In flight sims, the Corsair does not feel like it handles that much worse than the hellcat other than the whole supercharger at low altitude wrecking the engine.
What about it makes it harder to fly in real life?
In: Physics
The Corsair’s drastically different aerodynamics than the Hellcat combined with a much larger, heavier propeller gave it rather unforgiving torque issues at low speed. Basically, the torque from the propeller would try to roll the plane over and when flying slow (like during a takeoff or landing,) and the control surfaces struggled to counteract this effect.
Add in the very long nose in front of the cockpit reducing forward visibility in high angle of attack conditions (AoA is the angle of the plane vs the direction of travel,) and you end up with a very tricky plane for new pilots to handle.
These same factors, though, made the plane fast, maneuverable, and retain energy well; key factors in what made a good fighter.
It was a trade off. If you mastered the plane’s harder-to-handle characteristics, you ended up with a more capable fighter in combat.
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