Apparently israel has spitfires.
I stand corrected.
I checked Italy SB/RB, Japan RB/SB, Britain RB/SB, Germany RB/SB, USSR RB/SB rank 2/3/4 planes.
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Either way, what’s your point? Spitfire certainly ain’t slow.
Merlin spitfires are slow, griffon ones shouldn’t be but griffon ones I havn’t flown yet so I cannot compare their performance.
P-51D-5 vs 4.0 turnfighters (RB). Denmark, +- climb 3.0 m/s, 3 km altitude, AEC. Starting measurement at 400 km/h as that's when the plane levels out from spawning in and stops jittering.
I’d have compared more but takes a fair bit of time and these are the aircraft I have experience with, and I’d need the PRO version to add more than 4 data tables to the graph at a time.
Tests aren’t perfect because increasing speed means climb rate goes up, which needs nose down, which I sometimes overdo and get a bit more acceleration than a truly altitude-hold flight could manage.
As you can see though - a key part of “spitfires ain’t slow” is the long game. Sure, she accelerates well early on but she tops out and cannot chase you.
My experience with the mk F IX and F XVI is…
I see a german prop. I move to engage. German prop does not want to engage and points nose away from me. I’m never catching the german prop.
My only hope catching jerries is similar to catching yanks - I got altitude and they’re flying slow, or they get greedy and try to dogfight me.
A6M3/A6M5 is awesome for sealclubbing, but against competent enemies it’s painful to use because everyone just runs away and you get piled on by people who you cannot pressure back as they’re way faster than you.
The Jewfire has a max speed of ~330 MPH at low altitude. That’s about the same as a P-51C-11 and it gets there far quicker.
Spitfires are not slow.
Above 330 mph (530 kph), that’s true, but if you fall below that, then the Spitfire holds the advantage, and at that point it’s game over.
It depends.
Fw 190s? yes.
Bf 109s? no.
It’s just as annoying being the plane that has to constantly run away. My least favorite part about the F4D-1 is that tryhard Sweden/Russia mains will follow you for miles despite being outran.
Honestly, as an old/new player, I’m quitting again cause of the state of not only the p51 d 30, but the American faction as a whole.
Years ago the matches were better balanced. Allies vs axis. Americans always flew with Brit’s, Russians, and other allied nations. The Germans got the Italians and Japan. Win rates were not terrible and US players could rely on Russia and Brit to cover their weaknesses. Now (due to the complaints of German mains) Germany gets the Brit’s, Japan, Russia, and a few minor nations while the US gets maybe Sweden and china.
This lop sided match maker makes any tactic null in void cause I often find myself fighting 2/3 of a team of very capable opponents alone. This isn’t just limited to the p52 either.
Even in the p39, I can have matches where I clean up 7 -8 kills in a match and I still lose. why? Cause my ammo is limited and by the Time I rearm, the rest of the enemy team is sitting at alt near the airfield, waiting. Or the bomber disappear somewhere and I can’t find them fast enough, cause again I’m alone and have to be very cautiously if I don’t want to be ambushed.
Of course I could rush ground targets and hope I don’t get shot down before I earn enough to cover the repairs, but at the point you might as well go play ground RB.
This game is just broken, made so cause gajin is greedy, and nothing is going to change that. If you want to play this game, avoid US faction, it’s an absolute waste currently.
If you have to absolutely play the US, don’t go past BR 3.3 or stick to ground RB.
As for me, I’m done, I’m not starting over with another faction just to have a decent win rate cause gajin doesn’t even bother trying to balance matches anymore cause it makes them more money.
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What I do is climb to a height not too far from my teammates, fly level to conserve energy and then observe the battlefield.
This way, even if you are in battle, there will be teammates around.
Does anyone have a better way?
Pretty good video for american flying.
Some of it is not as applicable for Air RB due to markers and instructor (AOA limit, rudder control, coordination. I tried the Mk Ia in ARB after loving it in ASB and it controls like a boat in ARB), but it tracks with my experience that P-51D does turn nicely if you keep yourself fast.
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Play smart and you will be the only one.
Flying headon against every single target is the meta.
5 people competing to kill the most insignificant target or bomber and ignoring everything else is the meta.
In the early years, people actually gave a shit and tried to play well, those times are looooong gone.
Just smack yourself in the head with a hammer a few times then play some matches, you will be on the same wavelength of the community at that point.
Alternatively play high tier and just spam missiles during your 1 minute lifespan.
Ignorance is bliss as they say, hope this helps.
