4.101 RC - List of fixes

[PE_Tihi]

Originally Posted by JtD

Well, I went by what you wrote, you've repeatedly complained about stability. If you don't mean stability at all, your fault. Don't blame me. Anyway, looking at how you dodge anything that involves fact, let me sum it up for you:

- the Spitfires stability is realistic
- the Spitfires stability is in the same league as that of many other planes in game

And now it's the hammerhead which is so awfully wrong. What exactly does a vertical zoom climb with rudder input at 100 km/h in a Fw 190 look like? Or in a P-38? Or a P-39? Wait, they all go up, then out of control. And because the planes are different, they go out of control differently. Holy cow.

Which aerodynamic forces do you think should keep the plane controllable at 0 air speed?

If a plane has a low 'reserve' of stabillity, it is in the very slow flight that this deficit shows in a most pronounced manner. Thats where you would ve got the best chance of noticing it; of course if you do not want or cannot, that s another matter.

All other planes including the ones you name can be helped with a kick on the rudder to drop their noses shortly before the steeply climbing plane stalls. It can be done without reducing power.
Spit enters shortly before the stall speed a zone of completely neutral stability, where there is no natural tendency to drop the nose which could be helped. Gyroscopic forces keep the nose pointing upwards, and the controls can do nothing about it. You ll have to cut power if you want the nose to drop, and lose further energy in the strong oscillations which, with the pilot helping, still do not diminish before the plane reaches 160-170 kph. By that time you ll be quite a bit underneath a P40, not to speak of a Bf which is really good at stall fight.

Even at higher speeds, in a dogfight (say 350-250 kph), if you press a pedal to move the aiming point ( do you use the rudder for aiming at all?) it causes easily noticeable oscillations, spiced with precession from the rotating prop, which are practically unnoticeable in the old Spit or any other game plane.
The effect is that you sideslipping mostly as you shoot, making the bullets go where they want.
The people flying this game longer mostly use much more rudder than newer pilots, both in maneouvres or when aiming. Even if you shoot at 400 kmh where the damping is better, as you aim, you ll still be sideslipping enough to miss.

1) I do not know whether the Spit stabillity is reallistic in 4.10- and suspect not. You know it, good for you.
2) I certainly know your second sentence is not true.

If you cannot fly a hammerhead, you have one recipe here. And if you don't want to find out something, but only to prove yourself smart, you can do that without my involvement, either.