"Easy" or "hard"? Starring the AH P-38

[Slash27]

I find our p-38s easy to take off in and fly but watch your dive it compresses very easy and the tricks I know to pull a 109 out of a dive don't work on the P-38.

Chop throttle, trim it up, kick some rudder... works for both.

[Randy1]

Score hawking is not for the new P38 stick.  Forget about the K/D ratio.  Learn to die and die well.  Turn off 200.  Work with a trainer then spend the next couple of months working what you have learned into your skill package.  The P38

I don't think there is another plane out there that will climb loaded with ords as well as a P38.

It is a tough, long row to hoe but the task is worth the effort.

titanic3 said, "Easy to fly.  Tough to master."  That  really covers the P38's role in AH and WW2.

[dedalos]

Easy mode planes - ones that require zero pilot awareness of speed, torque, or visibility (brews, zekes, KI43, Spit5, 16) and easily gets defensive

Medium mode - some attention to flight data, flight surface limitations, alt performance, roll rates

Everything else - must use all of your brain to manage flight data, SA etc to  fly the plane offensively against any of the planes in the prior two groups.  Requires use of all flight surface capabilities for it to be knife fight competitive.

Ill use your post to reply on a few others also.  First of all, you cannot include SA when judging a plane.  Good SA means do not ever get into a fight unless you have all possible advantages.  You cannot make a plane judgement in that situation.

I don;t understand why you think an easy plane like the spit5 does not require awareness of speed or torque.  Maybe you don't fly it because you think it is easy but I can tell you for sure that it turns best at a certain speed and if you get it too slow at the top of a loop you will find out the hard way about torque.  Also, turning at low speeds requires you to know about torque.  I don;t see how it is different that any other plane except the 38 since that is one plane that you don;t have to worry about torque so much.

As for flying data, how is it different for any other plane?  They all have different performance at different alts and they can all rip their wings off if too fast.  As for the 38 compressing, well, if you compress one it means you are running away or a cherry pick when terribly wrong.

As for the everything else comments, what does require use of all flight surface capabilities for it to be knife fight competitive even mean?  Don;t you use your flight surfaces in other planes? lol.  How hard is it to pull the stick in a 38?

As for me, I think you guys make things sound a lot more complicated that they are.  I watch my speed right before engagement but after that I dont ever take my eyes off of the opponent (or his friends).  Stall buzzer, flaps retracting and experience are my only tools in a fight.  I also fly everything the same way from a spit5, La7, 110, 205, 109 any plane.  What I mean by that is that a fight is simple.  It is all about positioning, anticipating where the other guy is going to be after a few seconds and fooling him into making a mistake.  So no matter what the plane I am in the approach to the fight is always the same.  I don;t ever remember checking my speed in the middle of a fight or doing any of the complex calculations some of the guys described. 

As for SA during a fight if anyone is withing 1K I am watching him.  If not then they are not there.

As for the 38 being easy or hard to fly, here is how I see it.  Lets say 38 vs the "easy" spit5.  If the 38 tries to turn it will die.  If the 38 goes into the loop till the end of time strategy then the spit has no hope.  If the 38 goes into BnZ mode, the spit has no hope so what exactly is it again that makes a plane easy or hard?  Is a spit5 easy beacause the 38 turned with it and lost or is the 38 easy because the spit played the E game with it and lost?  It seems that ones actions define the "easiness" of the other plane.

[morfiend]

 Ded,

  I'm in pretty much agreement with you!  That said as far as easy goes I usually get new players,who are trying to learn to takeoff and land to up the 38.

  I use a simple progression,land 3 times in a row in the 38,then land 3 times in the P39 as both have tricycle landing gear and the P39 adds in some torque to deal with.Once they are done that and full of themselves,I tell them to take any F4U up and land it.....


   

[Karnak]

F4U's easy.  Point them at the Spit XIV.  That's where the amusement is. 

[morfiend]

F4U's easy.  Point them at the Spit XIV.  That's where the amusement is. 

  I've never thought of the 14 being difficult but you might have a good point!

      I'll try that on my next victim....

 Some of the remarks I get after they attempt to land the corsairs are priceless!


   

[Changeup]

Ill use your post to reply on a few others also.  First of all, you cannot include SA when judging a plane.  Good SA means do not ever get into a fight unless you have all possible advantages.  You cannot make a plane judgement in that situation.

