AB Fighter Plane Reviews

[long5hot 7,302]

The climbing spiral is also very effective at making an opponent overshoot if they're carrying more energy than you. The problem I have performing it (with mouse aim) is I haven't yet found a keystroke combination that lets me fly in a spiral while using the mouse to watch the enemy - so in rope-a-doping I simply climb straight with small rudder deviations if needed to throw off a chaser's gunfire. Guess I just need a lot more practice at it :)

[tx141 815]

Jeez, don't apologize. What you said was correct. It was merely missing a detail. Was I being overly blunt again? Probably...

 

The spiral works for all of the pure energy fighters (note: not divers / inertia fighters). What makes the spiral particularly effective for the 109 is that you rarely find yourself in a disadvantageous energy situation due to its ability to climb. I also like to use the spiral as a modified "rope a dope". By turning and climbing, you reduce the risk of a helicopter snipe to near 0, your opponents stall faster and you can get guns on them almost immediately as they stall.

 

Good to hear it works for the Mustang too. I haven't fielded the P-51 outside of test flights but I'm getting close.

 

You were not overly blunt at all, I am just an overly apologetic person.

 

I know Yak-3/9 series planes really struggle to follow you into the spiral from experience, it is quite breath-taking how you can just hard rudder out of the spiral and instantly engage your pursuer.

 

I assume you are still grinding towards the P-51D?

[tx141 815]

The climbing spiral is also very effective at making an opponent overshoot if they're carrying more energy than you. The problem I have performing it (with mouse aim) is I haven't yet found a keystroke combination that lets me fly in a spiral while using the mouse to watch the enemy - so in rope-a-doping I simply climb straight with small rudder deviations if needed to throw off a chaser's gunfire. Guess I just need a lot more practice at it :)

 

It depends on how well your keyboard supports multiple keys at once (anti-ghosting?). Mine can support three so I initially enter the spiral, and once I am on my selected bearing I continue to pull up on the stick (hold down "S") and use "C" to look around with the mouse. The plane continues to spiral, and I can keep track of my opponent. Additionally, I can make small adjustments to my flight-path via the rudder on "Q" and "E" where necessary.

 

Hope that helps, I really should get my "set-up" video done, I keep procrastinating on that front! :D

[Yubided 465]

Nope - I have the P-51D unlocked. I don't grind. I play for fun (although I tend to pick stuff I haven't fully upgraded). I think F2P people are too hung up on unlocking planes. Enjoy the journey I say! Master the planes you already have. The more kills and wins you get, the more RP you'll receive. Today I felt like flying the Ki-45 and Ki-61. Yesterday it was the 109s. I go where the wind takes me so to speak. Oh the Ki-45... what an absolutely random and, as a result, hilarious plane! I think you have to laugh at something like that or you'd end up raging / crying. What an amazingly borked flight model and ammo! No offence Gaijin but it really is borked at the moment.

 

As for the flat spiral whilst tracking a bad guy / looking around. I use left shift for the look around mode and right mouse button to watch my target. I enter the spiral going near vertical whilst barrel rolling on the way up. When my speed gets to about 350 - 300 km/h, I kick full rudder in the direction I'm rolling to nose over and level off (still spiralling). Once the wings are roughly level I hold down elevator and rudder whilst tapping the opposing aileron twice every second or so. Every now and again you'll need to release the elevator as the nose comes up too much. As the speed goes below 300 km/h, I pop combat flaps. Once you get in the rhythm, it's quite easy to hold down shift and mouse around (no mouse input required to maintain the spiral). It's also easy to hold down RMB (to watch your victim's nose) and adjust your pitch to bait people into thinking they have a snap-shot in the ascent. The more they try, the quicker they stall and the quicker they die (unless they are in a Zero or Chaika - then I die). Hope that makes sense.

