Intense Fur-ball Life Expectancy?

[titanic3]

From what I've notice, if you go vertical for more than a few seconds, chances are you're about to e jumped. Either kill the con in a split second and dive back down or don't go vertical at all.

[Randy1]

P47 guys a question.  I really like the P47 but I have a short life when things get hairy.  Is there a speed you try to maintain in a furball or any dogfight situation.?  I get into trouble quickly when in my P47N by turning too tight.  Do you turn in larger arcs to keep the speed higher and use speed as your advantage?  The plane goes fast given time and turn-climbs great but if I get caught burning off speed turning too much and too low to dive there seems to be no way out of the situation.

I know when I fly the La7 it is quick to accelerate after a tight turn.  At least so far I survive the longest in an La7 because I can keep the plane changing directions continuously.

[Dragon]

I prefer the 11 or 25 in a furball.  Yes, keep it above 250 or you're going to find yourself in big trouble.  Jugs always attract attention since the other birds do accelerate better.  I like chopping throttle and letting them get in front of me, if they don't ram they get a real close dose of .50 cal.

[mtnman]

P47 guys a question.  I really like the P47 but I have a short life when things get hairy.  Is there a speed you try to maintain in a furball or any dogfight situation.?  I get into trouble quickly when in my P47N by turning too tight.  Do you turn in larger arcs to keep the speed higher and use speed as your advantage?  The plane goes fast given time and turn-climbs great but if I get caught burning off speed turning too much and too low to dive there seems to be no way out of the situation.

I know when I fly the La7 it is quick to accelerate after a tight turn.  At least so far I survive the longest in an La7 because I can keep the plane changing directions continuously.

I stick to the F4U, but one of my favorite tactics that I use would work for the P47 as well...

Simply fly through the fight at whatever alt puts you above about 2/3 of the enemy planes.  Get one or two of the higher enemy to latch onto your tail, and take them to one side of the fight.  Kill him/them, and then go back and get another one.

Most fights have a tendency to run in a line between two fields.  If that line is say, north-south, take your victims to the east or west to get a touch of privacy...

I basically only fly "lone wolf" style, and prefer to be outnumbered by enemies.  That said, I don't like to get swarmed either...  One of my favorite pastimes is hunting the edges of the mob, and singling a lamb or two to drag out and slaughter.  Flying this way is one of the tactics that will have you running out of fuel and ammo once you figure it out...

Also, I never seem to have any trouble finding decent 1v1 fights hunting the swarms like this.

[Wiley]

P47 guys a question.  I really like the P47 but I have a short life when things get hairy.  Is there a speed you try to maintain in a furball or any dogfight situation.?  I get into trouble quickly when in my P47N by turning too tight.  Do you turn in larger arcs to keep the speed higher and use speed as your advantage?  The plane goes fast given time and turn-climbs great but if I get caught burning off speed turning too much and too low to dive there seems to be no way out of the situation.

I know when I fly the La7 it is quick to accelerate after a tight turn.  At least so far I survive the longest in an La7 because I can keep the plane changing directions continuously.

My general rule of thumb for working a crowd in a jug is never get below 250mph, conserve your E as much as possible, don't zoom sharply or dump your E unless you absolutely have to.  The jug takes so long to get speed back, getting slow puts you in high danger for half a minute or more, and most stuff that will come at you at that point can out-turn you with ease.

Keeping speed and making relatively wide looping turns, with shallow climbs where I can, looking for an enemy aircraft to come into my vector of fire is what I'm looking for in a jug in a furball.

In any aircraft, one of my rules is never zoom in a crowd and expect to live.

Wiley.

[LilMak]

The Key to the jug in a large furball is entry speed. I like to get a full head of steam (300 mph+) and come at the furnalls from angles rather than headlong when I'm intending to survive. While it's true the D-25 and D-11 turn better at slow speed the M and N jugs accelerate better and provide more getaway speed when the turds start hitting the fan. Speed is certainly your friend but overshoots work well when you do get slow. Try to keep the fights going downhill and try to keep a little alt in reserve to provide yourself a diving escape.

[Zoney]

My general rule of thumb for working a crowd in a jug is never get below 250mph, conserve your E as much as possible, don't zoom sharply or dump your E unless you absolutely have to.  The jug takes so long to get speed back, getting slow puts you in high danger for half a minute or more, and most stuff that will come at you at that point can out-turn you with ease.

Keeping speed and making relatively wide looping turns, with shallow climbs where I can, looking for an enemy aircraft to come into my vector of fire is what I'm looking for in a jug in a furball.

In any aircraft, one of my rules is never zoom in a crowd and expect to live.

Wiley.

Nearly the same as how I feel except it would be more like: Never zoom into a crowd with Wiley and expect to live.  <S> Wingie.

Radio conversations between us while wingin :

Me:  there are 10 guys coming to us now, we need to get out.

Wiley: pewpewpewpewpew

Me: these guys are diving in we need to go now man !

Wiley: pewpewpewpewpew

Me: you have 5 guys on you, I got 5 guys on me, I'm trying to take em off you, nose down now lets get the hell out !!!!!

Wiley: pewpewpewpewpew

Me: Oh what the hell, it's a good day to die, pewpewpewpewpew

Wiley: pewpewpewpewpew


Furballs with a friend are the very best.  It is the only time I could care less if I live or die.
It's a beautiful thing, whatever plans you had fail and you just gotta go with the flow.
Switching from one enemy to the next as the opportunity presents itself is such a ball !

And then, every now and again, the skies are clear, it's you and your wingy the last ones left, missing parts, leaking, and ya get to giggle all the way back to land.

