I know this is gonna go badly

[The Fugitive]

TO me an HO is more of an "honor" thing. Most fights start out pretty close to head on. Honor would dictate that you do not fire on that first pass, if you do it's a HO.

With that being said, we all know there is very little if not no honor in the skies of aces high (which is pretty sad even for a game), so fire away !

[hlbly]

Let me ask this is the HO acceptable against formations of buffs ?

[FALCONWING]

IN THE MA>>>>

The entire plane is a target...so any shot is legitimate...

Sometimes a HO is the only shot you will get on a "picker" or "runner"...

It takes 2 to HO...the collision model should be incentive enough to avoid a HO if you care about damage...if not then why care if the damage came from bullets or another plane????

I find a HO less cowardly then shooting me from behind or the side where i cant ram or HO them

[Fugita]

Let me ask this is the HO acceptable against formations of buffs ?

I'll shoot a Buff anywhere I can. But more seriously, It was a practice of the Luftwaffe to target Lancs by attacking them at their 10 or 2 oclock at the leading edge of the wing/fuselage connection. Not quite a HO, but close.

[Soulyss]

I have read again and again,  in book after book of first hand accounts  real life pilots taking head on shots.   The fact is that  head on shots are just as much a part of of Air Combat Maneuvers as being on somebodies six. This comunity need to get over it.

Most of us are here to play cartoon fighter pilot, to try and recreate in some small way the daydreams we had as kids of swirling dogfights in the air while staring at a small armada of model aircraft hanging from the ceiling over our beds.  This is a game, what those pilots you were reading about were participating in was a war.  This game has far more in common with those childhood daydreams than what our communal heroes had to deal with.  Here the consequences of deliberately not taking that first and potentially only shot in favor of an engagement of maneuver are not nearly has dire.   

[Chemdawg]

I find a HO less cowardly then shooting me from behind or the side where i cant ram or HO them

 

[CAP1]

Let me ask this is the HO acceptable against formations of buffs ?

ALTHOUGH I never set that up, i think it may be. i've had people set me up that way.....and it's where i can bring the least guns to bear on a target...........

[Murdr]

I have read again and again,  in book after book of first hand accounts  real life pilots taking head on shots.   The fact is that  head on shots are just as much a part of of Air Combat Maneuvers as being on somebodies six. This comunity need to get over it.

I have flown here for 100+ tours and during that time I have tried to stick to this phony chivalry of not firing on HO passes only to get shot down because they did not.  If your opponent has his/her tracers off you have no idea you are being fired upon until you get close enough to see the muzzle flashes.  At this point it is maybe too late.  Also if you try to avoid a Head On pass you are giving up some angle to the enemy, which against an expert pilot maybe all the edge he needs to beat you.

The best advice i can give is the same thing a boxing referee tells you at the beginning of a match... "protect yourself at all times"

To the comunity I say ....."get over it"


Helm ...out

This is not WWII, this is a simulator game.  Nobody here for simulating air combat really cares to fly 5-10 minutes to find an enemy to fight, only to have the first plane they see try to joust with them at the first merge. 

It takes no skill at all to fly directly at an opposing planes nose with the trigger held squeezing the trigger.  If the message you want to send to other players is "I have no skills for air combat" by all means proceed with that tactic, but don't compain about getting grief afterwards.

If both planes cannot get guns it is not a HO.  Examples:  I rope someone, and wait for them to stall nose up and shoot them.  I have guns, they don't.  Not a HO.  I'm inside the opponents opposing turn circle and rake them as their flight path crosses under my belly.  I could get guns, they could not.  Not a ho.

[FLOTSOM]

<SALUTE> to all who responded!!!!
Thank you for your opinions and advise in this matter. Mostly i appreciate getting those opinions and advice without having this thread turned into a finger pointing insult fest that allot of these types of threads tend to turn into.
once again i thank you and <SALUTE> you all
FLOTSOM

[Anaxogoras]

A HO is when both planes have a firing solution. If only 1 does its a deflection shot.
It really is that simple. 

Quoted for truth.  I'd expand a little and say that if one aircraft moves to avoid the HO when they could have taken it, but the other aircraft takes the shot, it's still an HO shot.

when you shoot him in the face, and he could've done the same to you it's a ho......any time during the fight.
normally used by score mongers more than anyone.

I flew for a good score last tour, and ho'ing is not the way to do it.  You will collide too often, and other times simply be shot down if the bandit ho's back.  There are exceptions, but people who regularly ho often rarely have a K/D of more than 1.5, and frequently less than 1.

[Murdr]

I'd expand a little and say that if one aircraft moves to avoid the HO when they could have taken it, but the other aircraft contorts out of their way to make the shot, it's clear they always intended on a HO shot.

Fixed.  There is not a free pass for sloppy HO avoidance. 

I see people try to lead turn very poorly quite often, and when they do, I pull the trigger.  If one is going to try to lead turn before a merge, they better do it right or they are going to get shot.  I'm doing them a favor letting them know they did it wrong

[Anaxogoras]

I didn't think what I said implied anything about whether or not hits were landed.

[A8TOOL]

If you were going to respond to these type of posts wouldn't it be easier to just copy and paste your old responses or make a Ho response macro.

You could have just did a search and found your answer in one of the 400 + threads on the subject dating back to the start of this forum. It's a bi-weekly question ya know.



Maybe we need a HO response sticky or have it defined on wikipedia.   

[BnZ]

Thing that makes a HO abit of a different proposition in this game than it was in real life is the icons, which make seeing, identifying, and shooting a small you are closing on at 650 mph an entirely different proposition.

[Forker]

A HO??????????? I thought this was a HO