P-51 Combat Tips and Tricks ( Dogfight Guide )

[JtD]

If I find a Fw 190 high, I usually just firewall it and enter a gentle dive. The P-51's dive limit is higher, and it is faster over most altitudes, so you usually can get away by maintaining a near red line speed. If the Fw 190 follows, it will either break up or lose the altitude advantage, which means it's no longer a threat. If it doesn't follow, well, you're safe.

I also consider the P-51 the best prop driven fighter aircraft in game, in particular against the Japanese, where the somewhat limited firepower works a lot better than against the tougher German planes.

[CWMV]

Been flying 109's since IL2 beta.
Ive never worried too much about mustangs. Their best advantage lies where it did in reality-sheer overwhelming numbers.

[JG27_PapaFly]

Originally Posted by CWMV

Been flying 109's since IL2 beta.
Ive never worried too much about mustangs. Their best advantage lies where it did in reality-sheer overwhelming numbers.

I'll second that. A single mustang attacking a single 190 is a pain in the ass, but otherwise my team happily chews up all P51s it encounters. We usually enjoy it because it's a big and relatively soft target that doesn't turn very hard. They are very seldomly able to outrun us. They cannot outdive us, especially not the D9. They are a pain in the ass against 190A versions above 6000m. But then we always have a Dora in our mix in order to be able to catch just about anything at higher alts. Another P51 weakness is it bleeds lots of energy while boom-and-zooming, and of course when it turns hard.

S!

[JtD]

Kind of speaks volumes about the quality of the combat you usually see - the P-51 can outrun all contemporary German prop fighters and outdive them as well. If you catch them in a dive and a D-9 can catch them at higher altitude, I don't think you've seen a properly flown one.

It's funny though that it would seem that many folks share that impression, and then get grumpy when a couple of well flown P-51's kick their butts repeatedly, unexpectedly. The P-51 is a very capable plane, which not many pilots fully exploit. It certainly has a far worse reputation with both its pilots and its opponents than it deserves.

[JG27_PapaFly]

Originally Posted by JtD

Kind of speaks volumes about the quality of the combat you usually see - the P-51 can outrun all contemporary German prop fighters and outdive them as well. If you catch them in a dive and a D-9 can catch them at higher altitude, I don't think you've seen a properly flown one.

It's funny though that it would seem that many folks share that impression, and then get grumpy when a couple of well flown P-51's kick their butts repeatedly, unexpectedly. The P-51 is a very capable plane, which not many pilots fully exploit. It certainly has a far worse reputation with both its pilots and its opponents than it deserves.

You are hereby kindly invited by JG27 to visit us on grij dedicado server and kick our ignorant FW190 butts.

Time: monday and tuesday, starting around 1800 GMT.
Server info: close range friendly icons (1000m), map icons, speedbar, otherwise fullreal.

We are 2-4 guys.

[Snake]

He will not show up! I'm sure of that!

[JtD]

Thanks for the invitation, but I'm not interested. I also don't consider you ignorant, if you think that's what I do.

[Snake]

I told he's not coming! Hi hi hi, just talking!

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by CWMV

Been flying 109's since IL2 beta.
Ive never worried too much about mustangs. Their best advantage lies where it did in reality-sheer overwhelming numbers.

And relative pilot quality. By 1944, except for a steadily diminishing band of Experten, most Luftwaffe fighter pilots were kids fresh from training with very few flying hours or bomber pilots hastily retrained to fly fighters. I'd count the former as Rookie level AI and the latter as Average or maybe Veteran.

By contrast, while most USAAF pilots were relatively green, they had enough basic flight and fighter training to count as being Average quality, and many of them stayed alive long enough to become Veterans.

[JtD]

In real life the P-51 was an excellent aircraft, just like it is in game. When the P-51 was introduced in the first half of 1944, the Luftwaffes top fighters were 1.42 ata Fw 190A and none methanol Bf 109G, mostly equipped with gunpuds. This meant the P-51 had many performance advantages, in particular at high altitudes, where it could fly circles around the German opposition, but also at lower altitudes where it still had climb, dive and speed advantages. And, compared to previous US escort fighters, it manoeuvred well, being competitive with whatever the Luftwaffe had.

Early on, the bomber escorts rarely had a numerical advantage, often the Luftwaffe had it and the P-51 was still successful under these conditions.

However, the tactical situation needs to be taken into account and here it is important that the escort fighters often held the initiative, because the Luftwaffe fighters focussed on the bombers. That's far more important than any numerical odds and something the P-51 did benefit from.

To reduce the combat success of the aircraft to numbers and relative pilot skills, is very superficial, to say the least.