The Kingston Spaniel

[Bullethead 12]

Nobody seems to talk much about flying the Pup and I'd like to change that. So here's what I've got to get the ball rolling.

 

Strengths

• No vices whatsoever
  
• Practically impossible to stall, doesn't spin unless forced, recovers from stalls very easily
  
• Very good forward-up visibility due to "tinted sun roof" in upper wing
  
• Can turn on a dime without losing that much altitude
  
• Excellent control authority even at very low speeds
  

Weaknesses

 

• Can't take much damage
  
• Only 1 gun
  
• Slow
  
• Loses speed rapidly in zooms
  
• Low rate of climb
  
• Poor downwards visibility
  

General Flying Characteristics

For ease of use, it's hard to beat the Pup. It rolls nearly straight down the runway, with only a slight tendency to pull a little left. It comes off the ground by itself and keeps its wings level pretty much automatically. IOW, getting the thing trimmed out is very easy.

 

The sustained climb, however, isn't very good. Right off the runway, the ROC is close to 1000fpm, but it quickly decreases with altitude, so that by about 5000 feet you'll be down to about 500fpm. From here on up, however, the ROC decreases much less rapidly, so you can eventually reach about 15-16000 feet if you have the patience and opportunity. But for the most part, the Pup's sustained ROC isn't much better than a Fee's; it just takes longer to completely disappear.

 

OTOH, because the Pup can still fly and maneuver quite well at extremely low speeds, you can "climb the stairs" by doing a series of zooms separated by stretches of level flight. You can go up right to a stall and level off without losing much, if any, of the altitude you just gained, and can repeat it quickly because it doesn't take long to get back up to about 70 knots.

 

The Pup can never quite make 100 knots on the level even at low altitude. As with ROC, level speed also decreases with altitude in pretty much the same manner. That is, from 90 knots or so near the ground, you're stuck with about 75 above about 5000 feet, but it doesn't decrease much below that the rest of the way up. In general, therefore, the Pup is unlikely to catch any undamaged enemy plane, not even a 2-seater, unless it can dive on it from a fairly high initial altitude advantage.

 

Diving isn't the Pup's strong point. It's too light to accelerate quickly and too flimsy to survive much speed. You can hear the airframe starting to creak at about 110 knots. It also creaks if you do a hard turn at 100 knots or so. I take this as a warning and don't push the thing any harder than that, and haven't yet had a wing come off. However, I have damaged the plane from overstress that didn't result in total structural failure. IIRC, this happened pulling hard out of a steep dive at about 120 knots. This is why it's hard to catch anything even if you're diving toward it; you really can't achieve a very high speed. So, either dive with power on at a shallow angle, or dive steeply with the power off.

 

The Pup's wings-level stall speed is somewhere down about 40 knots, perhaps even less. The accelerated stall speed in even a hard turn is also quite low, about 50 knots. It's therefore possible to wring the Pup out, rapidly changing directions with radical turns, without any real fears about stalling. You can also hang on your prop fairly well. I have never had an undamaged Pup go into a spin. All that happens in a stall, even while turning hard, is that the nose drops. Once that happens, you're immediately above stall speed and away you go again.

 

Landing the Pup is about as easy as it gets. Just throttle back and float on it. Because the controls still retain most of their authority right down to stall speed, you can really make precision landings. Plus, the roll-out after touchdown is very short. This is quite handy when you have to force-land in tiny fields studded with obstructions.

 

Combat

I suppose in that 1916, the Pup would be quite formidable against Eindeckers and Halberstadts. I've never flown it then, however, only from Bloody April on. Thus, I only meet Albatros D.IIIs with a few D.IIs thrown in, both of which have the Pup outclassed in all areas except low-speed turning, and usually have numbers on their side, too. So all that follows assumes the enemy is the Albatros D.III, my most common foe.

 

Due to the low rate of climb, enemies will start out above you nearly all the time. There's no point in trying to climb to them, because long before you can do that, they will either have swooped you or run away. Pup combat therefore almost always goes in 3 phases. First, you're totally on the defensive playing dodgeball with much faster enemies. Then, once the enemy bleeds down closer to co-E with you, you can start fighting on more or less even terms. Finally, if the enemy completely blows his energy, you can have your way with him.

