Early this mornin, sometime around 0100EST I preflight and roll my N1K2-J out to the runway. Checklists and runups complete I take the active on runway 4 at A33 and off we go into the wild blue yonder. Swing left to a heading of around 350 and I trim the kite for best climb, following the coast towards P32 and a red cloud.
Passing through 12k or so I pick up a couple of dots low at 1o'clock so I level off, nudge the rudder, and go investigate. 2 dots turns into 3 dots as I look upon 2 spits apparently using boom and zoom tactics on a lower, friendly F4U. The spits are flying a nice looking Fighting Wing formation (also known as Welded Wing), and I as I spiral down from my perch I decide the wingman dies first.
Throttle back, invert, descending at about 2.5k/min and watching as the spits start to climb after the latest pass on the hawg. Up they come and down I go. The spits start into a left turn at the top of thier climb, looking to setup on the hawg again. I pull a few Gs into a lag pursuit position to control closure.
About 1000yds and the spits break hard to the left. I pull back on the stick and into a high yo-yo. Starting back down using a little lag and pure pursuit I close to 800 yards. The wingman breaks hard to the right and leader pulls up into the verticle. I nudge the rudder and shift my sight to the leader thinking "Bonehead move, and here's why." Press the tit at 250yds and he's a fireball.
I ease my pull and bring the kite over the top, looking for the wingman. The other spit seemed to have reversed his break for a nose low turn to get enough to E to zoom to me. He dinnae quite make it, dropping off about 1200yds below me. Little right rudder, little right aileron, and haul back on the stick to line up. Another press of the tit and he's left smoking and without most of his empenage, spiraling down to the sea.
I swing back to the NNW and climb back up to around 14-15k and level as I'm approaching the port area. I see several low dots, which are identified as a couple of F4Us, a couple of La5s, and I think an F6F. I pull the throttle back and spiral down, sizing up the situation.
An La5 is zooming up, his belly towards me, apparently coming off a strafing run and setting up another one, and it seems my presence is unknown to him. I drop the right wing and roll in behind him. Press the tit for a quick burst and watch as his Hstabs and Vstab flutter away, and I pull back up, looking for the next victim. I spy an F4U looking like he wants some as he tries to zoom up, but dinnae quite make it. Pull the nose down, ease the rudder, and fire off a quick burst.
A flash of movement on the left caught my attention, and upon looking found the another La5 coming in, almost in firing position. Stick to the left, put my lift vector on him and pull, while maintaining some left aileron and stomping the right rudder to skid around and mess up his tracking solution. Full throttle, flip the wep, and pull up underneath him hard. As I come over the top the butterflies slide out, and the La5 and I are almost nose to nose. I get around a little quicker and reverse into a lead turn, getting a snapshot at about 100yds as I kick the rudder left to pass behind him, watching pieces of his kite fall away.
Check six and take a quick look around for that F4U. I spy a dot diving and running west by southwest, and above that dot I see a spitfire diving in with about 5 more bandits behind him. I look back again, still clear, and roll about 110degrees to put the nose low and slice the turn around, and look below me to what's what. There are 3 or 4 bandits still below me. One of them is zooming up so I take a snapshot as I dive east, though no apparent damage was done.
Deciding descretion is the better part of valor and hoping to get out of dodge and make it home. A look over my shoulder tells me the spit is still with me and closing slowly. Kick in the wep and check my trim, hoping to outdistance the spit long enough to get him away from the pack before I have to engage. I look around and see a couple friendlies above me, headed west into the fray. Guess that explains why only the spit is chasing me.
Look back again and the spit is starting to slowly fall back. I roll the kite a little, still looking back, and see I have a new problem. An F4U is behind me and gaining ground. I figured I had not quite a minute before I'd have to do something about that hawg.
I kill the wep and throttle back a little to bleed some speed and increase the closure rate for the F4U. At about 1400yds I roll to the right about 25degrees for a real good look at both bandits. When the hawg is almost 800yds back I pull back on the stick and throw it to the left while kicking the rudder to the right and skid through a displacement roll. Ease off the rudder and slap the throttle wide open as I pull back harder going into the second roll, and working to keep an eye on that F4U. As I invert in the second roll the F4U passed beneath me and breaks to the left. I kick the wep in again and, with a glance toward the spit (Damn! Still there!), I pull the nose down as the butterflies slide out and drop in behind the F4U. It took about 10seconds to get him lined up, and when I pressed the tit I was rewarded with pieces flying everywhere.
I look back for the spit and realize I'd spent too much time lining that hawg up as his wings start to twinkle at me. Stand my kite on'er left wing, stomp the right rudder, and throw the stick as far forward as I can. I'm almost at complete redout when I throw the stick to the right and pull back, looking for the spit. It took a few heart-pounding seconds and another nudge of the rudder to find him reversing at my low 6.
Since I was pointed in a generally south direction and home was south, I left the wep on, straightened up the kite, dropped nose a touch, and headed for home. Checked my trim and looked back, the spit gained just a little, then started steadily dropping back. Leveled off about 50ft above the waves and reset my trim. Looked back and the spit was still falling back so I killed the wep to cruise home.
Saw several friendlies coming from the south so I relaxed a little bit and took stock of my personal situation. Not quite 200 rounds left total and missing the right aileron ("When the hell did I loose that????"). Looked back and the spitfire had pulled up and reversed, heading back towards the port and the relative safety of numbers. I chuckled for the 5minutes it took to get back to base and land. Then told the crew chief to fix the kite cause I had another hop to run.
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Real sortie, and there's the details to the best of my recollection. I landed 7 kills with 130someodd rounds in the primary bank and 40someodd rounds left in the secondary bank. And, of course, minus my right aileron. I remember engaging the spits and the first La5 clearly. After that it all gets kinda foggy and I'm sure I left out a few turns and maybe even got the bandit types wrong. From the time the first spit blew up to when I started my extension manuever away from the last spit was maybe 7 minutes, with only a couple needed from the second kill til I was engaging bandits over P32. I commented that I wished I had recorded the fight with the spits, and dinnae think to turn the recorder on afterwards because I was expecting to die over P32 (map showed at least a 6 bandits there with another dozen otw, about half would arrive right after me). At one point, just before breaking low for a final snapshot and running east the tracer fire around me seemed so thick that it was almost like being in the edge of cloud. Of course, that's probably a skewed perception, but it remains none the less
(ps- for the -1C whiners, ya'll better wake up to the true beast of AH and fast)
