alfs bombing tutorial

[Cycovision]

lollolol!!!! quite possibly

[Drano]

Originally posted by Cycovision
DOH! showing my Dweebiness again

That's exactly what was causing it, silly me...

What would you do without us Noobs, eh?

But on the other hand you could leave the *dive bomb* sight turned on. Why you say? Because that way you can practice calibrating your sight and see how well you're doing.

Calibrate normally--pay no attention to the little green cross (the dive bomb site)that represents where your bombs would hit the ground if you pickled them right now. Once you're out of calibration mode, now check to see how close the little green cross is to the bomb site cross. More closer--more better. If you're off try again. Eventually you'll get the hang of it and will actually be able to hit things without that little cross enabled--like in the MA.

Anyway, that's how I figured it out. GL

Drano

P.S. Another tip for lining up your run. Its said that you can't turn while on your run or you'll screw up your calibration. Its true you can't make a turn *with your stick*. That'll throw everything out of whack. You CAN, however turn slightly by using your rudder trim to adjust your run while in the scope. While that will mess up your calibration momentarily, as long as you don't change speed with your throttle your calibration will drift back to center in a few seconds. Try it with the dive bomb site enabled and you'll see what I mean.



       Drano

[Cycovision]

Originally posted by Drano
Calibrate normally--pay no attention to the little green cross (the dive bomb site)that represents where your bombs would hit the ground if you pickled them right now. Once you're out of calibration mode, now check to see how close the little green cross is to the bomb site cross. More closer--more better. If you're off try again. Eventually you'll get the hang of it and will actually be able to hit things without that little cross enabled--like in the MA.

Anyway, that's how I figured it out. GL

Interesting idea, Drano, but the problem is that if I leave the precision sight turned on, I can't callibrate properly because I can't move the bomb sight crosshair (in bomber's seat view) to hold it on a fixed point whilst holding down the 'y' key.

Unless...

Having the precision sight turned on means that you DON'T have to callibrate the 'proper' bomb sight, but can still use it if you wish (it 'auto callibrates', if you like)? That might explain why I've still been hitting targets pretty well even though I couldn't callibrate properly. Or have I just been incredibly lucky? Anyone know the answer to this?

[Soda]

THe precision sight doesn't need calibration, you need to turn that off.  Drano is spot on though, use offline practice and calibrate over and over until you can get the dive-bomb sight + to match up with your calibrated +.  Once you can consistently do that you are calibrating properly.

Some of my tips,
-calibrate for much longer than the "minimum" of 5 seconds that people talk about.  You really want to hold calibration for at least 20 seconds (a slow 20 count).  If you can do that you can be VERY accurate.  
-Don't necessarily calibrate at top speed, you can just as easily calibrate at a lower throttle setting, it just has to be consistent.  If you calibrate at top speed, and end up slowed down, you have little excess thrust to get you back to speed.  
-calibrate early.  Turn in and calibrate when still a sector or so away.  You can calibrate on ANY good point on the ground once you are at altitude and speed.  Calibrating over water, for example, is a bad idea if you could have otherwise calibrated over land.

[Cycovision]

Ahhhh, sorry, I understand now

Thanks for the tips, guys

[Easyscor]

There is a lot of confusion and miss-information in here.

FlightModeFlags:
Precision Bombsight = Norden (y/n)
Dive Bombsight = green(?) + (y/n)

Originally posted by Soda
-Don't necessarily calibrate at top speed, you can just as easily calibrate at a lower throttle setting, it just has to be consistent.  If you calibrate at top speed, and end up slowed down...

No offense but this is misleading.  You can not maintain an accurate calibration at full throttle for more than one second. Your Dive Bombsight + will move forward of your crosshairs at a steady rate almost indefinitely. Edit: When you test it, test it at altitude or you're testing something other than throttle setting.

Originally posted by Drano
P.S. Another tip for lining up your run. Its said that you can't turn while on your run or you'll screw up your calibration. Its true you can't make a turn *with your stick*. That'll throw everything out of whack. You CAN, however turn slightly by using your rudder trim to adjust your run while in the scope. While that will mess up your calibration momentarily, as long as you don't change speed with your throttle your calibration will drift back to center in a few seconds. Try it with the dive bomb site enabled and you'll see what I mean.

Once calibration is complete you can make minor turns with the joystick successfully.
When in calibration mode, you can use the trim keys to make minor turns. However, these turns are not apparent in the bombsight.

[Soda]

Originally posted by Easyscor
quote:
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Originally posted by Soda
-Don't necessarily calibrate at top speed, you can just as easily calibrate at a lower throttle setting, it just has to be consistent. If you calibrate at top speed, and end up slowed down...
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No offense but this is misleading. You can not maintain an accurate calibration at full throttle for more than one second. Your Dive Bombsight + will move forward of your crosshairs at a steady rate almost indefinitely. Edit: When you test it, test it at altitude or you're testing something other than throttle setting.

