P-40 Tips
by BBGun
As far as flying the P-40E goes, you have to keep it at their ideal
fighting speed between 220ish and 320ish. At these speeds, it outrolls
everything in the arena, even giving FW190s a run for their money.
First, dont plan on being above them. Second, don't try to climb to
them. Third, when they dive on your six, break low (roll about 110-140
degrees before you pull) into them so your canopy is pointed at them
while they are still d13 or so.
This is where it gets a little complicated. IF they break off early and
go hi, immediately level off and go into a VERY shallow climb or flat
out level (if your speed is low). You will probably be somewhere
between 70 to 120 degrees off from the con. (i.e. at his approx 3:00
position, but your nose is pointed away so that he is still at your 6:00
position. Watch for his reversal into you. As he breaks into you,
position yourself so you can repeat steps 1 through 3. The idea it to
force him into repeated passes at you, making him bleed his energy while
your early breaks and levels keep your own speed up. If you can keep
your speed near 250, they will ALWAYS eventually misjudge your e,
figuring that since THEY are losing it, you must be as well. But those
early ends to the initial breaks are conserving your speed better than
he knows.
OK, if he didn't break off early, or even if he did, he eventually is
NOT going to break off early, and this is what you do then....
When they reach about d6/d7 (or a little earlier if your connection is
laggy or you suspect his is laggy) you roll opposite your turn and pull
UP into the vertical, watching the con out your rear view. He is
probably pulling hard and firing, but if you have timed it right (the
hard part :) the shots pass harmlessly beneath you, and he shortly
follows thereafter. As he does so, you then continue your roll and
watch him out your rear corner view, then side/top view and use rudder
assist in your roll to position yourself so you can get a snapshot as he
passes in front of you on his climbout. If he still has a significant
speed advantage, DO NOT follow him up. Go level, maybe turn a bit off
his vector to gain some horizontal separation, and make him reverse to
you, further bleeding his E.
After 2 or 3 passes, they will NOT have enough E to climb out, since you
are still at 250 ias (right? you did remember to keep your speed up,
didnt you?), and you can follow with a short zoom and paste him as he
climbs up.
Note, this is a standard guns defense move for ANY aircraft that has
similar or better turn performance as the attacker and has similar or
better roll rate than the attacker that is EXTREMELY effective in the
MA. A good, tight lag roll can defeat it, but hardly ANYONE knows that
or has the patience, they are always going for guns, which is what makes
this work. Going for guns forces them outside and beneath you, allowing
you to roll back onto their six ABOVE them (for a short time, at least)
giving you a snapshot as they pass in front of you, and possibly a
tracking shot if you have managed to equalize your energy states. Note
also that it will not work in a BnZ plane against a good turner, as he
can use his turn rate and radius to recover very well. It can buy you
time and bleed his E so you can then run, but dont expect to reverse on
him, as you will just not have the ability to convert for a shot, other
than maybe a lucky snapshot on the first go around.
The control key for this to work in the P40 is the elevator trim. With
it, you can outturn 109Fs (not E's) and spitVs, but without it, you are
a brick. Map that manual trim to a throttle button so you can use it
without thinking. Rudder is key in the roll out. Assisting the roll
with the rudder is what gets you positioned for that snapshot early, or
tracking shot late.
Back to 40E vs 109F - If for some reason (like you run out of alt) you
get on their 6 and end up in a kind of lufberry or turnfight, you HAVE
to get them in 3 (or so) turns or less, because they have power you
don't, and can recover with an extension and climb much better than you
can, and they will return with alt, while you have none left to play
with. If you see them break off and start running, DONT chase! You
won't catch them. break off at a 90-ish degree angle (so you can watch
them) and run flat out until you hit 200 ias or so, then put it into a
shallow climb to get some alt under you. Because they WILL come back,
with all that extra ammo they have. :)
This takes a while and a lot of dying to learn, because the KEY is the
timing of your initial break and of your roll out. I know if I am
playing against PAC players, because their lags are MUCH higher than
average, and I frequently die to them because I turn too late to
compensate for that increased lag.
Anyway, I think thats enough to chew on for now.
BB
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