was really lucky in this fight

[CAP1]

hi all,
well.......i'm not too sure if thi has already been covered, but here goes.

the other night, in LW, i as flying over TT island...and to be honest my intentions were to try to "pick" some of the guys that were straffing and bombing the GV's. so the first time o go over there, i'm only around 3-5k alt, and promptly get jumped by a couple tiffys and an la..i lasted 2 or 3 turns. so now i return at 14k. found 1 tiffy higher than me, and a co-alt spit,,,,,the spit headed off in another direction, and the tiffy made a single pass, then continued to an easier/lower target...in my roll/turn to evade, i spotted a ki61 slightly lower than me, so i dove on him.....first pass, i zoomed, then on 2nd pass, i bled all my e and went into a turnfight with him(i did this delibretly). so, we're turning, diving, climbing, etc..and for the most part i maintained a position on his 6. but....  it was hard as hellll, so i  watched the film, and noticed the speeds. once or twice, we were co-e.......but although i never overshot him, i was almost constantly 10-70kts faster than him. i figured this explained why i had so much trouble lining up the shot, and also staying behind him. as it forced me to manuever more than i should...... i remember working the crap out of the throttle, and only once or twice needed flaps(or so i thought).
 
 so what it comes down to, is why was i not able to slow myself down to maintain the same speeds as him? i mean don't get me wrong..the fight was fun as all get out...win or lose......but i feel that the only reason i was able to maintain position on him in this fight seeing all the mistakes i made was the fact i was in a spit16.....had i been in a 38, 109, or 110, i think i'd had very different results. so basicly the spit covered my mistakes for me.


thanks all!!!

<>

john

[trotter]

provide a film if you can...there are simply too many variables.

simply from what you typed, the problem seems to be that the spit 16 holds E better than you had expected. If you're trying to dump E in the 16, I've found that you often need to nose up for much longer than you think. If he is popping flaps, and you know that your plane is a better turner, you need to pop flaps also. If you don't do this immediately, you will see a speed differential, and you may not turn inside of him, which is what sounds like what happened.

[B@tfinkV]

^^ what he said.

spit16 is like a silky smooth arrow, you really got to be at 0% throttle and pulling some Gs or creating extra drag with rudder and elevators during your attack.

[CAP1]

Originally posted by CAP1
hi all,
well.......i'm not too sure if thi has already been covered, but here goes.

the other night, in LW, i as flying over TT island...and to be honest my intentions were to try to "pick" some of the guys that were straffing and bombing the GV's. so the first time o go over there, i'm only around 3-5k alt, and promptly get jumped by a couple tiffys and an la..i lasted 2 or 3 turns. so now i return at 14k. found 1 tiffy higher than me, and a co-alt spit,,,,,the spit headed off in another direction, and the tiffy made a single pass, then continued to an easier/lower target...in my roll/turn to evade, i spotted a ki61 slightly lower than me, so i dove on him.....first pass, i zoomed, then on 2nd pass, i bled all my e and went into a turnfight with him(i did this delibretly). so, we're turning, diving, climbing, etc..and for the most part i maintained a position on his 6. but....  it was hard as hellll, so i  watched the film, and noticed the speeds. once or twice, we were co-e.......but although i never overshot him, i was almost constantly 10-70kts faster than him. i figured this explained why i had so much trouble lining up the shot, and also staying behind him. as it forced me to manuever more than i should...... i remember working the crap out of the throttle, and only once or twice needed flaps(or so i thought).
 
 so what it comes down to, is why was i not able to slow myself down to maintain the same speeds as him? i mean don't get me wrong..the fight was fun as all get out...win or lose......but i feel that the only reason i was able to maintain position on him in this fight seeing all the mistakes i made was the fact i was in a spit16.....had i been in a 38, 109, or 110, i think i'd had very different results. so basicly the spit covered my mistakes for me.


thanks all!!!

<>

john

EDIT::::::::it was actually a KI84,,.,,,,,,,,,

[CAP1]

Originally posted by trotter
provide a film if you can...there are simply too many variables.

simply from what you typed, the problem seems to be that the spit 16 holds E better than you had expected. If you're trying to dump E in the 16, I've found that you often need to nose up for much longer than you think. If he is popping flaps, and you know that your plane is a better turner, you need to pop flaps also. If you don't do this immediately, you will see a speed differential, and you may not turn inside of him, which is what sounds like what happened.

yes, i really wasn't able to turn inside him as much as i thought. something else i thought about after i posted this last night is the fact that i feel as if i get outturned by a lot that shouldn't be able to out turn a spit.....or in spit - spit fights i get easily outturned.....but this is the first i've filmed in awhile, so i was surprised to see such a speed difference.......it would also insinuate that i have a tendency to keep too fast since i'm too ofwt outturned.........

now....how do i edit that film? it's 12 minutes long, and i'd rather put only that fight up here?

thanks again,

john