How to fly the Spit 14

[Yossarian]

Over the past tour or two, I've come to really enjoy this plane.  I'm not a great pilot by any standards, IMO, but I'd appreciate any tips on how to fly this thing well.

[INSANO2]

Boom and Zoom in it! Keep it fast, she will never break apart and can turn at speed. I like to keep it high and pick on Mustangs and 47M's. Very few are as good above 13k

[RTHolmes]

havent flown it for ages, only hint I can give is if you're going to be fighting at 20-22k make sure you got plenty of WEP left - theres a nasty flat spot there for the XIV where it can hardly make any boost under MIL.

[Ghosth]

Like a 109 in spits clothing, the 14 is a high alt bird. Its not a low alt turn and burn plane.

So keep your alt, stay fast.

[Hap]

Like a 109 in spits clothing, the 14 is a high alt bird. Its not a low alt turn and burn plane.

So keep your alt, stay fast.

Wonderful things happen over 23K.

[RTHolmes]

yup not a great turner but dont worry about being caught low in it - it still climbs a little better and is ~20mph faster than the XVI under 10k, acceleration is better too

[Lepape2]

Also don"t be afraid to lower your RPM to conserve fuel ( 4 or 8 boost is more than enough to conserve a very good cruise speed). Try not to use WEP during climb out unless the enemy/target is very near. If you get slow, be careful during ropes, loop tops or snap rolls because the L/H turning prop and the massive propeller gyro precession can flat stall your plane irrecoverably at low altitudes.

[Yossarian]

Thanks for the tips so far, generally what I've been doing recently is flying it to around 17K (looking at the graph, that's not a good choice, it seems!) and then killing people who are climbing (no, I don't only pick ).  What would the best way to fight in this plane be?

[HellFire]

Love the spit9 & spit16, however, everytime I fly the spits I suffer land-
ing problems, especially in Spit16, it's either too fast, cant get the flaps down or probs in keeping it on a straight line whilst landing.

Any advice, or better yet, a "Landing film"?  Thx much.  BTW, am having the EXACT same problems in landing the Spit14.

[Yossarian]

Like a 109 in spits clothing, the 14 is a high alt bird. Its not a low alt turn and burn plane.

So keep your alt, stay fast.

What's the best way to fight at high altitudes (and also, do you mean ~20K+)?  I have to say I've never done very much high altitude work at all...

[Lepape2]

Love the spit9 & spit16, however, everytime I fly the spits I suffer land-
ing problems, especially in Spit16, it's either too fast, cant get the flaps down or probs in keeping it on a straight line whilst landing.

Any advice, or better yet, a "Landing film"?  Thx much.  BTW, am having the EXACT same problems in landing the Spit14.

Start your approach farther away from the runway to allow your speed to drop under 160mph (the speed at which flaps can be lowered in the spit). You can lower the Landing gear under 200mph. Try to keep a speed of around 100mph WHILE still having a good descend rate to see the runway. About 100feet before touch down, add just a little bit of power to rotate the aircraft level and keep your speed in the 80-100mph range then let the plane descend not faster than 500ft/min. At this point you should be ALMOST fighting against stall and should be a 3 wheel landing. As soon as you touch down, keep pulling the nose up to lock your tail wheel and use the left or right wheel brakes intermittently to prevent the plane from yawing too much.

When you chop throttle on landing, the Combat Trim does not corrects enough the yaw that was generated by the rudder to fight the engine torque to keep the plane in a straight line on the ground. To counter that, either don't use Combat Trim on landing or add a little bit of power to give your rudder more authority and yaw stability WHILE applying full brakes or a single side here and there.

You can practice landing by trying to keep the plane level at high altitude and slow down as much as possible without stalling (with flaps and landing gear down) and see how much power you need to add to keep it that way. Once you master that, practice it in a real landing. Once you master the landing, practice taxiing on the ground with different engine settings. Once you master that, try landing on a carrier. Once you master that, rolling/landing an aircraft on the ground will be as normal as driving/parking your car.

To sum up: practice, practice, practice.

[RTHolmes]

Love the spit9 & spit16, however, everytime I fly the spits I suffer land-
ing problems, especially in Spit16, it's either too fast, cant get the flaps down or probs in keeping it on a straight line whilst landing.

Any advice, or better yet, a "Landing film"?  Thx much.  BTW, am having the EXACT same problems in landing the Spit14.

I'm going to disagree with lepape here - always use a combat landing, its safer and quicker. in a spit you can come in over the field at 400mph/500ft and be in the tower 20s later. see the trainers site:

http://trainers.hitechcreations.com/combatlanding/combatlanding.htm

(same for the spit, just drop flaps after your gear is down)

[Lepape2]

Agree but for starters, a normal approach landing is best suited for learning.

[gpwurzel]

Found in the Last Battle, drain wing tanks first and go back to the drop tank (helps with roll rate). Ditch the DT before engaging.

Take the fight uphill, keep it fast and agile and its a beast of a plane. Yoyo's, rudder and angles are your friend.

Wurzel (by far not a good pilot, but it works for me)

[BaldEagl]

Where the Spit IX, VIII and XVI easily transition from stall fighting to E fighting the XIV does not.  It's strictly an E fighter and therefore you'll want to keep the speed up and maintain energy.  While, like the IX, the XIV is best suited to higher alt work it can run down some of the fastest planes in the game (P-51D, 190D-9, etc.) on the deck with only a small (say a couple of K) alt advantage at icon range.

Like the IX, the XIV has a dead spot in engine performance from 20-23K (17-20K in the IX) but comes alive once the dead zone is past.

If you do feel the need to get down and dirty in it near the deck be aware that it's more like flying a poorer turning XVI with a more pronounced stall.  That said, the engine has a lot more power and in some ways compares to the other Spits the way the K4 compares to the other 109's.  That extra engine power helps the XIV to both accelerate faster and improves initial climb rates from low speed fights over the VIII and XVI but if you don't use that small advatage early or at the right time, once up to speed, the VIII or XVI will perform as well.

While you can play BnZ with the XIV as well as you can with the other Spit's it's no better at it, and maybe worse, because you can build too much speed too easily in the XIV and easily tear the wings off, particularily when pulling out of a dive.  Be careful, use your throttle and watch your speed... 480ish is about tops as it is with the other Spits.