Needing some Divebomb practice

[EskimoJoe]

I no longer play online, but I still occasionally hop on offline to fly around a bit. Thing is, I've never been all too great at dive-bombing anything sitting still (I used to be able to hit GV's with some degree of accuracy). I could use some tips on dive-bombing in general, if anybody cares to point me towards a write-up it'd be greatly appreciated.

Cheers 

[Rolex]

One way is to enable the "Dive Bombsight" in offline mode. It will give you a crosshair of where your bomb will land so you can get a sight picture of what different attitudes and airspeed will do to your drop.

Here's how to enable it:

Select Options>
Arena Setup>
Environment>
Arena Settings>

Then double click on FlightModeFlags
Select the box for "Dive Bombsight"

[Dr_Death8]

You can also change the circling drones to GVs to give you an added array of targets to blow up. They don't move but at least gives you some more options then just the T34 and the Tiger. 

[EskimoJoe]

You can also change the circling drones to GVs to give you an added array of targets to blow up. They don't move but at least gives you some more options then just the T34 and the Tiger. 

Ah, I forgot about that, thanks! Would you happen to know if the respawn-time could be changed so I can verify a blown-up target?

One way is to enable the "Dive Bombsight" in offline mode. It will give you a crosshair of where your bomb will land so you can get a sight picture of what different attitudes and airspeed will do to your drop.

Here's how to enable it:

Select Options>
Arena Setup>
Environment>
Arena Settings>

Then double click on FlightModeFlags
Select the box for "Dive Bombsight"

I had been looking over the options for that particular one, thank you!

[StokesAk]

Get ~5k above ground level, dive in at a high angle, as your speed increases the closer the actually bomb will hit to your gunsight.  Once you hit ~350 the bomb will hit right under the center of your cross hairs.

[Messiah]

Here's a trick I use: Put your mouse cursor over the center of your gunsight and lock it with 'H'. Then fly inverted over the target looking straight up (down) until your cursor goes over target and begin your dive. With a little practice you will be hitting your targets every time.

[EskimoJoe]

Here's a trick I use: Put your mouse cursor over the center of your gunsight and lock it with 'H'. Then fly inverted over the target looking straight up (down) until your cursor goes over target and begin your dive. With a little practice you will be hitting your targets every time.

Seems effective, but to me it also seems like a bit too much trouble if the situation was fluid.

[FLS]

Use manual trim and pre trim to your dive speed and angle. Use a consistent dive angle, speed, and release altitude above your target. This lets you release with the same sight picture. You'll see this when you practice with the green cross.

[morfiend]

Use manual trim and pre trim to your dive speed and angle. Use a consistent dive angle, speed, and release altitude above your target. This lets you release with the same sight picture. You'll see this when you practice with the green cross.

 Great advice,another tip/trick is to use your flaps as a speed indicator.This will reduce some of the pilot load,I climb nose up near the target to reduce speed to flap speed,then I drop full flaps,once flaps are deployed I start my dive.

 I can consentrate on dive angle and target lineup while I listen to my flaps retracking,once they have fully retracted I know the speed I'm going and also know it's time to pickel the bomb and pull up.Added benefit is the flaps also reduce your diving speed and give you a little more time to "get on target".

   

[Dr_Death8]

 Great advice,another tip/trick is to use your flaps as a speed indicator.This will reduce some of the pilot load,I climb nose up near the target to reduce speed to flap speed,then I drop full flaps,once flaps are deployed I start my dive.

 I can consentrate on dive angle and target lineup while I listen to my flaps retracking,once they have fully retracted I know the speed I'm going and also know it's time to pickel the bomb and pull up.Added benefit is the flaps also reduce your diving speed and give you a little more time to "get on target".

    

Just make sure your using the flaps and not dive flaps. Dive flaps don't retract.

When I dive bomb on stationary, in the P47D, I try to get directly over the target, 90 degrees, and slow to under 200. from an alt of 10K, once in a dive, I end up releasing at 3-4K. I will release once I get a good steady target picture, but delay pulling up for 1-2 sec, as I think most people error due to pulling up at the same time as hitting the button, and the delay of the release coupled with pulling up on the nose throws the eggs off target.   

[FLS]

Just make sure your using the flaps and not dive flaps. Dive flaps don't retract.

Keep in mind that, while Morfiend was referring to normal flaps, dive flaps are useful for avoiding compression when dive bombing, and dive brakes are specifically for dive bombing. Most aircraft don't have dive flaps or dive brakes. Some P-38s and P-47s have dive flaps and the F4u uses the main gear for dive brakes.

[morfiend]

 Yes,I understand dive flaps dont retract!

  I was simply stating a gamey trick that new players could use to help with divebombing.

 Since we have autoretracting flaps why not take advantage of the fact that they retract at specific speeds,this is 1 less thing the "new" pilot will have to worry about.Most planes have the flaps fully up at speeds well below compression so this makes it easy to gauge when to pickel and pullout.

 Add to that the extra drag of the flaps to reduce acceleration in the dive,this gives you slightly longer time on target to be sure your lined up. If you add this the the excellent advice FLS gave above and you should find improvement in your divebombing in no time!


   hope that clears things up.

   

[EskimoJoe]

@ Morfiend, I had assumed you originally meant normal flaps. I've done enough reading on these forums to distinguish the difference between a 38L's dive breaks/flaps and normal flaps  


@ Dr Death8, I had always wondered what I may have been doing wrong in a few anti-GV situations. Sometimes my eggs would hit my intended target, more than often they'd hit too far. Pulling up as I released never crossed my mind, I'll definitely take note of that one  


@ FLS, I found that manually trimming for level flight helped some while initiating my dive, and switching back to auto-trim (in some instances) helped maintain my approach on target. Thanks for that tip  



*Edited for minor grammatical errors