Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Help and Training => Topic started by: bozon on May 25, 2007, 08:35:38 PM
-
So, you want to fly the wooden wonder...
Introduction and demoralization
============================
You always wanted to land many kills, strike fear in the hearts of you opponents and be congratualated by your country men. Read no further! go grab an La7.
If on the other hand, you always wanted to fight against the odds, be laughed at when you show up and when you un-controllably spin into the groud, flare at the sight of gunfire, die slowly from blood loss or be shocked when you actually get to land - the Mosquito is the plane for you. So yes, it is not a real pure fighter. No, you can't out run every thing like in the stories, nor out turn most planes. You are a big target with "moss" neon sign above it, which I think is the ancient greek word for "Shoot me".
In return you get to fly the most extraordinary plane, a legend in its time. Used in almost every thinkable roll in WWII. You have the range of a bomber, the speed and climb of a fighter, the guns of satan, the looks of Adonis, an exhaust flame dampners to choke you engine and a specially modified center-of-gravity to increase spin ability. It was built by piano makers and it shows: what do they know of C.O.G? but they made a deadly musical instrument that flies. As an added bonus, you get to tease the environmentalists by cutting down their forests and turning them into a beautiful flying machine. Just be sure to check the air intakes for squirrels.
Additional perks include surround sound speakers, even on the roof above, a chilled beer box on the baggage platform behind the seat and an assistant to prepare the drinks for you and act as dead weight to balance the plane. Perhaps the installment of his seat too far back is what caused the instability problems (I always though this was so he can reach the beer cooler easier).
Seriously - you get to fly the coolest plane ever.
Chapter 1 - Performance: Where is it?
=============================
You made it this far. Good. I bet you never get passed this.
Speed:
The most important quality in a fighter. You are actually not too bad here. 337 mph deck speed is almost decent. Who is faster than you? lets see:
109G/K
190A/F/D
P51
Spit8/16/14
La7
Ki84
F4U
These are basically all the heavily used Late-war areana planes. Take comfort in your ability to
outrun Zekes, N1K and Hurricanes. But hey! you do have that flame dumpner on your exhaust tubes. When you fly at night, they can't see the sparks! How cool is that?
It is not all that bad for one reason: E retantion. The Mosquito seems to be holding its speed very well. High mass and very clean airframe do count for something. If you dive to high speed, most chasing planes will bleed their speed faster than you do. So, for a little while you can pull ahead or at least make this a surprisingly long chase for them - enough for a wingman to clear you, or to take your pursuer to a remote place where you can show him some of that pilot s#!t.
Avoid cruising between 9-11k. Performance drops in this range.
Climb:
With 50% or less fuel on board (ie, always), you break the 3000 fpm line without WEP. That is decent for any fighter (see, I'm used to jugs so this looks like a lot to me). The beauty here is that even if you climb at 200 mph, you still make 3000 fpm. The Mossie really excels at high speed climbs. Basically, unless you DON'T want to get anywhere while climbing, you can always set you climb speed to 200 mph (IAS). Saves a lot of time in Jabo runs and you are always at maneuvering speed in case you are bounced. Load the plane up with 4*500 lbs and 50%, set the climb speed to 200 and you still can climb at 2750(2500) fpm on WEP(without), covering 3 1/3 miles per minute. Within 2.5 minutes of WEP climb, you are at about 7000 feet and better turn off WEP since it will be ineffective till about 12k. If the target is far away, don't bother with the WEP and climb even shallower. Climbing 2000 fpm, mill power, you can cruise at 240 mph indicated (250-260 true at typical alts) while doing so, and that is WITH fuel and bombs.
Dive:
Magnificent! No I'm not being cynicle, truely magnificent. The dive acceleration is good enough to notice you pull away from most pursuers. The only problem is the low safe-speed. Stress sounds start at 440 mph, vibrations at 500 mph and at 540 mph you'll loose elevators and ailerons. Thanks to the great accelerations, this comes surprisingly fast. Even before that, if you pull out too hard, you'll loose plane parts. This is a slight problem in JABO since it forces you to aim and release fast. Also, starting too high and fast will force you to release from high altitude.
Zoom:
Magnificent again! The high speed E retaintion, high mass and good climb combine to make this plane one of the best zoomers from high speed. It also means that when you dive bomb, you can zoom back up without much E loss. You can really prepare a nasty suprise here when you zoom up into your opponent poking him with your devil's guns.
