P-51 B better than D!

[AndytotheD]

It’s the B for me. Even totally stock the with -3 engine I feel like I massively outmatch Luftwaffe fighters until the MW50 monstrosities arrive. It feels much more sprightly than the D does. I finally feel like I understand how these, alongside the P-47s and P-38s shattered the Luftwaffe in Spring ‘44

[Sandmarken]

Those months before the luftwaffe get any wm50 109s, they wil need to play it defensive. I hope there wil be mp maps with bomber interception like the "mitchells men" one we have on combatbox. Then atleast luftwaffe can decide when to attack and maybe get an energy advantage? love the p51b as much as all the other planes the devs bless us with lately?

Edited January 12, 2022 by Sandmarken

[Avimimus]

On 1/11/2022 at 8:06 AM, Guster said:

 

In good old ROF I've always found it rather amusing that I was able to change the magazine of the upper gun while doing acrobatics and fire the fixed gun at an enemy plane and take a sip of tea all at the same time.

 

Yeah, it kind-of made me... look at all the people who complained about 'anthropomorphic controls' in Cliffs of Dover and... well... couldn't help but disagree. Even without those controls - having the speed of the animation be limited by airspeed and/or gee forces would be pretty cool.

[Voyager]

13 hours ago, Avimimus said:

 

Yeah, it kind-of made me... look at all the people who complained about 'anthropomorphic controls' in Cliffs of Dover and... well... couldn't help but disagree. Even without those controls - having the speed of the animation be limited by airspeed and/or gee forces would be pretty cool.

Honestly, I absolutely hated those. You had *no idea* whether or not any given input would be accepted or not so you had to either have a stop-watch for pressing buttons or keep poking things until it finally responded or didn't. 

 

Or worse, you'd changed your mind but the plane hands just kept going. 

 

The minute you are more concerned about your invisible loading animation than flying the plane is the moment it becomes an arcade game for me. 

[the_emperor]

21 hours ago, Sandmarken said:

Those months before the luftwaffe get any wm50 109s, they wil need to play it defensive.

they really came at right time spot. The 109 did not have its DB605A fully cleared for the use of emergency power. Very low numbers of High altitude AS-versions available and no MW-50 in sight. Flown by mediocre to low trained pilots. often further hindered by the use of Rüstsätze under the wings.

on the other hand the fastest, most modern fighter plane, with the highest production quality and best ground service flown by highly trained pilots.

[Avimimus]

5 hours ago, Voyager said:

Honestly, I absolutely hated those. You had *no idea* whether or not any given input would be accepted or not so you had to either have a stop-watch for pressing buttons or keep poking things until it finally responded or didn't. 

 

Or worse, you'd changed your mind but the plane hands just kept going. 

 

The minute you are more concerned about your invisible loading animation than flying the plane is the moment it becomes an arcade game for me. 

 

I already tend to hit a button and then count a second or two (to simulate how long it'd take to reach the control and operate it) before pressing the next button so it is less of an issue.  I definitely see your point though... without better cueing it could be an issue for players who don't do what I do automatically!

 

That said, I find it very hard not to clear a misfire while turning (or reload) in Flying Circus -- the temptation is just too great. So, maybe having gee forces or windspeed slow the speed of the task would be an acceptable compromise in WWI at least?

[Voyager]

2 hours ago, Avimimus said:

 

I already tend to hit a button and then count a second or two (to simulate how long it'd take to reach the control and operate it) before pressing the next button so it is less of an issue.  I definitely see your point though... without better cueing it could be an issue for players who don't do what I do automatically!

 

That said, I find it very hard not to clear a misfire while turning (or reload) in Flying Circus -- the temptation is just too great. So, maybe having gee forces or windspeed slow the speed of the task would be an acceptable compromise in WWI at least?

For me the misfire clear button is still the middle mouse button, so I have to hold the stick left handed while I search for the mouse with my main hand. (The joys of VR and life in the bucket.) 

 

You really don't have to use both hands to cycle the thing; just put the button where the levers would be and you too can enjoy the challenge of fishing around for the handle while trying not to die. 

 

In others flight sims, they don't even allow the radiators or various controls to be mapped to sliders if the plane itself just had a toggle switch to open/close them. 

 

It makes bailing out... interesting... too. I don't have an eject button on the hotas, so i have to take the visor off to find the key board to initiate the bail out sequence. Way more realistic having to fumble around blind for the releases to get out of the plane than the simple two button salute to bug most people use. 

[Avimimus]

2 hours ago, Voyager said:

For me the misfire clear button is still the middle mouse button, so I have to hold the stick left handed while I search for the mouse with my main hand. (The joys of VR and life in the bucket.) 

