Flying the "new" Pfalz D IIIa

[Olham 164]

Just made one flight with the Pfalz D IIIa to check what was changed. But I don't know the craft

so well. What I liked was the good climb up towards a flight of Strutters; we reached them and brought

two down; Albatros D V from two other Jastas finished the others. 1918 the sky is crowded!

 

Our mission was to protect balloons, and although we couldn't save it from the attack of 4 SPAD XIII,

we didn't let one of them return home. I realised, that the Pfalz is a good craft for fighting in teams,

and I trained my abilities as a commander. When my ammo was out, I had damaged three SPADs so much

they rather crawled, and then I ordered my wingmen again and again, which craft to attack first.

That way we killed them without a single loss! So low down, the SPAD has no real advantage, except the

better speed for running home.

Like the SPAD, the Pfalz didn't seem to like a mix of banked turn using elevator, and rudder turn.

You better only do the one or the other. But up to a bank of 30 - 40 °, I could turn well using rudder.

The dive stability is wonderful, when you come from the Albatros.

So, I got 1 Strutter, and me and my 3 wings finished off 4 SPAD XIII. When you look at the map excerpt,

you see, this was a busy day in my area.

 

 

Edited October 1, 2009 by Olham

[Dutch_P47M 9]

Yes that is what I like about the rigid Pfalz D series; dive, hit and run. Pfalz were not that populair, among German pilots and the allied nickname for the DIIIa was something like foolisch Pfalz fish. I still can remember, that in RedBaron the Fokker D7 was supposed to be the best German plane flyable in this game, but I was always better in flying the ugly PFALZ D12!

Edited October 1, 2009 by Dutch_P47M

[Olham 164]

Well, the D XII is another cup of tea, surely. The D IIIa wasn't that popular among pilots,

and they prefered the Albatros D Va, although that craft also was dated by 1918 standards.

The Pfalz DIIIa in the hands of a good pilot should be a craft to fight heavy energy fighters

like the SPAD XIII, or two-seaters.

Against turn fighters like the Camel - I don't know - hit and run maybe, and only with good

altitude advantage. I must try that.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I'm really pleased the guys have re-looked at the Pfaltz!

It was my favourite fighter in P2...and was absolutely crap in BHaH.... Now, having tried the new FM, I shall be skinning and fighting with her much more!

[Olham 164]

The Pfalz can fight the SPAD now. It's not easy, but when the SPAD goes low, follow and hit him.

When your shooting is good even at longer ranges, you can get him. This one was really hit by

two good bursts, and he didn't escape me.

Although I would prefer the SPAD in a dogfight, the Pfalz is turning quite well banked hard, using

elevator. But careful near the deck - I didn't know how fast it lost altitude banked like that -

and crashed short after the SPAD.

 

 

[Hasse Wind 46]

Having flown the P3 Pfalz quite a lot before its flight model was changed in the latest patch, I could instantly feel how much better it is now than it used to be. The controls feel much more natural and I can do quite well using almost the same tactics as I do with the Albatrosses, except that the Pfalz excels as a diver, unlike the Alb D.III and D.V/D.Va. Surviving in the slow and clumsy pre-1.32g Pfalz was VERY difficult - but now it feels like it isn't any more difficult than flying the D.Va in the same period of war. I always felt the real Pfalz couldn't have been really as bad as the OFF P3 version, otherwise we'd know the plane as one of the worst fighters of WW1, and that isn't the case. Most German pilots liked the Albatrosses more, but this doesn't mean the Pfalz was a bad fighter - it was just different than what most German fighter pilots were used to flying.

 

Now I really hope we'll get the Pfalz D.XII in some add-on pack. It was in many ways a better fighter than the D.IIIa, being fast and tough (much like a German SPAD!).

 

By the way, the best Pfalz skins (IMO) can be found from Jasta 10 and Jasta 18.

 

And developers, thanks for constantly spending time improving OFF. It's really appreciated.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Just took the Pfaltz up for a fly around, and as Olham says..it's possible to take down a Spad or two!

Still not a brilliant Turn fighter, but you can whip the nose up pretty quickly, and catch out your opponent!

[Bullethead 12]

I've just taken the "new" Pfalz up for a few freeflight QC hops (more than 1 because I kept crashing) and 1 campaign hop that involved no fighting but I did RTB safely. It's definitely much easier to fly now, but still has quite a few quirks that IMHO make it something you have to specialize in over many painful, short careers.

 

My $0.02.....

 

In level flgiht, the Pfalz has neutral stability about both the pitch and roll axes. By that I mean that it has exactly zero tendency to return to straight-and-level flying once given either input, but OTOH also has exactly zero tendency to do more than you told it. It will happily fly along with a 45^ yaw angle, at least at about 70 knots or less, without further input from you. But OTGH, it has the same tendency as the Fee to conserve roll and yaw momentum to a huge degree, meaning that once you start it rotating, it's hard to stop it. Thus, getting the thing on course and wings level requires many opposite control inputs long after you think you've got it stopped where you want it. About the pitch axis, however, the Pfalz is stable, meaning that it will tend to revert to where it's trimmed for after you let go of the stick. All this, however, is pretty much the same as it was before 1.32g.

