The first of the DCS WWII warbirds to go to free trial is the DCS: Spitfire IX which is available for the next two days. Here’s some information and a few tutorials that you might find handy with this warbird. If it’s your first warbird in DCS World, be prepared to have a whole new experience!
Beautiful, superb handling
Most pilots will tell you that the Spitfire was a true joy of an aircraft to fly with sensitive handling and great response. Most pilots of era felt that the Spitfire flew intuitively with the aircraft being sensitive enough to respond as if almost by thought. There’s a lot of that on display with the DCS: Spitfire IX although I do recommend that most players tune their control axis’ before they really give the aircraft a workout.
Get the rudder and elevator trim right, manage your engine RPM and boost correctly, and the Spitfire will reward you with one of the best and most exciting rides you’ll ever have in DCS World. Get them wrong and it will be a bit of an uncoordinated mess. The Spitfire definitely teaches good piloting skills and that can be a reward in itself.
On the ground the Spitfire requires careful taxiing and use of the differential brake system (the brake lever is connected to the rudder). Unless you have an axis on your stick or throttle to bind it to, you may need to learn to constantly tap the brakes and dance on the rudder to keep it going straight.
Once it’s all going, the Spitfire IXc is a fast and capable warbird. Not as fast as the Bf109K-4 or Fw190D-9 that it sometimes sees online but it is still fairly quick and when it lacks speed, it makes up for it in superb agility with a tight turning radius.
The .303 machine guns on the wings aren’t that powerful but the 20mm Hispano Mark II cannons will chew up enemy aircraft and ground targets quickly. The Spitfire does come equipped with optional bombs for attacking ground targets and a clipped wing variant is also available with faster rates of roll but with a slight climb and high altitude performance penalty.
Right now the Spitfire IX is my only DCS WWII warbird but it’s plenty entertaining and worth checking out if you’ve never experienced warbird flying. Or if you have but haven’t tried out the Spitfire, it’s unique experience that is worth having.
Some tutorials to get you started
Here are some guides that should get you started flying the Spitfire.
And as always there’s a Chuck’s Guide for that. Check out Chuck’s Guide to the Spitfire IX.
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