Author Topic: Too voltile for the General Discussion...what's with La7s? (Read 1047 times)

LePaul · « **on:** January 10, 2003, 09:16:07 AM »

Nah, not a whine, just an honest question about em.

We've all flown em and mavelled how no matter which you seem to point them, they are doing over 300 knots. Sure, fun rides, but is this plane really this souped up in real life? I mean if this plane is truly the hotshot it is in Aces High, how come we never see rave reviews on it in Discovery Wings and other programs that rant over and over about the best birds of the war?

Since buffing is an endangered species lately (tired of formations whacked by a 4 second pass by some fighter

) I thought I would take up some of the fighters and feel them out. I enjoy the Yak9T a lot, and the Fw190A8...great roll rate. But logging into the Main, mix it up with some cons, and all I see lots of are La7s. Granted I'm not the best stick, but sometimes I win the encounter. But over and over again, dead to another La7.

Anyone else getting a lil burnt out over this? I love the fights I've had with other airplanes, tight turns, fending off the stall horn, scissoring, etc...its cool to mix it up with someone who is a master of their airplane. But the La7 is just too good to be true. Anyone can up the thing and be an Ace it seems..incredibly fast, great acceleration, incredible turner...need I go on?

I'm not saying perk em or eliminate em. I tend to avoid them, preferring to fight other aircraft...again, just wondering if this Main Arena super fighter was truly this way in real life.

ra · « **Reply #1 on:** January 10, 2003, 09:17:10 AM »

It's not that great a plane, it just has a great power to weight ratio.

ra

LePaul · « **Reply #2 on:** January 10, 2003, 09:18:09 AM »

How armored was it? They seem to take a good amount of punishment

gofaster · « **Reply #3 on:** January 10, 2003, 09:45:00 AM »

You never hear much about Soviet planes at all, even the modern ones, except when talking about how American planes were shooting them down in some war or other.

I think there's something not quite right with the LA-7 model, but maybe that's just because I don't know much about it historically.

Sandman · « **Reply #4 on:** January 10, 2003, 09:53:41 AM »

Quite a few of the guys I fly with use the La7.

I fly it when I must. It's a great ride if flown intelligently. Skirt the edge of the furball and look for low hanging fruit.

Personally, I don't prefer it. It's a boring airplane. During this tour I started my own challenge. I'm trying to score at least one kill with every fighter and then land that kill successfully. I'm up to the La-5FN today. I went and looked at my stats and with 10+ hours of flying in aircraft that I'm unfamiliar with, I've not been killed by an La-7 yet. I've bagged three of them.

The La-7 flown smartly is difficult to beat. Fortunately, most of the people flying the La-7 think it's a high speed Spitfire.

Heck... take a look at the plane stats. The P-51D and SpitfireIX have more kills and there are quite a few that have better K/D than the La-7.

Pongo · « **Reply #5 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:07:45 AM »

But it is a whine Le Paul.
The plane is not more common then the spit or P51.
Did you really say if its such a good plane why isnt it on discovery wings?
Documenterys are based on footage thats available...with no flying examples and almost no footage from the war in the east..what would discovery wings show you?

Wlfgng · « **Reply #6 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:10:48 AM »

besides, DW is NOT the end-all information source.

Ripsnort · « **Reply #7 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:25:47 AM »

I love LA-7's simply because I get a whole toejamt load of perks with my F4U-1 when I shoot em down. Even if I don't land 'em, one can still get 12 perks when they die after taking a couple LA7's down. Then I horde my perks and have a blast with ME163's and 262's. Spits, LA7's are the first I engage due to the perk values (and the fact that there's usually no shortage of them as well)

Please continue flying LA7's, they're my gold mine.

(And, on the days I'm really bored, you'll see meflying one low near the low hanging fruit as Sandman said, occasionally.)

LePaul · « **Reply #8 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:31:12 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Wlfgng
besides, DW is NOT the end-all information source.

No sh*t gee....

I'm just saying when one recalls the "great" fighters of WW2 on all sides, the La7 has never jumped out in any of my reading or from what I've seen on shows, such as DW

lazs2 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:33:02 AM »

I think I am like 36/1 against La7's with an FM2 of all things... yeah... stupid people fly em.
lazs

LePaul · « **Reply #10 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:38:24 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by lazs2
I think I am like 36/1 against La7's with an FM2 of all things... yeah... stupid people fly em.
lazs

Oh no...we agree on something. Furnace must be on the fritz in hell?

lazs2 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:47:03 AM »

read... "soviet combat aircraft of the second world war" by gordon and khasanov..

