me 262

[sandwich]

I have finally surpirsed myself in getting enough points to fly a 262.

I upped it the other day before realizing that i have absolutely no idea how to fly it and have no knowledge of the limits of the plane so i landed it to preserve my perk points.

How do you fly the 262 and what are its limitations?

[Lusche]

I have finally surpirsed myself in getting enough points to fly a 262.

I upped it the other day before realizing that i have absolutely no idea how to fly it and have no knowledge of the limits of the plane so i landed it to preserve my perk points.

How do you fly the 262 and what are its limitations?

It's best if you practice offline first. Try flying at the edges of performance, see yourself when the wings rip off, get a feel for speed. That's the best way to get used to the 262. Use the offline drones to practice high-speed slashing attacks. And practice one-engined landings, because you will end up quite often with at least one shot up.

Some tips:
- When both engines have an oil leak, shut down one immediately, that will conserve it's fuel. You are still able to fly relatively fast on one engine. But stay alert, most likely your enemy will broadcast "smoking 262 heading..." and everybody will try to hunt you down

- Cut your throttle when diving. The 262 nis very sturdy, but can go very fast quite quickly. You may even consider using your rudder as an additional airbrake

- Engines are reacting slow. Your slow-speed acceleration is horrible. Keep some 3-5k altitude under your fuselage if your going to slow down. You can fly & fight on the deck, but you have to keep speed up and watch your E and high six - Enemy fighter slike Tempest, P-47, F4U can get insanely fast when diving at you.

- For fuel efficiency, climn to at least 10k, get to speed and then reduce throttle to 7500-800m rpm. You will still cruise at about 450ish

- above 20k the 262 get'S sluggish, fighting above 25k is difficult and needs a lto of thinking ahead.

- Even you may be in a fast jet and have ample firepower, be careful when attacking buffs. They will sparay at you, and a few pings can criplle your plane. Basically, you should attack buffs in a 262 the same way as you should do it in any other fighter: Slashing attacks, no attacks from 6 o clock. USe your speed to gain positional advantage.

[grizz441]

Points of Interest:
It takes off with one notch of flaps down.
It has poor acceleration, it's a sitting duck until it gets its airspeed up to 450+.
4 30mm cannons are hard to aim with if you aren't firing within 200yds
It turns poorly and bleeds airspeed quickly
It can be caught by high prop planes diving down on you if you let them get the proper angle and you aren't fast enough, be careful!
It picks up airspeed fast in a dive, be very very careful with nose down.
On landing it's tough to slow down if you aren't utilizing your rudder.  I try to use full rudder on landing approach to bleed off airspeed, works well.

Gluck.

[Auger]

I don't fly it that often, but it can be a very fun ride.

Don't go over about 550 KIAS.  It will start to rattle and groan and you need to do something fast once the shaking starts.  Soon after, the controls will be useless and you will provide much entertainment to those in the area.

If you plan on pointing the nose down for any length of time, pull the throttle back.  Keep going.  All the way.  There you go.  See above.

If you are going fast, smooth and gentle are the concepts for maneuvers.  Bank and yank will snap a wing quicker than you can believe.  I didn't believe it the first couple of times.

Don't get slow in a fight unless you have lots of help or there aren't any other bad guys around.  People don't usually go there, but the Swallow is a very nice turn fighter.  For a little while.  It doesn't accelerate fast unless you have some altitude to burn, so don't get low and slow if there are many (more than 2) bad guys around.  It's like throwing a steak in a pit of rottweilers.  And you're the steak, in case you didn't get that.

Learn to use the 30mm guns.  There are 4, and they blow stuff up real good, but they are a tad slow and take some getting used to.  I usually use one bank of two at a time.  Think of it as doubling your ammo load.

Your engines are fragile and .50s break them.  Don't approach a flight of bombers from dead 6.  It might be 999000.  He lives for that.

Should you make it back from your jet adventure, don't try to land at a field under attack.  It is absolutely amazing how fast a field attack stops when a slow 262 comes into view.  Find a nice quiet base back from the front lines.  The flaps start coming out around 300 and you'll need most of them to get slow enough to not roll off the far end of the runway.  Come in too hot and your feeling of exhilaration for your first 262 landing will get icy cold as you scream past the refuel pad into the grass.

Others with more experience will have oodles of details.  Have fun and good luck!

[Mace2004]

Lots of good info already stated.  Let me add some more. 

300mph is a magic number, consider anything below that as slow.  Jets are fundamentally different from props.  Props are most efficent at lower airspeeds and become less efficent at high speeds.  Jets are exactly the opposite.  This is why the 262 is a pig slow and why God gave fighter pilots afterburners. 

Also, besides no AB, the 262 also doesn't have speed brakes and can be very, very tough to slow it down.  While is accelerates poorly in level flight, the plane is exceptionally slick and will accelerate like a raped ape going down hill.  This is good and bad.  Until you get used to it expect to be missing your wingtips and ailerons (the plane can be flown and landed with just rudder).

Another note, jets are fuel hungry and the plane carries quite a bit of fuel and therefore weight.  You'll probably want a full bag of gas for most missions but make sure you burn it off to less than 50% before attempting anything other than high speed slashing attacks.

Most will just use the plane for slashing attacks, that's fine but a particularly fun tactic is the pure vertical.  Dive for speed and hit the merge coming up at 450mph, pull pure vertical and wait for the over eager knuckleheads that try to follow you up. There is no way they can do it but they'll try.  Over the top, drop a notch or two of flaps to reverse and blast them on the way down (throttle at idle going down please).  If you miss then just roll away and pull up into the vertical again with an easy pull.  If you blow it, put your nose down and extend.  Once you get to 300mph start to climb, wingover reversal and reengage. 

