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  1. #1
    Boycott shampoo! Demand the REAL poo! Cloud Chaser's Avatar
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    America SO you made it to the P51 mustang. Now what? (realistic play mostly)

    You now have The P-51. Time to rule the skys! Right? Hold on, maybe not. (Disclaimer. My history is not perfect and these are just my options, both on why the P51 is great and how I like to use it. Your experiences may very)
    The P51 does have its place for fame in WWII but it may not be because it was the best plane ever built. Don’t get me wrong, I love this plane and I love flying it in WT. The P-51 was the first Allied fighter to be able to escort the B17s all the way to Berlin and back. Because they were the first it was a surprise to the German fighters to be flying over the once safe air space at home and find that there was a good fighter plane that now had to be dealt with.
    Okay now to the P-51 in War Thunder. The plane fits it historical roll well if you think about it. The plane is very stream lined, to the point that lift was sacrificed in the wing for efficiency. This makes the P-51 an average to poor climbing plane but having tremendous range (something WT cares nothing about at the moment). This streamlining makes the plane very energy efficient too, so in War Thunder this means once you get this plane going fast, it will stay fast. Remember, that speed you have is hard fought won, so don’t waist it carelessly as it takes a long time to get it back.
    Before I go in to detail I would like to list the planes attributes.
    Cons:
    - Poor to average climber
    - Slow acceleration from the engine in level flight
    - Only has 50cal machine guns
    - Wings now break if you pull too many Gs (easy to do when you go fast)
    - Average turning plane
    - Struggles in a fight if you do not have the energy advantage
    Pros:
    - A lot of ammo for the 50cals (so you can load on Sunday and shoot all week)
    - Can load bombs or rockets for later in the game
    - Good high altitude performance
    - Huge fuel load
    - Great cockpit view (for simulator battles)
    - Fast acceleration in a dive
    - High energy retention (so once you are going fast you stay fast)
    - Excellent plane in a group
    - Good as both an energy fighter or in a boom and zoom role
    - YOU ARE FLYING A P-51!!!! (that is awesome)

    Okay here is the breakdown.

    Climbing (boo)
    This is why you may struggle with the P-51 in War Thunder the most. In history the P-51 was never an interceptor. Those were German and British planes. The Mustang had the luxury of flying across the English Channel before every having to think about fighting. In War Thunder (realistic battles), everyone starts on the ground and it is often a race to get the altitude. Being higher than your enemy means you have more energy and you can dictate the fight. If someone is higher than you, you are already on the defensive. They get to choose the fight. Because in WT each player gets to race up, the planes with the higher climb rate have a clear advantage. This puts the Mustang at a disadvantage ALWAYS! The way to counter this is to climb to the side away from the battle. The risk then is that when you finally get to the battle, it could be over and no enemy are left or you are the last person on your team. Kind of a lose lose situation. The gamble is yours, how high do you want to climb?

    Turning Skills
    The P-51 is an average turning plane. You can out turn a FW190 but not a BF109 (for the most fart but many factors come into play. No P-51 enjoys a turning fight). Basically, only turn fight if you must. Boom and Zoom if you can, and energy fight. If you cannot escape or the energy fight is even between the two planes you may want to bug out of the fight. Be warned though, the plane’s engine will not pull you out of there without a good chance that you will take some hits in the process. The best run you can do is a dive for speed and then level out and fly off into the distance.

    Speed Saves and Speed Kills
    Next is one of the planes best strengths and one of the biggest weakness that all P-51 pilots will do at least once. This is the planes ability to gain speed really fast and the weak wings. When you try to move to the side the plane will first lift the nose a little then roll. Fine, but if you are going 500kph, this little move will put a momentary high G force on the plane and pop, there goes your wing. In this plane it is easy to get going too fast in a dive. When in your dive on an enemy and you are not looking at your speed and you turn to follow them and boom wings break. Everyone one does it and you have to watch you speed, if you are diving, throttle down and set up a good attack run. If they bank out of the way, just throttle up and climb back up to set up a new attack. You are in control of the fight, there is no need to force the kill. Maintain control. The speed can help you though if you are defensive. Just put you plane into a slight dive, or a short steep dive and build up that speed. Then just level out and fly away. Most planes will have trouble keeping up with you. Very few will be able to catch you.

