Chiming in on the "Perk La7" Movement

[SlapShot]

Originally posted by Innominate
I am a newbie.
Flying an N1k2 or la7 makes me better.  But, I always feel dirty flying those planes, so I avoid them.

Please ... please ... please don't get caught up in the "only real men fly (name your plane)" crap. You will become a one-faceted myopic pilot.

All this "uber" talk is just a built-in excuse for those that get their butts handed to them consistently by one type of plane. They haven't figured out how to beat the plane or they get into a fight that they were destined to lose right from the onset, because their "non-uber" plane just wasn't built to fight a particular type of fight.

Just the other day, I was in a Spit IX and had an La7 on my six, so I turned and turned, and he turned and turned. I figured after the second turn, he would break and run because I was now starting getting on his six. Well, he didn't ... one more turn and that's when he decide to break ... too late ... he lost all his E and momentum and I sent him back to the tower. He then started yelling "uber Spit". My response ... BITE ME !!! It wasn't the plane, it was his stupidity. He never should have turned that many times with a Spit IX. He had plenty of opportunity to change the fight characteristics but he chose to try to fight an La7 like a Spit IX. He was doomed before the fight started.

My recommendation ... fly the plane best suited for the situation.

Last tour, when the country situation was balanced differently, I flew the F6F alot because we flew alot of JABO missions. This tour, we have been on the defense quite a bit, so I have been flying the Spit IX alot. I don't give a rats bellybutton what anybody says about any plane, I fly what I want and I pick my plane according to the situation.

For strict JABO ...

Mossie or 110 - Both destructive with kick-ass cannons.

For JABO and CAP ...

F6F - Decent all-around fighter once ordinance has been delivered (this is my preferred JABO ride).

P-51 or P38 - Great BnZ and can fight low once ordinance has been delivered.

F4U - Got to keep these guys fast.

P47 - Very destructive. Tons of .50s. Gotta to keep this fast also.

For Air-to-Air ...

Anything I feel comfortable and deadly in.

Sorry .. not trying to hijack this thread ... just tired of all this "uber" crap.

[Hooligan]

Most of the fighters available are pretty decent MA rides with their share of advantages and disadvantages.  Of course there are a few fighters that are best suited to the MA environment and the La-7 is clearly one of them.  No matter what gets perked, something else will always pop to the top of the list as the "best MA ride".  

The La-7 is a damn good plane, but hardly a monster.  If it gets perked then does HTC have to perk the Dora, N1K, Spit IX and P-51 next?  I suppose eventually everything  should be perked and we will all be flying 109Es and the arena will finally be fair to the delight of all?

Hooligan

[rabbit]

IMHO

The  two planes i fear most in AH is the Yak and the LA-7.

But, ill avoid a Yak before more often than the LA.... one reason 9 times out of 10 the pilot in the Yak is a darn good stick.

a well flown LA-7 is hard to beat as well. although alot of novice pilots will choose the 7 so most times the odds are better to fight the LA-7 over the yak. many times i have sit in my chute or the tower scratching my head saying " how on earth did that ruski plane kill my uber 51?"
  then, my next thought is.... sheesh if the US and  RAF had those rides we would of won the war in a week.  so why didnt we have them send us their LA-7's and Yak's on the lend lease?

we have debated many of the planes here.

we cant really look at the K/D ratios on the score pages. because it comes down to one thing pilot skill.
If you know your ride  and can use it to  your atvantage, fly smart ect....ect... chances are you will be a dangerous adversary.

i can normally tell on the merge if im flying against  a good pilot.
somtimes i get fooled tho just fight your ride to its potential. if ya get killed try to learn  what went wrong and  use  that bit of knowlage on the next flight. sometimes it takes many terrible deaths to learn some lesson. but  thanks to  this being a simulation we can afford  to take our time learning lessons.

if ya just up to furball until you die that is going to throw the whole  K/D  ratio thing  off by a mile.

so perk  it?  im not sure.  


BTW im pretty much a skillless Dweeb so flame away

[Widewing]

Originally posted by rabbit
IMHO

The  two planes i fear most in AH is the Yak and the LA-7.

But, ill avoid a Yak before more often than the LA.... one reason 9 times out of 10 the pilot in the Yak is a darn good stick.

a well flown LA-7 is hard to beat as well. although alot of novice pilots will choose the 7 so most times the odds are better to fight the LA-7 over the yak. many times i have sit in my chute or the tower scratching my head saying " how on earth did that ruski plane kill my uber 51?"
  then, my next thought is.... sheesh if the US and  RAF had those rides we would of won the war in a week.  so why didnt we have them send us their LA-7's and Yak's on the lend lease?

we have debated many of the planes here.

we cant really look at the K/D ratios on the score pages. because it comes down to one thing pilot skill.
If you know your ride  and can use it to  your atvantage, fly smart ect....ect... chances are you will be a dangerous adversary.

i can normally tell on the merge if im flying against  a good pilot.
somtimes i get fooled tho just fight your ride to its potential. if ya get killed try to learn  what went wrong and  use  that bit of knowlage on the next flight. sometimes it takes many terrible deaths to learn some lesson. but  thanks to  this being a simulation we can afford  to take our time learning lessons.

if ya just up to furball until you die that is going to throw the whole  K/D  ratio thing  off by a mile.

so perk  it?  im not sure.  