 

Due to the Pup's extremely good turning qualities, it's pretty easy to avoid getting hit in the 1st "dodgeball" phase. The Albatros, when fresh from a good dive, is well above its corner speed so the agile Pup can sidestep its charges quite easily. I usually go 5 or 6 sorties without taking a bullet from an enemy scout in this phase. However, when they do hit me, it's usually a fight-ending thing, because the Pup has a glass jaw when exposed to twin MGs. Either I'm shot down directly or so crippled I have to disengage (if over friendly territory) or have to fight on hopelessly to the bitter end (if over enemy territory--They'll never take me alive! ).

 

In the 2nd phase, things are rather more challenging. By this point, the Albatros is at its corner speed so is turning at its best, which is pretty damn good. OTOH, if the Pup has any offensive desires at all, it has to be going fast enough to stay within or close to guns range, which puts it above its own corner speed where it can't turn at its best. As a result, turning in this phase is approximately even, although the Pup has a slight edge. This edge is enough to gain angles on the attack, but not enough to avoid a 2-gun broadside if you lose SA enough to get an Albatros on your 6, so do NOT get fixated on your target and check the booty frequently :yes: . Meanwhile, however, the Albatros is still somewhat faster than the Pup, and zooms better for a given speed anyway. Thus, the Albatros will still be doing wingover turns and low high yoyos which the Pup can't quite follow. When your target starts up, you have to know when to break off and follow below him more or less on the level, waiting for him to come back down to you. If you try to follow him up, you usually won't get a shot at him before you stall, you hang there as a perfect target for one of his buddies, and you slow down so much that he gains enough separate to reverse and thus take away most or all of the angles you've gained on him so far.

 

All that said, however, this is when I get most of my kills. Most Bloody April Albatros pilots are smart enough not to blow their E any more than this before extending to catch their breath. I tend to get them with short bursts into the cockpit at 90^ deflection at VERY short range, about as close to colliding as you can get. Either that or I hit their radiator and slow them down a lot, after which I can mop them up with relative ease.

 

The 3rd phase is thus more about bayonetting the wounded than it is true ACM. You've got Albatri who can't do more than about 60 knots due to damage. They can't zoom to speak of, they can't turn worth a damn, and they can't outrun the Pup. At this point, the Pup is close to its corner speed, turning at its best, and is capable of following the lamed Albatri through any zoom they try. If you've survived to this point, you can throttle back, saddle up, and dispatch them without fear of being shot in the back, unless you forget to tell your wingmen to quit shooting.

 

The biggest challenges in combat, therefore, are hitting the target, and getting enough lead into him to bring him down.

 

Despite, or perhaps because of, the Pup's admirable handling qualities, it does have 1 problem when it comes to hitting a target: it's VERY sensitive to rudder inputs. This means using rudder to bring the sights on isn't as useful as it is on other planes. Quite often, you'll overshoot your mark significantly. It's very easy to completely waste otherwise good firing opportunities sawing back and forth rapidly across the target without ever getting the sights to settle where you want them. Therefore, you should do all you can do get on target with aileron and elevator. However, the Pup's roll rate, while pretty good, isn't enough to make make quick, small corrections to aim, so you need to know how to get right on the 1st time.

 

On top of this, the Pup only has 1 gun, and this single gun seems to have a very low ROF. This seems quite realistic, given the memoirs of Pup pilots complaining about this very thing. Short bursts usually number less than 10 bullets in total. Albatri are rather tough targets apart from their vulnerable radiators, so putting only a couple of bullets into them per burst usually isn't going to do much to them. You have to really drill them with long bursts, but as mentioned above, this is difficult to do unless you find yourself righ ton target without needing the rudder.

 

As a result, I often find it easier to maim Albatri with high-deflection snapshots into their plan views than I do trying to saddle up on them when they can still fly well. If you can only fire a few bullets at a time, it's best to put them where they do the most good, and the top view exposes most of the vitals: engine, radiator, and cockpit. Besides, doing things this keeps you and your wingmen safer. You're not fixated on 1 target so can check your own 6 and keep an eye on your wingmen in case they get in trouble.

 

You should expect wingman casualties, however. Quite frequently, 1 of your guys will hold still just a second too long, and that's all it takes from twin Spandaus.

 

Conclusion

The Pup is very forgiving and easy to fly. Fighting in it is challenging in some ways but easy in others, and overall quite fun. I recommend it.