    x6 50cal Machine Guns
    The P-51 has six 50cal machine guns. This is both good and bad. Bad because they are 50cals and taking down large targets can be a burden. Good because the 50cals get a ton of ammo. So you can down 2 or 3 planes and still have ammo to spare. The 50cals will start to lose their effectiveness as the distance increases. So you need to get in kind of close. I like 300 meters and I do not shoot and expect anything beyond 500meters range. It can and does happen that the long shot works, but don’t bank on it. The P-51 is a get in, pick away at the enemy and fly away. It is a death by a thousand cuts. I do seem to set more planes on fire using the P-51 than any other plane it feels like.

    Team Play To The Max
    The P-51 being such a good runner means it can great in the drag role. Most people will get fixated on a kill and dive or chase when they should break off (I am guilty of this from time to time). So while that person is chasing you down to kill you, they do not notice the second P-51, (which also can accelerate like mad) diving down and coming up on their six. Talk with you squad mate and if you are diving have then drag the enemy to the best place to engage them. If you are coming in from the side, have them bank away from you so the enemy shows you six so there is no deflection shot. Easy as pie and even though the P-51 only has 50cals, they do a lot a damage. No you will not be blowing planes to bits like a 30mm cannon, but you can wreck their control surfaces and the plane will go down. Very few planes can fight with a black wing. They often have a hard enough time just flying.

    So this is where P-51s excels the most. They are a pack animal. Work together and they are amazing planes.

    There are many of us who love flying this plane, so do not be afraid to ask more questions. We may even go out on a few flights together to as wingmen.

    See you in the clouds
    Cloud Chaser

  2. #2
    Boycott shampoo! Demand the REAL poo! Zoscho's Avatar
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    Nice work, great summary I'd say!

    Just one thing to add: The P-51D loves altitude! Not just for having energy and being able to dive on someone, but the engine works best at altitudes of (not sure here) 5000+ metres. Around that alt, the second stage of the supercharger kicks in. This is also an altitude where quite a few planes lose a lot of engine performance (namely a bunch of russian planes).

  3. #3
    Remember that one time at Band Camp? Aviation21's Avatar
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    Good job Cloud!

    ... and yes Zoscho it's 5K Alt when the P-51 really starts to perform! When flying off map away from the battle area have a goal of reaching at least 5K Alt before entering the battle zone.

  4. #4
    Save your breath. You'll need it to blow up your date! Blankwindow's Avatar
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    p51 and tempest make an awesome team combo as well. The tempest's (first one) engine goes to shit about 4500-5000 it just doesn't breath well at or above that altitude, but below that there is very few things that can catch it on a straight line run anywhere between 3500-5000 alt and it can dive for even more acceleration. As described above, the p51 is the same idea but at higher altitude. If you get a tempest and p51 working together you can have the tempest be bait and drag to the p51. It works wonders and the tempest can take a decent amount of mg damage and keep flying. Assuming they land any damage in the first place as it can usually out run anything that isn't diving from 2K above it. even then at high speed it can turn and roll rather well and dodge the enemy dive while the p51 pursues.

    Of course I haven't seen a high level USA\Brit mixed team in ages in realistic so this strategy is probably limited to arcade and custom battles for now.

  5. #5
    Can I have your Tots mrpenguin's Avatar
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    Great post cloud!

  6. #6
    If I'm not back in 5....wait longer! Nitewolf's Avatar
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    Nasty wings fell off my precious

  7. #7
    A closed mouth gathers no foot AOD Member AOD_RTMPro's Avatar
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    This thread needs to be updated. As the Mustang had a HUGE overhaul in the last patch and is a completely different beast now.
    Lest we forget...
    Rest in peace AOD_Quake-id & AOD_hailhydra2018


  8. #8
    You are depriving some poor village of its idiot AOD Member AOD_BritishBob's Avatar
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    Yeah... Mine stopped cooking itself.


