MC.202 Series VIII – Great Aircraft

[S10JlAbraxis]

Recently I have been flying mostly late war aircraft careers in the Battle of Bodenplatte series.  I decided to try something different and started a carrier with the MC.202 in Stalingrad.  I never gave this aircraft much thought thinking it was essentially a variation of the early BF 109 series.  But I have to say I have really been enjoying it. 

 

The MC.202 is very stable and easy in both landing and takeoff and while not the fastest aircraft can usually catch the Russian aircraft in a turning fight with the help of boost.  It is also very maneuverable and gives plenty of warning before a high-speed stall.  At first the Italian style of instrumentation seemed unintuitive but now that it has become familiar, I really like the layout and the gauges look fantastic.  Reminds me of an early Ferrari with a bit of classic Italian design style.  The engine sounds are also pleasing and extremely well done and the upgraded 4k cockpit and skins really look great. 

 

The two cowl mounted guns are far more effective than I would have thought, easy to aim, and have a large ammo capacity. The wing mounted 7MM are fairly useless however.   

 

The Stalingrad career is also interesting with a lot of variety and most missions take place fairly close to the field.  The Stalingrad map also looks terrific since the ground textures were upgraded a while back.  Somewhere recently I read that Italian pilots and radio calls are in the queue and once complete it would be nice to have a few Italian squadrons available.  I am also really looking forward to the IAR-80/81which should be an interesting aircraft to fly including a different nationality.

 

At any rate if you are interested in picking up a new aircraft I highly recomend the MC.202.   

 

PS - not sure why Stalingrad is underlined - just appeared and couldent get rid of it... 

Edited October 6, 2021 by S10JlAbraxis

[Thad]

Yes, and it is a beautiful craft too.

[SCG_Faerber]

Yes! It is my favorite aircraft to fly, it is such an amazing aircraft and it is fast too if you fly it right. More satisfying to fly than a 109, although the 109 is easier to fly, the 202 is definitely my favorite. It is the beauty and the beast.

I hope the devs do the Macchi 200 someday, it actually flew in decent numbers in Russia.

[Enceladus828]

14 minutes ago, SCG_Faerber said:

I hope the devs do the Macchi 200 someday, it actually flew in decent numbers in Russia.

Sure hope so. How about in the Operation Barbarossa installment.

 

The decision to include the MC.202 makes me wonder if back in 2015, Loft had any tentative plans of going to North Africa after the third installment? I don't know because I didn't know about this game at that time unfortunately.

 

@S10JlAbraxis Desert Wings-Tobruk also has the Macchi C.202 Serie III and Serie VIII if you want to check that out.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Enceladus

[ITAF_Rani]

Hope we will see in future his  big brother  MC 205 Veltro.

 

 

Edited October 7, 2021 by ITAF_Rani

[Luftschiff]

The Mc.202 is both one of my favourite aircraft in the sim, and one of the least competitive ones. 

Absolute beauty though, and enormously pleasant to fly. It deserves more love!

Edited October 7, 2021 by Luftschiff

[I./JG52_Woutwocampe]

I havent used the mc202 in a verryyyyyy long while. Isnt the throttle reversed or something? 

 

And yep, aircrafts built around licensed DB copies like this and the Ki61 were pretty decent planes.

[ITAF_Airone1989]

29 minutes ago, I./JG52_Woutwocampe said:

 Isnt the throttle reversed or something? 

 

Yes. Back: full power. Forward: idle.

 

But maybe was other nations that designed a reversed throttle ?

[SCG_Faerber]

3 hours ago, Luftschiff said:

The Mc.202 is both one of my favourite aircraft in the sim, and one of the least competitive ones. 

Absolute beauty though, and enormously pleasant to fly. It deserves more love!

Never thought it was one of the least competitive ones, yes, it's harder to fly than a 109 but it outperforms basically every BoM aircraft released and some from BoS too. In my opinion the worse thing about it is the rear visibility, gotta keep kicking that rudder so I can see behind me everytime.

[Luftschiff]

4 minutes ago, SCG_Faerber said:

Never thought it was one of the least competitive ones, yes, it's harder to fly than a 109 but it outperforms basically every BoM aircraft released and some from BoS too. In my opinion the worse thing about it is the rear visibility, gotta keep kicking that rudder so I can see behind me everytime.

