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You've got it back !]]> no_email@example.com (TomcatViP) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57028#57028 http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57023#57023
Thanks !!!!

AD]]> no_email@example.com (Andrewsdad) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57023#57023 http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57022#57022
Correct Tomcat. Is a Siebel Si-204 used for light transport and liaison duties. Your turn to post.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siebel_Si_204]]> no_email@example.com (Chairman) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57022#57022 http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57021#57021
And always, Blue Skies and Happy Landings.

-Doodle

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Introduction:

First of all, I'd like to thank all the readers for taking a look at my guide to flying the North American P-51D Mustang in IL-2. Hopefully this breakdown will give all pilots tips and pointers on flying and combating with the Mighty Stang. I've broken down each category of the Aircraft such as; combat, fuel loadouts, weapon loadouts, formation, durability and ruggedness, convergence settings and etc. Not in that order however. I hope you all enjoy and use some of these pointers when go up for a flight in the P-51. The photos and in-game screenshots were taken by me.

Blue Skies, Happy Landings.

-Doodle



Relevant Background:

I've been flying IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 for about three years, I flew quite a few different Allied Fighters and Bombers during my first four or five months of playing IL-2. And during all of this time I've learned from pilots whom I considered the best pilots I've ever flown with in this game, and these two pilots taught me everything I know about Air Combat in IL-2 and flying the P-51 Mustang. Being around Mustangs my whole life I've always been fond of them, since it's certainly my favorite plane overall. From the information I've obtained and found out on my own I figured it's time to teach it to other pilots who fly in IL-2. I flying in War Clouds, which I believe it the best server around in IL-2 or at least the best European Theater of Operations server. This is aimed towards the P-51D-5NT and P-51D-20NA, which are the stock P-51D's in IL-2.

Table of Contents/Order of Categories:
1. Basic Tips and Helpful Hints.
2. Takeoff and Landing.
3. Formation.
4. Fuel Loadouts
5. Weapon Loadouts.
6. Convergence Settings.
7. Durability and Ruggedness.
8. Aerial Combat.
9. Dive Bombing.
10. Strafing.
11. Conclusion
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1. Basic Tips and Helpful Hints:

1. While in combat, keep your radiator closed.
2. Never get into a turn fight below 270mph, the P-51 turns better at high speeds.
3. The wings and/or other pieces of the P-51 come off above 550mph.
4. The stall speed for the P-51D is about 95mph.
5. While in a dive; never pull back hard on the stick with speeds over 360mph, gently pull back on the stick or use elevator trim to climb.
6. Try to fly over 10,000 feet where you have plenty of room to maneuver in the P-51, you will have plenty of altitude to energy fight other Aircraft.
7. A good rate of climb for the P-51D is around 230mph and over, giving the pilot about 3,000 feet per minute in a climb.
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2. Takeoff and Landing:

Don't use your takeoff flaps before rolling, when you are going down the runway use your takeoff flaps at 70mph and don't pull back on the stick until 90mph. The Mustang will gently rise up into the Air, and thus you fan set you flaps back to raised once your over 110mph. When you land never drop the landing gear above 180mph, it likely won't come off but it will cause tremendous vibration. Bring your landing gear down below 170mph, and drop your landing flaps below 150mph. Now, by the time you've touched down your speed will be around 95mph-110mph which is around the correct speeds you want to land.

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3. Formation:

While flying the P-51 in formation you have to understand that you cannot really rely on staying with your leader by using the same power setting he is at, it's more of constant throttle movement until you can eventually stay with him without moving the throttle and prop pitch up and down. Depending on the formation your are flying, we'll take Line Abreast for example; you'll be spaced out parallel with your leader. In this case you want to keep the Speed the same but not over 300 mph, keep it around 250mph with the same prop pitch and same radiator settings. For flying echelon you cannot do the same, the wingman needs to fly off of the Leaders speed and that way he can do what he needs with throttle movement and propeller settings.
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4. Fuel Loadouts:

The P-51 Mustang is known for it's legendary range of 1,900 miles with External Fuel Tanks. I have rarely flown with Drop Tanks in IL-2, but I have flown with all the fuel capacity settings without the drop tanks and this is what I've come to from flying with the different amounts of fuel. I am not sure how long you fly with these fuel percentages added with the two 75 gallon Drop tanks. I'll be testing that out later on.

[Without External Fuel Tanks]
25%-30 minutes
50%-1 Hour 15 Minutes
75%-1 Hour 50 minutes
100%-2 hours 15 minutes
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5. Weapon Loadouts:

The P-51D is loaded with six .50 Caliber Browning Heavy Machine Guns, both wings have around 900 round of ammo. A total of 1,800 rounds of ammo, about 29 seconds of ammo which sounds like to much but believe me it really does have that much. The P-51D is able to carry a total of 2,000 pounds of bombs.

2x 250 pound bombs, decreases speed by 10-15mph.
2x 500 pound bombs, decreases speed by 25-30mph.
2x 1,000 pound bombs, decreases speed by 40-45mph.


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6. Convergence Settings:

During WWII the six .50 Caliber Machine Guns were converge to fire at a target that was 250-300 yards away. I set my convergence settings at 274.32 meters, which is exactly 300 yards and from what I've found out the convergence setting is efficient from 300 yards down to 200 yards, if the Aircraft your pursuing is in a turn you'll easily hit cockpit and engine possibly severing the coolant system or radiator.