That P47, I fly it fast when I can't fly it high.  Sinve she wont accelerate well you gotta keep her speed up, keep your eyes moving, if it seems you been on a guy's 6 to long, you have and his buddy is most likely on yours.

[JUGgler]

P47 guys a question.  I really like the P47 but I have a short life when things get hairy.  Is there a speed you try to maintain in a furball or any dogfight situation.?  I get into trouble quickly when in my P47N by turning too tight.  Do you turn in larger arcs to keep the speed higher and use speed as your advantage?  The plane goes fast given time and turn-climbs great but if I get caught burning off speed turning too much and too low to dive there seems to be no way out of the situation.

I know when I fly the La7 it is quick to accelerate after a tight turn.  At least so far I survive the longest in an La7 because I can keep the plane changing directions continuously.

If you're not familiar or not very experienced with the p47 line-up, I'd say the "N" is the wrong one to start with. The D11 or D40 would be my advice to getting use to JUGgling.



The D11 is IMHO the easiest JUG to use in the MA. It turns nicely, accelerates fair (at least for a JUG), has excellent rudder authority and very nice flaps.

The D40 is excellent for learning "energy management" with the P47 line, it maintains E better than all but the "N", dives like a raped ape, in fact I believe it would catch the "M" in a dive and is NOT the worst turning JUG.

The "M" is in a JUGgling class of its own, very fast, accelerates ok, turns fair but doesn't slow down as quickly as the other JUGS and IF you want to be successfull with the P47 you must learn how to "slow down" properly. Slowing down is NOT your enemy (no matter what most of these guys will tell you) always be friends with slowing down, embrace it and you will have success.

The D25 is IMHO the worst JUG of the lot, incidently it is my favorite! It is a train car with wings, easily the least refined and the dirtiest JUG in the inventory. Nothing fancy here just dirty dirty dirty. To start with the D25 would be a mistake also.

The "N", Oh boy how much good can I say about the "N"aughty lady? The "N" is truely interesting and very capable. It takes the most experience to get the most out of, but there is more to get for those who are experienced, slow, fast , high or low it is the ride for the P47 artist, a very gracefull and beautiful machine. Rolls very nice, floats like a cloud, rudder authority is on par with a corsair and once she has a head of steam, blisteringly fast.


It is easy to give up on the P47 line-up if you are choosing the wrong one for your experience level. Be patient, learn how to slow down, get efficient with flaps and rudder assist rolling and you will begin to improve.

A well flown JUG can be a very nasty suprise for those who take them for granted


Good luck, have fun 



JUGgler

[SPKmes]

When you have a few green guys with you..not bad...when you stray over that line....you all know it..the one when you all of a sudden notice only red icons....0 survival ....but heaps of fun trying to make a few auger before you go down

[Soulyss]

I've spent most of my AH-life as a furballer, it's the part of the game that I find most appealing.  A good furball is a constant risk-reward evaluation, I think by far the two most important skills to develop in a furball environment are SA and gunnery.  A furball rewards those who can kill quickly, if you have to saddle up on someone and hang there for a long time you are going to draw the attention of other cons and/or set yourself up for a drag by the target you're chasing.

When I arrive at the fight I like to have a little alt, I typically cruise around 8K.  This puts me either with a bit of an alt advantage for a low fight in the weeds, or with enough air under my wings to have options for enemies who arrive overhead.  Ideally I like to be a few thousand feet above the main fight, I think there is such a thing as too much alt.   I always try to orient myself to the landmarks in the area, I need to know which direction is the nearest enemy field and which direction is the nearest friendly field.  And I want to know if possible what direction that is w/out having to stop and pull up the map.  I want to know if "that" mountain is off my left wingtip then I'm heading N for example.  This let's you "cheat" a bit with your SA and pay more attention to a particular part of the sky that MOST of the bad guys will be coming from. Conversely I also know where most of my help is coming from. 

Assuming I'm on the perch and in a position to attack I keep that geographical orientation in mind when selecting targets, I always try to attack/dive either perpendicular to, or ideally away from the most likely avenue of approach. I don't want to surrender my alt and E chasing one guy under a bunch of his incoming friends.   Work the fight top down and when you're out of E take a bit of a breather and climb a bit, also practice situations where you don't have things they way you want them.  It's great to hold the advantage when you can but being equally comfortable starting from a lower E position goes a long way because you can't always dictate the starting parameters. 

Most MA furball victories are scored quickly, the longer that particular engagement goes the odds increase that either someone is going to "steal" your kill or you're going to get picked or jumped by someone else go up.  You CAN survive in a furball while mixing it up but there's a lot of threat management that goes into it.   

[Lusche]

The life expectancy of a genuine furball is pretty low these days, it's upcoming end being preceded by staments on country like "A3 is a waste of time, it's only a furball now" or "PONY MISSION POSTED" 


 

[Soulyss]

The life expectancy of a genuine furball is pretty low these days, it's upcoming end being preceded by staments on country like "A3 is a waste of time, it's only a furball now" or "PONY MISSION POSTED"  


 

Everytime I hear the bit about a furball being a waste of time I chuckle, as if sitting around playing cartoon fighter or bomber pilot isn't by definition a colossal waste of time.  I always thought that was kind of the point.  

[Randy1]

That was a great read.  I really appreciate y'all sharing your experience.

The other day I came across a P47 and I had an La7.  I was on top with lots of E with the P47 near the deck.  How could I loose I thought.  I got beat and beat with just plain better piloting.  I good see the other pilot using the skills y'all posted for sure.

I did better last night trying to put to use all the good advice.