Throwing some light on rates of turn

[ATAG_Snapper]

Originally Posted by 6S.Manu

Please NO... those RAE tests are useless since in both the planes there were RAE pilots. We don't know the experience and skill of both nor we know how the fight started (engagement).

We should really limit our knowledge to absolute facts (speed, climb rate ect taking note about the test machine's condition) leaving out all the relative facts (X turn better than Y...) who depends mainly on the pilots.

Manu, you raise some good points IMHO about the fallibility of the RAE tests -- I forgot to add about the 109 pilot not being an actual LW pilot (and preferably an experten to wring out maximum performance from the captured 109). Obviously it was the best the RAE could provide at the time, but it would've been dangerous for a Spitfire pilot to put his trust in those RAE test results for the reasons we've both noted.

What Evangelus (See) suggests is of value and interest from a subjective viewpoint. It can help point to some glaring issues with both aircraft if all pilots' findings agree. Per your post, any actual changes to FM's of any aircraft should be done scientifically using established data. A good example would be the increasing complaints amongst 109 pilots of the wicked flight departure in an accelerated stall that seems to have cropped up with the latest patch + Hotfix. Is this really so? Certainly organized trials with Red & Blue pilots, all on Teamspeak, could establish this fairly quickly during dogfight scenarios. If all (or most) pilots actually find this to be so, then this would certainly be worth noting on the Bugtracker Report as a high priority item.

(As a Red pilot, I get great satisfaction if a pursuing Blue pilot "collides with terrain" at ground level....call it a "maneuver kill". But I would get no satisfaction if it occurs at, say, 2000 feet. I would much rather try for a guns kill as he recovers from the stall or take that opportunity to escape if I'm damaged or Winchester-ammo.)

So, I'm strongly in favour of one-on-one trials with plane swapping simply to get the subjective viewpoints of the pilots as a matter of interest.