[Fliegenhund 0]

I agree with you Bullet. I just lost my RNAS8 pilot to a freak collision a couple of days ago. Adding insult to injury he had 16.75hrs flying time, talk about cruel! But the pup is very nimble I found with using right rudder you can almost turn 180 with enough speed, it got me out of some tight spots that little trick!

[SirMike1983 3]

I think this plane outclasses the Alb D.II hands down. I've flown it against them and have had no trouble chewing them up. It's snappy enough to come around on them and get the shots off or to keep you out of trouble.

 

It does have some trouble with Alb D.III aircraft, but again is more responsive than the Albatross. You can use that to your advantage if you can lure a turning fight.

[Olham 164]

Only flew the Pup three, four times, but I didn't find at all, that it had a bad rate of climb. See Wikipedia:

 

Operational history

The Sopwith Pup was used by both the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).

In May 1916, the RNAS received its first Pups for operational trials with "A" Naval Squadron. The first Pups

reached the Western Front in October 1916 with No. 8 Squadron RNAS, and proved successful, with the

squadron's Pups claiming 20 enemy machines destroyed in operations over the Somme battlefield by the

end of the year. The first RFC Squadron to re-equip with the Pup was No. 54 Squadron, which arrived in

France in December. The Pup quickly proved its superiority over the early Fokker, Halberstadt and Albatros

biplanes. After encountering the Pup in combat, Manfred von Richthofen said, "We saw at once that the

enemy airplane was superior to ours."

 

The Pup's light weight and generous wing area gave it a good rate of climb. Agility was enhanced by

ailerons being fitted on both wings. The Pup had half the horsepower and armament of the German Albatros

D.III, but was much more maneuverable, especially over 15,000 ft (4,500m) due to its light wing loading.

Ace James McCudden stated that "When it came to maneuvering, the Sopwith (Pup) would turn twice to an

Albatros' once ... it was a remarkably fine machine for general all-round flying. It was so extremely light

and well surfaced that after a little practice one could almost land it on a tennis court."[2] However, the Pup

was also longitudinally unstable. According to one pilot, "It was so light to the touch, if you sneezed, you looped."

[End of Wikipedia quote]

 

As an Albatros pilot, I don't turn much with them, cause they are too nimble. I prefer to shoot them down,

before they reach a lethal distance. Fortunately, they break apart like butterflies.

Edited August 18, 2009 by Olham

[Bullethead 12]

I think this plane outclasses the Alb D.II hands down.

 

While I agree completely that the D.II is the easier opponent to face, it's still superior to the Pup in many important ways. It's faster on the level and in a dive, can zoom higher from the same starting speed, is much tougher, and has 2 guns that each fire faster than the Pup's 1. Plus, it doens't turn that much worse than the Pup. When I fly the D.II, I have no problem laying waste to Pups.

 

Therefore, I think it's a matter of AI squadron/pilot quality. I find some D.II Jastas/flights to be much better than others. The good ones can kick your butt, the bad ones are cannonfodder even for Fees.

 

I always pray to meet D.IIs instead of D.IIIs, but there are precious few D.IIs still around in Bloody April. IIRC, only Jasta 12 is fully equipped with them, and only a couple of others still have a flight with them. So I'm somewhat conflicted. While I prefer to flight D.IIs, I consider them an endangered species and don't want to push them into extinction .

 

Only flew the Pup three, four times, but I didn't find at all, that it had a bad rate of climb.

 

It's a light plane with a big wing, but it's got very little power, and its power goes away fairly quickly with altitude. So you'd expect its ROC to begin to suck at relatively low altitudes, and it does. Still, having been flying the Pup since the get-go of P3, it does seem to have less climb now than it did in the beginning.

[JohnGresham 0]

I think this plane outclasses the Alb D.II hands down. I've flown it against them and have had no trouble chewing them up. It's snappy enough to come around on them and get the shots off or to keep you out of trouble.

 

It does have some trouble with Alb D.III aircraft, but again is more responsive than the Albatross. You can use that to your advantage if you can lure a turning fight.

