the yak-3 with it’s super accurate and destructive shvak cannons, it’s ability to print energy like somalian counterfit money and climbrate that’s always leaves it at my alt or above and it’s great usage among players and that all matches will drag onto sea level
also experiencing these issues now vs the yak-3P now that I’ve reached +5.0 BRs and repair costs are not getting very friendly
Smart flap usage is pretty much mandatory if you wanna beat them with turn rate.
I don’t know if it’s possible in RB, but in SB Bf109F4 can outrate Yak-3s using proper flaps:
(notice how in both videos, the Bf109 does not engage in a flat ring round the rosey circle. Instead, the fight keeps going up and down, up and down in what could almost be described as loops. At the top of the loop, you can deploy landing flaps without fear of ripping and with minimal loss of energy in exchange for a big boost in turn performance. Bf109F4 loves doing these little loops)
Yak-3’s primary advantage is its insane roll rate (especially when rudder-assisted. It can do a 180 degree roll in 1 second) and amazing low-speed handling (it honestly feels like a UFO with flaps out, it just floats there and somehow still responds reliably to rudder and roll inputs).
It handles awfully at high speeds, above 550 km/h and above roll feels very stiff and and slow and I feel I must use the rudder to help rolling otherwise I can’t keep up with mustangs and their like. Furthermore, go to 600+ km/h and it becomes very easy to get a little greedy and suddenly find yourself without wings in yaks. They rip very, very easily.
Fighting P-51C and F4U-4 is very, very annoying in a yak. They just refuse to engage and you can do nothing about it because they’ll dive to 650-700 KPH IAS and force you to break off, and then they come back and dive away again not giving you any chance to breathe.
The general wisdom of “fight them high” is also more nuance.
Look at this graph:
You need to be solidly above 4 km altitude to have the same energy generation advantage as you do at 2km.
You also need MEC to be able to keep WEPing to avoid killing your engine (keep prop pitch automated, open rads completely)
so that’s why they keep sawing my plane in half when im above them, the shvak’s busted ballistics and belts + the low speed controls makes lining up a shot super easy