SlapShot:
I was trying to add some levity. (Note the smiley face.)
I often fly the Spit IX, (so note that my jest was, in some sense, a jab at myself) and am constantly told that it is uber and that I am a dweeb for flying it. The prevailing opinion seems to be that you simply need to set it on autopilot and kills will accumulate automatically.
In all seriousness, I have naught to rely upon but my relatively brief experience. Not being one to let lack of knowledge impede stating my opinion, however, I would rate the Spitfire IX as one of the elite dogfighters in the game. Its outclimbs and outruns everything it cannot outturn and outturns everything it can't outrun. It retains energy like few other planes. It doesn't compress easily and maintains decent control at very high speeds. It has very gentle and forgiving stall characteristics. Its cannons have excellent ballistics and more than enough lethality to kill in a single snap shot. It rolls sufficiently well to e-fight and reverse effectively. If you employ prudent energy management and avoid the classic Spitfire Luftberry, the plane is extremely survivable, notwithstanding its modest top speed.
I think the IX gets a bad rap as a "beginner's" plane. Although it is certainly easier to get your first kills in a Spit than in, say, an F4U, most of the Spit IX's best qualities will be completely lost on the rank novice (I know because I just recently graduated from "rank novice" to "not rank but still pretty smelly novice"). In the hands of an ace, I have to believe that the sky's the limit. For me of very modest ability, the IX allows me to engage under unfavorable circumstances and occassionally live to tell the tale.
While perhaps not "so completely uber," I would posit that the IX is tough to beat in an even engagement between equally skilled pilots.
- JNOV
