[taildraggernut]

Not only that, it is unstable. That means your coefficient of moment increases each cycle instead of decreasing.

An unremarkable quality shared with many other types.

So if you pull a 6 G turn and did nothing except hold the stick fixed, the next oscillation will exceed 6G and continue to increase with each cycle until the airframe is destroyed.

Above Va, large or abrupt elevator control can more easily exceed the airframe limitations of 6G for damage

inconsistency, first quote you are already at 6G and expect airframe failure beyond that, second quote you say the limit is 6G, the limit was more like 10G

That is the reason why "flick" maneuvers were not allowed in it.

incorrect, the MkII low speed flick manouvers were permitted.

1. The Spitfire should be twitchy and unstable gun platform. IIRC, in IL2, people used to complain about the "twitchy" behavior or the Corsair and P-51's so I am sure it is within the games engine to model a twitchy airplane.

It should take very careful and small stick movements to get the gun sight on target. That means a Spitfire pilot will require more skill to hit a maneuvering target than he would need in a stable platform such as the Hurricane.

interestingly enough the Hurricane pilots notes describe a very similar longitudinal stability to the Spitfire

The longitudinal stability characteristics of the Spitfire requires skilled flying to achieve a maximum performance turn. In a stable airplane, the pilot would have a much easier time keeping the aircraft at the maximum rate of turn velocity and a less violent buffet would have subsequently reduced effects on the turn performance.

Below Va, the Longitudinal instability of the Spitfire make it more difficult for the average pilot to prevent an acelerated stall or overcontrol the aircraft by pulling deeper into the buffet zone.

Why? the elevator controls were light, requring much less effort on the part of the pilot to correct.

In this thread we have focused primarily on the Longitudinal stability. Most of the Spitfires issues stem from that.

What issues? the Spitfire never built up a reputation for any 'issues', can you at least give me the benefit of the doubt and provide some examples of documented events which gave the Spitfire any sort of bad reputation, it's a fair question.

For example, the heavy lateral control forces would not be an issue if the control forces were equal on all axes. The control harmony was poor in the Spitfire and Gimpy raises a good point:

it states clearly in the pilots notes that the exeptionally heavy ailerons were only apparent at very high speed, certainly not the sort of speeds one is likely doing in a combat turn where the speed is more likely decreasing, in a sustained turn there is little need for constant aileron correction, bad harmonisation is of no consequence here.

The pilots ability to apply lateral control would be reduced by the longitudinal control characteristics.

Again, only you seem to be able to understand this, just explain it in simple terms, how does elevator affect aileron control?

*****Not a silly argument on actual turn performance, just a quick ballpark so readers understand the importance and general effect of encountering the buffet on turn performance.

Quite right, no silly arguments here, just a need to have some very counter intuitive statements explained, Glider is 'spot on' when he said that buffet simply acts as a device to say 'hey bud ease off the back pressure a little'