S3 Series

The Knights will be attacking US CV's with DD escort. Lots of bad flak for torpedo attacks, but with Wingmen may be able to score some hits.

Hawk, do you think hitting the screen on one side first then coming back at the open side of the CV's? What amount of escort will you require?


Fighter squads

RCAF and 475 can operate together again. That would be a 3 step group.

I expect the B29's will be at 30K+ so we need to have some AC that work well up there. I am not too familiar with the Japanese Aircraft so maybe someone else could make a recommendation.
We will also need Aircraft the will work best at the bombers alt, maybe something like the Ki61C that can turn circles inside any of the Navy Aircraft. Only the F4U4 will be close in turning performance

Any discussion on aircraft operations should take place so we can have a semblance of a plan in place once the Allies announce their area of operations.

If I recall the last Japan series like this (atomic dawn?) the J2M was our best altitude and fire power though we had to precisely hit the B29s in one pass. There was no catching up. J2Ms also have extremely short range. Basically we used them as last minute target defense. Ki's just....sucked. That being said I don't think we had the N1K1 last time. It is by far our fastest, hardest hitting, best turning package. On par with the F4U. Or at least it was a few FM iterations ago.

Our TK brethren are the better expert on the full spread. Helps to have 475th volunteer insight.

KI-84 is our best all around.
N1K1 is our best knife fighter
J2M's will be our best buff killer
KI=61 is the jack of all trades, master of none. C variant packs a hard punch. Can't outrun any of them, and just being able to turn well is not enough.

Have to watch F4U-4s...they will be beasts, and the P-51s and Jugs will be in their element up high.

"Blower" is finally modeled in the aircraft..so Jugs above 30 are still putting out max HP....and nothing else is. Something to remember....they also have 1 good turn in them...avoid those 8 50s and then smack em down. While toughest in RL, they seem the easiest to kill (to me) in game....

We can outclimb them....so if slow, that should be your sanctuary.

For those who have not flown the new FMs much...yaw drag is finally modeled. If you are in a slip your drag goes up..... If you stall the aircraft now, especially nose high, you will become a "child of autumn" and do as the leaf does.....fall to earth:)

RCAF--if you are planning to be on our TS, and you are certainly welcome, let me know.

Dobs

Yeah Dobs, we will join your TS again. Makes for better cooperation.

So Dobs, the N1K1 should be the buff escort at low level?

Beaver,

That sounds good. As far as the escorts go, that depends if they think we are brave enough to go for them. We have a few Knight fighters but could use one more squadron to cover us. I am not sure if we will NOE for a sneak attack or about 10k.

You're killing me Smalls!

Flimsy as f*** though. Over speeds quickly and usually leads to a snapped wing for the over aggressive pilot. My usual defense against Ki-84 is to get him into a dive make it seam like a good target then bring the turn in tighter so the 84 has no choice but to pull hard to make his shot. Worked most of the time. Be careful and watch your speeds

Roll rate is low above 250.....and almost non-existent in the Ki-84 to the right above 280.

Use rudder to help roll rate....but be advised slip=yaw and now yaw=drag....but if you gotta roll, ya gotta roll!

Performance wise Ki-84 is our best fighter....in the hands of any Ham Fist any aircraft is worthless:) If you are not flying them yet you should.

The plane we will see a lot of is the F4U-4....fast, good turn (but can't match anything we have BUT the J2M) and 6 x 50s.

Watch speed in all IJN aircraft, and realize that increased control authority is going to lead to a lot of snapped wings if you are not used to it....to quote a famous philospher "Be smooth grasshopper!" in all you do:)

Dobs

Ki-84 is a sweet ride..flew it a lot last T.O.D. but it does have 1 big flaw..guns hit like .303's basically useless in my book.

Spent 4 staffing passes on a gun couldn't kill it..couldn't kill a enemy plane..thought it was me..switched to a spit Vc. Was killing planes with the touch of the trigger..so it wasn't me it was the guns in the ki-84..

but don't know now update tweaked the plane again..so don't know what they did to it..since in S3 probably got neutered in some way..