[horseback]

I apologize for the delay; I started adding screenshots to the track review process in order to track the nose drop phenomenon and I think that I have found some interesting things, but I need to do some more research before I start that thread.

Here are the Mid War USAAF Fighters, the Japanese Fighters and the FW 190 series. A couple of notes: the P-40E and P-40M disparity appears to have been fixed in 4.12; the M version is both quicker and faster than the earlier E version, and they seem to me to need a bit more trim adjustment (but still not nearly as much as the P-47, the Hellcat, Corsair or Mustang).

The acceleration of the A6M3 and A6M5 from 270 to about 400 kph is almost jaw-dropping at 100m; I don't chart the intervals between 270 to 350, but I feel that from 270 to about 330, these two fighters may be quicker off the mark than all but the La-5FN and possibly the Seafire LIII. Below 1600m/5000ft, Allied fighters are well advised to keep their speed up and not attempt any change of direction (including climbs) until they have 3 or 4 km of separation. Zekes don't appear to loose any energy in a turn or climb, so in any low and slow scenario they hold all the cards.

The P-38 is pretty impressive at this altitude as well, but that should not surprise anyone; with the turbosuperchargers it packed, its Allison engines drew full power from down in the weeds right up to 30,000ft.

FW 190A is fairly tractable at all speeds; I realized early on that I was doing myself more harm than good when I tried to make small rudder adjustments--it hardly needs any except at slower speeds, and the Turn & Bank ball is a bit behind the Wonder Woman vector ball, and the Wurger is not affected by small offsets in the ball the way a Corsair or Hellcat is. The nose drops noticeably at around 360-380 kph indicated (but not nearly as much as most of the US heavyweights) and the gradations on the gunsight's crosshairs make it easier to measure your attitude and fly a more level course most of the time. The hardest thing with this bird is losing speed; it will burble along at 300 kph at less than 30% throttle almost forever before it slows down to 270.

Enjoy.

cheers

horseback