Zilch

Not really. Saburo Sakai has a reputation as an amazing pilot. I'd chalk this story up more to his skill than the plane he was in, although I'm sure the Zero's agility didn't hurt.

I hammered a FW-190 yesterday in my Spitfire. Since both of his ailerons blew off, I figured it was a kill and only a matter of time before his lack of control caused a crash. NOPE. The AI got second wind and pilot made amazing repairs to the wings as I flew by waiting for him to auger. He ended up OHK'ing me with a cannon to the engine. Dozens of shots to his plane with 303 and 20mm sever his control surfaces. He's fine. A cannon round to my plane, I'm dead. I'm glad they're working on this! My top complaint about DCS along with the AI SFM Super Plane Powers and omniscient SA. I gotta joke about it.

I love the module to death. Always a new challenge in DCS. It's also great what it has done for multi player. The servers are full and the competition is fierce and far more interesting no matter what you're flying. Keep 'em coming!

It is pretty silly to hear another prop plane from inside of another. Once I did hear some aircraft from inside another, but I was inside a 737 at idle holding ahort and the other planes were F-16's taking off really close with full afterburner. Yeah, in that situation, you'd hear them. A P-51 sneaking up behind a FW-190, who's pilot is sitting a few feet behind a V-12 at 2600 RPM at high altitude? Probably not. If we're going for realism, there is only one correct option. I feel bad for people trying to spot targets...I'm one of them. But, hey, TrackIR sells for a reason and we don't have an auto-padlock key for people who don't own one. Go real or go home, as they say...or at least go to War Thunder or Ace Combat.

Yep, biggest challenge with the Spit has been keeping the engine intact...

Mods had already been removed, and now that you mention it, they could be the cause since the client seems to be looking for stuff that is no longer present, causing a crash. Ran a repair, so far so good...maybe you solved it for me. We'll see.

The Spitfire, if true to life and we have every reason to think it is, is not overpowered if that's how the actual plane flies. The AI, on the other hand...you have a solid case for AI being overpowered. You can't bleed their energy, their pilots won't black out like you can very easily in the Spitfire now, and they shrug off damage that would sink a cruiser and fly like they're new from the factory. If I have complaints about DCS, they lie here.

Sounds like my experience with the 109K.

Keep in mind, Sakai was exceptional. I don't think that would be normal for most Zero pilots, or anyone for that matter. This is the same Sakai that took a 50 BMG slug to the head and lived, right? I saw an interview with him. Classy as they come.

The comparison of the Mustang to the German fighters has been done to death, but, as you say, the 190 is a great match for it. They're so close, it's down to the pilot and situation most of the time. I was comparing the Mustang to the Spitfire, though, in case any Allied pilots are thinking of ditching the P-51. The Spitfire can tangle with the 109 closely enough to make them sweat, but I was trying to make a point that it's an over hasty move to toss aside the Mustang without considering the points above.

Hey, not so fast in writing off the Mustang! The Spitfire has been quite impressive and will force the German fighters off of their comfort zone they've been enjoying for so long. It's no longer a matter of "turn and point the plane until you win" like it has been, since the Spitfire can play that game, too. The 109 jockeys can no longer rely on the zoom climb to get out of trouble. Even though it's still a bit better than the Spitfire in this regime, the Spitfire seems to be able to hang in just fine for quite a while, certainly long enough to make the kill, and that's what matters. I'm really enjoying it so far! I'll probably switch back and forth between the two, depending on my mood, and it's awesome to be able to throw a British wrench into the much-abused tactics we've seen in the MP servers! The Spitfire seems to be a great equalizer so far. That said, you'll never pry me from my Mustang for long! Compared to the Spitfire, the Mustang still has a few traits that make it more pilot friendly: 1. Gunsight. The Spitfire's fixed sight really limits it unless it's flown by a very competent gunner. Short of deflection shooting mastery, the rest of us will have to rely on just getting in close enough so that deflection doesn't matter and blaze away. Therefore, the Mustang's engagement parameters are far wider for most pilots than it is for the Spitfire, since it can engage at a broad selection of ranges to target and very high angles-off. 2. Ammo load. The Mustang has the edge here, too, among all current WWII fighters we have. The Spitfire has a comparatively limited firing time. This, combined with the less accurate gun sight, means that you need to make every damn shot count. For most people, this will require lots of practice (but hey, that's why we like DCS, anyway.) 3. Visibility. Obviously the bubble canopy and lack of target-obstructing framework up front make the view out of the Mustang divine compared to the Spit, but so far I've had a bitch of a time looking over the nose of the Spitfire and, because of this, have a mad hard time shooting a target while pulling lead on it. The target just disappears under the nose and you can't track him until you slide back into the pocket, and pray that he's still on the same vector. It's frustrating to lose sight of that tiny speck in the distance as it transitions behind a canopy frame, and worse to have it blocked by your nose while you're trying to jab him with your 20mm's precious few rounds in a high-G tracking shot or, gods help you, a snapshot. 4. Stability while firing. The Mustang is a fantastic gun platform. I didn't appreciate this until I flew the Bf-109 a few weeks ago and just today, the Spitfire. Both the Kurfurst and Mk. IX are extremely agile planes, but I think that some of their agility comes at the cost of stability, especially while firing or lining up a shot. You'll notice, especially while lining up a head-on shot against a FW-190 or whatnot, that the gunsight in the Spit flails about somewhat as you adjust your attitude. Since landing hits with the Mk II gunsight is hard enough and ammo is precious in the Spit, having your GBL get squirrely while lining up your shot and trying to aim precisely to make a kill adds a new level of challenge. Maybe I can train up so it doesn't matter so much, but gunnery feels far more solid in the P-51. 5. Firepower. I didn't think I'd say this, but I prefer the Mustang's six 50's to the Spit's four 303's and two cannon. I had presumed that the blast from the cannons would offset the light dusting that the 303's would provide, but so far this hasn't been the case in my tests. In my gunnery training mission, I can easily splash four Bf-109's with ammo to spare in my Mustang, whereas with the Spit I typically kill two, three at most before running dry. There may be other reasons for this (more training in the Mustang, better gunsight, more stability, absurd AI damage modeling, etc.) but my debriefings show that I'm scoring plenty of hits with those 303's and even the 20's, but the damn German fighters just won't die. We'll deal with what we have, but it would be pretty snazzy to load an E-type wing with those 50 cal's in 'em! Then, the Spit would be on par with the Dora in terms of striking power. 6. Speed and dive potential. Not much to be said here. Even if we still can't turn with the 109's, if we stick to our strong suits and the Mustang can succeed, with training of course. 7. Stronger airframe. I've already ripped my wings off several times chasing a 109 in a spiraling dive, being used to the stresses that the Mustang can withstand, I'll need to slow my roll a bit and adjust. However, the Mustang seems to hold together better under high-G turns and extremely fast dives. American Steel, baby! 8. More resilient engine. I realize that the two carry a nearly identical engine, so maybe it has more to do with the cooling systems than the engine itself. However, I've ended more missions in the Spit due to a blown engine than any other reason, where I'm using similar power and RPM settings to what I fight my Mustang at. Perhaps this is a Beta release issue, perhaps intentional, but watch that coolant heat in your Spitfire! You can't abuse the poor Merlin in the Spit like you can in the P-51. 9. Rear warning radar. Unfortunately, by the time this thing sounds, you're pretty much dead already, but it's better than nothing and at least you can look cool as you die. Ideally, the Spitfire/Mustang combo could really mix up some outstanding teamwork options, and I can't wait to try them once my client quits crashing every 20 minutes.