Turn:
Bad. Especially the turning circle. It seems that at high speeds, the E retaintion is good, so you don't dump speed fast enough and when slow, even with flaps, the turn radius is quite large. Also, you need to watch out of the boogie man. When you just think about pushing the plane a little into the stall, the boogie man will come and kick your arse, switching you head for your butt, throwing you into a nasty stall. This is one of the benifits of having your center-of-gravity miss placed.
Roll:
Mixed. Not impressive at slow speeds, pretty nice at mid-high speeds. Good enough to work with.
Range:
543 gallons. That's right 543. That is 2+1/3 full 110s and 35% more than P-38. The only fighter to beat you by a hair is the P47-N with absolutely ridiculous 550 gallons (for 1 very hungry engine). Why do you need that much? You don't. You are not flying to Berlin. At MA settings you get a little over 17 minutes per 25%. Taking 50% will give you 35 minutes at full power. Do you
need more? If you want to save, fly on "normal" settings in the E6B - that will give you 24 minutes and a range of ~125 miles (per 25% !) cruising at ~315 mph. That is almost infinity.
Another viable option is 25%+DT fighter mode. The DT give you 24 minutes on full power to get to anywhere on the map. You have the 17 minutes of fuel left to fight. When the E6B gives you 3 minutes left, RTB at "normal" settings. you'll have 5 minutes of fuel and ability to cover a full sector at over 300 mph true. Go lower settings to get even farther.
High speed, long range cruise is your "thing". The Mosquito was the only bomber that had to slow down in order for the escorts to keep up. Use up your fuel to the max and don't carry too much of it. The difference in performance is significant.
Guns:
4 Hispanos in the nose with 175 rpg. Say no more.
175 is not as much as it sounds. Fire short bursts. One short hit is usually enough.
4 303 pea shooters. Very fun for shooting chutes. The other use is to annoy enemies with the sound of hail storm on a tin roof (and as effective). Near useless most of the time.
Forward visibility is excellent. If you set the "forward" head position slightly up and close to the gun sight you can pull very good deflection shots. You can get an almost "no cockpit" view by going full forward. You won't have the gun sight to aim with though.
Aiming is incredibly poor. With every correction the nose swings from side to side making sniping very difficult. I attribute this to my navigator/bartender sitting too far back.
Next chapter comming soon, "Mosquito go to war: Jabo".
p.s.
Go to the link below and remind HTC that the Mossie need some lovin'. That's not a request, that's an order! :
http://forums.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=200332
-
In return you get to fly the most extraordinary plane, a legend in its time. Used in almost every thinkable roll in WWII. You have the range of a bomber, the speed and climb of a fighter, the guns of satan, the looks of Adonis, an exhaust flame dampners to choke you engine and a specially modified center-of-gravity to increase spin ability. It was built by piano makers and it shows: what do they know of C.O.G? but they made a deadly musical instrument that flies. As an added bonus, you get to tease the environmentalists by cutting down their forests and turning them into a beautiful flying machine. Just be sure to check the air intakes for squirrels.
- Bozon
LMAO
Gotta love De Havilland's DH. 98. Just need to fix that CoG problem and we're good to go! Awesome rightup.
-
Don't undersell the .303s. I have found they are quite usable at times. I have shot down an undamaged Bf110G-2 and an undamaged La-7 with them. They have a functionally unlimited supply of ammo. It is fun to watch them try to squirm out of the hose of .303 rounds.
The Lancaster formation I walked .303 fire over was markedly less impressed that the Bf110G-2 was though.
-
I used to bring mosquito up 25+k, it is a beast against others up there.I always used to get 10 kills per sortie there.
-
Nice read Bozon :aok
-
Bozon - very well written! - looking forward to next chapter :)
-
I decided to add a chapter on handeling the mosquito as this is generaly the biggest issue. Specific JABO and air-to-air tips will follow in the next chapters.
Chapter 2 - (Mis)handeling the Mosquito: Careful, they bite!
=====================================================
Counter rotating props? Bahh, too complicated for carpenters. Stable platform? you mean training wheels for beginners. Combat flaps? RAF do not need no bloody flaps, but you'll get small ones just for the ladies.
By now you must have heard or experienced the dreaded mosquito stall and flat spin. Two factors combine to create it: Very strong left yaw from the props and the aft center of gravity that makes your arse want to overtake the head. In this chapter I will attempt to give a few advice on how to die with dignity - that is by bursting into flames or by bleeding all over the cockpit, but not to spin and crash.
Combat Trim:
In Yiddish that means "death by your own hands" (and make you feel guilty). Extreme care should be used with the combat trim. Against what it is supposed to do, it does not trim you to level flight, but leaves some pitch up (or tail heavy... surprise surprise...). If you are trimed for high speed, but got slow and you turn it on, hold on tight to your panties.
