P-47 Do's and Don't's

[354thFG_Rails]

Well after flying the 47 for almost the entire month. I think I can finally give a synopsis on the do’s and don’t’s when flying it. And what to do when facing it in different scenarios.

 

As far as the do’s. #1) Get high when on patrol. At minimum I would say get to 18kft. This allows you to build up speed on targets lower than you. Most the time flying combat box I rarely saw someone as high as me or higher. Getting up to 500mph in your attack is critical for resetting back up on the perch or extending away and climbing back up elsewhere.

#2) Make one pass and go away. I can probably count on one hand how many times I was actually able to go straight up and roll back in on target. The jug is a slow continuous climber compared to its contemporaries on this set. You need to use your energy wisely. Simply extending away after your attack is always the wiser decision when flying this plane. Slashing attacks are your friend. Keep it that way.

#3) Extra ammo is always a good option but not necessary. I found that most of my sorties I was running out of fuel more than ammo. Taking a standard load out is better in my book than taking extra. Firstly it lightens you up for better climb performance and dive performance as well. Being as light as you can in the jug is always good. My standard load out for combat patrols is usually 900L of fuel and standard munition load out. Bendix compass and gunsight are optional on preference. But remember you can’t go wrong with more bullets. Just understand you be about a couple hundred pounds heavier.

#4) In high altitude engagements use climbing and diving tactics. The jug was designed to be a high altitude fighter. Where most enemy aircraft are sucking wind at 20k feet or higher your engine is still producing sea level horsepower till about 30k feet. This being said it is really easy for you to get up to speed quicker and climb above the enemy at this altitude. Use diving and climbing tactics. I’ve only fought G14’s and D9’s at altitude and they could not keep up once I got on top. I can’t say if the K4 would be better but I would think it might be close. Also don’t be afraid to use flaps up to about 20 degrees. Anything after that is more drag inducing than lift producing. Using a combination of flaps, dives and climbs makes you a monster to fight at altitude.

#5) When evasive with altitude your best option is the dive. This is a little tricky since the jug does not dive well initially. I know this might be confusing but from what I’ve read the science behind it makes sense. Initially the jug dives slow due to its lack of good acceleration. That doesn’t mean don’t dive but rather dive hard initially. Straight down. Once you approach around 350-400 mph, shallow your dive to about 30-40 degrees. By then you’ll still be picking up speed all the way to 500mph+ and extending your dive giving you more time. To walk away. Diving away is your best defensive tactic. Second would be making faster 109’s and 190’s overshoot. But that’s if you’re lower and slower.

#6) In an emergency simply drop flaps and do what you can. If you get to this point then everything else has been exhausted and now it’s do whatever is necessary. The jug has surprisingly effective flaps with the way they are designed. They produce a lot of lift and give the jug a floaty feeling. Anything beyond 20 degrees is more drag inducing and will be hard for the jug to get going quickly again. In percents so you don’t have to look at the wing. 10 = 25%, 20 = 35%, 30 = 50 % and anything beyond will be between 30-40 degrees. But I’ve found myself in multiple situations where just dropping the flaps helped a lot to overcome getting bounced and staying saddled on the floundering 109 or 190. But I would not recommend making this a part of your flying habit in it.

 

For the don’t’s. #1) Do not actively turn fight. Although it is able to do this if need be I don’t recommend it, especially at low altitude. It’s lack of good acceleration makes it hard to recover if you get too slow and low. I would only recommend this in emergencies or you have the numbers advantage with friendly aircraft in the area.

#2) Do not try and climb away from your opponent. This again depends altitude. Up high I would say climb to the heavens. Down low, good luck getting out of the mud. Every German plane will out climb. Hell even an E7 will out climb the jug at low altitude therefore I would not recommend trying to climb away. Instead extend and climb back to altitude when you’re clear.

#3) Do not zoom climb after an attack. Again this is altitude dependent. Up high this is probably a good option because your climb performance is a lot better than the Germans. Down low, after an attack, it is not something I’d recommend. There were multiple occasions of bouncing targets and starting a zoom climb that I would find myself getting bounced by another target. Using your high entry speed on an attack to leave after you bounced a target is the preferred method. One pass and haul ass.

#4) Don’t actively fight down low. Your advantage is up high where you are still making sea level horsepower. It is not advise to give up your advantage and actively patrol down low. I would say anything lower than 10k feet is not advised. You give up any dive advantage you have to escape and to attack. The minimum as I’ve stated should be 18k feet. Now you might be able to get away with 15k feet in servers, but you are playing with fire I believe.

So in summary. Stay high, stay fast, extend and don’t turn or climb to steeply. The jug will reward those patient enough to keep it where it fights best. But the word patient is key. Getting to altitude takes time and timing your attacks takes patience. Now for engine management and drag management...

