The Great P 38

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

Hi All, Although not the most nimblest of fighters and perhaps not the dog fighter of choice I still find the P 38 a joy to fly, it is forgiving on and off the ground. All newcomers to the flight sim should be encouraged to test their skills flying this beautiful aircraft, skills such as taxing should be tried out with the P 38, the in-cockpit sound from those twin Allison V 1710 engines have to be the best !

As good as the Allison's proved to be, I have often wondered what performance would have been gained if a pair of Rolls Royce merlins had been fitted to that airframe ? 

 

Just been flying the excellent the single player mission  " Tips random works missions, P 38 mission, Ripper five "      one of a flight of six P 38's  ground attacking.

 

Cheers 

[LLv34_Flanker]

S! 

 

P38 sure is a sleek plane. Almost too beautiful to be a combat aircraft. And a joy to fly, so stable and fast. 

[Hanu]

Yes, it's my favourite US plane. Love the sound, look and touch of it. And the visibility from the gunsight; so nice to follow tracers during deflection-shooting. All the guns are packed together so you need not to worry about convergence. And one of those two engines can bring you back home from a tough fight. Dive-brakes are very useful when you need to quickly put your plane to ground.

 

What's not to love?

[56RAF_Cina]

I love diving on the target with it, dropping bombs, extending a little from target area and looking behind me watching those desperate long bursts from chasing German aircraft when I climb steeply on full power and max rpm. Just epic.

[40plus]

She truely is a peach. After I get bored of being shot down in other planes I always find myself coming back to getting shot down in the P-38.

 

10/10, would recommend getting shot down in again.

[CrazyDuck]

An outstanding gun platform too. I usually use only 4 fifties and keep the cannon in reserve. It's amazing how devastating 4 fifties become when packed tightly in the nose, with no convergence issues. Not to mention contra rotating props, which make it an excellent strafer and prop hanger in dogfights. It's a big target however, and it's tail seems to be made out of balsa wood. Hope this gets fixed (if fix is due).

[ShamrockOneFive]

Fantastic aircraft. I enjoy flying it every time I take it up in the air and I've been seeing a ton of them online so clearly there's lots of people enjoying it.

 

I do tend to use it as a bomb truck but I had a great flight with one recently with a three ship where we dropped bombs on a target and fought our way out shooting down a couple of fighters. Great multi-role potential with the P-38!

[Zeev]

Agree. More SP missions needed for this aircraft

[69th_Bazzer]

Agreed on all of the above, and I don't think anyone has mentioned the amazing rear visibility as well. I am surprised how much I enjoy this airplane...and how hard it is to go back to bombing with a Pe-2 or A-20 after flying the P-38.

Edited February 5, 2020 by 69th_Bazzer

[Jaegermeister]

Well, I am getting near being done with “Lightning Strikes”. It’s a 25 mission historical single player scripted campaign for the P-38. You will join the 370th Fighter Group in October 1944 and fight your way through the Battle of Aachen, the Hurtgen Forest and The Battle of the Bulge over the Ardennes.

 

Lots of ground pounding, train busting, AAA jousting, some interesting aerial encounters, and even some epic dogfights. I have a set of historical 4K skins to go with it too.

 

It’s getting close enough that i will start a thread somewhere and post some screenshots soon.

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

Thanks Jaegermeister ,     That announcement will put a smile to many a face !

[JG13_opcode]

The P-38 is easily my favorite aircraft in the game right now, and if you fly carefully it is a very capable energy fighter, even more deadly with a wingman.

[[RBRI]Khaela]

Had the opportunity to fly it for the first time propper this weekend. 
Did a bombing run on a target on Combatbox and then proceeded to fly cap over the target. 
Got into a fight with a K4 and had a horrible dog fight that went pretty good all because of how darn powerful the plane was. I even used it like a helicopter at one point in the fight.

[Sublime]

On 2/4/2020 at 1:08 AM, taffy2jeffmorgan said:

Hi All, Although not the most nimblest of fighters and perhaps not the dog fighter of choice I still find the P 38 a joy to fly, it is forgiving on and off the ground. All newcomers to the flight sim should be encouraged to test their skills flying this beautiful aircraft, skills such as taxing should be tried out with the P 38, the in-cockpit sound from those twin Allison V 1710 engines have to be the best !

As good as the Allison's proved to be, I have often wondered what performance would have been gained if a pair of Rolls Royce merlins had been fitted to that airframe ? 

 

Just been flying the excellent the single player mission  " Tips random works missions, P 38 mission, Ripper five "      one of a flight of six P 38's  ground attacking.

