Fear The Gear!

[warhed]

After years of dropping my gear down during stall fights and similar maneuvering, often to quite the benefit of the fight, I never could explain why it worked.  I always figured it had something to do with adding in that extra stability from the gear, during times of flight when you're very unstable.  The effect is most pronounced in fighters like the 110, 152, Mosquito, and P-39s.  
I also frequently get beef for this "gamey" behaviour, a lot of comments like, "Nice gear, but you would never actually do that in real life."  And, "No pilots ever did that in WWII planes."

You can imagine my great personal satisfaction (which is limitless by the way), that while reading Bob Hoover's autobiography Forever Flying, I came across this passage where he talked about getting to fly the P-39, which he was quite excited about...

     "At ten thousand feet, I pulled the nose up steeply, cut the power, and presto, the plane started to tumble.  A flat spin followed, and I panicked for an instant trying to get my bearings.  I tried conventional recovery controls, but none of them worked.
     Instinctively I dropped the landing gear and lowered the flaps to upset the gyroscopic effect.  To my amazement, the P-39 went into a conventional nose-down spin.  I recovered the airplane with plenty of room to spare.  Satisfied with the effort, I couldn't wait to land and share my experience with the other pilots."

He goes on to explain the same maneuver also worked well with the P-40.  And a Czech pilot named it the Lomcovak, Czech for Headache.
This also, was not something he only did because it was an emergency, he intentionally got the P-39 to stall and spin, after hearing how deadly it was to so many pilots. 

Yay!!!!

And always, Fear The Gear!

  
 

[Karnak]

I have read more than one account of Mosquito pilots dropping their gear to use as air brakes.  At least one had the gear jam when he dropped them at 350mph and had to fly back to the UK with the gear extended.

[LCADolby]

I only fear the Gear for the split second I hear it creek, then snap off. 

[warhed]

I have read more than one account of Mosquito pilots dropping their gear to use as air brakes.  At least one had the gear jam when he dropped them at 350mph and had to fly back to the UK with the gear extended.

I use them in the mossie to gain nose down authority at stall speeds in a fight.   Gives you extra stability to prevent an unrecoverable stall and a little more control at those slow speeds.

[RealDeal]

Sounds like he did that to break a spin not as planed dogflight maneuver. Were you in a flat spin? I think when people mention that a WW2 pilot wouldnt actually do that..they mean that in the context of a dogfight.

PS. You'll always be ManPleaser to me.

[warhed]

Sounds like he did that to break a spin not as planed dogflight maneuver. Were you in a flat spin? I think when people mention that a WW2 pilot wouldnt actually do that..they mean that in the context of a dogfight.

PS. You'll always be ManPleaser to me.

Except it was a planned maneuver
You'll always be EasyKill to me

[save]

I know Klaus Mietusch of JG26 did pull out his gear on his 109G6, to make the plane dirty, to make an overshoot on a p51 belonging to 361th FG, however it did not end up well for him, he got killed in that duel

[bozon]

I heard of pilots that were dogfighting with their tongues hanging out of their mouths. It does not mean it helped them win the fight. Same for the gears.

In real life gears deploy slowly and in some planes, asymmetrically (one before the other). In AH they are a toggle (in spite of the animation, the effect is instantaneous) and some players flip them in/out constantly. This is the gamey part of the story. You can find several of these anecdotes of pilots in different planes, how they pulled off this desperate move and won the day. What is not clear is: did dropping the gears actually made any difference to the final result? In AH almost every fight that you won "by dropping the gears" you would have won even without dropping them. 90% of the effect is in your mind because we like to think that the last actions, especially when they are "cool" ones, are what made the difference.

The problem with anecdotes is that we have special witnesses. The other part of the statistics that we are missing is how many pilots pulled the "gears down" trick and this got them killed. They do not tend to write this (or anything else after that) in their memoirs.

The story about the P-39 spin is a different case as pointed out above - changing the aerodynamics of the plane in order to get out of a spin is a logical thing to try. We also know that those that did not pull out their gears tended to crush.

Mossies did use their gears as speed breaks, but on the offense, not defense, and not in "maneuvering". Mosquitoes had a "problem" of being too aerodynamic, meaning it was hard for them to close quickly on a target's 6 and then break to stay there and not overshoot. Night fighters especially have a problem with estimating the closure and distance to their target till they nearly ram it. Such sleek planes are also considered difficult for tight formation flying - a draggy plane with a strong engine is easier for maintaining formation because acceleration/deceleration is quick. In AH the mossie gears drop at very low speeds (170?). Mossies can be made to "fly" (more like hang in there, balanced and slowly sinking) very slow, but they develop a lateral instability. Perhaps by dropping the gears it help to dump down nose swings, but I never really tested it. When I am in such situations I am too busy to mess around with the gears, which I will likely break a moment later.

[RTHolmes]

recently heard an interview with a FB mossie pilot describing an attack on a bunch of Ju88 long-range fighters they found rtbing to France on the deck. he and his squad had a few 1000 feet on the 88s so they rolled in "opening our bomb bay doors to control the dive." the way he said it was so matter-of-fact that I can only assume it was SOP.

I use it now in AH, it works great

[captain1ma]

ask any pilot, dropping gear in a flat spin is a known recovery maneuver.

doing it in a dogfight in aces high? well all i can say is feel free to do it in front of me! i've shot down many a plane and pilot,  that thought that dropping gear in front of me was a good idea. makes for a nice fat, juicy, slow target! and while you're at it, make sure you kill your engine too.

 

[warhed]

ask any pilot, dropping gear in a flat spin is a known recovery maneuver.

doing it in a dogfight in aces high? well all i can say is feel free to do it in front of me! i've shot down many a plane and pilot,  that thought that dropping gear in front of me was a good idea. makes for a nice fat, juicy, slow target! and while you're at it, make sure you kill your engine too.

 

First you have to get behind me

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/newscores/killsin.php?playername=warhed&kcnt=206&selectTour=LWTour152&pindex=57

I've met many a pilots who think a mossie can't turn.   My gear dropped in the vast majority of these kills.   

[Debrody]

I use this in the 190s to slow me down and help keeping my flaps opened.

[save]

190a8 have a handbrake ,by just pulling up and throttle off hard, it drops some 100mph+ in less than a second and do automatic rolling scissor to the left.

[bozon]

First you have to get behind me

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/newscores/killsin.php?playername=warhed&kcnt=206&selectTour=LWTour152&pindex=57

I've met many a pilots who think a mossie can't turn.   My gear dropped in the vast majority of these kills.   

But could you have made these kills without dropping the gear? Does making a cross motion on their body before throwing penalty shots help basketball players score more? I suppose it does if you think it does.

Mossies turn much better than what most people think. The flaps are also quite effective once the speed is under 190 and they come out. In term of ranking, I'd place it at the top of the bottom 1/3, meaning that it turns better than most late war speed demons. This is to say, provided that it still has its super-WEP functional. The secret weapon of the mossie is ignorance. There are very few of us that up mossies with full intentions to dogfight and most player just go at it like it's a bomber. They also dont know it will outclimb many fighters. They check the HTC performance charts, but what they do not know is that these numbers are for a mossie with 100% fuel (70 minutes MIL that nobody carries) and 2*500 bombs in the bay...

What I did find impressive about your scores is that you managed to kill at least 1 of every kind, including GVs. Very nice 

[mechanic]

Heh, if it works who says you cant do it?
As far as I know the lomcovac is nothing to do with the gear being down, it's the name of a certain type of tumble.