 

Hello Long5hot! Nice to see another Aussie tearing it up in Arcade! Is AMRAAM an Aussie as well? I'm surprised I haven't bumped into you =DMH= guys yet. We could probably have a War Thunder Ashes series with you and Paul captaining the teams lol!

Edited July 7, 2014 by Yubided

[Renegade61 651]

Ok...one of you guys needs to implement this manouver into one of your videos so the "in the minds eye" graphically challenged among us can see wtf you're talking about! lol, yeah i'm old. Gimme a break!   :Ps

[long5hot 7,302]

Ok...one of you guys needs to implement this manouver into one of your videos so the "in the minds eye" graphically challenged among us can see wtf you're talking about! lol, yeah i'm old. Gimme a break! :Ps

Its certainly a move that requires practice, but like many things once learned you'd flow into it without having to think too much. Its also something you'd only try with certain planes versus certain other planes, and not in every scenario either. I'll be trying to explore & incorporate it if I can.

I don't grind. I play for fun (although I tend to pick stuff I haven't fully upgraded). I think F2P people are too hung up on unlocking planes. Enjoy the journey I say! Master the planes you already have.

A-bloody-men, could not agree more! I approach the game in exactly the same way. If I'm supposed to "grind", like I do in my day job, I'd expect to be paid for my efforts :p

Oh the Ki-45... what an absolutely random and, as a result, hilarious plane! I think you have to laugh at something like that or you'd end up raging / crying. What an amazingly borked flight model and ammo! No offence Gaijin but it really is borked at the moment.

Yep its a crying shame. They obviously did absolutely zero testing before rolling it out as a replacement for the old one, which really had nothing wrong with it at all. Btw I took the 1st 45, the Ko, out for a spin yesterday & found it climbed far better than the Hei or Otsu, enough that I could secure altitude supremacy then BnZ about 5 enemy fighters in a row before one of my engines was sprayed & turned light pink. 10 seconds later, dark pink ... then red ... then black ... then the other engine went black in sympathy (I didn't have a fuel leak and was a long way from combat). So before entering the death spin I nosed over and BnZ'd another plane on the way down. At least the 20mm cannon seemed to be working for a change.
 

Hello Long5hot! Nice to see another Aussie tearing it up in Arcade! Is AMRAAM an Aussie as well? I'm surprised I haven't bumped into you =DMH= guys yet. We could probably have a War Thunder Ashes series with you and Paul captaining the teams lol!

There aren't many DMH folk around anymore, most are off playing other games. Only two of us are Aussies, the rest are Muricans, and AIM_120_AMRAAM is German. A War Thunder Ashes series would be phenomenal - I vote for Jingles as English captain because it'd be hilarious, though I don't know if Paul would appreciate it ;)

[tx141 815]

Nope - I have the P-51D unlocked. I don't grind. I play for fun (although I tend to pick stuff I haven't fully upgraded). I think F2P people are too hung up on unlocking planes. Enjoy the journey I say! Master the planes you already have. The more kills and wins you get, the more RP you'll receive. Today I felt like flying the Ki-45 and Ki-61. Yesterday it was the 109s. I go where the wind takes me so to speak. Oh the Ki-45... what an absolutely random and, as a result, hilarious plane! I think you have to laugh at something like that or you'd end up raging / crying. What an amazingly borked flight model and ammo! No offence Gaijin but it really is borked at the moment.

 

Hello Long5hot! Nice to see another Aussie tearing it up in Arcade! Is AMRAAM an Aussie as well? I'm surprised I haven't bumped into you =DMH= guys yet. We could probably have a War Thunder Ashes series with you and Paul captaining the teams lol!

 

Fair enough. To be honest I never see unlocking planes as a chore/"grind"; mind you I came from the World of Tanks school of unlocking new machinery so I have a lot of patience (it has taken me the best part of three years to unlock the tanks I wanted!). :P

 

I would agree that the Ki-45s are absolutely hilarious to fly at the moment due to their flight model, one day it will be fixed hopefully!

