Why fly the Spitfire?

[Seeker]

I flew mainly Spits in '46, I'm flying mainly Hurri's now; for the dweebiest of reasons:

I have to fight the game less to maintain a gun sight view and vision on target in a Hurri than the Spit. It must be awful for blue fliers.

I love the default load out for the Hurri and can't seem to replicate it in the Spit. I'm fighting the game so much to keep the gun sight view I'm getting closer and just hosing 'em down with that lovely garden spray from the Hurri, I find this hard to do in the Spit with the default tracerless load out.

There's no doubt that the Hurri was, and is modelled as, the superior gun platform. If you could gain position.

There's no doubt it was much easier, and is so modelled, to gain position in a Spit than it is in a Hurri. But that still doesn't mean you can shoot the bugger.

I don't feel 109's are too much a threat in either of them under 10k any way. 110's are a harder nut to crack. Probably because they're not fighting the game's gun sight like the 109 drivers.

[Ze-Jamz]

Hmm..Im not sure about this Spit..

I hate the way it bleeds E in a spiral climb for instance, in fact any sort of climb it isnt good..the guns are ok but that it, its one of those sometimes they surprise you, sometimes they just annoy you type of situation..the negative G cut out just suxxors and bites you when you need power the most..., like il2 any type of hit on the front and your in trouble, plink there goes the engine..it doesnt take Dmg very well

I cant back up my claim neither do i have any type of evidence but any books/programs ive read you will always here about how good the spit is at E retention..it may be me again but i dont think this bird in game retains E that well?..Slow speed characteristics are rubbish, in a stall fight against a 109 its hard to come up on top

If you spin out in a spit, good luck recovering...it mat be me or my setup but if i start to flat spin in a spit I wont recover 99% of the time

equal skill level if you have a 109 on you who has Alt your in trouble...i fly both and the 109 you can just hang on its tail..it climbs like a mofo and dives just aswell, its being used in game like you would use a FW-190 in Il2...very hard to catch, dont even bother trying to climb with it ..the guns, again are okay once you master them, the 20's are as they should be and have a slow ROF but once you get your convergence right they rok.

In game the 109 is superior on nearly all levels...imo but i like flying both in either case, depends what mood im in

[Ze-Jamz]

I just read in this thread about keeping Altitude on a 109 etc, well yes having altitude on any opponent is favourite however again you would lose the fight with a 109 if the pilot has as much knowledge/skill as you...

What are you going to do? he can extend quicker than you which gives the 109 an advantage in getting more altitude than you depending on how high you are this advantage widens, I wouldn't fancy your chance Med to High Alt and at Co Alt with a 109, you will find yourself evading more than the 109 unless he's made a mistake, sure you can dive but your compress quicker anyway aswell as being slower in that dive.

It would be interesting to actually know how under modelled the spit and indeed 109 are in game and if the disadvantages I'm talking about here were quite as broad in RL

[Ze-Jamz]

sry for the multiple posts..

Id also like to know how under modeled these FM's are..The SpitII takes away every advantage ive talked about above..the server i was just on i was 34 kills to 1 death using the SpitII, its no coincidence...

How near in performance is the spit Ia to the spitII? OR is the 109 under modeled as much as the spit 1a is?

More power means everything in the words of Scottie from Star Trek (the original might i add )

hopefully we wont be waiting long to find out

[Osprey]

Originally Posted by Grand_Armee

In all the books I've read, all of the documentaries I've seen, in some 30-odd years of studying WWII, I've seen one picture of an E-1 purportedly flying during BoB. I would love to know where you get this information, please.

I'm not sure which books you are reading but this information is easily available, there's rough info even on wikipedia.

I'm with the threadstarter. I'm no master but I'm not crap either and I find my online experience often frustrating because red have inferior machines. If we had a Spit with a CSP then it would be a different matter, but we don't.

I'm not entirely convinced about the overheat either. The pilot notes in the Spit suggest you can run for 10 mins on fine pitch full boost, but you can't do this in game, you'll knacker the engine. The oil heat flies up very fast - is this realistic? I don't see the MkV's at Duxford blowing oil gaskets as they taxi around.
Seems you have to run with the rad fully open too. All in all it leads to inferior performance and I find that even with advantage all the 109 needs to do is run straight, they can take a whole magazine from astern - one luftie in our crew said he outran 2 Spitfires straight and level with oil over the screen and rudder only (thus slipping like hell) but still managed 470kmph. Another time I watched him fight 2 Spits for 5 mins with a wing on fire, he shot 1 down and got home safely.

It could just be me being lazy and not spending the time to test performance, it could be I don't get the best out of the aeroplane, but that has to be the same for others in 109's too and they don't seem to struggle. I am looking forward to the FM's getting an overhaul, the E-1's being introduced, the 12lbs boost and the CSP. I'm worried though that with the LW ego's getting a boost right now that when they are reeled in they will complain and 1C will bow to pressure and make inaccuracies in the FM's to appease them.

I don't care if the Spitfire is crap, I just want it accurate.

[ZaltysZ]

Originally Posted by Ze-Jamz

What are you going to do? he can extend quicker than you which gives the 109 an advantage in getting more altitude than you depending on how high you are this advantage widens, I wouldn't fancy your chance Med to High Alt and at Co Alt with a 109, you will find yourself evading more than the 109 unless he's made a mistake, sure you can dive but your compress quicker anyway aswell as being slower in that dive.

Well, Spit I vs BF has almost the same problems as BF vs Spit II (except that BF also turns poorly). You either rely on higher initial E state or on lesser skill of enemy.

[Danelov]

Well , the point to remember and take in count always is : Spitfire fight better in the horizontal, turn better and close , 109 in the vertical, hit and run. Both planes weakest point is the radiator system, a good placed bullet in the radiator and the plane is on the way to go down. Also for the 109 ,the landing gear is very weakest. Some estimations speak of ca 20 % of the 109 production loss in landing accidents after the fragil landing gear. Messerschmitt was very skilled for gliders and so but the nightmare with the landing gear was always a great problem for him, and shortly later the disaster struck in full him with the failure of the Me 210, also with landing gear problems(and many others).

[l3uLLDoZeR]

I actually prefer to fly the hurricane on the SYN server. I can cruise 20-30 mph faster...and with the variable pitch prop it lets me fine tune more than the 2 stage on the spit. I just cruise around with the canopy open so I can see better, those metal bars always get in the way. It's still not as fast as 109/110, but it works much better than dragging an anchor around with the spit Ia!

[skouras]

the spit is an excellent fighter
but i prefer the 109

[klem]

Originally Posted by l3uLLDoZeR

I actually prefer to fly the hurricane on the SYN server. I can cruise 20-30 mph faster...and with the variable pitch prop it lets me fine tune more than the 2 stage on the spit. I just cruise around with the canopy open so I can see better, those metal bars always get in the way. It's still not as fast as 109/110, but it works much better than dragging an anchor around with the spit Ia!

+1 and I get kills. Depends on the pilot of course.

The Spit needs the Constant Speed Prop! It was available during the BoB and fitted for several Squadrons.


EDIT: And it needs 100 Octane.