Some tips and tricks for E fighting in that heathen of a plane.
P.S you probably aren't going to have any fun.
1. Always climb to at least 15-20k
You will need this alt to plan strategic moves while entering the fight. Up this high you can work con's lower than you, most will not be as high as you, if they are than you can either engage and fight or many (190Ds, p51Ds, temps) will seemingly entend away and not even engage. At this alt you will be able to have a high E advantage and will be able to allow you to have a nice view of the entire fight. You can choose con's to engage without that pesky higher plane diving on you.
2. SA.
While flying that high you will have a good view of the entire fight. You will be able to see all the higher con's in the area and you can choose whether to engage or not. The key here is to: A. Not let the enemies get hire than you: B. Do not dive on lower enemies if higher con's are threatening. Always engage with higher con's first. As soon as a plane starts diving on you, you have lost the E advantage, and if he is a meanie, will bring you lower and lower until they all jump you. What you will want to do is scope the area and make sure you are on top or engaging the higher enemies until they are not a theat anymore. Then you can begin setting up attacks on lower planes.
3. Attacking enimies while being aware of SA.
Here is the tough part. Once you have decided on who to attack, which should be the highest enemy in the group BTW. You need to dive directly on top of them and attack using a downward spiral climb, dependind on the planes dives speed and compression, you may have to cut throttle some. (Attacking from the top makes it hard to avoid and some guys will not even see you). Now, you must be aware of who is around you and what kind of speed they are working with. Many times people with the E advantage will pull up and over immediately to pressure the enemy. But this is a bad decision if other con's are around and could potentially match your E. What you have to do is dive, make the shot ( do not follow if they turn) and then level out for about 7 seconds and then go into a slow climb to regian some alt. Depending on the enemies positions and con's behind them, you may want to extend climb for a ways until you are certian you are in top of all the enemies again. What you don't want to do is turn back around for for the con you just dove on immediately because all your 15K E position is toast, and if there are other con's around they will quickly match your E. The key is to stay above the enemies at all times, make your shots quickly, and then extend away and climb again till you are safe. Once you get low and see higher con's around you after multiple attack strikes you will have to get out of enemy territory and haul bellybutton until you can get out of icon range. Once they dive on you it's a whole new difficult ball game and this is where you lose the advantage.
The key to E flying is not to lose the E advantage vs the con you are attacking and the also the rest of the con's around you. You have to be going faster at low alts or be higher than them at all times to be a successful E fighter.
It is all about patients, shot placement, and getting out of icon range of higher threatening con's as you dive or get lower to to make kill shots. If you find yourself low and higher con's are threatening, you need to quickly go the other way so they don't see you and dive in you.
4. Fly with friendlies.
This is not a good plane to fly lone wolf with. It's just not. Too slow, gets picked a lot, and it doesn't turn that well. Make sure you got some friends with you to keep other cons busy. You don't want them all looking at you. Picking kills will be your best bet at getting kills and extending away safely. But DO NOT fall prey to getting low n slow trying to help a friendly.
This is why you may not have fun.
1. That plane is a crutch to shoot in. You may not make any shots on the first 5 passes, but you have to stay fast so DO NOT flip back around on them. It could get frustrating but you have to be patient. Remember, once you attempt a rope, all your E is crushed of other high planes that are on the way to engage you. You must get higher than all of them after an overshoot then you can turn back around and pick another plane to engage. It is tough in that plane because it is not fast. The more you turn back around the lower you will get. So you reallllly have to be high and fast coming back into the fight. This will take some patients.
2. It is slow, and does not turn thatwell
Which means anytime you are around and enemy you have to be going much faster than them. Getting out fights is tough in that plane. You have to dive from up high to keep speed advantage. As soon as you engage a plane longer than about 8 seconds your E will be quickly diminishing. EI, don't engage a plane for longer than 8 seconds, unless it is 1v1 and you want to battle it out. But that is risky. Also time to extend and climb with take a lot of patients after you make a shot on a plane.
3. You can't really dogfight.
It is a boring way to fly. You can't really mix it up because losing E is deadly. You gotta stay fast and stay away from planes engaging you.
E flying is all about being the engager, not the engagee.
Hope this helps.
I may have a good video from my E flying experience last month in the temp, I'll post it when I get home if I can find a good one.
<S>
