is it the yak or is it me?

[fradim]

I´d been out for about 2 years. I´ve come back last week and since then I´ve dec ided to fly the yak9u.

I know I´ve never been such a good pilot but I wouldn´t expect such a mediocre performance. My gunnery is *really* bad (0.04 ) though I´m firing at around 200 and gunnery set to 225. OTOS I´m not spraying and praying - not that much ;-) I usually rtb with ammo. Sometimes I shoot the guy with cannons and after I notice I´ve pinged it I break thinking hes dead just to realize he´s not ... That may explain why I have more assists than kills.

Maybe I´m too stuborn to try another plane, maybe too impatient to keep on. Or is the yak too much for a dweeb like me?

[Shane]

Being out for 2 years...

1) rust...

2) AH2 has a new hit detection model, everyone's gunnery took a nose dive for a while, some never recovered.

[Soulyss]

for some of us it was a blessing.. I have a scapegoat now.

[Ghosth]

Hang with it, yaks a great plane.

When you do find yourself in position in range hold down the trigger till he goes boom.  

Worry about stacking more than 2 kills once you get gunnery up a bit.

One thing I do a lot in the yak is get on someones 6. Just follow him around, easy on the stick, letting him burn his alt & his Energy. Once both are gone they ussually end up flopping around 200 in front of me.

Thats when you hit them till they go BOOM.

Then grab alt & decide if its RTB time or look for another.

Patience, flying smart, picking fights you know you can win, flying with a wingman will all help.

[Krusty]

I don't want to suggest this for immediate use, but for future use (once you've re-learned AH2's gunnery) don't forget to try the 37mm on the -T. The -U is good, bu I think the 37mm is more devastating (if you can fly into a position to shoot and kill others with it).

[pluck]

aye 9t very devasting, but that cannon weighs a ton, makes plane less manuverable, especially at slower speeds- mho.

[Schutt]

If you mean your hit percentage in the online score info is 0.04 that is ok. That means its 4 percent and most pilots have something between 4 and 10 percent, thats not bad at all.

With the switch to ah2 from ah1 the gunnery got changed and it is much harder to hit other planes than it was before. Youll get better in no time.

[Schatzi]

Another side note on gunnery. If you fire both, the 20mm and the MGs, at the same time, the hitsprites you have seen might have been the 12.7 mm MGs hitting, since they have a different ballistic than the cannon. I never fire canon and MG together for that reason.

[fradim]

Finally my kid and wife let me read post ;-)

I´m gonna insist on yak. I really like it: fast, maneuverable. I just have to get more used to the fact that it´s almost impossible - for me of course - to get a deflection shot. I guess it implies a change on my approach.

Thank you for replies.

[]

fradim

[DrDea]

Ive been out myself for close to 2 years.The rust is crazy.I can get 300 off someone and blow a load of ammo.They fly off and I try to rtb.Im not mad about it.I'll figgure it out

[fradim]

After some days, in which I have tried to adujust my approach,  I´ve got little better: gunnery now is 0.77143

My convergence is 225 for cannon and 325 for mg. I will try to keep it for a while to get used. For now I´m having recurrent problem with colisons...

I´ve noticed that it´s very hard to shoot at deflection so I have been avoiding it. I have had to invest more on vertical separation. Now most of my kills are obtained from low 6.

[Whisky58]

Originally posted by fradim
After some days, in which I have tried to adujust my approach,  I´ve got little better: gunnery now is 0.77143

My convergence is 225 for cannon and 325 for mg. I will try to keep it for a while to get used. For now I´m having recurrent problem with colisons...

I´ve noticed that it´s very hard to shoot at deflection so I have been avoiding it. I have had to invest more on vertical separation. Now most of my kills are obtained from low 6.

With a single gun firing along central axis does it matter about convergence distance - what's it converging with?
IMO the Yak's a good plane fradim - just get close (whites of their eyes) & avoid tricky deflection shots.

[Krusty]

The round still passes through an arch vertically. It goes up then comes down to land at its convergence point. This means that if you're setting it for max convergence it's going up higher to land further down field. This also means that if you shoot at a plane at half hte convergence distance you might have the rounds literally fly over the plane entirely. (without hitting)

[Whisky58]

Krusty thanks - that makes sense.  I'd thought convergence was a horizontal issue only:)

[bustr]

If you want to bore yourself silly, adjust the arena settings for off line so you have 10,000x on ammount of ammo and set fuel burn below 1. Then use your zoom function to a closer distance than the cockpit default for the gun sight.

Take off with 25% fuel, get in line with the AI cons flying over the feild. Zoom in, start shooting. After an hour or so you will begin to get a feel for AH2 gunnery. Attack them from all possible angles over and over until your computer chair is the last palce you want to be.

Three things I dsicovered by using Zoom.
1. You need to hold the trigger down for at least 1 second to get a mass of rounds down stream to the con. Or become Dead Eye Dick.

2. When I pull the trigger, I often pull the point of aim out of line just a bit.

3. On snap shots or front crossing tracking shots, I pull the trigger way too late and my nose too low. Try pulling the trigger alot sooner than you think. It takes time for the rounds to get there. You are not trying to hit him. You want him to fly through the bullet stream.