** Yak vs P-51 encounter (film included) **

[Servo]

About the Yak and damage... while it can take a pretty good beating from behind, a few very common and non-critical failures ARE critical to the Yak.

First and foremost, oil. The Yak will leak it's entire oil supply in about 20 seconds. If you see a black smoke trail from a Yak, he's lunch.

This leads to the next critical failure. When the engine dies on most a/c they can glide a fair bit, and even possibly disengage. Not the Yak. It flies like a rock with no engine, and wont make it far before the pilot needs to ditch.

Again, if the radiator is hit on the Yak, it's not going to fly nearly as far as other aircraft. Basically, if you get a hit and it leads to black smoke, you've got the kill. The pilot would have to keep shutting off the engine to prevent total failure, and once the engine is off the Yak loses a great deal of speed. Much more than other aircraft.

Hitting the fuel lines is also a fairly nasty blow to a Yak pilot due to his already limited range.

When I hit the oil or fuel lines on other planes, its almost like no damage was dealt.
Not so in the Yak.

Servo
**MOL**

[Westy]

"Yes Streak, the Yak-9U has very good numbers, for a 1 v 1 situation"

 Well, it's a grand ride in a furball or when you're not too outnumbered.  
  2 On More Film

 That is from Mon night.  I had just nailed a 20k P-51 in a 1-on-1. Then I swooped in with squaddie Seeker on a bunch of lower cons.  I ran out of ammo being too liberal with the ammo     But I hate to leave a good fight si I stayed hoping for the auger kill and to help clear Seekers tail. I thought Seeker was rtbing and so I typed rtb fuel/ammo to tel him I was also....only to then see him zoom back the other way. Went to reverse, saw him get nailed and aborted my reverse.

  -Westy

[Eagler]

StreakEagle

Are you on Road Runner? Maybe see you in H2H sometime. I'm down the road in Brandon round Bell Shoals and Bloomingdale.

cu

Eagler

[Ice]

Ahhh the Yak....kinda scary huh?

I try and follow one rule when engaging any enemy...dictate the fight.

The last thing a pony driver should do 1v1 against a yak is fight his fight, especially if a skilled pilot is onboard.

I initially turn hard with any adversary once! If I can force him to make the wrong choice, great. If not, I'll extend and take another shot at it when it suits ME...not HIM

I believe this sim to house some of the best sim pilots on the net...put one in a Yak and well...that is scary

Ice

[Cleaner]

I troll low for unsuspecting Vultures in my Yak. With the Yak you can dictate the entire fight from the engagement to the disengagement. If a pony runs on me, I just reverse and go the other way, 9 out of 10 times he will turn back to chase. Now if I could only keep myself out of those 4-1 furballs....

Cleaner

[streakeagle]

Yes, the Yak kills me a lot... but so do all the other planes   My point is I love turn fighting in ponies despite disadvantages, and there are times when I can and do win... You do need to hit with your first (only?) shot opportunity when turning with pony... or you will get outmaneuvered. So I have spent weeks (months?) refining my ho and rear quarter shots offline against drones. A solid splash of .50 cal fire from nose to tail will slow any plane down   I have learned Werner Voss's WWI technique in Fokker Dr.I of using rudder to skid and rake across opponent with gunfire from head on pass... the results are amazing with a lot of practice and a little luck. The problem is I usually run into one too many 20 mm pings from HO pass, especially agiainst Yak, N1K2, and Bf109. So, I try to be evasive until the last possible moment.

Happy to turn-n-burn in a boom-n-zoom plane,
Stephen the Eagle
aka streak

P.S. I spent some time flying the Yak a couple of nights... and racing against it too. I did well in Yak, but I will always be a pony man at heart... though a P-40B or C would be awesome   as well as an F4U-1A

[This message has been edited by streakeagle (edited 02-28-2001).]

[Servo]

Streakeagle,

Myself and many others I know will avoid the initial HO and gain a superior position after the first pass. Its extremely easy to dodge a HO, and many people have tried and true practices for avoiding them.

I dip my aircraft under the con's nose at about 1.4 in a HO. Sometimes they're trying to so hard to get the shot that they'll push negative g's (red out) and lose a lot of alt. It doesn't matter what they do, I have NEVER been hit in HO when I employed this tactic, and the more they maneuver for the HO the better advantage you're going to have when you turn back.

Servo
**MOL**

[Midnight]

 

Originally posted by AKDejaVu:
Has anyone in the 13th actually engaged a co-alt/co-speed Yak 1:1 before?  

AKDejaVu

YES Deja.. I was that P-51..

Servo.. It was a REAL good fight. Your description is spot on. I did make the mistake and I knew it. At that point, I had to exercise the AAA option or fall to your cannon.

BTW, I knew you were low fuel based on my fuel level. I burned a lot that fight and new your YAK had much worse fuel endurance.

<SALUTE> to your flying. I am glad you had your CV where it was, being killed with no fuel left is not very fun.

BTW.. Thanks for the film. I didn't record on my end.



------------------
"Wing up, Get kills, Be happy"

Midnight
13th TAS
 midnight@13thtas.com

"I see you have made your decision. Now let's see you enforce it." -Brandon Lee (The Crow)

[Servo]

<S> Midnight! It was a -great- fight. I really thought you had me early on. If only all encounters in AH were like this!

Looking forward to another good battle in the future sometime.

Servo
**MOL**

[Midnight]

Thanks again Servo...

It is funny that we in the 13th have a reputation of not flying in 1-v-1 engagements.

It is sad that this is looked at as a bad thing. The way I see it, as do my squadmates, we are in a squad to fly together, fight together, win battles together and fly home together.

I think it is better to be in a squad because of common interests and fighting styles, rathr than just being a "great group of guys" Which BTW, all of the 13th TAS are a GREAT group of guys   and superior pilots too  

I am not afraid to admit that I am not a very good 1-v-1 pilot. I much prefer to set up kills with a wingman over trying to get another guy to make the first mistake.

I was thinking the fuel situation as we were coming up to 12k. I knew I could hang on it long enough to outlast you, but I wanted the fight. One of the more memorable ones I must say. Especially because neither of us got the kill.

When we first got low, I wanted to try and stay clear of the base, but when I saw you closing, it was my only option.

As you were going RTB, one of my squad mates came on and I was explaining to him the situation and that I was currently tracking you. I laughed... "He is going to be pissed if I kill him RTB with no fuel  "



------------------
"Wing up, Get kills, Be happy"

Midnight
13th TAS
 midnight@13thtas.com

"I see you have made your decision. Now let's see you enforce it." -Brandon Lee (The Crow)

[Servo]

I bounced some F4 attacking my field, but he just wouldn't die. When his tail finally came off, I was almost completely out of ammo.

So, yeah, I would have been really pissed off if you got me with no ammo/fuel.  

That's why I headed for the CV without looking back.

If you had made me make a single turn or loop I would have definitely run dry.

Servo
**MOL**