Hehehhe here's the short and ugly first report.
Sortie 1: enemy Fw 190A-5 on the 6 of my Fw 190D-9. I reverse the situation and kill him with a *beautiful* 1/4 second snap shot at ~300 (him zooming into a left-hand climbing turn, me fine tuning the gunsight so he can fly thru it). Then a Bf 109G-10 dives and catches me, followed by 2 P-51Ds about 20 seconds later. Bf 109G-10 hits my left flaps and oil, and I dive into a ravine pursued by all 3. The 'asteroid chase scene' from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is streaming in my head. Scissoring up against the walls of the ravine. Bf 109G-10 overshoots. 1 P-51D craters. Other P-51D zooms. I'm 10' from the 70 degree sloping wall of the ravine, at ~110 MPH IAS. Smack the flaps and kick the rudder left to wing over away from the ravine wall...friendly base just past the lip of the ravine and I *might* have enough oil to dive, zoom climb out of ravine, and make it home.
Oops...did I mention that I forgot I lost my left flaps? Smack the flaps, one side drops, Fw 190D-9 lurches like Charlie Sheen on a Friday night and into the wall I go.
Just like 'The Empire Strikes Back' alright...I'm one of those 4 TIE fighters that tried to chase Han Solo.
1 sortie, 1 death, 1 kill.
Sortie 2: near the same area. A P-47D (Brazilian, this should have warned me) and I tangle for a second about 7000' over the ground at 500+ MPH IAS. He goes his way and I go mine - diving on a pair of Bf 109s (with Finn markings, this should have warned me as well...see below) that are all over some Knight who's on the deck and out of speed.
Line up on the Bf 109 who is lining up on the other Knight. Range 450 or so (200 past conv. for all my guns)...not much closure...he's in a moderate climb...pull lead...fire everything for about 1/2 second. Everything hits on his right wing. Wing gone Bf 109 gone. Sweet! My gunnery is really 'on' today.
I check 6...I'm wings level...just like the P-47 range 525 my '6'. I start to wing over...and just keep going because he puts .50 inch holes in alot of important parts.
2 sorties, 2 kills, 2 deaths.
Oh yeah the guy flying the P-47 was 'one of those Damn Brazillians'. 'Sent a Pua' or something like that. Nice shot you bastard.
Sortie 3: Yet another great SA failure. If I was filming these I'd be the subject of 'this is what an SA f*ckup looks like'. Trying to zap some slippery Finn Bf 109 (I think it was DB 603). I get some 13mm hits on him and he slips and slides down and away from my gunsight. I zoom. Check 6. Mossie VI...on my 6...range 250.
It was kind of cool seeing my rear fuselage spin away. Just before I exploded.
3 sorties, 2 kills, 3 deaths.
Sortie 4: Tangling over a Rook airbase as our attack aircraft are inbound. 2 Finn Bf 109s (when will I learn?...), some Ki-61s, 'The Mossie', etc. Chasing a Ki-61 over the airfield. AAA tracers everywhere. Finn 109s everywhere. My self control is shattered as a Mossie spawns at the end of the runway. I dive and hit him with about 700% of the required firepower to kill him...I'd call it 'payback' but he shot me down fair and square. I zoom back around and chase one of the Finn 109s into a climb.
"Hey, where's the other Finn 109? Ah, that must be where those tracers are coming from!"
Ping Clank Ping Clank. Check damage - one aeileron and one elev hit. Dive dive dive! Roll and Dive. Ping Clank Ping Ping Clank. He's at range 500 or so now, and he got my other elevator.
I escape him by doing a really shallow (because I have no tail basically) diving scissors. He leaves me alone eventually, because I suck.
Only now...low on gas, no elevators at all, need to land...can't do it. If I get slow enough to drop gear, speed drops too low and I will go into the ground.
A wise man would bail out over a friendly airfield.
If anyone ever meets that wise man tell him he was right. I tried to land, broke the gear off, tried to ditch, overshot the runway...
"Hey I wonder if those big boulders are actual objects that I can collide with?"
They are. You have been warned.
4 sorties, 2 kills, 1 vulch, 4 deaths.
I break out the Fw 190D-9 manual. I catch some fine print at the bottom of page 251 that explains it all:
"If at all possible, avoid flying this aircraft on Mondays."
I'm starting to think I'm going to do better as a Russian. Maybe it's karmic payback for drinking vodka instead of JM or FPMO all those years...
Mike/wulfie
