Gunnery...

[Terror]

OK, here is my problem...  I am a decent pilot, not grea, but good enough to keep my plane in the air and manuverable.  The problem lies in my gunnery skillz.  They literally SUCK.  I just cannot seems to get my bullets on target.  I can get on an enemy six, but just keep chasing them around until I either run out of ammo, or loose the advantage and get shot up by one of the enemies buddies.  Are there ANY suggestions on how to improve gunnery and deflection shooting.

Thanx a bunch!
Terror

[Rocket]

Couple of questions,
  1. How far out are you when you shoot?
  2. Is the plane smooth under the trigger?

Don't open up until 300 or closer.  The closer you are the better chance you have at hitting and doing real damage to the plane.  The farther back you are the less chance of hitting and the less damage you inflict.

Also the plane should be as smooth as possible.  I had problems with my jstick scaling recently that gave me a ton of nose bounce and my gunnery dropped a ton.  After playing with it a few sorties I got it straightened up a bit and it helped.  Try to make corrections in aim as slight as possible with very little stick input.

Finally PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.  Good Gunnery takes alot of Practice.  I am by no means a great gunner but these tips have helped me a ton.  Get with Lephturn, Bee, Hollywd, Hangtime, Wardog, Kierin, CavemanJ, or any of the other greats in the game and I am sure they will be happy to give ya tips while online to help ya get on track.  Give me a yell when I get back in the arena later this week and I would be glad to help out in anyway possible.    


Rocket


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The Red Dragons
Fierce and Bold
With Honour and Courage
_______________________
www.reddragons.de

[Westy]

 I'd only add that if you aim for the engine or the cockpit your bound to hit the aircraft somewhere.
 
 -Westy

[humble]

Finally a training topic I can discuss as an expert  .

As a master of inferior gunnery I can offer the following advice:

1) G's effect lead...under medium to hi G's your aim point can literally be "under your nose" often times your probably shooting behind your target.

2) range effects accuracy geometrically...it's a lot harder to hit a turning target the farther out you get. The odds of hitting a snapshot at 400 are much higher than hitting the same shot at 200

3) Maintain control inputs while shooting...often you'll kick in some rudder etc to get nose around...and ease of as you feel you hit right "spot" this causes "nose bounce"..in a turnfight you need to apply skeet shooting logic and pull thru your target.

[Swager]

Humble's #1

About the # of Gs.  There are times when you may shoot at a target while it is under your nose.  Means ya can't see it!  Hoping the target kept it's same turning radius.  This is extremely difficult and the ultimate in deflection shooting!  I have seen sometimes that the hit sprites will still show thru the control panel of your plane.  Just alittle bug!  

Listen to Rocket on his #1 and #2! He has left my charred carcass all over the AH world!

Take your time.  Only fire at long distances if your trying to spook a bandit off a friends tail (Some people do this, others don't).  A burst at close range is 2 to 3 times more deadly.  I've seen planes totally disintegrate under a short range squirt of 50 cal and 20mm.  So work for the kill!  This may be difficult in a huge furball.  If you cannot get the shot in a huge dogfight, get out and extend.  Do not push it and leave yourself vernable.

Another thing! Short bursts only!!  No long burst unless the target is locked!  And maybe not even then!  Do not take long burst while trying to move the bullet stream to the target.  This will waste ammo!

I set up my primary and secondary guns on seperate buttons. Example:  Spitfire. Primary guns 20mm.  Secondary guns .303s.  I will test or "range" the target with short spirts of .303s to ensure I have the correct angle or "lead".  Then follow up with the 20mm's when I am "On".   This is just my way.  I don't know if other people practice this or not.

Another thing that has been mentioned.  Smooth input control is a necessity.  Work on it and get it as smooth as possible.  

Remember! It only takes a short burst at close range to rid the world of another bug!    

Terror I am not an expert on the subject due to my gunnery sucks too. But I've seen it work.  There are flyers out there that don't waste a shot of ammo.  

Trust me! You'll only get better!  Good Luck!!  

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Damn Ghostrider!  This bogey is all over me!!

[This message has been edited by Swager (edited 02-15-2000).]

[Lephturn]

First off, go read this: http://www3.imagiconline.com/training/worr-gunnery.html

Now, what plane do you generally fly?  Be sure to set you guns convergence to something reasonable, between 200-350.  Depending on the plane you fly and the flying style you use, I can give you a more exact reccomendation.

The best overall advice I can give you is this:  Have patience, and don't fire until you can't miss.  Don't take any old low percentage stab at a fellow, you'll just waste ammo.  Don't lead him or try to shoot until he fills your sights and you can't miss.  You'll become a much more lethal this way, and as you get more experience you will be able to try more difficult shots.

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Lephturn
The Flying Pigs
Visit Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH news, resources, and training data.
 http://users.andara.com/~sconrad/

[JENG]

All these remarks are very valuable.

