37mm Field ACK again........

[bustr]

TrueKill has gotten me inspired to learn the secret to how much lead you use with the 37mm soft gun battery or manned ack. In AvA he has been landing 7-11 kills per sortie.

I remember a sqweeker from last summer asking me for help on ack because he got intimidated by the air combat but loved it when he recognised a name as his kill that had killed him air to air. I suggested the TA. Don't know if he ever went. I started thinking about how little info players share about this gun, specialy O'l TK the ack terror... The MOIL need new blood too guys..... I've witnessed a single MOIL take out me and 3 of my squadies using feild ack after we got the auto ack down.

Recently I started leading a left to right tracking con at 1.5-2k out by two full reticle rings from the edge of the fixed ring on the gun. I dont use zoom for this. I'm hitting Me110 mid fuselage back of the wing. Still missing fighters 90% of the time. Not sure if its lead or elevation with fighters.

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Above is crude, but an example of how many ring diameters Im leading by.
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1. The current reticle on the manned 37mm ack, are the ring diameters meaningfull in the game? Is there a reliable printable overlay or tape mark pattern on your monitor being used?
2. What is the mussle velocity of our 37mm and drop per 100yd of the round? For all I know I've been aiming too low since 2003 98% of the time.
3. How long does it take the round to travel 500yd, 1000yd and 2000yd?
4. When fireing at an oncoming de-acking plane do you aim directly at it or littel high littel low?
5. When firing at an oncoming de-acking plane that is tracking left or right of your position to hit a target next to you, how much lead and elevation for the quarter angle head shot?
6. When a plane is going over you at 400-600 high, how much lead do you use as they pass over? Some times if I rapidly snap the gun around and up at a 60degree angle befor the plane passes over me along its flight path I hit it.
7. Does elevation 60-90deg effect lead and calc for drop differently than 0-59deg lead and calc for drop?
8. When a plane is tracking away from you, usually at an angle, how much elevation and lead do you track as he passes 1k..1.5k..2k?
9. When a plane starts its zoom from ground level out 1.5-2k from you up 1k..1.5k..2k how much elevation do you lead it up with.
10. In reverse the same plane as it dives down how low under the planes nose do you track your fire as it is diving?
11. When a JABBO is diving on the feild left to right of your position from say 2.5k at 30-45deg how much below its nose do you account for its dive path while you are leading it?
12. When bombers are level tracking away from you during thier run, are you shooting under and in front of them or above and trying to drop rounds over and in front of them?

[waystin2]

Hello Bustr,

I stopped using the recticle altogether a few months ago.  I go full zoom with my view all the way up and to the left of the sight.  There is no set lead as planes and circumstances change pretty much dive to dive.  You will have to guesstimate lead based on the plane, is it heavy, what is estimated speed, etc. I start tracers out in front of plane and walk them onto the planes guesstimated path.  I do use the sight when they are diving straight onto my position.  Hope this helps some!  See ya soon Grampa!:D

Oink

[Rollins]

I love jumping in an Osty or field gun when I see a mission pop up near a friendly base. Check this guide out as well, written by Zazen.

Zazen's Osty Guide

[splitatom]

i would aim high on someone thats de acking you depending on distance

[715]

My guesses:

1) I've wondered what those rings are for- they certainly are useless for leading a plane passing you at 90 degrees.

2) You may be aiming low.  Go offline and fire at the tanks on the field.  Notice that even at only 1K range the round drops quite a bit.

3) I don't remember where I found it, but I have 820 m/s (2690 ft/s) as the initial round velocity.  You can do the math.

4) It depends.  If the pilot is none too bright, he will dive directly at you.  In that case aim a bit high to correct for gravity drop.  If the pilot is better, he may be diving below you to then level off at the last moment, trying to make you miss.  Then you must lead him in the vertical as well and aim below him.  If he isn't going for your gun and is flying over you, you must lead above him more and more as the angle gets worse.

5) Depends on the angle.

6) As the plane passed directly overhead you must lead as much as if the plane is passing 90 deg anywhere else- ie a lot.

Although some people will argue against this: mathematics and physics show that the amount you have to lead a plane going 90 degrees past you is the same, in terms of angle , no matter what the range.  Actually, this isn't entirely true as the bullet slows down due to drag and you must lead a bit more at long range.  But that effect is minor at useful ranges.  The angle you must lead a 300 mph plane is about 10 degrees at short range rising to about 13 deg at 1500yd.  Since the field of view when totally zoomed up  is a bit more than 20 degrees, the proper lead on a passing plane is a bit less than half of the entire screen.  Again, this is relatively independent of range.  So even as the plane passes directly overhead and nearly fills your view, you still have to lead about half the screen on full zoom.  If the plane is slower, like a bomber, the lead required is less.  If the angle is not 90 degrees, ie the plane is moving to your left but also towards you, the lead angle must be reduced by the cosine factor.  

Thus, as a plane is about to pass over, you must really snap the gun ahead of him to hit.

7) Yes.  A bit.  Take the extreme example: firing straight up.  Gravity is not going to deflect the bullet from its path (but will slow it down ever so slightly)  So you wouldn't give an extra gravity "drop".

8) Complicated, but if he is not flying on a vector straight away from your gun, ie he is not climbing up away from you but is exiting level, then you must lead him by aiming below him (ie aim where he is going to be when the bullet gets there).  It all depends on the relative motion of the target and of your bullet path.

9) In this case, if he is exiting directly away from you in a climbing zoom you would lead only for gravity drop, ie slightly above him.

10) Again, it depends on the component projection of his velocity normal to your bullet path.  But at least you understand if he is diving you have to aim below him.

11) Complex, but if he is near the bottom of his dive, and is attacking the other side of the field, then his velocity is going to be almost perpendicular to your bullet paths so you need to lead him half the screen.  If his velocity is about 45 degs to your view path to him, then about 70% of half the screen (cos 45 deg).

12) The gravity effect is way less than the bullet travel time effect, so you must shoot under them.  At some range, I haven't calculated it but it is probably beyond 3 to 5K, the gravity and projected velocity lead would cancel and you'd aim at them.  Your likelihood of hitting at that range is close to nil, but I have hit at 3K rarely.

The amount of lead is directly proportional to the plane velocity.  If you practice this offline, note that the offline drones are not flying very fast and so you lead them quite a bit less than half the fully zoomed screen.

Wow.. that's really long.. but you did ask a lot of questions.

[Zazen13]

Originally posted by splitatom
i would aim high on someone thats de acking you depending on distance

Actually, per my guide on netaces, you lead in the direction of the nose. So, if they are diving, even shallow, for gun passes on ack you lead below them in proportion to their downward vector. In a nutshell, lead where the nose is going.

Don't think of it as shooting at the plane, think of it as throwing up rounds the plane will fly into at a momentarily future time in space...

[rauchen]

Does the LCOS gunsight in offline mode take into account the drag of the projectile?  

I don't think it does.  I managed to get hits on the B-24's offline, but I had to aim way above them and in front relative to the LCOS pipper.

BTW - Thanks for the writeup to Zazen & 715.  If not for Zazen's original post I'd a NEVER got any Ostie kills.