How was the Pfalz D.III in combat?

I was just wondering on this topic. You don't see a lot of info on this plane, I have herd it was ok but not up to standards ???. Were there any famous aces who flew the Pfalz D.III with a good kill score downing aircraft instead of ballons? Thanks for the time!

[Craig]

There have been a few threads on this fighter. It seems that, in short, it was about the same as an Albatros D.Va, being a little slower and a lot stronger, wing-wise. Neither was on a par with the SPAD 13, SE5a, Bristol fighter or Camel. Poke around in the archives for 2003 and 2002; I’m sure you’ll find something there that will more than whet your appetite.

God Bless you for you help!!!

[Craig]

You're welcome, devilpup!

[Ross_Moorhouse]

I believe that it was a steady gun platform because of its slowness. So pilots liked it for balloon busting.

[StephenLawson]

The real problem with the Pfalz D.III and D.IIIa was the use of 'green wood' in its construction. Jasta 20 & 64w talked about the tail units twisting to the left or right of center after some weeks of frontline operations. These evals are seen in the reports sent through Grufl to Kofl from the Jastas in monthly reports. One was found to have a large bag of iron filings under the engine. When this was removed the aircraft became unflyable.

[StephenLawson]

When the Pfalz D.III first arrived at Jasta 7 it seems that even some of the seasoned pilots found it a trick to fly.

[Craig]

When the Pfalz D.III first arrived at Jasta 7 it seems that even some of the seasoned pilots found it a trick to fly.

I haven't heard this one. I'd always read that it was rather easy to fly. Tell us more!

Regarding green wood, I have heard that. But I have gathered that the main flaw in the design was the airfoil.

Ross;
It wasn't THAT much slower than an Albatros D.Va (112 mph vs. 116 mph). So, I rather doubt that it was "its slowness" that made it a good balloon-buster. It was more likely the fact that you could dive hard and fast, and keep your wings on - unlike the Albatros.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Gentlemen:
* *Earlier this year Javier Arango asked to do a study of how the Fok.D.VII compared to other contemporary German fighters. It took me a while to come up with a methodolgy for this question.
I did not want the study to be muddied by having mixed aircraft in the unit and I had decided the the period would be 3 to 4 months. *In each study there were 3 Jasta selected for the study that were solely equipped with the particular fighter and the same 3 units studied with Fokker D.VII. *This created problems of Jasta selected to be studied and reduced the available Jastas. The purpose was to determine the effectiveness of the Fok.D.VII.
* * The formula was
* * * * * *Victories/ losses = performance.
* * The performance of each Jasta were add together and divided into the summed performance of the Fok.D.VII. *If the performance of the two aircraft were the same, the answer would be 1. *The higher the result is the poorer the performance.
Alb.D.V/D.Va, Jasta 3, 5 and 9= 4.35.
Jasta 3,=8.0, Jasta 5= 1.35, Jasta 9= 3.69
Pfalz D.III /D.IIIa, 10, 28 and 30 = 6.11.
Jasta 10=1.07, Jasta 28=16.25, Jasta 30=1.0
Fok.DR.I, Jasta 11, 19 and 26 =1.92.
Jasta 11=1.62, Jasta 19=2.58, Jasta 26=1.56.
It become real apparent how successful some units were and how ineffective other units were. It turns out the Fokker DR.I was a damn good fighter it was. The surprize was how bad the Pfalz D.III and D.IIIa were. Another thing that showed up in the study was what they were shooting down with the above three machines and what they were shooting down with the Fok.D.VIIs. Instead of sopwith Camel as the most prominent fighter, there were more of them along with S.E.5a in greater number than before. The study was during the 1918 period and another factor I tried to do in the study, was both aircraft were in Jasta ,with the same Jastaführer.
I'll probably have it printed in one of the journals.
* *
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[Craig]

Dan-San

Thanks for the tidbit! However, it would seem that the results for the Pfalz are skewed by the relatively poor performance of Jasta 28w. The figures for Jastas 10 and 30 are very surprisingly near "1" - which would indicate that having the Fokker DVII didn't do them much good.

Or, perhaps I am misinterpreting these figures?

Curiously,
Craig