New Article on A2A Gunnery and Gunsights

[Andy Bush]

This article covers A2A gunnery academics, techniques, and tips on customizing your AH gunsight.
 http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/air_combat/gunsights/

Andy

[JimBear]

Great article!  Thanks Andy.

JimBear
VMF111 =DevilDogs=

[Saintaw]

Printed it! Thanks Andy, I was eagerly waiting for this one to come up !

(Oh, boy, she gonna be pissed when she'll try to prnt something in Blue tomorrow morning   )

Saw

[Zippatuh]

Thank you thank you thank you!!

In the past year or so that I have been in the virtual skies, I have never run across an article such as yours.  I have read a lot about A2A gunnery, the explanations you used for leads as compared to site picture was exceptional.  I may not shoot any better but at least I’ll know why, hehe.  

Outstanding Sir <S>,

Zippatuh

[214thCavalier]

Very good article Andy but I only have one doubt, and that is how many people actually bother to Zoom in to fire ?
I know its a personal preference but for me i have most of my seats adjusted far enough back to give me the widest useable field of view, couple this with a rule of very rarely open fire above 300yds in fact the only time i will fire above 300 is using minimum guns and try to ping the target into staying and fighting and thats the only time i will use the Zoom feature.
Who knows maybe I am in the minority.

[Westy]

"how many people actually bother to Zoom in to fire "

 If anyone is counting? I do.  I also need new contact lenses too  

-Westy

[miko2d]

 Nice article, but I think you are a bit mistaken on what harmonisation is.

 There was a techniquie of adjusting the guns  so that the trajectories converged in one point. This technique is referred to as "setting the convergence".

 Harmonisation is a technique of adjusting the guns so that the trajectories never actually converge in one point.
 Harmonised guns produce the bullet stream that never reaches the density of a converging bullet stream, but instead has more or less constant crossection for a considerable range of distances.
 The maximum hit power is lower but the chance to hit is greater and it is more tolerant to shooting at ranges different from  optimal.

miko

[Andy Bush]

Miko

Thanks much for your input. Sometimes terminology isn't quite as specific as we would like, and terms get tossed around in general practice when maybe they shouldn't, strictly speaking.

What you describe is a specialized form of convergence, ie, the setting of individual pairings of gun lines to open up the convergence point along the longitudinal axis, as shown in this figure:

 

The figure on the right shows the multiple converging gun lines that you mention.

When I choose to define terms, I try to cover the 'yeah buts' by defining those terms (as I did in this article). For the most part, I do this in the interests of simplicity.

Andy

[Fariz]

 

Originally posted by 214thCavalier:
I only have one doubt, and that is how many people actually bother to Zoom in to fire ?

Actually question is "if any good shot in AH do not use zoom". It seems for me that zoom is 50% of good gunning %tage.

FAriz

[214thCavalier]

Well to answer that one at least partially i dont use Zoom and my air to air hit rate is usually over 13%, which is pretty good.
I dont think too many people can maintain a rate that high. I think it would be higher but too often i gotta play with about 20% packet loss which is not good for your health  
It would be interesting tho to see what others with High Hit rates use for aiming view wise.
At the moment you like Zoom and I dont not that it really matters anyway as we will all use what suits us best.
Just one question tho using Zoom was this for long range BnZ attacks ?
I also notice you dont appear to have been flying with the newer FM ? Unless you use a different name but the aircraft can evade much easier now than before making it harder to hit and keep track of them especially if your caught in Zoom mode.
I guess it could also be related to monitor size as i would think the bigger the screen you are viewing on the less you would need to use the Zoom feature.
Still its a good article that i am sure will help many people improve there gunnery, whichever method they use to view the target.

[This message has been edited by 214thCavalier (edited 01-10-2001).]

[Hangtime]

I have the zoom button mapped on the joystick and use it for sniping. The zoom in/out scrolls are joystick mapped too. (chF16 Combat stick w/pro throttle and pedals) Using zoom has no effect on my SA as I can and do snap it on and off constantly. I set my 'zoom' distance with the scroll buttons on the stick to suit the situation and then snap it back off before I get into a fight so I don't get 'dizzy' snapping in and out of zoom; and this helps me see MUCH better the target aspect angle changes far easier in zoom mode.  You get used to using 'zoom' to aid gunnery and its a huge help on ring and bead fixed sights like found in the pilots position in B26.

My reflecting gunsite center '+' in my pony was modified to maximum height on the glass, seat postion adjusted to match. It's been that way for so long now; it's 'normal' to me now; tho the 'brightness' of the reticle is dimmed by the offset. Gauge views were adjusted to compensate by moving the normal seat postion aft a bit. Since I knife fight quite a bit with the pony this is a bonus.. it helps with those deflection shots, and I see as much of the panel as I always did.

The 'glass' tailgunner type sites in all my buff setups have the center dot removed so I can better observe tracer fire, and I also use the zoom feature when gunning in the buff. Having that damn center dot gone gave me a huge improvement in the ability to land crossing shots.. I get the lead worked out much faster now.

Great article as always Andy.. thanks so much for sharing it with us!!

Hang

[Purzel]

Howdy Andy!!

Great article - installed new gunsights immediatly. The only one I had before that was non-default was for the 30mm of the Bf-109.

This is really cool stuff, thx a lot.



------------------
CU

Purzel

--
"Find the enemy and shoot him down, everything else is nonsense!"
M. von Richthofen