I have never mastered any aspect of the P-38. I thought I heard that if one turns off (briefly) one of the engines in a turn it will turn tighter.
Is that true? If yes, please share how the technique is executed.
Are there any other useful P-38 techniques that are unique to that plane that one can work to master?
Hi Slade
You mention that your looking for a technique that helps the P-38 turn tighter and also a useful technique you can try to master... I can offer a suggestion for both.
Firstly, most pilots prefer to begin a fight with at least as much energy as their adversary, and hopefully more. What I'm going to describe is a suggestion for those occasions when you have done everything correctly but have not been able to convert your energy into a decisive advantage.
For example, you engaged a Spitfire in a hard turning fight and as your speed bleeds off and slows down to corner velocity your reach the point where you know that the Spitfire's low speed turning ability is going to become a problem... What can you do next? Well it turns out that many pilots will engage better turning aircraft and fight for several turns, but they are good at knowing just when the escape window is about to close and extend before they get locked into a fight to the death. That's fine once you have already mastered the aircraft and have another agenda, but when you are trying to learn, every fight should be a fight to the death. It is the fastest way to learn and pretty soon the other pilots will be visiting the tower far more often than you.
So, what can you work on to turn the tables once the fight gets slow? The first technique is to master the flaps. You wanted to turn tighter and the flaps will tighten your turn inside that of many other fighters including the Spitfire. The key thing here is that while the P-38 can turn tighter than the Spit, it can't out turn it. The Spitfire can turn at a higher rate, but the P-38 can turn inside it with a tighter radius. So here is how that radius looks:
It turns out that for the P38 the turn rate stays almost the same as the turn radius tightens all the way down to 4 notches of flaps, the last notch also comes with a turn rate penalty as you can see, so as already mentioned its best to avoid that last notch of flaps. So, once your speed gets below corner you need to drop your flaps as fast as you can all the way down to 4 notches, and in order to maintain the turn you should turn slightly nose low. If your opponent goes nose low with you, particular if they aren't using flaps, their speed will increase and their turn circle will open even wider.
However, at that point a good Spitfire pilot won't want to let his speed increase too much to keep their turn as tight as possible and many will either work the throttle or turn nose high, or both and that's where you can try the following technique to cut across the circle.
What you do is to effectively split-S across the circle with the intention of coming up the other side, inside their circle and with a shot as you hang on your prop, as shown below:
As an aside, this doesn't just work in the P-38, I see other players dropping flaps and trying this in a variety of different aircraft, so its a transferable skill.
If you miss the first shot, just come over the top, roll into lead while in the vertical (using your roll rate to effectively out turn a faster turning opponent) then split-S again. It's not easy to get the shot while hanging on the prop at low speed but the combination of the three techniques:
- Optimal flap employment
- Going nose low to cut inside and across the bandit's turn circle
- Ultra low speed gunnery
Are key techniques for you to master and will reward you greatly once you have.
Most importantly, have fun while learning this stuff, and be patient, you will soon learn to recognize when those things are not going to work and will learn how to convert from the attack to a diving extension to try and reset the fight.
A word of caution, the P-38 is one of the biggest targets in the game, so getting slow in densely populated airspace is the kiss of death, so you have more chance of success in a 1v1 situation, and even then while starting to learn the P-38 it will be tough. Getting picked just as you think you are about to succeed will be frustrating. The key thing when learning a new technique is to try and maximize opportunities to practice, even if you know its a one way ticket back to the tower. As long as you learn something each time it will be worth it.
The reward will be, when you eventually become one of those P-38 pilots who can steal the lunch from any pilot who doesn't show the proper respect for the P-38 regardless of who they are or what they are flying.
Lastly, a final technique to master is the use of the film viewer. Save film of the success and failures and see if you can compare, identify and eradicate errors. Use the recorded and external views with trails and icons turned on and watch key moments in slow motion. In that way the film viewer can accelerate your learning.
Hope that helps...
Badboy
