Maintaining a high airspeed

[shiro_amada_jp]

How do you preserve energy and maintain a high airspeed in a turning battle? If I turn a lot, my airspeed drops too low. Is there some technique to engage an enemy aircraft in a turning battle but without sacrificing airspeed? Are there any engine management tricks that I can use to keep my airspeed up?

 

[Binjo]

Whenever I'm in a turning fight I tend to keep my nose a little lower than my adversary. This often ends up moving the fight into the vertical, but if not it gains a little bit more airspeed and allows for a shot at their belly if they level out for a second. The downside is that you can lose the altitude advantage if they decide to climb.

Alternatively, you may want to stay out of the turning fight altogether depending on the crates involved. Energy fights are tricky to get used to but increase your survivability tenfold.

Keep in mind that all of this depends on the aircraft involved. It's much easier to keep airspeed up in a P-38 than an F4F.

 

[Amsel]

You cannot maintain your energy in a tight turning fight that is horizantal. Also if they are latched on to you you will want to be bleeding as much energy as possible to force an overshoot. I do this quite a bit online when faster energy fighters have latched on to me. It surprises many when they overshoot and you give them a burst as they pass by.

In most fighters I look for an altitude advantage and I will decline many targets if I can't keep my energy up enough to survive the encounter. I love to zoom and boom.

 

[Nightshifter]

Also if you must turn fight, never do so in a flat turn. Pull up into the first half of the turn which will slow you down but maintain the angle and you will be pointing down for the second half of the turn (regaining speed) - rinse and repeat until you get a snap shot or better yet, force them out of the turn fight.
This can work even if your fighter isn't a better turn fighter than your opponent, keep it up for too long though and the better turning aircraft will eventually get you but it at least gives you a chance if you find yourself low and slow.

As said before, probably best to keep yourself out of that sort of situation in the first place if you can avoid it.

 

[shiro_amada_jp]

I fly an A6M5 Zero. Any specific tips on how to maintain airspeed for that plane?

 

[eddie_brunette]

I fly an A6M5 Zero. Any specific tips on how to maintain airspeed for that plane?

My tactic in the Zero is actually the opposite. If in the Zero, SLOW THEM DOWN!!!! The Zero is more deadly when flying at stall speeds. When you and enemy are down to stall speed, open Zero throttles and start to BnZ the enemy A/C.

The Zero has fantastic acceleration and climbing (NO DIVING PLEASE SIR ) due to its light weight. The thing about the Zero is to attack. all the time, even when you go defensive you must try and attack, we all know what happens to you when .50's are starting to hit you

BTW my favorite plane is the'38

edd

 

[Binjo]

Exactly what eddie said, drag your opponents down with you. If they insist on an energy fight, start yankin' and bankin' to make them bleed off some of their airspeed, then blast em out of the sky when they overshoot.

If you're playing online I might recommend trying to dupe the other players into seeing you as a tempting target, let them get focused enough to unwittingly drop their speed...bam, free kill for you (you've gotta be a bit squirrely though).

Keep in mind this is mostly advice for if you end up on the wrong side of the flying lead. Nothing is quite as humiliating as getting shot down by the guy that you were sure you had nailed.

 

[eddie_brunette]

Nothing is quite as humiliating as getting shot down by the guy that you were sure you had nailed.

Oooo, I know that feeling sooo well

edd

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

Anybody ever been able to get the Mustang to top speed of 437 miles per hour in level flight? I've tried it but I simply can't reach it. I adust prop pitch, trim tabs, and setting the speed to it's highest possible settings, but I still can't get it to reach even 600 km/h at level speed. I've tried differant altitudes, tried to adjust for the wind, and it's still the same. 570 km/h if I'm lucky, and that's flying on the deck. At higher altitudes, I have trouble reaching even 400 km/h.

I wonder if it's simply impossible for the P-51 in the game to reach a speed of 437 mph.

Redit: Oddly enough, on wikipedia, they say the cruise speed of the P-51 was actually only 580 km/h. So the game is following that role I suppose. But shouldn't the P-51 be able to exceed that?

But what is maximum speed anyway? Do most aircraft never reach it, or does it require fine tuning on the part of the mechanic or something?

 

[beaupower32]

At high altitude you have to realize that your true speed will not be what your indicated speed shows. so if your only indicating 400 km/h at say 20,000 feet you might well be doing 650km/h on the ground. Now i dont know if that is the true equation on that. Maybe someone else will come along and help clear it up a little bit. Anyways, I found that to keep my speed up is to do everything very gently. If you do jerking around it will bleed speed too fast. Fly your plane gently with a soft hand. And you will see that you will keep your speed up.

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

Thanks. I should have remembered about air speed vs. ground speed.

 

[beaupower32]

NP, I figured thats what the problem probably was. Test it out if you get a chance and let me know. When I go home tonight I will do it and see what I get and we can compair notes.

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

I'll try it tonight.

 

[beaupower32]

i tried it a few nights ago and got 420MPH true airspeed at 22000 feet. but i couldnt squeze anymore out of her. will do some more testing at different altitudes.

 

[mkloby]

i tried it a few nights ago and got 420MPH true airspeed at 22000 feet. but i couldnt squeze anymore out of her. will do some more testing at different altitudes.

Does the computer game tell you what your TAS is while you're flying?

 

[beaupower32]

I think so, the little bar in the corner that gives speed, altitude, and heading, you can switch through them. They show, km/h, Airspeed, and True Airspeed. I have it set up where F12 cycles them.

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

I got a little over 400 km/h speed at an altitude of 7,600 meters roughly.

On wikipedia they said that was around the altitude where the P-51D was fastest.

I don't know if that makes our results similar or not, but it's fun testing a planes limits!

 

[HoHun]

Hi Welch,

>I got a little over 400 km/h speed at an altitude of 7,600 meters roughly.

This works out to 597 km/h true air speed (if we assume instrument errors are not simulated).

As this is still a bit short of the P-51's historical top speed, try climbing above 7600 m, then diving back to that altitude to get to a stabilized speed quicker. It can take a long time to reach top speed by level acceleration!

If the simulation has a boost gauge, check if it registers full boost at the altitude you have selected. Top speed is usually achieved at the highest altitude where you can still get full boost.

(As the amount of boost also depends on speed, best make this check at near top speed.)

Hope this works for you!

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

Thanks, that would work!

 

[billswagger]

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