I don;t understand why you think an easy plane like the spit5 does not require awareness of speed or torque.  Maybe you don't fly it because you think it is easy but I can tell you for sure that it turns best at a certain speed and if you get it too slow at the top of a loop you will find out the hard way about torque.  Also, turning at low speeds requires you to know about torque.  I don;t see how it is different that any other plane except the 38 since that is one plane that you don;t have to worry about torque so much.

As for flying data, how is it different for any other plane?  They all have different performance at different alts and they can all rip their wings off if too fast.  As for the 38 compressing, well, if you compress one it means you are running away or a cherry pick when terribly wrong.

As for the everything else comments, what does require use of all flight surface capabilities for it to be knife fight competitive even mean?  Don;t you use your flight surfaces in other planes? lol.  How hard is it to pull the stick in a 38?

As for me, I think you guys make things sound a lot more complicated that they are.  I watch my speed right before engagement but after that I dont ever take my eyes off of the opponent (or his friends).  Stall buzzer, flaps retracting and experience are my only tools in a fight.  I also fly everything the same way from a spit5, La7, 110, 205, 109 any plane.  What I mean by that is that a fight is simple.  It is all about positioning, anticipating where the other guy is going to be after a few seconds and fooling him into making a mistake.  So no matter what the plane I am in the approach to the fight is always the same.  I don;t ever remember checking my speed in the middle of a fight or doing any of the complex calculations some of the guys described.  

As for SA during a fight if anyone is withing 1K I am watching him.  If not then they are not there.

As for the 38 being easy or hard to fly, here is how I see it.  Lets say 38 vs the "easy" spit5.  If the 38 tries to turn it will die.  If the 38 goes into the loop till the end of time strategy then the spit has no hope.  If the 38 goes into BnZ mode, the spit has no hope so what exactly is it again that makes a plane easy or hard?  Is a spit5 easy beacause the 38 turned with it and lost or is the 38 easy because the spit played the E game with it and lost?  It seems that ones actions define the "easiness" of the other plane.

You don't need to know any of what you typed about the Spit 5 or any of the easy mode planes to fly them into survivability.  You DO need to know those things if you are to fly them at your skill level.  See the difference?  A noob can and does survive in, and even excel quickly in those planes without needing to know what you know, hence, easy mode.   How many  good Spit pilots have you seen only to find they suck in K4, 152, mossier, 110s F6Fs etc.  

You gave examples f advanced knowledge of planes to which makes you excellent in those.  My examples are to show a lesser degree of skill can achieve a decent result because the plane itself requires less.

Edit:  flight data I meant speed, alt etc....not the performance work ups.  Also, in those planes, they turn so well, the max turn speeds aren't that much different performance-wise than not.  They turn better than the other categories regardless of speed.

[TwinBoom]

P-38's suck stay away from them

[olds442]

P-38's suck stay away from them

Only the pilots.

[Randy1]

The easy mode seems to apply to planes that can escape either by going up or run away fast.

Big planes get a big negative reduction since they are number one on the hit list.  The steak sorta speak of the furbal.

My squad mates love me to fly the P38.  It is like trolling.  I put the bait in first and they shoot what ever takes the bate.  They know too, if I am around I will draw the heat away from their planes.  Kind of symbiotic in a furbal sort of way.    

[Brooke]

To me, the easiest fighters are ones that outturn most planes faster than they are and are faster than most planes that can outturn them.  So, if in trouble by getting outturned, they can run, or if in trouble by getting chased down, they can outturn.  This group, for me, are Spits, La-7, Yak-3, FW 190D, P-51, Ki-43, Bf 109K, and to a slightly lesser extent F4U, Ki-84, and N1K.

[Fulcrum]

To me, the easiest fighters are ones that outturn most planes faster than they are and are faster than most planes that can outturn them.  So, if in trouble by getting outturned, they can run, or if in trouble by getting chased down, they can outturn.  This group, for me, are Spits, La-7, Yak-3, FW 190D, P-51, Ki-43, Bf 109K, and to a slightly lesser extent F4U, Ki-84, and N1K.

  um...ah....maybe forgot the Brewster? 

[Brooke]

um...ah....maybe forgot the Brewster? 

The Brewster is OK, but it doesn't turn as well as a Ki-43, and it isn't faster than a Ki-43.  That category that I give is certainly subject to judgement and is a spectrum of performance.  I didn't put the Brewster in, but even in my opinion it isn't out of the category by much (sort of on the border of it), and there would be others who would put it in.  I also think that Zeros are not far out of the category.

[Shifty]

I m confused.  What do we mean by easy or hard?

I always thought it was simple..

Easy

 




Hard







 

[TwinBoom]

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