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How To Fly The Bf-109 Franz In Air Warrior

By Troy "Pancake" Wigham

Most pilots who prefer looping dogfights seem to migrate to the Spitfire and the P-38 Lightning, but in truth the Bf-109 can handle either of these planes in a stall fight and can actually be a superior aircraft if flown the right way by a skilled pilot.

The 109 is the ultimate scramble fighter. Its the plane you fly when the enemy is coming across the river and you've got to get up there NOW. It climbs like a rocket (has twice the WEP of other fighters), has a small "hit" bubble, can take an above-average amount of damage, and has a phenomenal roll rate. This means that it is a very difficult plane to hit, and when its hit it will keep right on flying. This also means that its a great furball fighter. When there's a multitude of aircraft in a confined area with the bullets flying everywhere, its a good idea to fly a plane that is a small target and is durable.

On the downside, the 109 has a very small fuel cell and a very small ammo load. Unless the enemy is already crossing the river you don't want to take anything less than 50% fuel, and amounts over 50% will affect the flight performance of the aircraft, particularly in the Full Real arena. The small ammo load means that you will have to conserve your gun bursts. The 109 is for snipers, not pilots that spray their targets with tracers. Fortunately, the 109's cannon lasts through most of the ammo load which gives the Franz a nice added punch.

Visibility out of the cockpit is about the same as that of the Spitfire and is much better than a P-38. From the enemy's perspective the 109 can be a very difficult plane to see due to its small size and dark coloring. From dead astern or dead ahead the 109 is almost invisible.

The 109 has 3 flap settings, full up, half, full down. This means that you won't really need to use the flaps very often unless you get caught in a low-speed stall/spin fight. The 109 tends to lose energy when you work the controls but you don't really need to pack a lot of speed when you enter a dogfight because the engine with full WEP can actually "helicopter" a 109 assuming that you don't start from a dead stop. A Spit and P-38 have smaller turning radius in a flat turn, but by using a nose-up/nose-down turn you can cut inside of them and lob a cannon shell through the enemy's canopy.

The one thing you have to watch out for is the clever enemy that comes at you from dead astern and below. Like most of the aircraft in AirWarrior, there's part of the fuselage blocking your lower six o'clock view. You'll get an icon showing the enemy's range but that's about it. Diving won't help if the bandit on your six already has a higher rate of speed, but you can dive straight down pull up a little and get the pursuer to commit in that direction, then use your roll rate to flip over and pull out in the other direction. This works very well in the Full Real arenas where the pursuer would black out if he tried to follow.