Now that I've got a couple of months flying under my wings I thought I'd post some revised plane evaluations, again in the hopes that others will find them useful.
FW A8: For some reason this is my lucky bird. I know it has some deficiencies but it always seems to be the one plane I can land kills in. It’s not fast enough to outrun the premium fighters in the game, and it can’t out-turn the slower birds, but if you bring it to the fight under favorable circumstances you can devastate the opposition. The guns package is amazing…I find the 4x20mm option to be the best, although the double taters are fun on occasion. Seriously, I don’t know why I do so well with this plane, but I love it. It’s tough and hard-hitting and you can kill bombers at 600 yards. I do know that it's not the best performing bird out there, but it gets the job done, at least when I'm flying it anyways.
F4U1A: My hog of choice. Now that I’ve learned the trick of only loading 50% fuel, I find I can take this bird up under almost any circumstances and be reasonably successful with it. It’s best if you can grab some alt before going in, but if not, you still stand a reasonable chance on the deck, especially if you can use flaps effectively. Deflection shots are much easier in this ride than the FW and you can also kill buffs with it if you’re careful. Plus, it comes in white.
F4U1C: Ah the C-hog. All the hoggy goodness plus cannon shells. It’s great for jabo missions off of cv’s and for HO’ing poor defenseless Brewsters. Not that I’d ever do that. Twice.
La7: My new favorite ride for base defense, the La is quick and handles well down on the deck, while still being able to climb fast enough to get the med-alt buffs. It’s limited by the difficult gun ballistics and you can easily overshoot if you’re not careful, but being able to catch any plane in the game (or run from them) is a great advantage.
Planes I’m still having difficulty with:
F4U1D: You’d think there wouldn’t be much difference. Statistically there’s not much difference. According to the message boards there’s not much difference. But for me, the difference is huge. I have a positive Kill/Death score in the 1A, but in the 1D my score is far into the negative. Maybe it’s because I use the D hog for jabo, maybe it’s because its performance is just different enough to throw my flying off, but either way, I’m still getting killed in the D-hog far more often than when I’m flying the A.
FW 190D: Similarly, the Dora is faster and far more responsive than the A8, but for some reason I’m not quite as successful at it. I think the extra speed makes it more difficult for me to get the shots in. It requires faster reflexes I think. I tend to do better at long shots that require more lead to be thrown out, so maybe I’m missing that extra pair of 20mm’s.
P47 (all models: The Jug is the historical aircraft for my squadron so I’ve been trying to become proficient at it. Unfortunately its handling characteristics are so different from my other rides that I’m having problems with it. The 8x50’s are great, but at 400 convergence I miss a lot of shots close in. I’m wondering if I could bring the guns in closer, or focus more on long shots and crossing shots.
P-38L. Had a lot of fun flying this bird. I’m setting up a training session with Soulyss to get a bit more out of it. It’s a fantastic gun platform and it’s nimble if you know how to fly it. Definitely needs a training program to get good at it.
109K4: The 30mm is a great 1-shot gun but it definitely takes some practice to become proficient with it. The K4’s speed and climbing ability are nothing short of amazing, but is it really a good plane, or is it just that good pilots fly it?
Me 163: Rocket Maaaaan! Something-something-high-as-elton-john-something Rocket Maaan! Flew this with my squad buddy and it is a heck of a lot of fun, but something that fast should not have cannons that I can only hit with at 200 yards. I dislike becoming a perk point missile. At least I have a ride I can use to hunt down those evil strat bombers.