 

Ashes series you say? Sounds a good idea to me...whose ashes will go in the urn? :D

 

Ok...one of you guys needs to implement this manouver into one of your videos so the "in the minds eye" graphically challenged among us can see wtf you're talking about! lol, yeah i'm old. Gimme a break!

 

When I go through my control layout, I will also add a section concerning some basic maneuvers and more advanced maneuvers that I employ. I will bring that video forward to the middle of next week if I get the time.

 

Its certainly a move that requires practice, but like many things once learned you'd flow into it without having to think too much. Its also something you'd only try with certain planes versus certain other planes, and not in every scenario either. I'll be trying to explore & incorporate it if I can.

A-bloody-men, could not agree more! I approach the game in exactly the same way. If I'm supposed to "grind", like I do in my day job, I'd expect to be paid for my efforts :p

There aren't many DMH folk around anymore, most are off playing other games. Only two of us are Aussies, the rest are Muricans, and AIM_120_AMRAAM is German. A War Thunder Ashes series would be phenomenal - I vote for Jingles as English captain because it'd be hilarious, though I don't know if Paul would appreciate it ;)

 

It is interesting how intricate the amount of "research" one has to complete is before you know exactly what set of maneuvers to perform up against a given foe in a given scenario.

 

Please do not remind me, I have just escaped one grind and am about to jump into another one! :P

 

I am easy either way, it would be nice to have some smaller Youtubers take the reigns, but Jingles would bring a lot of humour and publicity to the event. :D

[tx141 815]

Sorry about this folks but the P-400 review has been delayed until Friday, my media player's audio continually comes out of the sync with the video. Trying to fix the issue.

[long5hot 7,302]

Gotta hate technical difficulties :\

Am quite interested in how you fly the P-400, to me that plane has never been enjoyable.

[Yubided 465]

The secret is in the name. Never let the P-400 go below 400 kph. Use long sweeping attacks and keep your vertical moves shallow (unless it's a loop). Basically, fly it like the F4F in domination (long5hot's vid). It's also good up to about 4.5k altitude imo.

[tx141 815]

Good news everyone! Technical difficulties have been overcome, the P-400 video will be up the end of tonight. :)

[tx141 815]

Update 11.07.2014:

• P-400 review added.
• FW 190 A-1 Review next.
• Just hit 300+ subscribers so an update video will be released next week, if you have any questions you want me to answer please let me know.
• Will then work on Ki-61-1B review.
• Also looking into control set-up video.

Thank you as always for your continued support! :D

[long5hot 7,302]

Interesting that it locks up at around 700kph. I found it confusing though that you'd only experienced that lockup with early Spitfires and the Fw190 A-1. Spitfires you'd rarely dive like that so it doesn't matter as much, but in my testing the Fw190 A-1 was fine in a dive. Conversely I found the F4F, F6F and all F4Us except for the 1C to lock up terribly at high speed in terms of both rudder and ailerons, to the point where they're unusable as BnZ fighters.

Other than that, yes a mid altitude interceptor (or skirmisher) role attacking at high speed seems perfect for this plane. And lol at people who find its armament lacking. Its an hispano for goodness sake, it shreds things :) Edit: AND two 50 cals. Edited July 12, 2014 by long5hot

[Yubided 465]

Really good review and tactics for the P-400. I agree, it's an aircraft that grows on you. I haven't flown mine in a good while so it's possible that Gaijin have changed it's mid-altitude performance. I was happy to take it up to 4.5k before I felt the engine really suffered.

 

Get well soon!

 

I'm very interested on your thoughts for the Ki-61 too. I can't help but think I haven't got the complete picture with it despite doing a lot of testing this week (having watched long5hot's vid). So far, the most effective use I've found for it is killing bombers at altitude... but I tend to do that with every aircraft I fly. Today I implemented a no contest policy for the aircraft - that is, if someone else started shooting the same aircraft as me I immediately broke off my attack. It certainly helped alleviate many of the team related issues I've had with the aircraft and I still averaged 4 kills a game.

