Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Tig on August 08, 2023, 06:04:27 PM

Title: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Tig on August 08, 2023, 06:04:27 PM
I encountered something today while drilling in offline missions. I was doing the Channel dogfight from both sides, just practicing Spits and Emils in large scale fights.

Over and over again, the Spitfire and Hurricane AIs would manage to knock off my vertical stabilizer, and oftentimes an elevator as well. HOWEVER, I found the 109 still had enough longitudinal stability to fly away and even fight to an extent. Most of my time finless was spent running back to a field and having the ack shoot at my pursuers. I was able to pull away from them with raw engine power, and I circled and flew the field several times in hoping the ack would nail the Hurricanes. If they hadn't shot me down I could have landed it for sure.

Is this a thing with the other 109s or just the Emil? Also, is there any account of this happening in real life? Just an interesting capability I found today.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Busher on August 08, 2023, 07:16:08 PM
I encountered something today while drilling in offline missions. I was doing the Channel dogfight from both sides, just practicing Spits and Emils in large scale fights.

Over and over again, the Spitfire and Hurricane AIs would manage to knock off my vertical stabilizer, and oftentimes an elevator as well. HOWEVER, I found the 109 still had enough longitudinal stability to fly away and even fight to an extent. Most of my time finless was spent running back to a field and having the ack shoot at my pursuers. I was able to pull away from them with raw engine power, and I circled and flew the field several times in hoping the ack would nail the Hurricanes. If they hadn't shot me down I could have landed it for sure.

Is this a thing with the other 109s or just the Emil? Also, is there any account of this happening in real life? Just an interesting capability I found today.

Sounds a little gamey. I cannot imagine any real airplane - especially a single engine airplane - remaining controllable with the vertical stab gone. I would refer you to the crash of American Airlines 587 and the crash of a Japan Airlines 747 on August 12,1985.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: DmonSlyr on August 08, 2023, 09:49:33 PM
It was probably only half your tail, and yes, it is an occurrence that happens. It actually makes the 109 (in AH) stall fight better  :rofl . It also happens to other planes. I'm sure it did happen IRL which is why Hitech modeled it. PIA for me generally because I wreck planes and they fly away with half a tail or turn even better in the fight  :furious
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Busher on August 09, 2023, 04:39:53 PM
It was probably only half your tail, and yes, it is an occurrence that happens. It actually makes the 109 (in AH) stall fight better  :rofl . It also happens to other planes. I'm sure it did happen IRL which is why Hitech modeled it. PIA for me generally because I wreck planes and they fly away with half a tail or turn even better in the fight  :furious

Well there you have it Tig... right from NASA's expert on aeronautical design and engineering.... likely thousands of hours flying high performance aircraft.
Tig, see if you can arrange to get some tailwheel time during your training - better yet some aerobatics training as well. Aces High is a fun internet game but a few liberties were taken in flight modelling. But what do I know? I only had slightly more than 30,000 flying hours when I retired.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: TryHard on August 09, 2023, 04:49:20 PM
Well there you have it Tig... right from NASA's expert on aeronautical design and engineering.... likely thousands of hours flying high performance aircraft.
But what do I know? I only had slightly more than 30,000 flying hours when I retired.

Wow I never knew DmonSlyr had such high qualifications  :eek:

Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: DmonSlyr on August 09, 2023, 04:53:05 PM
Well there you have it Tig... right from NASA's expert on aeronautical design and engineering.... likely thousands of hours flying high performance aircraft.
Tig, see if you can arrange to get some tailwheel time during your training - better yet some aerobatics training as well. Aces High is a fun internet game but a few liberties were taken in flight modelling. But what do I know? I only had slightly more than 30,000 flying hours when I retired.

I mean, I do have thousands of kills and hundreds if not thousands of hours in AH over 15 years, although I don't have time to play that much anymore. I was #1 fighter last tour and a few times this year among other years. Had the most kills in 2 Combat challenges this year and the most kills in the last FSO in a 109f by 6 over the next guy. So I do like to think I know what I'm talking about in the skis of AH, especially since the 109 is one of my best planes  :aok
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Busher on August 09, 2023, 06:17:24 PM
Wow I never knew DmonSlyr had such high qualifications  :eek:

Well there you go. A detailed curriculum vitae covering the details of an extensive video game career.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Banshee7 on August 09, 2023, 06:23:48 PM
Well there you go. A detailed curriculum vitae covering the details of an extensive video game career.

