Plane Evaluations from an Advanced Noob

[Muzzy]

Muzzy,

As the G6 goes, if you want something with a bit more agility and power to weight wise, the G2 is a better performing bird.  You lose those two heavy cowl Mg's for it though and go back to the 7.9mm cowl guns.  So you lose hitting power for basically a lighter G6 as far as performance.  I used to fly the G2 a lot and really enjoyed that bird. 

 
BigRat

Yeah, I flew the G2 last night and it had all the good handling characteristics you mentioned. Hitting power was a non-issue since I didn't hit much that night to begin with, but the guns seemed to do the job.  I'd just like to find a bird that has just the right mix, but that's the story of every pilot I'm sure.

[Muzzy]

mossie.
must be 1 of the most underated planes in the game.
difficult to learn but if u put the time in and learn it its a great plane.
its fast, keeps e well and zoom climbs well.
good stall fighter.
arguably the best gun package in the game. 4 nose mounted 20mm hispano's can get kills at 1k.
u have to learn throttle, rudder and flap control. get the timing right and it will out turn a p-51 easily.
i fly it mainly as a fighter and its 1 of the few planes were i dont mind an alt disadvantage. many a time a conn dived on me, i barral roll and follow them up and get a kill.

I've flown the mossie in ground attack mode and it's a lot of fun.  The trick is not getting hit, though, because one little burst of fire and you're pretty much dead.  Chewie will often run all mossie missions in the MA and we're usually pretty successful in taking a base with them.  Love the gun package on this bird as well, it's great for deacking and knocking down that pesky building, you know the one, the one we always miss in the town?

[Muzzy]

P-51D: Having flown this bird for a couple of days I'm beginning to see it's appeal.  Besides the obvious speed advantage, it handles very well at those speeds and you have enough turning capability to adjust your attack angle as you dive in.  As I mentioned in another post, I did discover that it's climb rate is not spectacular on the deck, so I have to take that into account during future flights.

[branch37]

Considering that almost EVERY discussion on the capability of the F4U centers on the flaps as the be-all end-all of success, I would actually say quite the opposite is true. I see it all the time in the "experten's" tactics on how to beat the Hog: "Wait for your opponent to slow down to where he get his flaps out." Everyone assumes the first thing a Hog pilot is going to do is try to chop his speed so he can get his flaps out and turn, neglecting the F4U's engagement flexibility.

The F4U is actually much more similar to the F6F due to the large number of options she has in a fight.

Not to mention if you do get the flaps out and get slow, your going to be slow for a while.  The thing accelerates like a turd rolling uphil against the wind.

[Muzzy]

Yeah that's one of the things that makes the f4u hard to master.  You have to watch the energy situation very carefully.  If you get low and slow you'd better have cover, or get done what you need to get done, or you're...uh....done.