I recently downloaded a Hellcat from avhistory. I was
really disappointed in the performance. I know that the
1% team uses an extremely detailed system for putting
very accurate flight characteristics into their aircraft
(I love the Zero, Oscar, and Wildcat from avhistory).

I'm writing all this not to complain, but to hopefully get
an explanation from the many veterans out there. I
could not get the Hellcat to exceed 250mph in level
flight - even when tweaking the auto-mixture manually.
I get a stall warning 20 degrees into a banking turn,
whether a level or diving turn - sooner in a climbing
turn. It turns painfully slow! I have noticed that not
yanking the stick around too fast will cure some of this.
But, overall, the aircraft performs horribly as a fighter.
Taking this airplane against the 1% Zero is virtual
suicide...at least in my experience. I expected to use
"Boom and Zoom" tactics with this. But I cannot get it
to "boom" enough to escape the Zero, and it loses E
so fast in a climb that I cannot get to the same altitude
as the Zeros before they have flown past, turned 180
degrees, and are firing from my 6 again.

So, does anyone have any flying/install tips to share
regarding this plane? I modified the aircraft.cfg file so
that it performs as I expected. But I would prefer to use
the original because I know that a lot of effort goes into
tuning them to perform a certain way. Any help in
understanding how to fly/configure this Hellcat with its
original settings would be greatly appreciated!

Hey Bear,

Thanks for the response. Well, I downloaded the Atlantic
Hellcat (I was flying the Pacific Hellcat) and did notice a
slight performance increase, but nothing to record what
you got.

After 3mins of level flight at full power with WEP
engaged, I achieved a speed of 296mph. My Realism
setting is at 95% (weapons on "strong"). Trim and
mixture was adjusted early in the flight. Still, this was
better than the Pacific 'cat. In the same test with the
Pacific one, I achieved 278 mph.

I will post this over at avhistory in the "squawks" (?)
forum. Thanks for the tip.

Hey Bear,

I cannot confirm straight away because I am at work
now. But I believe I am using IAS, which would explain
a lot (now that I re-read your previous post). But I
will have to verify that.

I liked the Atlantic 'Cat much better. It is much less
prone to stalling out and I could run away from danger
fairly easily. I munched a lot of Zeros with this one.
Unfortunately, my wingmen were mere fodder against
them. hehehe. C'est La Vie!

Eric