how to aim???

[tatertot]

i know about the target set up  heres my real question in a buff (and im not comparing them)you must lead your target.IS it the same in a fighter????and how different are the angle of the shot from fighter to fighter buffs do you must lead and each buffs bullets fall imo from a different angle so i actualy lerad and aim high ive got screenies of this but cannot post them


just a question from a guy trying to learn

[Pooface]

well you lead different amounts for different positions. if he's flying 90 degrees from you, then you lead a lot, where if he's pulling up slightly, you lead just a tiny bit. enable tracers, and watch where they fall. you'll learn a lot by watching the tracer trails.

[Morpheus]

I just look at shooting like passing a football. Where you throw the ball depends on where the receiver is running to. Turn the ball into bullets and the receiver into the red guy.

[Krusty]

Tracers might be good at first, but you will shoot better if you turn them off again once you get the hang of things.

[wonton]

Originally posted by Krusty
Tracers might be good at first, but you will shoot better if you turn them off again once you get the hang of things.

I don't know about shooting better (personally) but I find when I miss, I'm at least not alerting the enemy that I'm firing when tracers are off. Stealth mode

[tatertot]

Morph so like a football there is a arch to the bullets???



i know this is how i concentrate on  buff guns  kinda what i was trying to state the arch or how the bullet falls is dif on each buffs ie kis arch is big 26s in smaller and so on .

so ill try tonight with tracers on and off film it and maybe ill see a difference



thanks guys each tibbit helps along the way learning something new ever night kinda put 5the spark back into the game for me

[Morpheus]

Yes, you need to take into account the bullets trajectory when you lead a target.

[Krusty]

Here is a question I'm not sure of... The bullets hit an apogee then come down to land at the crosshair's height, right? Is this coded in or is it gravity-powered? If I'm 90 degrees sideways while attacking a target does that mean I have to compensate more? If I'm inverted and perfectly aimed will they travel below the target (above from my perspective) because gravity isn't pulling them back to my crosshair?

[Mustaine]

that is supposed that they arch "above" but i have never seen them go above the center dot of a plane i am flying. from what i have seen the apex at the center of the sight then fall off from there.

maybe i am wrong and seeing it wrong, but thats what it looks like to me

i tried testing this once offline, set conv to 600, and .target 200

except for the dispersion effect none of the bullets hit above the center of the recticle like i'd think they should

[Krusty]

well going by what HTC's said (from memory) they are supposed to arch up then fall down to land on the target. Supposedly.

[rshubert]

Originally posted by Krusty
Here is a question I'm not sure of... The bullets hit an apogee then come down to land at the crosshair's height, right? Is this coded in or is it gravity-powered? If I'm 90 degrees sideways while attacking a target does that mean I have to compensate more? If I'm inverted and perfectly aimed will they travel below the target (above from my perspective) because gravity isn't pulling them back to my crosshair?

Long answer:    The bullet does not aerodynamically climb or dive, but follows a ballistic path modified by air friction.  From the viewpoint of the sights, which are above the plane of the guns when the aircraft is level, the bullets rise due to the fact that at some point the sights are lined up with the bullet path.  That is to say, the gun boresight is pointed up a bit.  At 50 feet, the bullet stream is very low.  At some distance, the bullet path and the aimpoint are the same, and at some distance further out, the bullets drop below the aimpoint again due to gravitational effects.  There are actually TWO points where the aimpoint and the bullet path exactly coincide--once on the way up, and once on the way down.  These points are determined by the exterior ballistics of the bullet, and the factors include ballistic coefficient, initial velocity, bullet weight, and barrel orientation.

Now roll the plane 90 degrees right.  The boresight of the gun is now pointing a bit right, and probably a bit down on the left wing (due to convergence settings) and a bit up on the right wing.  Your aimpoint is all messed up, since only the right wing gun rounds are rising into the sight, while the left wing rounds are actually dropping down out of the sight from the beginning.

Short answer:

You gotta aim a little high when you are rolled off-level and firing.

[rshubert]

http://members.aye.net/~bspen/ballistics.html

[DoKGonZo]

And the different guns require different kinds of "windage" too - .50's are pretty easy, German or Russian 20mm's not so much.


As for tracers, I think the answer is more on a per-person basis than any hard and fast rule. Yes, having tracers off lets you see better and doesn't give you away. But if they help you land a solid burst on the first pass, then who cares about stealth? The factors include:

- How often do you fly? If you're on every night, you should maintain a pretty good feel for your guns and not need tracers. If you fly once or twice a week or less, you're a little rusty every time you're up.

- What do you fly? If you always fly planes with the same kinds of guns (.50's, Hizookas, German 20's, etc.) then again you should know the gun well and not need tracers. If you're like me - and fly half a dozen different planes any night you're on - tracers help a lot.

- What's your connection like? If you're on a crummy connect - or one which comes and goes - then your gunnery confidence can get destroyed in an evening of rubber-bullet syndrone. Tarcers will quickly let you see that the shots which "should hit" aren't and let you adjust for the warps du jour.

- How much ammo do you have? If you have gobs of ammo (a P47, Fw190, etc.) then you can afford to leave tracers off and spray and pray a little - you have enough there to dial it in with the hit sprites.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by wonton
I don't know about shooting better (personally) but I find when I miss, I'm at least not alerting the enemy that I'm firing when tracers are off. Stealth mode

unless your engines off too you ait in stealth mode.
I usually hear planes before they ever fire a shot on me.

Unless Im checking somethign out on the TV or talking to someone irl in which case it wouldnt matter if eiter were off or on

[Stang]

lol cracks me up people worry about people seeing them shoot so they turn tracers off.  Completely wrong reason to do it.