Well, considering the post was about 109s in Aces High with only the last statement being a question about IRL, I don’t really see why Violators post deserved this kind of response. Lighten up.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: DmonSlyr on August 09, 2023, 07:29:21 PM
Well there you go. A detailed curriculum vitae covering the details of an extensive video game career.

A proud video game career  :old:  :neener:

Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: The Fugitive on August 09, 2023, 09:00:23 PM
I mean, I do have thousands of kills and hundreds if not thousands of hours in AH over 15 years, although I don't have time to play that much anymore. I was #1 fighter last tour and a few times this year among other years. Had the most kills in 2 Combat challenges this year and the most kills in the last FSO in a 109f by 6 over the next guy. So I do like to think I know what I'm talking about in the skis of AH, especially since the 109 is one of my best planes  :aok

Just for giggles I ran your numbers to see what you have. Here are the top planes in kills from the last 15 years.

(https://i.postimg.cc/9FxLWGS3/violator.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Bopgun on August 09, 2023, 09:10:33 PM
Just for giggles I ran your numbers to see what you have. Here are the top planes in kills from the last 15 years.

(https://i.postimg.cc/9FxLWGS3/violator.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

Is there a place to download this program? I had it years ago
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Oldman731 on August 09, 2023, 09:39:39 PM
Just for giggles I ran your numbers to see what you have. Here are the top planes in kills from the last 15 years.


You...um...you didn't put in the C202...

- oldman
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: DmonSlyr on August 09, 2023, 09:49:24 PM
Just for giggles I ran your numbers to see what you have. Here are the top planes in kills from the last 15 years.

(https://i.postimg.cc/9FxLWGS3/violator.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

Sweet thanks! And that's just under Violator I assume. Did you do DmonSlyr and Catfish6 as well? I had a couple other names, but probably not enough there to put a dint in it. Only 4 planes below a 3 k/d, I'll take it! Only really getting about 100 kills a tour now due to limited time I can play and lack of larger consistent fights. Trying to get my 2500 kills in the jap planes, seems like it's taking forever!
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: LCADolby on August 09, 2023, 10:52:05 PM
Catfish6... I hated that guy
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: DmonSlyr on August 10, 2023, 06:50:45 AM
Catfish6... I hated that guy

Big time squeaker!

There actually was another catfish flying around a few years ago. Not sure what happened to em.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: FLS on August 10, 2023, 07:15:22 AM
... I only had slightly more than 30,000 flying hours when I retired.

How many hours in fighters and doing aerobatics? My dad had similar hours in 120 different types but mostly in airliners and antique sailplanes. He didn't claim to know a lot about WW2 fighters because even thought he worked on them post war he didn't fly them.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Tig on August 10, 2023, 08:31:38 AM
Jeez it's like a school of piranhas.  :noid

Lighten up y'all, I just wanted to see who else has heard of this happening in game or in real life perhaps. I don't give a single crap who's more qualified lol.

Although that table does make me much more proud of the few kills I have on Violator.  :bolt:
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Busher on August 10, 2023, 09:03:19 AM
How many hours in fighters and doing aerobatics? My dad had similar hours in 120 different types but mostly in airliners and antique sailplanes. He didn't claim to know a lot about WW2 fighters because even thought he worked on them post war he didn't fly them.

Quite a lot of aerobatics in my youth but sadly no opportunity to fly a WW2 fighter. But you don't need to fly an airplane to know it cannot be controlled missing it's vertical fin.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: FLS on August 10, 2023, 11:19:09 AM
I agree it's unlikely.

To answer the OP, 3 out of 4 B-52's that lost tails crashed before landing, one made it. Helps to have engines in the wing.

I can't think of any single engine fighters off hand but it wouldn't surprise me if there was one.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: DmonSlyr on August 10, 2023, 11:25:12 AM
I am wondering if he meant horizontal stabilizer because that is normally what gets shot off and it's very flyable in AH. That is what I was referring to. If your vertical stabilizer gets shot you are basically floating but not really "flying" per say. No plane in AH can "fly" without a vertical one. I've been able to get some ditches out of it though.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: nrshida on August 10, 2023, 12:36:57 PM
I can reliably ditch the Ki-84 with a missing vertical stabilizer. You can use a combination of torque and pitch to keep it in line. In AH you only lose discrete units of parts though.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: The Fugitive on August 10, 2023, 03:58:33 PM
Is there a place to download this program? I had it years ago

Send me a private message with your email and Ill send you a copy. The program quit working years ago when HTC changed something on their servers. My son reprogrammed it to work again, so if you do find it on-line someplace it most likely will not work. But Im happy to send out copies just as Spatula who built it did.


