wing stalling on purpose?

[revi]

does anybody use an induced wing stall / spin as a tactic in dogfighting?

[Sw@tLorD]

I try to avoid that. Because when you are spinning, you are an easy target. And sometimes it is hard to recover from.

[Avimimus]

Too low a velocity and a larger cross section generally characterise high speed stalls and can allow an opponent to make a slight roll, kick the rudder (thus rapidly moving the nose sideways) and fill you with rounds. Basically, its suicide.

That said I have deliberately "departed" (ie. high speed stall/spin) in order to escape an opponent who is at a very close range (too close to be able to effectively follow me without winding up in the same situation).

I also regularly induce a partial stall of one wing in order to enhance the aircrafts roll rate (usually this is possible only in one direction due to torque and is only possible in some aircraft) and to bank the aircraft at speeds where traditional controls are ineffective (eg. at the top of a rétournemant/hammerhead/immelman type maneuver). I do this all the time and normally induce them to "warm up" prior to combat.

[Skarphol]

Sometimes when I have an opponent on my tail that is hard to get rid of, I deliberately go into a stall in order to get rid of him. It works fine, and if you start to recover imediately it's not all that hard to get out off it either. It you start the spin by pulling up sharply while banking hard, you don't have to loose much altitude. I usually fly the Bf-109, I know this is harder with other planes like the P-39.

Skarphol

[K_Freddie]

Do it on many occasions, but only when the other plane is close.
Doing this also allows you to slow down faster, causing the other to overshoot.
If you control the spin enough, you can put it into a curved spiral, making it difficult for the other to aim.

[Feathered_IV]

I'll use it in turn fights when things are desperate. Especially if there is handy cloud cover to drop into. As Freddie says, it works well when the enemy is close. Best not to do it when facing more than one opponent though...