My little 109 v spit experiment

[ATAG_Snapper]

Interesting post from a "Spitfire pilot's" perspective. I flew a short time offline in an E4 a couple of days ago, but mainly as a "systems' check" to verify my HOTAS controls operated correctly in this fine machine. I didn't do any formal testing at all, but just to get "a feel" for it.

My initial impression: this is enough to drag me kicking and screaming over to the Dark Side! LOL. Seriously, it had a "good feel" to it (and I say this after flying the various Spit and Hurricane marks exclusively online). As you say, visibility was excellent which surprised me. No birdcage effect at all and no annoying horizontal canopy bar at eye level as in the Hurricane. Speed and climb was wonderful, workload virtually non-existent once your controls were set. Didn't have to constantly keep one eye on the temp gauges and risk losing SA. The eye-opener: bunting into a steep dive at 6000 meters where my view temporarily went red from neg -g but the engine kept purring, then quickly reaching 710 kmh IAS in the dive......AND PULLING OUT!!!! That's 447 mph IAS and I still had all ailerons, elevator, and rudder still attached! The only thing missing? The smoking hole in the ground if I had tried that in a Spitfire.

I didn't try any stalls or spins. I did find the prop pitch a little slow (in manual) to change from fine to coarse and back again compared to the Spit (I have prop pitch in the Spits assigned to an axis on my HOTAS, the E4 had pitch control assigned to a joystick hat). The auto pitch was a joy for just casual aerobatics, not sure if I would use it in a close-run dogfight.

My overall impression: the devs, from my perspective, have done a fine job on this model. Even the cockpit animations work!

[trademe900]

Interesting read from a 'red only' perspective.

Personally I can not understand why anyone would not fly all the aircraft in the game, it's interesting and you pay for them. The only reason I fly mainly red at the moment is because of the challenge with the gaps so far apart in current patch. That gets you concentrating really hard.

[ATAG_Snapper]

Originally Posted by trademe900

Interesting read from a 'red only' perspective.

Personally I can not understand why anyone would not fly all the aircraft in the game, it's interesting and you pay for them. The only reason I fly mainly red at the moment is because of the challenge with the gaps so far apart in current patch. That gets you concentrating really hard.

From a game perspective you're absolutely right, we should all be flying all the different aircraft. For some of us old farts, it's Spits and Hurries. That's it.

[Slipstream2012]

Originally Posted by trademe900

Interesting read from a 'red only' perspective.

Personally I can not understand why anyone would not fly all the aircraft in the game, it's interesting and you pay for them.

I totally agree!

[Toni74]

Originally Posted by Slipstream2012

I totally agree!

i don't. I'm totally all right with flying my favorite bf 110 only. that's i've bought this game. i dont interested in flying any other planes.

[TomcatViP]

yes the 110 is one of the most interesting plane to fly in CoD. I do agree.

Sadly it's too easy to fly. Devs have a lot of tweaking to make it less perfect

[lonewulf]

the nose weapons configuration is great. they shoot where you point it! (unlike the wing-mounted only fighters) my confidence in the trajectory of the fire is much greater with the 109. This is historical, and reflects one of the real advantages the 109 had - its armament.

This isn't the first time I've heard this but really it makes little sense in relation to a 109 "E". You could certainly make the case with later variants of the 109 because they incorporated an engine mounted cannon, but the E had just two little MG 17s in the cowl. That gives you about the same stopping power as a Sopwith Camel or a Fokker D7! Furthermore, all of the forward firing weapons on a fighter are harmonized to group at a given range, not just the wing guns. If you shoot at too great a range, you miss, unless of course you incorporate some elements of successful deflection shooting within your calculations. Gravitational forces apply equally to wing and fuselage mounted weapons.

I don't usually fly red but I can assure you that once my 10 seconds worth of cannon ammo have been expended (uselessly in most cases) I'd very happily swap my twin MG 17s for your eight Brownings any day of the week!

[Robo.]

Originally Posted by lonewulf

I don't usually fly red but I can assure you that once my 10 seconds worth of cannon ammo have been expended (uselessly in most cases) I'd very happily swap my twin MG 17s for your eight Brownings any day of the week!

I'd very happily swap my eight .303 for two nose mounted MG 17s with 60 seconds of fire. I fly both RAF and LW and the stopping power and accuracy of the nose mounted mgs is great and suits me well. You can shoot long range and you can keep the thumb on the trigger for much longer. The effect is suprisingly strong when you hit well - works against 109s and RAF fighters as well - fire, PKs, important parts falling off etc... Flying for the RAF, you might have more guns but unless you get your target on the convergence range, you're wasting your 14 seconds of fire. Now getting a good 109 pilot to convergence range is a bit of a problem on its own, but even against the bombers, the MG17s are very effective and you can snipe from very long distance. Works great, trajectory is nice as it should be. Just my 0.02, YMMW of course...

Whoever said in this thread that the armament was an advantage on LW side was right - nose mounted mgs + cannons = hell of a punch. Good shot will be succesful with anything, but I admit the MG17 are a great weapon when used right, as a RAF pilot I fear not the Oerlikon cannons, but long range MG 17.

[swift]

Originally Posted by Toni74

i don't. I'm totally all right with flying my favorite bf 110 only. that's i've bought this game. i dont interested in flying any other planes.

Then try the stuka. This plane is so arcadish in this game it's a shame!

[JG52Krupi]

Originally Posted by swift

Then try the stuka. This plane is so arcadish in this game it's a shame!

Hey swift what makes you say that?

I don't know a lot about the stuka in real life to be able to compare it to the COD one, it is enjoyable to fly though.