Thanks for the compliment Shifty! We were cursing you. We were trying to get out of there and you had us pinned down. If I would have known you were critical on fuel, I may have had some hope. Tomahawk was with me in the other P-40 until we eventually were separated. Termite was with me as an observer which helped in keeping SA. At the last stages of the fight, it was just your partner and I in planes. I finally decided to change tactics - that my only solution was to let him get on my six then try to out-stall or get some sort of reversal. Termite was reporting, "he's on your six", but I just let come in. At the right moment, I threw on the brakes and hugged the ground. He took off my right flap, but overshot me. I poured on the throttle, hit the power button and tried to pull the nose up for a shot, but he smartly climbed so that I couldn't get my nose high enough. I was in better shape this time because his higher E was not so great. He climbed, made a 180 turn back towards me and I was going to pass under him. I thought this was great because I was nose up and he was nose down. After passing I would pull the stick back, loop over the top and come out with about matching E. As we approached head-on, neither one of us took the HO shot. From my view, I thought he passed me. I was making my loop up over the top, then I looked at my text buffer and it showed that we had collided and he went down. Sorry that it turned out that way, but I have to admit, I was exhausted and relieved it was over.
Good flying and fighting to both of you and <S>. I survived most of that scenario by help from squaddies and other friendly P40s. I enjoyed every bit of it.
Tippo