 

It should outperform basically every BoM aircraft released, but I've never felt like it comes close. It's been a while since I saw threads about it but its in game performance just doesn't hold up. It's so, so lovely to fly, but the macchi is probably the only plane I've ever wanted the devs to take a long hard second look at. 

[SCG_Faerber]

2 minutes ago, Luftschiff said:

 

It should outperform basically every BoM aircraft released, but I've never felt like it comes close. It's been a while since I saw threads about it but its in game performance just doesn't hold up. It's so, so lovely to fly, but the macchi is probably the only plane I've ever wanted the devs to take a long hard second look at. 

Yeah, that's true, it has some quirks it shouldn't have indeed. They definitely should take a second look, I hope they do when the Italian pilot comes in.

[40plus]

She truly is a pleasure to fly, and pretty to boot. I'd love to get an Italian based module in this sim one day. Dare to dream.

[=FEW=fernando11]

9 hours ago, SCG_Faerber said:

In my opinion the worse thing about it is the rear visibility, gotta keep kicking that rudder so I can see behind me everytime.

True, but its easy to fix... if in a turning dogfight, you get an enemy on your 6, you can ditch the canopy, and get rear  view almost like the I 16

 

It's quite worth it, in MP specialy.

[Hanu]

4 hours ago, =FEW=fernando11 said:

True, but its easy to fix... if in a turning dogfight, you get an enemy on your 6, you can ditch the canopy, and get rear  view almost like the I 16

 

It's quite worth it, in MP specialy.

 

And with any luck, you could smash his propellor while ejecting the canopy frame. -At least AI does this often to me ?

[Pict]

18 hours ago, ITAF_Airone1989 said:

 

Yes. Back: full power. Forward: idle.

 

But maybe was other nations that designed a reversed throttle ?

 

French aircraft of that time were using the same throttle set up as Italian designs, all of the Moranes, Bloch's & Dewotine's etc. had it. I remember reading somewhere that there were a few accidents put down to this when pilots swapped from these types to Curtiss H-75's.

 

It's cool to see it modelled in game. Does anyone go as far as to reverse their controls when flying the Macchi? I haven't but I'm tempted to give it a go now that I think of it.

 

It's be another reason to have aircraft dedicated control inputs rather than a one for all as things are now.

 

15 hours ago, 40plus said:

She truly is a pleasure to fly, and pretty to boot. I'd love to get an Italian based module in this sim one day. Dare to dream.

 

Absolutely and why not, we've hit a stumbling block with Japanese aircraft and the limit of German types left to put a balanced package together can't be far off...that leaves the Regia Aeronautica as the prime scource for Axis aircraft and they had many great types and theatres to choose from yet so far we have only seen one in IL2 BOX.

 

After that there is Finland, but they used a lot of German and Allied types, then Vichey France and France, and like Italy, have never really been done properly in a combat flight sim, that I'm aware of.

Edited October 8, 2021 by Pict

[Luftschiff]

Finland, Italy, France and the Spanish Civil War - all excellent, unique and interesting theatres I'd gladly accept as condolence if Pacific remains out of reach.

[ITAF_Airone1989]

1 hour ago, Pict said:

 

 Does anyone go as far as to reverse their controls when flying the Macchi? I haven't but I'm tempted to give it a go now that I think of it.

 

 

I did once, but it's so weird that I had to give up ?

[Bremspropeller]

5 hours ago, Pict said:

French aircraft of that time were using the same throttle set up as Italian designs, all of the Moranes, Bloch's & Dewotine's etc. had it. I remember reading somewhere that there were a few accidents put down to this when pilots swapped from these types to Curtiss H-75's.

 

Seems like Ze Germans also had a fair bit of crashes due to "reversed" throttles in french aircraft which were used for advanced training.

 

Marseille supposedly pranged an MC202.

