Interesting post from a "Spitfire pilot's" perspective. I flew a short time offline in an E4 a couple of days ago, but mainly as a "systems' check" to verify my HOTAS controls operated correctly in this fine machine. I didn't do any formal testing at all, but just to get "a feel" for it.
My initial impression: this is enough to drag me kicking and screaming over to the Dark Side! LOL. Seriously, it had a "good feel" to it (and I say this after flying the various Spit and Hurricane marks exclusively online). As you say, visibility was excellent which surprised me. No birdcage effect at all and no annoying horizontal canopy bar at eye level as in the Hurricane. Speed and climb was wonderful, workload virtually non-existent once your controls were set. Didn't have to constantly keep one eye on the temp gauges and risk losing SA. The eye-opener: bunting into a steep dive at 6000 meters where my view temporarily went red from neg -g but the engine kept purring, then quickly reaching 710 kmh IAS in the dive......AND PULLING OUT!!!! That's 447 mph IAS and I still had all ailerons, elevator, and rudder still attached! The only thing missing? The smoking hole in the ground if I had tried that in a Spitfire.
I didn't try any stalls or spins. I did find the prop pitch a little slow (in manual) to change from fine to coarse and back again compared to the Spit (I have prop pitch in the Spits assigned to an axis on my HOTAS, the E4 had pitch control assigned to a joystick hat). The auto pitch was a joy for just casual aerobatics, not sure if I would use it in a close-run dogfight.
My overall impression: the devs, from my perspective, have done a fine job on this model. Even the cockpit animations work!
09-08-2012, 12:43 PM
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