Well, I'm no longer in a Luftwaffe squadron and have left the 109 in the hangar this tour. Our new squad, the TAC Drivers, rotate which aircraft we focus on each tour, and this month it's the P-51, F6F, and P-47 (next month Russian and Japanese). The F6F and I have come to an understanding for cv hops, and though I'm hardly a good 51 stick, I find it fairly easy to boom n' zoom with it because of its high speed at military power and decent climb-rate.
The P-47 series is a little different. Until I recently started comparing the performance of our aircraft with hard data, I was mystified as to why the P-47N has an ENY of 5. Its climbrate at military power is barely 2000fpm, its top speed is slower than the rest of the 47s without WEP. Its advantage over the D-40 (20 ENY) is top speed with WEP, range, and that is all. Still, that extra speed is useful because the D-40 is SpitXVI fodder without a pilot mismatch, so I decided to focus on the N and see what it's all about.
My gunnery is above average, but I still find the 6x50cal armament mediocre, so the 8 guns are a good improvement over your typical American aircraft (and they last forever). I set my convergence to 400 yards and will open up at 600-800 yards while closing on my target. The roll rate at high speed is very fast, so the 47N is at home in shallow-dive attacks. Trouble appears
after the diving attack, when it's time to regain that lost potential energy. Here is where the 51D is superior to the 47N because of its better powerloading. Any pilot who wants to succeed in the 47N must be very selective about how much energy he wants to sacrifice for a guns pass on a target; he must be patient. Investments of potential energy into kinetic energy do not maintain equality in the other direction of exchange.
The 47N pilot must also be wary of receiving extra attention from Spit XVIs, La-7s, Ki-84s, 109K-4s, etc. A lot of people see a 47 as an easy target, so you frequently find yourself dragging more than your fair share of bandits for friendlies. The 47N does best in large, multi-bandit engagements where its speed and firepower work to the benefit of wingman tactics. On the other hand, the 47N does poorly in areas where combat is light. For example, after killing a 190D-9 1vs1 who started with altitude over me, a Ki-84 appeared above my position. With only 2000 between myself and the ground, my chances were grim without friendlies nearby: it would be better to have two low 47Ns vs two high Ki-84s, than 1 low 47N vs 1 high Ki-84.
Which leads to the following point: do not get low in the 47N if there's any chance a bandit will bounce you from above. Even with only 5k ft to work with, a higher bandit is no reason to panic (still reason for caution), but with only 1k ft a SpitXVI or La-7 will eat you for breakfast. Setting a hard deck in your area of combat is more important in the 47N than almost all other fighters. It is not so much the 47N's poor turn rate that makes this paramount as it is its abysmal powerloading and limited WEP.
The range of the 47N is impressive. Anything more than 75% fuel is too much unless you're doing long range bomber escort. Before you take off, manually switch the fuel to the main tank, which has a nasty habit of leaking with only light damage. Switch it back to automatic when it's nearly drained and you will have your aux and wing tanks to fall back on.
Surprisingly, the 47N maneuvers well against comparable fighters like the 190 series and P-51. A notch of flaps can be deployed at high speed, which really helps to pitch the nose up against a maneuvering target. Dropping flaps is also helpful to bring the nose over the top in a roping maneuver, for which I find more opportunities in the 47N than the 109 because everyone knows to avoid the 109's rope, but not the 47's.
So, is the 47N worth its 5 ENY? Given that someone like me can frequently land 5, 6, 7 and sometimes more kills without vulching, I suppose it is. But it requires so much patience and discipline, and also humility. If you get caught low and some n00b kills you with his SpitXVI, well...suck it up, that's going to happen from time to time. Like the Ta-152, the other odd bird of the 5 ENY family, the 47N can really shine with the right piloting skills and is no mere ordinance dump-truck.