You...um...you didn't put in the C202...

- oldman

These are "Violators" numbers only, not game wide numbers.

Sweet thanks! And that's just under Violator I assume. Did you do DmonSlyr and Catfish6 as well? I had a couple other names, but probably not enough there to put a dint in it. Only 4 planes below a 3 k/d, I'll take it! Only really getting about 100 kills a tour now due to limited time I can play and lack of larger consistent fights. Trying to get my 2500 kills in the jap planes, seems like it's taking forever!

Yes that is only the "Violator" call sign, I didnt know you had others.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: FLS on August 10, 2023, 04:39:11 PM
I am wondering if he meant horizontal stabilizer because that is normally what gets shot off and it's very flyable in AH. That is what I was referring to. If your vertical stabilizer gets shot you are basically floating but not really "flying" per say. No plane in AH can "fly" without a vertical one. I've been able to get some ditches out of it though.

You can roll and use adverse yaw.  :joystick: The 109 has such a small fin to begin with you hardly miss it.  :D
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Tig on August 10, 2023, 07:50:13 PM
I am wondering if he meant horizontal stabilizer because that is normally what gets shot off and it's very flyable in AH. That is what I was referring to. If your vertical stabilizer gets shot you are basically floating but not really "flying" per say. No plane in AH can "fly" without a vertical one. I've been able to get some ditches out of it though.

No when I say the vertical stabilizer I MEAN the vertical stabilizer lol. It happened 3 times in a row in the mission, a Spit or Hurri would lock onto my 6 and knock off usually my vertical and the right horizontal stabilizer. Bf-109 damage model showed the whole fin above the horizontal stabs gone. There is a small portion below them, and it was an Emil with the external tail struts, so that may have made a difference.

Like I said, when they came off there was a lot of wandering yaw with the nose at first, but I pushed it into a dive at full WEP, and above about 220-230 it stabilized to the point where the nose no longer wandered. I could pull at least 3 Gs without the nose wandering and the vertical stab missing.

Remember, this is on the Bf-109E-4.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: LCADolby on August 10, 2023, 11:04:58 PM
I'll be honest, the 109E has had the tail bug for a long time, I reported it 10 years ago.
For me it was difficult/impossible to recreate, so getting it to HiTech never really happened.
If you got film, send it to HiTech. The Vert stab does occasionally fall off to no adverse effects.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Eagler on August 16, 2023, 01:23:10 PM
Pretty sure some of the damage models in the game do not represent real life experiences..

Pretty sure they couldn't run their smoking oil draining engines at full bore and wep as if no damage was done
and then glide 20 miles for a successful landing

Eagler
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: TryHard on August 16, 2023, 01:26:22 PM
Pretty sure some of the damage models in the game do not represent real life experiences..

Pretty sure they couldn't run their smoking oil draining engines at full bore and wep as if no damage was done
and then glide 20 miles for a successful landing

Eagler

Only if they were in a P47  :aok
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: FLS on August 16, 2023, 06:48:33 PM
Pretty sure some of the damage models in the game do not represent real life experiences..


The dynamic flight model is suitable for simulation. The simple damage model is suitable for gaming.
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Puma44 on August 31, 2023, 04:44:58 PM
Pretty sure some of the damage models in the game do not represent real life experiences..

Pretty sure they couldn't run their smoking oil draining engines at full bore and wep as if no damage was done
and then glide 20 miles for a successful landing

Eagler

Also doubt that pilots with high performance fighter engines would shut down their engine to listen for enemy GVs. 
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Oldman731 on August 31, 2023, 08:13:16 PM
Also doubt that pilots with high performance fighter engines would shut down their engine to listen for enemy GVs.


Geez, didn't you ever see "Battle of the Bulge," where Henry Fonda tells his pilot to do just that?  (Granted that an L4 maybe didn't have a high performance fighter engine, but still....)

I mean, if they could do it in a movie, they must have done it in real life all the time.

- oldman
Title: Re: BF-109 Stability
Post by: Busher on August 31, 2023, 09:39:55 PM

Geez, didn't you ever see "Battle of the Bulge," where Henry Fonda tells his pilot to do just that?  (Granted that an L4 maybe didn't have a high performance fighter engine, but still....)

I mean, if they could do it in a movie, they must have done it in real life all the time.

- oldman

Nah, if it ain't on the internet, it ain't true. :rolleyes: