This is a bit wrong. When you point the nose above the horizon, you are getting vertical lift from the rear pointing thrusters - which are then pointed toward the ground providing upward thrust, resulting in maintained altitude and also reduced forward speed because that energy from those thrusters is used up in maintaining altitude. You are not getting lift from the wings.

I'll fully admit to being a "go fly around and learn how it feels" pilot, but your thorough breakdown of the mechanics is fantastic.

This is mind-blowing to me. I had no idea that the current atmospheric flight model took into account any of these effects to the point where you could start anticipating atmo flight strategies based (even if only conceptually) on real principles.

essentially in lifting the nose and having a higher angle of attack you have utilised the entire airframe as a lifting body. Incidentally fighter aircraft also use a high angle of attack when landing to slow the aircraft from the drag produced. Lucky SC ships have vertical thrusters so you never have to worry about stalling in atmosphere.

Based soundtrack choice!!!!! Miss Levski so much

Impressive breakdown, and I’m actually more impressed with the flight model having seen this! I will say that it does help solidify that the Corsair is not the ship for me, but I can see learning it’s intricacies being a big draw for some people.

Very insightful. I hope all people interested in buying the Corsair get to see this before they commit. I bought the CCU from my Connie Taurus but, after flying it on the last day of the IAE I didn't have the heart to apply it. On paper it's more agile than a Connie, but in atmosphere it's horrendous, far worse. Now I know it's because of the drag and I will not apply that CCU. Thanks a lot for your tests! My Connie gets to live another day, haha.

While it isn't ideal, racers make use of a neat little feature to compensate for gravity in atmo, even when flying low: put your gear down. It compensates for gravity but otherwise offers full control of the ship like decoupled offers.

This is super cool information, thanks for putting this together!