P-51 Bomber escort mission, 80 planes total.

[Gunfreak]

Video from my Bomber Escort mission, 24 bombers, 28 P-51s, and 28 Fw190 and Me109s fight in the sky over France. So a total of 80 planes making lovely contrails. The B-17s reach their objective.
 

 

[DD_Fenrir]

Hi Gunfreak,

If you're open to some advice...

1. You spend a great deal of time at sub-optimal MP settings. Much of it you are at under 35". You're over babying the engine. You can stay at 61" MP and 3,000 RPM for 15 minutes if you keep your speed at 200mph or over. If you're starting to worry about temps then bring her back to 46" and 2,700 (maximum continuous) for a while.

2. Use rudder more - when in a banked turn, a little rudder into the turn helps balance the aircraft and delays the stall slightly, meaning you'll get less of those incipient spin flicks (Bear in mind that later on, some of those were due to the gaping hole on your left wing-tip...). Also make sure you check rudder trim particularly when about to make gunnery passes; spot your slip gauge quickly before committing finger to trigger - If it's not in the middle, the bullets won't go where the reticule is pointing.

Also remember that your rudder trim is applicable for a single speed/power setting only; if you're airspeed is higher or your MP is lower than that setting you're likely out of trim requiring a left rudder input to correct; if you're airspeed is low or your power is higher a right rudder input will be required to balance the aircraft - important things to bear in mind whilst in the middle of a dynamic 3-dimensional dogfight where adjusting trim to the rapidly changing energy state of your aircraft could well be unfeasible.

3. If using the lead computing gyro feature of the K-14 gunsight, have the range adjustment mapped to a HOTAS binding if able; for you to make the best of it you need to be adjusting the graticule size to keep the targets wingtips just touching the inner edge, otherwise again, the bullets will not be going where the graticule is suggesting. If this is not an option, I suggest either resorting to the fixed only site, or having the dynamic graticule and fixed site cross only.

Otherwise that was fun to watch and looked epic!

 

[Gunfreak]

48 minutes ago, DD_Fenrir said:

Hi Gunfreak,

If you're open to some advice...

1. You spend a great deal of time at sub-optimal MP settings. Much of it you are at under 35". You're over babying the engine. You can stay at 61" MP and 3,000 RPM for 15 minutes if you keep your speed at 200mph or over. If you're starting to worry about temps then bring her back to 46" and 2,700 (maximum continuous) for a while.

2. Use rudder more - when in a banked turn, a little rudder into the turn helps balance the aircraft and delays the stall slightly, meaning you'll get less of those incipient spin flicks (Bear in mind that later on, some of those were due to the gaping hole on your left wing-tip...). Also make sure you check rudder trim particularly when about to make gunnery passes; spot your slip gauge quickly before committing finger to trigger - If it's not in the middle, the bullets won't go where the reticule is pointing.

Also remember that your rudder trim is applicable for a single speed/power setting only; if you're airspeed is higher or your MP is lower than that setting you're likely out of trim requiring a left rudder input to correct; if you're airspeed is low or your power is higher a right rudder input will be required to balance the aircraft - important things to bear in mind whilst in the middle of a dynamic 3-dimensional dogfight where adjusting trim to the rapidly changing energy state of your aircraft could well be unfeasible.

3. If using the lead computing gyro feature of the K-14 gunsight, have the range adjustment mapped to a HOTAS binding if able; for you to make the best of it you need to be adjusting the graticule size to keep the targets wingtips just touching the inner edge, otherwise again, the bullets will not be going where the graticule is suggesting. If this is not an option, I suggest either resorting to the fixed only site, or having the dynamic graticule and fixed site cross only.

Otherwise that was fun to watch and looked epic!

 

Any advice is welcome,  the P51 is by far the warbird I have most trouble with.

Yes I'm baying the engine. After killing it many a time. This is actually the first time I've used WEP more than a few seconds. As I'm a bit shell-shocked from blown engines.

Yeah I'll have ot start using the rudder more. I don't know why I'm so conservative with the rudder, as I use it a lot in the P-47.

 

I usually keep the gunsight zeroed at the convergians which is about 1000 feet/250ish meters? But I guess a fixed sight is better. 

Edited May 10, 2022 by Gunfreak

[Gunfreak]

On 5/10/2022 at 3:58 PM, DD_Fenrir said:

Hi Gunfreak,

If you're open to some advice...

1. You spend a great deal of time at sub-optimal MP settings. Much of it you are at under 35". You're over babying the engine. You can stay at 61" MP and 3,000 RPM for 15 minutes if you keep your speed at 200mph or over. If you're starting to worry about temps then bring her back to 46" and 2,700 (maximum continuous) for a while.

2. Use rudder more - when in a banked turn, a little rudder into the turn helps balance the aircraft and delays the stall slightly, meaning you'll get less of those incipient spin flicks (Bear in mind that later on, some of those were due to the gaping hole on your left wing-tip...). Also make sure you check rudder trim particularly when about to make gunnery passes; spot your slip gauge quickly before committing finger to trigger - If it's not in the middle, the bullets won't go where the reticule is pointing.

Also remember that your rudder trim is applicable for a single speed/power setting only; if you're airspeed is higher or your MP is lower than that setting you're likely out of trim requiring a left rudder input to correct; if you're airspeed is low or your power is higher a right rudder input will be required to balance the aircraft - important things to bear in mind whilst in the middle of a dynamic 3-dimensional dogfight where adjusting trim to the rapidly changing energy state of your aircraft could well be unfeasible.

3. If using the lead computing gyro feature of the K-14 gunsight, have the range adjustment mapped to a HOTAS binding if able; for you to make the best of it you need to be adjusting the graticule size to keep the targets wingtips just touching the inner edge, otherwise again, the bullets will not be going where the graticule is suggesting. If this is not an option, I suggest either resorting to the fixed only site, or having the dynamic graticule and fixed site cross only.

Otherwise that was fun to watch and looked epic!

 

Just wanna thank you. I went back to the P51 after flying ww1 and modern stuff.  Just did a basic 1 vs 1 dogfight against the Dora. And kept it mostly at max and above 200mph. P-51 was a completely different animal. I was almost always on the offensive against the veteran AI Dora.  If I only could learn to shoot too.