Plane of the Week (with Mission) January 1st
Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to the plane for this week is the F6F Hellcat. Why this plane of all planes? Well, I thought I'd go with something easy that I knew about from reading about, and flying online with lately within the past two weeks.
While digging through my Computer Pilot and Flight Journal magazines, I found a couple articles of this plane. Without getting into too much history with the Hellcat, it was a plane the Navy needed in order to have high speed, fast rate of climb, good firewpoer, protection for the pilot, visibility and maneuverability.
The plane is generally light and effecitve in cruise speeds, but becomes a bit heavy with response in high speeds. When it comes to slow speed handling, the Hellcat's wings may dip down without warning, so caution is adviced during the carrier landings. Stall speeds occur less than 60mph when approaching final for the carrier.
General Combat Notes:
Speed, energy, and altitude are a must for this plane. When going up against its adverary, the Zero, these three essentials are a must in order to survive. The Hellcat should be used as a BnZr (Boom and Zoomer). The plane attacks and dives on the Zero; if the pass fails, you can pull up wisely, and make another attack. These three essentials always give you more options, but be careful not to fall for the Zero's game of turning. When facing a Zero with the same altitude, I tend to go into a slight head on pass (not a direct one) and pull an Immelman (pull up with a half loop and then roll out so I'm level). Most of the time the Zero pilots will want to try a sharp turn to right or left to get his bearings after the pass. This leaves you on top and him on the bottom. However, its going to depend on the level of experience of the pilot.
If the Zero does a Split-S (rolling upside down and pulling back to do a half loop going downwards) its recommended that you not follow pursuit immediately. Let him pull that Split-S while you wait and see what he does while you remain with the higher altitude.
In the unfortunate case of having the Zero engage you with the altitude above you, there is only one option. Run away! Open the throttle and haul butt to gain that distance. Hopefully there is enough distance to begin with, but pull away enough where you can at least have a visual of the Zero on your six. After gaining top speed, begin a gradual climb, enough where your speed still tops the Zero; it will require a lot of patience on your part.
Another thing, and this might be harder to work out with the AI, is having a wingman. Work in close proximity with him and try to coordinate attacks so that if one of you is in trouble, the other can quickly assist the other.
Mission:
http://mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=1118 
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