I keep hearing people saying there are problems with this plane. My view is it will never handle like the other Spits especailly as the speeds dimminish. The new version for me is much closer to what it should be.
If you look at a 14 alongside a 9 and a Griffin engine next to a Merlin you can see why. Basically the 14 was a 9 (probably closer ot an 8 infact) but with more weight and further forward. I think anyone who has flown a 9 especially would say how well balanced it felt. The Griffin will have changed that.Maybe a post war Spit 21 or especially a 24 may have cured some of the inherent instabilities but at the end of the Day Israli spit 9's shot down British later Griffin spits and probably because they got slow with them.
Johnie Johnson said it was a great plane but no longer a Spit. Soda writes it up wrong when he says it can be flown like any other Spit. It is more akin to a 51. Use speed and the vertical, its less inclined to stall down low now but it is at best an average turner and stall fighter unlike the other Spits. Its also not a very stable gun platform and the tail got much bigger on the later models to stabilise it.
I think if you are a Spit pilot who wants a real challenge this is a good progression.