diving extension/pitch-back

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by FC99

I never fought Spits with P-47 in game but I fought many Spits with FW and what happened in the Johnson's story is absolutely possible to do in game if Spit pilot is not very good. And for all we know Spit pilot from the story could be an ATA ferry pilot pitted against one of the best American pilots.

That's why I'm inherently skeptical of anecdotal evidence of flight performance. They are typically used to "prove" that a particular plane could do [some amazing feat] when in the hands of God's Own Pilot, ignoring the other factors, such as the quality of the other pilot, the tactical situation, fuel states, mission and overall air superiority.

Much more useful is test pilot reports and performance analysis. Even then, you want a lot of data.

In fairness to the IL2 AI, I did the same auto-pilot P-47D-10 vs. Spitfire Mk IXc test I ran earlier, but with Ace P-47 and Rookie Spitfire. Not surprisingly, it usually plays out exactly as Johnson described it.

Assuming that the Spitfire survives the head-on pass, the engagement generally goes like this: 1) Spitfire burns off too much E in turns trying to follow the P-47's zoom climb or dive in the first pass. 2) Once the spit loses enough E, P-47 uses marginally better top speed and superior dive or zoom climb to extend. 3) P-47 extends, zoom climbs, turns into the opponent, and rolls and climbs as the Spitfire comes in for another head-on pass, getting a ~45 degree deflection shot on the Spitfire's forward quarter. Spit takes mortal damage to its engine or gets shot up badly enough that it loses its speed/ maneuverability advantage. 4) P-47 finishes off the Spit at its leisure.