 

How on earth do you only have 13 thank yous?!?!?!?

Edited July 12, 2014 by Yubided

[tx141 815]

Interesting that it locks up at around 700kph. I found it confusing though that you'd only experienced that lockup with early Spitfires and the Fw190 A-1. Spitfires you'd rarely dive like that so it doesn't matter as much, but in my testing the Fw190 A-1 was fine in a dive. Conversely I found the F4F, F6F and all F4Us except for the 1C to lock up terribly at high speed in terms of both rudder and ailerons, to the point where they're unusable as BnZ fighters.

Other than that, yes a mid altitude interceptor (or skirmisher) role attacking at high speed seems perfect for this plane. And lol at people who find its armament lacking. Its an hispano for goodness sake, it shreds things :) Edit: AND two 50 cals.

 

I am gradually working on Boom and Zoom in my Spitfire Mk. IX for airfield domination matches where I am unable to lure one or two opponents out onto the fringes of the map or up to higher altitudes. I decided to see if this was possible in the Mk. Ia, Mk. IIb and Mk. Vb, all seem to suffer a complete lock up in roll rate (aileron lock up at 350-400mph+), which means unless your target takes a completely linear path, it is near impossible to get a clean shot off on target. I could have mentioned the F4F, and really I should have as its BR is comparable to the P-400 as of the most recent patches. 

 

Considering the F6F, I have not had many problems in high speed dives as if my speed begins to hit an excess of 650km/h I apply the combat flaps and switch off the engine. Additionally, it is a plane which I have come to truly love in-game (and historically) and so I find little difficulty with it at high speed. I have not yet attempted high speed boom and zoom in the Corsairs and so I may not comment on this regard, from what I have played, the roll seems to begin to lock up, but I cannot formulate a speed for this yet.

 

The reason why I said the FW 190 A-1 is not because it suffers a complete lock up, but the roll rate becomes rigid which makes a plane which, in my opinion, heavily relies on its roll rate to achieve dominance lose its edge. Of course, the A-1 is not ineffective at this juncture, but it puts it on a very level playing field which is not ideal at a BR of 3.3. My review of the A-1 will arrive next week, and hopefully that will build on this point. 

 

Really good review and tactics for the P-400. I agree, it's an aircraft that grows on you. I haven't flown mine in a good while so it's possible that Gaijin have changed it's mid-altitude performance. I was happy to take it up to 4.5k before I felt the engine really suffered.

 

Get well soon!

 

I'm very interested on your thoughts for the Ki-61 too. I can't help but think I haven't got the complete picture with it despite doing a lot of testing this week (having watched long5hot's vid). So far, the most effective use I've found for it is killing bombers at altitude... but I tend to do that with every aircraft I fly. Today I implemented a no contest policy for the aircraft - that is, if someone else started shooting the same aircraft as me I immediately broke off my attack. It certainly helped alleviate many of the team related issues I've had with the aircraft and I still averaged 4 kills a game.

 

How on earth do you only have 13 thank yous?!?!?!?

 

Thank you and will do. :)

 

The thing I have noticed so far with the Ki-61 series of planes (having played both the 1a and 1b variants to fully upgraded specifications) is that they seem to fill in for a middle ground, being able to jump into given roles when an where required. Still, I best keep my lips sealed for the review.