[SCG_Faerber]

11 hours ago, =FEW=fernando11 said:

True, but its easy to fix... if in a turning dogfight, you get an enemy on your 6, you can ditch the canopy, and get rear  view almost like the I 16

 

It's quite worth it, in MP specialy.

but that is just emergency measures, it bleeds speed more quickly without the canopy I feel (never tested though)

[Diggun]

11 hours ago, =FEW=fernando11 said:

if in a turning dogfight, you get an enemy on your 6, you can ditch the canopy, and get rear  view almost like the I 16

The 'fake bailout' or 'canopy toss' seems to happen awfully frequently online. It is very silly, gamey behaviour, and doesn't alter the outcome of the fight. Much like the abuse of navigation lights, it just makes the poor victim look very foolish while we shoot them down.

[=FEW=fernando11]

Yes and no.

Im not talking about flashig unrealsiticaly hig-vis nav lights to shake a 6 off.

Im taking about ditching the canopy to be ABLE TO SEE behind you when you already are engaged in a turning dogfight, yes, you might loose 5-10 km/h, but not so importan if you are already turning and bleeding energy...

I'm not trying to "lure" you into thinking I'm about to bail, I've ditched the canopy right afther take off  plenty of times.

Loose the sight, loose the fight. Or at least thats what I've herd.

 

Also, many early VVS pilots flew with the canopy open because of issues with visibility, and fear of being unable to open them to bail out. And IIRC Italian pilots didnt like closed cockpits at first, and flew without the hinged part.

[Pict]

3 hours ago, Bremspropeller said:

 

Seems like Ze Germans also had a fair bit of crashes due to "reversed" throttles in french aircraft which were used for advanced training.

 

Marseille supposedly pranged an MC202.

 

It seems like a bad idea for use as a trainer if you're expecting to go on to fly types with the opposite system, recipe for ground loops at best I imagine. I suppose they were available in quantiy so it wouldn't be major drama to prang a few.

 

Must have been an embarrasing moment for Marseille though.

 

=======================

 

While thinking about all this I remembered a cool documentary I saw about Sir Tomas Sopwith, the whole thing is well worth the 30 minuites it takes, but at one point he talks about early aircraft controls before any kind of standardization took place. Pretty mental stuff and not remotely intuitve.

 

I found that film and set it to run where he describes the controls of a Wright brothers aircraft he bought and won some competitions in. The interviewer is a fellow called Raymond Baxter, a Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot who was the presenter of a BBC TV show called "Tomorrows World" back in the 60's & 70's I used to enjoy. 

 

Anyhow like I said this one is worth a watch from the start for anyone with an interest in aviation from the early pre-WWI days of, through both wars to the early VTOL stuff, this guy was a living legend and real charchter.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by Pict

[S10JlAbraxis]

On 10/6/2021 at 10:39 PM, SCG_Faerber said:

Yes! It is my favorite aircraft to fly, it is such an amazing aircraft and it is fast too if you fly it right. 
 

Any suggestions on the best settings for the water and oil radiators in cruise and combat flight?  I have brought the water radiator back to about 30% which seems ok but if I bring it to 0% it seems to overheat.  Havent tried changing the oil radiator yet.

 

[SCG_Faerber]

29 minutes ago, S10JlAbraxis said:

Any suggestions on the best settings for the water and oil radiators in cruise and combat flight?  I have brought the water radiator back to about 30% which seems ok but if I bring it to 0% it seems to overheat.  Haven't tried changing the oil radiator yet.

I fly with 20-25% oil rads (most of the time I don't have to change it), and water I keep changing it depending on the moment, but the plane overheats a lot when boosting so sometimes you gotta open all the way, then close it all the way, for me at least it's very situational.

Edited October 9, 2021 by SCG_Faerber

[TRRA15]

380 RPG seems not very impressive on the surface but the rate of fire slowed by synchronization really seems to maximize the firing time. As such, "spray & pray" firing expends less ammo ( not that I recommend it ). On the flip side, getting in a good accurate two second burst yields favorable results with minimal ammo expenditure.

 

Like the 109 G2, and the Mig3, it's a great plane to teach/learn gunnery discipline.

[BlitzPig_EL]

I enjoy the 202, and it is usually my choice when I fly Axis.  It's performance is solid against it's opponents from it's time frame, the guns are probably better in the sim than they were in reality, given the general over performance of HE in the game, it's really good looking, and with one exception a good flyer.

 

My beef with the Macchi is it's stall happy behavior on the edge of it's turning envelope.  It's very twitchy on the edge, and reminds me of the "slip on a banana peel" stall behavior exhibited in the old IL2 original series.  Odd for an aircraft that was considered a good match against the RAF Spitfires it faced in the MTO.