If you leave it on, it will keep increasing your AoA even if you do not pull the stick and push you right over the stall edge. Once you stall, the airspeed drops to zero and CT will trim you "full-up" making "stick forward" response ineffective.
I recommand it is used for rough trimming - turned one for a second and right back off. Never turn it on while you are pulling G.
Rudder and Yaw:
The plane has terrible yaw instability. Push stick forward and it yaw hard left (ball goes to the right), pull and it yaws to the right (ball left). To get a good gun solution you need gentle corrections and no jinks which will set the pendulum in motion.
At slow speeds the difference between right and left becomes significant, to the point where you can't roll or yaw to the right. Good rudder trim can help a lot here, especially if you use a gawd awful Logitech twist stick that ofen response only half way to the right $#%@#!. If you get into a slow speed fight, especially rolling scissors, try to make it a left rolling fight.
Kicking hard left rudder at near stall speeds will send you into the mosquito famous flat spin. The P38 can do a nice quick flip at the top. The nose drops, swings a little and you gain control. Try it with the mosquito (to the left) and the nose drops, then the heavy tail wants to come around too, swinging you 360 yaw rotaion and leaving you in a deep stall pointing at the sky again. Try it to the right and do it in slow motion (if at all). BE VERY CAREFUL IN HAMMER-HEADS TO THE LEFT.
In the real thing, pilots said you'd be just fine by using differential power on the engines. Most of us do not have dual throttles and if you try to shut down one engine while stall fighting, prepare to enter a world of pain.
Take offs:
Pretty straight forward. Pick up some speed, raise the tail, pull gently and feel the heavy tail wagging the dog. Remember that feel when you stall fight.
Landings:
Surprisingly tricky for a silly reason - you are too aerodynamic and can't slow down. Don't come too steep and use a lot of skeeding to get below 200 mph. Here, your flaps pop out and the gear will help to slow you down. As you go below 160, beware of the wagging tail and the sink rate that increase repidly. alwas land at full RPM to help slowing you down. In feathered engines landings you can easily run out of runway.
Accelerated stall:
We all know the drill - enemy just outside the gunsight, you do a quick hard jink and pop him up. Works like a charm in silly planes like the F4U and Typhoon. We won't have that with the mosquito, it's not dignified. To prevent you from doing that, the heavy bellybutton of the mosquito has been designed to slap you every time you try it. Jink hard and call yourself butt-head, beacause you have just flipped tails for heads like a coin in a football game. You also got yourself into a deep stall, usually with a left spin (read further).
Slow speed stall:
Never stall with your nose high above the horizon. The heavy tail will get you into what is known as "deep stall". That is when the entire aircraft is stalled and falls belly-forward, without allowing the airflow to resume normal conditions on any control surface. Often, the enines yaw will add a left spin component. Since the tail is too heavy, it is very hard to get the nose down and turn it into a forward dive. Care is advised when using flaps as they add pitch up and allow you to get dep into the danger zone. Do not get stopped in midair with the nose up.
Recovering from deep stall / flat spin:
Quick reaction is vital. Once you feel the plane start yawing to the left un-controlably react immediately:
[list=1]
- Full stick forward, full rudder against the spin (usually full right).
- Retract flaps if exstended.
- If combat-trim is on, slap yourself and turn it off, trim a lot forward.
- Your first objective is to get the nose below the horizon and into a dive. If after 2 seconds you get no response, throttle full back (still holding stick forward and full rudder). You can try adding roll in the same direction as the rudder (stick forward right).
- Once the nose is pointed down, center all controlls and open throttle. Pick up some speed and smoothly come out of the dive.
[/list=1]
If you respond quickly and act right, #1 should work to get you out in 1-2 seconds. In cetrain very extreme cases the wild stall can be used as a defensive maneuver, so this is not all bad. Mostly bad, somewhat very bad and partly down right awful, but it has its dweebish uses. This will be covered in the next chapters.
Let me remind you again to remind HTC that the Mosquito is over-modeled:
http://forums.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=200332
-
wow, really well written! well done!
But then I clicked that link you posted and saw what the plane looks like.
ugh.
That is one ugly bellybutton plane.
See ya,
Toonces
-
Another long winded chapter in the termite infested saga:
Chapter 3 - Attack of the Mosquitoes: It's Da Bomb!
