Advice and tips regarding the P-51H

Hey there! I just recently got my P-51H and I’m currently in the transitionary phase from my F8F-1B to this giant metal bird. I’ve been loving the Mustang and gotten many good games with pretty much a 1.0 KD for the 22 games I’ve played with it.

I want to harness the full power of this craft and get good at it. I’ve been having trouble mostly with my playstyle, deciding when to and when not to dogfight in it. Any factors that can help influence my thinking as to when I should, and just general tips when it comes to the Mustang? Especially with climbing too, that’s one of my main problems as well, sure more than half of the enemy team is below me, but the other half has an altitude advantage, so I want to make sure that doesn’t happen, since it definitely didn’t back in the F8F-1B.

Playing around that br has been pretty painful for me.
The queue times are atrocious so that automatically deters me.

Most of the time, half my team is chasing bombers, the other half are ground scraping and there are about 4 of us at high alt, and when paired against the germans and brits, you’ll get out climbed most of the time and ganged on. Its the opposite if paired with the germans.

The P-51’s have a great climb speed, so i usually climb at an angle where im gaining a bit of speed so around 13-15 degrees and i side climb at 20.

Boom and Zoom is the way but you gotta be careful not to compress, everytime ive tried to dogfight my plane has been shattered or forced to run so i wouldn’t advise it. (skill issue on my part).

It turns well at high speed so you might get the first turn.

It helps if you have a wingman to cover you.

I’d also advice watching some cc’s as there a a lot of videos out on the P-51’s, they’re pretty dated though, and learning from them

I play it like a typical P51, just with a more boatload of power. My routine is generally climbing towards the 4k-5km alt region or higher at 290-300kmh IAS, mostly dependent on my team and enemy composition (am I fighting against early jets + prop mix? Or full props?)

If you use Manual Engine Controls, the P51 line are the easiest to manage. You can leave your Radiator to 100% and you will barely feel the effect of drag. Oil temps are the one you should be wary of though, but you can mitigate this by laying off WEP or lowering Prop Pitch to at least 90%-95%.

Now, the P51H is an actual demon and performs really, really well in most disciplines. The WEP is amazing as shit, you have outstanding straight-line energy retention, vertical energy retention, above average horizontal energy retention (Though, your turnrate only good for medium-high speed, YOU still need to be careful.)

For Germany, you beat the 109’s and 190 in any metric, but the Ta-152H can GIVE you trouble, it outrates you in a sustained, but try and fight them in the high speed. You are faster than them though
You beat Griffon spitfires, they outturn you though, and the LfMk9 can be a headache but I am certain you can beat them in a high enough altitude or in a high speed duel.
Late Yak’s are troublesome to deal with. They’re agile, fast, maneuverable enough. Be conservative around them, they rip and compress in high speeds.
Japanese, well… you already know, you outspeed them, but you don’t outrate them.

Overall, you need to be adaptive on what is currently going on. Go for the highest fighters if you can then ladder down. BnZ, BnR, HnR or whatever, you are really good at anything. One thing that always irked me is P51H’s going for bombers. Ignore them, go for fighters first. It helps your team more.

Remember, you have limited WEP, atleast 11 minutes I think? So becareful and know when to use it, AND you still have that annoying rudder quirk that happens in high speeds.