Combat trials and tests are more reliable, her for ex the spit 14:
http://www.spitfireperformance.com/spit14afdu.html
And note the 109 in those trials did even worse.
For instance, the 109 could not out-turn the P-51
with two underwing full drop tanks, Yes a loaded P-51, but the 190 was "equal" to the P-51
without its drop tanks... Check those other British AFDU or RAE tests: Yes, the above is in there...
However, on this very board, a relative of a FW-190A ace related first hand information about how the FW-190A and the P-51D
really compared: Using the ailerons to "catch the stall", he reversed a tailing P-51D in two 360s on the deck. (He was a P-51 kill ace)
The reason he could do this, he explained, was in part due to the larger wooden prop (A-8-9s only), with more low speed "bite", but also because FW-190A pilots were offered 3 types of ailerons: 3 different chords (you can tell them on some photos by their trim tab layout): Thin, medium, broad. He chose broad, and then custom enhanced this further by mounting spacers on the aileron hinges, so that the broad ailerons were spaced away from the wing for an even greater low speed "stall catch" effect. (This made the ailerons heavier at high speed of course, but since he downthrottled just before the combat, he did not care)
The tactics used by FW-190As, when encountering P-51s at low altitudes (where the overall German kill ratio was 1:1, vs a huge lopsided loss at high altitudes), were always the same he explained: Reduce power settings
just before merging, drop the flaps, and turn fight at low speed with the engine throttled down exclusively. He never deliberately used full power in combat, as when the P-51 did not want to tangle, he simply waited to turn into a diving attack for a head to head: The FW-190A usually came out way ahead in nose to nose brawn, as well as low speed turning.
The Merlin P-51 also had its own down throttling tricks for turning slow, as shown in the Hanseman example I posted: Reduce throttle, prop on full coarse, 20 degrees of flaps. The lower the power, the faster the turn rate.
Axis pilots often did not understand the necessity of down throttling to sustain faster rates of low-speed turns, as I quote Karhila explaining. (He says the 109G was optimal throttled down to 160 mph)
In any case, too bad the relative's post on AH was bumped off and now "forgotten": It is the very thing that started me on this whole journey where I understood at last what these things were actually like, and how they were flown... The most shocking account to me has to be the P-47Ds (needle tips) matching or besting turns with Me-109Gs on the deck
while carrying 2 X 1000 lbs bombs... (see the Aquapendente bridge bombing account I posted).
Pretty wild.
Gaston
