Aiming??

[bandit752]

Hello!
I been having trouble with aiming. It seems that I am bearing down and seem to be lined up correctly! when I fire it seems I am over or under shooting!!
What is a good training routine of this problem??
What is the lag??

Thanks
Bandit

[Balsy]

Bandit,

Make sure  you have "unloaded" your wings prior to firing.  What I mean by that is often times I will swoop down on a planes 6, and still be pulling positives G's at the time Im shooting.

Try to unload the wings earlier so your G meter is reading 1 before firing.

If your pulling G's you will not be ablet to utilize the site as point of aim, point of impact.

Balsy

[bandit752]

Thanks for the reply!
Can you explain unloading the wings!
From what I understand that you cannot have positive G's on the plane when you fire???

[Balsy]

I you are using the site, and putting the crosshairs on the enemy plane, you need to be at 1 "G".

Otherwise you will undershoot him.  You certainly CAN fire with more than 1 g but you will have to compensate with the appropriate  amount of lead, which will vary by the number of G's your pulling.

Balsy

[bandit752]

Thank you for the tip!
I am trying to look up more on the subject here!

Thanks again!!
bandit!

[xtyger]

Hmmm...never thought of the gs having an effect on firing. Thanks for the tip, balsy, and thanks for the question, bandit.

[Fry]

The key is that when you're under any type of "G" greater than the normal 1G, you need to lead your shots.  Think of it like this... Say you have a garden hose that's turned on full blast and you're holding it straight out.  It shoots the water out about 7ft before gravity brings the water toward the ground.

Now lets say you have your pesky kid brother 7ft in front of you and he's just teased you about your tin foil helmet that you wear while playing AH2.  What do you do?  You simile and scream "Buhahaha!", then point the hose at him and hit him square in the chest ....no aiming left or right, or even up and down.

Let say that after his soaking, he's decided to go and run inside to tell your mom that you vulched him unprovoked and takes off running straight to your left.  Do you need to move the nozzle up or down?  No...he's still at the 7ft distance.  So you keep the nozzle level...but do you aim exactly where he's at? i.e. with the hose nozzle (gun barrel) pointing directly at him?  No you don't.  Because that as swing your 37mm cannon (yes, thinking of the P-39 ) following his defensive move, the water from the hose will curve and hit BEHIND him.

But of course, noticed that and you instinctively aim your water cannon AHEAD of him so that your stream of water and your tattle-tailing runt of a brother meet together in a satisfying burst of wetness:aok

Now lets say that he now decides to engage in a zero-g unloaded dive and start to run away from you.  You catch his maneuver and at 12ft away, you fire again. But you miss...your 37mm ammo is hitting the ground near his feet.  It's hitting short.  But then, things starts to click.  You raise the angle of your nozzle a bit, watch the water arc even more and WHAM!  You're spraying your sniveling brother smack in his back! Hehe. now you've got him on the run and unless he gets outside the range of your hose, his going to get nailed.

So how does this apply to AH's gunnery?  One G, no leading required.  But the more G's you pull, the more you need to lead.  There may even be a time where you're pulling so many G's to get the right amount of lead, that you could be firing when your target is under your nose....maybe not even seeing it.

So grab your tin foil helmet and hit the training arenas or even go offline and attack the drones from different angles.  If it's easier, turn your tracers on and see how they arc as your G's change.  Practice, practice, practice:aok

Oh, and this has nothing to do with lag it's all about gunnery;)

EDIT: I just remembered an appropriate quote from one of the aces printed in "the bible", Bob Shaw's "FIGHTER COMBAT: Tactics and Maneuvering".  The pilot was quoted as saying something like this "As long as I can see down the barrel of his guns, I am safe".  Of course, he's assuming he's pulling G's;)

[Bronk]

 Fry thats fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!





Bronk

[Schatzi]

LMAO Fry, what a great explanation. I remember those garden hose plays from my teenies very vividly.



Now since im one of those miss-d200-clear-shots-wonders (ie my gunnery is less then mediocre): Does the LCG in TA compensate for Gs pulled? Or does it only take into consideration the two planes speeds, gravity, ballistics and convergence?

[Fry]

Originally posted by Schatzi
Does the LCG in TA compensate for Gs pulled? Or does it only take into consideration the two planes speeds, gravity, ballistics and convergence?

I've not seen or used this in AH, but back in the days of AW, this DID take into account G's.  But given HT's drive for authenticity, I'm betting it does take into account all of the above.  Someone with better info should speak up, though;)

Basically, where the pipper was (I think it's an "x" or something else here in AH), is where your bullets would hit...IF and it's a big IF, your target is also at your convergence setting.

So assuming your pulling some G's....

IF your convergence is set to 400yds and
IF your target is at 400yds and
IF the pipper is ON your target,

then your target would be hit.  

IF your convergence is set to 400 yds and
IF your target is at 400yds and
IF the pipper is BEHIND your target,

then your bullets would fly BEHIND your target.  Likewise,

IF your convergence is set to 400 yds and
IF your target is at 400yds and
IF the pipper is AHEAD of your target

then your bullets would fly AHEAD of your target.

This also is similar if the target was beyond your convergence setting too....

IF your convergence is set to 400yds and
IF your target is at 600yds and
IF your pipper is ON your target,

then your bullets would fly BEHIND your target.

IF your convergence is set to 400yds and
IF your target is at 600yds and
IF your pipper is AHEAD of your target,

then your bullets MAY hit your target depending on how much lead you gave your bullets.  In any case, they'd be closer to the target than if than if you fired with the pipper ON the target.

One thing you don't want to get in the habit of is what we've called "flying the pipper".  That's flying your plane "reactively" where you fly your plane to put your pipper on your target.  I suggest that you user the pipper to get an idea for how leading your target works, then turn it off.  Learn to use "Kentucky windage" to aim.  After some time, it'll be instinctive.  Before AH, I prefered to fly without tracers and a without pipper, so it really took some time to get the aiming down as you had no reference as to where your bullets were flying.  But here in AH, I love the look of tracers so I leave them on;) Sure, folks know that I'm there behind them, but it just looks cool, hehe.

[Schatzi]

Thanks for that info Fry.

I never really use the LCG, except to (rarely) practice gunnery-eye in TA (its swiched off in the other arenas anyway) and when i started flying the Hurri 1 i switched off tracers (8 bullet streams clutter your screen to no end) and they havent been swiched back on ever since. I have little trouble shooting someone that isnt fighting back (ie not in the heat of the fight) and judging the lead neccessary. But when things get hot and tight, i miss the p38 pulling straight up in front of me d200.

Maybe the Gs pulled are the answer.



In the meantime, dont worry when you have me on your six. Your chances of survival are good .



Oh and the LCG in AH2 works different i believe. It puts a cross where you need to aim your gunsight at to hit the target you have selected with 'friendly lock'. That means when the target it out of convergence range you actually get two crosshairs.

[mussie]

Excellent post Fry

Clearest description of leading the target I have read


 

[The Fugitive]

This site has a pretty good "rule of thumb" on figuring the lead.

Mafia Site and click on Air to Air Targeting

[Max]

Fry you sure do play with your hose a lot.

DmdMax:rofl

[Fry]

Yeah.  Unfortunately, Mrs. Fry still doesn't want to play as much as I do