LA5 Convergence

[Slade]

Hello,

For you guys that put in major time in the LA5, what do you advise setting the convergence to?

Thanks,

Slade 

[Ghosth]

No more than 350 here.

[Anaxogoras]

Nose mounted, so you only have to worry about the vertical convergence point, which gives you flexibility.  You will notice very little difference between e.g. 300 and 400.

[Slade]

Guys,

Thanks for the posts - that is very useful info.  Let me pursue this a bit deeper please.

For the LA5 what would you say it the preferred practical range to fire (given: rate of fire, ballistics etc.)?

Sure 200 is gonna get results and pilot aiming ability factor in.  I'd like to know from the pure hardware standpoint.  I am wondering where it starts loosing practical affectivity, i.e. what range for an LA5 would be too far in most practical cases?


Thanks again,

Slade

[Krusty]

Those guns always felt like that had terrible ballistics. Bad drop. No more than 300/350 i'd say, and try to get close than that, even!

Try flying the LA7 with 2 guns (identical to LA5 setup) and 3 guns (better ballistics). Everything from tracking to lead to plain old dead-6 shots is harder with the 2-gun package. Seems they drop pretty fast after leaving the gun.

[Ghosth]

Out to 300 they are almost as good as Hispano's. Beyond that they drop off quickly.

As for drop the easiest way to see that is to come to the TA, turn on the lead computing gunsight.

[mtnman]

Another way to see the trajectory of your rounds is to use the .target command. 

Set your convergence, and then fire with the target set at different yardages to see where those rounds go under ideal conditions.

I use auto-pilot, and fly due north.  All fine tuning is done with L/R rudder trim, until I point at the target center while at speed and hands-off the controls.  Then just squeeze the trigger.

Keep in mind that the target is posioned in "yards", so ".target 200" sets the target at 200 yards. 

Also realize that a convergence set at 200 doesn't necessarily mean it will be perfect in-game at D200.  D200 in the game covers the span of 100-300 yards from you.  The transition from D200 to D400 occurs at 300 yds.

[hammer]

Try flying the LA7 with 2 guns (identical to LA5 setup) and 3 guns (better ballistics). ...

Data is a few years old now, but tests I did had the ShVAK and B-20 with virtually identical ballistics. You can see the results here. The center of mass of the groups shows the same amount of drop for both guns.

Regards,

Hammer

[Lusche]

Data is a few years old now, but tests I did had the ShVAK and B-20 with virtually identical ballistics. You can see the results here. The center of mass of the groups shows the same amount of drop for both guns.

Which is not surprising as both guns shoot the same ammo, 20x99R

[Krusty]

one option "feels" a lot different than the other.

Not sure why, given all other factors being the same, the B20s seem to shoot straighter and punch harder, ping for ping.