You see, at the start of combat, you do not push the throttle to 110% and then go from there. You would not be able to do that for more than a minute in the best of circumstances.

The engine will die eventually from overheating, but that's over a period of 5-10 minutes. The engine damage clock resets each time the engine is brought down to a "normal" condition, even if for just a second.

If you're having problems with the Mustang, I suggest first and foremost to never use the boost setting when at low altitudes (3000m or less) It provides no increase in speed over 100% and simply raises the engine temperature (a great deal).

The Mustang is not a Spitfire - although it has a similar engine, the weight is far greater. The only reason that it's faster than the Spitfire is because of excellent aerodynamic properties. However, this doesn't make the plane magical and you still need to work harder than in most planes to conserve your speed. Keep up that speed at all costs, and you will at least survive. Don't pull excessively tight turns or steep climbs and expect to be able to start running again afterwords.

Finally, use CEM to your advantage. Don't fly around the entire fight at 100-100. Lower power and pitch when diving to gain more speed, increase when climbing. In a combat situation where I need to run straight and level, my prop pitch is 75-80% and power as low as 70%. I can outrun almost anything this way, reaching 350mph on the deck provided I hadn't just killed all of my speed in a turn - the relatively slow acceleration of the P-51 in level flight can be problematic against an enemy who can get from 200mph to 300mph faster than I can.

However, Il-2 doesn't care if you over-boost the engine, so I could just forget the throttle, leave it at 100% and just worry about managing my prop pitch.

I'm not trying to set parameters, just explaining my opinion on the matter. I still play the same game as everyone else ultimately. But like I said, I rarely reach an overheat condition, even with some of the infamously "hot" aircraft.

What do you think of the Ki-61? I pretty much run that one with rads open most of the time. Found any sweet spots with pitch/rpm percentages and throttle positions?

Oh... one thing came to mind as I was writing the last post (don't ask how I switched gears so quickly) but when it comes to "Pony talk" it's almost always about the P-51D or maybe about the P-51B/C... The planes that we never seem to talk about and are so rarely represented in a simulator (have they ever been?) are the Mustang Mark I, P-51A/Mustang Mark II and the A-36 Apache.

I truly hope we can see some or many of these versions in Storm of War's follow on theaters.

Agreed.

The Allison engined Mustangs, though overshadowed by their Merlin powered cousins, were not extactly dogs.

As I have mentioned before, the RAF's Mustang Is were the fastest aircraft in Europe below 15,000ft. when they went into service. There was simply nothing else that fast.

Plus, they would be needed for a proper Med theatre expansion, as the A-36 was widely used, and to good effect, by the USAAF in North Africa.

You should probably ask Billfish, as I don't fly it that often. My experiences in it however, have been good, and it's my favorite IJA/IJN fighter in the game.

I'm assuming it overheats for you? I don't remember ever having problems with it. If I ever opened it at all, it would have been during slow-turning, and then by only a couple increments. I never had to open it all the way.

Another "infamous" plane for overheating is the Hellcat, and again, no problems.

True, but it probably had the same problems as the B,C,and D in terms of power-to-weight, and therefore acceleration.

I would like to see the A-36 as well. Can't complain if it has those 4x Hispanos. But at least we have what we have. Hasn't it already been modded somewhere already anyway?