Old trick used by Luftwaffe interceptors going HO against bombers. Watch for respective movement of the target; EG watch him from a distance to see if there's any lateral movement. If he's flying slightly left of you, his dot will seem to drift left. If he's high, you'll see him start creeping up. I use a marker, usually the top of the gunsight glass, as a reference. If he's high he'll start creeping up the gunsight, eventually going above the glass.
Same goes for left, right, or down movement. Pick a marker inside or outside the cockpit and watch the relative movement of the dot. Canopy frames, gunsight glass, wingtip; anything that lets you see movement of the dot. If there isn't any movement, he's coming HO or flying away. Simple really.
If you get in a fight and want to tell what he's doing, watch his wings. Most aircraft have a light belly, with a dark over-tone. Take the Niki; if you see white he's turning away, black and he's coming at you. I've used this to tackle Nikis twice in a Yak, and both times it worked resulting in me getting kills.
I use an old vid card, at 1024 rez with 16 bit color and I can see the yellow ring on the nose of a D-hog from 650 yards. No ring means C-hog. Just watch for lumps of color on the wings, tail or nose. This is how to tell C from D hogs, Nikis can be spotted by looking for a black aircraft. The paint is so dark on a Niki that at a distance he'll show up as flying a black plane. It's also easy, as I stated above, to tell when a Niki is turning towards or away from you. Provided he's around 500 yards, you'll be able to tell.
As for zoom, I never use it when fighting. I'll use it to check for ground targets from on high, or to check the status of a field. Actually fighting when zoomed in creates problems since you can't see your gauges. Plus the "head-bounce" in the game can throw you off due to the magnified vision.
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Flakbait
Delta 6's Flight School"My art is the wings of an aircraft through the skies, my music the deep hum of a prop as it slices the air, my thrill the thunder of guns tearing asunder an enemy plane."
Flakbait
19 September 2000