  9. #9
    Supreme Galactic Overlord AOD Member AOD_nimvlar's Avatar
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    Then write it up

    Quote Originally Posted by AOD_Kestah
    Best forum post EVER!!!!

  10. #10
    Save the whales. Collect the whole set DaveSchilling's Avatar
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    lel...


    Yeah what did they do? Have not tried it in realistic but it feels slightly less nimble i AB. Probably correct - now if they could correct all the indeficiensies (sp?) as well.. Like proper power for the engine (1944 settings) for once, I would be glad. Needed since it is a plane not at all suited for the derpiness of AB so that is the least they could do.

    There is NOTING at all that would make the P-51D have a higher BR than a P-47D in arcade - it has nothing over it at all in performance that warrants it. Not sure why it does not get a better suited BR fopr AB as do other US fighters.

  11. #11
    Slava Ukraini rayrayblues's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AOD_DaveSchilling View Post
    lel...


    Yeah what did they do? Have not tried it in realistic but it feels slightly less nimble i AB. Probably correct - now if they could correct all the indeficiensies (sp?) as well.. Like proper power for the engine (1944 settings) for once, I would be glad. Needed since it is a plane not at all suited for the derpiness of AB so that is the least they could do.

    There is NOTING at all that would make the P-51D have a higher BR than a P-47D in arcade - it has nothing over it at all in performance that warrants it. Not sure why it does not get a better suited BR fopr AB as do other US fighters.
    Yeah Dave I agree. Just got it last week and it is no better than the Jug. 5.0 seems a bit high for what this plane can do. Since I love my P-47's I just fly my 51 the same way, but the higher BR means tougher opponents.

  12. #12
    Banned from Forums NavyAv8r's Avatar
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    *Gets P 51D-20 NA*
    *Goes to RB*
    *Flys at 5000M*
    *Looks at pretty sunset on Rhur*(German map)
    *looks around cockpit*
    *Blown to pieces by Invisible Ho 229*
    *realizes Map has a Bug*
    *makes complaint in game*
    *Rages to hanger*
    *CHAT BANNED for 24 HOURS for "trolling behavior*
    *Goes back to PREMIUM SPITFIRE*
    *Gets 4 kills*
    *Returns to hanger*
    *looks how beautiful P 51D-20 NA is*
    *joins RB match*
    *Forgot I equipped 2 1000lb Bombs*
    *Crashes into tree*
    *Everyone on teams goes* "lol"
    *They were ALL in spitfires*

    *-.-*
    *Quits Warthunder*


    Note: this happened day after Christmas

  13. #13
    Slava Ukraini rayrayblues's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AOD_NavyAv8r View Post
    *Gets P 51D-20 NA*
    *Goes to RB*
    *Flys at 5000M*
    *Looks at pretty sunset on Rhur*(German map)
    *looks around cockpit*
    *Blown to pieces by Invisible Ho 229*
    *realizes Map has a Bug*
    *makes complaint in game*
    *Rages to hanger*
    *CHAT BANNED for 24 HOURS for "trolling behavior*
    *Goes back to PREMIUM SPITFIRE*
    *Gets 4 kills*
    *Returns to hanger*
    *looks how beautiful P 51D-20 NA is*
    *joins RB match*
    *Forgot I equipped 2 1000lb Bombs*
    *Crashes into tree*
    *Everyone on teams goes* "lol"
    *They were ALL in spitfires*

    *-.-*
    *Quits Warthunder*


    Note: this happened day after Christmas
    That's my birthday

    That is too fuckin' funny Ha,Ha,Ha,Ha,
    ROTFLMAO
    Last edited by rayrayblues; 01-06-2015 at 10:12 PM.

  14. #14
    Banned from Forums NavyAv8r's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AOD_rayrayblues View Post
    That's my birthday

    That is too fuckin' funny Ha,Ha,Ha,Ha,
    ROTFLMAO
    hahaha glad to share my worst experience in the P 51 see you in it too and Happy late B DAY

  15. #15
    Ever notice how fast Windows runs? Neither did I iXiBlack's Avatar
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    my american line up is nothing but p51's lol


 

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