Just wondering what you guys thought..
I think you need to do more research. We used to shut down an engine (R-1820-82) for single engine training. Restarting was a simple process. No worry about hydraulic lock.
Hydraulic lock can occur when a radial engine sits for a long time. It's quite rare. I have over 2,300 hours in radial powered military aircraft and have never seen an instance of hydraulic lock. When you see ground crew pushing the prop through on the ground, they're clearing the lower cylinders of accumulated oil, out through the exhaust valve. Starters on radials are designed to shear the shaft should enough resistance be encountered if a cylinder is full of oil. Again, that's a very rare occurrence. Usually, one valve is open enough to provide a place for excess oil to go. Most oil ends up in the stacks, where it either burns off, or gets blown out.
As others have stated, their is little to no difference between pulling throttle to idle and hitting the E key, relative to deceleration. What is not modeled is prop drag when windmilling. Some aircraft decelerate slower than others. Spitfires and Tempests slow rapidly. The La-7 decelerates much slower. It seems almost random throughout the plane set.
I've tested this a great deal. Airframe drag is not what makes it different. You can see this by diving to high speed, level off and kill the motor at 400 mph. Time how long it takes to slow to 300 mph. Repeat the test, this time setting prop pitch to minimum drag. Test several different aircraft and you will see that the cleaner airframe decelerates much slower when the prop drag in minimized. Be sure to test aircraft of similar weight as momentum of mass IS modeled. Testing a Zero and P-47 is an example of an apples and oranges test, where momentum greatly skews the data.
I performed many tests of this kind, and presented one to HTC as a prime example of the randomness of prop drag from plane to plane. We know that the P-51D has a much lower drag coefficient than the La-7. Yet, when you do the deceleration test with max drag of the prop (low pitch), the Mustang decelerates faster than the La-7 with the engines at idle. However, if you set high pitch, the La-7 decelerates much quicker than the Mustang. Thus, we know that that prop drag at low pitch is not modeled (and HiTech has stated this to be true). It is what it is.... I compiled a ranking of aircraft prop drag on some fighters.
E bleed was measured from 350 mph down to 150 mph with props at normal (low) pitch and 25% fuel. The elapsed times in seconds are as follows:
P-47N: 49.91
P-47D-40: 49.84
P-47D-11: 48.34
F4U-1A: 45.92
190A-8: 45.65
F6F-5: 43.97
F4U-4: 43.65
190A-5: 42.94
Ta 152: 42.01
La-7: 39.31
Ki-61: 38.73
P-51D: 37.96
P-51B: 36.72
190D-9: 36.46
109K-4: 35.72
Spit14: 35.69
C.205: 35.61
N1K2-J: 35.53
P-38L: 33.41
109F-4: 32.06
FM-2: 31.31
Spit8: 30.91
Ki-84: 30.69
Tempest: 30.28
Typhoon: 30.21
Spit16: 29.82
P-40E: 29.48
Yak-9U: 27.78
Spit5: 27.15
A6M5 24.46
Planes at the bottom end of the list are the most likely to force an overshoot by chopping throttle or killing the engine as they have the highest rate of deceleration without power. Weight is a factor due to momentum. However, heavy fighters like the Tempest and Typhoon suffer huge prop drag at idle and it is seen in the results.
Now, all of the above is merely information. The fact that you fell for the old "chop the power overshoot" tells me that you were caught unprepared. When an enemy chops power like that, simply pull into the vertical, roll and drop in behind. The fact that the other guy has chopped power or killed the engine means that he hasn't the thrust to go vertical with you. Countering maneuvers or tricks to force an overshoot is something you learn from experience.
My regards,
Widewing