How do you guys do it?

[MaddogJoe]

a six shot isn't that tuff, but you do have to aim higher than you would think. I think the thing that throws everyone off is that you still have to lead the shot to make up for the balistics of the round to drop. In the HO its more of a "spray and pray" type of move, altho there are some who are very good at it.  

[fuzeman]

The closure of the targets might also have some effect on getting hits on HOs vs tracking shots from the 6.
On a HO pass both planes will travel through the bullet stream and your bound to get some hits as the plane travels through the sweet spot of the convergence. In a tracking shot you have to have that sweet spot on target for concentrated hits. Of course this is more relavent with wing mounted guns where convergence is an issue.

[ccvi]

It's a result of the shape of the aircraft. Nose and leading edge of the wings are somewhat flat compared to the rear.

Bullets hitting from behind hit at a very shallow angle, thus bounce off.

[TequilaChaser]

Originally posted by stantond
What I don't understand is why planes are so easy to hit in a HO but not on their six.  Why is that?  
What makes a HO shot so easy and a six oclock so difficult?  It's the same plane profile, isn't it?
 

you are presented with a bigger target area HO or from the 12 oclock position, vs the 6 oclock, you have even better target area if you are able to fire using a crossing shot or deflection shot vs the HO or 6 shot. the deflection , crossing or even belly shots gives you the biggest target area because you have more plane surface in your crosshair

The Head On or front quarter shot is prob about 10 times easier to hit then trying to get hits from a dead 6 position or near 6 position, because of more visual surface area. In return this makes it to where many of your encounters will not try for anything else, they know how easy it is and do not bother trying for any other shot.  They are for the kill with no thought of learning any other capabilitys or manuevers....score dweebs , want their name in lights ( in the text buffer)

[TequilaChaser]

Originally posted by ccvi

Bullets hitting from behind hit at a very shallow angle, thus bounce off.

has this actually been confirmed in AH2? that your bullets really do bounce off of an enemy target?

[stantond]

"Bullets hitting from behind hit at a very shallow angle, thus bounce off."

That answer explains all that I have seen.  However, there is one problem.  AH must  still have a bug for the ricochet sound the bullets make bouncing off my rear deflector shield.

Both the rear deflector shield and smaller 6 o'clock plane hit area explanations satisfy all that I have seen and filmed, with the exception of bullet sounds from the deflector shield explanation.  I used this "game feature" recently.  It is quite handy in a dive with an nme on your six.  Only when you pull out of the dive are you vulnerable.  I would really like to get a front deflector shield!


Regards,

Malta

[stantond]

Just to clarify and elaborate,

I have filmed and heard the ricochet sounds, but only from 50 cal guns on my six oclock.  20mm's (and larger I suppose) don’t ricochet.   So, yes 50 cal bullets do "bounce off" at a distance of 200-600 yards from a dead six o’clock attack but not 20mm’s.  

I believe the plane hit area changes as well from the front to the back.  I see a lot more rounds passing when fired upon (from the six) by cannon equipped planes.  A bit of stick stirring (which I was not doing when confirming some of the six o’clock deflections effect) can really keep cannon fire off you.  Not so in a HO.  

Looks to me like two effects are combined when attacking from the six o’clock, the ricochet and the smaller hit area.  Flying a 20mm cannon equipped plane eliminates one of these effects.    



Regards,

Malta