p38 defense

[Jumoschwanz]

Originally Posted by majorfailure

It does not roll well, which is IMHO its greatest disadvantage
I think with similar experience in a P-40 or a P-39 you would have been as sucessful.

I fly the 1944 P38-late almost every week on a hard-settings server vs. other fast, late-war aircraft like 25lb spits and La-7s, Mustangs, 109s and F4Us etc..

This late p38 rolls very fast at high speeds and very well at low speeds. I always thought it rolled too fast for a large twin-engine aircraft, but it is in the sim so what the heck. As long as I am going straight and fast I can fly it into just about anything, take a shot and then go straight away or zoom up out of reach of my opponents. Because of it's lack of torque steer at low speeds, you can zoom straight up and stall and fall straight back on whatever is below you a bit better than it can be done in a single-engine craft.

I like flying the 43' Lightning as well. No it can not maneuver as well as the late one, but knowing that I just fly it accordingly. It will stay ahead of any 43' German aircraft easily.

Those guns in the nose of the P-38 hit very hard and are easy to aim, I sure would not want to be hit by them. When you fly into a furball at high speed with the P-38 and take a shot whoever you hit will either go down or go home. If anyone turns on your tail they automatically have less energy than you so there is no problem losing them or getting above them.

The only time I get shot down in a P38 is because I am bounced by surprise on the hard-settings server, and that is usually because I am doing ground attack strafing, but even that does not happen too often as I make sure and keep it fast.

The P38 is easy to fly fast, keep it's prop pitch at eighty or eighty-five percent and it will stay cooler and still go very fast. If you get an overheat signal just back the throttles off when you get a chance, it is very hard to ruin the engines. Nice having two engines too, I have gotten home and even shot down other aircraft while one engine was entirely missing.