Babs when you've read the development and short operational history, you'll see for yourself. If you look up that couple of previous discussions you'll find me, then, saying that the 152 has to be wrong, because it's such an aberration compared to any other plane, to previous 152 FM versions, and to the 152's design reputation as the late war culmination of the Fw 190 line and supposed (historically) competitor to e.g. the Tempest. And then read the following posts made talking with Tango after I read the books.
In fact when you read the development history it's overly hurried sorta like the 410 was rushed thru and then the gremlins both in hardware and in flight behavior, you get a totally different picture of that supposed "flagship" or whatever. A specific example - when you read the gunnery trial debrief they describe something that's pretty much just like our 152's vague nose feel IE mediocre stability.
Why does a plane that was supposed to be the pinnacle of this impressive design family come out of the factory flying so unimpressively? If the design truly was what KT always intended when he drew up the Fw 190, why is it the opposite - instead of the design coming into its own, it's not even good enough to be used for gunnery trials. You might think that it was because it was rushed and that the basic underlying design, somewhere under those flaws, was sound and that the development crew just needed to sort out a few errors like you would some transcription errors in symphonic orchestra's music charts.. and then everything would click and symphony would sound. Except that's not what happened. Till the end the 152 was flawed.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Focke-Wulfe-Ta-152/Dietmar-Harmann/p/9780764308604All things considered the AH 152 matches its historical character.
In practice, in AH, the only thing I argued (and I guess you only skimmed my posts cause its said pretty plainly) and contradicted from your posts is whether/how much the AH 152's AFT tank makes a difference in agility.
The 152's AFT is as black and white a factor to agility as I said. The only shade of grey is the way you get a gradual improvement as the AFT drains. Examples? I've never recorded any demonstration because it's so self evident. But if you look at the most extreme ACM demos I've put out, I can tell you none of them are nearly as easy if even possible with more rather than less AFT. I have no reason to doubt it, literally none: I can also tell roughly how much ammo the plane has left, and assuming fuel only in fwd tank I can also accurately guess how much FWD fuel is left just by feel (ie estimate to +-25%). Another e.g. the D9 has the same dynamic: it's at its best in agility with max fwd fuel CG.
I couldn't put a number on how many times I've died in the 152 because I committed to knife fights too early - when AFT wasn't empty yet.
Not putting words into your mouth, but I'm skipping ahead and thinking you too would more acuratley describe it, within AH, as being shades of grey rather than black and white/there and gone. I think we both may see different shades of grey and I'll be content with that, but I can not agree with a black and white comparison as you defend.
Why speak in analogies. AFT is nothing but ballast for dogfighting agility. The less the better. There is no redeeming quality about AFT fuel worth considering. The difference in performance does make it a life/death difference in committed dogfighting (not just bnz).
So it is black and white.
It is black and white and it's not just some academic debate. If you're learning the 152, this is almost inarguably the one tip to know. It's the sine qua non of 152 knife fighting competitiveness. Without it it's just a slower heavier armed high altitude 190 variant.
One of the things I commonly hoped for (dreamed of) when I played was that HTC went back to lower fuel multiplier. So the FWD tank would last longer.
