Thunderjets over Korea

IV. PILOT'S NOTES

The F-84e is often at a disadvantage when dogfighting the North Korean prop-fighters like the Yak-9 and La-7, because it can't quite make the turn tight enough to bring the guns to bear. So try thumbing up the trim by just one notch when you get into a turning fight, and you'll minimise that problem somewhat.

Do not however, go beyond that single notch when performing aerobatics, you may well depart stable flight abruptly and go into a spin, or some other such Microsoft envelope-pushing flight failure.

The F-84e is, however, not the World's greatest aircraft. It was one of the first jet fighters, and suffered from a lot of teething problems. A test-flight report by Donald S Lopez, reprinted in his book "Fighter Pilot's Heaven" states:

The F-84B does not perform satisfactorily any of the following missions:

Fortunately, you're flying the "E" model, so some of the early problems had by then been ironed out.

But Doug Attrell compares this current model unfavourably to the Banshee, saying that "it must have been a bugger to fight with."

The one real advantage you have with the Thunderjet is a good set of rudders that will enable you to kick around your nose and hopefully bring your guns to bear on the bad guys.

Your missions have you stationed at Kimpo airbase, which your pop-up ADF gauge (Shift+5) finds at position 93. You are at 62 ft above sea level on a heading of 323 degrees.

The Thunderjet had a notoriously long take-off run, and with one notch of flaps down and full throttle, you won't be unsticking until about 120 Kts. I recommend that you thumb-in around one notch of up-trim to help you hold the stick back until you get to about 250 Kts and can start to climb.