BTW im pretty much a skillless Dweeb so flame away

Rabbit, from what I've seen, you are anything but a "skilless Dweeb". If I were to run across you in your 51 I'd expect to be very busy indeed.

You are right about the Yak-9U. I avoid them in the P-51B, until I have worked my way into a position of advantage. Likewise, the Yak is one of my favorites for tackling Mustangs, Doras and G-10s. By and large, it's probably the best balanced aircraft in the planeset. It's only weakness is its light armament, and consequently, limited ammo load-out. Still, if you discipline one's self, only taking the high percentage shots, it's possible to get 5 or 6 kills per reload. Another weak area is high altitude performance. The Yak requires precision, unlike the Niki with its 800 cannon rounds, where pray and spray is an acceptable method for many. For high work, I prefer the P-51B, unless I'm chasing Buffs and Lancs, where I'll take a G-10. My experience with the B-Pony is that it is slightly more agile than the D-Pony. I've had some really good 1 on 1 fights between my B and some Ds. One in particular was a great brawl with xPadre starting at about 22k, ending at 8k. We met Co-E and Co-alt. I prevailed, partially due to the P-51B having the edge in handling and agility. As xPadre and I discussed after the fight, it doesn't get any better than that. In this type of engagement, there are no losers, regardless of who survives and who doesn't. As it was, xPadre's only mistake was not expecting me to begin my reversal before we actually passed on the merge. That gave me the initial tactical advantage. Still, it was a hard fight, and one mistake on my part would have placed the shoe on the other foot, so to speak. Likewise, xPadre made no errors beyond allowing me to reverse first.

Being aggressive on the merge is another key to defeating the La-7. Since it turns a bit better than the Mustang, you had better begin turning first. If the La-7 pilot is smart, and sees you start to turn, he will extend and get enough lateral separation to allow him to reverse safely. If he extends, make your reversal a climbing turn. This will allow you the advantage of stored energy should the La-7 reverse later. Should the La-7 also climb, you are right back where you started, but you have not surrendered any advantage. Moreover, the higher you go, the performance gap widens in favor of the Pony. Eventually, the La-7 will have to run to avoid dying.

My regards,

Widewing

[rabbit]

thank you sir


Flew 51-B  tonight and  had a great time. i didnt wanna get back in my shiny Caddypony

i was beating up LA's pretty good. and you are right with all that you mentioned in the above post.
  being aggressive is the  only way to be with a LA, or any adversary.  riding the fine line of  agressive and  foolish is kinda hard sometimes.  losing ones SA causes serious injury or may even result in Death!
it is the pilot that screws the pooch first that dies.  if ya can take atvantage of it. ( i normally have to have  folks let me saddle right up on them and wave a red flag)
i  am amazed at some of the dumb bellybutton mistakes i make and still manage to live and even get a few kills.

really if ya dont wanna deal with an LA-7 dont cruise around under 15k they arent worth a crap ( unless they are well flown) at much over that alt.



i wouldnt perk it.  could make it availible at only select bases? that would be a new twist.  once the base is gone the ride is  gone unless ya buy it or hot  pad it? would even make alot of folks  fight the aircraft a bit more careful if there was a chance that they wouldnt get another  ride until the base was recaptured( jus a thought)



/0

[Steven]

<>>  -Midnight

Not all of us fly ponies day-in and day-out.  A pony has some sort of chance of escaping.  I once tried to boom an LA7 in my F4U1 but missed and then proceeded with the zoom part due to a deep fear of the LA7 and I had to get back to base due to very low fuel.  It was an area to the outskirts of a furball.  I had great speed and put some distance between me and the LA7 but he knew...he knew.  I think the guy even dropped out of icon range but he finally gained on me and after several minutes caught me.  1v1 on the deck, F4U-1 vs LA7.  I ended up stalling into the ground.  I turn, I lose E.  LA7 turns, he loses E but he has the power to regain it too, I don't.  I can't figure out how to be victorious in this situation against a halfway decent LA7 pilot.  And don't get me started on the Yaks either!   lol

Don't perk the LA7.  Unperk the F4U-4 and I'll never whine about an LA7 again!  

[Turbot]

I am pretty new too, only just now gettting to be a little bit more dangerous to to others than myself.  The fighter I have been flying this tour almost exclusively is the 109f4.  I checked my stats and I see in the 109f4 I have killed 9 La7's with the loss of 2 109f4's.

If I can kill them trust me anyone can.

 I used to think they were ubar, I think alot of it is mental.  You hear about how ubar they are supposed to be enough, maybe you start to belive it?

