Just for information, that "4700" number is not on autoclimb, and at 25% fuel, giving you 7 minutes of flight time. Realistically, you will only see about 4200fpm for a brief period on the deck.
"Just for information", I saw 4,700 fpm
using autoclimb. What you see in the image is 4,565 fpm in autoclimb, beginning at sea level at 160 mph TAS. I've been testing aircraft in Aces High for more than 10 years. I use Badboy's Bootstrap calculator, the best tool available for quantifying turn performance. I test to reveal maximum performance. The standard used is 25% fuel. Obviously, a full fuel load will reduce climb and acceleration. However, like 109s, the Yaks have a rather small (meaning light) fuel capacity. Thus, you will often be flying with little more than 50% fuel aboard. A light Yak-3 will climb with a 25% fuel 109G-14 below 3k, and turn circles around it. On the other hand, the 109G-2 can give the Yak-3 fits, especially below 200 mph. The 109F-4 will out-turn the Yak, but is at a disadvantage if the fight goes vertical below 5k. I envision that the Yak-3 will be an excellent match against the Ki-84 in duels.
Climb rate and acceleration fall off steadily above 5,000 feet. Again, at sea level, the Yak-3 is among the best in the game. At 10k, not so much. It is literally the inverse of the Spitfire 14, which gets better and better as the altitude goes up. At 10,000 feet I saw 381 mph, which is identical to the Typhoon. However, the Typhoon requires WEP, the Yak can make that speed until it runs out of gas.
The Yak-3 was designed to be a lightweight battlefield air superiority fighter. Down low, it is very capable. I do not think it is much of a furball fighter, due to the lack of hitting power. Snap shots are rarely fatal to opposing fighters.
Doing some offline tests, I found that it will shed its ailerons at about 525 mph in a dive. It begins groaning around 500 mph. Without ailerons, the Yak-3 will roll right, and it cannot be countered by rudder. To get the wings level, you must reduce power to near idle, and stand on full left rudder.
Turn rate: Astonishing instantaneous turn rate at corner speed. Sustained, its turn radius just about matches the Spit16 (no flaps). It can fly circles a tad smaller than the La-7, both without and with flaps. Flaps don't begin to drop until around 150 mph, reducing their usefulness. Again, not unlike the Spit16. The max gear speed is right at 200 mph. Outward visibility (especially forward) is the best of any fighter (except, perhaps, the I-16), with no reinforcing structure in the windscreen.
