"Starter" plane (s)

[The Fugitive]

the spitfire does everything good..... you can perform maneuvers that will leave you in a bad way yet still be able to pull it back around or go vertical or whatever it is you need to do, at any givin moment..... which you can not do in almost every other plane in AH.....

What should be pointed out then is....

"Don't think your going to be able to pull the same moves in other planes as you do a spit, of course this can be said of any plane in the set"

[hawkeye61]

In my limited experience, I'd say start with a Spitfire as well.

Then, when you lose the diapers and training wheels, try something like a 109 and see if you don't have to take your game to a new level.

Then, find a good wingman and take the mighty Hellcat out and kick some tail. 

[Oldman731]

What exactly are those "bad habits" which a Spit will somehow force upon a new player?

The Spits will not teach you the importance of energy management as well as virtually any other plane will.  Their energy retention and gain are superior to most other aircraft.

The Spits will not push you to learn vertical tactics, because their horizontal turns are so effective you won't need to learn the energy egg.

The Spits will not teach you good gunnery, because they have adequate ammunition supplies and some of the most effective cannon in the game.

The Spits will not teach you good evasive maneuvers, because their break turns alone are almost always enough to get you out of trouble.

The Spits will develop overconfidence with overuse; pilots so affected get really grouchy when they're forced to fly another plane for one reason or another.  The result often is that they never move on from the Spitfire.

There are probably more bad habits that continued Spit use will entail, but these are the ones that first come to my mind.

- oldman

[BaldEagl]

The Spits will not teach you the importance of energy management as well as virtually any other plane will.  Their energy retention and gain are superior to most other aircraft.

They actually do teach you energy management in the form of throttle control.  You don't have to do much to retain E but you have to control throttle to manage it against most planes

The Spits will not push you to learn vertical tactics, because their horizontal turns are so effective you won't need to learn the energy egg.

Maybe early on but the Spit is superior in the vert and once someone figures that out they won't stop using it.  As to the energy egg see my reply to the first comment.

The Spits will not teach you good gunnery, because they have adequate ammunition supplies and some of the most effective cannon in the game.

No argument unless it's a V but it's still a far cry from a spray and prayer like a Jug or a Pony or a N1K or...

The Spits will not teach you good evasive maneuvers, because their break turns alone are almost always enough to get you out of trouble.

They'll still teach you the timing of break moves and that's a big thing for a noob to learn.  Break too early or too late and you're still dead.

The Spits will develop overconfidence with overuse; pilots so affected get really grouchy when they're forced to fly another plane for one reason or another.  The result often is that they never move on from the Spitfire.

I've flown Spits for 16 years.  I fly other planes regularly and I don't get grouchy.  The end result is I fly Spits and everything else on occasion but keep flying Spits because of their iconic history.  Besides that they are good in one on many engagements which is what the MA is often about.

There are probably more bad habits that continued Spit use will entail, but these are the ones that first come to my mind.

- oldman

[Debrody]

2 years ago, i started flying on spitfires. It was great since i was a total newb without any ideas about air combat maneuvering, still, i could get many kills and that kept up my interest. True, i changed to the 109G6 in a month, by personal preference, and that was like when youre opening a door and step outside... there is a wonderful new world undiscovered.

Flying spitfires in the MA wont teach anything better but the very basic maneuvering: since its superior both in the vertical or horisontal, just copy your opponents moves, and you win, or just loop and you win, or just do circles without flaps and you win, amazing. Exactly what Ink said: in a spit you arent forced to use the planes full capacity. And midway is a perfect example of it. Im not saying, pick n running in a pony/190/f4u/tiffie/whatever is any better... In the other hand, dueling in a spitfire is just as entertaining as in any other aircraft. The 16 can even do 109 style tailwhip moves, but as smoothly and quickly... mindblowing.

Try the 109F, Ki84, La7, F6F, all wonderful planes, and if you really fight in them (not only BnZ, not only picknrun, but stick around and fight), they will help you a lot more than a spit. My 2 cents.

Best wishes,
Debrődy

[Full Metal Jug]

Hello,
What would be a reasonable choice to start  with ?  Looking for something that can keep up with the pack so i don't get myself isolated and out of my depth.
That's all I've been doing so far, staying in the pack and trying to work out what the hell I'm doing  

Honestly if you really really want to get a very hard to grip fighter so that you're pretty good with all the others, go with the P-47. You can learn quite a bit from flying Thunderbolts, that plane taught me how to energy fight, bomb, use rockets, how to do maneuvers at high speeds, how to use flaps to their fullest, how to land, how to BnZ, lead targets, not to use rudder or else that will cause less stability, and many many valuable attributes. I was pretty poor because I used key board all of my tours, but now I have an X-52, and now I can't find my buttons half the time.

