• excellent roll rate
• excellent guns
• excellent rudder range
• good/excellent speed
• exellent speed in high-angle dive
• good high speed handling
• good acceleration
  
• mediocre climb rate (190d9 excellent climber)
• poor sustained turn
• poor performance over 5.5km(190d9 exellent any alt)
  

Rules of thumb:

• Speed and Altitude are words that save the day! (allso know as E)
• Before fight climb at least to 3km. More alt = More options. (5km the best)
• Low or Slow = trouble, Low and Slow = dead.
• Use elevator only lightly
• Only attack if you E-state is higher than that of you opponents. (avoid hi cons)
• Be Fast, use suprise!
• Dont fixate on 1 con too long. (Hit&Run)
• Dont turn flat more than 45°, you will only lose your E.
• Look around regularly (Keep your SA high, look for hi cons ib)
• Fly with wingman (easier said than done in FH:)
  

Flying Focke-Wulf 190

Some people think FW-190 is a tricky plane to fly. That isn't quite true. Those opinions are mainly from pilots who think air combat is only about turning your nose against the con and shoot. FW-190 is quite easy to fly if you remember it isnt Turn&Burn fighter. Flying 190 is about Boom & Zoom, Speed, Energy saving ACM and team tactics.

In 190, if you apply too much elevator you will fast find yourself in accelerated stall(i hope this is right term). If you enter spin you are quite a wizard, dont worry...german fighters recover by themselves...but gentle forward push on stick never hurts.

Roll in 190 is excellent so learn to use it. In high-angle diving attacks roll can be used to match enemys flat turn evasives. Learn it and spits arent safe. Rudder is awesome in 190s. Use its great range in HOs and evasives.

Anyway 190 pilot can be excellent even without all fancy ACM stuff. Just by keeping speed and alt high he is safe. When he attacks only with E advantage he racks kills after kills.

Attack lower cons. Dont use your E to turn with em, just climb back up, level, collect speed and attack again. Disengage before advance is lost...so you dont have to act like those runstangs:)

Danger number 1 for 190 is con with higher E state. Avoid hi cons by all means. Try to get out before they attack...if they do youre in deep shit. Split-s and barrel-roll are good options to evade gun passes. Hi-angle dive is good when hes over you...just dive out of vis at highest speed possible. When its safe climb up again.

Situational awareness comes very important in flying FW190. When you go fast, situation changes fast. Be allways ready for new threats, especially look out for high cons. In attack key is to see con before he sees you. Use speed to suprise!

Flying 190 is thinking, thinking must start before takeoff. Look at map and do some plans before getting into air.

Scrambling is not easy in 190, so i dont advise to take it up from field that is under attack unless you really know what youre doing.

Remember SPEED!, think 3D! and Keep SA high!

Tips and Tricks

Convergence of 280 is good for 190s as you cant allways shoot from d1. 280 quaratees good change of hitting in range d4-less. In 6 a clock attack i dont fire before d2.

When climbing vertically up after attack use your roll to keep visual on con and to set up your next attack. In this position you can change direction with lightning speed(ehh faster:).

Hammerhead is good way to reverse. Using it you can turn 180dgr in 2sec. Climb directly up(you must have good E adv. over enemy). Look that your wings are level. When speed decreases to about 200kmh cut the throttle(push e). At 100kmh push rudder and turn Engine at full power(e again) *flip* and your nose points direcly down to suprised opponent, who is most like in stall:)

When you dive to opponents 6, but he notices you hell most like do horizontal turn(usually to left). You can counter this if you pull immelmann in second he starts rolling before turn. Even if its spit or yak youll end up to his 6...just be fast. You learn to predict their moves. As for yourself...be unpredictable.

Low alt split-s is great if you have someone on your 6. When flying few hundred meters over ground with con on your 6. Cut throttle, pull you nose up about 10-30dgr, roll inverted and pull back on stick. At halfway of split-s hit full throttle to accelerate out. Cons will crash if they try to follow this. Trick is that 190 bleeds E much faster than allied fighters so they cant slow down in time...split-s goes wide and they hit the ground. Works best again planes like P-51 and spitfire.

Rudder and roll makes possible many moves that other fighters cant follow. For example: the helicopter-like diving barrel-roll (cut throttle, dive vertically with full roll and apply full rudder and maybe gently elevator). It forces all fighters at your 6 to overshoot and fly past. Negative effect in this move is that you lose much of precious altitude so its recommended only as last move. Learn ACM that uses FW190s strong points -speed, rudder and roll. Barrel-roll, Hammerhead, Yo-Yos etc... my favourite are many kinds of vertical moves 190 is capable.

Try to attack from positions enemy rarely looks. Fast dive to low 6 is very good if possible. High 3-9 a clock positions are also good for coming in...slowly turning with roll as you close up to get better shooting angle(5 or 7clock). . You will learn how important good roll is in dive attacks. FW-190 pilot with good deflection shot is dangerous to any allied pilot.

If you know enemy is attacking f13(for example), just look where they takeoff. Usually people just fly blind and straight to attack area. They are easy targets. You even know their flying direction. Position yourself behind enemy field and take same heading that expected cons have. Put WEP and watch low 12 by frequently rolling your plane. When you see dot its allmost 100% sure con. He is slow and climbing. Faster you get to his low 6 = less probably he'll see you. So dive to his low 6 fast...in 190 this can be done REALLY fast at about 750kmh. If you got to his low 6 unnoticed its allmost certain kill. Close up to d2 and let MG151/20s speak!

May the E be with you!
-illo-