The kitten has never been my main ride, but it has always been my 2nd or 3rd during my AH career. Surprisingly though, all my kills records are in the Hellcat. Being conscious of your E state is a very solid advice in a furball. Hellcat is a good defensive plane, but you cannot run away from almost anything except the zekes/Brews/KI43s, so if you are not careful you will get ganged. However, if you have the E advantage, it is good at keeping it. An F6F with an advantage on me is one of the planes I fear the most (P-38s also). It is also very good at hiding its E, and I often find that if I come a little lower but faster into the engagement, I can surprise many opponents.
It is a very good diver and that is your only way to disengage or reset a fight. For this reason it is good to leave a few kft of room under you. Careful on the pullout, I ripped the wings off many times because it doesn't really lock up and you do not feel the speed as in other planes.
Fuel management is important as performance and handling improve dramatically as the fuel gets drained. To save fuel during loitering and on the RTB trip, lower your RPM - the range and duration will increase by a large factor. Do not carry too much fuel. The DT is HUGE and slows you down quite a bit, but it allows you to have 75% or less internal on longer sorties. I do not know how much drag it leaves when dropped - not much I suspect because it falls together with its mount structure.
I find that the hellcat needs constant manual trimming, much more than the other planes I fly. This is one of the few planes in which I keep combat trim on most of the time, or flick it on/off often.
The 6-view problem is not as bad as many say. Keep your enemy in you gun sight and you are good
Really, good SA makes up for that hole in your coverage and since you will be maneuvering, that spot becomes visible the next moment. It is a serious problem only in a chase, or in cruise when I am not looking around as often.
It can be pushed quite hard in a turn and in a slow fight. Flaps help a lot. The stall departure when it does come is nasty - I often drop a wing, unload, try to pull again, drop another wing.. and flick like this from side to side till I crash. It mostly happens when I am out of practice with the F6F, and one can learn to feel it coming and avoid it.
Set convergence short, 250 to 300 yards. I cannot kill anyone from 600+ yards, especially with 0.5s, so I prefer a better punch against those I knife fight.
Beware of a low bish F6F in brit colors - it is usually Greebo. He took a Spit-V and skinned it to look like an F6F. Somehow his 0.5s hit like Hispanos too.