Now after trying to fly the jug by the manual I can tell you it’s a waste of time. I don’t think the game model is setup that way. Here’s what I’ve found. The most I’ve gotten out of the engine is by linking the prop, turbo and throttle together. Now you can work the prop separately if you want but it’s just one more thing to manage as well. Now for summer maps you’ll want to set oil radiator to 30%, inlets to 50% and outlet to 30%. Winter maps close everything till you get up higher and turbo is spinning Faster then You have to open the outlets to 25%. Now once you reach 200 mph you can close outlets fully. But keep everything else the same in summer maps. Now for best climb I’ve found that the manual states about 170. In game the difference between 190 and 160 is the same. The jug can do 2k ft/min at 190 and 160. So keep it at 190. Extra cooling is a plus and you can close outlets at that speed as well. Just maintain 2k ft/min.

To maintain this climb keep the manifold pressure at 45 inches if you can without going over 2550 rpm. You will not damage your engine running it at these settings, just be aware it will run hotter so cowl flaps and radiators might have to me adjusted. Once you get to altitude I'd recommend bringing the power back to help maintain your fuel. I would not recommend changing the mixture away from auto rich (85%). The engine will run hotter and if you don't remember to shove the mixture back forward you will burn up your engine quick. It's just one less thing to not have to remember and just bringing the power back will work just fine. At a 900L fuel load i get almost a hour of flight time. about 45 minutes with combat power used in this time.

Another thing to be aware of is your turbo speed at altitude. This is only really critical once you get up to around 25k feet. At 20k I was not having an over speed issue at all.

Managing power and your flaps is essential to squeezing every mph you can out of this pig. So it's a pretty busy bird as far as trim and cowl flaps and engine management. after awhile it becomes second nature like everything else, but there is definitely a learning period with the the plane. I'm not sure what else i can add to this. if anyone has any questions feel free to ask. i'm pretty sure I've covered the basics with this bird.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by QB.Rails

[Barnacles]

 

 

The visibility is excellent anyway, but the canopy is powered, so you can close it instantly unless you are diving very fast. This means you can really compensate for its lack of ability to turn down a fight by keeping a good lookout.

 

Also, learn how the engine mode timers work, specifically how it fast it recovers. 1:2 ratio usage to recovery. Don't be afraid to use water injection. The 47 outclimbs the 150 Oct Mustang at all altitudes with WEP. (For the same fuel load)

Edited February 22, 2020 by 71st_AH_Barnacles

[354thFG_Rails]

Do the American birds get an engine recovery timer? In my experience this isn’t the case.

[Barnacles]

17 minutes ago, QB.Rails said:

Do the American birds get an engine recovery timer? In my experience this isn’t the case.

Yes they do. Use WEP for one minute, two minutes later you're fully recovered.

[354thFG_Rails]

Good to know, thanks!

[Barnacles]

Didn't seem to be holding you back on combat box, excellent flying in the 47. o7

[Roger_Meatball]

Amazing! Now you need to take me on some training sorties.

[RedKestrel]

This is a great summary. I have ignored all this advice at some time or another. It...did not work out well.

I will say that while its inadvisable to try and outclimb german fighters, in the P-47 you can usually either keep up with or catch up with the FW-190As on the deck in the climb. I wouldn't trust trying to 'climb away' since your advantage isn't big, and if they are on your six they have a lot of guns and a lot of time to shoot them at you as you toodle away.

Really, climbing away from an enemy at a sustained climb is always really risky since you are a slow, unmaneuvering target. Even if you climb twice as good as the enemy they have a long few seconds to hose you with bullets. With aircraft with nose mounted guns with good ballistics its not hard to take long range shots.

 

[354thFG_Rails]

You are right in that your advantage over 190 A’s is very slight. You’re better off just staying level and running away. It’s more of a general observation I’ve made after flying it for 50+ hours in Combat Box server. You just don’t have a great climb performance till you’ve gotten up high. 20k feet +. Then climbing away could become an option but I still wouldn’t. Your speed advantage up high is greater. Just extend away. 

[Blackhawk_FR]

On 2/22/2020 at 5:32 PM, 71st_AH_Barnacles said:

Yes they do. Use WEP for one minute, two minutes later you're fully recovered.

 

It recover only on continous right?

Edited April 12, 2020 by JG300_Faucon

[Barnacles]

5 minutes ago, JG300_Faucon said:

 

It recover only on continous right?

I think it's like this: Emergency does recover when in combat, however using emergency does deplete combat too, so you can't go from combat to emergency to combat etc. forever.

[Eclipse4349]

Great stuff, thanks for the very detailed writeup. It seems to be as I expected, based on what I've read about the real thing. 

[Voyager]

I find myself wondering, is it worth it to go to a higher altitude for the ingress, then drop down to 18kft to convert that energy into speed for the run over hostile territory, or is that a waste of time?

[354thFG_Rails]

I would say just stay high over enemy territory. There’s no point in dropping unless you’re having a hard time finding targets. It’s energy wasted to climb up higher on ingress and then dive to a lower altitude over combat area. You’ll spend that energy climbing back up if you need to anyways. My personal preference was 20k ft. I did not see a lot of Germans up there and the ones I did I dispatched fairly easily.