================================================
JABO. Some people think it is an abbreviation for "Just, Another BOmbing Attempt". Yes, I know, they missed the "Attempt" in JABO - that's because they don't do it correctly. You might think: "yeh! the mosquito was known as a bomber and as an attack plane. It must be good!". Perhaps, but most fighter-bombers will carry more ordnance than you and dive bomb better than you. The Typhoon, if it gets to some alt and speed is almost unstoppable, carries 2000lbs as you has hispanos to strife and much better chance to get away after the deed. The P38 will carry 2000lbs and top that with 10 rockets and is somehow faster than you on the deck without the ord. Make sure to shoot at any P38 you come across just for this reason (friendlies also). P-38 has no speaker in the ceiling though. The Me110 will carry more ordnance than you and has better guns for strafing. It too has no speaker in the ceiling, so we maintain superiority there. If HTC give us the Tze-Tze with the 57mm gun, then we'll see some real barrel envy.
Just a side note about the 110. With the two engines and a crew of 2, you might think of it as a German version of the mosquito. This is entirely wrong. Little known fact is that Willy Messerschmidt designed the 110 to be crewed by old German married couples. They sit back to back so they don't have to talk.
In the blabber that will follow, I will attempt to give a few advice as how to make a successful dive-bombing attack run in the Mosquito VI and take the long route to the tower by actually landing the plane. Other attacks (NOE, de-acking etc...) will be covered in future chapters. We start on the ground:
Load out options:
Guns - always take the large ammo package. If you are worried about weight and not worried about hit %, then shoot away the excessive load of peas through the 303 pea-shooters. Personally, I never bother, but will thank HTC if I'll be able to leave them home. They do come in handy on rare occasions.
Bomb Bay - You can choose between the 500 lbs and 250 lbs. You will hardly feel the difference on the climb out so you might as well get the big ones. I often take these even if I intend to go A2A, just in case I pass by an enemy GV of base without finding a fight.
Wings - Here you can choose between a pair of 250lbs, a pair of 500lbs (again, no real dilemma) or 8 rockets. Some say that 5 rockets are the equivalent of 500 lbs. I really don't know and generally I feel that they are less effective than a big bomb, so that is usually the two 500lbs for me.
Fuel - 50%. No more, no less. Sometimes, if the target is close, 25% (17 minutes mil) will do. Remember, 50% = 34 minutes at full power. You won't live that long anyway.
Setting up the views:
The mossie has great views for attack runs. The two most useful are: Forward-Down, which you set to be as far forward and up as you can, so you can look down past the nose (laying on the dashboard) and Left-Forward-Down, which you set so you peek down through the trapezoid window between the nose and the engine with your cheek against the glass. The Right-Forward-Down view works also, but is not as good.
Climb-Out:
Your auto-climb default speed is 170 mph. You might as well climb at 200 mph since you loose almost no FPM. If the target is far away, I set an even higher speed (command is ".speed 200"). See the Climb remarks in Chapter 1.
The target altitude is at least 8k above base alt (can be displayed on the map). The reason is you want to arrive higher then the acks and high enough so planes climbing out of the attacked field will not just pull up and take a shot at you. You also want to void cruising at 10-13k. see the speed chart at HTC:
http://www.flyaceshigh.com/ahhelp/models/mossie6.html
One important note: You want to get to the designated alt at some distance from the target. Leave the last miles for picking up speed. If you arrive at 200 mph you might as well drive a Lancaster - Mosquitoes come with a thunder! No reason for you to reach at less than 330 mph (350 is even better). In practice, the idea is to come so fast that you get to the drop before anyone is quick enough to get his guns on you. Since you climb at high speed, you won't need to accelerate for long (level out with a heavy jug and see how long it takes to get to just 300).
Passing the time en route:
While your Navigator/barman/DJ is entertaining you, this is a good time for some intel. What do you want to attack? You have few bombs, so you better make them count. Right click on the target field in the map and select "AXXX Status". There you can check if the VH/Dar/Ammo is up. Lets assume we choose the VH on a small field. Right click anywhere on the map and choose "clipboard maps". On the pull-down menu, select the small field.
You will now do what you haven't done during 12 years of school - homework. Learn how to find the VH quickly by setting up directions from large to small: "On the opposite side of the runway from the big hangars platform, the only road diagonal to the runway, the extreme-most structure". The maps are set so N is up. If you come from E to W you can imagine how it would look - the VH will be on the opposite side of the runway and to the left from the center. At the critical moments of the attack you want to keep you SA up, assessing threats and planning the escape, not flying around trying to find the target structure. Also, choose your salvo now (".salvo X"). For hard targets its better to drop at 2. for soft, use 1.
If you are already familiar with the layout or finished early, this a good time to talk some smack on channel 200.
