Hiya Kirin!!
Nice after action report! I saw it the same away you did.. usually, I can’t even recognize what planet the other guy was on, let alone all the details of an action like this…
Ok.. in the first place I fly the stang exclusively; and I fly it very aggressively. I have at this point logged an amazing number of hours in the AH Mustang; this coupled with plenty of WB’s experience as well as several other sims H2H totals up to insane numbers of hours in the ‘type’.
As an aside; I consider the AH Mustangs flight model fidelity to be the best of the rather big crowd, and in context of the AH environment and the adversaries it has to contend with it's a very competent airplane (as it should be). So; I'd have to point out that here in this arena, as it was in Europe and the Pacific 50 years ago, it's damn dangerous machine in an average pilots hands; hence, lethal as hell when used to its limits.
Ain't this also true of the George???
Next.. I was in fact very light. Those insidious damn Rook buff drivers had hammered all our (bish) fields to low fuel rations, so I had only a ¼ tank on takeoff. Since I’d just nailed a pair of rook stangs to a canyon wall; I had a very light ammo load left, and was commin to the closest friendly field fer a reload of beer; pretzels, ammoo and ethyl. Only to find this Niki hangin low under the foothills NW of the field; 10k under me and ripe fer a quick whack. “Whot the hell.. a kills a kill…” and down I went.
Sadly; by the second turn; I knew I had an above average pilot for an opponent; and having been watching the kills in the textbox coupled with the guy you had recently killed still in a chute nearby gave me my first clue as to who it was in the Niki. And that I was in the deeeeep deeep doggie dooo.
The first turn was a very tight E killin vert for me; riding the blackout circle around to where I expected to find yah.. but you wern’t there!!! Loosing SA is a very baaaad thing and in this case it was almost over right there; a mistake like this very often means I get the nylon letdown. I made the assumption that if yah ain’t in front; well then.. look back! Yup! There he is.. It looked to be like you tried to loop over; lost e and recovered in a immelman. You were a mite higher, but with no speed left at all. I pulled a snap roll to regain angles to HO and tucked under; but not a good shot opportunity. We did a two circle turn then; and since I still had a large e edge; got over the top of your turn and saddled up tight as you went by. Now I had a tail chase against a fighter that can whip hell outta me if he gets enuff time to work the plane around on to my six. Here’s where we started the low e flat turnfight; and I was nuts to cash my chips and pursue. But; being about outta gas; outta ammo; and no alt or E left; I really had no place to go… kill you and land; bail and walk, my only options left really.
Frankly; I was up to this point fairly confident I’d kill yah, and knew if I missed the break deflection shot and we got into a circle dance you’d kill me. As usual; in the crunch; I muffed the shot; and into the circle we went. (sigh)
I was cross controlled thru most of the circle; wearing up by a few feet to a pseudo yo-yo and as the plane would start to twist out and stall I’d crush that damn rudder pedal; unload a hair; and haul her back down into the turn. I distinctly remember looking out the top of my canopy at you thinking “..he ain’t gaining.. neither am I. Standoff. First guy to drop the turn walks home...”
Question: Don't the Japanese planes sport a left hand prop? I remember thinkin to myself "he's fightin that prop..."
One point that Shaw makes in his book is the bit about smart pilots being able to get to a draw; even in dissimilar AC. And here’s where we found ourselves.. a draw. I had every advantage; you canceled them. When it got to the nitty gritty; you again played it smooth, you didn’t mess up and ‘try something’ instead, you held the slight edge with a better turn fighter and you watched me like a hawk; waiting for my AC to fold to the circumstances. I gotta tell yah.. HT’s sheep were nauseous and had to have sprained necks; watchin us work that circle. Then yer pals showed up. I felt like the Indians in a John Wayne movie. I wonder how it woulda played out if the cavalry didn’t appear.
Ok; now fer the flaps discussion. Kirin; I’m betting the flaps are what had yah sagging so bad in the turn. Here’s some flap theory for yah.. I never had mine out till we were down to about freeway speed and the stang started to get unmanageble, and then it was only one notch. I'm certain it wasn't till after the cavalry arrived and I was dodgin slashing swipes at our circle.. Never even considered using them sooner, and here’s why. In AH; the energy model is different.. I don’t know how; but it is; and it’s one reason I like this sim so much.. the e modeling is dead nuts on. (industry term) In aerodynamics we teach that lift and drag are married.. you can’t get one without the other. A flapped airfoil does produce more lift; but with a drag penalty. A little bit of flap produces a little bit more lift and a whole lot more drag. A buncha flap produces massive drag; and no damn lift at all. A well designed laminar (semi-symmetrical) airfoil reduces drag to a minimum and (YAH) reduces lift! We all know the P51 is fast.. it ain’t the merlin as much as the wing that made it so. Next obvious point is ‘how come no flap at low speeds?” Consider AOA (angle of attack) .. if I raise the nose; I’ve changed the presentation of the wing to the airflow (essentially changed the wing from laminar/symmetrical to flat bottomed) and increased the lift/drag component. Hence; why increase drag when what I really want is lift? I suspect your turn radius will decrease slightly if yah keep the flaps in above 120 knots. Induce flaps in a turn and you just slow down.. pulling into the turn has raised the AOA and provided the lift you want.. don’t screw yerself by adding drag. Kudo’s to Pyro and HT.. they got it right.. I’m just using it.
I'm not of the opinion that the stang is overmodeled here. It could certainly be argued that the Nik is undermodled; tho I don't think so. It seems to sit in the niche where it should from historical accounts I've read. I would suggest that the biggest factors in the near level apparent turning capabilities were more as a result of weight diffrences; possibly prop rotation and certainly flaps and when they were used. Had the fight gone a turn or so further I'd have probably augered. (the sheep were lookin mighty nervous) Again; I was anything but confident of the outcome after the circle dance started.
Another note on flaps to the unbelievers (there will be many howling; I’d guess) out there. Flaps also induce ‘washout’.. a function that in effect prevents a nasty lift failure at low speed called ‘tip stall’. (this is what most of the sim pilots observe; and is why they are using them at low speeds in turns) Tip stall occurs in circumstances where the airflow over the wing becomes ‘unattached’ and the wing just plain stops producing lift. It most often happens at high AOA/Low speed attitudes and usually results in the plane flipping right over. (the twist out of the plane in a hard turn is a tip stall) This occurs at the outer portions of the wing first; and the stalled (unattached) airflow migrates to the inboard portions of the wing after the tips ‘break’. Flaps eliminate tip stalling by changing the ‘waterline’ of the wing; (reduces AOA over the flapped area) and the tips then become the last portions of the wing to stop producing lift, rather than the first. Flaps may be just the thing for some planes in turn fights.. but they ain’t in the stang till its too late.
(nor is lowering the landing gear and a few other wild things I’ve seen in the canyons)
In closing.. Kirin.. Heluva fight. My hat is off to u sir!
My hail to you after the fight was merely to confirm that it wuz u indeed flying that nik so smoothly. I tossed a viscious extremely agressive fight at yah with all the advantage and every expectation of a quick kill; and wallah! Next thing yah know I'm in the weeds; looking over the backs of a flock of sheep at yer grinnin mug.
Salute!
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PALE HORSES
"I looked, and behold; a Pale Horse, and it's riders name was Death, and Hell followed with him" Rev 6.8
[This message has been edited by Hangtime (edited 12-07-1999).]
