A great fight

Last night, on ATAG, I got bounced by a 109. He damaged my left wing, but I was still in good shape. He kept doing his thing, booming and zooming, and I kept doing mine, turning and burning. After a while, he started trying to turn with me, and I was turning so hard I spun out on 3-4 occassions, but recovered each time. I finally got behind him and fired 2-3 times.

He then, went high and started heading for France (we were just off the coast from Calais), with me in pursuit, but much lower. I noticed he started decending, and I was able to catch him, because he was gliding (but not venting?). I made another pass as he was about 3-400 feet from the ground, and came around to finish him off. But, I turned too fast, and that damaged wing stalled and I crashed.

He got credit for the kill, but it sure was a great fight of about 10 minutes. Maybe the best I've had.

badfinger

Sweet! It's quite a thrill to nurse a damaged bird through combat and hold your own.

Yeh it sure feels good to best on of these guys since they have most of the advantages of power/weight ratio and firepower. Last week I thought I was on to something big when I tackled two 109s and shot one down and damaged the other. I promised to analyze and share that experience, but on review of the video all it showed was bad flying by the 109 jocks (trying to turn at stall speeds with a Spit) and bad flying by me (flying at stall speeds) and by in large I just got lucky. In contrast, two nights later I ran into Ape and Kraut near Manston, and while I held my own for the first two passes, they simply climbed out of sight, then took turns diving and shaving off my tail section. Had to bail out just off the coast. So lesson is, if you can beat on of these in a good old shoot em up, saviour the victory, cause it's well earned.