F4u and usage of flaps in rolling scissors

[Black Jack]

I've tried flying the F4u's a little bit and like em very much in rolling scissors once ur at those speeds. I encounter some kind of problems and wonder what the guys flying em all the time are doing. While working flaps and throttle to manoeuver in the rolling scissors i'm thinking specificaly when setting up for the crossing shot. I use the flaps to "pull" my nose faster in the flight path of the red guy and kinda wait there going straight for a split second for the shot. I found that I missed a lot of perfect setups because the plane pulls up by itself just enough to shoot straight over the con when i'm still with flaps on. A better pilot will counter my setup by showing me the smallest profile possible and that's when I just miss him. My question is.. do you guys retract flaps as soon as u brought the nose where u want it or u push the stick a little to keep it straight or plan C, something completely different than that? Tks

Black70

[BillyD]

It sounds like you have the right ideas....the real good pilots won't give you much of a shot at all!..., I tend to use the flaps a bit more on the way down in the scissor to " cut the corner" faster when pulling lead ( as well as increase throttle to gain E ) and then reduce throttle and let gravity slow me on the way up lagging a bit. I like this setup as it often lets me get inside my opponets loop and I get an easy shot . Some folks like the other way around chopping throttle going down and increasing to climb whatever works for ya. Most important thing I've found with that bird is to not overflap....just use a few notches.....she does not accelerate very well and you can leave your self flopping with no e very quickly ( save the friggin F4u4 LOL )

Mtnman is the guy here when it comes to F4us...seek him out. He will graciously show you what he knows and he is a real nice guy ta boot

[The Fugitive]

Are you flying with "combat trim" on? combat trims has a tendency to pull your nose up a bit and this might be giving you the trouble. Personally, in the F4 I try to get the flaps in as quick as I can just for the reason BillyD said. Loosing "E" too quick in an F4 can give you trouble if you miss your shots..... and I miss alot of them  

[Belial]

Unless your fighting a zeke or brewster...Hurri2   those sort of planes you can out flat turn pretty much anything in it including spits.  Just drop them flaps and start your round a bout, be it loops or flat turns you'll get solutions 90% of time.

Just watch your 6 when slow like this, otherwise BNZ em cause it dives like a monster.

[Big Rat]

Black70,

As someone else mentioned, combat trim will tend to make you nose up with the flaps down, I don't know if you have this on or not while doing this.  Another plan of action is when you are waiting for the con to pass for your shot, set up your lift vector in his line of travel, just before shooting (do this too early and a good stick will pull out of his current flightpath to spoil shot).  In other words aquire where he will pull across your nose, and pull your lift vector in his same line of travel before shooting.  Two things this will do, first it will take some of the lift off the plane for the shot (use a tad of rudder to correct if nescessary), and if you miss the shot or don't hit hard enough you are still in a trailing position.  So you are far better off then if you had to roll in order to get your lift vector correct in order to follow again, giving the con more time to get farther away from your nose.  If you want to work with the Hog, send me a PM and we can set up some times.

 
BigRat   

[Latrobe]

When I use flaps in the F4U I also tend to have the same problem, the nose lifts up too much and I shoot over them. What I tend to do now is not shoot at them during a rolling scissors fight, and instead wait until they try to get out of the fight. Luckily the F4U is a beast with flaps and I can keep turning inside them for as long as I have fuel. 

[Black Jack]

Tks guys, I think by your response flaps in should be better. Big Rat  I like that idea, will try that for sure, but by rolling early like this, the con will disappear under ur nose. If u lose him too soon, even if he keeps on going on the same path u have even less time to correct. Not that u have a lot of time anyways     In the crossing shot it's probably less than a quarter of a second to line up and connect something. Will keep working at it. I was in a P38 the other night and same thing was happening, overshooting by inches over the darn plane.   I was keeping my flaps out to slow me down vs a Mossy but kept shooting over his head. I was just keeping flaps down, zero throttle because once ur gliding down too fast ur flaps come in anyways. For the guys who asked about combat trim. I don't touch it at all since I read it was used by the 109 guys and I don't fly them that much. So, I will keep on trying and keep my flaps in when ready for the shot. Tks again

[Big Rat]

Tks guys, I think by your response flaps in should be better. Big Rat  I like that idea, will try that for sure, but by rolling early like this, the con will disappear under ur nose. If u lose him too soon, even if he keeps on going on the same path u have even less time to correct. Not that u have a lot of time anyways     In the crossing shot it's probably less than a quarter of a second to line up and connect something.

You are correct he will be out of your sight for a second, the trick is to do this just before firing.  If you get real good at it you can actually roll over to his lift vector as he's crossing, thereby not losing sight.  Takes good timing and plane control to pull it off real quick like that and not spoiling your aim.  My offer still stands if you wish to work on this.

 
BigRat