I think I like the 109K-4, despite that little compressibility issue and the short belt on the Tatergun. Otherwise, it can do it all - but most of all climb like a monkey. After that, I tend to fly many of the F-Dubs - D-9, A-8, and F-8, but think they are somewhat disadvantaged, certainly, in the flat turn and burn fights. I caught another thread about the real world vs. sim performance issues that seem to inevitably focus on the A-8 as an example of a plane that was very good in the real world but suffers here - especially vis-a-vis the Spit.
I think a big part of the issue is g-feedback and the disparate impact it has on horizontal versus vertical dogfighting. I'm just developing this thought but my experience in vertical fighting in the sim says that you're less certain of orientation w/r ground at any time in this mode than you would be doing flat turn & burn type maneuvers where your orientation w/r ground is limited to a fairly narrow range. This last occurs b/c you rely solely on visual cues, as opposed to grav and inertial forces + visual cues (real world), in the sim. The other, but only intermittent, advantage a vertical turner has is, in negative g-looping, the 1g grav assist their brain gets at the top of the loop - which helps limits the blackout.