[Flying_Anchor]

35 минут назад, BlitzPig_EL сказал:

Odd for an aircraft that was considered a good match against the RAF Spitfires it faced in the MTO.

Have you tried this in CloD? All my sorties in the 202 end with burrowing

[SCG_Faerber]

46 minutes ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

I enjoy the 202, and it is usually my choice when I fly Axis.  It's performance is solid against it's opponents from it's time frame, the guns are probably better in the sim than they were in reality, given the general over performance of HE in the game, it's really good looking, and with one exception a good flyer.

 

My beef with the Macchi is it's stall happy behavior on the edge of it's turning envelope.  It's very twitchy on the edge, and reminds me of the "slip on a banana peel" stall behavior exhibited in the old IL2 original series.  Odd for an aircraft that was considered a good match against the RAF Spitfires it faced in the MTO.

I think it's guns are pretty ok tbh, not under nor overperforming, the guns were not suitable for larger targets like bombers and they definitely needed more ttk than canons and that's how they work in-game

[=621=Samikatz]

1 hour ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

My beef with the Macchi is it's stall happy behavior on the edge of it's turning envelope.  It's very twitchy on the edge, and reminds me of the "slip on a banana peel" stall behavior exhibited in the old IL2 original series.  Odd for an aircraft that was considered a good match against the RAF Spitfires it faced in the MTO.

 

I always assumed its weird stall was a consequence of its asymmetric wings

[Dagwoodyt]

I made a DF mission with the mission editor flying the P40 against an MC202 "ace" AI. The AI uses the vertical to avoid my guns and I cannot climb with it. AI also doesn't lawn dart the way it once did and so is much easier to evade because it is more conservative with its' diving attacks. I think this shows the developers are making improvements to their AI routines. It's easy to have such matches last longer than 30 minutes. Fun, especially in VR.

[Trooper117]

31 minutes ago, =621=Samikatz said:

 

I always assumed its weird stall was a consequence of its asymmetric wings

 

It reportedly had a tendency to get into dangerous flat spins, sometimes unrecoverable... whether that was due to the wing design I'm not sure.

[Thad]

On 10/6/2021 at 9:11 PM, Thad said:

Yes, and it is a beautiful craft too.

 

Addendum: Yea, one might as well look great while being shot down. ?

[SPR]

Did anybody notice the anti-sand inlet is always closed? It seems more like an animation issue as the engine seems to run as it should. Inside the cockpit the antisabbia lever is in the open position on the ground (should be on closed) and then after you take off it goes to closed position when ofc it should be open,so the mechanic is also wrong, but then there's no animation on the flap itself whatsoever..

Edited October 12, 2021 by SPR

[Youtch]

Are there any single mission built for MC.202?

[Jaegermeister]

15 hours ago, Youtch said:

Are there any single mission built for MC.202?

 

Two of the missions in the Spitfire Vb Scripted Campaign "Greek Fire" are in the MC.202

[[CPT]Crunch]

Anybody know what the tubular device mounted above the glare shield left side of the gunsight is?  Some sort of checklist scroll, or spare parts holder?  Has a little silver lever on the left end.

[Luftschiff]

3 minutes ago, [CPT]Crunch said:

Anybody know what the tubular device mounted above the glare shield left side of the gunsight is?  Some sort of checklist scroll, or spare parts holder?  Has a little silver lever on the left end.

[Giggles]

On 4/14/2022 at 2:08 PM, Luftschiff said:

ahh only took 10 minutes , and 4 random threads read to find my first example of blatant racist preaching on here.

[Cynic_Al]

On 4/14/2022 at 8:04 PM, [CPT]Crunch said:

Anybody know what the tubular device mounted above the glare shield left side of the gunsight is? 

 

I had no luck researching this; my best guess is an adjustable air vent.

[Youtch]

On 4/14/2022 at 1:20 PM, Jaegermeister said:

Two of the missions in the Spitfire Vb Scripted Campaign "Greek Fire" are in the MC.202

Yes, for the campaign part, finding single missions is a bigger challenge.

 

Is anyone aware of single missions made for mc.202