Acceleration comparisons

[Luno13]

So, I guess what Horseback is getting at is that the USN aircraft require more trim to accelerate properly than their IJN counterparts, which is unfair/unrealistic

If anything, that has to be a problem with the IJN aircraft. Changing speed in an airplane requires a fair deal of attention to trim.

I can also imagine that part of the problem is the uber-experience of online pilots - thousands of hours of flight time with zero real deaths...Even if you run away properly they can nail you from 500+ meters (and a lot of pilots use zoom to do it from even further).

[horseback]

Originally Posted by Luno13

So, I guess what Horseback is getting at is that the USN aircraft require more trim to accelerate properly than their IJN counterparts, which is unfair/unrealistic

If anything, that has to be a problem with the IJN aircraft. Changing speed in an airplane requires a fair deal of attention to trim.

I can also imagine that part of the problem is the uber-experience of online pilots - thousands of hours of flight time with zero real deaths...Even if you run away properly they can nail you from 500+ meters (and a lot of pilots use zoom to do it from even further).

On the contrary, I am pointing out that it is much harder to make any kind of maneuver in the USN aircraft without lots of trim adjustments. You can easily straighten out and run away (and you will be rewarded by even more speed sooner if you drop your nose a bit), but if you attempt all but the most careful turns or climbs without your eyes glued to the slip ball, you will lose all of your hard won energy rather quickly.

The IJN/IJA fighters do require trim adjustments, but the adjustments are not excessive in terms of button presses and they are consistent and predictable in a way that the Corsair and Hellcat are not. This allows the fairly average IJN flyer a degree of immediate precision that the USN flyer must learn over many times more hours of practice (and if he's using button trim, he's still going to be 'behind the curve' the moment he wiggles his stick).

You can add in the way that the F4U and F6F's noses drop and later rise in level (changing AOA) flight as speed increases (this is also evident in the P-47); most of us use the gunsight or some part of the cockpit framing as a reference to maintain our angle of flight, and this will add to the problems of flying with any degree of precision, especially if competing against aircraft whose trim requirements and flight qualities are best guesses derived from 70 year old documents and pilot reports.

cheers

horseback