I can get dive quite reliably. Decent roll rate and predicting where they’d lead shots by where they’re pointing. Guessing when they’d shoot based of intuition, more rolling and acting unleadable. Neg G is something a few struggle with, the plane looks like its going straight but actually going down. They’d shoot in front of you when they should shoot below.
Once you commit to a dive, look at the terrain ahead and keep it in mind with maybe an escape trajectory. Then you look back and keep looking at the opponent to dodge shots whilst glancing at the altimeter. I use keyboard controls most of the time during the dive.
The La-7 is not a brick… not a mistake you want to make ;-). It is also has very little elevator compression. Trying to turn with an La-7 at speed can get you into trouble quickly. Trying to turn with an La-7 at low altitude can get you into trouble quickly. It’s a solid fighter at 4.7, balanced by limited performance at higher altitudes (no WEP) and just 170 rds per gun.
The Yak-3 is also an outstanding fighter at 4.7 - it’s just at 4.3 for some reason. Hilarious to see the proposed BR changes skipped this little guy (again). Out diving a Yak-3 is simple… but it’s not easy. You need enough altitude to dive to high speed and keep going… bearing in mind that as the fight goes lower it favors the Yak-3. The other obvious problem with diving away is that you’ve conceded a positional advantage.
I’m not a good Yak-3 or La-7 pilot by any means (my performance in the A/C is average at best)… but I can tell you that when I do get the occasional good match, it’s often against people that don’t realize how easy it is to follow a dive that only creates vertical, and not lateral, separation. Once you’re down low and the speed has bled off and the Yak/La can still dive? You’re cooked.
Oh yeah, you’re right. I think I mistook the La-7 for another La-5 variant. Didn’t think it was sub 20s turn time on the stat card but I remember the 4.7 one now.
I think i’ll take it out for a spin again. Been a year or two since I touched it.
Didn’t play it too different from the 109 but I do remember it not being as maneuverable tho.
It’s .2 tons heavier and has a lower climb rate than the G-2. The La7 has the power to weight advantage untill 2000-2200m. Above that, especially at 4000m the 109 G-2 has more energy generation making it keep its speed more in turns and therefore turn more than the La7 in a sustained fight. I think that’s what I remembered as being more sluggish.
Prop Air RB is basically a contest of potential or kinetic energy. Climbing and positioning in the better (=higher) energy state has the goal to dominate a fight and / or being able to engage at will.
With your logic “not being able to outclimb good climbers” nobody would use a P-47 effectively - and somehow a hell of rat plane players (A6M, Merlin Spits below 5.0) are able to “ninja” or “stealth” climbing as they have otherwise no chance to catch faster planes.
But:
I do agree that 109s are rather terrible BnZoom planes due to high speed compression and rather low rip speed. Your overheating issue depends on maps, exact model and your ability to use MEC.
There are whole threads dealing with various nerfs (ballistics and SD fuse) and the fact that MG 151/20 is currently the weakest 20mm cannon in the game.
Imho the last good turnfighting 109s are the 109 E-4 & E-7. 109 Fs are still maneuverable but just in certain speed ranges whilst G & K models are pure energy fighters, but good enough to beast faster but way heavier enemies.
Regarding your examples - a good flown F-4 is able to kill a Yak-3 - all he has to do to make them slow. Planes like Spits and A6Ms can be beaten in classic energy traps even by my 410 A-1 - nobody with a clear mind tries to turnfight them - energy fighting is the key.
Imho you overestimate the La-5s and La-7s - the are good aircraft in high speed fights at low altitudes but far away from being unkillable.
Mainly F models, 2.7-4.0 sort of range has a load of issue with that.
I’ve personally never managed that in an even fight, done it in G-2 trop. I think I am getting slower than Yaks cause by that stage I’ve essentially lost wep.
That depends on which model, as u said early spits can be defeated this way, but later models are much better at dealing with this.
I’m not saying that any of them are unkillable but that they all have some sort of clear advantage over 109s, which makes playing 109s very hard. And lmao it’s also made more frustrating that 151s lets off the opportunity u hard fought for.
I dropped a heart on your other comment. To your point - I’ve had more than one match where I lost because one A6M, or similar, spent the time to climb. Yes, they won’t have early match impact, but sometimes that’s the right play to make.
I had that EXACT thing happen yesterday - was playing the P-47D-28 and things were going well. There were 4 of us working together - we took out all of the high fighters (we thought), and were working top down on the rest of the team… except we missed a single 109 (because it was a twilight map with shit spotting). I don’t recall if it was a G-6 or G-14, but they grabbed 4 kills near the end of the match to clutch it - simply because they came in higher and unseen. I never even saw them coming.
It’s not enough to make me want to play the 109s though. ;-)
As written earlier in this thread - i never liked them as have severe skill issues with overspeeding and i am not really happy with the high speed compression and the engine overheating nerfs / wrongly implemented prop pitch handling.
My Italian BP 109 F-4 became a hangar queen as my SM 92 (also 4.0) does everything better - it outturns them, outdives them, has zero overheating with infinite WEP settings, has way less high speed compression and has way less troubles killing P-51 Cs, XP-50s and 4.3 Typhoons - and the air brake “heals” my overspeeding issue 😂
There are a hell of very good fighter pilots in wt playing. The problem is that you see them not often flying 109s - next time i see them mopping the floor i will share the replay.
I’m nowhere the best 109 flyer, and I don’t know how much of a difference flying with vs without instructor does for this particular matchup. However, without autotrim & instructor, I found somewhat consistent success versus Yak-9s and Yak-3s by keeping the fight highly vertical & at ~2-4km altitude (performance chart Yak-9 has least advantage at 2km, while yak-3 gets a big boost in P/W at 3km but dips at both 2 km and 4 km) - exact angles I dunno but maybe like a 20-35 degree inclination and abusing the hell out of your landing flaps to “cut inside” the yak’s turn whenever you’re on top (to the point of almost 90 degree inclinations at times).
Something like you keep your wings “kinda parallelish” while going up in almost the same plane as the yak and point canopy ever so slightly behind their tail to save energy/reduce G forces and when on top you invert to point your canopy in front of them and importantly “under” their wing with a very quick landing flap deployment that you bring back ASAP otherwise you rip them going down. This should sort of look like you’ve increased the inclination of your orbit(?) as you cut inside their turn.
It takes a few cycles of repeating this over and over again to gain position. If you’re lucky, the yak gets frustrated and reverses in front of your guns and ends it faster to avoid getting third partied.