Dogfighting in the A-20

[sandwich]

Anyone got some tips on how to use the A-20 in a furball?

[Steve]

Anyone got some tips on how to use the A-20 in a furball?

You're going to get some help from some very skilled a-20 sticks. I'm sure there are others but off the top of my head Cobia and Snaphook come to mind.  Both are dangerous foes.

[cobia38]

 ohhhh boy,where to start.
  If your going to furball in a A-20 go light 25% fuel (yeah i know only 15 min flight time) 9 times out of 10 you will get gang raped before you run out of fuel anyways    but that is part of the fun.
   everyone has their own style of fighting so you will just have to play with it. personally I like to stall fight in the vertical with 09s, rolling scissors works well with spits and f6f.
 between 200-275 you can turn with just about any ride in game for the first turn and a half,so make your shot quick and move on.
  if you have rudder peddles, take advantage of the A-20s rudder, it is sweet
  force overshoots is another tactic that works well,perticurly with the run90s/p47/p51
  if you give it a chance and fly it enuff you will learn all its good points and the bad ones[part shedding at high speed mainly]
 best place to dogfight/furball is MW it has the best matched plane set.
  if you ever want to wing up just yell, i,m usually online in the evening 8 -11 est  would be happy to help out.
   
 its late and I know I have more to share but the only thought for me is sleep   

[grizz441]

You're going to get some help from some very skilled a-20 sticks. I'm sure there are others but off the top of my head Cobia and Snaphook come to mind.  Both are dangerous foes.

Don't forget Widewing.   

[humble]

As cobia has mentioned it's actually a very versatile bird within the scope of it's limitations. Basically if it's to fast it will break (literally) and if it gets to slow it's a wallowing barge...but in the middle of the speed range it's remarkably agile and responsive with great control authority. Like Cobia I like to fight it in the 200-300 range as much as possible and try to never get it flat turning very long if at all. I've put up a bunch of A-20 clips and you can browse thru and look at them here...
http://www.az-dsl.com/snaphook/A-20/   

Most of them are more 1 on 1 oriented since I've felt that clips with the A-20 do a good job of highlighting ACM instead of a given planes attributes. There are some that might be considered somewhat "furbally"...
http://www.az-dsl.com/snaphook/A-20/prowling%20A-20.ahf   
http://www.az-dsl.com/snaphook/meandmiami.ahf    (in "main" directory)

This last one is from the last scenario and also has a decent mix of stuff including a bit of furballing at the end...also a good example of why you ALWAYS maintain your own SA...I dropped my guard thinking the fight was over when the last 190 was still up and humming
http://www.az-dsl.com/snaphook/Frame%201%20fun.ahf   

[SPKmes]

No gun here....but I myself fly it like a really big hurri II   (and no...not the HOin type of Hurri)

[Big Rat]

Along with what Cobia and Snaphook have said, and I'm not going to pretend to be in their A20 league.  I normally try to fight it above the fight if I can, and use shallow dives and zoom climbs to attack my targets.  As Cobia mentioned the rudder is very good, and makes for nice snapshots.  The 6 50's in the nose make a good fire hose of lead as well.  It's a great plane and my primary mud mover in this game (unless they give us the A26 ).

 
BigRat

[sandwich]

Thanks for the help everybody.

And those videos are great Snaphook. I'm not a bad pilot in the A-20 but you make me look like a complete noob.

Gonna try to use it as my primary A/c this tour.

<S>

[Obie303]

Snap is one of the best pilots I've seen in the A-20.  (Plus he's my CO, so I have to say nice things about him).   

[humble]

Snap is one of the best pilots I've seen in the A-20.  (Plus he's my CO, so I have to say nice things about him).   

Hehe

There are actually a number of guys who fly the A-20 very well. I'd put Cobia and WW up at the top but under them are a bunch of others. I was very impressed with how BigRat handles the A-20 (as well as the rest of the guys who flew with 221BAD. It's a fun bird that rewards good ACM and offers a surprisingly wide variety of options for how to fly it in any given situation....

[Enker]

I don't particularly remember whether it was 1LTCAP or 1pLuS44 who told me this, but I was told that to fly the A-20 well, treat it like an overweight and underpowered P-38. I tried it and didn't understand what they were talking about, so I chose the Boston III instead.

[Ack-Ack]

Only 3 players I would ask for advice about fighting in the A-20, snaphook, Widewing and Cobia38.  Those have been the only 3 I've come across that can actually make the A-20 dance.


ack-ack

[Nemisis]

I'd have to agree with ack ack on that, bout the only think I know about dogfighting in it is to keep your speed up.