 

This topic has gone through a very unfortunate history of events as of late, it started in the AB section of the forum, was moved to the Academy section, and then fell into darkness as I had to focus on my exams. Still, I shall keep going until I have reviewed all of the prop-based fighter planes! :D

[long5hot 7,302]

I wondered why I hadn't noticed the Fw190 A-1 aileron lockup you're referring to, so I just watched through my earlier Fw190 A-1 vid, and noted that I didn't actually perform many long diving attacks at all.  Those I did make rarely got far above 600kph, and I rarely had to adjust much to hit my target.  So just now I took the plane in test flight up to 3000m then dived with WEP to get it well over 700kph.  You're right in that the aileron response slows to about half its usual roll rate.  Rudder is fine, elevators respond ok (to me anyway), so while adjustments are retard3d a little by that kind of speed its not to the point of being unable to shift the aim at all, as it is in the F4U 1A/D or F4Fs which have total lockup of both ailerons and rudder.  Certainly though the stiffening is worth being aware of, so I'm glad you're covering it in your vid especially as I've missed it.

 

I do note however that you're still using SPD, whereas IAS is the better tool to measure lockup speeds as its the actual rate of airflow over the control surfaces, and the higher your altitude the lower IAS is compared to SPD.  If only WT let us show both measurements rather than one or the other, as they both have their uses.

 

Btw don't worry about your thread moving from the Arcade forum to here - those who need help will look here anyway.  This section of the forum is a polite bastion of accumulated knowledge, learning & considered debate, whereas the AB thread ... isn't ;)

Edited July 12, 2014 by long5hot

[Renegade61 651]

TX, like a lot of people, suffers from a low "thanks" count due to the fact that most of their info is in the original 1st post....and there's no "thanks" button on 1st posts for some weird reason!

[bonobo_ 433]

"Thanks" is for selecting the best answers. This is why it does not apply to first post.

[Renegade61 651]

"Thanks" is for selecting the best answers. This is why it does not apply to first post.

I knew that!........*walks off whistling innocently*

Kind of makes me wonder how my own count is so high at times like this!  :facepalm:

[tx141 815]

I wondered why I hadn't noticed the Fw190 A-1 aileron lockup you're referring to, so I just watched through my earlier Fw190 A-1 vid, and noted that I didn't actually perform many long diving attacks at all.  Those I did make rarely got far above 600kph, and I rarely had to adjust much to hit my target.  So just now I took the plane in test flight up to 3000m then dived with WEP to get it well over 700kph.  You're right in that the aileron response slows to about half its usual roll rate.  Rudder is fine, elevators respond ok (to me anyway), so while adjustments are retard3d a little by that kind of speed its not to the point of being unable to shift the aim at all, as it is in the F4U 1A/D or F4Fs which have total lockup of both ailerons and rudder.  Certainly though the stiffening is worth being aware of, so I'm glad you're covering it in your vid especially as I've missed it.

 

I do note however that you're still using SPD, whereas IAS is the better tool to measure lockup speeds as its the actual rate of airflow over the control surfaces, and the higher your altitude the lower IAS is compared to SPD.  If only WT let us show both measurements rather than one or the other, as they both have their uses.

 

Btw don't worry about your thread moving from the Arcade forum to here - those who need help will look here anyway.  This section of the forum is a polite bastion of accumulated knowledge, learning & considered debate, whereas the AB thread ... isn't ;)

 

Aye, the "lock-up" is noticeably different than in planes such as the F4F, yet it seems to make more of a difference with the A-1 just from how much it depends on its roll rate.

 

I have had a number of people ask me to switch to IAS, I will not be doing this for my reviews as I intend to use the measurement settings that most players will most likely be using (i.e. assuming the majority of AB players are potentially new to flight simulators in general). Once the reviews are over I may venture into IAS and give a break down of how the system works for reference. It would be nice if the game let us display both, perhaps one to add to the suggestion box?

 

Thank you, comments such as yours are those that keep me going. I must check out some more of your reviews in the near future! :)

 

TX, like a lot of people, suffers from a low "thanks" count due to the fact that most of their info is in the original 1st post....and there's no "thanks" button on 1st posts for some weird reason!

