Yak 3 Opinons?

[Fish42]

It's more durable than a Spitfire but not quite as durable as American Iron. Basically, you can survive one or two hits before you drop, at least in my experience.

But it is a smaller target then a spit too. Most snapshots I gave would only allow a few pings to land and mostly those were spread over the frame. But because it is so small any good hit is a bad thing.


           TIP
         WING            TIP
       FUELFUEL       ELEV
MOTOR/PILOT/BODY/TAIL
       FUELFUEL       ELEV
         WING            TIP
           TIP

There is not much in the way of none critical areas as its all packed so tight.

[Muzzy]

I suppose size might have something to do with it, although I know that I've taken my share of hard hits and survived. I've had my engine messed up and a couple of times I've lost a wing and kept it in the air. (Landing on 1 wing is kind of impossible though.) Between the speed, small size, reasonable agility and at least some durability, the Yak can be hard to bring down. In terms of overall performance, I'd say it's the equal or near-equal (but not the better) of most of the late-war non-perked rides in the game.

[bozon]

But it is a smaller target then a spit too. Most snapshots I gave would only allow a few pings to land and mostly those were spread over the frame. But because it is so small any good hit is a bad thing.


           TIP
         WING            TIP
       FUELFUEL       ELEV
MOTOR/PILOT/BODY/TAIL
       FUELFUEL       ELEV
         WING            TIP
           TIP

There is not much in the way of none critical areas as its all packed so tight.

This only means that the damage is spread over the various components instead of concentrated in destroying one. They are much more durable that I would have expected. On quite a few occasions they survived flying through the quad-hispano stream from a mossie, shedding a part or two, but continue flying. I attribute that to the above mentioned effect that spreads the damage, as well as being so small that part of the scatter pattern of the cannons just miss it by a hair.

As to how it flies, I seriously suspect something is wrong with its modeling at high AoA. First time I rolled it I pulled up into a steep climb after take off - it wouldn't slow down, so I kept pulling and completed a loop (more like an inverted gamma shape) going WTF?    I cannot prove it until I do some testing, but that takes time. 3500 feet per minute climb at 80 mph (70 mph below best climb speed, on the back side of the power curve) with full left rudder and stall buzzer howling is very suspicious. I may be wrong.

[Muzzy]

Below 5k it'll do 4100-4300 ft/sec but it starts to fall off after that. Based on a quick look, the K4 and Spit XIV will beat it coming off the deck. The La7 and Ki-84 are marginally better, but they both need WEP to do it.

[Zacherof]

Slow her down and the engine torque will make her snap roll and fall.
On the deck they die, with alt they recover quickly and continue fight like nothin happened

[Muzzy]

Right, so in a nutshell:

Flying in:

-Keep it under 13k alt.
-Keep it fast
-Make your shots count.
-Know who to out-run and who to out-turn.

Flying against:

-Try to slow the Yak
-If defensive, keep moving and don't give him anything like an easy dead six shot, even out to 400 the Yak can be deadly. Try to get him to burn ammo.

I'd appreciate any additional points.

[Zacherof]

Right, so in a nutshell:

Flying in:

-Keep it under 13k alt.
-Keep it fast
-Make your shots count.
-Know who to out-run and who to out-turn.

Flying against:

-Try to slow the Yak
-If defensive, keep moving and don't give him anything like an easy dead six shot, even out to 400 the Yak can be deadly. Try to get him to burn ammo.

I'd appreciate any additional points.

Also I use mitsu's sound pack an when the yak 3 fires at me it sounds like one shot from the 37mil
Anyone know why that is?

[Muzzy]

Maybe it thinks the Yak is a P-39? They kinda look alike if you squint really really hard. 

[Tank-Ace]

Right, so in a nutshell:

Flying in:

-Keep it under 13k alt.
-Keep it fast
-Make your shots count.
-Know who to out-run and who to out-turn.

Careful of Ki-84s, and early model 109s, along with the obvious Spitfire.

Avoid ack at any costs, since you're fairly well boned of you take even a hit or two.

Flying against:

-Try to slow the Yak
-If defensive, keep moving and don't give him anything like an easy dead six shot, even out to 400 the Yak can be deadly. Try to get him to burn ammo.

I'd appreciate any additional points.

*shrugs*??

[morfiend]

This only means that the damage is spread over the various components instead of concentrated in destroying one. They are much more durable that I would have expected. On quite a few occasions they survived flying through the quad-hispano stream from a mossie, shedding a part or two, but continue flying. I attribute that to the above mentioned effect that spreads the damage, as well as being so small that part of the scatter pattern of the cannons just miss it by a hair.

As to how it flies, I seriously suspect something is wrong with its modeling at high AoA. First time I rolled it I pulled up into a steep climb after take off - it wouldn't slow down, so I kept pulling and completed a loop (more like an inverted gamma shape) going WTF?    I cannot prove it until I do some testing, but that takes time. 3500 feet per minute climb at 80 mph (70 mph below best climb speed, on the back side of the power curve) with full left rudder and stall buzzer howling is very suspicious. I may be wrong.

  I tried some slow speed climbing in the yak last week and found that it fell off to the right as soon as speed dropped below 110 mph. I tried to keep the climb around 4000 fpm while doing this,after reading your post, but was unable to hold the nose up once speed was in the 100 mph range.


   

[Widewing]

Right, so in a nutshell:

Flying in:

-Keep it under 13k alt.
-Keep it fast
-Make your shots count.
-Know who to out-run and who to out-turn.

Flying against:

-Try to slow the Yak
-If defensive, keep moving and don't give him anything like an easy dead six shot, even out to 400 the Yak can be deadly. Try to get him to burn ammo.

I'd appreciate any additional points.

A few things...

The Yak-3 has a max speed of 400 mph at 12,500 feet. However, at 15k it still does 393 mph. I've climbed up to 20k to go get a reluctant 109K-4. Performance isn't best up there, but it is still very dangerous.

Keeping it fast depends on circumstances. It turns well at low speeds, but do try to get the fight turning right, where torque isn't an issue. Too fast is a bigger issue than too slow, not unlike a 109 in that respect.

Roll rate at 300 mph is excellent. At 350 mph it may be as good as a 190... Maybe better as the 190's roll rate falls off quick above 350 mph.

[Muzzy]

Is there some way to figure out the sustained turn radius in-game?

[ink]

I have found them to be easy to kill.....its the 5 friendlies with them that make it difficult.

[Muzzy]

When I was writing about the lack of bomb load, I wanted to say, "In Soviet Russia, Fighters don't bomb...Bombers fight! (see IL-2)"

[Zacherof]

I have found them to be easy to kill.....its the 5 friendlies with them that make it difficult.

Pffft that's right up the ki84's alley