 

Turning is where the changes are most noticeable. Prior to 1.32g, the Pfalz had a VERY slow roll rate but once set in a steep bank, had one of the fastest turn rates and tightest turn radii in the game. It was like a 2-seater only faster. Problem was, you had to be very careful getting into such a turn because any movement of both aileron and elevator at the same time while banking put you into a very nasty, nose-high spin that was next to impossible to get out of prior to meeting the ground. Also, with any bank at all, the Pfalz lost all lift and fell out of the sky sideways like a brick.

 

In 1.32g, things are very different. Roll rate is now on a par with most other fighters and the nasty accelerated stalls and spins are gone. However, the Pfalz no longer turns anywhere near as well as it used to, and is in fact quite difficult to turn at all. And it still falls sideways out of the sky, but now this only happens in banks over 45^.

 

As Olham said, you have to be very careful with the controls when turning. I STRONGLY recommend never banking more than 30^, to give yourself a margin of error. When banked this much, don't touch the elevator but turn with the rudder. If you use elevator, you just do an oblique loop instead of a turn. In shallow-banked rudder turns like this, the Pfalz can maintain altitude and even climb, and turns with a respectable rate and radius.

 

But once banked over 45^, you immediately being a steep sideways plunge toward the ground. This is even at high speed and with the nose well above the horizon. Nothing you do can prevent this massive altitude loss, and despite dive speeds of like 4000fpm, you gain zero airspeed from the fall and in fact slow down. When banked this steeply, elevators are what you turn with--rudder has no appreciable effect either way. In addition, due to the conservation of roll momentum, you can't just bank this far, stop, and pull. The plane will keep rolling slowly into the turn and will soon go inverted, especially in turns to the left. It's thus necessary to hold a little opposite aileron while pulling back, to maintain the desired bank angle. To top it off, such steeply banked turns don't seem to get you around the circle any faster than the shallow-banked rudder turns. Thus, due to the very significant altitude loss, such steep turns IMHO are only useful for spiralling down quickly to land when enemies are near your airbase. They're certainly no good for ACM.

 

Except at very high speed, it's rather hard to do a pretty loop on the Pfalz. When it slows down at the top, it has a very strong tendency to roll one way or the other, but mostly to the left. However, it will go over the top from level flight at a starting speed of about 70 knots, which ain't bad.

 

The 1.32g Pfalz will still spin, but it's MUCH harder now to get into one, they're not violent, and recovery is very easy. The main problem is that due to the neutral yaw stability, it's quite possible to come out of a spin with very significant yaw on the plane and not realize it until you see the trees going by sideways.

 

The Pfalz climbs at about 1000fpm up to about 6000', then it falls off to about 500fpm at 10000'. At that point, ROC really tapers off. Getting to 15-16000' isn't that hard or time-consuming, but the Pfalz really doesn't want to go any higher, and I don't recommend doing so because of the tendency to roll left starting about 50 knots.

 

In a dive, the Pfalz is quite stable, without the tendency many planes have of going nose-up at high speeds. You can apply gentle forward stick to steepen your dive without losing engine power. However, full power, vertical dives from 15000' will only result in about 210 knots. The good thing, though, is that the diving Pfalz accelerates very quickly.

 

Landing is a bit tricky but not that difficult. The main worries are that the Pfalz wants to roll left at about 50 knots or slower, and will bounce high and generally fatally (due to the left roll) if the sink rate at contact is more than about 200fpm. It therefore needs to be landed somewhat fast and flat, although not excessively so. I like to come in in about a 30^ dive at about 100 knots until just above the threshhold, then chop power and gradually pull out so that I meet the ground in a 2-pointed doing about 55-60 knots with negligible sink rate. You'll touch down about 1/3 of the way down the runway. The thing slows down quickly once you start to level out, so don't worry about the approach speed, and once on the ground also slows down very quickly, so don't worry about using a lot of runway before touching.

 

At least until I get the hang of it, I'm going to impose on myself a hard combat deck of 5000'. That's if things are even or I'm at a disadvantage. Once I reach this point, it's time to leave. If I have the advantage, or if my target is already maimed, I'll still break off the chase at 2500'. Due to the Pfalz's ability to fall sideways with any real degree of bank, engaging in ACM any lower than that is a good way to become a Christmas tree ornament.

 

The Pfalz is definitely not a plane for the beginner. While possessed of good overall performance, its lack of positive stability and strange turning properties take a lot of getting used to, and habits acquired in more conventional planes are a positive hinderance. So IMHO, if you want to master the Pfalz, you have to fly it exclusively for a long time.