What am I doing wrong with the spitfire ?

[Orpheus]

Originally Posted by Viper2000

Set full power.

Takeoff.

Clean up.

Then just stay in level flight until you're flying at 180-190 mph.

Now trim the aeroplane for constant IAS.

You should see a rate of climb just under 2000 fpm, which will improve as you get higher and the engine rpm increases.

If you're flying at 110 mph then you're doing it wrong; you've got loads of induced drag and performance will be terrible. Indeed, at full power if you pitch to 80 mph you'll find that it can't either climb or accelerate, because all the power is going into making turbulence.

The only time you should ever fly a Spitfire slower than about 170 mph IAS is for takeoff and landing.

Heh, yeah - you're right. Was up surprisingly late last night flying the spit in the GB campaign. I'm very new to these games but I do see it now. Not sure what IAS stands for, I assume something AirSpeed (but then I have trouble trimming to level flight in any single engine it seems, I can keep the nose down with the elevator trim but never overcome the pull to the right with rudder trim). At higher altitudes it's a different beast entirely, much faster acceleration overall.

Appreciate you taking the time to talk me through it. I knew when I bought this game it was going to have a deep flight model... just didn't expect the two planes to be so different! Only thing that's confusing me now is that said campaign spitfire doesn't seem to have tracers... or indeed any visible indication of bullet strike on enemy aircraft (or water, for that matter) at even the closest range - though I still get the 'player damage 98%' at the end of the mission, so I am hitting! Free flight spits have the tracers and bullet strike is obvious even at long ranges, so maybe it's just a bug?

[jimbop]

Indicated Air Speed. There's a good explanation of IAS vs True Air Speed in the manual.

[robtek]

No, imho it is just a different ammo-loadout with no tracers as the experts used.
No need to advise your enemy that you are sitting in his six and did miss him with the first burst.

[Orpheus]

I see it now, had my sight range way out of whack. Thanks again guys