Had one of my most fun sorties yet in this game.
I was in a 152. Lowpoint was at the beginning, as my FPS dropped per usual around large formations, and my attacks on the bomber formation were ill timed and sloppy as a result. To complicate matters further, the escort did a much better time this mission than last. I quickly wound up with five or so angry 51's getting behind me for the apparent kill. Got pinged a ton, my forward fuel tank got hit, still at high alt but I figured I was a goner because in a few more imminent pings and I would start losing important pieces.
At this exact moment something happened I would love to have taken credit for, but it was random luck. My jinking created that crazy flat spin that the Ta-152 often gets into, and I started to drift down out of control in the same way as if I had lost my vertical stabilizer. The 51's saw that motion, figured there was no way I'd be in that exact spin unless a very critical piece is missing (that assumption is correct for every plane except the 152), and they broke off, figuring I was as good as dead.
I fought the stall for a good minute or so, losing about 15k altitude. I was now down to 10k. No more sight of the bombers, and a few escorts still overhead but maintaining discipline and not coming down to me just yet. With my fuel much lower from the fuel leak I decided to RTB in a general direction of where the bomber form was headed; maybe I could pick something off low. After 5 or so min of eastward heading, the remaining high fighters got antsy and decided to come down on my lone 152. Luckily for me, they came down one by one. I had three consecutive intense 1v1 fights, going from 10k all the way down to the deck in the process, and was all was said and done I had downed two 51's and a LA-7 and not taken a hit (luckily, because as I said a few more pings and something was bound to fall off).
Now I was really low on fuel, and had to start moving throttle and rpm towards max cruise. With about 6 more enemy fighters high beginning to wonder what happened to their buddies down low that were last seen trying to take out the lone 152, I decided to really get down to the deck and hope I could escape unnoticed. I flew across 2 and a half sectors of full enemy darbar unseen by hugging the deck as close as I could, managing throttle the whole time to save fuel. Literally all around me at low altitudes were the dots of enemy fighters who had fallen low behind the buff stream, searching for easy targets. My wounded 152 on the deck at max cruise would have been exactly what they were looking for, if they found me. I zigzagged this way and that to avoid icon range, which only made my fuel situation worse. One sector away from a friendly field I got a check six call: an enemy 51, entirely unseen by me, was 600 and closing on my six. Break turns when you are at max cruise are never good. Luckily he missed his shot, and myself and another friendly fought him in another good little fight for about 2 minutes before he went down.
Got back to a vehicle field with 2 minutes of fuel left, fought off another nasty 152 flat spin as I was getting into landing position, touched down and landed successfully. 4 kills, but they all felt very well deserved. Don't know if the overall mission was a success or not, but getting back successfully was the real fun for me this time.
