Classical conversation on ch1 last night

[Hortlund]

Situation: Pilot 1 has just shot down Pilot 2

Pilot 1: Pilot 2, Might I give you a small suggestion for next time?

Pilot 2: Yes?

Pilot 1: Drop your DT's before dogfighting next time.

Edit: You could almost hear Pilot 2s Homer Simpson like Doh! across the internet too. hehe

The names have of cource been deleted to protect the innocent. The conversation made me laugh so hard I woke up my wife and son last night though.

[ 01-03-2002: Message edited by: Hortlund ]

[Broes]

I actually regularly dogfight with DT. As long as I am 'out of troubles' way and there is no threat of someone getting up my six, i wont drop'm... Unless I furball ala base defense  

Broes

[Ripsnort]

I once placed my DT perfectly square onto the top of an Ostie, before relizing I had the DT  active and not my 1k bomb...  I was promptly shot down on extension as well, bomb still intact on me belly....

[Drunky]

ROFL Rip

[Wilbus]

[MadBirdCZ]

Hmm... i remember figting several 109s in CT which had the DTs under belly all the time... They all died... I remember seeing RL guncamera footage where the planes also carried DTs (which made nice balls of fire after being hit).  But regarding me I do not drop DTs unless I know im heading for trouble... When I dive on bombers I usualy keep my tank(s) on but if i see higher con closing on me DTs go down immediately .

Well about 3 months ago (on Mindanao map in MA) I happened to fly a 190A-8 (75+DT) and I noticed 190D-9 few k below me. So i went inverted and after it... After a few minutes lasting fight I shot it down...  Then I checked my fuel status.. it showed 50%, not bad I said to myself. Then I noticed it showed 50% EXT! Oh Oh...    Then I checked log to see who was that dora driver... You Shot down HiTech... Oh Oh...   After that I had a strange feeling that disco is coming my way  

So you see you can fight with DT but  I still think that dogfighting with DT is more due to mistake than an intention...

[Seeker]

I have one of those picture books on Jugs, and one of the pictures shows a young blond pilot stood on the wing of his black Jug looking very miserable. His oil lines were cut on a sraffing mission, and the oil is *allover* his plane, the windshield etc.

So he's made it to target, done his straffing run and got home missing all his oil,
And his DT is still on......

(Lt Edwin L. King, P47-D, 350th FG)

[K West]

"So you see you can fight with DT but  I still think that dogfighting with DT is more due to mistake than an intention..."

 Most definately. A few days ago I'd taken up a Tiffie with two drop tanks and ran into a nice fight. I got two 109's and a 190 during the melee. When all was said and done and I was bingo ammo I looked down to see if I could make it home on my fuel and noticed I was still feeding from the external tanks.  
 Oddly enough the Tiffie felt like a better fighter (in a turn fight) with the tanks on than not.

  Westy

[mrsid2]

One of the first times that I flew the pony in AH I took the two droptanks and started to grab with intent.

I finally met an almost co-alt con, droped the fuel and dove under him. I judged he was pretty low on E so I pulled hard to vertical in hope he'd try to follow me to a rope.

As I was desperately trying to hammerhead the pony went into a nasty flat spin that wouldn't recover. I had little pony time under me so I thought the pony was just hard to fly.. In the end I pulled it out of the spin only to notice I still had the right droptank still in place LOL. My friendly advice: Do NOT try to hammerhead with a droptank attached to your wing  

[Raider_DD]

Rip was perfectly correct.  They are not called 'Keep Tanks', are they?

I have been aquainted with a certain RL pilot who demonstrated this at the Fallon range many years ago.