I’ve been flying out US mustangs lately and have been having a pretty decent time with them. I know the general layout of the Air RB experience hinders the performance of the later Merlin equipped mustangs, but there’s one in particular that is quite unbearable.
The P51D-30 despite being the latest D model in the US tech tree has the worst performance of all. Its climb rate is actually slower than the D20 despite what the stat card says, with a staggering 1 whole BR higher at 5.0. The C-10, D-5, D10, D20 all seem to have the perfect BR where they can keep up with the competition, but with the battle rating of the D30 you’re getting matched up against things that will eat your lunch in every way. 109K4s, Griffon spitfires are plentiful at this BR, which outclass you in this Blueprint vs blueprint warfare that is AirRB. Your only advantage is speed in a dive depending on what you’re up against. Obviously a skilled player can make things work, but you’re a such a performance disadvantage that I can’t suggest using it especially considering that there are lower BR options that will outperform it.
My evidence of it not performing well are based on testing with a friend. We both tested twice once using MEC and once using automatic engine controls, when I hit 15,000, he was still at about 11,0000 both times. Aside from the obvious engine performance issues, the rudder on the D30 alone makes me not want to use it. Anything above 370MPH IAS locks the tail making you miss passes on enemy aircraft.
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Did you determine this by actually testing the planes yourself oooooor… is it just vibes?
And no, having your friend fly together without defining very clear instructions on how to test is not an actual test.
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The only true downside of the D-stangs (as well as a lot of other planes) is snail’s whine-induced nerf of choice for seemingly any “problem” plane is to make its rudder become a brick at any reasonable speed. The H-stang has the same problem - its rudder bricks at the speeds it needs to dive at in order to get firing solutions on early jets it frequently faces.
Due to how the instructor over-relies on rudder for microscopic aim corrections with Mouse Aim, this means you become mostly incapable of fine aiming corrections to aim at high speeds, or you are constantly fighting your plane trying to auto-level with the horizon when rolling to minimize rudder BS.
Prior to 1.75 years ago, the D-stangs were glorious. If you want a good idea of how good their high-speed handling was, check out how the Cannonstang at lower BRs behaves - snail seems to have forgotten about that one.
Many other props have similar “rudder bricking” issues. Bearcats, Corsairs, Lightnings, Twinstangs, Typhoons, Tempests, Sea Furies, Hornets, F7Fs, Ki-84s, Ki-108s, Ki-96s, Ki-83s, J5N1s, La-9s, La-11s, among many others.
Fw-190s, Ta-152s, I-185s, I-225s, and several others once had the same issue but it was lifted with major FM revisions. Thus there isn’t any “bias” towards a specific nation with regards to this stuff.
Lol look at you trying to cover all your bases, I’ll spare you the details (unless you really want to know of course) but there were clear instructions on how to test this. And at the end the results were clear in both situations. The D30 was slightly slower (which makes sense because it’s heavier) but not really notable until its performance really took a hit at 8-10k feet. There must be something wrong with its power curve as modeled in game. Like I said, there’s better performing planes at lower BR, why would I ever want to use the D30 unless grinding for the next tier?
The D10 and D20 is perfectly placed in my opinion. They don’t really out climb the competition still, but they’re fast, nimble enough and in the case of the D10 it carries more ammo.
This will sound OP but i feel like the C&D models should get an air spawn, but nothing huge like p38s. The way gaijin has these matches set up naturally favor planes with high climb rates. Historically P51s bound for bomber escorts or CAP would fly from southern England, while tactical/CAS aircraft would take off from France once the line was pushed forward.
Having a p51 for CAP take off from the airfield within 30nm of the enemy seems…like bad game design if they wanted to have any sense of historicity and/or adequate flight/pilot performance from these specific aircraft. Hell you could probably bump them up in BR if that was the case. I’d be satisfied with that at least.
They do not need airspawns my dude - they need rudder bricking lifted from their flight models. All planes currently saddled with rudder bricking need it removed from their flight models, due to how the instructor mouse aim currently works and has worked since forever.
Side-climbing is not the problem - the plane actually behaving and aiming where you need it to once you’re above the opponents is the real issue.
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Are you sure youre not just expecting H5-NA performance at 5.0?
because thats like expecting mk24 spitfire performance from the mkVc
The D-30 is specifically lighter than the rest of the D series, even if only by a bit.
D-20 vs D-30 weight
Same fuel mass, same oil mass, same ammunition, lower empty weight.
It also just has more power at all altitudes below roughly 9km.
D-20 vs D-30 power
Power to weight ratio stays higher at 10 km due to decreased weight of the D-30.
The fact you just said something that is objectively untrue (“D-30 is heavier”) tells me you didn’t cover all your bases.
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Side climbing is a problem because by the time you’re up to the altitude of which your planes benefits start to show (about 18k ft) your whole team is dead. Now that’s not to say you need that whole amount of altitude, but that wa ls considered ideal for P51s.
Wow, if you know so much go ahead and test it yourself. If it’s so much better then why does it perform like garbage in comparison with the even the D20? The D30 should have heavier structural supports which already implies that it’s heavier. You can’t trust the stat cards in game as they’re meaningless.
Did you even read the post? The issue is the fact that it performs worse than earlier models and is yet a higher BR.
I’ve played for years, and flown a lot of slow-climbers. I care more about handling, ability to get firing solutions, and guns that consistently work when you get firing solutions than I do purely about climb rate.
Probably the best cases-in-point: Hornet, Ki-83, and F7F-1. All climb superbly well, all have great armaments, but their maneuverability, especially at moderate speed or higher which they reach hilariously easily when diving to attempt catching anything, means that they can’t convert altitude to speed well in the slightest.
imo the only problem the D-30 faces is the minimun fuel load, 30mins its way to much
Pretty much all the P-51Ds suck. Only exception maybe being the D-10, although I don’t have it.
My advice is just stick to the P-47s. Until you reach the F8F-1B and P-51H-5.
…Why do you think I’m calling your post out?
It doesn’t.
Not a single thing of what I’ve posted has anything to do with statcards.
The screenshots I sent are data from the actual flight model of the planes, and a tool created by a WarThunder player that shows the engine performance of piston engine planes in game.
Statcards use hard coded values that are unrelated to the actual flightmodel.
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may have the same merlin engine as the D5 however its lighter and runs a hell of a lot more boost from its supercharger which also works better with altitude. overall superior by a solid amount worht the BR increase over its predecessor.
Again, stats don’t reflect in game use. If the supercharger is that much better when it switches gear , it doesn’t matter because majority of matches take place under the altitude of when it activates.
The supercharger is always active, it just has two speeds…
That’s what supercharger “gears” are, you’re literally changing the gearing that goes from the engine into the supercharger like a transmission.
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I am aware i used the wrong terminology, it doesn’t need to be said unless you have autism, which then I understand. (I really don’t mean that as an insult as some would)
I said “activates” but mean “actuates” but my phone incorrectly corrected it.
