[stansdds]

I fly strictly from within the confines of the cockpit, usually a Corsair (most often the old F4U-1, commonly referred to as "the bird cage" Corsair) against the Japanese. All realism settings turned on. If I am reacting to an attack, I am a dead man. During a flight I constantly scan the virtual skies for any little speck that might be the enemy. I try to use proper combat tactics of keeping my speed and altitude. I do not try to wrestle U.S. built fighters into steep climbs or tight turns as they were not designed for that type of flying. As often as possible, I maneuver to a position of altitude advantage and dive on my prey. Trying to match Axis fighters in a turning fight is a express ticket to my destruction. Honestly, with all the complaining I hear and all the writings by the real pilots of WW II, I'd say that Il2 isn't that far off from reality.

Now to really get myself flamed here, let me say that I don't have much of a gripe about the 50 caliber machine guns in Il2. The dispersion might be off, but I find that if I set my convergence to 300m and confine my shooting to 300m or less, I get consistent results. 300m is very close to the 1000 yards that the real U.S. pilots tended to prefer as their convergence distance. The 50 cal is a machine gun round, not a cannon round, it does not have magical exploding power, it puts lots of holes in things and might set flammables afire, but takes six rounds of 50 cal in on spot to equal one round of 20mm and that is realistic.