Haven't flown it much this tour....been focusing on the YAK. I'll tell ya what I know though.
gofaster said "burn your left wing tank first", I'll tell you why, If you fly at the edge of the envelope with more than half a LW tank it's likely you will stall the left wing and it'll dip violently. Now with an empty LW tank and
some gas left in the RW tank your envelope just got a hair bigger and that stall is much less pronounced (actually pretty gentle) and easily managed due to the offset weight of the fuel in the RW vs an empty LW. Never take-off with %100 fuel, unless your flying across the map.
(extra armor plate was added to the RW on future Corsairs to counteract this stall)
Because of it's strengths and weaknessessessess its a BnZ'r first and foremost, you must always be aware of your E state as well as the enemies and
conserve whenever possible because it's hard work getting it back.
The tactic that MoMoney describes is good only against rookie pilots, those who don't realize they're about to rip wings. Otherwise depending on the chasing AC it's best to change directions during the time it's likely the nme AC is possibly blacked out while trying to follow.
F4U-1 loves alt and speed, those are it's too best friends but also take the longest to get. Not alt in the sense of 20k necessarily just
some alt over your oponnent. It's a plus to have both but either one can be traded for the other. It's not a high alt bird neither so don't go chasing buffs over 22k. It's performance only gets worse at high alts.
It's strong point is high-speed handling and it's ability to hold together. Where some AC cant follow the high speed moves the others will rip wings if they try.
Zoom climbs and rope-a-dopes work if the nme is inexperienced and not in half the planeset, otherwise you will be caught in a climb and very pissed off.
Stall fighting on the deck is dangerous in any bird but this one with flaps will auger the uber rides (this is where and empty LW tank can save your life). Often I ended up on the deck dodging bullets saying my final prayer when the nme tried to follow a low speed turn and stalled out and augered. Be mindfull of your stall, if you stall at low speed under 4k it's likely you will not get it back in time.
If you decide to turn with an nme TnB'r at alt, don't, never more than once for a snapshot, stay above (it's an E thing) and set him up for a 6 run. If you must go for the kill and try to stay on his 6 then drop flaps, mash the rudder, and drop the gear to bleed speed in order to follow a split-S or a break. At that point your comitted if he has any E.
GL
