposed to a true rudder over hammerhead)

check out this thread

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by Damionte
Heya folks,

Thanks again to all those I've met in and out of game who have been generous with thier time and knowledge. Picking your brains has been a huge help.

I've got a new question for you all.

When are the proper times to perform the hammerhead maneuver. I understand there's probably not a hard and fast rule for when to use it, but am looking for a few examples where the hammerhead would be the preferred or proper maneuver. For either offense or defense.

Also I am a P38L driver so if you have insght on that plane in particular in the hammer I would appreciate it. For instance would any particular opponent be more sucseptable to the move in the P38?

Thanks in advance.

best to use it at the top of a vertical climb when you're roping some poor soon to be dead target.


ack-ack

[Iceman24]

I prefer to use the stall where the nose just snaps down, i think its quicker in the 38 then a hammerhead... i use the hammerhead allot when roping ppl and i am in a single engine plane, cause the torque helps pull the plane to one side at the stall... in the 38 however i think its quicker just to snap the nose down or over the top

[Ack-Ack]

You can use the stall to snap the plane over in a hammerhead as well but I agree, it is far easier to just use the stall to bring the nose over the top of a stall loop at the end of your vertical zoom.



ack-ack

[Damionte]

Thanks gang. Yes I had noticed that it's faster to do it either foward to pull th enose down or upwards to do a quick loop bakc towards the target.

I think I get what you mean as far as when to use it. For instance in those films Creton posted with himmin the 109 vs the P38. In the first film he get's his kill shot with a hammer head when he cought the P38 pulling hard into him after the P38 nicked him and got him smoking. I'm guessing the 38 drive felt he had him and could afford to pull hard lkike that.

Creton had energy when he went up and the 38 was practically stopped when he pulled up. So he wasn't able to get his nose up to finish the shot. Creton pulled the hammerhead and came back down on top of him. Sawed off both his tails.