Author Topic: More fuel = better performance... perhaps? (Read 748 times)

SgtPappy · « **on:** February 01, 2008, 01:06:19 PM »

Was flying LAN with a buddy one day and I decided to give my F4U-1D 50% fuel load as opposed to the 25% which seems to run out quickly on the way to the enemy CV. After losing the ord, I ended up fighting him. There, of course, was a small difference in handling and acceleration, but the same difference seemed to have applied to dive and zoom characteristics... positively. I could actually zoom and dive faster and even hold more speed in level runs.

Am I just puffing too much smoke or am I right?

An extra 25% fuel... can it actually give you an edge in the vertical portion of a dogfight? Even when fighting the same plane with 25% less fuel?

indy007 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 01, 2008, 01:45:36 PM »

Heavier things hold their energy better.

Widewing · « **Reply #2 on:** February 01, 2008, 01:58:58 PM »

I suspect that your friend was just better at maintaining his E....

I see this a lot. Two identically loaded aircraft, but one always seems to zoom higher and have more speed. It boils down to which pilot is better at managing his E. He may be smoother on the controls. He may not G load up the airframe quite as much.

In all cases, being smooth on control inputs saves E. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

My regards,

Widewing

SgtPappy · « **Reply #3 on:** February 01, 2008, 02:08:21 PM »

For sure, smooth and fast; that's in my head all the time.

Well the thing is, I was the one with the extra fuel. Before the particular mentioned CV battle, I had 25% fuel which was running out a lot, and that's why I swtiched to 50% later on.

During the 25% fuel runs, I fought him and I was pretty much winning until the CV flak got me. When I fought him with a 50% fuel load, it seemed MUCH easier to extend and zoom up and over him. The CV by now had its guns gone as did the small ships so the fight went uninterrupted. On both occassions, he was flying a 109F on 25% and the distances traveled wasn't too far. not even a sector, really.

angelsandair · « **Reply #4 on:** February 01, 2008, 11:26:21 PM »

I wish i could fly good in f4-us, i cant find a good gunsight i like so i just use none....

SgtPappy · « **Reply #5 on:** February 02, 2008, 12:48:43 AM »

I downloaded a gunsight that was just a dot. It's SO much better than the current one.

SlapShot · « **Reply #6 on:** February 02, 2008, 08:24:57 AM »

Here are the sights that I use. They are alpha (illuminated) sights.

You place both the ???.bmp and ???_alpha.bmp into the HTC\Aces High II\sights directory and when choosing the sight in AH setup, you chose the ???.bmp

You might want to backup your \sights directory before making any changes.

Fighter: Carefull here because it is named "default". This should automatically change all plane gunsights to this sight without a lot of effort.

<- default.bmp

<- default_alpha.bmp.bmp

Jabo: For this sight I explicitly go into the AH setup and choose this one for all the planes that I use for JABO. The bottom dot is what I use to line up the bomb drop on. Usually try to get 45 degree angle on drop using the lower dot.

<- default2.bmp

<- default2_alpha.bmp.bmp

Credit here to Mitsu's buddy AERO. I took one of his sights and modified it.

Scca · « **Reply #7 on:** February 02, 2008, 09:07:22 AM »

slapshot, what is the difference between the alpha, and non alpha sites? I am not sure I see a difference in game..

SlapShot · « **Reply #8 on:** February 02, 2008, 10:32:50 AM »

alpha sites have a "glow" to them.

It is the xxx_alpha.bmp that decides how much of the xxx.bmp color bleeds thru.

The varying shades from black to white allows varying amounts of the underlying color to show.

pure black = no color

pure white = all color

the "grayish" color(s) = some color

So my sight uses variations from the outer part of the "ring" to the center of the "ring" and gives the illusion of a glow.

Non-alpha site ... what you see is what you get and they will not give a "glow" ... nor can you see thru them.

If you loaded my sight, the "glow" area around pipper ... you can see thru it.

Have you loaded my sight and tried it ?

SgtPappy · « **Reply #9 on:** February 04, 2008, 04:29:39 PM »

Anyway, back on topic. Just want to see others' opinions.

What do you all feel about extra fuel?
If you're one of the E-fighters rather than one of th TnB'ers or BnZ'ers, would you take a little extra fuel in your plane to get better zoom and dive qualities (assuming you've got zero fuel burn in the arena)?

Or would you stick with the lowest possible fuel load given a zero burn arena?