[Apache]

Originally posted by Steven
<>>  -Midnight

Not all of us fly ponies day-in and day-out.  A pony has some sort of chance of escaping.  I once tried to boom an LA7 in my F4U1 but missed and then proceeded with the zoom part due to a deep fear of the LA7 and I had to get back to base due to very low fuel.  It was an area to the outskirts of a furball.  I had great speed and put some distance between me and the LA7 but he knew...he knew.  I think the guy even dropped out of icon range but he finally gained on me and after several minutes caught me.  1v1 on the deck, F4U-1 vs LA7.  I ended up stalling into the ground.  I turn, I lose E.  LA7 turns, he loses E but he has the power to regain it too, I don't.  I can't figure out how to be victorious in this situation against a halfway decent LA7 pilot.  And don't get me started on the Yaks either!   lol

Don't perk the LA7.  Unperk the F4U-4 and I'll never whine about an LA7 again!  

Puke, I'm far from a know it all super ace but a question. Why didn't you use the remaining strength you had over the La7? I would even go as far as saying 2. One being roll rate, the other, stall fighting. Granted, the F4U-1 has a wicked wing stall when slow but using the -1 roll rate, couple a notches of flaps, get the La7 slow and he's usually dead meat. Stall fighting is not one of the La7's strong points.

[Steven]

Apache, I didn't want to set the whole fight up and it's been a while.  I can't remember who I fought and he may have a different perspective which would help to understand the whole thing.  But basically I was very low fuel and had to land and our base was basically under enemy attack so I had to leave the area.  As I left I saw a low N1K and LA7.  I started after the N1K but decided not to get embroiled in that and lose E with that LA7 there.  If I recall right, the LA7 was below me and basically heading easterly as I was heading westerly.  He did one of those climb up beneath me moves and I pushed the nose down and slowly made my way to the deck.  This guy followed me and for a little bit I thought I'd make it but he then began to gain on me.  At one point I headed towards a friendly dot on the map for help only to see that it's a high friendly Lanc.    About this time I had to do something.  And yes, I did try to get him slow, I turned and put out flaps and all that.  But the F4U-1 has an even nastier stall characterstic than the other F4U's and I ended up dipping a wing into the dirt.  I gave a smile to my enemy and commented that I would've had him had I not stalled because I was so light of fuel.  He was confident I would not have and now we will never know.  

Gimme a free F4U-4 or Bearcat and I'll never whine about an LA7 again!  

[Samm]

My deal with the La7 is that it performs on par and better than some of the perk planes, so why is it free ? I say either make free some of the lesser perk planes or perk the La7 .

[MrLars]

Originally posted by Samm
My deal with the La7 is that it performs on par and better than some of the perk planes

It does but with very narrow limits.

 The fast speed is negated by terrible handling at high speed.
 The guns ARE good but only within a very short kill range.
 Low alt capibilities are great but are stictly limited to low alt, at anything above 8K it's below average.
 She turns great at optimum cornering speed but also bleeds E so quicky that the durration of optimum turning ability is very limited.

so why is it free ? I say either make free some of the lesser perk planes or perk the La7 . [/QUOTE]

Only if the other planes are given the same kind of limitations...let the LA7 perk BS die already.

[Dead Man Flying]

Originally posted by Samm
My deal with the La7 is that it performs on par and better than some of the perk planes, so why is it free ? I say either make free some of the lesser perk planes or perk the La7.

Plenty of planes perform on par or better than perk planes depending on which criteria you apply.

The Spit V'll outturn every single perk plane in the game.  The Typhoon will amply outaccelerate the 262 at low speeds.  The La5 is faster than the F4U-1C.  The Hurricane IIC's guns are more lethal than the Spit XIV's.

Few would argue in favor of perking the Spit V, Typhoon, La5, or Hurricane IIC.  By the same token, I don't see why the La7 should be perkworthy because it outperforms some of the perk planes in certain categories.

-- Todd/Leviathn

[Apache]

Oh man Nifty, you swole up my noggin' Thanks dude.

Last night I was kickin' Leviathn's arse but then my wife rolled over and woke me up.

[Nifty]

Originally posted by Apache
Oh man Nifty, you swole up my noggin' Thanks dude.

Last night I was kickin' Leviathn's arse but then my wife rolled over and woke me up.

np bro.  Glad you guys are flying Knight for awhile.  I've seen Hooligan around, and Grabeski's already cleared my 6 on more than one occasion.    Though I wouldn't recommend shooting at Lev right now, killshooter is a bad thing!  

don't let puke fool ya.  He handles himself pretty well in that F4U-1A.  In fact, he smoked a La-7 last night in it, IIRC.

La-7 shouldn't be perked.  It's a fantastic plane, but by no means a Spitfire XIV, or even a F4U-4.

[Samm]

Yes if that were the case, but it's not . By performance I mean agility, speed, and leathality collectively . It's not a case of  "it does one thing better than this plane, and one thing better than this plane." like the planes that you made refference to. The fact is it is faster than the majority, accelerates better than the majority, climbs better than the majority, has better firepower than the majority, has a good ammo load . And unlike most of the very fast planes it is substantially manuevreable . It is a better plane than the ta152, yes you can argue that it isn't but c'mon, keep it real . And certainly better than the f4u1c .  

It isn't a huge menace to me and it's usually flown by suckass pilots . I don't care if it is ever perked in the ma . I just said that it is as good as, if not better than some of the perk planes yet it is free, which is true . That is the only justification for it ever being perked in the ma . It is regularly perked in the ct .