IAR-80 Saturday

Finally, I have to chance to write again, after a long absence...
Yesterday, we had our final exam in Advanced Fighter School 1 at Joint-Ops Virtual Combat School.
My choice is a Romanian IAR-80 (1940), equipped with 4 FN (Browning) 7.62mm machine guns.
We have to apply what we have learned so far and stay alive. Before the fights, I already feel very tense and I need a smoke.
The first fight is me v. a P-51. The P-51 has an altitude advantage (2000 m). My only chance is to be extremely agressive and force the opponent in to a low altitude, low speed fight, with sudden changes of direction.

In the second fight, I have the altitude advantage (2000 m) over a P-47. My strategy is to use my IAR-80 in a combination of boom&zoom and gun bursts harassment, to force the P-47 down to the dirt. My chance comes when the P-47 stalls and loses altitude in the recovery process. I stick to him like glue and force him to take sudden defense maneuvers, with short gun bursts. Eventually, the P-47 stalls and falls into the sea... It's definitely my lucky day!

The third fight... The longest fight! My opponent has the same IAR-80, but he has a far greater experience than me and the altitude advantage (2000 m). My only chance is to be extremely agressive and impredictible (even for myself...). All the fights last 10 minutes and I intend to do my best to make his attack angles very difficult.
The fight starts and I find myself in a desperate defensive position from the very beginning. I feel like an angry rat trapped in a cage. My aircraft gets pounded almost every time we cross in some sort of flat scissors. But I'm lucky he only has got 4 FN 7.62 mm machine guns and I can last longer... After about 10 minutes I can feel my opponent's frustration of not having cannons and I manage to pull out a few gun solutions myself.
At the end, it's a draw, but I can't feel my hands and my feet. It's been terrible! I really need a nice, long cigarette.

The last fight! IAR-80 vs IAR-80 again. My enemy is a vast experience and I only have the altitude advantage (2000 m) and, as soon as I spot my enemy, I start diving from high above, burning a lot of energy and getting no gun solution. Later I get a lucky shot and the enemy plane starts smoking and I see debris coming towards me. In the flat scissors fight I lose the advantage again and my enemy scores a PK (pilot kill). My seat-back armor was not enough to keep me alive.