Plane Guide

[MadTommy]

Was having a look at the RoF wiki... but found it a bit cumbersome with regards to looking at plane types and their characteristics... so i made a quick guide..(needed a break from work.. it proved a nice distraction for an hour.) Also some of the English in the wiki was.. well appeared to be translated from Russian by... a Russian.

It's designed as 1 page per plane with all the relevant info that i could see to planes & performance, designed as a quick reference guide, with cockpit guides. Initially this is only for Central Powers planes.. i,e the Hun.

In pdf format.

Download Link (www.tacteam.org/madtommy/Central_powers_plane_guide_sm.pdf)

[Freddy Chickenbatter]

good stuff Tommy ,

good tip for people who dont know is to remember that although the Aliied planes mostly climbed faster and indeed flew faster they did not turn as well as the Central powers planes and tended to be less stable giving rise to the terms Boom and Zoom for the Allies and Turn and Burn for the Hun.

Allies go high dive fast on the Hun and zoom away to repeat the process whereas the Hun wants you to enter a turning fight with them which you are almost certain to lose,its very very hard not to engage in said turning fight as one is keen to down the sausage eaters as soon as possible.

I always end up doing just that , cant help it :)

[MadTommy]

updated :)

[Masaq]

Good stuff mate - there are also some general tips that might be worth adding when you move onto Entente planes also.

Nieuport 11 and 17 have single struts on the lower wings; making them fragile, especially in high-speed dives.

The stall/spin characteristics of most aircraft (but most noticeably in the Camel, Fokker Dr.1 and Pfalz D.XII) are much worse when carrying full fuel loads. They will stall easier, enter spins faster and take much much longer to recover when carrying 100% load. Going lighter 50-75% will make them a little easier to fly at the edge of the envelope; going even lower than this will make them easier still.

[Freddy Chickenbatter]

was that the plane you were flying that day when you whizzed past me ? I couldnt tell all I saw was a fuselage screaming by and some wing bits fluttering down :D

[Masaq]

Lol! No, that was a Fokker D.VIIF. Basically handles like a Spad crossed with a Camel - fast and turny... just don't try to yank it out of a dive at 300 kph lol.

[MadTommy]

Loving the Phalz D XII.. i highly recommend it.. defiantly my new fav plane!

Stable, quick, and hard to spin.. even though the one time i did spin i couldn't recover from 4,000ft!

[Masaq]

Yeah, once you get the Pfalz 12 into a spin, it's an absolute bitch to get out especially if you're carrying a full fuel load.

It comes out best if you keep a little power on (instead of dropping throttle to idle as you would do in most planes). It tends to end up in a very flat spin though, and it's always pretty tricky to get her out of it.

[Sadist_Cain]

Nice one Tommy, a good read, I particularly like the addition of max RPMs of the engines and ideal climb speeds as theyre the bits you're after for a plane mostly.

Two small points, there's a spelling area on the DVIIF "ltitude" is missing an "A" 7 lines down.

Also not sure if I understood you correctly about overcooling/overheating not causing permenant damage?
I'm assuming you mean that when the max revs of the engine drops when intemperate, the effect of this isn't permanant. however the effect of high revs on a hot/cold engine definitely has a permanent effect.
just summit for clarification mayhaps.

Not sure how you were planning to figure ideal climb speeds, I like the idea though. If it's any help the general rule of thumb I follow at the moment is about 10-15kph above the stall speed of what im flying, maybe a touch more.

Good guide :D

[MadTommy]

Cain the guide is 1 year old.. good that you just noticed it now :p

[Sadist_Cain]

Must be some sort of bug in the dates and whatnot, Ill have it seen to asap...

Carry on your lives

[Masaq]

Speed for best climb for most of the aircraft is probably out there, somewhere... ask on the RoF forums if you're interested, someone must have collated what available data there is.