Flying the Ta152

[kilo2]

Ran some tests in the Offline mode. With these tests, I attempted to determine how stable the aircraft is in a nose-high attitude at the slowest speed possible (hanging on the props). In both of these tests, I made sure to climb to 1,000 feet after takeoff, maintain course heading and altitude. Before takeoff, I loaded both the Ta152 and Mosquito Mk6 with 25% fuel, and light guns package. Spawning on the runway, I dropped to full flaps. Here are the numbers I took note of:

1. Mosquito Mk6 - the airplane can maintain an indicated airspeed of 75 mph while the controls are quite stable. Yawing is apparent when applying some small rudder. The aircraft can maintain a consistent heading throughout flight, as long as the pilot applies the right amount of controls. Nose attitude was roughly 15-20 degrees above the horizon.

2. Ta152 - the airplane can maintain an indicated airspeed of 87 mph with stable controls and course heading. I had attempted to apply a higher nose-up attitude to decrease airspeed, but unfortunately, due to CoG issues and wing loading and engine torque, the aircraft wants to yaw to the left and flip over. To give the Ta152 a better chance, I re-spawned a second time, emptied all the guns out, this time the plane can hold an airspeed of 83 mph with stable controls. Any lower speed will result in dangerous swaying motion, and a risk in crashing. Nose attitude was roughly 15-20 degrees above the horizon.

To add in some extra fun, after conducting both tests, I attempted a pure vertical split-s maneuver at 1,000 feet altitude at the slowest possible control speed of both planes. At 75 mph, the Mosquito Mk6 was able to complete the maneuver with roughly 30-50 feet to spare. The Ta152, on the other hand, failed to complete the maneuver. The aircraft needed an additional 250 feet of altitude in order to pull off the maneuver without crashing.

Regardless of whether I did a great job testing, the implications are still the same. The Mosquito Mk6 is simply more stable, accelerates faster, climbs faster, and turns sharper at slower speeds. Therefore, if you're in a Ta152, avoid pure turn 'n burn fighting against the Mosquito Mk6. Your best chances of winning is maintaining an energy advantage over the Mosquito, keeping your speed up, and using BnZ tactics to your advantage.

I am fairly confident in saying that the 152 has nothing to fear in the mossie. As for the split-S there is a trick to pulling it off smoothly.

[Debrody]

Thanks for posting this test result, Plazus.

[moot]

Anyhow.. Where did that fellow go?

School so I never have to wake up for a job I hate.


The 152 trials by Plazus look accurate but they are one more instance of paper figures not telling the full picture.  Even though the Mossie (VI, I don't know anything about the new one) clearly has better numbers than the 152, it's still within reach of the 152 provided you don't make mistakes and use the vertical as much as you can.  Indeed there's basically no chance to keep in touch once 152vsMossie have scrubbed their speed down below 200 IAS or so, if you stick to the horizontal.

Also numbers don't tell you anything about the very large variety of factors and variance of each of those factors in actual Aces High Arena conditions:  Just as the Mossie can surprise most players when you suddenly fly it to the max and turn inside or outbrake/snapshot their spitfire or N1K, so the 152 can surprise many Mossies; although in this case it's way harder to accomplish because the 152 has a much smaller useful envelope for tight dogfighting and on top of that is much less forgiving in that restrained envelope.

Morfiend put it in a nutshell above:  Practice, practice, till you can almost do things blindfolded... Till you can "wear" the plane: till you know everything that'll happen before it happens, till the plane is an extension of yourself.

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/wiki/index.php/Ta_152H

[Lepape2]

[...]
Morfiend put it in a nutshell above:  Practice, practice, till you can almost do things blindfolded... Till you can "wear" the plane: till you know everything that'll happen before it happens, till the plane is an extension of yourself.
[...]

Ahhhhh amen to that!

[BaldEagl]

Hi Moot.  Good to see you're still lurking about.  I was just about to post "Where's moot when you need him?" and low and behold, there you were.

[moot]

Hey BaldEagl.

Coupla details missing in the above:  You should always be as smooth as possible.  Every unnecessary jerk, even small, momentarily puts the plane at high angle of attack which acts like an airbrake.  Unless you need to scrub off speed, it's best to be as economical with your speed (aka "keep your E") so that you can "spend" your speed on that many more maneuvers or even just small corrections later on.  Every little bit adds up to make a difference.

You also should be on the rudders almost permanently.  The 152 has one of the loosest tails, and sometimes in regular flight (meaning when you wouldn't expect it) acts just like the fuselage blanks the rudder which makes it that much easier for the tail to derail and that much harder to recover it.
e.g. http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,302470.msg3881728.html#msg3881728

[Shamus]

I used to hate running across moot in that damn thing down low no matter what I flying, best thin air 152 jock I ever ran across was Turner though.

shamus

[moot]

Hey Shamus   One of these days..

[VonMessa]

If you have fuel in the aft tank, burn it first.  Also lock the tailwheel if you expect to land for a reaming. It has a wicked ground loop.

Above 20k, it becomes a completely different aircraft.  One you can engage and disengage with, AT WILL.Watch the Man. Pressure gauge to see what I mean.

Flown properly and well managed, nothing can touch a 152 at or above that alt.  

The only thing close is a P-47N

[moot]

IIRC the spit14 is competitive as well.  25-30k is more the boundary I remember for 152 coming into its own, relative the rest of the plane set.

[SWkiljoy]

If you have fuel in the aft tank, burn it first.  Also lock the tailwheel if you expect to land for a reaming. It has a wicked ground loop.

Above 20k, it becomes a completely different aircraft.  One you can engage and disengage with, AT WILL.Watch the Man. Pressure gauge to see what I mean.

Flown properly and well managed, nothing can touch a 152 at or above that alt.  

The only thing close is a P-47N