 

No question about that. She's a dream to fly and can turn on a sixpence. A competently piloted Pup can run rings around a DII. After that it gets much tricker, simply because it becomes difficult to catch or climb with anything. If you can engage a DIII in a turning fight and the numerical odds are not stacked against you, then the Pup can more than hold its own, but (if you can) you've got to choose your engagements with even more care than usual to stand any chance of lasting very long. Still, it's hard not to fall in love with any of the Sopwith aircraft in the sim. They've all got their drawbacks and quirks, but they're just so damn agile

[carrick58 23]

No question about that. She's a dream to fly and can turn on a sixpence. A competently piloted Pup can run rings around a DII. After that it gets much tricker, simply because it becomes difficult to catch or climb with anything. If you can engage a DIII in a turning fight and the numerical odds are not stacked against you, then the Pup can more than hold its own, but (if you can) you've got to choose your engagements with even more care than usual to stand any chance of lasting very long. Still, it's hard not to fall in love with any of the Sopwith aircraft in the sim. They've all got their drawbacks and quirks, but they're just so damn agile

 

 

Somewhere, I read about a Sop pup being forced to land by a German pilot , dont know if he had a red plane because the british pilot couldnt run away from him. ( out of ammo? Lack of speed ?, The wind at the front?)

[BadBud 0]

Tried the Pup today for the first time and stayed with it for about six QC flights and found all that you say is right and may stay with it for awhile longer. Really have not decided which of these crates I like to fly the most yet. Do like the SE5a. Also was nicely surprised when flying the (CFS3) QC that the Spawn option now works with the new patch 1.32e. Saw no mention of it in the write-up for the e patch. Nice surprise.

BadBud

www.simflite.com

[Guest British_eh]

I'm just looking at putting the Pup in a Mission.

 

According to James McCudden, and quotes from several others, it outclassed any other German fighter at the time, and indeed, from what I have read, think it is allround, a better fighter than the ( highly overrated) Camel ever was.

 

Not sure about actual numbers, but in the end, it had a niche that was indisputable, albeit short.

 

Cheers,

 

British_eh

[Hasse Wind 46]

The Pup's a great plane, one of my favourites. So easy to fly and be successful in.

 

Edit: If it only had two MGs and it still retained its awesome manoeuverability...

Edited August 19, 2009 by Hasse Wind

[themightysrc 5]

The Pup's a wonderful plane to learn OFF in. I'd agree with pretty much everything that's already been stated regarding flying and fighting in the thing, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's not yet tried it.

 

The only real problem I have in flying Pups in campaigns is the numbers thing - if you're faced with twice you number of DIIIs about 2-3 feet above you, there's really no place to hide and you're likely to pitching for your Victoria/wooden cross in pretty short order.

[JohnGresham 0]

Somewhere, I read about a Sop pup being forced to land by a German pilot , dont know if he had a red plane because the british pilot couldnt run away from him. ( out of ammo? Lack of speed ?, The wind at the front?)

 

Trying to run away from a pursuing DIII in a Pup is a futile exercise. Like I said, the once the Germans introduce the the DIII, success with a Pup is still possible, but it does get much trickier.

[Olham 164]

mighty, do you fly with the other flight together? Cause, then you shouldn't be so terribly outnumbered anymore.

 

During Phase 2, I had a debate with Pol about the Pup and the DII. I saud, I'd always pick the DII, for it's firepower.

His answer was brilliant; he said:

The British built great aeroplanes, the German great war machines.

 

In peace time flying, the Pup would be wonderful for me. As a fighter, I prefer the solid ruggedness and overall

qualities of the DII plus their firepower. And if the Pup pilot isn't really good, I can always turn quite well with them.

[Bullethead 12]

According to James McCudden, and quotes from several others, it outclassed any other German fighter at the time, and indeed, from what I have read, think it is allround, a better fighter than the ( highly overrated) Camel ever was.

 

When it was brand new, the Pup was the alpha dog. But the Albatros D.II is its match. Each is superior to the other in some areas and inferior in others, so at the bottom line it comes down to pilot skill. In equally competent hands, which only an MP deuling tourney (hint, hint) can provide, I strongly suspect the honors to be about even. It all comes down to who makes the mistake of trying to beat the other at his own game. If the D.II keeps its minimum vertical maneuvering speed, and the Pup keeps at its corner speed, then things are likely to be decided by lucky, crippliing hits in snapshots. But if the D.II tries to turn with the Pup, or the Pup tries to zoom with the D.II, then sic transit gloria.

 

The D.III is the Pup's superior in every respect except low-speed turning. A good human in a Pup can beat an ace AI D.III pilot, but in MP I'd put my money on the D.III, at least in the final rounds of a tourney after the greedy and impatient had been eliminated. By April 1917, when the Pup is facing mostly D.IIIs, it's definitely the inferior ride.