Sorry for not hopping in here sooner.. missed the thread!
Ok; Duck.. nope; dammit I didn't record. Somebody make a note to thread HTC on auto shutdown on recorder at exit plane. The few times I remembered to turn it on; I forgot to turn it off. And I usually fly for several hours.. till my HD fills up.
The situation. Hang (P51D) and Duck (F4U1C) merge co alt; 15k, Hang has a slight E advantage. I merge with a brisk pull up; looking over for his inital turn direction; I go with him for a one circle fight. No WAY am I giving that damn big blue beast even a single snap shot opportunity.
The first two turns spell the tale.. The ducks slower and he don't have the turn necessary to gain angles. In fact; it looks like he cashed a few more chips than I at the merge.. he went for the throat on the first turn and slowed more than I did. I just wanted to test the water; and after 2 turns his slight angles edge at the merge was gone and it became apparent I was going to (over 5 or six revolutions) get right on his butt.
The spiral is descending fairly sharply at this point.. it's bordering on a scissors; but I'm staying higher as we get close; and again; I'm not about to let that damn thing get a shot. I'm often pulling some black through these descents.. opening the spiral some; actually shedding some angles gains to keep a scissors from developing.
Duck is playing it cool; he's not loosing much.. but he also aint' gaining much. In his shoes; I'da headed the hell outta dodge by the time we got thru 8-9 k on the descent. Reason.. this Mustang ain't giving any shot opportunities. It's flying very sharp; and it won't get close enuff for a defensive scissors in the vertical descent and it's held on to that E edge. And it acts like it's got all the time in the world...
And I did. Folks, I was stroking the radar up and down every ten seconds. I had him inside the dar envelope for bish f7; and was watching for the cavalry to appear. Had it; I'da been outta dodge in a heartbeat.
The final Chips: as we come thru 8k. Now it's ante up or fold time. Having gained a few degrees in each of the previous descending spiral turns, there being no other cons about to knock my fin off, and being close enuff to my own field to feel that this will play out in fuel range of my base, I tucked the stang into the turn harder; deployed 10 degrees of flap; closed upp the throttle and pulled to a black hole. Lo and behold; the f4u stays with the turn and we flatten out right on the deck.. 500 feet. Now we get to see who's gonna break the circle first.. because on the deck flat turning; the guy that tosses the towel in first gets the nylon letdown.
He continues to pull the turn.. around and round to the left we go; I continue to make a few degrees on each pass. I have plenty of wep; about 1/8 of a tank of fuel and 10 degrees of flap out; flying the stall warning horn hoarse and ruddering the nose up a bit to make the circle less flat. Micro-yo-yo's.
I'm working the Mustang in a stallfight on the deck under its best config to do so; and I'm guessing the F4U is not so blessed.. because he ain't gettin any closer around the circle.
The F4u appears to be turning with 30-40 degrees of flap.. and is wallowing a bit. I watch his nose and wings.. slight weaving is apparent. He's deeper in the stall; and slower. This is why I'm gaining. Is he wepped out? Is he fuel heavy?? Empty ext tank still on? I dunno. I'm mildly surprised.. I expected a late scissors reverse; but instead; he folds his hand and starts an extend on the most distant point of our circle. By the book.
I smile. His only defensive move now is a flat scissors on the deck when I catch him.. and I WILL catch him. He starts the weave with a break to the right while I'm about 800 yards back; I simply pull up a bit and roll inverted. As he starts to roll back to the left I pull down; point the nose at his tail and start a reduced power lag turn; and pull hard to lead as he breaks left. If I miss the shot I can kick the wep back in and at full throttle, haul back over him and repeat.. but his planform fills the gunsight; and at 120 yards I give him the full 3 second dose.
Where did Duck go wrong?? He did everything 'by the book'.. except depart when he had a chance at 8k.. Half of the alt gone and no clear edge means yer in deep doggie doo.. get out when yah can if the other guy seems to have more cards than you.
I knew by watching his turns that this was no newbie.. he was playing the F4U's cards pretty well.. the only edge I had at the start was a hair more E.. and when he saw he couldn't trump that E card he shoulda tossed the book an tried to start the scissors immediately; or gotten outta dodge.
Note: The F4u has gear deployment avail up to 400mph. He coulda chopped the throttle; popped as much flap as airpeed allowed; dumped the gear out and started a tight spiral dive putting his canopy towards me at all times. No way a stang can stay with that.. Id'a HAD to pull up or squirt by; and when I did pull up (no one with half a brain is gonna let his P51 get in front of an F4u); He shoulda pulled gear in; flaps up; wep on and dove out for home; opening up the distance as much as possible. If he can get to d3 seperation; he can turn back and give me 'old facefull'.. because If the stang driver is so inclined; he can catch yah. Eventually.
Me; I'da had to turn for home.. I only arrived in his view to investigate a con near my base as I as RTB for fuel.. I had not the gas to chase...
All in all a very good fight. Under those circumstances.. clear air; just the two of us; no obstructions like canyon terrain.. these are places and circumstances for 'match duel'; type of flying. The arena rarely offers this freedom; and a Mustang will encounter few adversaries it can clobber in a turnfight. The two I'll try on are another Mustang; and an F4u. All others have such a significant turn edge that a co-e co-alt fight is a walkover for the stangs adversary.
Duck happened to be in the wrong plane; the wrong place; at the wrong time. If nothing else.. remember the ROE as taught by my cat: Attack DOWN. Evade UP
Learned this from watching my cat fly. (12 kills in AW) Tho dammed if it ain't funny as hell watching a p51 attempt to climb a tree trying evade a ravening howling spitfire. *sigh* I guess some things work lots better without a plane.
Salute Duck! Damn good fight.
Hang