Bump, confirmed here as well.

DCS won't stay on for more than a few minutes. Crash log attached, in case anyone can make sense of it...I sure can't! crashlog.txt

My brakes actually don't seem to do anything at all. EDIT: My own damn fault, the axis needed to be reversed.

Anyone else having problems with them? I realize they're different from the hydraulic brakes I'm used to, but I keep failing the taxi mission because my brakes won't hold the plane still when I advance the throttle to test the brakes.

1905 hours MST? I am about to pee myself!

That museum is close to where I grew up. The collection in the Fantasy of Flight museum is insane. If you live in the south eastern US, it's worth a trip. The Wikipedia page lists their collection, and will make you drool.

Hey, thanks for watching! I'm glad it was worthwhile to someone. Next up, I'll probably spend time in PVP and crank up the AI skill!

Serious necro-post here, but I finally did it! Playlist below, if anyone is interested. It has some practice sessions in it and I talk a bit about what I'm changing in my tactics as I go through it. Maybe it'll help someone else and even things up a bit against those pesky Kurfursts on the servers. Once I figured a few things out, like using my roll rate to evade and how to manage my engine better, things got far easier. Instead of an impossible god machine, the 109K now feels like a difficult opponent that is beatable, but only if you are flying correctly. There is still more to learn, so any tips or advice, no matter how brutal, is appreciated.

I finally bagged a Bf-109K flown by AI. I know some of you probably do this all the time, but for me it was a bit of a breakthrough and hope to give it a crack against humans soon. Combat ends about 5 minutes in. Any tips appreciated!

Hey folks, I think I need your expertise again. I have followed the troubleshooting tips here and on the Tacview site, created a clean export.lua file with only Tacview content, uninstalled every mod, and then reinstalled Tacview. It seems I still have some kind of lua error in my logs, probably a result of an old mod I no longer use. Unfortunately, I have no idea where to find the references to these lua files that are no longer there...any tips on how to track those down? In the spoilers are the error messages from the logs, in case that helps. Thanks!

Buy a second mouse.

You know, that's a fantastic point you made. I am from Cape Canaveral, where NASA does its thing, and the space program is really important to me. I often hear people say, "Why are we spending money on this while we have problems on Earth?" The answer is...we don't know yet. But, the innovation and technology we gain by growing as a scientific species will benefit everyone. We just don't know exactly how yet...and such it was with flying boat technology allowing the development of one of the world's greatest aircraft.

I can't get over it. The Spitfire looks amazing from every single angle. Even parked, it looks like it's flying. Somehow it looks graceful without sacrificing looking powerful, as well. It's a perfect looking machine. I can't wait to fly it! Just had to gush a little bit. You Brits should be insanely proud of this one.

I certainly hope so. I think it's on the road map, but I'm really hoping AI can suffer just like we do from hits ruining systems and making life hard. Video games have that thing where the more damage you do to an AI, the stronger it gets..."BEHOLD MY FINAL FORM!" With DCS, hopefully they fix this at some point.