noob here

[JRock]

Originally Posted by Splitter

One of the best lessons I have learned recently is "stay cool". Keep radiators open prior to combat. Keep RPMs lower and prop pitch back a bit. Don't leave WEP enabled in combat by default. Throttle back in dives, reduce prop pitch. Open the radiator whenever you can in combat.

If the RPM's and prop pitch are cut a bit and you need to pour on power, the plane will jump when you do. Being "cool" prior to combat leaves you a bit more room for the temperature increases in combat. If you don't need WEP to catch someone or get away, don't use it. That's a bit of reserve power to call on when you need it.

Probably the hardest thing to learn is not bleeding off all of your speed in a turn (when you don't have to). Speed is life after all. Much of the time a wider turn at higher speed is preferable to a tight turn that leaves you just above stall (depends on the situation obviously). As I get more experience in the sim, I find myself being more "smooth" with the controls to preserve speed.

Trim, trim, trim. I am obsessed with the slip ball . But it helps in flying efficiently and maintaining or gaining speed. When cruising or trying to catch up to an enemy, I find that climbing or diving with elevator trim is a big key in keeping as much speed as possible. Re-trimming on approach also makes landing easier...and safer .

Splitter

wow, so much of this is over my head right now. what is wep? how do you open your radiators? and wth is a slip ball?? lol

[Ltbear]

part 2 of all this stuff.

To give you the perfect feel of the plane (climp/dive etc) trim is the key. Almost all planes can be trimmed to fly hands of, all of them can be trimmed to fly with gentle inputs.

Personaly i favour trimming for the perfect climp. It takes abit to learn, but when you have it, you will make all manouvers and the general flying abit easyer. I tend to be overly agressive i counter that by having a trim setting entering combat that will help pulling the plane up if i lock the elevators (my fun is 1940 to 42) dont like late war racers...

Flaps. well they are there, they work good on a carrier, also pretty good landing damedged planes, but combat flaps i personaly try to avoid. If i have to use them i have done something wrong and have ended up in a situation where i need aditional inputs to correct my error. That error will cause me to loose speed (flaps creates drag) so i loose energy.

Online fights between the good pilots normaly comes down to the one who makes the first mistake. When he have done that hes goal changes from being a hunter to lure the other one into making a mistake to balance the fight again. This also works against AI. You can use the lure to make him make manouvers that will consolidate your advantage. (Trick him to turn and dive you stay up climping and keep an eye on him)

One small thing you need to learn (by practice) is where the point of no return is when engaging. When you come blasting towards him, at hes 8 high, you have to commit your self to keep the line. I have seen many aboard there attack with some yanking manouver resulting in them lossing so much energy that a nice turning climp brings you right on them. Think two steps ahead, keep to the plan and the route you have chosen, if the enemy moves you stil have the energy to try again (blast by him climp up again with only small manouvers and just keep tracking him)

As long hes cirkeling and evading and you are zooming and booming you are safe (keep out for hes m

If you are caught in a 2 vs 1 there is a small advice..

Why fight two working planes when you can fight 1 dameged 1 fresh or 2 dameged. Go after the one that is closest to you, dont go for the kill, but go for hits on him. This way you keep moving and dont lock your self onto the enemey so hes friend can get to you. If you maneged this you will shoot them to pieces and when they are dameged enough you sit with all the cards. (i do this ofline and online, shooting the closest to me keep my energy up and just fight them to the damege on them makes them limp)

I dont play this game for kills. I play it the way that im dedicatet to avoid the enemy getting hes job done. When a bomber drops the bombs because of damege, well he cant do hes job so no reon to make it burn. When a enemy fighter have fat smoke trailing, i dont finnish him of, i know hes out of the fight.

Well enough of this, need more help gimme a beep in this topic and i se what i can do

ps. use radiator by pressing R

wep is war emergency power, kinda like nitro on a car. use it to much it blows the engine (press W) not all planes have it

Ltbear

[Daniël]

This tread is very useful if you want to improve your shoting: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=17279
I'm a bit a "Erich Hartmann person". He's the top ace of all times. He got always very close to his enemy and shot him, it's a good technique. Deflection shooting is useful too, but if you're not good at it, it's a waste of ammo. You have to practice it.
You'll find lots of info at that tread.

[Ltbear]

dont squards have BFT`s (basic flight training) anymore?? that would cut hes learning curve in half....

[JRock]

there's so much help in this thread that i just wanna thank everyone for all of the links, tips, and strats. i'm really impressed with the helpful and non-flaming nature of this forum. thanks again to everybody!

[Splitter]

We were all brand new once .

One thing not explained that was asked: slip ball.

On many fighters, this looks like a carpenter's level. Or, it looks like a smile with a black ball moving back and forth in it. On some fighters (like the Spit), it is a needle. On the Spit, the lower needle indicates where the rudder is while the upper one is the slip indicator.

Slip is basically how much your plane is sideways to the direction of travel. When your plane is a bit sideways to the direction of travel, it is not as aerodynamic as when it is perfectly aligned with the direction of travel. Being sideways creates more drag and slows you down.

Try to keep the slip ball (or slip indicator) in the middle. You can do this with rudder inputs (which slow you down) or trim on many planes. Note that the 109 does not have rudder trim, you have to give rudder input to correct the slip.

In non-combat aircraft, pilots are drilled on making "coordinated turns". This means a turn while keeping the slip ball in the center....which takes rudder input because trim only works so much. Coordinated turns can give you an advantage (efficiency) in combat too. But don't get fixated too much on the slip ball in combat....sometimes an uncoordinated turn is called for.

Lastly, when trying to make a coordinated turn, there is an old axiom to remember: step on the ball. If the ball is to the right, give a little right rudder until the ball is centered. Whichever way the ball is off center, that's the direction you need to give either rudder input or trim to remain in coordinated flight.

...and every time you change altitude, speed, or power, you need to re-trim to remain in coordinated flight. It's a constant process. Pilots are never bored .

Splitter

[BadAim]

Couple of more things, assuming your head hasn't exploded from information overload yet.

The advice to not use WEP is very good, just be aware that besides the WEP you have to push a button for (usually water or ethanol injection, or even nitrous!) there is also the 100% to 110% range on your throttle. On the real planes you often had an "approved" full throttle setting, and an extra 10% for when the xxxx hit the fan. In game it's best not to fly around at 110% throttle all the time, because you'll incur a big overheat penalty. On most planes you can dip into 103% or so without too much trouble, just experiment a bit with the planes you like to fly.

No 2 has to wait, I gotta go.......

Have fun!

[JRock]

yes, my head has exploded.