Flying the Buff in sim combat

By Andy Reid

I've been a fan of the Buffalo for a few decades now, so when the X-box 360 game "Battlestations Midway", by EDIOS (Hungary) was found to have the Buffalo in it, I just have to go and buy the game. The Buffalo in this game only fires the wing guns but does have the power problems, very annoyingly evident when trying to climb to intercept incoming dive bombers, in the Midway mission, authentically reproduced. Markings were for VMF 3 and even has the Felix the Cat carrying a bomb on the fuselage. The aircraft is not available for use in online multiplayer games, only in single player story episodes.

In the latest seqeul to the game, Battlestations Pacific, the Buffalo has been improved, with the nose guns now firing, the cockpit view authentically reproduced. The Buffalo now has the markings for an aircraft flying from the USS Long Island. The best part of the game, is that the Buffalo is the default choice in online dogfight battles, along with the P40, Wildcat, Helcat, Lightning and the Brewster built F3A Corsair (by some irony). Needless to say, with oposing players having the choice of Japanese fighters such as the Oscar, Zero, Raiden, Gekko or Shinden (a pusher prop like the Curtis XP-55), most players only try the Buffalo once or twice.... and then steer clear of it.

The flight characteristics of the final overweight and underpowered Buffalo are faithfully reproduced so it is one of the most challenging and hardest of fighters to dogfight with. Inexperienced players usually don't last 20 seconds even against opposing players of equal combat inexperience.

One US friend and occasional ingame wingman, who fares quite well in the online dogfights, often tells , "Why the hell do you fly that useless piece of sh*t?? It doesn't handle and flies like a brick!!"

I reply, "You just need to know how to dogfight a Buffalo and take advantage of its odd quirks". I made 5 kills in one single bout flying the Buffalo, as did my teenage son. We both found that with the throttle closed, the Buffalo can outturn the Zero, but not the Oscar so well.

Pulling into a steep spiralling climb and shutting the throttle usually has any pursuer overshoot. More experienced opponents will try to throttle back and match the spiral, thus initiating a "Rolling Scissor" in which the Baffalo always has the advantage, as the Zero has a higher stalling speed.

Another table turning evade that only works with the Buffalo, is "Porpoising" where by the Buffalo is put into a steep angle climb, the throttle is shut, still in the climb so the the aircraft deliberately starts to stall. Immediately stick forward, throttle still closed and then nose up and rake the belly of the pursuer, who will have overshot and nosed down to attampt to latch onto the Buffalo again.

The Buffalo also drops like a brick and rapidly pushes past 400 MPH in dives, enough to make distance from a pursuer or build up a head of speed. On the downside, the Buffalo's bulk is magnified by speed and it turns a very wide radius at higher speeds. In level flight, without the boost on, best speed is in the 220's with anywhere between 290 to 330 mph on the boost, though this is limited duration. Losing speed in level flight and dives is a problem compared to other aircraft in the game.

When it comes to chasing down the opposition, the Buffalo is easily evaded by the more experienced players. Lack of engine performance is main reason. All the Japanese fighters are faster and tend to fly on full throttle, where the Buffalo is least maneuverable. The Buffalo only has a fighting chance in dogfights if the speed is kept between 90 and 180 MPH, the lower the better. Against the inexperienced, niave and rookies, with a unimaginative vocabulary of dogfighting maneuvers, the Buffalo is very effective, which is probally what happened to the Red Airforce over Finland.

The four 0.50" machine guns are good enough for the job, so I'm not sure where the "undergunned" complained originated. An Oscar only has half as many. Unless the firer knows how to lead the target correctly, all the guns in the world are pretty ineffective. Compared to many rifle calibre gunned fighters, the Buffalo is well armed. My son pointed out that he's become so atuned to flyingt he Buffalo, in "Battlestation Pacfic" online dogfights, that he finds it strange and hard to fly anything else well.

Unlike many WW2 Buffalo pilots, we've both had time to grow familiar and atuned with the Buffalo and all its quirks, foilboles, etc.

I've flown many fighters in accurate simulators, from WW1 to WW2, and the SPAD 13 also suffers from many of the handling problems of the Buffalo.... being overweight and easily outmaeuvered. The SPAD 13 requires different tactics than the norm. The Buffalo also need different tactics in combat.

I would recommend Buffalo fans to buy an X-box 360, if they haven't one already, and to buy Battlestations Pacific just to be able to have the realistic experience of flying the Buffalo in a dogfight.