The La7 was fast on the deck at about 380 but not much faster at alt at about 409 for production planes. with a climb to 5k of 5.3 min and a turn time of about 21 sec.

The yak 9U performs allmost identicaly in climb and turn but is a few mph paster at 16k

Soviet planes were very good performers (when they ran) down low but lost out at the higher alts (over about 15K) but... we don't fly at those alts in the MA.

It should be a good choice for MA play. The armor was ok but the self sealing tanks were primitive.
lazs

Innominate · « **Reply #12 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:47:59 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Pongo

The plane is not more common then the spit or P51.

This isn't quite true. The spitfire and p51 both have gaping flaws, which can be used against them in an equally matched fight.

Under about 8000 feet, the la7 can outrun anything in a co-e chase. Anything that can keep up with it, the la7 is able to easily out-turn.

The la7's only real disadvantages are that it's lacking a fourth 20mm cannon, and is only an average fighter over 8000feet. Sure the p51 and some other planes can out-turn it in a near-stall turnfight. But if you slow down that much, you're an easy kill for anyone in the neighborhood, or even the la7 just extending, and killing your now defenseless plane. The only real way to beat an la7 with a competent pilot is to stay above 10,000feet, or have a signficant e-advantage. That the majority of pilots are worthless doesn't count as a disadvantage.

Face it, the la7 is a mini-tempest. One less gun, a few mph slower, it turns better, and best of all, its free.
(And no, the tempest's hispanos aren't the same as the typhoon, that model hispano is more like the MG151/20)

As for the real world, In the real world performance at sea level was fairly irrelevant, since altitude is life. In AH we have no problem going down to the deck to furball, since we don't care a whole lot about getting shot down.

Sikboy · « **Reply #13 on:** January 10, 2003, 10:54:47 AM »

If the question really was "Why don't we see more rave reviews on Discovery Wings ect"....

As has been alluded already, I'd probably guess that it has a lot to do with the fact that after the war A. The Soviets became the bad guys, and B. There wasn't as much documentation readily available. We (Americans) have spent a good deal of time patting our selves on the back for our successes in WWII. We join up with our Good buddies the Brits, and rave about our planes. Then we rave about our advisaries, because after all, if they sucked balls, there'd be no real reason to brag about the outcome.

the Soviets fall through the cracks. We didn't spend much time fighting beside them, and we didn't spend much time fighting against them.

It helps that the MA is largely devoted to the low alt furball which was the specialty of the La-7, from my understanding.

I'm just makin stuff up here.

-Sik

Charon · « **Reply #14 on:** January 10, 2003, 11:00:38 AM »

Quote

I fly it when I must. It's a great ride if flown intelligently. Skirt the edge of the furball and look for low hanging fruit.

That's exactly what I use it for. A lot of furballs seem to be like the scene from 2001 a Space Odyssee, where you have two big groups of hostile chest beating monkeys hanging out, but reluctant to really mix it up. one or two will venture into either side from time to time, and usually don't venture out. With the LA-7 you can fight on the edge, stir stuff up and when you see the big red conga line, drag it back to your green cloud.

Also, as a solo flyer (though usually with a wingman these days) it can offer you the only chance to get some kills without being ganged too heavily if the target is a sector or more away. Nothing worse than running into a swarm that has both a zero and a la-7 or P-51. Plus, you can usually drag someone away for a 1v1. However, if you're one of those squad dweebs

with plenty of buddies around all the time the point may be lost.

You can even aggressively dogfight in it, using e and the vertical out-of-plane loop against spits etc. as long as you avoid the flat turn. I seldom fly it above 5000 feet. It's just another tool to deal with what the arena may offer at any given time, without having to play alt monkey or cherry picker to land a kill. Valid options of course, but not really my style. At heart I'm actually a Spit or Zero dweeb, but not in the late war MA.

As for performance, why not? In the West we don't hear that much about the battles in the East. The La-7 was a progressive development of the Lagg series, always improved, and a step up from the acclaimed La-5FN. It was great at what it was designed for, but poor compared to planes designed for high altitude fighting or long range escort. It is no more uber than any plane when out of its environment.

Charon