-=<202nd>=- Exorcists Fighter / Bomber Squadron (GMT Time Zone)

[David603]

Originally Posted by Soviet Ace

Your info seems right about the Yak-3, but I hope you didn't just use Wikipedia as your source. Their specs and information, isn't about the Tiblisi built Yak-3s that were the superior. Their information is on the Saratov Yak-3s which had several serious problems. But anyway, the Yak-3 does have several advantages against its Luftwaffe foe, which is roll rate and turning. The Yak-3 could outturn and roll quicker than any 109 or 190.

No, I got the Yak-3's initial climb rate here, and this agrees with what I have seen in Il2, but if you have more accurate information on the Yak-3's performance I would be interested to see it.

I agree with you though, the Yak-3 can certainly out turn the Fw190 and Bf109, and out roll the Bf109 though I don't think it can quite match the Fw's high speed roll rate. That's why I said the Yak-3's only real weakness as a dogfighter is its firepower, it can match, beat or come close to just about any of its rivals in any aspect of performance, except perhaps top speed and range which aren't so important for dogfighting, where most rivals will have at least one point which they are poor at when it comes to dogfighting.

I love flying the 109 for its top speed, acceleration and climb rate, but it has some pretty big flaws as a dogfighter. High speed handling is poor across the entire series, and the later versions have poor turn rates too. Still, the ability to set up kills using the speed and climb rate and the way you can get out of trouble easily against most opponents can make up for this so long as you don't try to fight in close when flying the later 109s.