Hail CMDR's
My experience with both the FDL and the Mamba has led me to the conclusion, that these two ships were never meant to be flown the same way. So comparing the FDL ability to fly in a tighter circle, to the Mamba ability to dart and dash, and laterally move near instantly, is not a good comparison at all. A good pilot will fly these two ships very differently, and strategies will vary as a by product of the two different flight models. Both of these ships are very good imho. The FDL is probably the most universally loved PvP ship on the game, and everyone had one before the Mamba was even in beta, So when the Mamba arrived on the scene with near identical internals/optionals, most everyones natural inclination was to assume its a cut and paste job from the FDL, and as soon as they got into the Mamba and swapped out all their modules from their FDLs, they quickly realized this ship did NOT handle like their trusty FDL, and most pilots quickly swapped everything back onto their FDLs and firmly declared the Mamba to be inferior in every aspect, with the exception of the cockpit center line view, minus an OCD inducing support strut. I personally LOVE the Mamba. Once I learned her nuances and started to fly her much differently, I quickly fell in love with what this ship can do. I still have my FDL and im not trying to say that one is better than the other. I am more trying to maybe convince some of the pilots that maybe shelved the Mamba rather early, to give her another chance. Spend a little more time trying this one out, because you might just end up liking it.
Fly Safe CMDRs