Quote:
Originally Posted by dimlee
Excellent summary given by Jumoschwanz.
I agree with almost everything except 3000 m altitude.
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The actual altitude a smart pilot will fly any aircraft at will depend on many current conditions. The main reason to stay above 3000m is as already mentioned to dive away from Soviet aircraft. Brought up that point because the guy who started the thread is asking about Yak tactics.
Which year of the war, weather conditions, which front you are flying on and what other aircraft you are flying against, doing ground attack or interception etc.., all will tell a smart pilot what altitude he needs to be at.
If there are no clouds, then you really need to stay just under contrail altitude, or at about 2000 meters altitude. At 2000 meters it will be hard for those at 6000+meters to spot you, and you will be above the reach of "bottom feeders" who fly along skimming the ground.
Clouds change the game, as if they are solid or very plentiful, then you certainly do not want to fly around just above them as you show up quite well to all those flying above 6K meters. I will fly either very high when there are clouds like this and look for the dummies flying against them, or I will fly fast and straight at the bottom of the clouds, this way the high-alt guys will not spot you easy, and again the guys flying at ground level will not be able to reach you, plus you can pull back on the stick and disappear into the clouds very easily.
Just because you are flying an aircraft that will turn does not mean you have to look for turning fights. I ran the best score ever in Feb. 2008 on the Spits vs. 109s server, which had 1662 different pilots that month by mostly flying a 109f4 as if it were a 190A. I kept it fast and straight and close to the bottom of thick clouds so I could take shots at any SpitV that was in front of me, and I could dive down to hit lower targets and then zoom back up into the clouds at will.
If you know the server well, then you will know where most of the action takes place and you can try to fly into it with superior altitude and speed and be top man on the totem pole.
Yak pilots always impressed me, especially in the "old days" of IL2 when there were few planes to choose from and it was still an Eastern Front flight sim. The Russian pilots had to manage their mixture and supercharger settings. You could watch a Yak pilot zoom up and trail black smoke for only an instant if it's pilot was sharp and was on top of engine management to get the most out of his bird.
IL2 was a big deal back then and there were many, many good VVS pilots giving us guys in our 109s and 190s problems. For most of the early history of IL2 it was very unpopular to fly German aircraft because the 190a was very bad at turning and the 109 did not turn as well as the Yak or La5 etc.. We were not so sophisticated and there were very few IL2 pilots doing energy fighting in the early 2000s. Also most of the servers and squads that ran them were VVS, USA or RAF and hosted in WWII allied countries.
I flew German aircraft in IL2 because that is what I was flying in Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator2 at the time IL2 showed up in 2001. And most servers needed German pilots badly as they were almost always in very short supply. Most IL2 pilots in the early days preferred flying the very fast La5fn around, which was almost untouchable, or the very good turning Yaks. My wife just got home have to go.......