Ingress:
I always thought the "Ingress" was a name of a Swedish lady, but I was wrong. A Swedish friend of mine, whom I trust, says it means "in pants" as in soiling yourself.
Remember? You come with a thunder, tearing the skies at 350 mph (or more!). If you need a little more speed, shallow dive a couple k feet (even if its the 10-13k zone). Keep your head on a swivel, look for enemy planes. Are they engaging you? will they be able to catch you before the drop? Will they be a threat after? and most important: What is the best direction to egress?
Locate you target from as far as possible (homework, remember?). The Forward-Down view will come in handy. When you get near, I prefer to place the target in the Left-Forward-Down view, you can track it there till its almost below you - then it will be the time to attack.
When you feel that you will get to do the delivery, select the bombs. Now this part is confusing to some people. The wing bombs show as "B50" in the counter, the bay bombs, on the other hand, show as "B50" in the counter. But remember that this is the Mosquito and its British, so everything is reversed: Your tail wants to overtake the nose, the ammo counter is on the left for the MG, but on the right for the cannons/bombs, and you select the bay bombs before the wing bombs - opposite of how you'd like it.
Open the bay doors. Even if you think you just want to use the wing bombs, open the bay. The only thing more frustrating than hitting the release button on a perfect setup and seeing the "Doors are not open" message, is sitting on the toilet after you did your business, realizing you didn't check if there's any paper left.
-
The plunge of death:
Do we want to survive? Yes we do. If we didn't, we'd be flying a Typhoon and lawndart into the target, even though a Typhoon has 10 times better chance to come out alive. Therefore, and this is soooo basic, we make the attack in the direction in which we want to egress (more or less). You will pick up great speed, which the mosquito is very good at keeping. What is the point of running in the wrong direction and blowing it all away in a sharp turn? In other words, if we want to escape in the direction in which we came from, we fly PAST the target and then dive to attack. Usually, backward is not the best direction, but a little to the side. Also take into consideration the number of acks on the way. If the target is on the edge of the field, attack in a direction that will take you away from most acks and not across the entire field.
Trim a good measure forward, but not all the way - the bottom of the "L" is a good guess. Under no circumstance use the combat-trim during the dive. Start with a steep zoom climb (assuming you are not at immediate danger from fighters). This is why trading some alt for speed on the ingress is not that bad. You want 2 things: more alt is more time to aim before you drop into acks range and slower initial speed will give you more time to aim before the plane falls apart in the dive. If there are no threats, you can also pull throttle back, but if there is, you want to save every Joule of energy you have. If you kept the target in the Left-forward-down window, this will be a sort of high wing-over. Don't stall, but complete the maneuver at ~200 mph and in the desired direction, pointing closer than the target. You are now diving steep towards the target and need to work fast or fall apart. This will happen much quicker than with most other planes - what an acceleration!. If you come in too high, you will be forced to release from high altitude. In that case you have to throttle back in the zoom climb and the dive.
Roll your wings level. The ball will be useless, so a quick look forward-up at the horizon will tell you your bank condition (angles, not dollars). Pull the nose steadily past the target. When it looks good, hold for a split second and release. You can quickly hit the switch and release the other pair of bombs too, though the delay hurts the accuracy and your health. Immediately after release start to pull up. If you hear the creaking sounds, pull up gently but immediately, before the plane breaks. It is usually not recommended to pull straight back up, even if there are no enemy planes. Use the built up speeds to clear the acks as fast as possible. Do rhythmic weaves, to prevent the acks from leading you and use the opportunity to check 6 and general SA.
Just one note about avoiding acks. You are a big target and a vulnerable one. Don't mess with acks, get the hell out of there. The quicker you release the bombs, the higher you are and the longer the acks need to lead you. De-acking tips will be covered in another section.
The Egress:
A successful JABO run is one in which you got to the target, released the bombs and got out of danger. If you want to go fighting afterwards, that's your problem (highly recommended), but the mission was accomplished when you were out of harms way. Often at this stage, you'll have someone on your tail. You just came out of the dive, going level, or shallow climb at full steam (already headed in the right direction!).
Zooming up and starting a fight is one option (a fun one), though dangerous in a crowded environment. The other is to get away from the crowd and then turn to fight at your leisure. If you choose the second, do not climb, and maintain your speed. Other planes will bleed theirs faster then you and for a while, you'll pull away or keep the distance. You'd be surprised how hard they'll find it to catch you even though their planes are much faster, on paper. Add a very shallow dive if you need to extend the chase. If they gave up the chase or a friendly cleared you, congratulate yourself on a job well done and go get killed in A2A combat. If not, read the next chapter.