 

Cheers 

Yesss the engine noise.  The turbocharger whine as they spool up. Its my favorite airplane engine of the game. 190 D after that

[migmadmarine]

Really wish I had a video of it, but one of my favorite moments of misfortune has to have been when I was strafed on touchdown in a damaged P-38. My nosewheel collapsed, and suddenly passed on my left by a fuselage at a similar nose down attitude. Thought one of my flight members had been trying to land and suffered a similar fate, but no, it turns out it was simply my left hand fuselage boom after having been severed from the aircraft. Only time I've ever been passed by my own airplane...

[Lusekofte]

P 38 turned out to be my favorite too. Climbs like a angel with max weight   Engine noise very authentic manouvreable and I love it so much that I bought a Yoke for it

Edited February 5, 2020 by LuseKofte

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

 

11 hours ago, LuseKofte said:

P 38 turned out to be my favorite too. Climbs like a angel with max weight   Engine noise very authentic manoeuvrable and I love it so much that I bought a Yoke for it

Now that's dedication !!?

[Lusekofte]

3 hours ago, taffy2jeffmorgan said:

 

Now that's dedication !!?

I flown with a yoke many times. Most of the times. My idea of fun , is not favored by most of this community. What made me go over to maxflightstick was MI 8 in DCS. Flying bombers and transport with it gave me a odd feeling. 
when P 38 was under development I started to look hard into buying Yoko the Yoke but found it too expencive for part time flying. My stick still used for fighters and attackers. Then I looked into Honeycomb and it mimick the yoke of P 38 excellent. I am a bit of a nerd 

[DragonDaddy]

Beautiful toys. 

[Lusekofte]

8 minutes ago, DragonDaddy said:

Beautiful toys. 

It is, and it is important to emphasize the word TOY

It is not worth it if one cannot afford it. Cut the creditcard to pieces 

[PatrickAWlson]

I would think that the P-38 should be pretty good in the game.  Most of the bad things about it like overly complicated management and freezing temperatures at altitude are not modeled or not a factor in the game, leaving mostly good things.  And it is a very cool looking plane.

[Cpt_Siddy]

If you are flying online and want to troll people, learn how to use dive flaps to recover just-in-time. Gets some kill hungry 190 on your tail and dive.

 

Then watch him splatter all over the idyllic German countryside while typing smug (but respectful) things in chat :^) 

[Birdman]

51 minutes ago, Cpt_Siddy said:

If you are flying online and want to troll people, learn how to use dive flaps to recover just-in-time. Gets some kill hungry 190 on your tail and dive.

 

Then watch him splatter all over the idyllic German countryside while typing smug (but respectful) things in chat :^) 

What's the proper way of using them?

[Lusekofte]

I learned that those counter rotating engines really can make that plane maneuver. 
if you use it for what its worth with a enemy behind you got a good chance. If only you dodge those first 30 mm

Edited February 6, 2020 by LuseKofte

[Cpt_Siddy]

1 hour ago, Birdman said:

What's the proper way of using them?

 

To troll? 

 

Get someone to follow you at distance where you are just outside effective range. Make sure he follows you in to dive, and learn the speed/altitude relationship where you lose elevator effectiveness. Then engage dive flaps and recover. If you do this right, any plane without dive flaps wont be able to recover and smash to ground.

 

Practice this in quick missions, don't dive too steep or enemy wont follow (or you wont be able to recover in time either), and too shallow or he will recover too and be on your 6... The point here is to make enemy kill himself and feel ashamed of it

Trick is to pick up enough speed high up, so when you hit the thicker air, you are instantly in compressability and can start to recover, so +-45 degree dive is optimal.

 

 

[Birdman]

29 minutes ago, Cpt_Siddy said:

 

To troll? 

 

Get someone to follow you at distance where you are just outside effective range. Make sure he follows you in to dive, and learn the speed/altitude relationship where you lose elevator effectiveness. Then engage dive flaps and recover. If you do this right, any plane without dive flaps wont be able to recover and smash to ground.

 

Practice this in quick missions, don't dive too steep or enemy wont follow (or you wont be able to recover in time either), and too shallow or he will recover too and be on your 6... The point here is to make enemy kill himself and feel ashamed of it

Trick is to pick up enough speed high up, so when you hit the thicker air, you are instantly in compressability and can start to recover, so +-45 degree dive is optimal.

 

 

I meant the proper way to use the dive flaps in general, I assumed you pop'em out at the beginning of the dive, I didn't think they were to be deployed right before recovery.

[=621=Samikatz]

33 minutes ago, Birdman said:

I meant the proper way to use the dive flaps in general, I assumed you pop'em out at the beginning of the dive, I didn't think they were to be deployed right before recovery.

 

They actually push your nose up quite hard at high speeds, I think they're intended as a way to recover if the plane becomes unresponsive. I like deploying them if I have to pull hard to recover, because if I black out then the dive flaps might prevent a lawndart

[Jaegermeister]

2 hours ago, Birdman said:

I meant the proper way to use the dive flaps in general, I assumed you pop'em out at the beginning of the dive, I didn't think they were to be deployed right before recovery.

