Did a search for it, found out a few things. Wanted to run em' past y'all, see how much I missed and/or took wrong.
Now, given its basic slow/underpoweredness I like to climb it to about 15,000 feet. I believe that's it's sweet spot for speed, and a little lower with WEP shoots your speed up some more. But it's still not alot of speed. It's not winning any awards. Especially in the LW Arena.
Now, from what I see, staying at 15k also gives me the advantage of not co-alt or lower than most of the late war monsters that'll make you look like a trashcan with wings when piloted right. Mind, it's not 100% safe, since alot of fighters get better at alt. and most everything can outclimb you. Because of this I drain my fuel tanks in a certain order, I usually take about 75%-100% (100% if I feel like roaming around some, thinking about dropping it and just going to cruise settings) and the Drop Tank. But, I drain the 'Main' Tank first then switch back to Auto. Would it be better to drain the 'Fuselage' one first? Would this increase any preformance at all for either one?
Now, I'm not much of one for accuracy, and Convergance. (Though I understand it, I have yet to find my 'sweet spot.' I blame the Yak-9U) And I'm probably gonna go offline practicing for a while. To see where it feels the best.
From what I've read I've seen mixed answers on the flaps. Don't use them, only use them when you have to. Now, the only time I've found them fairly useful was a nose low turn to help get the nose around faster (And thusly lose less of your precious altitude), yet to have the chance to really see if they can pull you around a loop faster though. Though for the nose low turn I find that the weight can help you keep up your speed. Which is true of most aircraft last I checked (Unless we got a DH-2, yo)
I've noticed that if you try to duke it out with most aircraft co-alt you will not win (and if you did, they probably messed up), this is making me rethink how to attack alot of things. Fighters for instance, if below me I will let them come to me. I figure if it took me 7+ Minutes to get to alt. it's not a great idea to blow it and go down to thier level, perhaps wasting Energy and even ammo. Is this about the right thing to do?
Bombers on the other hand, I've had a fair bit of problems with. I do find that using the sun was useful. Atleast once. But I can't always garuntee it being behind me, so I was wondering. Is bouncing from higher alt still a good way to attack Bombers in the P-40E? Come in from a funny angle that keeps most of thier guns unable to hit you, keep moving up/down and left/right to make the gunners work for it. Since the P-40 is kinda slow and if you don't get up enough speed in the dive they might (and have, for me) tear you apart.
One of the things I've yet to find out is WEP time, I believe it's 5 minutes, but I'm not sure about it. I don't use it very often though, cause I don't really need it much. Since if I'm in trouble, it's usually fairly deep trouble. The only time I've found it really useful is when diving on a bomber to help reduce time in thier guns. When might be a good time to use it against Fighters? I'm thinking to help get over a loop if you got too slow (But then, I think if you looped slow you might as well be a dead man.)
One of the other things I'm wondering about is its 'toughness' I remember hearing once that like most American Aircraft it's fairly durable. And from what I've seen it is. Just depends on what's shooting you. I'm wondering if it's safe (ish) to allow a snapshot from time to time against the less cannon armed things. I know better than to give a 190A-8 a Snapshot, because that's not a snap, that's me catching fire and dieing. I'm more wondering how safe it is to let something like a spitfire (Hispanos don't like me, but I find that they don't like most things they hit) or any of the normal American Aircraft armed with the standard 6 50cals, not the P-47 though, only so crazy.
Any other tips from you better P-40 sticks? Or just, better sticks in general?
