Countering 109’s in American props. Can it even be done effectively?

[ICrayonEatr-live]

I’ve been flying out the P-51D-30 recently, and while I love it, I feel helpless against 109’s.

I just played a match against Germany where when I reached 5.5km in altitude, a Bf-109G-14 was already at 7k moving very fast. Okay. No problem, I’ll just extend away and gain some speed and altitude because my high altitude performance is better.

Then the next 10 minutes were spent of him chasing me all the way to 9km, being higher than me and me not being able to do much. I couldn’t turn and force a head on (did that and died because it had been so long into the match), couldn’t try to boom and zoom him like a P51 usually should, and sure as hell couldn’t dogfight him.

I just don’t know what to do. I love the P51, but it feels a little frustrated that 1 singular 109 made it impossible to do anything for the entire match. The only thing I have over him is speed, but I couldn’t even use that effectively.

Any experienced U.S pilots want to share any tactics for beating 109’s?

[Real_K_Soze]

You might find some help in this thread:

Why is the P-51D such a nightmare to play?

I’m referring to the D-30. No matter what, unless it’s an Fw-190 the plane just seems to be an utter crapshoot against any enemy this plane faces. Yes, I understand shallow climbs and shallow dives to get separation, I don’t need the 50th tutorial regarding this. The part no one talks about is how to reengage your opponent. When you have spitfires and Bf-109s and J2Ms chasing you to the ends of the earth at 6000m. I can’t engage them because I’ll bleed speed turning around to engage, they basic…

I played the D-30 too - playable, but you need experience and a perfect balance of playing aggressive and wait for your chance.

[RXDimA]

It’s not just top speed you have over your opponents, it’s also everything that allows you to get to that speed.
Take a look at this graph:

Spoiler

What happens when you both fly at 600 KMH at 6000 meters? The 109 climbs at 5 m/s, but you in the Mustang get to climb at 12 m/s, so you end up outclimbing your opponent at 7 m/s.
What about 700 KMH at 4000 meters? You pay 2 m/s to maintain that speed, whereas the 109 has to pay 10 m/s, making a difference of 8 m/s.
In both cases, which are shallow climb and shallow dive, respectively, you gain more energy over your opponent. If they want to chase you to shoot you down, they HAVE to give up energy to do so, but they can’t do that because you’re always faster.
Try baiting people to chase you for a minute or two, and you will see how your plane just puts you into a position where you have energy advantage, from which you can start BnZ.
If you do a gentle turn while shallow diving, you can control the distance between yourself and the enemy, thereby encouraging them to follow you while staying safe and faster.
I think the easiest planes to learn this kind of fighting is with A-36, F8F-1, and He 162. Any early jet vs props can do this super easily.

[dovah4]

Mahr honestly said it best in that thread. The P-51D-30 is a “Support” plane. Which is a nice way to say it sucks ass.

The match timers don’t support the plane. Due to how RB works, Yak-3s and Bf-109s don’t really compress in-game. So a big advantage U.S. props had, great control at higher speeds, doesn’t exist.

It’s why people loved the P-47D-28 so much compared to the P-51D because it’s flaps were honestly amazing and you could clobber even Bf-109 K-4s pretty badly with it as you had the horsepower and low-speed capability to sort’ve float around.

Now? America doesn’t really have anything that’s usable unless you stick with the F8F-1 or skip 99% (Aside the F4U-4B) of the 5.0 bracket and just move to the P-51H or F8F-1B