I find the P-40 about as stable as it gets with the American planes. It's so easy to fly that it's down-right relaxing.

I on the other hand think that B.239 has the best handling chars of all U.S. planes (albeit an export version of the type)... or Buffalo or F2A... Wildcat is also rock solid. P-40 is also good but in my book these are most stable.

quote:

Originally posted by The_Stealth_Owl:
Out classed by Bi-planes turning wise and late-ware planes.


Cool plane though.

Avia............

The hellcat is great against most Japanese fighters. Excellent against light armor fighters, good against all else. I do like flying it although I would not consider it for a beginner. I managed to double team avia on a 4.09 server and me and my friend won. I was flying a wildcat.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel39363:

quote:

Originally posted by The_Stealth_Owl:
Out classed by Bi-planes turning wise and late-ware planes.


Cool plane though.

Avia............

The hellcat is great against most Japanese fighters. Excellent against light armor fighters, good against all else. I do like flying it although I would not consider it for a beginner. I managed to double team avia on a 4.09 server and me and my friend won. I was flying a wildcat.

Of all new planes I feel that Avia is the most fragile one, or to be more precise, it has softiest DM .
No wonder it has huge radiator under fuselage so it easily gets caught by 7,62 spam.

Thank you for the replies.

I'm flying the bf109 so he wants to fly a different plane for variety sake.

He tried the Hellcat today and found it so-so. I recommended a few more, including the MC205vIII and J2M5. We are playing on a server with some friends and we are trying to all fly different mounts, so most of the first choices are already taken, such as the Russian planes.

I'll recommend the P40... M ? Also, I think he should give the Seafire a shot.

Thanks!!!!

quote:

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

How about PIO?

quote:

Originally posted by M_Gunz:

quote:

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

How about PIO?

Or Dutch roll?

quote:

He tried the Hellcat today and found it so-so. I recommended a few more, including the MC205vIII and J2M5. We are playing on a server with some friends and we are trying to all fly different mounts, so most of the first choices are already taken, such as the Russian planes.

The MC 205 Series III is pretty great. Very stable, pretty fast and its cannon armament is decent. I'd take it over a 109, which is a nice plane but sometimes I find it hard to get shots in with its nose-mounted guns.

The J2M is awesome too, very fast, maneuverable, and good armament, definitely my favorite Japanese plane.


And the Hellcat is ok but my problem with it is its low top speed--it's hard to get over 490kph at sea level. That is ok against most Japanese planes like Zeros and Ki-43's but against pretty much any other plane from 1943 onwards that is just too slow. Like I said it just feels underpowered.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ba5tard5word,

quote:

Originally posted by Achilles97:
Thank you for the replies.

I'm flying the bf109 so he wants to fly a different plane for variety sake.

He tried the Hellcat today and found it so-so. I recommended a few more, including the MC205vIII and J2M5. We are playing on a server with some friends and we are trying to all fly different mounts, so most of the first choices are already taken, such as the Russian planes.

I'll recommend the P40... M ? Also, I think he should give the Seafire a shot.

Thanks!!!!

As far as late war planes go, maybe have him take a look at the Ki-84, or even Ki-61, with cannon armament of course. The 61 is a bit slow compared to contemporaries, but is a pretty fun plane to fly. The Ki-84 is pretty beastly, decent speed and really good armament (4x20mm, or 2x20 and 2x30mm)

quote:

Originally posted by Achilles97:
He wants a more stable plane with friendly handling characteristics.

Try the P38J. Its stable and friendly but takes allot of get the most out of it. Very rewarding plane though when you start to get to grips with what it can do.

Only elevator trim is needed so its easy to start out with.

quote:

How about PIO?

Nope.
PIOs are produced by overshooting target-attitudes because the pilot applies the controls too late or too early in the oscillation-mode, thus creating an ever-diverging amplitude.

quote:

Or Dutch roll?

Very unlikely - WW2 planes should be much too stable for any Duth-Roll to develop.

One of our squad memeber flew Hellcats off carriers in the Navy. **I think he said** he said the stall f/m is wrong. he tried to get Oleg to change it several years ago. He is pretty much an expert (or as close to an expert as there is flying IL-2) on this and was an engineer for boeing.

I think (I am not 100% sure if he will pursue this again..) he is going to try to get it fixed in a future patch. Also he is very knowledgeable about the aircraft guns, and may try to get some work done on some guns in thsi sim..

I can't say anymore, we will see if any of this comes to fruition with several planes in IL-2 and future patches..

Apparently there maybe more patches now that 4.09 was offically released a few days ago..

he might send the powers that be information to
fix these iissues..

We can only hope..

quote:

Originally posted by Achilles97:
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!

