I had some fights last night with Ammo and Sancho (P-47D-30's) vs. my Spitfire Mk. V. And I mean FIGHTS, knock-down draggem-out dogfights. I've also had some great Spit V/P-47D-30 fights with Frenchy.
Anyways the fights really reminded me of the descriptions in Robert Johnson's book "Thunderbolt", because finally in a flight sim, we've got a Thunderbolt that can zoom.
Particularly in one fight with Sancho at 20-25k, I had slightly more energy, and he did a split-s away from my rear quarter attack. I followed him briefly in the dive then zoomed straight up when Sancho was about 1.5k away. Sancho kept diving a little more (about 2.0k away) then zoomed up vertically... and came right up on my ass, closing to 500 yards and blowing my tail off!
At first I thought it must be netlag, that this wasn't possible with the FM. Then I thought of Johnson's descriptions and remembered that the P-47D-30 has a better thrust/weight ratio in this altitude range. Not only was Sancho's maneuver possible within the FM, but it was very similar to what Johnson says he did to a Spit in a mock dogfight. First time I had ever seen it actually work in a flight sim.
<S> HTC and Jug and Spit pilots.
