109 cant do XXXX anymore.

[Lixma]

Originally Posted by Sven

I do not get your point entirely Lixma on that one. He never said anything about spitfire pilots, he's talking about inexperienced Luftwaffe pilots who apparently didn't like to fly their plane beyond the point where the slats came out.

I thought he was referring to pilots who flew during the BoB generally, not just Luftwaffe.

My mistake.

[Strike]

I think this once again points out how important pilot skill is. Think of the variables...

no 1 - When stalling vibration/turbulence starts most rookies will ease off the turn, whilst aces know they have a little more turning they can squeeze in.

no 2 - Perhaps some pilots struggle under high G-loads, and prefer not to turn tighter than what's already uncomfortable for them? (even though their lives are at stake)

no 3 - Some pilots probably weren't even aware that they were being chased/fired upon until the damage was done. (Perhaps the target was focusing on something else and turning towards it more gently than if in a dogfight).

These are just a few factors, but you get the idea that whilst we have the luxury of flying these planes in many sims and comparing them, the real pilots probably had little clue/knowledge about enemy planes initially until they saw them in combat. And what little evidence of performance they could draw from in a stressed/heated dogfight was probably highly rough estimations from subjective points of view.