If its a truly slower plane (there are a few) that gives chase, start a shallow, high speed climb. Your climb rate at high speed will be much better than theirs. Then you can turn and attack with E advantage.
Supplements:
Some issues I left out, as well as other bombing methods will be covered in a yet to be written chapter.
Next chapter 4 - Dogfighting: Balsa vs. Aluminum
Telling HTC that everything is reversed in the mosquito can be done here:
http://forums.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=200332
-
Originally posted by toonces3
wow, really well written! well done!
But then I clicked that link you posted and saw what the plane looks like.
ugh.
That is one ugly bellybutton plane.
See ya,
Toonces
Lol. wow dude. first time i've ever heard that before. What are you attracted to... hippos?! lol :p
-
mossie!
Hopefully i should get the internet in July when i move into my new house! I can't wait to fly her and shoot down many unsuspecting planes.:)
-
After Bozon's inspirational diatribe I took one up. I smacked down a zeke and a spitty (iirc) before getting picked by a niki. Not a bad ride, not gonna turn fight with it. It throws a veritable Poopstorm of lead out the nose though.
-
Very informative, Bozon. Many thanks.
-
Originally posted by Bubbajj
... Not a bad ride, not gonna turn fight with it.
I can't fly something and not dogfight in it. In the days before drone formations, I used to dogfight even the B26 after the bombs were released. My complaints are not about it being a "poor" dog-fighter - they are about being a poor dog-fighter due to a bug.
In the next loaded chapter I will cover my experiences flying the mosquito as a fighter. It is as much fun as it is frustrating and the frustration is enhanced by not hearing anything from HTC if they are going to fix this in my life time. I would really like to try the fixed mosquito before I get nuked by Iran.
-
boson that was a great read pleaze keep it comming.
They should fix the mossie just for the time you have put into this
-
ok, what's the bug?
-
The center of gravity is off, that is, we think, why it has the unrecoverable spins.
It is also modeled with the flame dampers that 2/3rds of FB.VIs didn't have and their only effect in AH is to knock 10-15mph off the top speed.
-
I have been wanting the cog repaired and the removal of the flame dampeners for a long time Karnak we can only hope.
In the wishlist forum I asked hitech to answer these 2 specific questions I hope he responds:aok
-
Not only very interesting to read, but also very pleasant, with a light style & good humor!
I might try the mossie after all!!
very good thread mister :aok
-
i'm interested in finding out if you share similar views to how i fly the mossie. It shall be a good read regardless i'm sure.:)
-
Chapter 5 - Dogfighting in the Mosquito: Balsa vs. Aluminum
==============================================
Ever noticed that "F" in "Mosquito FB.VI"? That stands for "fighter" (or is it FUBAR?). The Mosquito is a fighter. You'd think that the speed and the 4 Hispanos in the nose are a big hint, but some people still dont get it. Better known as the best and most advanced night fighter of WWII, the mosquito also had a lot of use as a hunter on daytime "ranger" missions and occasionally even as an escort fighter.
Just some legal stuff to get out of the way:
If you look closely below the canopy on the side of the fusalage you'll find the following printed in black fonts and marked by a box frame: "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined that Dogfighting the Mosquito May be Hazardous to Your Health". A sticker on the back of the pilot seat saying: "Danger: High Frustration Levels" and another at the wing root: "Do Not Sniff The Glue". Better take these seriously, since a lot of Mosquito pilots ended up on the glue as an escape from the harsh (virtual) reality. If you are 18 years of age or older, not pregnant and don't mind an addiction to adhesive substances, please read on.
So, how does an armed balsa fare as a fighter? Let us count the pros and cons:
Pros:
1. Best air-air gun package. No convergence issues, excellent ballistics, enough fire power to take out anything in very short burst, adequate ammo load. Plenty of 303 ammo for chute shooting practice.
2. Very good energy retention - For playing the E game and high speed passes.
3. Decent roll at medium-high speeds.
4. Very good frontal view for deflection shots.
5. Flame dampers to avoid detection in the dark.
Cons:
1. If you pull a little too hard in high speed turn - you enter a spin and crash.
2. If you hit hard left rudder while slow - you enter a spin and crash.
3. If you stall with the nose above the horizon - you enter a deep stall and crash (sometimes while spinning).
4. Very good E retention, with no good way of loosing it.
5. Yaw instability makes aim difficult.
6. poor roll rate at slow speeds.
7. Big target.
8. Flammable target.
9. Not so fast target (being invisible at night does have a cost).
10. Pieces of meat in the cockpit seem to be favorite part of the target.
As you can see, most Pros are about offense and most Cons are about defense. What does that tell us? Better stay on the offense, duh!