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The old WT wiki describes quite precisely how to fly the D30 … And this applies universally to all USAF propeller fighters of that time, if they do not have airstart … They are not and never were interceptors, with a rapid, rapid climb to altitude in a short time, in this they are disadvantaged by the size of the game map … they need to climb to altitude …
https://old-wiki.warthunder.com/P-51D-30
The Mustang is such a revolutionary aircraft, compared to earlier USAF fighters, where the main task was a long-range escort fighter, with high performance at high altitudes, where heavy bombers move …
After controlling the sky, it could descend and attack in Boom and Zoom mode …
The Russians and the British ( WWII ) are frontline fighters, moving over the battlefield …
The Germans built their aircraft for air supremacy, until they finally came to the end of the war that they needed an interceptor that could climb quickly and intercept Anglo-American bomber alliances…
And so it would be appropriate to continue to other nations…
For American aircraft you need height and if the superiority of the same US aircraft is in the game, as many of them must climb as possible… !
When the game started, the US air tech tree was called “lawnmowers”…
The best point in this video is that you can’t treat a plane like it fits in one box. I flew P-51D-5 recently and got a bunch of decent games. Plane’s bad, but if the enemies are going to make mistakes you go ahead and exploit them.
If you play passive all you give the enemy is time to correct what they’re doing wrong. If I see a gap in the enemy’s deployment i’m going to yolo in there with the P-51D, because I’m not going to get a better opportunity even if I take time to consolidate my energy advantage and blah blah blah.
I think one issue you forgot to acocunt for is the energy loss physically turning to re-engage the enemy. Even if you do a chandelle to try and conserve energy you’re still traveling 30-40 kmh slower, and in aircraft like the P-51 or P-47, you need a substantial energy advantage to ‘reset’ the fight in your favor. It’s not hard to reset a fight after separation, but when realistically trying to set the fight where you’re on top, you’re going to have to get separation and there are times where you’re barely outspeeding your opponent, at which point being only 30kmh faster than the opponent is not optimum.
coordinated teamplay in warthunder random battles? Forget it! It is thing that never happens! How play it solo, that is question? I personally prefer energy fighters, but P51 really is not good for this, mainly because of very bad climb rate: you reach 4k meters and your team already lost or won. And, as OP said, after first and perhaps second attack it is just running away to the friendly AF or hell knows where, because it is losing energy pretty fast, but cannot climb away. it can be played, but this plane is massively overrated, as in WT environment (matchmaking, and random battle madness with rampant individualism ) it is less than mediocre plane.
“as long as you stay very fast and above 6-7 km”
Pointless advice. as battles hardly happen so high, it is 3k to 5k max!
Pointless comment. Why?:
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You refer to a comment describing fights vs the P-51 D-30 in a P-47. You haven’t even flown a P-51 higher than BR 3.7 and have zero matches in any P-47.
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I recommend to play a few dozen battles in any US fighter at 4.7/5.0 - You would be aware of that you meet quite nasty opponents - you are forced to get above 6 km to be somehow safe from Yak-3Us and A7M2s - even stuff like I-225s is dangerous…
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A battle or fight happens where you want it to happen. Fighting on the terms of your enemy is the first step to get killed. So if you main strength is at high altitude there is no need to go low.
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So if you fight at lower alt that does not mean that others would do the same.
This few games we get over 5k with p51 most of the team is already dead, or game is almost won. Please, come back to the reality of random battles!
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Because it was a plane filled full of fuel tanks, with good high altitude/high speed performance, designed to be mass produced, and its main job was to escort high flying bombers with the their long range.
The clue is in the name, Mustang.
In the game, high G penalty (airframe damage, manuverability, and pilot blackout) have way less effective on any planes.
High altitude performance is irrelevant because no one climbs anymore
Long range is useless (other than planes on ki 200 where range actually matter) and the excessive fuel tanks serve no purpose other than making your plane easier to burn
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It has middling performance at high alt. I’m surprised people keep bringing it up. I almost never take the fight there unless I’m fighting planes that have worse performance at high alt e.g La-7.
Plus its rudder at high speed is HORRENDOUS. Once Gaijin eased the F8F-1’s high speed rudder stiffening, I pretty much stay away from the P-51D-30 now. Had numerous times where I could’ve gotten a kill fast but the rudder just blows it for me (It’s historical though so I’m not going to advocate for a change.)
Well, when I fly my P-51K, which is basically a P-51D-30, sometimes I have Japanese planes as my opponents. And when you come across situations like this, you can hardly gain any advantage.
this might also be part of problem, one team has two squads of players, the other 3 squads full, all players sticking together and doing 3v1…
im bad at the game so nothing much to do even with broken plane but still annoying no?
Not that much of a plane problem, squads are annoying and hard to deal with lol.