I have been told that the 3 B-17's or any formation of "buffs" have a converge point of 600 yards. I ran some tests for my squad mates and found this to be true. I went into the training arena, placed a "target" at 1,000 yds, 800 yds, 600 yds and 400 yds. At 1,000 yds, with all three (3) tail position guns firing in the 17's, the drone to my right and to my left were crossing the "mother" ship bullet stream before their stream arrived at the target and so there fore not even touching the target! I fly a X-52 stick and what I have found works best for me is this: it has a "primary" and "secondary" position on the same trigger, first pull is primary and if pulled all the way back, both primary and secondary guns fire. What I do is this: if an aircraft is 700yds to 1,000 yds behind my bombers, I only fire the primary as the drone guns are just wasting ammo. Once the aircraft gets within 700yds, I will pull trigger all the way back so that the drones will then fire on the target aircraft also. There is also, of course, some "lag" problems that you have to take into consideration. I agree that the drones should also fire at the same point that the "mother" ship is firing at, because in the real world, that is what happend. One other method I have found is helpful is take a "gunner" with you on your missions and have him move to a drone and use only his primary fire switch, that way you both have bullet streams arriving at a target 1,000 yds back.