Offense: How to make holes in Aluminum
If you are the "sniper" type, you'll have no trouble to adapt to the mosquito. This plane really complement your types. Keep advantageous position by managing your E and punish the opposition for any mistake with the accurate nose guns (assuming you get over the yaw swings). Beware of steep dives as you will pick up speed quickly and drop well below your target. Try to maintain this style as much as possible, it is your strongest. Beware of high speed high G. In some cases the instability kicks in without warning and you will enter the spin.
Energy fighting - Vs. planes that doesn't build their energy very fast (most American rides, typhoons, hurricanes, 190A/F, you can get and keep an upper hand by making them waste their E... if you don't get shop up in the process. You want to keep the fight at high speed and use your E retention (and decent climb on WEP). They will tend to loose more energy than you on maneuvering. The basic approach is to try and get below them on merges - they will try to prevent that and you'll end up doing high speed, front quarter passes. Get some separation and repeat. Soon you'll build a little E advantage so you can rope or switch to BnZ. It does take careful E management and a good eye for estimating your opponent's.
Ropes - Be very gentle when applying rudder for left hammerhead. Over usage of left rudder will lead to a spin. To the right is safer, but slower or even impossible in some conditions. Never use combat trim on the rope, it will trim you up and make you get stuck there. Do not get stalled with the nose up. You will enter the deep stall and possibly spin too. Be vary careful when using flaps, or you will not be able to get the nose down. They cause pitch up - yes, stall and spin... Partial solution is to be sure you are trimmed enough forward before applying the flaps. Always leave some speed to complete the maneuver. You are not a helicopter, as opposed to several other planes in the game.
Eventually, (or initially if you are a hot headed, berserker type) you will have to (want to) knife fight. When that happen, here are some tips that might help: Roll preferably to the left, especially when the speed gets slow. If you want to cut inside your opponent you HAVE TO reduce throttle. If you want to cross control for dumping speed, use right rudder, left is more dangerous. If you are like me and graduated from the "Ray Charles school of aerial gunnery", you have to get in close, accurate guns or not. Here, the E retention poses a dilemma. If you come in fast, it is easy to reverse you, if you pull back to saddle up, you better not miss or you are in big trouble. The important thing is to decide early and be familiar with the problematics of slowing down a mosquito. That is the hardest part to learn, especially for someone so used to planes like the P-47.
Head on shots:
Avoid, it is not worth it. You have the guns for the job, but you are also a big vulnerable target and likely to sustain damage.
-
Defense: How to not get Balsa holed by Aluminum
Taking it like a man:
Here is your real problem. you are being shot at and you are a big target. Hope that the other guy "can't hit the broad side of a barn" because that is exactly you. The first rule of defense in a big twin engine fighter, and I'm sure P-38 experts will agree, is to make yourself smaller. Since you can't shrink like a sweater after a hot wash, you'll have to give the enemy your pretty side - and take one to the ribs. By that I mean break early to get some angles off before they open fire and then roll to give them your side instead of your top.
See, your top is a huge area. If they take your wing - game over. If they set the engine on fire - game over, if they take off your elevators - game over, if they hit the cockpit - game over. Your top exposes everything valuable to you, but that is what you expose when you go for a break turn. This is why it is absolutely vital that you have good SA and spot the enemy coming early enough. Last second break will not do it. Your side on the other hand gives the enemy mostly fuselage area that can take hits a lot better. You expose only 1 engine, very small wing area and less cockpit. If you give them your starboard side, maybe your DJ/barman/Navigator will also take the bullet for you. You do expose more rudder and vertical stabilizer (latter is critical if lost), but it is a much better trade off. So what you need to do here is to balance the effort of maneuvering out of the way, with becoming smaller.
Overshoots:
Another big problem. Your good inertia which serves you offensively or passive-defensively become a hindrance when trying to make someone overshoot you. This is definitely not your game. Almost all planes will find no difficulty in slowing down to stay behind you. If you find someone saddled up on you, and they know what they are doing, only acts of desperations are left. Never ever break turn in this situation, see the above paragraph. Chop throttle, fake a break turn and start doing barrel rolls maneuvers. Use a lot of rudder to try and slow down and work it into rolling scissors. Not your strongest area, but with no other options... If they don't press the attack and pull away a little trying to stay behind, go full throttle and dive! You will NOT make them overshoot you. If they are slow planes you might just escape due to the great dive acceleration. Otherwise, you might just built a little separation to turn and get some angles off for a fighting chance. Don't get your hopes too high though - You are very likely to die.