 

The dive flaps were in fact deployed during the dive if you found yourself in a state of compressibility. I suppose they could have been used like dive brakes but the intended use was to pop them out if you found yourself unable to pull out manually. You would still have to wait impatiently until low enough for them to increase lift and pull you out without ripping your tail off.

[RIPSkyKingTasmanaut]

the damage model (like the p47) is a kinda shoddy. The plane is very weak and easy to kill. Whilst it does present a big target, I'm sure it shouldn't be such a fragile bird. It flies beautifully

[Lusekofte]

2 hours ago, Tasmanaut said:

the damage model (like the p47) is a kinda shoddy. The plane is very weak and easy to kill. Whilst it does present a big target, I'm sure it shouldn't be such a fragile bird. It flies beautifully

I am a bit fed up with getting  shot to two bits all the time. It was a robust plane. I guess the amount of 30 mm planes hunting it is the real problem. But it need a more complex DM

[Dakpilot]

26 minutes ago, LuseKofte said:

I am a bit fed up with getting  shot to two bits all the time. It was a robust plane. I guess the amount of 30 mm planes hunting it is the real problem. But it need a more complex DM

 

Maybe next patch has something 

 

Check today's DD 

 

Cheers, Dakpilot 

[jackstalke]

My favorite aircraft as a kid. She pushed me to buy a yoke for this game. 

[CSL_Ondras]

So I tried P-38 for the first time yesterday and what a surprise and joy it was. I personally regard it as capable in air combat as P-51. But the detail I love, which makes this aircraft so immersive – kudos to Jason and team, are the sounds. From the turbos, starting to whistle around 7000 feet, to the rumbling sound of the propellers when you go above 200 MpH, which is pronounced due to the fact, that the cockpit is being close to the propellers discs. Simply beautiful :).

[Bremspropeller]

On 2/6/2020 at 7:01 PM, PatrickAWlson said:

I would think that the P-38 should be pretty good in the game.  Most of the bad things about it like overly complicated management and freezing temperatures at altitude are not modeled or not a factor in the game, leaving mostly good things.  And it is a very cool looking plane.

 

That's also because most of those issues were fixed by the time the J-25 arrived.

What wasn't fixed was the issues with compressibility - the dive flaps only helped recovery within a fairly limited speed-range.

 

They'd not provide more lift, they'd just introduce a pitch-up moment. This, however, could also be overcome if already going too fast.

It's a band-aid that wouldn't bridge the gap of being a whopping 0.1 Mach short of contemporary fighters in terms of Mcr.

[BlitzPig_EL]

The P38 is very much a 1930's design, and it shows it.

 

There are valid reasons why the USAAF dumped it from the inventory as fast as they could scrap them in place after the war.  Even if jets were not on the horizon, the P38 would never have been kept because the Mustang and late versions of the Thunderbolt were simply better aircraft.  Even when the USAAF desired a very long range, twin engine escort for the new B36, did they undertake an update program for the P38?  No.  They  wanted a two place fighter of vastly higher performance, and got the P/F-82.

[Blackhawk_FR]

I have a question about the P38. 

It has automatic radiators (coolant and oil) but when i'm using my "water radiator" command, I see outside the cowl flaps outlet moving (and also the coolant temp changing). But... there is nothing in the technochat and I thought in auto mod I shouldn't be able to change the outlet flaps position...? 

[BlitzPig_EL]

The outlet cowl flaps are for the turbocharger intercooler I do believe.

[Blackhawk_FR]

25 minutes ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

The outlet cowl flaps are for the turbocharger intercooler I do believe.

 

What should we do? Full open when turbocharger is running (when running on emergency)? half open, close,...?

[Barnacles]

12 hours ago, JG300_Faucon said:

I have a question about the P38. 

It has automatic radiators (coolant and oil) but when i'm using my "water radiator" command, I see outside the cowl flaps outlet moving (and also the coolant temp changing). But... there is nothing in the technochat and I thought in auto mod I shouldn't be able to change the outlet flaps position...? 

When put in manual mode, the radiator coolers (one each on each nacelle) can only be set to 0% or 100% so one manual is selected, they will continuously open unitll 100%. You may then close them (0%) by pressing the radiator close assignment. I imagine auto is the most efficient mode dot these. 

As for the oil cooler, on the mustang it's actually fastest to set manual and shut the oil cooler, and let the water radiator do its work in auto. Not sure about the p38, I'll have to experiment.

 

Update, it seems a little faster if you leave the oil cooler below 30% in manual, and water in auto.

[Aroga]

Hi friends.

I have  questios about the great P38

I have problems dropping bombs because i don,t hit the target, i throw too early or too late

I nedd to learn 

Any guide .?.

Thanks