I'm pretty much in agreement with your list, -kier-. The 'Stang is the most survivable ride in the arena, as long as you've got a dinosaur hide for the inevitable cries of 'Runstang!'
I had a lovely time last night, even though it was only 1 sortie. Took off from f1, originally intending to head directly to f7 or 8, whichever that northeast field in the Bishopric is. I was clawing my way up past 17,000 at about 150 IAS when I saw a high dot to the north. Pushed the manifold from 55 in. to 60 and kept climbing. Turned out to be an FW, so I hauled off to keep the range open and grab some more alt over my field (so now I'm an ack hugging Runstang dweeb, it's better than becoming a Wurger Burger(tm)*
). Then I see (angelic choir)
clouds, beautiful clouds[/i] at about 20,000 off to the west. I look around, the FW is gone but now there's another dot near the clouds, so I head over that way to investigate.
Never do find that dot, but spend a great couple of minutes carving through and around the cloudpeaks. Very disorienting when the screen goes completely grey outside the cockpit (might be due to my sub-minimal home system). I've never done IFR, so I just
geeeently get the nose pointed up (according to the clinometer) until I can see again. This happens about four times until I'm clear of the cloud formation.
By then I'm well west of my intended destination, but the map shows nme activity all along the front so I climb to 26,400, drop manifold to 45# and head east to patrol along the southern edge of the mountain range. Nothing nothing nothing, about 60 gallons in the drop tank. Finally I see a dot on my low 8, so I roll to investigate. Once I'm on a southwesterly heading I check 6 (I don't like having my back to the front
) and sure enough, there's a lone-wolf B17 back there, approximately co-alt. Manifold back to 60#, dump the tank and turn back to the north.
Still just a dot, but from the way the range is dropping I estimate we're on closing vectors. Good enough, the 10/4 or 2/8 pass is what I want. Start my dive around 2.4, manifold back, he's managed to turn on me. Oh well, in I go anyway. The 17 driver (smitty) did an excellent job keeping me in his rear arc on my passes; I just couldn't line up the "shoulder" run I wanted. That and typical over-eagerness hurt my gunnery. He pinged me up pretty good but luckily there was no significant damage. Down to my last 60 rounds and now there's a Spit coming hard, co-alt from the northwest. He's a ways away so I've got time for one more run. I blow the rest of my ammo, roll inverted and split-s the heck out of there. Smitty and I compared notes, and I got his right waist gunner. As many times as he pinged me (he was definitely a better shot, at least on this sortie), it's a minor miracle I got out intact.
Finally set down at F4 with about 1/8 tank left. I came in a little hot (about 180) but with full flaps, minimum RPM and idle manifold. Greased her down nicely but went off the end of the runway, so it went as a ditch.
I'll tell you whut, Boomhower...I'd give up Dawn of Aces for Aces High if I had to decide right now...even more so if there were the ghost of an indication that HTC intends to tackle WWI at some point in the future....
------------------
Flathat
'Black Dahlia'
No10 RNAS "The Black Flight"
Angel on your wing, devil on your tail
*Wurger Burger(tm)--What you become when you engage an FW from a position of gross disadvantage when you don't have to and really should know better anyway.
[This message has been edited by Flathat (edited 11-18-1999).]
