Originally posted by akak
In order to avoid compressibiliy in the P-38, don't start your dives above 20,000ft. At least in the P-38, compression only happens at altitudes above that and not below 20,000ft. Using your dive flaps before entering the dive will help and will be pretty useless after you've entered the dive. In real life, one of the test P-38 planes had it's wings rip off when the test pilot decided to see what happens when he deployed the dive flaps in the middle of a dive.
One big misconception in here is that the dive flaps will help you in turn fights since it gives you about a 4 degrees nose up pitch. It doesn't help in turn fights since the nose up pitch only comes when at high speeds with the dive flaps deployed. The dive flaps aren't the same as the maneuvering flaps (i.e. Fowler Flaps, combat flaps) either. The maneuvering flaps are the first setting of your flaps. When you deploy the first notch of flaps, that lowers the flaps 8 degrees for maneuvering.
The photo below shows both the dive flaps and 'Foweler flaps" deployed.
Ack-Ack
479th FG - Riddle's Raiders
That picture is wierd. It makes the dive flap appear to be nothing more than a single sheet of aluminum on a hinge, rather than two pieces hinged to form a "Vee" when deployed. I looked at that picture several times over a period of half an hour or so and it never looked right. I pulled out a tape of Jeff Ethell flying the P-38 and it showed the flap from neutral to deployed and back to neutral, and I was wrong, that is indeed the dive flap, it just didn't look right.
While it may not work in AH, the dive flap SHOULD cause a momentary nose up when deployed in a fight. Several pilots, including Art Heiden, Stan Richardson, and Jack Ilfrey, said they used them to get shots that way. When they needed that little bit of nose up to get the shot, they simply dropped the "speed boards" for a few seconds.
As far as their use as dive flaps to reduce buffeting and aid recovery from compressibility in AH, they don't seem to have much effect. But then the Fowlers don't work quite right either, and they should not auto retract, period. Much has been made of the fact there are several "notches" of flap on the P-38 in AH and there should be only three. The problem is, there were only three DETENTS on the flap leversof most P-38s, but there was a large range of flap setting adjustment that was NOT set to a detent. In other words, you could set the flaps in places other than the detents. However, this would be difficult to model in a sim, especially a combat sim, since there would be too much information to display and too little time to evaluate it. A seperate control and indicator could be added so that you could either set them to a detent, or adjust them much like you adjust trim on an elevator or aileron.
