Luckily, I had an opportunity to experience a lot of fights of this very exact kind on a regular basis(non-stop for a week): Fw190A-5s vs Spitfire MkVs in the CT(Tunisia).
The conclusion I have arrived to was that the Spit5, against the Fw190A-5, is literally "cannon fodder". Nothing the Allied put up in the air could compete with the Fw190A-5, and everytime equal numbers met over the deserts of Africa the SpitVs were literally slaughtered! The only thing that kept the situation "fair" was that there were always about 1.5 times more people in the Allied side
The Fw190A-5 accelerates, extends away, dives away, and climbs away from the Spit5 with
ease[/B]. Therefore, the AH A-5 is superior against the AH Spit5.
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However, there are some issues to address in that the fact that the 190A-5 is vastly superior over the Spit5 in AH does not necessarily mean it is advantageous in a historical manner.
The largest problem of them all is the ability to hit something easily at over 500~600 yards distance(gunnery), and the ability for some of the planes to zoom climb in an incredibly steep angle and keep doing it forever.
There is a thread in the Help forum that Daladyzmon posted:
How do these planes do this anyway?? As you can see from the thread, and test it yourself, certain planes like the Spitfire, N1K2, Typhoon, Tempest, Zero and etc can maintain a climb angle above 45 degrees, with the speed ranging 90~110mph and hold it there, maintaining at least 2500fpm climb rate and go all the way. To the extent of my knowledge, the discussion on this matter did not meet any satisfying results. All we could do was figure out which planes were able to do this, but we couldn't figure out how they do this nor if this is really, historically possible.
Planes like Bf109s can maintain a steep climb, but once the speed range drops near 100mph, the plane quickly destabilizes due to torque and low speed.. with quick deployment of full flaps the Bf109s can "hang" there for just about 3~5 more seconds as if it is in suspended motion, then it would stall out. In the case of the Fw190, holding that sort of steep angle is out of the question in the first place.
However, Spitfires maintain a 110mph climb, and N1K2s can maintain a 90~100mph climb. Zeros "flutter" at 80~90mph, and Typhoons and Tempests can also maintain a 100mph climb. Why? I have no idea. They just do that.
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Therefore, due to this problem, any sort of zoom climb short of 80 degrees angle will be caught up if someone in a Spit or a N1K2 is determined to get you. He will track you up all the way like a Sidewinder missile and spray at 500~600 yards.
This means, unless you have E-superiority enough to lure him in an immediate straight vertical zoom, if you are gonna try to gradually lure him up vertical in a 190, its not gonna work. Even Zeros will catch up with you.
You will have to zoom straight 90 degrees, hold it there until 100mph, and Hammerhead downwards(and hope you don't fall into an inverted flat stall).
.. and that, is why the Spitfires seem to zoom so good. They climb forever in a 50~60 degrees angle at 100~110mph. I could do that in a Bf109 if I nurse it carefully, struggling to hold it from wobbling side to side.. but the Spits and N1K2s, they're stable. No problem whatsoever in aiming if the direction the nose was pointed at was good from the start.
