Scary Accuracy

[Nangleator]

I've been fooling around for a month or 2 now, and about 5 percent of the enemy I see can do spectacular things with guns.

I manned and got killed out from under 6 field guns in a row as a guy was strafing them.  I would die in less than a second after he rolled out on my heading, and sometimes he was 1 kilometer out.

I've successfully strafed about 3 guns since I've been playing, and it always results in my death.  It's hard enough with rockets and the targeting thingy turned on.

I've also manned buff guns and had fighters climb up my six and kill off individual gun turrets until I was helpless.  Also, from great range.

How common is this?  Am I expected to learn this skill?

[moot]

By a kilometer out, you mean 1K as per the plane icon?  If so, that's 0.5K under the bullets' maximum reach.  MG bullets need to hit the gun itself to score damage, while cannons have enough splash damage to take out an AAA gun with a few hits in the white disk around the gun.
Ideally, you shoot between 1.5 and 1K out, so as to spend the least time pointed at the gun (so that it doesnt hit you), and in one direction (so the other guns have to keep adjusting their aim).

Rockets will barely have any drop when you come in on the ground target fast enough (say above ~350mph), and with enough vertical angle.

Killing off individual bomber gunners is pretty good, depending from how far.. you should be able to do that soon enough too, although some planes are much better gun platforms than others, while others such as the 109K4 or Yak9T require you to land a relatively slow firing gun's shells right on target from pretty close, when the ballistics are slow and heavy enough.. which is one of the toughest things to master in the game.

[Nangleator]

That 1K probably means 1000 yards, right?  Not quite a kilometer then.

[TexInVa]

Almost, but not quite.

[Lusche]

Originally posted by moot
while others such as the 109K4 or Yak9T require you to land a relatively slow firing gun's shells right on target from pretty close, when the ballistics are slow and heavy enough

Actually, the  Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 installed in the Yak-9T has a quite high muzzle velocity and thus very good ballistics. While I usually would not recommend firing at maneuvering fighters at long range because of it's low ROF and small ammunition capacity, it's ha highly accurate & long-reaching gun, perfectly fit for sniping bombers at long range.

[moot]

Yep .. "when the ballistics are slow and heavy enough".

[SAS_KID]

Also take note about people's aim. It takes time to get a good eye and many many many deaths to get it just right. Apparently we have this luxury compared to real life pilots.