Remember, this plane flys like the rest, it's just that all of it's maneuvers are larger.  Larger turn radius, larger separation to reengage, larger loops, etc.  Don't try to turn it like a Zeke and try to turn inside of someone, it won't work. Don't think you can reverse on someone 2k yds on your six, you'll just give him a nice shot into the top of your canopy.  Use E tactics; extension/pitchback, the vertical, and spiral climbs.

Last, you gotta think ahead.  Your closure will be much greater than what you're used to.  If you're inside of a 1000yds and aren't set for your shot it's too late.

[Vudak]

One thing to watch out for (before you get a nasty surprise!) is to make sure that you get a good chunk of speed before hitting auto climb.  I'm not sure of the exact speed required, but I want to say it is over 270 IAS (get a jet expert to confirm this or find out offline - don't take my word for the #)!

If you don't get your speed up first, your jet will dive down before it starts climbing, and you may auger it by accident.  All planes do this to some extent, but the 262 has a much, much higher climb speed and this can ruin your day if you're not careful.

[bj229r]

I think there's an offline mission that has 262's

[Nisky]

One thing to watch out for (before you get a nasty surprise!) is to make sure that you get a good chunk of speed before hitting auto climb.  I'm not sure of the exact speed required, but I want to say it is over 270 IAS (get a jet expert to confirm this or find out offline - don't take my word for the #)!

If you don't get your speed up first, your jet will dive down before it starts climbing, and you may auger it by accident.  All planes do this to some extent, but the 262 has a much, much higher climb speed and this can ruin your day if you're not careful.

IIRC its 300 IAS.

[Vudak]

IIRC its 300 IAS.

Thanks Nisky, I wasn't sure about this one

[moot]

Also practice offline some very slow speed vertical reverses.  Notice that you have to start your reverse early (dont remember exactly how fast, but lets say >150 IAS) to avoid a nose up stall.  While it corrects itself, it takes a lot of time that's most likely critical for the 262, and leaves you totally helpless for the duration.  You can gain a bit of safety by making your reverse in the yaw axis, where the plane has more stability than in a pitch reversal.

But for this last one to work, you have to have wings vertical as near perfect as you can manage. 

[bj229r]

Also practice offline some very slow speed vertical reverses.  Notice that you have to start your reverse early (dont remember exactly how fast, but lets say >150 IAS) to avoid a nose up stall.  While it corrects itself, it takes a lot of time that's most likely critical for the 262, and leaves you totally helpless for the duration.  You can gain a bit of safety by making your reverse in the yaw axis, where the plane has more stability than in a pitch reversal.

But for this last one to work, you have to have wings vertical as near perfect as you can manage. 

See...THIS is why I'll never be a better pilot than I am--not a frikkin clue how to apply that statement to an airplane whilst I'm in a fight

[moot]

Just did some testing, you have to have the nose to slightly less than 90deg to the horizon if you're shooting for a minimum speed reverse.  Otherwise there's good chances (might be possible to avoid it but it'd take a lot of practice) the leading edge slats will pop out, and then the nose pitches right up and over.  Which leads you straight to a pitching stall for a couple of seconds while it regains speed and recovers.  Going straight up, the departure is around 50 IAS.  Count on losing 2,000 ft, on average, if you don't avoid it.
Here's an example of a fairly quick pitch reverse with a fairly short spin.  The slats are what triggered the flip, and it recovers in "only" 900 feet.  Note how the plane is at zero G until it starts to recover.  It might be possible to make a reverse with only that single flip...  Gonna try and find how.

The hammerhead reverse than I used to do years ago doesn't seem to work anymore.  If you want the least possible speed over the top, e.g. if you're trying to hover above a target that's not yet roped out, the safe way to a reverse in the yaw is with a bit of engine control and rudder trim if you can spare the hand/finger to control it.  The fastest and safest reverse is still a pitch one - through the elevators, but it's at much higher speed..  Around 185-200 IAS or so.  Seems like a lot, but the 262 doesn't have much traction down at this speed anyway, so you're not losing much height off the top of the zoom.

Going straight vertical, the wings are still lifting you. So merely judging from the nose being pointed straight up relative to the ground doesn't guarantee that you're truly moving perfectly upwards.  Unless you've got an accurate sense of direction, it's safer to aim your nose slightly down from a perfect vertical so that your true direction of flight isn't beyond 90deg (otherwise you're much more likely to flip the nose over and get into that short spin).  It's definitely worth it to trim your elevators to no more than neutral.


edit -   Reversing around the yaw axis is definitely more difficult than a gentle pitch reverse by nosing down from around 200 IAS with elevator trimmed down to the max, if the goal is as late a reverse over the top as possible.  I've managed one very quick reverse with a flip around the pitch axis, but the margin of error in timing and input to reproduce it is really small.

[Eagleclaw]

A little tidbit I've always found helpful: When you have to deal with a very fast prop plane (Tempest, spitty, etc) or even another jet. You should never dive to escape if you are below 5000 ft. You will gain incredible amounts of speed but the enemy can dive with you. Not having dive brakes will make pulling out a difficult thing to do and may even make you black out and crash.

[Spikes]

The one thing I've found about 262's is engaging and seeing other 262s. Part of you wants to hightail it home while the other wants you to test your luck. Me being an amateur 262 pilot, I always find myself testing my luck then running like a girl after I lose the advantage on the 2nd turn.

Best bet is to make an offline mission with a 1v1 if 262s, it'll be unfair seeing as the 262 AI can do loops like a spit at 500mph.

[moot]

I haven't yet found any disadvantages to draining the fuel tanks from rear to front.  They're in this order:  rear-aux (18), rear-main (22), front-aux (58), front-main (33).