I hope to reach the heights of skill that some have, to actually have contempt towards an airframe because it was built too damn good. Mind you I favor the 8 & 9 model Spits most of the time. The 16 I usually save for desparate situations like being highly outnumbered.
Waystin, I think for a newer player, in my experience, youre catching on pretty quick. Another couple years and youll probably be better than most.
There is no doubt that the 16 is an awesome airplane. Hell, the Spitfire in general is an awesome airplane. Right up there with the best (if not the best) fighters of WWII and one of the most beautifully designed aircraft ever.
However, in this game, its real life strengths end up being targets for ridicule. I actually dont mind the other spits. The 9 is an early/mid war bird and is a challenge to fly against the late war uber rides. By the same token, the 8 lacks the firepower of the 16 and, MOST significantly, lacks the pilot-head-into-cockpit-glass-and-kill-him roll rate of the 16.
Off on a tangent and thinking out loud, I think what many people are trying to say is this - and I'm going to simplify it as much as I can by making comparisons to other highly capable late war aircraft in the game before identifying "this."
vs. 51D. Spit maintains advantages in immediate turn, sustained turn, acceleration, firepower, rate of roll, change of direction and flaps out, low speed stall fighting; to include the vertical. Spit is also far more forgiving of mistakes.
vs. La7. Spit maintains advantages in immediate turn, sustained turn, rate of roll, change of direction and flaps out, low speed stall fighting; to include the vertical. Spit is also far more forgiving of mistakes.
vs. 109K4. Spit maintains advantages in immediate turn, sustained turn, rate of roll, weapon deployment, change of direction and flaps out, low speed stall fighting; to be considered nearly identical in the vertical. Spit is also far more forgiving of mistakes.
vs. 190D9. Spit maintains advantages in immediate turn, sustained turn, weapon deployment, firepower, change of direction and flaps out, low speed stall fighting; to include the vertical. Spit is also far more forgiving of mistakes.
See where we are going? What options do the above four aircraft, which represent some of the most capable late war rides in the game, actually have when faced with a 16 on equal footing?
The 51's is only able to exercise a single advantage; top speed (and thus zoom climb). To to that, he would need altitude to convert into speed. If he has no altitude, the 16 will catch him in the acceleration contest. What does he do? Hope the 16 pilot sucks. A lot.
The La7? We have an advantage in acceleration, here and that can be used to dictate the terms of a fight but, at the end of the way, the La7 will ultimately be forced to constantly engage and disengage until the 16 makes a mistake because, co-E, the 16 holds all of the other advantages. What to do? Hope the 16 driver sucks. A lot.
The 109K4 is severely handicapped, much like the 38, when facing a 16. The one and only thing that the 109K4 can do very, very well is climb. It cant turn with the spit, it cant roll with the spit, it cant dive with the spit and in order to effectively deploy the Mk108, a lot of ACM work must enter the equation and you need to be very, very close. So in this case, since the vertical performance of the K and the 16 are, for all intents and purposes, close enough to ensure a deviation well within gun range, what do you do? Hope the 16 driver sucks. A lot.
The D9? Hell... same basic routine as the 51. The only real hope is that the guy you are facing against is a 2-weeker because unless you hold all the cards, are screaming in an 500MPH and have E enough for multiple passes, your only real play is to force the spit driver to get bored and screw up. Overshoots, if you found yourself in a defensive position, dont even work because the 16 roll rate is right there.
In aggregate, the argument here is that while the 16 is not the best at any one thing, it is very, very close to the best at everything and, when you have an aircraft like that, with no clear weakness to exploit, how do you fly against it?
Simplify it further using a hoge-poge chart for the numerically inclined, with the Spit as our control. Numbers are simply estimations for demonstration purposes, of course, and I have not referenced Soda's charts. This is all just 'off the cuff, Friday at work' analysis.
P51D La7 109K4 190D9 Spit16Immediate Turn: 65% 80% 85% 50% 95%
Sustained Turn: 60% 75% 65% 40% 95%
Climb Performance: 60% 95% 100% 85% 95%
Dive Performance: 100% 90% 50% 100% 95%
Rate of Roll: 60% 70% 60% 100% 95%
Change of Direction: 65% 80% 70% 90% 95%
Weapon Deployment: 100% 85% 30% 70% 95%
E Retention: 100% 80% 70% 80% 95%
E Acquisition: 60% 100% 95% 85% 90%
Acceleration: 60% 100% 100% 80% 95%
Top Speed: 100% 95% 95% 100% 85%
Now you tell me; co-alt, co-E, just what in the hell you are supposed to do with those match ups? They are not scientific, as stated, and objects in mirror may appear closer than they are, but everyone knows the above planes and I doubt there will be many arguments.
The Spit16 is the jack of all trades. Thats fine. What is often frustrating is that it is also, with a very high ratio of "true," the quasi-master of all trades, as well.