Good luck <S>
Saludos

PS- you get 3600 chances to hit somebody.

[danny76]

Just ignore what I said.   Bruv has spoken and is way more worth listening to than me.   

Spitfires are not that easy because they are more fragile and harder for them to run when the situation calls for it. 

Wise words

[Midway]

Just ignore what I said.  Bruv has spoken and is way more worth listening to than me.  

Spitfires are not that easy because they are more fragile and harder for them to run when the situation calls for it.  

Wiser words.

... find out who the best pilots are, find out who the official trainers are in the TA.... and listen to them to avoid the confusion and make fast progress.

Wisest words.   

[danny76]

Wiser words.

Wisest words.   

Get off the poor guy

[Delirium]

I encourage new players to fly aircraft that don't have a lot of surprises, and don't depart in a horrible fashion. Also, as much as I like the 109F/G2, it can be frustrating not scoring kills with their ammo load.

Spit 8 or 9
F6
Yak9U
La5
109F4/G2
Niki
----

Do NOT stay in those planes long, or your ability to advance to something heavier will be difficult, sadly some never advance. After comfortable in the above, try similar aircraft with less performance. I flew the Tiff for well over a year before I moved on, don't be afraid to advance when you feel comfortable.

[Ten60]

Wisest words.   

Quoting yourself=

[Midway]

Quoting yourself=
(Image removed from quote.)

True.

But the advice, I believe, is sound.

[Butcher]

Flying spitfires in the MA wont teach anything better but the very basic maneuvering: since its superior both in the vertical or horisontal, just copy your opponents moves, and you win, or just loop and you win, or just do circles without flaps and you win, amazing. Exactly what Ink said: in a spit you arent forced to use the planes full capacity. And midway is a perfect example of it. Im not saying, pick n running in a pony/190/f4u/tiffie/whatever is any better... In the other hand, dueling in a spitfire is just as entertaining as in any other aircraft. The 16 can even do 109 style tailwhip moves, but as smoothly and quickly... mindblowing.

Best wishes,
Debrődy

Spitfires doesn't promote SA or ACM period, to win at dogfighting you have to learn the advantages and disadvantages of all aircraft in the game. Flying one plane that circles everything else doesn't promote anything other then a kill here and there.
Attributes and learning need to be acquired, simple things like the P51-D is one of the fastest prop driven planes in the game, the A6m2 is one of the tighest turning planes in the game.

You have to learn your aircraft inside out to be effective, flying a Spit8 will not teach someone the basic fundamentals of ACM/SA - rather it makes it easy to ignore attributes other aircraft's have.

Best thing to do really is pick an aircraft that interests YOU only, and learn everything you can about it, what it does compared to other aircraft. No matter what you do you are not going to get a P51-D to win in a horizontal turn match with an A6m period.
You have to think outside the box and learn the attributes, the Aces high Game Info/Planes page give a very good description of aircraft and show you what its power/weaknesses are.

I never started out flying a Spitfire, La7 or N1k, (this is my opinion now) chose two aircraft every tour to learn their attributes and qualities, Sometimes I went with a Turn fighter, othertimes something to Boom and Zoom.
The Idea is to learn the attributes and move on to the next plane sets until you get a basic understanding of ALL aircraft in the game.

to this day I still do this, although once you learn the basic grasps of the aircraft you can expand your range of aircraft per tour, right now I am up to four aircrafts.

Start out by choosing one aircraft, then expand onto two when you get bored, keep at it and you will learn a ton along the way.

[Hazard69]

Point everyone seems to be missing here, is that a new player does need some positive encouragement to keep on playing. Spit being a spit, makes his life a whole lot easier (in terms of basic flying) so that he can actually concentrate on some other stuff (like looking around to keep his backside alive) and maybe, just maybe get a kill once in a while. Not many are made of stuff some of you gents seem to be. Not many would get shot down 100 times, with nothing to show for it and still keep playing.

IMHO, limited though as it maybe, a spitfire is the ideal starting plane, so everyone can learn basic manoeuvres and such. After that, its personal preference.

[morfiend]

Point everyone seems to be missing here, is that a new player does need some positive encouragement to keep on playing. Spit being a spit, makes his life a whole lot easier (in terms of basic flying) so that he can actually concentrate on some other stuff (like looking around to keep his backside alive) and maybe, just maybe get a kill once in a while. Not many are made of stuff some of you gents seem to be. Not many would get shot down 100 times, with nothing to show for it and still keep playing.

IMHO, limited though as it maybe, a spitfire is the ideal starting plane, so everyone can learn basic manoeuvres and such. After that, its personal preference.

  Exactly!

  The OP asked for a starter plane,not the best plane to fight in but a plane to start learning in.   

  Opinions vary!