Last I messed with it, it shuddered in oncoming stalls and turning too hard.
Also you've got to climb with high speed don'tcha?
I can mistreat any plane and get bad results. P-38 was hard to fly right, I read,
and just like P-39 that's probably because of pilots who treated either one the
way they would a P-40 or similar.
Why else are some people reporting not to have the problems a lot of others are?
Except for the dives and oncome of elevator heaviness... and that seems to be true
of some other planes as well. Probably something deeper than the individual plane
models so I will be happier if the fix isn't by changing one plane at a time in ways
that make other quirks the very next time the overall FM gets upgraded.
lockheed's recommended speed for best rate of climb after takeoff was 180mph indicated. the L model likes to try to stall pulling into a turn just a bit too easy, and supposedly, this model had higher hp engines.
the most serious modelling problem is that both model's go into compression at too low of speed at any alt. right now, the closest thing to actual p-38 flight is that 109-z ufo that never saw action. that plane will not stall in either turn like the 38 will and this is definately wrong. the 38's engines are counter-rotating. both engine in the 109-z turn in the same direction, but has no torque.
to try to dive in the 38 like the 109-z, u'll revert to passenger status with no hope of pulling out.
I think the stiffened elevator problem is abnormally high in game compared to what I understand about the real thing. My impression is that compressibility set in during dives from high altitude as the 38 reached high speeds, what we have in game is simply concrete elevators in any kind of high speed dive regardless of altitude. At least a part of the stiff elevators was due to thin air up high and washout from the wings creating some form of turbulence over the elevators, but this problem didn't manifest itself in high speed dives down in the thicker air of lower altitudes. (correct me if I'm wrong here, going from memory alone)
I'm not the expert, but the game representation seems somewhat contrived and feels as though its a deliberate FM tweak rather than a consequence of the game engine. I understand that no physics engine will ever be perfect and so true compressibility probably can't be accurately modelled, but what happens to the 38 right now seems a bit overdone because its happens consistently when higher speeds are reached regardless of altitude or dive angle and at probably too low of a speed on top of that.
As for the gun platform stability, yes the 38 shakes considerably when firing but at the same time I find it the most accurate and lethal 50 cal gun platform in the game. Way better at head on shooting than any other allied type imho...so while the shake sometimes foils deflection shots, its dead on at other times, in particular low angle off shooting like head on or dead 6. I can't say whether this is realistic either, but parts of it feel contrary to real life accounts and others seem accurate.
On the whole I can't say the plane is porked...perhaps reasonably accurate but on the lower side of optimal FM modelling instead of on the generous side that some other aircraft get...but with a big helping of overdone compressibility.