1) Squeeze the trigger (using your whole hand on the joystick not only the 'fire-finger'... if you only use your finger you'll always jerk the gunsight i.e not good)
2) Get close... then get closer (of course it depends on the overtake speed)
3) Don't fire from death 6 (very small target)... if you bounce... go below and pull up in the belly... if the con knows you are there... wait till he breaks...(big target).
4) Watch at what range you begin to fire and set your convergence to that range. Also set it slightly apart (for example 350-375-400)This gives you more of a pelletgun type of shot.
5) Watch the experts and ask if you can join them (.join playerid)... it will give you a feeling of when they fire. Specialy with the 109 'experten' out there... they have very little ammo and in case of the 30 mm very slow rate of fire... The best I can remember is Fats... but I don't know if he still flies. I do know that mitsu, Ypsilon and fariz fly... and they are marksmen.

My convergence ranges for planes.
190: 4x 20mm's (375-400) 13mm's (600). I use the 13mm's (in the nose) to scare a con into breaking (big target).
Spit: 2x 20mm's (350) 2x .50's (550) same reason as with 190... also with this setting the gunlines cross at 250 giving extra lethal punch at that range.
Pony: 6x .50's (425, 450, 475)... pony is good at speed so normaly overspeed is greater therefor higher convergence.
etc...

BEE
'Nemo impune lacessit'
   

PS: Read the pages provided by Leph... they are good... all this info comes from them P (copyright)...  
    I'm not that good only .0808 so I'm not a great shot... ask leph, fariz, fats, mitsu, rocket or someone else to fly with you in the training arena... best way to improve is practice.  


[This message has been edited by JENG (edited 02-15-2000).]

[Saintaw]

Why 200Ft Separation between the 20mm and the .50's Sir ? NB, not criticising, just asking...
Doesn't this  bore a big hole in the gun's field of fire (Ie when below 400 I usually fire all guns at the same time...)


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Saw/Saintaw
BISHOP'S FINEST FLYING BRICK
 
186th  Wardogs (Falcon4 Squad)
 http://www.wardogs.org/
"Firepower Mate, that is what separates the men from the boys..."

[This message has been edited by Saintaw (edited 02-16-2000).]

[JENG]

You are right that there is seperation... but it isn't much... The key to using this convergence in the spit is to fire .50's and hispanos seperate.

From 700 yds only .50's (to scare a con into breaking) then from 400 yds hispanos and from 300 yds both. (at 250 yards the firelines of the .50's and hispanos cross = very lethal).

I use this setting because in a spit you normaly don't have that great an overtake speed so you don't have to fire from far out. At close range it's very lethal.

Bee
Nemo impune lacessit
 

[indian]

I dont think the spit has .50 cals. I believe it has 303's doesnt it. this is a much smaller gun.

Heres something to keep in mind the bullet path will travel like water from a water hose but in reverse order the more g's you pull it will be like less pressure they just come out of the gun and dissappear under the nose, the less amount of g's the more straight they will fly. I use this effect to good use once I see hits I maintian angle and poof bandit gone.

But most of all practice makes perfect.

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Tommy (INDIAN) Toon
  Cherokee Indian
My Homepage
Where you can find the Key Commands in  files for Word6 Wordpad and text mode.

indians Homepage

Aces High Word6 and Wordpad Doc's available on my web site.

[Swager]

Spit MK IX armament is selectable in AH.

2-20mm and 2-50 cal MGs

or

2-20mm and 4-.303 MGs

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Damn Ghostrider!  This bogey is all over me!!

[indian]

Thats what I get for not flying spit much.  

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Tommy (INDIAN) Toon
  Cherokee Indian
Home of The Allied Fighter Wing A.F.W.
A.F.W. Homepage

[tshred]

The only thing I might add to all of the excellent advice above is to have the aircraft trimmed for the speed at which you are engaged. This will help eliminate nose bounce in addition to proper stick scaling. I have my elevator trim(as well as rudder and aileron) mapped to a button on my throttle and am constantly adjusting trim during an engagement.

ts

[RANKER_ONE]

Greetings chaps!!

Jeng

I have read your post and wondering about
something......

The bird I like to fly is B17 and I found
out that you can fix the convergence on that
big fellow also but do not know the amount
of convetion I should fix...

I know ( by reading this message board that you fellows seem to love fighters so I am
not so sure if I am at the rigth place to
aske but...NEWBIE   sorry

So if someone can help me with this I would
appreciate very much  

   


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 Best regards gents

Ranker...out!!!

[BaneX]

Well having flown several buffs myself I tend to set my gun convergence to the max of 650, but I would think anywhere from 400 out would be good depending on how good a shot you are. You want to keep those fighters as far away from you as possible cause when they get in close you're history unless you can make them explode. Hopw that helps you some.

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BaneX
=357th Pony Express=
"Need a package delivered? Call the Pony Express"