Pony talk

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by ramstein

the only thing that bothers me about these 'conversations' about aircraft its:

when I chat with WWII pilots about their aircraft in combat (I have talked with P40, Cosair, B24, and several other pilots that actually flew combat in WWII and Korea..) and they never once told me the History channel and military channels lie about anything. I specially asked them, just because people here always throw that argument oput saying they do. When I chatted with these WWII pilots, the chats were for a few hours and sometimes with fighter and bomber pilots together.. in very small groups of about 5 people..

yet when I come here every who never flew anything always lays down the law on how these aicraft flew..

I respect those who actually flew aicraft,, or at least builds them..

myself, I worked on aicraft, and flew on a few as I was in the USAF a few years. But I never flew in combat, only flew a piper cub, only sat in a Spitfire, F4, F15, B52's, and may, many others. I flew in tankers, C5's, military version of a lear jet (forgot the model..) and many, many other modern aircraft.. including helos.

I have worked in aerospace, but my only aicraft builds were the small scale flyable models that you fly by wires with a handle. I built combat and acrobatic models. That was when I was very young and you could build aicrat with 4 foot wingspans for $10 and the engine was $15.

oh well, I wish these conversations would help get the porked planes fixed.. I think the modders have the tools, they just don't have the knowledge or the will to fix the wrongs..

I give much credit for all the work done, as without the people that build these aicraft we would be playing some other game or sim..

10 years of IL-2 and it's going strong and there is always some war that hasn't been fought yet.. or some plane unexplored.

You've jumped in on Mustang conversations before with a very closed mind so I'm not sure how this will go... but I'll bite (and I apologise in advance for my lead in but this has been my prior experience - I look forward to being pleasantly surprised ).

History Channel and Military Channel don't lie so much as they provide a vague generalization with a dash of patriotism and not a lot of real historical content. I sometimes turn off the sound and just watch the brilliant video work as they fly around some great warbirds. Normally when I listen to what their saying it's overly dramatic (typical for TV anywhere ) and the end result is that the Mustang, in particular, is glorified far beyond reality. It's not lies... it's just gross oversimplification beyond even what is really necessary.

That is to say that the Mustang is amongst the top 5 fighters of World War II with innumerable positive attributes. The problem from a flight simulator perspective is that the Mustang has both positive and negative attributes. Anyone who comes into these simulators/games with this very one sided view of the aircraft will immediately complain about the performance of the Mustang in-game.

This has happened in CFS, Janes, IL-2 and the list goes on. There isn't much wrong with the Mustang.. no more than there is with the Tempest or FW190 or any other type present (and with over 200 types that is impressive). It has a few quirks but it's really quite accurate by the numbers. If Team Daidalos can find a problem with the Mustang I'm sure they will fix it.

I've talked to a few wartime pilots and even some fighter pilots too. Most of the ones I've talked to are a surprisingly humble bunch and normally if you ask them about their aircraft (insert Spitfire, Mustang, Thunderbolt, etc.) they will reflect on their former mount with fond memories. And of course they would...

As for being authoritative about the aircraft... In terms of history of it's inception, design, usage, and general performance of most warbirds I'd say many of us have a very solid understanding. It's not the same kind of understanding or authoritative background as a pilot who flew one in combat. It'd be wise to separate out the two.

Also I'll end by saying that much of what's been discussed in this thread walks the line between history and IL-2 sim world. Not the same although close enough to be able to find meaning... nonetheless much of the flying advice in here is about flying the sim Mustang. Some us have far too many thousands of hours on those