Welll, As you say, handling is very dependent on weight and speed.. Until i made my last adjustment to the pitch rate damping, there was little confidence to be had with landings. With a normal loadout, anything below 150 mph and she wallowed like a pig.. if you watch part three of the training film, you'll see the real planes nose bob up and down about 5 feet. ours was doing the same thing. She became touchy and hard to control at slower speeds, and i'm seriously concidering taking her back to where she does that again.. At higher speeds she's practically like a surgeons scalpel. She rolls fast and will pull into a 6G pitch in a heartbeat. Turning wise, she's more than a match for almost anything. In a climb her weigh works heavily against her. the props will pull her up well enough, but gravity is a major factor there.. The only two types of combat this plane would be excellent for would be a diving attack, and a turning fight. Anything else and you can kiss it goodbye.. But then, thats why they made the top turret rotational .. Theoretically you can counter a maneuver while keeping crosshairs on him; theoretically.. truth told, in its one year of life in the army, the plane never found its niche. Jack Northrop designed an amazing plane with the P-61. it may have been designed as a night fighter, but theres more to it than that i think. her final days saw her working mostly on intruder ( attack ) missions, blowing up trains and other strategic objects, which with the firepower she had, she did amazingly well.. At the moment, out plane mimics the real one in flight ( according to all the data we've been able to gather ). Takeoff is fairly normal with just a slight yaw to the left, and she settles like a rock when you raise the flaps.. But once your up, she flies good. Landing can be tricky. the plane wallows as said, and stability isnt the most assuring thing you have, but youve seen the video. You can bank all the way down to the runway and still level her out to touch down.. Stopping is done in a little over 980 feet.
one thing is for certain. She isnt one of these light and nomble type planes you can dance all over the sky like a jumping bean.. Like Tom said above. Shes heavy metal thunder. Fast, heavy, and god pity whatever found its way in front of her canons. Our plane will be just like her
PS:: Optimum approach speed is 110 with touch down at 95 - 100 with a mostly full load.
Takeoff dist was approx 2000 feet with a full load and flaps, and 2000 feet with a light load and no flaps..
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