Turning radius

[Robotic Pope]

Originally Posted by SEE

In the last match I played with you and Squirrel you were both flying Bf's but I was in the Yak3 and, in horizontal turn fights, your BF's hadn't a cat in hells chance as long as I refrained from engaging in the vertical. Some planes are just better in pure horizontal turns but all ac have an optimimum cornering speed - the faster you fly the greater the turning radius. The use of combat flaps, correct airspeed and chopping throttle, changing altitude (yo yo's, etc), yawing into a skid turn to bleed off excess speed (use of rudder) are all part of turning fights. I don't think there are any secrets or techniques that people are keeping secret. Brickster can out turn an LA in his Spitfire and when I asked him how he did it he said he monitors his airspeed but interestingly he uses a lower Elevator setting than I do on the same Spit. Squirrel performs outrageous turns in the LA but with no blackouts on the Xbox he gets away with it (we all do I guess!). Soviet Ace had a thread that described the concepts of turning radius and how speed is used in lag/lead persuits to overcome one planes ability to out-turn another and how the centre point of each ac's turn radius eventually gives one plane the angle of attack. If he reads your post I'm sure he will explain it once again.

All that is true but i'm convinced there is more. The fact is that Ive always stuggled to turn with some people flying the same plane as me and these people are always using a flightstick rather than the pad. Drvn is having the same problem while using the pad.

Angelo, you are the knowledge master of all xbox sticks. Please can you tell me if the sticks make full use of the X and Y axis? Can you shove the stick into a corner like the WWII fighter pilots used to say?

The 360 joypad doesn't and can't. Imagine calibating a 360 pad on a pc, the sticks only move in a circle so it leaves out the corners of the calibation box; limiting the use of the two axis at the same time. You can't perform YoYos to gain an advantage with the joypad because as soon as you use your ailerons to change your angle of turn you lose around 20% off you maximum elevator range. This equates to a huge part of the planes turning ability being lost and the pilot being at a big disadvantage.

There is no way around it, you just have to avoid turning battles unless you know your plane has a significant turn advantage over your enemy.


Edit: Noticed this very much tonight online. Even making slight adjustments with your ailerons in a turn decreases your turn rate rather dramaticly.