The Hellcat is a great plane! One of my all-time favourites, just behind the Jug and the Hog.
I think Mathman put a Hellcat page up? Can somebody post a link?
Ok, here is the scoop on the Hellcat. First, it has the 6x .50 cal gun set... a very nice gunset. With this armament package you won't win on quick snapshots very much, it needs a bit more sustained fire than the cannons on the Spit. However the ballistics are very good, the .50's have great tajectory and range along with decent hitting power. You'll have to fly for tracking shots or deflection shots with a bit of time on target. A half second burst at close to convergence will do the trick most times.
The Hellcat in terms of flight performance is a pure E fighter. It has decent accelleration, decent speed, and FANTASTIC diving ability. The Hellcat's accelleration in a dive is right up there with the Jug, and it's better in the early part of the dive where the Kitty's better accelleration can come into play. You WILL get kills in this bird by nailing "faster" planes that try to dive away from you. Combined with the great diving ability, the Hellcat handles well at high speed, although not as well as a P-47. The beauty of the Hellcat is that it can out-turn a lot of the planes in AH, and the ones it can't is has a chance to out-run in a dive. Spits are very dangerous to the Hellcat pilot, and you'll need an advantage to tackle them. The Hellcat is one of the better turning planes in the American part of the plane set, but it can't sustained turn like the Spits of Zero. With some E to burn, it can turn very well using it's great initial turn rate. The Hellcat also handles pretty well in the vertical, with good power and good zooming ability.
Fly the Hellcat like a Jug that can climb and turn a bit better. Basically, you really want an E advantage at the start of the fight if you expect to win in the Hellcat. It can be competitive in a furball, but once you are on the deck and slow, you are in deep trouble. Try to keep the Hellcat over 200 Mph at all times and use E fighting techniques like high and low yoyos, lag pursuit, lag displacement rolls, and that sort of thing.
It's a great plane, I enjoy it a lot. It's what I choose for pure furballs or point defense, although you do need to build up some speed/E before you can fight effectively. Oh, and one more thing, the Hellcat is a HUGE plane. The only thing tougher than a Hellcat is a Jug, so it can take a lot of punishment. This is a great feature when you are learning the plane, because you can often make small mistakes and get hit without being shot down every time.
