dunno if this has anything to do with this post......but today after clearing a la7 off of a countrymans tail in my p38j, i was heading home for fuel........had a spitfire drop on me with much more speed than i could muster....my normal reaction to this would've been to dive away as i didn't really have the E to successfully fight him..or so i thought......so, i watched him as he closed on me...by the time he was within 1.5K he was only about 300-400 feet above me.....at 1.0K, i started a left turn, with reduced throttle(almost to idle), and bordering on blakout...as i saw him come within 600, i punched it, and did a climbing/rolling turn to the right. i don't have a friggin clue to what i did, or what he did to end up in front of me, but as i came round to level again, i saw him slightly lower than me, and crossing from my right to left.....i chopped throttles again, pushed over into a left turnning dive, and just before he hit my sites, i popped off about a 4 second burst...........saw hits scored on his wing and rear fuselage, and followed him into a climbing left turn.....but he altered it...when i almost had guns, he would dive all the while maintaining the turn. even working throttle and flaps i couldn't quite get guns on him, but stayed with him till i saw his buddy about a half mile away, climbing to us........so i waited.....he went into the dive again, so i simply remained level and exited the turn headed home. 6 months ago, this guy would had me for lunch. if i were a better marksman, i'd have hed him for lunch on that move i did........but i think the moral here is that i saw that i wasn't gonna get away by diving, so i just sucked it up and made like i had a clue:D . guess there's a first time for everything.
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