p-51d and p38L acceleration is identical up to 250 mph then p51 superior by far.

[juzz]

 

Where are the dive flaps? At high speed it rolls too well and it at very high speed should still tuck its nose even with flaps.

1. I believe HTC has stated that because compression is not modelled, there is no point to modelling the dive flaps.

2. The P-38L should roll well at high speeds, it had hydraulically boosted ailerons.

[DoctorYO]

I agree with Verm... I last camp was practicing alot in the p38L...  Above 15k or so the plane is near untouchable with so many options on how to fly it... Combine that with 1 burst 1 kill ability when you e fight it you have a real powerhouse...

lets not even mention payload ability:

(grab a stang with 2 1000lbs and 6 rockets and climbout; then grab a p38 with 2 1000lbs and 10 rockets and see who gets to 10k quicker.)

personally im no expert in ww2(i wasn't there) but from what i have read and what happens in the MA of HTC In my opinion the p38 is fairly accurately modeled.

Fly it like a FW 190 and you will see what i mean...  Just so many options (turn fight, e fight and b&z wrapped into one plane, jabo too.

I used to like the Mustang but there is just so much more versitility in the p38....

Caught low and slow the mustang is meat... in the p38 at least you have a fighting chance against almost any aircraft.(kind of like the G10)

In sum the p38 is easy to fly but hard to master..(flapping)(throttle control)(low top speed in dives etc..) But when you do master it your are the master of your domain.


2cents,


DoctorYO

[fdiron]

The P38 has limitations.  The P51 is actually a better plane.  The max dive speed of the P51 gives it a big advantage over the 38.  Its fuel economy, top speed, and pilot visibility give are also better than the P38s.  Now I have no hard proof, but I believe that that with a P51, you could consistently bring home more kills per sortie than a P38 and not get killed.  Back during the AH beta, there was a guy who averaged 10 kills per sortie in the P51, and thats no lie either.

[RAM]

 

Originally posted by fdiron:
Back during the AH beta, there was a guy who averaged 10 kills per sortie in the P51, and thats no lie either.

Umm If I understood it well, when P51 came to AH it had an unrealistical ammount of E-keeping...maybe that was why the guy got so many kills per sortie (not to count vulches  )

I know quite well P51D. It is a nice plane, but has his drawbacks. P38, IMHO, has less drawbacks than P51. It has better "combat envelope". You can be engaged low and slow and still have a chance. In P51D prolly you will be dead before you can say "hello".
But in the offensive P51 is way better...kind of balance between them. And dont forget that P38 is BIG  .

[Citabria]

I think the main folly in my original disgust about the P-51 outaccelerating the P-38 in arena play was due almost entirely to fuel load variations.

I'm almost 100% sure I was carrying more and thus the reason the damn thing accelerated like a bat from hell when I was on its tail leaving me quite perturbed  

[funked]

Cit, do some fuel consumption tests, or if you already did them, post them.  If the P-38L is getting cheated on fuel consumption then that should be fixed.  You shouldn't be surprised that the Mustang is a monster on a low fuel load though - it's basically a Spitfire Mk. IX with less drag and more fuel!

[Citabria]

yup funked I did a fuel test on the p-38 a while back it looked close to 2.5x fuel burn.

I'm kinda over my initial knee jerk reaction caused by seeing what I'm seeing in the arena from the p38L cockpit when fighting mustangs.

I have come to the personal conclusion that although I occasionally run into a P-51 with a good amount of fuel on board, based on most experiences I've have with the p-51 I tend to believe that most are running on ultra light fuel loads and drop tanks which explains their lethal performance in all areas of turn climb and acceleration compared to a midweight p-38.

I'll just stop carrying 100% internal fuel and drop tanks when I feel like mixing it up in a knife fight with these mustangs  

[Fishu]

 

Originally posted by Kieren:
Guess I'm a dummy, because I can't figure out what you're trying to say.  

I think you are trying hard to slide a cutting comment in about HTC with regards to American aircraft, but you have mangled your sentence structure to the point it fails.

I know English is not your native tongue, but one of the reasons you are received poorly here is your posts always seem to have a snide tone. I've talked with you personally and don't find you that way, but sometimes I read posts like the one above and I shake my head...  

Err, I guess it was those couple beers and re-writing that stuff too many times again..

Oh well, thing is just that, as we all know (well, almost), P-51 had historically slow accerleration, but HTC thinks that as false propaganda and has decided to model P-51 realistically (read; higher acceleration). aka j/k.

[Minotaur]

Two things need to be mentioned.

For some reason (or so it seems) when the P-38 hits what I approximate to be 25% fuel the fuel burn rate goes way up.  This is possibly a fuel indication issue or a Minotaur perception issue.

Also, I was quite amazed at the Spit IX acceleration on your chart.  Tied for the worst acceleration.  This was something I noticed, but has a hard time believing because the Spit climbs so well.  Is this accurate?

Good Luck!  

------------------
Mino
The Wrecking Crew

[Citabria]

spit has very fast acceleration at the lower speed but it took about 3 times as long to go from 280-300mph so in combat speeds of near 300mph escape in a drag race from a spitIX is easy in the arena.


as for 25% fuel vaporizing insanely fast I noticed the same but I attribute this to the way AH autoselects fuel tanks... the aux tanks are smaller and 25% does not last very long on them compared to 25% in the mains.

[Beefcake]

Is it me or does the P38 have 2 engines? Ok doesn't the P51 have 1? Ok, also dosen't the 38 weigh alot more than the 51?

was just wondering

[Beefcake]

<PUNT!>

[Citabria]

are you serious beefcake?

the p-38 is 12,780lbs empty while the p-51 is 7635lbs empty.

[funked]

Don't know of any planes that can fly or fight empty...

[Citabria]

just a comparison sheesh  

gas is always going to weigh 6 lbs per gallon and ammo weight is consistent.

heres max load weights:

P-51Dmax 12,100lbs
P-38Lmax 21,600lbs