Originally posted by Tub-o-lard
Now that I have realised that I can get away from Spit's and N1K's if I need to, I have to work out what to do about those damned F6Fs and P-51s. Any advice there?
Yep, DO NOT try to dive away. Both will catch you in a dive, the F6F will catch you early in the dive, and the P-51 later in the dive. However, both dive pretty well and are fast enough when they dive to give you fits. Don't play that game. I can tell you that the one thing I LOVE to see when flying the Hellcat is anybody in a "faster" plane trying to dive away from me. Beware the F6F, because it is a very good E fighter as well and it will turn better than your Corsair in sustained turning fights. However, you can easily out-run the Hellcat in level flight or a very shallow dive. You can extend and use similar techniques to the Spit once you have a comfortable E advantage. Versus the P-51 you are fighting one of the best E fighters in the game and it's also very fast, so you can't use the extend for E advantage technique. Your best bet vs. the Pony is to have an E advantage and use it. If you don't have an E advantage, you will be the angles fighter, so use angles fighting techniques (lead turns and such) versus the Pony and go for a quick kill. The Hog handles pretty damn well, and I think between it and the Pony it's going to come down to pilot skill if the starting E states are pretty close.
If you are losing the fight for whatever reason, try to time an extension move just right and 0 G dive towards friendlies. You'll accellerate faster in the dive, so is you time it right you can get some separation and make a break for it. The Pony will catch you, but if you got enough separation to begin with, you may get to help before he catches you. Depending on the terrain you can sometimes also dive to the dirt and possibly have him lose sight since your icon range is only 3.0k when you are very close to the ground. I like to do this in my Jug, using hills and valleys to reverse while my opponent can't see me hoping to surprise him and either shoot him in the face or get a decent angles advantage.
Your other option if you are at a disadvantage is to go for an overshoot. Standard techniques apply, and again I think it will probably come down to pilot skill.