La-5fn
 

Well, I had a couple matches yesterday against MCGIVERN, and he pretty much showed that he can OWN you in an LA-7. I had some very competent wingmates in a 3v3. We won 20-17. He had 17 kills. It was ridiculous. On realistic at first, then on sim, equally as dominant.

So I've been trying to fly the thing. It turns well, but I can't hit a thing. The fire rate is so tremendously slow and it hardly fires any tracers. Very frustrating.

What are your thoughts on this plane as a realistic or sim choice?

Very nice plane, but as you said, tricky to shoot with. Maybe easier to start with something with a lot of tracers, like a Spit, Hurri, 109... basically all planes except La and I-153 :P.

Yeah, but I've been flying enough now that I want to find a plane that I can really get good at.

I had a lot of success with the 109 G6 and the Spit IX and XVI, but I was just floored with how well he flew the LA5. It was truly impressive.

When they patch it, I think I'll likely really try some BnZ planes like the 109 K.

I fly the La-7 allot. It is my plane of choice on CTA matches. It flies very well, and stable. It dives in and pulls up nicely enough to take a landing pretty quickly, and I use the small bombs to bomb foe on the ground attempting to take the field. As far as dog fighting, that being my weakness anyway, I can not comment on that with the La-7, because I have really sucked at the dog fight no matter what plane I fly. I get hits with it, but can never seem to keep a target in my sight long enough to take a foe down completely so a team mate generally needs to come clean up the smoker I made...

BTW: I fly mostly realistic with some Sim tossed in for good measure...

That's one of the reasons I started flying the 109G6. That thing will blow anything out of the sky. I really think that if I can't get my grip on the LA5 soon, I might try to specialize in the 109 series. I'm brutally bad at gunnery, so I need that advantage.

The LA5 is quick, but I'm just not capitalizing when I get the chance to pick them off.

blah. bloody russian planes, flying death traps (dont tell soviet i said that) :P lol.


As good as the LA5 is and also the other russian planes i personally cannot get to grips with them. I belong in a hurricane or shitfire. Its all about personnal preference though at the end of the day and what your comfortable with flying. Just see how you get on after a few games and you might find it growns on you :D

Is there one post you didn't mention the Hurri? :rolleyes::P

Lol. Hey, I'm just looking for suggestions. If the man loves him some hurricane, let him shout. :)

I'll tell ya what. I'll give one a try later today. I don't care how good some people are in that LA5, the guns are just too bad for me to succeed. How's the firepower on the hurricane versions?

It's not meant offensive.. I'm actually curious :P.

The Hurri has decent firepower. 12 MG's, but no cannon. The best thing about them is the amount of tracers... it's almost so much you don't see your target anymore :P. What planes have you been flyiing? Btw, check out this guide for descriptions of the different airplanes, and how they're in-game.

Oh don't worry about that guide, I have it in my bookmarks and have read it about 10 times. Very, very helpful.

My go-to plane is the Spit IX, and the XVI. To be honest, I can't really tell the difference. I was being frustrated by blowing holes in peoples wings, but not being able to finish them.

So I grabbed a 109 G6, and had GREAT success for a while until I ran into MCGIVERN, who made me look silly in his LA5FN. I couldn't get around, I couldn't do much except take a run at him, and then extend and hope to escape.

So I grabbed the LA5, and I pretty much suck. I can get a good look at people, but cannot shoot them for anything.

I think I might head back to the 109 and just figure out the best tactics for killing and avoiding being killed in one.

Yeah, the pro's and cons.. There isn't a whole lot difference between the IX and XVI, but there is some. The Spits and 109's are very nice for learning where to shoot, once you get the drift you can try the La. You can also try the La-7, I believe it has a bit more tracers, although still not a whole lot. 109's are tricky to not get killed with, especially in realistic. The BnZ doesn't work so well because they can see you coming. In any case it's not wise to start turning with a 109.

If you having trouble gunning, try the IL2. It may not be very maneuverable, but it's guns are so powerful that you don't need many shots to down a plane.:cool:

I'd like to "specialize" in the P-51, but sadly that isn't possible until the update. :(

I'll try the LA7. The 5's cannons fire too far apart. The planes always sneak in between them.

Yeah, turning the 109 is not ideal.