 

Oh well, I know you guys and girls are grateful nonetheless! :D

 

Update 14.07.2014:

• FW 190 A-1 review has been added.
• BF 109 G-6 re-review is underway.
• Now working on reviewing both the Ki-61-1b and the MC. 200 Serie 3.
• Tutorial/Set-up video also in the works.

This will be a busy week for videos folks, stay tuned.  :)s

[long5hot 7,302]

FW 190 A-1 review has been added.

Sweet! I'll be watching this tonight, and will edit this post if I have anything insightful to add. Hell I'll probably edit it anyway just to say "job well done".

Btw if we were in this vid-making business to get lots of thanks & viewers etc, we're both going about it all the wrong way. People don't want to watch vids where pilots fly properly & tell them stuff they have to learn. They want to watch someone worse than themselves fumble around like an amateur, get blindsided, get Tk'd, get rammed in kill trains ... and get upset and rage about it in a humorous way. That'll draw viewers by the tens of thousands - I think you know of whom I speak ;)

EDIT: After watching the vid, wow job well done :) I never thought it'd be that useful intercepting in a low alt horizontal role - great to see a totally different way of flying the plane, you were really tearing it up. Edited July 14, 2014 by long5hot

[karl_eller 91]

Hey tx141, if you have some spare time, do you think you could put up a quick video on head-to-heads and how to avoid them without getting hammered? They're still something I struggle to deal with, and even when I try to evade I usually end up catching a couple of cannon rounds that pretty much dictate the fight from then on.

[Renegade61 651]

Check Long5hot's video archive above you. Think he has one that shows "snap rolls" etc.  :good:

[long5hot 7,302]

There's many ways to evade head-ons. I use snap rolls, which I've described here, which works by confusing the enemy's aim making the lead indicator dance everywhere and then puts you in good position to start turnfighting if you want.

tx uses an abrupt climb which works for him. In this video you'll see AIM_120_AMRAAM's method, which is to fly to the side on the lead-in then turn hard towards the enemy & downwards as soon as he sees bullets flying.

There's lots of methods, none work all the time, and they all need practice.

[tx141 815]

Sweet! I'll be watching this tonight, and will edit this post if I have anything insightful to add. Hell I'll probably edit it anyway just to say "job well done".

Btw if we were in this vid-making business to get lots of thanks & viewers etc, we're both going about it all the wrong way. People don't want to watch vids where pilots fly properly & tell them stuff they have to learn. They want to watch someone worse than themselves fumble around like an amateur, get blindsided, get Tk'd, get rammed in kill trains ... and get upset and rage about it in a humorous way. That'll draw viewers by the tens of thousands - I think you know of whom I speak ;)

EDIT: After watching the vid, wow job well done :) I never thought it'd be that useful intercepting in a low alt horizontal role - great to see a totally different way of flying the plane, you were really tearing it up.

 

Thank you. It is funny how, upon reflection, the A-1 matches its historical counterpart rather well, even in Arcade mode (minus all the difficulties and reliability issues associated with the BMW engine of course!).

 

Aye, I think I know of whom you speak. ;) 

 

I purely do this as a hobby to give back to an absolutely wonderful game and to hopefully show those who do take an interest that you do not always have to put in a herculean effort in order to achieve success (although saying that, the video I am releasing this Wednesday could be considered going well above and beyond the call of duty in an F6F-3).

 

I must check out some of your new reviews soon, I was meant to tonight but I unlocked my ZIS-30 for the ground forces; that thing is incredibly addictive!

 

Hey tx141, if you have some spare time, do you think you could put up a quick video on head-to-heads and how to avoid them without getting hammered? They're still something I struggle to deal with, and even when I try to evade I usually end up catching a couple of cannon rounds that pretty much dictate the fight from then on.

 

Thank you for your suggestion karl_eller, I will be starting a brief tutorial series this week (more information given this Wednesday) where I discuss aspects such as how to avoid head-ons etc. The series has been highly requested, and I think now I am in a situation where I can provide the best possible insight from my experience.