Just discovered...

[Nick]

....something so bloody obvious that I'm kicking myself for it.

Normally I trim my plane to fly straight and level to get the best speed out of it. What I didn't realise is that this cut down your rate of turn as you have effectively trimmed against up elevator!

Just tried it out in the 'Stang, trimmed and un-trimmed... massive difference! So I went back and tried it with the Hurri... same difference... then the Yak3... same again!

There was me thinking I wasn't getting high speed stalls very often cos I'd spent ages setting up the stick sensitivity and it was cos I was trimmed for some down elevator to stop the nose rising and keep level flight!

No wonder every guy in the air was staying with me in the turns... thats it then, no more trimming for this dude... (well, maybe a little for a long trip but certainly not for a furball!)

[Skii]

Trim ? whats that !?!

[Dakaras]

I always trim for a gradual climb Deck.

1. You can go off and make tea and the plane has gained height while your gone. Unless Im escorting bombers I never stop climbing until its fight time, so no need for level trim.

2. Its easy to counter this trim by a slight movement forward so the stick, this way It reminds me to keep flicking the Hat switch keeps me looking.

and as youve discovered it helps you turn. Also a notch of flaps at the tightest point of the turn will drag it round. If I need a real tight turn then I will sometimes ram flaps full on (landing) and open the throttle right upjust for a few seconds, amazing the number of 109s you can loose with that move, big down side loss of E so its often a last resort followed by a low deck hugging RUN AWAY>>>>VERY FAST

[Tumble]

With Dak on this one - never ever stop climbing... the good thing about trim is that it improves your climb rate too - if you've trimmed for a gentle climb, you can generally leave the stick neutral.. dunno how, but this relates to a greater speed/climb rate. 109's turn very well with a bit of trim. Also it's useful for a/c like the p39, with it's monster torque on take-off - trim the rudder right over and you'll have less of a control movement to keep it going straight down the runway.

[Hat]

if you asign an easy to reach key.. or a wheel or whatever on your joysticks to trim.. then you can adjust it easily in flight and in combat.

Setting max trim for climb, along with flaps etc.. will really help you turn faster....

Try a level lufberry at various speeds with difft trim and flap settings, with y9our wingsmoke on.. youll see the difference

[Zak33]

One exception to all this.....the IL2.

When the cack hits the fan, having height doesn'thelp.....so the IL2 , in my opinion, is best trimmed for flat...as close as possible.

Cos those 100 metre run-away tricks work so much better in that crate than any other....if the dog fight boys get involved they start to lose height and speed real soon...and its hard to boom andzoom summit THAT near the ground.

Now....I wanna go home and try the Dak Flaps trick....I only use them for slowing FAST........then geardown and a rapid nose up roll.....from 450 to 200 in a trice.....fly right by....

SHAME I CANT HIT A DOOR WITH A BRICK AT 10 feet

[[GSV]Trig]

I wouldnt say that m8, more like couldnt hit the floor if you fell out of bed

[Lowe]

Remember though if you're low and slow Zak, and they fly by high you're not going to have the E available to pull your nose up and take a shot.

I tend to go low and go fast. If I'm not skimming the tops of trees and turning hard I'm not low enough. Amazing how many people you can shake off doing this, but you gotta have big Kahunas and know the plane you're flying well - one stall or spin and you're toast at 20m

[Nick]

Yep, go very low and very fast has saved my skin a few times. If you're 500m and slow after a turning fight and still got him on yer tale.. DIVE! I go really low and fast, or the other thing is in the middle of the fight to loop down real low... hopefully your enemy will be too intent on getting the kill, build up too much speed in the dive and not be able to pull out in time. Changing the direction of dive helps with that one too, do a couple of quarter rolls, he might stall out trying to stay with you.

[Zak33]

Originally posted by Lowe
Remember though if you're low and slow Zak, and they fly by high you're not going to have the E available to pull your nose up and take a shot.

Agreed....except in an IL2 you got a rear gunner and also the wingls allow a fair bit of climb even at 200kph for a few seconds and they dont stall out so it simply then goes nose down again.

If I was better with the gunnery I'd have had a fair few people with that trick....IL2 low......wait for the attack from the rear....swap to rear gunner.....learn to fly backwards AND use mouse to shoot.....then drop the flaps and the carriage and get the bloke past ya, carriage up, flaps back upto combat and pull up gently ..it keeps up like that for 2 or 3 seconds if ya get it right.

Shame I couldn't...as Trig said......hit the floor when I fall out of bed

[Dakaras]

Dont forget however if trying the low fast approach a plane diving on you will be able to pull a hi Yo Yo converting E to height, dive converting height to E and come back for another go

[Zak33]

NOW YA TELL ME

OK...give up......I'll go back to high again.

[Lowe]

Originally posted by [MA]Dak[GSV]
Dont forget however if trying the low fast approach a plane diving on you will be able to pull a hi Yo Yo converting E to height, dive converting height to E and come back for another go

In which case you turn the other way and unless they've got pad lock on you, you've lost em.

Oh and if they're high, you just Low G yoyo. Come on Dak, I taught you that one a long time ago.

The beauty is if you're fast and low is, that unless they have a similar speed to you in the first place and have the height advantage, that they can't dive any more to gain distance on you. So if you're in a German plane fast and low can be a good way of bugging out of a furball.

Saying that though it's not always a bad thing to do with a Russian plane since the German planes don't always accelerate that much quicker, meaning you've got a few seconds to get your head together, regain SA and then pull a nice sharp turn to annoy that sausage eating hun.

[Zak33]

Hun

*runs for cover*

apalling language.

Right....onto the next bit of our discussion....who's got my Thrmos Flask? This cockpitis cold and I want a cuppa

TiG...you got my Tea, mate?

[TiG]

Did someone say tea?, two sugars please and naa mate they ain't close to us at all, just keep flying straight and level, this rear gun in the ju88 will see em off

TiG

[Dakaras]

Originally posted by Lowe
In which case you turn the other way and unless they've got pad lock on you, you've lost em.

Oh and if they're high, you just Low G yoyo. Come on Dak, I taught you that one a long time ago.

You did mate, right long with flick roll inverted at the top of the Yoyo take a long hard look and it dont matter which way they run