Yak 9T

[Rich46yo]

We have some guys who are very good in this airplane. Maybe squirt off a PM to them if they havnt already replied. I'll bet a few ride alongs with them would help you a lot with the 9T.

[Westy]

 Fly the 9T like a ninja assassin.  Laugh but that's what you need to do with
such a small (but VERY lethal) ammo load.

You get in extremely close, very quickly.  Do not fire until you're under 200 in
range and you go for ONE shot at the cockpit - regardless of your quarry being
a fighter or bomber. The goal here is for a pilot kill. After some practice you can
land multi-kill sorties no problem at all. 

[cegull]

Unfortunately there has been a lot of confusion about the 9T in the history books.  It appears that there may have some thought to using the 9T in ground support but it's primary use was as a fighter/interceptor.  There used to be an interview with a real 9T pilot posted over at IL-2-not sure if its there anymore but the pilot indicated that he flew escort for IL-2's and other bombers.  The 37mm cannon would insure a kill on an enemy fighter with 1 hit in most circumstances.  The cockpit had to be moved back over a foot to accommodate the main gun.  Over 2700 were built and 9T's began combat in the spring of 1943.  The tank busting was left to the Il-2's.

[haggerty]

I love the 9T, it doesnt really excel in any catagory though.
Its a tough plane to be succesful in 1v1 situations, but when you have a partner or are mixed up in a furball it can be a really fun plane to be in.  I have had some success hunting bombers...however at high altitude and slow speeds the nose is really hard to keep still.  It gets pretty wobbly if you try to maintain a 1.5k distance from the bombers.  The center of the bomber is obviously the easiest part to hit from that range but I have much better luck taking them down by aiming for one of the engines.  At 1.5k it seems 2 hits in one area will either take the wing off or set it flaming.  1k range is really easy to hit, its just point and shoot, at 1.5k you start to get alot more lob in your shot and often times the round will fall just in front of or behind the wing.
With tank killing I have alot of success against panzers.  I have killed them with 45 degree dives into their turret rings and with single shots to their top armor from a 90 degree dive.  Panzers seem to go pop easier than M3's.  For some reason M3's always take alot of rounds from my 37mm to kill.

[Rich46yo]

Now with the ermergance of the PT boats better flak the 9T has found new life in the game as a boat buster. Take it up to 3,000' and come down verticle on one, touching off a 37mm burst of 2 to 3 rounds. While front heavy the 9T is a decent diver and shows the other type mission it exceled in, other then killing other airplanes, and that was ship busting. The Russians fought the Germans around a lot of waterways, inland seas, rivers....ect

The Yak is a small tough target coming down on top of your PT at high speeds.