Originally posted by Zaphod
Urchin wrote
I have to agree on the with the gunnery guys. I will say this however regarding urchins quote above. I really don't think that the "good" gunnery guys realize how difficult gunnery is for those of us who don't have good gunnery. I have watched a few of his films and seen him make shots that I know I simply can't make. It's very frustrating lol.
I can fly pretty decently but my gunnery bites. I cannot seem to hit the snap shots worth a crap and that will get me killed vs another pilot who can. Many times when I know I can get behind an enemy I also know there will be some nose to nose passes involved at the outset. If this happens my chances of winning decrease dramatically due to gunnery. Not to mention the length of time the fight actually takes for me vs another pilot who can make those shots. This is critical when dealing with multiple bogeys or in situations where enemy planes are filtering into the fighting area.
Zaphod
That's another point that has been brought up in past threads on this same topic. There is something in the essence of marksmanship that is instinctual or second nature to some people. Being able to consistantly hit your target at high degrees of deflection in the briefest instant of a snap shot is an aptitudinal skill not a learned skill. Flying skill which is simply ACM knowledge applied, on the other hand, is very much a learned skill. Unless born with wings everyone 'learns' ACM's either by reading fighter combat manuals, reviewing films, trial and error, practice, immitation or a combination of some or all of these methods. True, some people are endowed with superior ability to think and operate three dimensionally, but by and large flying skill is simply advanced ACM knowledge applied, a learned skill not an innate one.
It is true that in WW2 some of the best aces owed their success to excellent gunnery, that success in turn was owed to a rural upbringing where they hunted fast moving or flying game from a very young age, a highly cultivated sense of deflection was second nature to these individuals. That sense of deflection, the core of excellent marksmanship, was deeply ingrained in their developing young minds, in a context similiar but not identical to that encountered in airiel combat. Noone flew from a young age, they all learned everything about flying during adulthood in the few months of their flight school training and later from their squadmates and foes.
Anyone can be taught ACM manuevers, they are not overly complex, nor difficult to perform individually, all that need be learned is when and how to execute them in a particular aircraft. This was taught to every fighter pilot in a few to several months of flight school training and from observing and immitating more experienced peers during their military service. Excellent marksmanship cannot be taught per se, that is why modern fighters are equipped with lead computing sights. If high deflection gunnery was a skill that could be taught this type of innovation would be totally unnecessary and superfluous. Even the highly trained fighter pilots from the Korean war to the present are not expected to have an innate aptitude for deflection gunnery, nor can they be taught it. For that reason a computer was engineered to calculate deflection for them. The innate ability for the fighter pilot to do so, reliably, for themselves is not assumed to be an intrinsic quality of their highly trained minds.
In AH, not only do the excellent marksmen have an uncanny feel for deflection but they maintain that feel while seemlessly switching between completely different aircraft with different guns, mounted in different positions, with widely varying ballistic properties. This adds further proof that an aptitude for deflection is to a great extent an innate talent. Very few pilots are equally proficient in many different aircraft, that is unless they have taken the requisite time and effort to painstakingly 'learn' each aircraft's individual nuances and adopt unique fighting styles for each that meshes with its particular flight characteristics. The point being, marksmanship translates very readily and effortlessly from one weapon system to another, that same transfer in ACM skill requires much effort, work and practice.
There are really no manuals or instructions on how to make those seemingly impossible high deflection snap-shots. Incredibly brief and severe angle deflection shots can be described ad nauseum, illustrated beautifully and explained with diagrams until the end of time. But, the ability to consistantly execute those shots in combat is very much a 'feel', similiar to a major league hitter finding the sweet-spot on a nasty split finger fastball for a game winning home-run. It's a tuning fork resonating in your trigger finger that echoes in your mind...NOW...when you have the proper lead and you pull for that killing burst, it's an instinctual 'knowing' precisely, exactly when to fire. Some have that natural tuning fork, some don't. Years of practice may help those that don't to some minor degree, but for the most part it is simply a matter of having the talent and innate aptitude for it.
So, in conclusion, this may not be what many would like to hear but, if you have year(s) of experience and your gunnery still stinks it's probably not going to improve much barring some epiphany from God. The best option for you is to 'learn' everything and anything you can about ACM's, master them methodically in one aircraft at a time, because millisecond snap-shot opportunities are not going to give you any kind of consistant success. Instead, what you will require is the nice steady 'saddle' only superior ACM knowledge applied that is flying skill can provide.
On the other hand, if you were born blessed with that innate deflection 'tuning fork' you have only to bring the enemy aircraft somewhere into your foward quarter, kick some rudder and blow his tail off with one short, decisive burst of fire. ACM knowledge will help to be sure, but even modest knowledge and application of basic ACM's will be sufficient for consistant success. If you have both vast ACM knowledge and innate marksmanship in abundance you will join the exalted ranks of the truly gifted such as Levi and a very few others.
Zazen