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7. Durability and Ruggedness:

The P-51's ruggedness:
For some reason the Mustang really get's the short end of the stick on it's damage and I'm not sure why because P-51 pilots respected it's ruggedness and ability to take a considerable amount of damage. The P-47 with it's immense bulk and heavy armor plating was the biggest and toughest single engine, single seat fighter of WWII. The P-38 with it's twin engines can keep flying with only one engine, but other than that the P-38 doesn't take a lot of damage. Considering the fact that if it looses it's elevator, you've either got to bail out or use a lot of trim to take it home. The In-line engine engine on the P-51 is very vulnerable, there's no question about that. The Mustang frankly had two weak spots, one of them like all aircraft is the pilot and the other is the engine. However, the wings are very tough along with the armor plate behind the pilot and the fuselage was built tough. And to be quite honest with you all, and some of you may have a hard time believing me on this. But, the Mustang has flown me home more times with a lot of damage than any other Allied Fighter.

Here's some photos of my damage Mustang during January 15th, 2010. This was after CIA_Elanski shot me up with his 190. I scored two kills on that sortie and still made it home. The story alone is something else as my four of us from my 328th Fighter Squadron got into a tangle with CIA_Elanski and a few of his buddies, I knocked down a 109 and a 190. As I was forming up with my Wingman 328th_Steel_61, Elanski came in behind me and hit me with a three to four second burst and I know I was hit by the 30mm and 20mm cannons. Elanski pulled off when Steel dove on him, before Elanski could some back Steel shot him down and I manged to get back to base after a 15 minute flight.



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8. Aerial Combat:

The P-51D is at it's best when it's over 10,000 feet and fights well up to 35,000 feet. It easily out performs all German Fighters expect in climbing and low speed turning fighting below and above 10,000 feet. It's an energy fighter of all things, never go into a dogfight with less energy, regardless of your advantage is in altitude, speed, or both. What is Energy Fighting? Energy fighting is: The Energy Fighter Aircraft will use the advantages of his Aircraft and make the enemy fighter pilots fly to his poorest ability of the plane, and not letting the Enemy Fighter use his Aircraft's advantages, trading Altitude for Airspeed or Airspeed for Altitude. Above 270mph the P-51 will out turn any enemy Aircraft using only Combat flaps or with flaps and elevator trim, at speeds below 240mph the P-51 struggles in a turn depending on the Enemy Aircraft. The basic rule for all P-51 Pilots is to keep your speed high, if you can succeed in doing this you can outperform the Aircraft you're flying in combat against, never ever get low and slow in a P-51. It takes a considerable amount of time for the Mustang to regain it's energy if you're down below 4,000 feet which you may not have much time in a dogfight. With the .50 caliber machine guns in your P-51 don't rely so much on blowing the opponents wing or tail off, use the high rate of fire from your machine guns to disable the Enemy Aircraft controls, engine or by hitting the pilot in the cockpit. All in all I can safely say, use altitude and speed to attack and destroy your opponent so you can safely return to base. Always remember to never pull back hard on the stick while flying over 360mph in a dive
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9. Dive Bombing:

I'd like to say that of all the Allied Fighters along with the Hellcat and the Corsair, the P-51 is probably the easier to dive bomb with. This is due to the fact that it's easier to see over the nose because of the In-line engine, and that it picks up a lot of speed in a dive ensuring that the pilot will drop his bombs and use his speed to clear the area of the blast.
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10. Strafing:

The P-51 is a good strafing platform with it's large amount of .50 Caliber ammunition you can easily take out AAA Guns, Flak Guns, trucks, and other light armored vehicles. However, against tanks the P-51 doesn't seem to destroy them as easily. From what I've noticed as well as fellow friends of mine, is that you can destroy a tank but it may take a considerable amount of ammo or hardly any ammo. It's more of a crap shoot, it's all about luck for taking out a tank. While strafing always be sure to close up your radiator, the P-51's coolant system is highly vulnerable to ground fire. Aside from the engine you will be able to take a good amount of damage from AAA and small arms fire.


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Conclusion:
And finally I'd like to thank everyone once again for reading this, and hopefully some of this helps as it has for me over the past two and a half years. If you're looking for some more help or want to hear more please email me at: doodlemustang@hotmail.com. If you play online you'll see my in Hyperlobby as 328th_Doodle, I fly in War Clouds almost all time I go flying. For those who haven't flown there it's a terrific server, great community and fantastic place to test your skills.

Blue Skies, Happy Landings.

-Doodle]]> no_email@example.com (328th_Doodle) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57021#57021 http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57012#57012 Lets get something up very very soon
in 12 hrs im posting something,you guys give more of a challenge than me]]> no_email@example.com (workky) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57012#57012 http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57010#57010 no_email@example.com (JG27_Heven_Sent) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57010#57010 http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57002#57002 And come back with a lighter version.]]> no_email@example.com (VA_Baddington) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57002#57002 http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57001#57001 Then get back to you with the updated missions.]]> no_email@example.com (VA_Baddington) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57001#57001 http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=56999#56999
S]]> no_email@example.com (delta7) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=56999#56999 http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=56991#56991
Blue Skies,

-Doodle]]> no_email@example.com (328th_Doodle) http://www.war-clouds.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=56991#56991