tempest vs la7

[Charon]

LA7 are also good for us solo guys, newbies or not, to help avoid all you experienced, rough and ready squadron/mission gangbang dweebs I'd rather not be all alone fighting your 5 v 1 combination of zeroes/Spit 5s/Spit 9s/P-51s/and La7s if I can help it. Sorry, I like to know the person who kills me after a hard fight, and not just be the victim at the end of the conga line. There are exceptions though, like the time in a zero where I landed five kills without firing a shot because the conga line killshot each other or crashed into the ground in their frenzy to get a shot in on me. I wondered where they all got too all of a sudden

You don’t even need to cherry pick in an LA7 when odds are even (I'm actuall an angle fighting spit dweeb at heart, except Spits don't quite cut it against the uber rides). You can actually "turn fight" pretty aggressively (especially against a Spit 9 or N1K2) in an LA7 if your turns happen to be out of plane vertical maneuvers.

If you want to perk it -- then by all means. I won't lose any sleep over it. Just perk the P-51D and the other 1944 rides too. Frankly, though, if it had better guns/ammo it would be more of a perk candidate.

Charon

[RTR]

well, just my opinion, but...
You said you tried a lot of manuevers to dislodge him.
I have found that if there is a bit of distance between me and who I am chasing, that if they do a lot of "maneuvers" they are essentialy wasting "E". If I have ground to make up to get to them, I don't match them with manuevers, rather I just keep an eye on them and generally follow them with as little control input as possible. Every time you disrupt airflow  (ie: move a control)
you sacrifice energy. Now, if he was at a distance of over 1K this is quite possible. I have run down faster aircraft just by being gentle and patient. You may have lots of airspeed, but this is not the same as distance travelled. I can fly 10 miles and still be within 1 mile of my home airfield. Hope this makes some semblance of sense. (RTR's had a few wobbly pops tonite heh).
And , I recognize the handle....good stick, just wish it wasn't on my six!
Cheers, hope this made sense and helped a bit.
RTR

[RTR]

well, just my opinion, but...
You said you tried a lot of manuevers to dislodge him.
I have found that if there is a bit of distance between me and who I am chasing, that if they do a lot of "maneuvers" they are essentialy wasting "E". If I have ground to make up to get to them, I don't match them with manuevers, rather I just keep an eye on them and generally follow them with as little control input as possible. Every time you disrupt airflow  (ie: move a control)
you sacrifice energy. Now, if he was at a distance of over 1K this is quite possible. I have run down faster aircraft just by being gentle and patient. You may have lots of airspeed, but this is not the same as distance travelled. I can fly 10 miles and still be within 1 mile of my home airfield. Hope this makes some semblance of sense. (RTR's had a few wobbly pops tonite heh).
And , I recognize the handle....good stick, just wish it wasn't on my six!
Cheers, hope this made sense and helped a bit.
RTR

[Dowding (Work)]

I prefer the Yak these days - it's a better all round fighter than the La-7 and more of a challenge to fly. Sure, it doesn't have the hitting power of the La-7 and the ammo is limited, but against La-7s its quite a pleasant ride. It's speed and climb rate makes it survivable when being gang banged.

It's great when La-7s try to turnfight you . And I love surprising them with rudder assisted scissors.

[Widewing]

Rule #1: I never run from any Lavochkin. I simply turn around and kill them. Sure, the La-7 is fast.... So what? If I were flying a Tempest, I'd make the Dweeb face my four Hizookas. If you're gonna fly heavily perked fighters, you cannot afford to be timid with them. That alone will make you surrender the advantage their performance provides. In other words, be very aggressive. You will find that the Spitfire XIV eats La-7s alive. It does everything better than the Lavochkin, except run at low level. Likewise for the Tempest, although its edge in turn performance is only marginal, it is a bit faster on the deck.

If you get caught low and slow by any fighter having a marked E advantage, you MUST turn into him. Running only solidifies your initial disadvantage. Again, be aggressive! Hell, I've attacked and killed La-7s and Doras with an SBD. Nothing upsets the E-fighter's applecart like finding themselves having to burn E because you forced them to maneuver.

My best advice is this: Stop worrying about what the La-7 might do to you, and start thinking about what you are going to do to him.

