P-51 Combat Tips and Tricks ( Dogfight Guide )

[Black_Sage29]

Been flying with the P-51 a lot lately and she's my favorite ride. VERY fast and the engine is VERY reliable. You can fly on full power settings ( even on WEP ) for a while without the coolant boiling

Just going to give some dog-fighting tips for budding p-51 flyers..its a good feeling seeing BF-109 fireballs flying across your canopy

1.) Stay fast! This aircraft easily reaches 300-350mph. Any slower than 180-200MPH your pretty much a "brick in the sky". You can easily outrun any plane "except" probably a jet from my experience

2.) Be gentle with her. You have to turn very gently with the p-51..she can't turn too tight like a 109 but you don't need to turn tight because you bleed off speed that way. The verticle is the best fight. If you absolutely need to turn with the P-51 in combat pull just enough on the stick until you hear the airframe rattling..also use combat flaps. But I would just advise you High-Yo-Yo onto your targets six if your chasing a bandit

2.) Use deflection shot! Unless your chasing a FW-190 or some other non-tight-turning plane...Don't worry too much about getting directly behind a bandit and shooting his 6, most of my kills in a p-51 come from deflection shot. Carefully time your deflection shots and make sure your fast..if you need to climb to a bandit make sure you have enough speed..if you don't stay at alt and gain speed.

3.) Use cloud cover! - If you have a bandit or even a gang of bandits chasing you, dive into the clouds and fly in the clouds a bit..also gain more speed. You will easily lose your pursuer(s) and even get the jump on him and end up on his six. Then you just take him down. The clouds keep you hidden and you can climb above..or dip below the clouds for a bit to see where your target is to set up



IF your Boom and Zooming with P-51 - I've had this plane reach 460mph close to 470mph coming out of a dive..the trick is to pull "very gently" on the stick, full flaps ( very quickly then raise flaps) and a little bit of elevator trim to come out of the dive. If you yank just slightly too hard on the stick the wings will break right off the P-51. A good sign to slow your speed down is when you hear the airframe rattling..that means it's close to breaking..so trim up and pull smoothly..Probably should cut the throttle as well. This is only in a dive..if your just flying straight in a P-51 at 450-470mph and you hear the rattling your fine..just trim and be very gentle with her.

An optional trick you can do to shake an enemy off if you have an enemy on you and your on the deck is to fly under bridges..I've literally been chased by bandits..flown under a bridge and he crashed trying to go under the bridge after me lol



P-51 against Fw-190
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Fw-190's are tricky..their fast, powerful guns..and even one or two shots from one will usually take out your controls or leak your fuel tank. A skilled FW-190 will be very high and very fast. He will try to pounce you. FW-190 has a ridiculous rate of roll which makes it tricky to shoot it down while your on his six.

If your about to get pounced ( B&Z ) by a faster a FW-190 there's a couple things you can do:

1.) If you have the Alt, just do a split-S..which is to go inverted and pull up 180 degrees..if the 190 doesn't zoom back up ( for example if he keeps diving or stays at alt, you can usually zoom up another 180degrees from your split-S and dive on his six.

2.)Another things you can do If your getting bounced, is to chop your throttle and high-g Barrel roll with a little bit of rudder...this should cause the B&Zer to overshoot you..now he should be zooming in front of you...now FIREWALL the throttle and if your fast enough you can chase him and shoot him while he's trying to zoom away. I've literally shot planes down like this. You can also do this with a P-47, but it's important to not bleed to much speed off in the barrel roll cause then you can't climb fast enough to get him in your sights


If an FW-190 tries to run from you. CHASE him...your faster than him and can turn with him

The P-51 and Fw-190 are two of the most powerful planes in the sky..especially at high alts. The trick is to remain fast! Tight-turning planes don't stand a chance even if their above you

[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!

[T}{OR]

@ OP: One thing I'd add it TRIM. Learn how to use it and trim for different speeds and flight regimes.

Originally Posted by JG27_PapaFly

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.

I'd take some of that. If only my fighter skills were as goos as shown in the video I did back in 2007. Back then, I was flying 5 times a week, now I fly once a week - bombers only.

Very few people know how to fly a Pony. Above all, it takes discipline and getting used to the weak .50s and how to get the most out of them. In particular, deflection shooting. This is one reason why I never enjoyed flying Fw190s - just to easy to kill something. Tons of ammo and pull the trigger ahead of the target and let it fly through the wall of led.

Lately I find myself enjoying a Tempest a lot, its firepower meets my current flying skills nicely.

Originally Posted by JtD

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.

By far the best fun I had with Ponies online was vs. Japanese fighters. If you know how to fly it, no one can touch you. One feels like God when flying a Pony vs. those planes.