The Jug ...
Well as far as I'm concerned, those who say:
- I fly iwth 25% or 50%.
- I use only 6 guns
- I use light ammo
All this is BS. Face it, if you want only 6 guns and less ammo you are better of flying a P51. Flying with 25% and 3 drop tanks so you can rat race, is powder in the eyes.
Take all ammo, take all guns, take 75%+DT or 100%+DT and then you can call yourself a jug pilot.
How to fly it, well, if you are caught on the deck with more than 40% of total fuel, you are probably dead ... it's part of the plane.
If you have some alt, you have options. Use the strenght of the plane:
- plenty of ammo at a high rate of fire creating a 700y nose cone of death.
- Very forgiving accelerated stall.
- can bleed E faster than any other fighter, meaning benifeciating of an "instant hard turn".
- If you are fighting a non canon plane, you can take couple of pings with monor effect to you.
The typical flight profile would be:
Take off and climb at 17k. Enagge any 1 on 1 up there. If you find a furball, do high speed pass. Set your conv to 300, anticipate the bad guy fly path and open a short burst at 400y. At any angle, you will probably kill or mess him up bad.
Keep an eye on anyone higher than you. If they engage you, because they are much faster, you can dodge their attack and sometimes run away to a friend.
When you reach the 40% total fuel, you are free to do more advanced turnfighting.
The enemy of the jug is the 1 Vs a lot. It's not like a turnfighter where you can dodge several cons even on the deck, or a runner where you can put the nose down and run.
But 1 vs 1, even against a turnfighter, you can use the amazing ability to bleed E, combined with 1 to 3 notches of flaps and the "hang on the prop" capability, to make a guy overshoot... and remember, all you need is to have the bad guy in your "700y cone of death".
That's my 2cts, grab online some 56FG guys as we fly the P47 most of the time in the MA. They'll be happy to coach you in the DA on the jug.
