The flaps also act as part of the dive brakes. When selecting flaps, only the lower control surfaces move and may move at various angles. When selecting dive brakes, upper and lower surfaces both move and I believe they are fully deployed or not at all.
The issue that I have on the dive bombing runs is trying to determine when I am over the target so that I can roll the aircraft and enter a vertical dive directly over the target. If the dive is started NOT over the target, there isn't much time to line up before bomb release and pull out.
The Dauntless wasn't really a vertical diver as the Ju-87 because it wasn't quite as draggy and gained speed too fast in the dive. Neither plane climbs well enough with a bomb load to make a retry feasible. Typically on a patrol, the Dauntless carried a single 500 pounder. On an attack mission, it would carry a single 1000 pounder but could carry a max load of around 1500 pounds.
The Dauntless was agile enough to be a passable fighter and with 2 x .50 caliber MGs had generally more firepower than the Japanese Zero. The Dauntless wasn't a very big plane, but also didn't have folding wings either. The Dauntless had two multiple wing tanks per wing which means that I can't find an appropriate fuel selector or fuel gauge.
A man named Vejtasa managed to embarrass a few Zeros with this plane.
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