Yea he's a good pilot, too bad he's a cock though. Had a shed load of abusive and childish voice messages from him a few weeks ago. He deliberately crashes a lot too when your on his ass (not sure if he still does that now though). Total prick IMO

i only fly the 109 series. mostly i use the g-6 or the g-10. i have alot if success in these planes IF i stay out of the turn fights. playing 1v1 is suicide if the opponent is flying a spit or la, so i try to avoid those games. however if theres alot of people playing i try to single out one opponent and dive on him. or just make passes over the furball for quick snapshots and then zoom.

even when i make passes i try to never do a turn, instead i climb away and do an immelmann och dive back down. sometimes it clicks really well and its so fun and you feel like a true bird of prey diving down on someones six and finishing him in one burst and then disappear.

this tactic only works good in sim mode though when the opponents cant see you all the time.

i can't fly the spit to save my life and the La-series is ok. i've been totally dominated by guys like ancient seraph and morgoth in their spits and those times its hard to see any flaws in that plane even though the pilot matters the most :) . but when i try the spit i just cant manouver. the firepower is stunning but i stall whenever i try to turn. tried to lower the sensitivity etc but to no avail.

This is odd. I've been flying with Mirgergin for weeks, and I have to say he's one guy I trust to hold up his plane as long as it can fly, in order to allow you to get the kill. He's always been fairly soft-spoken and cordial except in one case where a dude was being a real jerk and we were all (collectively) telling him where to go.

Then again, we can all have bad days, I guess. I was just surprised to read this. In my experience, he's a top-notch pilot, and a good guy too.

Sounds like he was just having a bad day then. Although I don't think I've heard someone swear in one voice message as much as he did lol :P

Just flew with the guy. At the very least he doesn't make an effort to stay in the air. Not the most sporty type though. Maybe he had a good day when you were flying with him ;). Hell of a pilot though, can't deny that.

*Game show announcer voice* "Everyone welcome Soviet Ace, the supreme and all knowing person on Soviet Aircraft of WW2, and beyond!" *Cheering and screams. Some women even throw their panties at me :D*

Thank you, please your to kind. *Smiles and waves to the audience* Anyway, the reason the guns are slow firing is because they're 20mm cannons, and not MGs. If you want something fast and good like the La-5FN, take up the Yak-3 which has twin MGs and one nose 20mm cannon.

And I agree it has hardly any tracers, but I don't use tracers really to get a positioning on where I'm firing. Usually I just use the little dashes on the reflector sight to see where I'm shooting. It always helps, and I always get good kills on my friend. Hehehe:cool:

Also, both the La-5FN and La-7 have both their cannons positioned in the same place. So either plane, your going to have the difficulty of firing around the target, which shouldn't really happen in the first place because you should be firing up close and personal. Not 2,000+ feet away. :-P

hahaha :grin:

I want to love the Yak 3. It rolls so nicely. It looks fabulous. But I don't find that, in terms of performance, it is in the same league as the La-5. It just doesn't turn as well. As for the La-7...different league. It's faster and more maneuverable. The plane is ridiculous. I pretty much choose not to fly it, on principle.

I need to learn how to make the roll rate of the Yak 3 work for me, because I want to love this plane.

For the Yak-3 and the rest of the Russian planes. Just have the sensitivity on ailerons and elevators all the way up (max). Then you'll see what the Yak-3 can do. ;)

"Just have the sensitivity on ailerons and elevators all the way up (max). Then you'll see what the Yak-3 can do."

Namely, stall.

Okay, but seriously for the Yak 3, I have ailerons at 20/20 and elevators at 18/20. At 19 or 20/20, I would stall on a tight turn, so I bumped it back one more.

Well how fast are you going into a turn? You might be going into the turn to slow. I usually go into a turn around 70% throttle, sometimes a little more or less.

I hardly ever have a problem with stalls when I'm like that. And the Yak-3 always out turns my enemy while doing so. :cool:

It seems I was going too fast, perhaps. I'll give it a try later tonight then--you've got me excited because I love that plane and want to be able to do well in it. It's definitely my favourite in terms of looks. :)

My sig would agree. :D As well as my constant mentioning, and knowledge on the plane. :cool:

Well I just spent about 45 minutes testing the two. I found a flat spot of ground and crashed, leaving a nice fire and smoke as the "starting point" of my turns, then turned 4 or 5 complete circles at full speed, then again at ~70 percent thrust.

The Yak 3 certainly performed worse at top speed than it did slightly slower. The best I could get was approximately 10.5 seconds for a complete circle.

In the La7 I was able to squeeze out around 9.5-10. I'm going to assume you know the planes slightly better and that you could get the yak to turn a little faster--so I'll grant that they are even, or that the Yak is slightly better under these non-combat conditions.

The difficulty is that in combat, the La-7 would toast the Yak because its superior engine would allow it to Yo-Yo more effectively, (in the La-7, I was able to turn at much higher speeds).

Final analysis: more testing required, but so far I would take an La7 into a TnB fight over a Yak 3--but I DID learn that the Yak is better than I thought and that I'd be willing to fly it at least. :)

I love the La-7, although I do have the problem with accuracy. Even though I still miss a lot, I've found that trying to deal with the La-7's guns has improved my accuracy with other aircraft.