My regards,

Widewing

[Urchin]

Spit 14 will get mauled by an La-7 on the deck.  The La-7 accelerates better, is faster, has almost as much firepower, turns just about as good.  The only advantage the Spit 14 has is in a sustained climb.  Same story with the F4U4.  The Ta152 isn't even in the same league as the La7, a Spit 9 will eat the Ta152 for lunch on the deck.  The Tempest is the best 'all-round' perk plane, and it is probably about even with the La-7 on the deck.

Now, the La-7 can be killed, don't get me wrong.  Hell, I died 3 or 4 times today in it, which is more than I've died the whole tour to date.  The secret is to get some fast planes and some good turning planes, and gangbang it.  If the fight is one on one, you have to be a better pilot than the La7 pilot is, or you will lose.  If it is 3 or 4 on one, even the best La7 pilot will get overwhelmed.  At least if you get your fast BnZ planes to slow him down enough so the good turning planes can engage him.

[F4UDOA]

The biggest problem with dogfighting in a Tempest or any other perk bird is the overwhelming need to fight like a girl when in one.

I can win most one on ones with a F4U-1 but put me in the far "superior" F4U-4 and I can't tie my shoes.

As long as they are perked one cannot hope to fight the good fight. It's like driving in your dads car when your 16 years old. Your scared to death to break it so you drive differently that you normally would and invariably wreck the car.

Maybe if there was an RPS in AH you would get to fly a real Tempest La-7 engagement but not here right now.

[Widewing]

Originally posted by Urchin
Spit 14 will get mauled by an La-7 on the deck.  The La-7 accelerates better, is faster, has almost as much firepower, turns just about as good.  The only advantage the Spit 14 has is in a sustained climb.  Same story with the F4U4.  The Ta152 isn't even in the same league as the La7, a Spit 9 will eat the Ta152 for lunch on the deck.  The Tempest is the best 'all-round' perk plane, and it is probably about even with the La-7 on the deck.

Now, the La-7 can be killed, don't get me wrong.  Hell, I died 3 or 4 times today in it, which is more than I've died the whole tour to date.  The secret is to get some fast planes and some good turning planes, and gangbang it.  If the fight is one on one, you have to be a better pilot than the La7 pilot is, or you will lose.  If it is 3 or 4 on one, even the best La7 pilot will get overwhelmed.  At least if you get your fast BnZ planes to slow him down enough so the good turning planes can engage him.

I have yet to work up a sweat tangling with La-7s while flying a Spitfire XIV (two or three engagements).  In terms of sustained turn rate, the Lavochkin is not a match for the Spit XIV. So far this tour, I've killed La-7s in the P-51 (3), FM-2 (5), N1K2 (2) and SBD (2). My losses? One SBD, but only after I had killed two fighters with it, and I was still hauling a 1k bomb (I hate to just dump ord). Honestly, I find Yaks more of a challenge than La-7s. Probably because you find few noobs and dweebs in Yaks.

Where the La-7 really falls short is its miserable guns. Taking on any Hispano armed fighter in a head-on is a really bad idea. When one considers that the Hizookas can kill at nearly twice the effective range of the Soviet cannons, I would make a serious effort not to accept an HO with a Tiffy, Tempest, C-Hog or Spitfire.

Ultimately, however, everything boils down to tactics and situational awareness. I don't care what you fly, if a pilot is weak in either area, he will do poorly.

My regards,

Widewing

[Soda]

The Tempest can break 400mph below 6K and is faster than the La7 at all altitudes under 10K and over about 13K.  At sea level the Tempest is only about 6mph faster though so that is awefully close.  If you run your Tempest out of WEP you aren't as fast below about 3K.  If the La7 caught you it was because of situation.  He must have had enough speed advantage to get you turning, in which case it could have a been any number of planes who could have also caught you, P-51, 190D9, 109G10, Typhoon, etc.

I've run lots of tests on top speeds at altitudes and the La7 cannont catch a Tempest, but can run down most everything else when low.  You get your Tempest up to only 6K and kick in the WEP and you can pull almost 420mph.  Nothing except a Me262 is going to touch that right now.

-Soda
The Assassins.

[AKcurly]

Originally posted by teufl
I cant' t really believe it, a la7 ran down my tempest at low altitude, and I tried alot of manuevers to dislogde him.  If a 70 perk plane can't out run a normal plane, then either the perked plane needs to be less perked or la7 needs to be perked.  We had equal E and i believe both pilots had equal skill.  .........T     WIDOWMAKERS:(

Try a right turn, clyde.

curly