Gaming the game:
One really dirty desperate move when someone is all over you - pull the stick all the way back and "TIMBER!" the wooden wonder falls cartwheeling out of the sky. That's right, the mosquito center of gravity bug for the benefit of the public. It will take your mosquito from what ever speed to zero in an instant, making the pursuer ramming you a real possibility. Start recovery procedure immediately and when you finally get the nose into a dive - keep diving vertically while rolling. If by a miracle he didn't get to shoot you, or didn't collide with you, he will over shoot and turn back with a vengeance. By the time you get out of the flat spin he'll be back on your tail, guns blazing. Your rolling on the dive does 2 things: Allow you to look back and find him, and get your plane banked relative to his. If you get a 90-180 deg off in the roll - pull out hard and try not to get into another spin. You might just got yourself another fighting chance.
The ironic thing is that expect this to happen occasionally even if you DON'T want it. Just one of the wonders of a bugged unbalanced airframe.
Head-on defense:
While I hate this, I am not too shy to shoot someone in the face if the odds are against me. If you are being ganged, all is fair.
Run Forrest run! :
You are not a Forrest, but you are wood and you can run surprisingly well. There are two catches here: One is that you are not such a fast plane (partially because of the flame dampers, may they rust in hell), the other is that you have low critical speed. So how do we make this work? The key is E retention and inertia. The critical value is your opponents max level speed. What you want to do is get well above your opponents max level speed, but not much more - Shallow dive and level when the desired speed has been reached. He will follow, but his speed will likely drain faster than yours, until he will reach close to his max level speed. When that happens, shallow dive to increase the speed again. You have a bank of potential energy which you have to spend wisely if the other guy is faster than you. They will try to dive lower then you to pick up even more speed and close the distance. Try to prevent that but shallow diving up to when then plane starts to make old furniture noises. They will close some distance, but bleed their speed even faster. Given enough initial separation, they will not advance much in the entire dive - level - pull up - bleed speed cycle. Except for some stupidly fast planes (La7, 109K comes to mind) and with a little initial alt, you pursuer is to expect a long long chase and I have no moral problem of dragging a cloud of drooling spits / N1Ks all across the map.
Conclusions:
AHII Mosquito can be used as a fighter, though it requires some adapting to. It is best used in small number engagements, with a wingman or in an offensively oriented scenario where your offensive capabilities shine and defensive vulnerabilities minimized. Your biggest problem is close in defense and handling it require good SA or someone to clear your 6. The other big problem is the high fatality rates due to lose of controls. Unless you have a perfect stick / rudder / throttle setup, a gentle hand and if you do like to mix it up, expect to be practicing the stall/spin recovery procedure very often and crash or loose the fight due to it on regular basis. The problem is not only in the envelope limits this FM bug sets, but also in making you add a large safety margin avoiding it, because of the harsh consequence. This is not destabilization in the roll axis like the 109s had - this is a total, sudden, loss of control that is difficult to recover from.
Always remember that the greatest weakness of you enemy's plane is the pilot. After 5 seconds you can tell if this guy know his business or not. If he's a dodo, teach him. If he's good it is your choice whether to die and learn something, or to run away.
Examples and personal note:
My mosquito fighter mode experience range from a few great fights to a lot of horrible deaths. I am still not adapted to how different it handles from the Jugs, my main for most of my AH history, and often forget that. The mosquito is my historical favorite and though I mainly fly and love the Jugs I will continue to do my best flying Mosquitoes, even our poor example of a Mosquito. I'll get shot down but hey, you only live once... per sortie. I rarely remember to film the fights and miss most of the good ones. Here are two examples of using the mosquito as a fighter. I'm not the greatest stick out there, but the clueless can learn something from this:
Mosquito vs. Spit XVI - some bomber shooting, before and after and a long fight with a spit till he runs out of gas I think:
http://files.filefront.com/MOSS+16+0430ahf/;4914737;/fileinfo.html
Mosquito vs. F6F - he would have had me if he didn't consider the mosquito to be an easy kill:
http://files.filefront.com/moss_f6fahf/;7684214;/fileinfo.html
edit:
Next time on wooden wonder: "Walk on gilded splinters" - sustaining damage in the Mosquito.
-
Nice job on that Spit XVI. Wonder what he was thinking?
I remember doing that to An La-7 and wondering what its pilot was thinking too. Sadly, I didn't film it.
-
Thanks for the series of articles. I've been flying the Mosquito quite a bit for the last couple of months and have grown partial to it, except for that nasty stall. I really like it as a buff killer. Wish the pilot wound wasn't quite so easy to come by when doing a pass from their 6.