Posted by: -deft- -=Red Falcons=-

Homepage: SimLadder - Dawn of Aces - Warbirds - Raider Wars - Ladders

Subject: Manual Trim continued.............

Message:

Any change in your aircrafts attitude and airspeed puts your plane out of trim. When you trim your aircraft on autolevel you are trimming for you current speed and attitude. Most of the following is information I have from experience in the p40 but can probably be adjusted to work with other aircraft.

click fly (or type .fly for you keyboard dweebs) as soon as you appear on the runway and prior to starting your engine hit F12. Be sure to not have your hand on your joystick and that it is in the upright position with the dinner tray securely locked into the seat in front of you. ( be sure to clear the tray of complimentary peanuts prior to doing so)

Once in flight, your airplane is now out of trim! Get to cruising at a reasonable altitude and auto level your aircraft. Once the plane is level and at cruising speed, let go of your stick and hit F12 yet again. ( you should take the oppurtunity to auto level your aircraft and hit f12 every time you are not engaged )

Now to the part that counts.......combat......

I, K (manual horz stab trim)

J, L (manual vert stab trim)

, . (manual aerlon trim)

In Warbirds Keyboard setup, these trims are listed as elevator, rudder, and aerlon trim (respectively). However, these listings are inacurate. I assure you you are actually trimming the stab (otherwise it wouldnt work when your rudder or elevator was gone)

The question was asked how do I retrim to level when in combat. Do I count clicks? I have the trim keys mapped to a hat switch (set to auto repeat) so I cant count clicks. I don't auto trim and f12 during combat. I have been flying with trim for so long I can just "feel" the airplanes current trim and know what needs to be adjusted to get the trim I want.

Tips:

High torque engines (spit, yak ect) can cause your plane to bank in the direction of engine torque at low speeds. This can make it very difficult to get a good clean shot off on a con (especially if he is banking in the direction of your engine torque). Use the J and L keys to trim your plane to counteract the engine torque. This is especially usefull in low speed turning fights.

When a BnZ plane is diving on your six, loose barrel rolls can make them miss almost 100% of the time. The key is to maintain as much energy through the barrel roll as possible to get a passing shot as the enemy plane overshoots. The key to this is to keep your planes nose pointed to the center of the barrel roll. Using rudder, aerlon, and rudder is not the correct way to do a loose low e burning barrel roll. Use Vert stab trim to get a correct barrel roll. Trim your vert stab in the direction you wish to roll then roll as normal. Your airplane will barrel roll, but the roll wont be "tight" around the central axis of the roll (thus the term loose).

My favorite tactic in the p40e is a reversal on spits that are d10 or so off my 6. I pull vertical (what you should not normally do). The spit will of course follow. I then trim hard to climb and cause my rear stabs AOT to excede stall. This causes a hard rear slip in the rear of your aircraft that effectively reverses direction. At the moment the tail starts to slide out from under your aircraft trim hard back down (to dive) and use rudder and aerlon roll to trim and roll left (in the direction of engine torque in a p40) to recover quickly. This will give you a firing solution on the persuing plane with him below you cockpit up and you inverted diving down. If you dont kill him this pass dive to the deck and extend away, you should still have d10 distance (or more) by the time the spit turns around to chase. So, you goofy dweebfires......yes the red p40e always pulls this move to the right and not the left. (this knowledge still wont save you)

BnZ mode: Go ahead and enter that dive on a distant lo alt con. Aim for a point about d20 behind and below the enemy plane. Use manual hstab trim to keep your nose down during the dive (with a little practice, you will know how much is need prior to even entering the dive and can adjust before you nose down) Once d20 behind the enemy con you should be between 1.5 and 2000 feet below his 6. Trim back to level. From this point on I use manual trim exclusively to track the target. The p40e is notoriously unresponsive at speeds over 350 mph IAS and most cons incorrectly assume you can not get an angle if they break softly (if they saw you at all). I would guestimate that 75% of planes that make a break move when a con is burning down on their six break right and down. So, anticipate a possible break move and be ready to roll right to get a passing shot should that happen. FW190's vs p40e: When diving on a fw190 from upon high they can't escape even with their superior speed. A good fw190 pilot will take advantage of your p40's poor turning ability at such speeds and do a gentle turn and increasing the amount of turn as they break.

If you trim your hstab and try to keep up with the fw you will black out. When you come too, he will be some d20 away and on his merry way. When diving on the fw and he makes his break move trim into a climb, roll in the direction of the turn and grab until your speed bleeds down to 300mph IAS. Now adjust your turn to line back up on the fw190 and trim down into a dive and reaquire him.

Zekes: Dive on zekes from below their six and pull up directly in front of them. They are usually stunned to see a p40 do this and immediattely set to chasing you into the vertical. Use your excellent power climb to climb away. When you have achieved +d10 seperation

Flip on your back and fly level while inverted (pay close attention to the oil gauge). As the zeke starts to drop speed and fall away, wait for them to hint at pulling out of the climb, and nose down on them and fire away.

I could go on and on. I hope I didnt bore you with this useless

drivel :)

Deft