I doubt we'll see any fixes for the F6F. I sent OM tons of docs proving the top speed was wrong. That was almost three years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by R_Target:
I doubt we'll see any fixes for the F6F. I sent OM tons of docs proving the top speed was wrong. That was almost three years ago.

yep,
there are lots of us that were around since day one,, used to fly EAW before IL-2. Tried CFS-2, but it never caught on with the squads I flew with. That was way to buggy. Flew a few other sims..

back to IL-2.

Yes, the forums and chatrooms were full of people complaining to Oleg. Not all complaining though. Lots of us were getting facts and data and trying to get Oleg and his team to correct certain items.

I don't mean to dig up old threads and conversations, but.. we were shocked that the time was spent to put things in like imaginary aircraft that never flew, like the Lerche and a few other.. but they never went on to fix the major aircraft... the ones that actually flew the whole war in huge numbers..

yes I know that's wasn't Oleg, but his other team members and friends..

I made known my feelings on my own website... that way people won't nag me and the moderators about my views..

I just hope to hell that in the addons that follow SOW:BOB in the year 2015 (haha..) are correct for the allied aircraft in the next go-round that were not finished and correct in IL-2 1946..

A good way is have your friend fly different fighters and see which ones he likes.

For me I tend to go Axis and VVS planes, I'm not skilled enough to work the US planes. I like the BF-109 and MC 205

If he must go American:

Another vote for P-38, that is very stable. Its not a turner and when used for BnZ with lots of altitude advantage it is awesome.

Another one that is a stable gun platform (once trimmed up etc and you aren't close to stall envelope) is the P-39/63, but aiming that 37 mm nose cannon is a whole 'nother story. P-39/63 stalls can be rough. I like the 20mm one.

P-47 is until you open fire

P-51 is, but takes work with the 3 way trimming


They did get the dual air and ground attack of US planes down though.

On the "American planes is nerfed", I would have to agree on some aspects.

.50 cal for me only works inside 200 convergence.

And you fly the La-7 and its 20mm is a like a buzzsaw and has a faster firing rate than .50's .

And when I fly them, they all seem sluggish and 'average' even when you fly them for what they were known for.

Like the FW-190 you can feel its roll rate, the BF-109 you can feel its climb.

But the US fighters you don't feel their 'specialty' flight characterstics.

Oh well, yes hopefully they can get those remedied next gen game.

quote:

Originally posted by doraemil:

If he must go American:

Another vote for P-38, that is very stable. Its not a turner and when used for BnZ with lots of altitude advantage it is awesome.

Unfortunately you've pointed one style of aerial combat that is, mildly put, not a P-38's forte... it locks control surfaces on par or even worse than Bf-109 on higher speeds, by higher I don't mean +600kph it is more like +450kph.
Any other American aircraft of the period is more suited to BnZ than P-38... P-47, P-51 even P-40. P-38(J)'s forte is agility vs FW-190's in mid war... I previously considered P-38L_LATE to be superior in mix it up combat style than FW-190A8/9/D9 - I was wrong, LATE is better than A8 on par with A9 and worse then D9.
And one note... Bf-109 should NEVER be engaged on even terms!
Hope that helps a bit.

Don't know about you guys but I always have trouble getting kills with planes that have just machine guns. Which is pretty much every American plane I can think of except the P-38 and P-39 (but at least the P-47 has 8 of them). I like the Tempest a lot, great for BnZ and has enough maneuverability to ensure that they don't get away from you, but haven't had many games where it was an option. The 109 ain't too bad either, and neither are the Spits (the ones with cannons, anyway).

haven't read the rest, but not as good as it should be.

But, it still kicks *** in the pto, i prefer it to the corsair, one of the most stable 50 pltforms imo. lights up zeros for fun.

fruitbat

quote:

Don't know about you guys but I always have trouble getting kills with planes that have just machine guns.

I used to hate .50 cals too.

Then I turned on Limited Ammo, which forces you to try and get the most out of your ammo. I went from shooting wildly at 500m from the enemy to 200m and saw a huge difference in accuracy and damage just from being close, also I got a bit better and more careful at aiming. Then I tried using .50 cals, which you REALLY have to use at around 200m or closer, 250 is ok in a pinch but further than that and they lose punch. I quickly found that .50 cals are great and are like a giant pair of scissors, you just have to get in close and fire quick bursts. I even don't really mind .30 cals as long as I have a few of them with plenty of ammo and they aren't those annoying .50/.30 cal peashooters the Japanese and Italian planes use.

So some planes have stronger guns than others, even when they're the same caliber? No wonder I can never get kills in a Zero once the cannon runs out (although it isn't much better in the Spit either). But even with guns at close range (not sure how far exactly since I don't have an indicator enabled that tells me the distance from the enemy), I just seem to get little bits and pieces falling off the enemy plane, not like with cannons that have huge explosions that completely rip their wings off a lot of the time.