My friends and I are flying dogfight battles on a 4.09b server. My friend was flying the FW190 and I185 but he wasn't satisfied. He wants a more stable plane with friendly handling characteristics.

What do you think of the Hellcat? My impression is that it's rugged, good firepower, very stable, and is really difficult to stall. Surprisingly good maneuverability too.

Thanks!

Out classed by Bi-planes turning wise and late-ware planes.


Cool plane though.

worst US plane IMO

Check out the P-47 as well. With planes like the P-47, FW-190, Corsair, Hellcat etc, you definitely want to fly to their strengths, which means avoiding turn fights, and going for hit and run attacks

He's maybe looking for the Bf-109, it's a lot more maneuverable in turning than the 190, faster than a Hellcat (for the F and later versions anyway) and doesn't flip over like the 190 when you pull back on the stick hard. The 190 is amazing if you are used to it though.

The Hellcat is ok but has a low top speed and just feels underpowered, kinda like the Wildcat. I prefer the Seafire L for carrier stuff, Spits in general are great at keeping their speed up in maneuvers. The Corsair is ok but flips over a lot and flies like a barn.

Hellcat is good. Watch out for overheating, and don't fly it like a La fighter.

In-game version underperforms in speed and climb, is over sensitive to trim, and the performance & handling improvements that came with the F6F-5 model are not portrayed at all (outside of the rear quarter panel windows being gone).

Your friend would be better off with an early war P-40E/M most of the time, or a Corsair if he is more patient.

cheers

horseback

Hellcat is always my choice in Navy Ops in PTO on USN side.
Fighter all around is ok, just lacks some speed.
It is ok vs Ki-43's and A6M's doing more than a good job, good vs N1K but it's much more even, but vs Ki-84, J2M it is dead in a water since they do everything better than F6F. Those are to be engaged only from superior tactical position.

But I think your friend needs to check out Spitfire series, I find Spitfire Mk.VIII to be awesome fighter. Also Tempest if he likes BnZing people around. Those fighters are equipped with Hispano cannons which is hardest hitting 20mm cannon in game.

Turn him into a bi-plnae guy!


Us guys love our bi-planes, and will fight La-7s for them.


I'f your good, you can turn with all late-war planes, and you can even keep up with them!

Shot down a Do-335 and a P-51 online flying a I-153.


Love Bi-planes.

Introduce him to a beginers CR-42.

Hmmm, stable you say? In my experience, F6F is more on the unstable (read: wobbly) side.

It's way more stable than the P-40 or Corsair in terms of wobbliness.

The 109 might be the right choice for your friend. Stable handling characteristics, excellent performance in most respects and usable from start to finish of the war. You can find a 109 in almost any scenario.

They do handle differently so getting to know the 109 takes some time running through the various types and your fighting style has to change.

lol ... I have searched my aircraft specs books and can't find any stats for this "wobbliness" characteristic ...

quote:

Originally posted by Ba5tard5word:
It's way more stable than the P-40 or Corsair in terms of wobbliness.

Corsair is nightmare regarding this but P-40 (was) is ok... granted I haven't flown P-40 in new patch .

quote:

Originally posted by Ba5tard5word:
He's maybe looking for the Bf-109, it's a lot more maneuverable in turning than the 190, faster than a Hellcat (for the F and later versions anyway) and doesn't flip over like the 190 when you pull back on the stick hard. The 190 is amazing if you are used to it though.

The Hellcat is ok but has a low top speed and just feels underpowered, kinda like the Wildcat. I prefer the Seafire L for carrier stuff, Spits in general are great at keeping their speed up in maneuvers. The Corsair is ok but flips over a lot and flies like a barn.

I don't think the flip over is a actual problem.

The only concern is not exceed the aircraft angle of attack.

If someone is interested a technical explanation about it can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_attack

But in other words, each plane have a limit, and this limit should be respected always. And all planes give some warning, something if they say like: "hey buddy, take easy with me", in form of the stick, in case of you have a FFB model, more incommon among the pilot's, and structural, by shaking of the structure.

When they start to happen, you are approaching to the critical angle of attack, and should stop being hard, because any rough stick movements gonna result in stall.

They usually happen because pilot's simple push the stick too hard. It's necessary to be more gently with it, which doens't mean you need to be slow, just respect it's limits.

Instead of that hard move, do a faster one but gradative. And more slower you are, more gradative the movemment should be. With practic this should keep you out of most stalls.

Also, don't forget to deploy combat flaps when turning in combat, they help a lot.

Here there's an example of mine:

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6548/negativo.jpg

Already manage to get much slower negative speeds. And like the real P-51 in the case, generally there's no really a stall, just a wing drop even after reaching the critical angle of attack without being hard with the controls. At this momment the pressure on the stick was just minimum follow up the aircraft in maintein it's nose pointed up.

Of course there are planes with poor speed handling like the FW-190 and Corsair, but if the pilot have some discipline, at least in game I can say for my own experience, he will rarely enter in stalls.

Make trials starting with altitude, to know the limits and how to apply the stick gradatively. Is just necessary to know and respect the plane for keep you out of trouble.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Wildnoob,

quote:

Originally posted by Ba5tard5word:
It's way more stable than the P-40 or Corsair in terms of wobbliness.

While I agree with you on Corsair, which seems to be a wobbling nightmare, P-40 seems very stable to me if you keep the ball centered. Outturns 109s with ease, but centered ball is an absolute must or she'll wobble and spin.

Performance is drastically undermodeled in IL2. Way too slow.

I think the Hellcat is too wobbly, not a good gun platform. In real life it was probably way better than the sim. Probably didn't overheat so badly either.

quote:

I don't think the flip over is a actual problem.

The only concern is not exceed the angle of attack of the aircraft.

I know how to avoid it and why it happens, but the Corsair is really vulnerable to speed stall flips, kinda like the I-16. Just needs practice and it's easy to avoid but it can come up in an intense battle and is bad when you are really close to the ground.



And yeah the P-40 isn't as bad as the Corsair but it still wobbles a bit compared to the 109. I get used to it after a few missions with it though. I never flew the Hellcat much in comparison though but when I did I don't remember having a wobbling issue.

quote:

Originally posted by Ba5tard5word:
I know how to avoid it and why it happens

Ah, ok, I know buddy.

I just post all that stuff for the people who may not know try get some information on why this happens.