The bombsight + should only move ahead IF you are not at constant speed.  A caveat, undulating ground can cause the + to move up and down as the altitude change impacts the lead/lag of the + position in comparison to the target altitude you set.  Constant speed in a bomber will typically take 3-4 minutes to reach after levelling out if you are going for a "full-throttle" constant speed (ie, as fast as you can go).  Thing is, you don't need to actually calibrate at top speed, any speed will do as long as it's consistent.  Even though the bomber might be capable of going 320mph at the current altitude, you could hold 200mph instead and be just as accurate as long as you held that speed consistently and calibrated at it.

One other point, slight changes in altitude from your original calibration are not all that serious to fix.  Say you ended up 500ft under your calibration altitude, that would normally be a serious problem (the bombs would be WAY short).  Simply open the calibration screen and re-calibrate the target altitude (ie, click on the target again).  That will instantly adjust for your new altitude using your original speed in the calculation. Thing is, your original speed, as long as you let it get back to the constant you set, will not change all that much in 500ft of alt difference (may not even 1mph).

[Easyscor]

>The bombsight + should only move ahead IF you are not at constant speed. A caveat, undulating ground can cause the + to move up and down as the altitude change impacts the lead/lag of the + position in comparison to the target altitude you set. Constant speed in a bomber will typically take 3-4 minutes to reach after levelling out if you are going for a "full-throttle" constant speed (ie, as fast as you can go). Thing is, you don't need to actually calibrate at top speed, any speed will do as long as it's consistent. Even though the bomber might be capable of going 320mph at the current altitude, you could hold 200mph instead and be just as accurate as long as you held that speed consistently and calibrated at it.

It’s been so long since I tested this (a year at least) that I decided to test it again and you’re right.  It will help with multiplayer formations, thanks.   It's still crazy to run full throttle though.

>One other point, slight changes in altitude from your original calibration are not all that serious to fix. Say you ended up 500ft under your calibration altitude, that would normally be a serious problem (the bombs would be WAY short). Simply open the calibration screen and re-calibrate the target altitude (ie, click on the target again). That will instantly adjust for your new altitude using your original speed in the calculation.

Next time you get the chance, try that clicking the target again idea only this time turn 20 degrees right or left before you do.  The + will move off to the side, the more you turned the more it will move off to the side or even to a point behind you.  So long as you maintain the same heading, you can change the target alt. and not have to recalibrate but if you change heading, you better recalibrate.

>Thing is, your original speed, as long as you let it get back to the constant you set, will not change all that much in 500ft of alt difference (may not even 1mph).

500 ft? This depends on the aircraft and the altitude and can change the initial impact point by as much as several hanger lengths.

[Soda]

Only above the wind layer will changes in heading change your impact point if you turn.  If you are below the wind layer then they will not.  Above the wind layer though (and even only slightly above) you need to make sure you are "roughly" on the correct heading when you calibrate as when you will actually release your bombs.  There have been some charts/formulas posted in this forum that can help you manually account for differences though so you could search for those also.  

You  mis-understand the issue with 500ft of difference.  The point is, there are two parts to any calibration, ground track speed and altitude above target.  500ft of altitiude change in a bomber impacts your speed by 1-2mph which is not enough to throw off your calibration of that aspect too badly.  Adjusting the ground-track part of your calibration is the tough part, that's where you need to track a ground object for ~20 seconds.  The altitude calibration component is easy to adjust ,you just re-select your target again and it will automatically calculate the difference from your current altitude to the target (takes a half second to do).  So, the point is, say you end up diving 500ft and have enough time to let your speed settle out (lose any bonus diving speed) but don't think you have enough time to totally recalibrate... you don't need to.  Just reselect your target in calibration mode, your speed will be close enough that just that effort (which takes 1 sec) is enough to get your accurate enough to hit things as long as your original ground-track calibration was accurate.

One other point, calibrate with your bomb-bay doors closed.  You don't need to open them until the instant before you drop.  Having the doors open causes ~10mph in drag which is enough to make your bombs miss.  Thing is, it takes 20 seconds or so for the extra drag to manifest itself so snap the doors open 1 second before you drop, then snap them closed again.  You don't want to be flying around with your bombbay doors open and you don't want to have to open them way before your target in order to let your speed settle out.

[Easyscor]

This would be a lot of fun over a beer at the bar.

I didn’t want to bring up wind here  and I’ve seen too many “Doors not open” messages to wait until the last second unless I’m in a Ju88.  After all, a little drag isn’t going to kill me and I’m usually not playing by the book military procedure.

On the altitude change (with no wind) and clicking the target altitude again, two scenarios, a) You get a good calibration, drop zero ft, TURN 90 degrees, recover the exact air speed and click the clipboard map to establish the altitude again. Nope, won’t work.  You won’t even see the + in Dive Bombsight Mode with this exaggerated turn scenario. b) You get a good calibration, drop 500 ft, maintain the exact heading, recover the exact air speed and click the clipboard map to establish the altitude again. Yup you’re right, I rechecked the difference in air speed.  In theory this would work but I have no confidence I can pull it off.  In my opinion, it’s much better, easer and possibly faster to take the time to reestablish stable flight and recalibrate with the current heading.

S!