 

You really don't have to use both hands to cycle the thing; just put the button where the levers would be and you too can enjoy the challenge of fishing around for the handle while trying not to die. 

 

In others flight sims, they don't even allow the radiators or various controls to be mapped to sliders if the plane itself just had a toggle switch to open/close them. 

 

It makes bailing out... interesting... too. I don't have an eject button on the hotas, so i have to take the visor off to find the key board to initiate the bail out sequence. Way more realistic having to fumble around blind for the releases to get out of the plane than the simple two button salute to bug most people use. 

 

You sir, have finally given me an incentive to have a virtual cockpit! It could even be fairly generic (to allow remapping these things for different aircraft - but having to reach). 

[SAG]

20 hours ago, Avimimus said:

 

You sir, have finally given me an incentive to have a virtual cockpit! It could even be fairly generic (to allow remapping these things for different aircraft - but having to reach). 

 

go to the Show Us Your Cockpit thread and youll find plenty of inspiration!

[69th_chuter]

On 1/10/2022 at 12:46 PM, Jaws2002 said:

 

 So why was that retrofitted to some of the B and C airframes?

 

Switching from the three blade propeller to the four blade propeller acted to directionally destabilize the airplane due to an increase in effective propeller side area and, with an increase in cowling side area the aircraft didn't meet RAF stability specifications, (something the US Army didn't have at the time they simply deemed stability acceptable or unacceptable).  This decrease in directional stability was tackled at Hucknall by increasing the chord of the fin on at least two aircraft, AM121 and AL975.  A leading edge strake similar to later production aircraft was fitted to AL963.  A taller fin was also tested but I'm not sure of the aircraft ID.

 

The US Army didn't seem to care much about the loss of stability (the aircraft's potential was much too exciting) until the D model arrived with the bubble canopy's turbulence reducing the fin's effectiveness somewhat.  North American then developed the classic fin extension (strake as on AL963) for the D as well as the final production C (field kits were made available for all Mustangs).

 

This ties in with the stabilizer structural issues to a degree because part of the fin extension installation was to convert the rudder tab from servo to anti-servo to reduce rudder application.

[Kurfurst]

On 1/10/2022 at 10:49 PM, Sandmarken said:

Seems like the game engine is totalty capable of simulating gun jamming to some degree atleast. In flying circus planes they jam all the time. Dont know why it was chosen to only happen in ww1 planes?

There would be a riot from the Hispano folks.  

[SYN_Ricky]

1 hour ago, VO101Kurfurst said:

There would be a riot from the Hispano folks.  

And 30mm folks too probably.

[Sandmarken]

6 hours ago, VO101Kurfurst said:

There would be a riot from the Hispano folks.  

I woud really like the extra challenge to the game. Enjoy how a missfire can mean the differens between life and death in flying circus ?

[Charlo-VR]

For both our P-51s, when to use auto rich or auto lean mixture settings? Takeoff full rich, I get it, but after that?

 

Same usage of mixture in both?

Edited January 17, 2022 by Charlo-VR

[easterling77]

I'm no expert at all, I would guess auto lean is primarly in use for shorten the fuel consumption on long range missions...which aren't present as much in the sim so far.

 

I allways use auto rich and I'm fine with it

Edited January 17, 2022 by easterling77

[Kurfurst]

14 hours ago, SYN_Ricky said:

And 30mm folks too probably.

But only one of the two can be re-charged (cleared) in the air.  

[CountZero]

21 hours ago, VO101Kurfurst said:

There would be a riot from the Hispano folks.  

Atleast then we could see why someone in his right mined would pick to equip 4x.50cal insted 4xhispanos on P-51. Because how things are now you would have to be working for other side if you think .50 was way to go.

When i saw gunpod option for 234 i was sure we gona get 4x20mm option on P-51B they tested...

[DD_Fenrir]

Re: jamming guns.

 

1. The jamming .50s on the P-51B/C was more of an issue on the early issued airframes. They later overcame the problem by fitting a booster mechanism to the ammo feed that came out of the turret of the B-26 Marauder.

 

2. The Hispano "jamming" was actually a misfire - it occurred during a limited to a period in 1942-43 where some ammo manufactured by a certain supplier was out of tolerances and failed to fire when loaded.

 

Let's be clear, any gun can jam for a wide variety of reasons; some guns were more susceptible than others due to an inherent design flaw or mounting issue but the vast majority of the guns in the air across all air forces during WW2 were pretty reliable.

Edited January 18, 2022 by DD_Fenrir