As Wolfalla explained to me the tracer round has a different velocity then a non-tracer round, and the tracer rounds miss the planes and you only see the non-tracer rounds hit.
This is true, mostly because the tracer rounds have a different weight but this only happens outside of AH.
As I was told, tracer rounds in AH have the same ballistic characteristics as non-tracer rounds and there is no difference in lethality between 2 different aircraft using tracers on/off.
That said, I had to turn off tracers long ago when I was flying with a bad video card and the smoke trails killed my frame rate. +Dead/Lev/Cilky was still around at the time and he said was many have said here 'you'll lead with your nose, rather than the tracers'. It has worked for me, my hit % is low but firing on stuff at 800+ out can do that to you, luckily I have the ammo to spare in my P38. Then again, I don't care about stats anyway...
As I see it, the only benefit for having tracers on is to scare someone into turning or to make a better looking film.
